After the initial shock and running through a solid brick wall that let her more than a bit shaky in the knees, Chaleur began her journey once again.

She followed the pathway and the sound of the conductor calling for students to board. It was hectic and there were many confused and tired faces much like her own reflected in the crowd. It was a relief to see she was not the only person here out of her element.

Chaleur took it all in. The sights, the sounds, the smells. Right now, minus the strange trolleys of luggage and conversations about this famed magical school, everything still seemed normal. She had little time to dwell on that thought as the line pushed forward. Her luggage was loaded up, except for her satchel which held some of her personal belongings and one of her schoolbooks "A History of Magic". She figured the wizarding world didn't just appear two weeks ago with her letter. No, it had been hidden far too well. She wanted to know as much about this society and how she could fit into it, as possible.

'How much have I been blind to?' She thought to her self as she slid open the door into an empty compartment several yards down the aisle. The rest were full to the brim with other students chatting excitedly amongst one another, some who had obviously taken this ride before.

She sat next to the window, and stared out at the slowly emptying terminal where the conductor was waiting patiently for the last few stragglers to get on board. She sat upright, probably a little too stiffly, her hands clutching at her bag in lap. 'What are you waiting for? You need to relax.' This was going to be a long ride. She heard some of the other students saying they wouldn't be arriving until dark. Plenty of time to get some reading in.

Leaning back against the cushioned train seat more fully, Chaleur slipped her schoolbook from her back and traced her fingers along the cover. "A History of Magic," she read aloud. She anxiously stared at the cover page a few more seconds, but finally opening the text.

Helena Vaile boarded the Hogwarts Express, her luggage held tightly in her white hot grip, a mixture of excitement and nervousness overwhelming her. She was finally going to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a school that, as she had come to learn, taught magic. Oh, and she'd come to learn that magic was real. Something that took her by surprise, being a Muggleborn. She couldn't wait to attend her classes. She was particularly excited to take 'A History of Magic', which she was already reading into, only briefly scanning through to get her bearings, slightly worried that she wasn't allowed to read too far ahead.

The train station was absolutely filled to the brim with students bidding their parents farewell, first years and returning students alike, some parents talking to their children with great pride, some even with tears of joy welling in their eyes, while some spoke with a certain level of formality, as if this was all business as usual. A part of her was sad, sad that her parents couldn't see her off, but that twinge of sorrow was drowned out by the other cocktail of emotions threatening to consume her. Shaking it away, she took her first steps down the corridors of The Hogwarts Express.

The carriage was already filling up, despite how many were still outside, bidding their parents goodbye, so finding a seat wasn't going to be a particularly easy task. She She scoured her way through the carriage, unsure on weather or not she was meant to have had a specific seat assigned to her, before she eventually stumbled upon a relatively empty compartment, bar one girl, sitting alone.

'Well', she thought to herself, 'Here goes nothing'

"Is this seat taken?" She asked, knocking gently on the compartment's door to announce her arrival, a friendly smile curving her lips "Sorry, it's just that most of the others are already taken"

"But why do we have to go all the way to London just to take a train all the way back to Scotland?" Kenna had asked her mum as her parents attempted to tilt her trunk against the fireplace so it could easily be dragged into the Floo-way. "It doesn't make any sense..."

"She's no' wrong, love," huffed her father. "I always thought it were a bit daft, meself." Of course her father had also grown up on Barra, in this very house, and his father before him, and his father before him, back hundreds of years. The house had changed many times, but the bones were the same, and it sat upon the same spot as the MacNeils of the 15th century had.

Mum, on the other hand, was a mainlander. In fact, her home was even closer to Hogwarts than Barra. Yet, she shook her head at her family's nonsense. "It's part of the experience." At last the trunk was perched against the side of the fireplace, and Mum stood back with her hands on her hips to survey her 11-year-old daughter. "Just enjoy it, Kenna. You'll make some friends and see the country. And there's always the sweets trolley - I know how much you like those pumpkin pasties!"

Kenna's eyes had lit up at the mention of pumpkin pasties. She was nervous about the making-friends part, but the sweet treats might make up for it. If nothing else, she could curl up on the train with a good book and nibble on desserts all day. That wasn't so bad.

"Come on, then, in you get!" Her mum shooed Kenna into the fireplace and handed her the bucket of Floo powder. Well, this was it. Around the British Isles and back all in one day. Strange way to start her magical journey. Kenna dropped the powder and stepped into the fire.

A little over an hour later, the family of three stood on the platform next to the gleaming scarlet Hogwarts Express, smoke puffing all around them, drowning in the sound of hundreds of farewells. Kenna's parents hugged her, and made her promise to write soon. And then, all too soon, it was time to be off. Kenna jumped onto the train and waved to her parents as the platform disappeared in the distance.

Alone. Well, not alone - surrounded by hundreds of other Hogwarts students. But Kenna did not know any of them, and she had absolutely no idea how to approach them. Most of them looked frighteningly large...

Mum had made it sounds easy. As if one could simply walk up to a stranger and instantly be friends. But Kenna couldn't imagine herself walking up to any of these kids, let alone not being immediately laughed out of their faces if she did.

"Move it, shrimp!" growled an older student who seemed to be about twice her height. Kenna blinked, and then quickly scampered out of his path. Well, she certainly couldn't just keep standing here in the hallway. Maybe she could find a nice quiet compartment to herself.

She walked down the hall, peeking through the windows of each compartment, but they all seemed to be full of noisy groups of students, already fast friends. Shouldn't there be other first-years here who don't know anybody?

Finally, Kenna came to a compartment with only two girls in it, both looking much more her own size and age. She heard one of the girls asking if she could sit, which sounded very much like they didn't know each other. First years! At least, Kenna hoped so. This was probably her best chance to try that whole making friends thing. And anyway, there was nowhere else to sit. Taking a deep breath, she approached the girl in the doorway with what she hoped was a friendly smile and not a terrifying grimace. "Hello! Are you a first year, too? Mind if I join you both? The train's awfully crowded, isn't it?"

"Hm? Oh, yes, no, of course! Feel free!" Helena smiled, gesturing to the seat beside her, making sure to shuffle over slightly as to give her as much space as humanly possible. She then offered a hand for the newcomer to shake. "My name's Helena. Helena Vaile. First year, as you guessed. I'm so very new to... well, all of this! I do hope we can be friends!"

Helena fidgeted in her seat, ever so slightly. She was usually never this nervous, making new friends. Usually it came quite naturally to her. But something about the situation, something about actually talking to a witch, a real witch, it made her falter. Growing up in the muggle world, she'd never experience anything quite as... well, pardon the pun, as magical as this before, boarding a train that would take them to Hogwarts, wherein they'd be taught all things magic? It felt so very surreal, and she didn't want to mess it up.

... She was definitely overthinking this. Both of them were first years. Both of them, undoubtedly, had oh so many uncertain emotions rushing through them right now. Not to mention, they were both people. Real humans, completely normal, other than the innate magical abilities. There was no need to act any differently here.

As quickly as the wave of nerves washed over her, in the blink of an eye, they disappeared, and Helena was left there, still offering her hand to shake with a smile.

Glancing back out of the window, now beginning to fog up for the excess heat that had started to accumulate from all of the students who had boarded the train. She was sure it was just about eleven and the train would be making it's departure shortly. She had spent some time alone in her compartment when a sudden knock came from the compartment's entryway.

"Is this seat taken?" came a girl's voice at the doorway.

Chaleur changed her focus to the doorway to find a young girl, short and blonde with a friendly expression. Anxiety coiled in the pit of Chaleur's stomach, but quickly began to dissipate when she looked her over. She was small statured and blonde, with a smile on her face. She looked as though she were probably a first year, just like herself. She began to explain that all of the other compartments were full, but Chaleur shook her head and gestured to the seat across from her.

The girl began again, "Sorry, it's just that most of the other's are already taken."

"N-no, please. Have a seat. No one else has come down this far, and there is plenty of room for you to join me," Chaleur quickly stuttered out, but as she kept talking she did her best to fill her tone with warmth and welcome. It would do her no good to scare of people who could help her on her journey.

It wasn't even a moment later that behind the first girl, another appeared. This one was small as well, with flaming red hair and freckles. She smiled, as well. " Hello! Are you a first year, too? Mind if I join you both? The train's awfully crowded, isn't it?" Another wave of relief washed over her. Two first years, just like herself.

'Okay Chaleur, don't mess this up. Make friends. You need friends.' She reasoned with herself sternly.

She watched the girls get situated, and shake hands. The blonde spoke first, giving her name and that was indeed a first year. Chaleur wondered if Helena was born in the magical world, or was she just in the dark her entire life like she had been. From what she had gathered from the book the wizarding world was a large, but well kept secret. She was sure there were plenty of people who had grown up only knowing life with magic, rather than without, and from her experience in Diagon Alley, she was sure there was some tension toward those who come form the 'muggle' world, as she had heard it called.

Once the two girls had made acquaintances, Chaleur chimed in. "My name is Chaleur. I'm a first year as well. The whole 'magic is real' thing is very new to me, and I'm still adjusting. I would love to make friends." She smiled warmly at Helena first, who had laid out her offer of friendship with open arms.

Niki walked shakily through the train. It had already started moving by the time she got on, so she had to hold the wall as she looked for an empty compartment. The shock of going through a solid wall had already fazed her enough, so she practically swayed left to right with each step. As she walked unsteadily, thoughts ran through her head. She was going to a new school, again. Right when she thought she had settled down and made friends in her new school. Plus, this school was different. She had just been introduced to this magic thing, and a part of her still didn’t believe it. And she’d be living there too. Would her mom be okay? Would she be okay? She turned to the side, realizing she should find a compartment.

Each compartment already seemed full, or at least the people in it seemed to be super close, so Niki didn’t dare join them. She had always been quiet, avoiding conversations whenever she could. For some reason, she just couldn’t talk to people. She froze and walked away. The only friends she made had introduced themselves first, and even then she hesitated with responding to them. At this point, she was nearing the very back of the train, and it had been five minutes since she boarded. How had the first years all made friends already? She groaned, before finally deciding to suck it up and just join whoever was in the compartment.

She made her way to a compartment, and already saw a few girls inside. She hesitated. If she kept going and found an empty compartment, she wouldn’t risk messing up and maybe be able to make friends later when she arrived, but if she went in, she had a chance of making a few acquaintances, however if she messed up enough she might make an enemy or two. She thought for a second, until the movement of the train snapped her out of it. She knocked on the compartment door before opening it. "Hello? Mind if I join you? Every other compartment seems to be full," she laughed lightly, hoping to sound friendly.

Unbelievably, Mum had been right. Okay, it wasn’t that unbelievable - Mum was almost always right. Darn her. But truly, Kenna had not expected the first person she met to immediately offer friendship! Was this how it normally worked? If so, she wondered why she had never been able to make friends before. Maybe it really was her. Maybe she really was a freak, like they all said.

’Thank you!” she said brightly, taking the offered seat beside Helena. ”I’m Kenna MacNeil. Nice to meet you both!” She shook the offered hand with a relieved grin. ”I’m also a first year! If that wasn’t obvious. I suppose we all look a bit lost, don’t we?” Kenna chuckled nervously, twisting her hands in her lap. Was that a stupid thing to say? Would they be offended? Merlin, she hoped not.

”Yes, let’s be friends! My mum told me to make friends, but I had no idea how to go about it.” Great, now she sounded like a complete idiot. Kenna desperately fished around for something less dopey to change the subject to, and fortunately Chaleur offered a new topic on a platter. ”Oh, are you Muggle-born? How exciting it must all be for you! I mean, it is exciting for me and I’ve known all my life I was a witch. It must be doubly confusing for you, though. Well, I’m just as new to Hogwarts as you, but if you have any questions about the magical world I can try to help!”

Just then another girl poked her head into the compartment doorway. Like Chaleur and Kenna, she also had a Scottish accent. Kenna gave a relieved smile and said, ”Of course, come in! Och, what are the odds, three Scots in one car? Did you two find it odd that we had to go all the way to London just to go back to Scotland by train? Me dad and I couldn’t figure it out. But Mum said it’s ‘part of the experience.’” She rolled her eyes dramatically at that. Then again, the experience of making friends wasn’t going too disastrously so far. Kenna hoped. Sigh… maybe Mum was right again.

"You had to do what? I just assumed that they'd have like, a much shorter train, or even some sort of bus system, for those already living in Scotland! Strange" Helena commented with a chuckle. She did get the appeal, the train, what little she'd experienced of it so far, was magnificent, but surely it was just inconvenient to go all the way down just to ride the train back up. Absolutely ridiculous. As she thought, she fiddled with her wand, a habit she had quickly adopted the moment that she purchased it from Ollivanders. She'd practically memorised exactly what her wand meant. 29 cm, Reed wood, phoenix core. Apparently reed wood wasn't the the most commonly used wood type, apparently wands made of that wood only really are sold en masse in the Hogsmeade branch, wherever that was, and apparently people who wield this type of wand were meant to be highly protective friends. In regards to the core, apparently phoenix feather cores boasted the widest range of spellcasting abilities, but also that they take the longest of any core types to actually reveal their full potential, with one of the hardest allegiances to win. Ever since being given her wand, she obsessively read up on all things wand, just in case it ever came up. That, and she was just happy to know exactly what the wand that, apparently, chose her saw in her.

“Great! I’m Nikita, by the way, but you can call me Niki,” she said as she put her luggage away and took a seat. She looked around at the girls with her in the compartment. They had all introduced themselves as first years, plus they looked around the same age as her. She also noted how excited they looked. You probably wouldn’t be that excited to go to Hogwarts if you had already been there for a few years. This was first-time excitement, and Niki could feel it in herself too.

She stayed quiet and looked out the window. She stayed this way for a while before one of the girls chimed in about how they had traveled all the way from Scotland to London just to go back to Scotland again. Niki chuckled a bit at the thought. “Yeah. You’d think they have enough magic to make multiple intangible walls. I’m used to moving around pointlessly, though,” she said, the last part a bit quieter. As a child, her mother and her would move everywhere. She remembered when she was about eight when she moved to London for her mother’s job interview only for her to be transferred to the company’s location in Wales.

She looked out the window for a minute. “How big do you think the school is? I reckon it's bigger than Edinburgh Castle, from what my mum told me. There’s a whole moat too I heard, and it's a big one,” she went on. When she finally got comfortable enough to speak, she kind of had trouble stopping. “Oh, sorry. I must be blabbering,” she smiled apologetically.

The horn of the Hogwarts Express blew loudly, and a few moments later the trained began to rock into motion. They had departed the station. By the end of the day Chaleur and all of the students on this train would be arriving at what was said to be one of the most prestigious wizarding academies in the world. She felt her heart begin to beat a little faster.

Chaleur smiled listening to Kenna speak. She was very open about herself, and spoke of her family. She seemed to ease away the tension in the air as she spoke. The topic was quick to change to one of friendship, but Chaleur didn't mind. Helena chimed in every now and again as well. These girls seemed very friendly, and honestly, she could use more friendly faces in her life right now.

"Thank you!" Chaleur quickly responded to Kenna's generous offer. She was sure she had a million questions, but where she stood now, she had no idea where to start. "I'm really just winging it right now. I have no idea what's going on." She laughed a little nervously at the admittance.

Another voice was at the doorway drawing the attention of the girls, and a third girl joined the trio in their compartment, another Scot by the sounds of her. "Hello! Yes, please sit. There's plenty of room," Chaleur scooted a little closer to the window and moved her bag to her lap. "My name is Chaleur, this is Kenna," she motioned toward the red-headed scot diagonal from her. "And this is Helena," she then directed her gesture toward the blonde across from her. "We've all just arrived, as well, and are settling in."

The girl introduced herself as Niki, as she loaded up her luggage and settled herself next to Chaleur. There were some periods of quiet in the compartment, with the humming of voices and the occasional squealing of the rails as a constant background ambience.

"How big?" Chaleur hadn't even thought of that. She saw that the train was loaded with students, of course the school would be big, but bigger than Edinburgh Castle? A Moat? "No! Go on!" Chaleur interjected when Niki apologized. "I've never heard any of this. I don't know anything about the school at all." She looked around. "What have you all heard? Anything interesting? Is there...a library?"