Felix slips through the clumps of students in the train's corridor- or whatever it was called. He tried not to be noticed as he made his way along the Hogwarts Express, attempting to find an empty compartment. A few, he can tell that there is only one person, but he doesn't want to walk in and ask if he can sit. Besides, he wants time to think over all of this.
Fancy boarding school in Scotland? Fine, it's nice to get away from home.
It's wizarding school? Okay, he could believe that.
There are wizards? Great, are there dragons?
He's a wizard? Yeah, no. Felix is just the boring, quiet kid who has zero friends, can barely even get through a book anymore and can hardly get a sentence out when he's in front of the class. There's no way he's a wizard. Surely there'd be some other signs, right?
Either way, he eventually finds an empty compartment, and slumps down in the seat. He puts his trunk at his feet, pulls out some string and settles down. Leaning against the window, Felix closes his eyes, just listening to the noises of the train. He absent-mindedly braids the strings, going purely off muscle memory. One downside of finally convincing Amandus to let him get his hair this short: he could no longer just braid a bit of hair, not easily, at least. The express starts to move. Suppose he gets this compartment to himself?

Kaia is somewhat unenthusiastic to say the least as she shoves her way past two bickering students, a trunk someone left in the walkway, and three female students giggling over a moving picture of some male Quidditch player. Every compartment she walks past is either full or nearly full. Most of them seem to be people who already know each other, not making her want to attempt to join in. She’s from the countryside, with open space and miles until the next house, but it means she doesn’t really have any friends to sit with on the train.
Finally, towards the end of the train, Kaia finds a compartment with a single person in it. On first glance, he appears to be asleep, because his eyes are closed and he’s using the window as a pillow, but when she looks closer, she notices him playing with some string. He seems to be… braiding it? Huh. Well alright then. It certainly isn’t the weirdest thing he could be doing. Kaia had brought along her sketch pad as entertainment, so she supposes this string was his version of that.
Shoving the door open rather roughly, she hoists her trunk onto the shelf up above the seats. Once it was secure, she flops down onto the bench opposite the boy, back against the window, one knee up and the other leg stretched out across the length of the seat. She already has her sketch pad and a bit of graphite out. She flips to a fresh page, immediately beginning to make light marks.
Kaia isn’t really too concerned with talking to her new compartment companion. She’s happy enough to chat if he says something first, but she isn’t the kind of person to just start talking usually, at least if the person was a stranger. To friends she never seemed to be able to shut her mouth.

Felix is startled out of his thoughts by the sound of the compartment door being opened. He manages to not react, choosing instead to observe the girl who has now flopped down on the opposite seat. She looks like a first year, so that’s nice. She’s sketching on a pad, and doesn’t seem to be interested in talking. Felix continues to sit with the side of his head pressed against the window, though he’s stopped with the string, hands now motionless.
He can hear the vibrations of the train though the metal, much like when he used to sit like this on the school bus. The express doesn’t rattle him when he leans against the wall, unlike the bus, which is great, because he’s whacked his head off the bus window far too many times for his liking.
Felix kind of hopes that the other student will say something. It’ll be boring to just sit here, and somewhat awkward if he moves but doesn’t talk. She doesn’t seem like she’s going to say anything anytime soon, so he just stays where he is and listens to the students in other compartments, or at least, those who are being loud enough to be heard through the compartment walls.
Should he say something? Probably, but he’s not one to speak first, usually. Felix decides to go with the approach he’s used so many times before. A simple “Hi”. It’s kind of pathetic how squeaky his voice comes out, but he hopes that she didn’t notice.

Melanie huffs. The loud chatter of all volumes echoing around the train is more than enough to irritate her. ‘Why on earth do people have to be so inconsiderate with how loud they are speaking.’ she mutters to herself. She has been walking for what feels like at least 10 minutes down the long almost never ending train corridor, trying to find an even remotely compartment, but to no avail. All the compartments are filled to the brim with girls, gossiping about boys, or whatever it is that makes them giggle into their friends ears as if they’re telling a petty secret, and boys playfighting, chucking food at each other and shouting childish names. It seems bizarre to Melanie how comfortable people can get with each other in such a short length of time knowing each other. She feels she is far too mature to associate with any of these people anyway. Both her legs and arms, she is carrying two rather heavy briefcases in both of her hands, start to ache severely. At this point she is willing to take the risk of settling herself into the next compartment she sees with at least under 4 people in. Finally after what feels like forever, she spots a silent compartment. She accidentally bangs into the door with one of her briefcases whilst trying to observe if there’s anyone inside which sounds a loud bang thudding through this half of the carriage. There are only two people in this compartment. Perfect, she thinks to herself. A boy sat against the window playing with a bit of string, he looks drowsy, as if he’s just woken up from a nap, and a girl sat opposite him, absorbed in what looks like a sketchbook. They both look up at her after her clear disturbance of their peace. She pulls open the door and gives the boy a stern look, she would do so for the girl too but she had already gone back to doing her drawing, or whatever it is. Melanie doesn’t care enough to take notice of it. Melanie stares at the boy until he sheepishly breaks eye contact and looks down at his bit of string. How silly, Melanie thinks to herself, playing with a bit of a string. She could think of a million and one better things someone could do with their time. She places her briefcases down on the floor and they’re resting slightly against the other girls legs, Melanie can tell from the expression that has appeared on the girls face, even while busy sketching away, that this is a slight annoyance, if not more, to her, but Melanie doesn’t care. She sits down next to the boy, trying to sit as far away as possible, as if he has some sort of awful disease that she would not dare catch. But really she just likes her personal space. She looks in curiosity at the string that the boy is fiddling with, ‘What on earth are you doing?’ She asks, she makes sure her tone of voice has a hint of judgemental to it. Melanie doesn’t really care about the answer that much but other peoples discomfort is something that brings a slight joy to her and he does not seem like the type of person to enjoy talking, nor does the girl sat opposite to him.

Felix gives his best ‘piss off’ stare at the new girl. He also sat up more, hoping to clearly assert his annoyance.
Well, he might as well say something. “I was enjoying a nice, peaceful compartment. Honestly, join one of the loud groups if you’re just gonna be judgy. And is it such a hassle to put your luggage by your own feet?” He snaps, before he can think through his answer. He doesn’t like people who walk around like they’re superior to everyone else.
He’s suddenly even more conscious of how high his voice sounds. It’s fine when he’s talking softly, but as soon as he raised his voice, it's obvious. Hopfully this girl doesn’t figure that out. He got enough trouble at his old school for being “that weird girl”, and she seems like the type of person to pick on him too, so far. The first girl, the sketching one, is just ignoring them, it seems. She’s the smart one out of them, that’s for sure. Why can’t Felix ever keep a civil tongue? While he waits for the second girl’s response, he pockets his string, runs a hand through his messy hair, and taps his fingers on his left knee.

Kaia looks up briefly when a third person opens the compartment door, but she instantly doesn’t like the look on the other girl’s face, so she doesn’t bother to move her legs from the seat. She tries to go back to sketching, but the arc in the dragon’s neck just won’t come out right. Kaia blames it on the disruption and shoots the girl an irritated glance. She knows it wouldn’t be a good first impression if she lost her temper, but that self-righteous expression gave the sense of an extreme superiority complex and it was starting to piss her off significantly.
Deep breath, she thinks, forcing her gaze back down to her paper, making her hand start the movements of drawing again. And then that girl opens her mouth. Damn. If there’s one thing Kaia absolutely cannot stand, it’s an arrogant prick who thinks they’re better than everyone else, and that was exactly how this girl came across.
Kaia slams her sketchbook shut, swinging her feet so they are on the ground and she is sitting facing the other two. “Who told you that you could come in here and just start being a jerk?” She glared at the other girl, eyes cold. “I was having a perfectly fine time without you here and if you’re going to be a prick then I’d suggest you leave,” she snarled, not breaking eye contact. “Leave him alone, if he wants to play with string then fine. It’s none of your business anyhow.”

Well, that was… unexpected. Felix has almost never said this about someone, but, holy heck, sketch girl is scary, and he's impressed. Also one of the first people, besides himself, who he’d heard say’anyhow’. He really must remember to stay on her good side later.
Also, why do his string pieces seem to be the only thing people notice? You’d think there’d be other details to draw their attention.
Felix just watches the two girls, trying to decide what to do. He did a quick assessment of girl #2. She appeared to also be a first year, from his experience guessing people’s ages, and held herself up like someone who grew up feeling more important than others. He could just be quiet and stay out of it, but he’d done that before, and it didn’t turn out that well. Only good thing about this is that, since they are both girls, there is slightly less chance of someone getting punched, though he wouldn’t put it past sketch girl, the way she was speaking to the other girl, all snarly. “Er..” he starts, before canceling out what he was going to say. Felix taps his foot on the floor, once again, attempting to figure out whatever he is supposed to do in this situation.

Melanie slightly gasps, both the boy and the girl had something to say in response to her question. She must admit that she didn’t think for a minute that either of them would have the balls to say something to her, especially not how aggressive the girl was, but something inside her respects the fact they did. Not many people stick up for themselves, or even other people, like that so they are definitely higher in her books now than they were earlier, maybe in a way she was subconsciously testing to see if they’d defend themselves, and they did. She opens her mouth to respond to them, but she can’t think of anything to say. She just looks down at her lap. “Well I was just asking a question.” She murmurs, still not looking up from her lap. I guess you could say they had put her in her place. She eventually looks up from her lap and towards the boy, she feels like she should apologise to him but she quickly pushes the feeling away, if there’s anything Melanie hates in this world it’s being forced to apologise, she’s a very self righteous person. She turns her gaze away from him and looks into space. Well as first impressions go, this is going great, she sighs to herself. She knows she needs to apologise, not now though. Now isn’t in the right time. She pulls out a book and turns to a random page, she pretends to read it but really her brain isn’t even taking in the words, her eyes just scanning over the sentences. Anything to dissolve the immense awkwardness that she has caused.

Wonder if it’s too late to find a different compartment? Felix thinks to himself.
The second girl looks like she isn’t going to leave anytime soon, and it’s gotten a bit too crowded in here for Felix’s liking, partially because neither of the girls seem open to talking.
Probably not a good idea to move. Plus, the second girl is on the door end of their seat. So he just sighs softly and returns to his former position, leaning against the wall, keeping a wary eye on the second girl, and tuning his ears into the more distant sounds on the train. Sounds like some kid just got a trunk dropped on his foot. Whether it’s their own trunk, or someone else’s, that remains unknown. Felix has to stifle his snort at the student’s string of curses.
After a minute, he closes his eyes, still hyper-aware of every noise either girl makes, and lightly taps his foot on the floor. No one speaks. The hum of the train is soothing, and Felix is rather comfortable, despite the fact that his back is stiff and his leg is falling asleep. Should he try and start a conversation? Na, that’s the worst thing to do right now. He resigns himself to sitting here quietly.

It’s been nearly 20 minutes now and the silence is agonising, nobody has spoke a single word since the incident, and Melanie knows she has to apologise and make it right. A loud clatter from a different compartment startles Melanie a bit, she swallows, thank the lord it’s not getting physical in here. The thought of the 3 of them having a fight actually makes her giggle a little bit, the boy eyes her warily, probably thinking she’s an even bigger freak for laughing out loud over her own thoughts. She gazes at the girl for maybe a minute, analysing the way her hand gently moves the pencil and the pure concentration in her eyes. The girl didn’t even flinch at the bang, that sketchbook must be the most mesmerising thing in the world. She really wants to ask what she’s drawing and not even in a horrible way, purely out of curiosity this time, but she knows due to her previous actions it probably won’t be taken kindly. She needs to try and at least even slightly get on their good side. Finally, she chews her lips and takes a breath. She turns her whole body towards the boy, “Hey, I know what I said earlier was rude. I’m really sorry for that, if I’m being honest I’m just as nervous as the two of you, just better at hiding it I guess. I think your string is cool.” She continues to look at him, eagerly waiting on a response, that’s if she even gets one.