Theodora Green was standing with Justin Shin in a compartment of the Hogwarts Express. They were looking for an empty cabin. The train had already started moving and was now leaving platform 93/4 behind in a rapid pace. Most students were already in there cabins, but others were still out on the corridors just like Theodora and Justin.

Justin pointed at an empty cabin and asked Theodora if she wanted to sit there.

"Yeah sure." Theodora answered. She opened the door of the cabin and started hoisting her trunk inside. This isn’t supposed to be this difficult. Theodora thought. She looked up, her face slightly red, and saw another cabin across the corridor with a singular student in it. It was a boy with dark wavy hair. He looked like he was around Theodora's age. Eleven or twelve years old. Another first year. Theodora thought.

Theodora pointed at the cabin with the boy.

She looked at Justin. “Do you think he’s got people to sit with?”

Theodora thought for a moment. Then, without discussing it any further with Justin, she walked over to the cabin that the dark haired boy was sitting in and opened the door.

“Hi! I’m Theodora and this is Justin." Theodora gestured at Justin, then she looked back at the other student. "Care to come and sit with us?”

His first-child tendencies kicking in, Justin nonchalantly lifted Theodora's trunk and hoisted it above to the overhead compartment for the bags. Justin looked around the train. He curiously observed the compartment and turned his attention to the window.

"Open," Justin said, while waving his hand in front of the window. There was an awkward silence.

He then took out his wand and stared at it briefly. "I don't know any spells," Justin said, as he put his wand away. There was another awkward silence as he proceeded to open the window with his hands manually. "Man, I thought it was a magic train," Justin mumbled in a low voice. "Seems pretty regular to me."

Theodora then pointed out a boy in a different compartment. She asked if Justin thought the boy had anyone to sit with.

"Probably not," Justin replied, nonchalantly. If he had people to sit with, they would have already been in the compartment.

Then, without warning, Theodora walked up to the other boy and offered him a seat in their compartment.

Justin sighed, as his first-child tendencies kicked in again. Without speaking a word, he walked inside the boy's compartment, lifted his trunk, brought it to their compartment, and hoisted it up to the overhead, next to Theodora's bag.

WC: 219

Neil spun his wand between his fingertips, waiting for something interesting to happen outside the window which still only showed the brick wall of the station. He heard a few students talking near his compartment but didn’t bother to listen to what they were saying until he was approached.

A blonde girl accompanied by a boy Neil assumed to be a bit older than him, considering his height, approached his compartment. While the girl introduced the two Neil looked between the two apprehensively before coming to the conclusion that they were just being friendly.

Registering that they were giving him the opportunity to sit with them, Neil looked up to his trunk in the loft above. It would be a pain to lift it into another compartment but then, still better than sitting alone.

"Yeah alright. I’ll join you."

Neil pulled his trunk down, hauling it into the other compartment and again over his head into the other loft.

"Don’t know how they expect us to be hauling around all this stuff. Everything they make us buy. I don’t even know what half the stuff in this thing is. All these books on.. magic stuff."

After getting his trunk securely in the loft, Neil sat beneath it. What was he saying? They probably knew everything about magic anyway. A lot of students seemed to come from families of wizards. Neil wasn't gonna pretend he knew anything about what he was getting into with this whole Hogwarts thing for the sake of impressing strangers.

"I'm not even sure if I got the right things," Justin laughed out loud, responding to the new boy.

The train began to move as Justin walked towards the window. He stuck his head outside the window the way dogs do in cars. He let the wind of the train enter his mouth as he opened wide. The strong wind entering his mouth distorted his face comically, as the eleven-year old laughed carelessly at his own antics.

His head was fully inside the compartment again as he wiped his mouth. "That was stronger than I thought," the boy said rubbing the back of his head, slightly embarrassed but not ashamed.

Justin sat in his seat, kicked his feet up on his luggage (which he did not put up in the loft), put both hands behind his head, and made himself comfortable. He reached over to his shoes real quick to wipe some dirt off of his Jordan 1s.

He sat back casually and glanced at the other two students.

"Starting off with two friends my age. Not bad. Not bad," Justin grinned. "We got Theodora over here and..."

Justin realized the new boy had not introduced himself.

"What's your name, boss?" Justin asked the boy.

WC: 205

A sense of pure joy washed over Theodora. She was happy that the dark haired boy had agreed to join Justin and her. She was feeling exited. After all these years, she was finally going to Hogwarts. And she was making some friends too. She felt absolutely wonderful.

Theodora didn't enter the conversation the other boys were having about schoolstuff. All the things she had bought for school -the robes, the cauldron, the books about magic- had not been new to her at all. At home, things like that lay around the house all the time.

The seats of the train were very comfortable. Theodora felt like she could have fallen asleep right there if she hadn't been so eager to get to know the other students. She watched how Justin stuck his head outside the window. Theodora smiled. She was happy she had chosen to talk to him at platform 93/4

When Justin kicked his feet up on his lugage, a thought came to Theodora's mind. My trunk! What did I do with my trunk? She looked at the overhead compartment. There it was, safe in the loft. Nothing to worry about.

"Thanks for helping me with my trunk." Theodora said to Justin. "I hadn't thought it would be so difficult to get it up there."

Neil held back a laughing watching a carefree Justin stick his face out the window, stepping past him to close it once he had pulled his head back into the compartment, muffling the steady sound of the train rolling over the tracks. The other boy now with his feet kicked up onto his luggage, asked for Neil's name. He had completely neglected to introduce himself to the two others.

"Neil McKenzie. First year at Hogwarts. No idea I was any sort of wizard 'til some professor comes knocking on my door this summer saying I was accepted to some school I didn't even know about." Neil sighed and plopped down on the padded seats. "Had my head going crazy talking 'bout all these magic wizard things. Still don't really get it if you ask me."

Neil thought he had about summed up how he landed himself in a wizarding school. He still half expected to wake up one morning and learn the whole thing was a dream. That or some elaborate prank.

"Seems like these wizards have themselves doing pretty illogical stuff. The currency isn't in any system of 10s and 5s, and they made me take a train all the way down here just to go back north to Scotland on another train. I don't get it. Maybe they oughta be more muggle.. more muggley, No yeah, don't even have no modern technology. It's absolutely bonkers."

Thinking he might be boring the others with his rant, Neil quieted down.

"Really is bonkers though."

(edited for typo)

Justin responded to Theodora's gratitude. He flexed both his biceps and kissed them in a goofy matter. "Don't thank me. Thank them. Leftie and Righty."

He then attentively listened to Neil, as Justin took out a pack of Skittles and began munching on them as the boy talked. After Neil finished his point, Justin chewed a mouth full of Skittles and swallowed.

"Well, maybe your idea of logic is wrong. By muggle standards, logic has the assumption that magic doesn't exist... But in this world, magic exists. It's a common error many animal researchers make when they study new species. They make assumptions based on other species they've studied. Mom always said, when you find a new species, assume you know nothing," Justin casually responded as he emptied out his bag of Skittles right into his mouth. He then took out a pouch of peanut butter M&Ms.

"I'm just upset at some of these magic-people outfits. They ACTUALLY wear witch and wizard hats. That's insane behavior. You will never catch me wearing those ugly things," Justin stated. "Oh, using owls instead of texting is crazy too," Justin said as he tossed an M&M in the air and caught it with his mouth. He noticed the other two were empty-handed.

The eleven-year old boy tossed a bag of snacks to both Theodora and Neil. To Theodora he tossed a bag of gummy bears and to Neil he tossed a bag of BBQ-flavored Potato chips. "Don't worry. I've got more. I've got plenty of pockets."

WC: 253

Interacting with @Theodora Green and @Neil McKenzie

Theodora didn't say much. It was only now that she realized that she had been raised almost entirely as a witch. She had thought that being a half-blood meant that she knew things about both worlds, but that was just not true. She knew almost nothing about muggles. Her dad had told her a few stories about how muggles lived, but in Theodora's day to day life there was nothing related to muggles whatsoever.

Theodora was having a hard time sympathizing with Justin and Neil and she also didn't really understand what Justin was talking about. She had no idea what "texting" was supposed to mean and she also didn't see the problem of wearing witch and wizard hats.

Theodora was lost in thought when Justin tossed a bag of gummy bears at her. She immediately snapped back into reality and caught the bag. She looked at it. She had never seen gummy bears before, those things weren't common in the magical world, but she was able to put two and two together. Something to eat. Probably some kind of candy. Theodora thought. She looked up at Justin.

"Thanks." Theodora said. She opened the bag. She took out a few gummy bears and handed the bag back to Justin. "What's wrong with wizard hats, anyway?"

Neil listened to Justin talk, trying to wrap his mind around what he was saying about animal researchers. And new species. It all went completely over his head.

"But- wizards and muggles are the same species," He mumbled to himself, not wanting to trigger another response from Justin that he didn't understand.

What he could agree on was how dorky the pointy wizard hats looked, making every store in Diagon Alley seem like the location of a costume party at first glance. Thinking about the total lack of modern technology in the wizarding world again, Neil began to comprehend that he wouldn't be able to message anyone back home with much ease, having to send letters instead. Even if he did think to smuggle in a cellphone, Hogwarts wouldn't have any service and he doubted he would even be able to come across an outlet.

Neil's absent gaze drifted over to a quiet Theodora, who seemed to not know what to add to the conversation. It occurred to Neil that she must have been raised by wizards and didn't have a clue about anything the two were saying, similar to how Neil felt towards the conversations he had at the Leaky Cauldron. Seeing her confusion towards the gummy bears Justin had tossed at her, confirmed that point.

Justin had also tossed him a package of BBQ crisps. Why Justin had decided to bring a whole shop worth of snacks with him in the train when most trains sold snack on board, Neil had no idea. He wasn't gonna bring it up or anything, but he would judge it in silence.

Theodora's questioning of Justin's judgement of wizard hats made Neil think he ought to ask her about the wizard-raised perspective.

"Ey, Theodora. You raised by wizards then? No television or anything? Just spell books and all that? Do they have primary schools for you wizard kids, or were you homeschooled or something?" Neil's rapid fire question mimicked interrogation tactics, but he was really just curious how wizard folk were raising their kids.

Justin caught the words Neil said about muggles and wizards being the same species.

Ah, he's a Kevin. Justin thought to himself. Justin's pride and joy, the second eldest of the Shin family. Kevin was really good at analyzing the world around him. He often noticed things that many people missed and had real good attention to detail. However, the boy struggled to think abstractly and creatively, often times missing the bigger picture or freezing in situations he was not used to.

Communication with Neal. Logical and direct. Justin noted to himself.

He then turned to Theodora. Poor girl. She had the rotten luck of being acquainted with two muggle-born boys.

Until now, Justin's brain was on autopilot. Seeing Theodora lost in the conversation activated Justin's experience as the firstborn of six. His brain had become far more active and caring.

Neil began bombarding questions hilariously at Theodora. Justin smiled wholesomely. Curious one, isn't he.

He then gently followed up Neil's question, rubbing the back of his head with a slightly embarrassed grin. "And... Sorry about dissing the hats. I realize I'm the minority in the wizard world, making me the weird one here," Justin said. He began laughing at himself out loud.

"Thinking on it... It can definitely be pulled off with certain outfits," Justin gently smiled. Then Justin whipped out a whole sandwich and casually began eating it like there was nothing strange about the scene.

He then smoothly reworded Neil's question so both Neil can get his answer and Theodora feels more included.

"But back to Neil's question, tell us about you growing up," Justin smiled. "Maybe I can guess which house you are. I don't remember the names that well but I do know the character traits. Red, Blue, Yellow, Green," Justin chuckled.

WC: 298
Interacting with @Theodora Green and @Neil McKenzie