Their faces had been a blur: mum and dad. She'd known, of course, that this day would come when the colors of their clothes would be swept away by the wind. But that didn't mean that she had been entirely prepared for it. She felt it—the sudden abandon—especially as other students pushed by chatting to each other eagerly and filling one another in on the decadence of summer.

A deep breath. This was exciting. She just had to let that feeling—the feeling of everything new—fill her up.

And so, she did. Pulling up the collar on her pale pink jumper, she manoeuvred her way through the corridors looking for a place to sit. Most carriages were full. That is, they were full of students who hadn't stood at the window waving their parents good-bye for several minutes. She loved them very much and she'd think about them all the time, no matter how exciting this all would be.

And, oh, how it would be.

It wasn't until nearly the end of a train car that she found an empty carriage. Reaching out, she grabbed the handle and tugged, ready to rest her feet and pull out a book or one of her painting sets.

But the door tugged back.

She pulled again, but it wouldn't give. Sighing, she looked around for an older student—surely, there had to be a spell for this—but where once there had been what seemed like hundreds, there were none. Presumably, they'd all settled into their own carriages for the ride to Hogwarts.

Biting her lip, she pulled a third time. She would not be beaten by a door.

At least, that was the confidence she'd had until she found herself on the floor—a result of a pull perhaps too hard. Shaking out her fingers, she just looking up at that handle begrudgingly. Somewhere around her, there might have been laughter. But Maisie just glared at the carriage door.

For @Maeve Blanchett