This summer seemed like it had been the longest of Clarke's life. Anxiously waiting for his first year at Hogwarts . When he got to the platform both of his parents were there to show him off. It was a little bit awkward as they both kept shooting each other glances that they thought no one else would notice. Clarke tried his best not to openly roll his eyes at them. Sometimes he thought it was crazy that he was the child and they were the adults with the way they conducted themselves sometimes.

But it didn't matter he was going to miss them. He gave both his mother and his father a hug and said goodbye. Clarke's mother almost smothered him against her and his father told him to keep his eyes out for opportunity. whatever that meant.

Clarke just smiled and nodded and told his parents he would miss them before escaping onto the train. The moment he was on the train and on his own he felt so much relief and freedom. He was a little early on the train because he wanted to get away from his parents so quickly, but that didn't even matter. He was filled with joy as he found an empty compartment to slip into. Clarke took the seat nearest the window and couldn't help but grin to himself.

Liliafix nervously waved good-bye as she stepped onto the train. She would miss her parents. Oh, how she wished her stepfather had come to say farewell. He never spent much timw with cLiliafix. Even though he was a wizard, Jerome Tinderly told his dauhter close to nothing about the Wizarding world. Her mother was running late as usual, and they had barely made the train. Liliafix looked around the train timidly. To her disappointment, all the compartments were taken. Not wanting to confront the unavoidable situation, she entered a room and changed into her school robes. She curled her braid over her shoulder before exiting the room and heading towards the compartments. She found herself standing around nervously in the aisle. A passerby gave her a strange look, and Liliafix sat down at the closest compartment. Not daring to look around, she stowed her trunk below, resting it against her knees. She knew she couldn't avoid contact, so she look up. In front of her was a boy. He seemed very excited, and not nervous at all. Her voice stuttering, she decided to begin a conversation with the boy. "I-is it okay if I sit here?" she asked. Liliafix gulped. Oh, why am I so shy? Liliafix thought. She could become friendly and outgoing when around people she knew, but not near complete strangers. Nevertheless, she looked at the boy and waited for a response.

Right in front of Yong was the Hogwarts Express, in Platform 9 3/4. Her luggage was in her grasp, and her family by her side. How could this be possible? Yong thought. The Wizarding World still amazed her, even after researching it so much in her recent downtime. 

She hugged Cass and hugged Ernie. She hugged her mother and her father. And said goodbye. 

Yong dragged both herself and her luggage into the express, hauling the suitcase into a compartment just for bags she had seen other people drop off their luggage. 

Now that was over with, Yong looked around. Many compartments seemed either full or just had one person in them but they seemed quite uncomfortable and anti-social. Finally Yong came across a compartment that held a boy with dark hair.

Dark. But simply not as dark as Yong's nearly raven hair.

The compartment also seemed to hold a girl, one with honey blonde, nearly brown, hair. 


Yong knocked on the glass of the door and opened up. Manners parents taught you 𝑨𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅, thought Yong. She smiled calmly at the boy and girl. "Hello, may I sit here? I can't find anywhere reasonable to sit," Yong said, extending her back and standing tall. She clutched her black pen and leathery journal under her jacket and smiled, gingerly moving her foot into the compartment.

Clarke smiled towards Liliafix and nodded, "Yes of course," he said "Company is always a good thing especially on this train ride since there doesn't seem to be much else to do but meet new people." He could tell she was shy, by the way she was avoiding looking at him, and the way she stuttered. It was his natural instinct to be welcoming and friendly so people felt comfortable around him, especially now when he was in such a good mood.

"I'm Clarke, by the way," He said, "Clarke Laredo."

Just as he introduced himself another girl poked her head in and he looked up surprised and smiled. wow this trip to Hogwarts may just fly by he thought happily. "Yes of course," he said, "Take a seat if you'd like, I was just introducing myself, I'm Clarke," he said to her.

Clarke had a lot of expectations for himself at Hogwarts. Some of them doable, some of them maybe more far fetched but he was excited anyway. One of those expectations was to make friends, and to be liked by almost everyone at the castle. Maybe that wasn't totally possible but it was something he wanted deeply, to be liked. So starting off here, on the train, seemed pretty reasonable to him.

Anastasia nodded and bit her lip during her cousin, Lydia's lecture as they walked back to the compartment filled with other sixth year Slytherin girls. The compartment had been rather boring, and Anastasia was really hoping to make a few friends before she went to school. She'd managed to shake her cousin and had even began to take to another first year, but her cousin had cut that short. Anastasia was rather irritated at her cousin, but didn't say anything, knowing that if she did, Lydia would write home and tattle. She had a tenancy to do that. 

She saw a compartment that had a bit of room still in it and acted quickly. "Oh, Lydia! I just saw some of my friends from back home. They're on the neighborhood Quidditch team. I simply must sit with them," Anastasia said sweetly, despite the fact that the children in that compartment were complete strangers. Anywhere would be better than back in her cousin's compartment. She'd thrown in the bit about the Quidditch team to signal to her cousin that her parents approved of the friends, so she wouldn't need to worry about it. "Really, if I sit with you, I'll only be a bother." 

She looked pleadingly at her cousin for a moment before Lydia nodded and continued the other way. She rather hoped that the people in that compartment hadn't heard any of that. She couldn't think of a reason that they would have, since she'd spoken fairly quietly. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door before pushing it open. 

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" she asked no one in particular. When nobody shook their head or said no, she sat down next to a blonde girl. "I'm Anastasia Beckett by the way."

Yong sat down next too the boy, who was allegedly Clarke. She smiled at him, pulling out her dark leather journal and black pen. She bowed her head briefly. 

"Nice to meet you, Clarke," she began quietly to the boy. "I'm Yong; Yong Yukimura."

Was that too formal? Yong thought, mentally slapping herself. Ugh, Stupid Manners! Despite her self-deprecating thoughts, the kind and soft smile stayed on, bright and confident. She turned to her journal and opened it, crossing her legs on the plush seat, yet tried to not have her shoes touch Clarke. Hopefully they wouldn't find this too casual?

Yong flipped to the next spotless, blank empty page, and began to draw. It took a few minutes for the drawing to not look like circles and other shapes and more like a human. She was, in fact, going to draw a few people during this trip, or at least she would aim to. It was her target this trip. She would try to draw a member of the Korean band, BLACKPINK: Jisoo. 

Just a bit of information; Yong found out Hogwarts had a Drama Club - its very own drama club! She had learnt this whilst shopping in Diagon Alley for school supplies, and she practiced a dance back in the comfort of her room at home, so she would be surely accepted into the club.

"Of course you can sit with us," Clarke said "We're all just getting to know each other anyway. I'm Clarke" he said for what felt like the 100th time that day, he wasn't even sure who he was exactly introducing himself to at the moment but it was probably safe to just say his name out loud anyway in case anyone hadn't heard him before.

"It's nice to meet you Anastasia and you too Yong," he said, "Did I hear you talking about Quidditch?" he asked turning to Anastasia, "Do you actually play?" he asked her excitedly. Now that he was out from under the shadow of his parents he was just excited to start in at Hogwarts and have everything start to work itself out. Especially Quidditch. He wouldn't have to be under his father's shadow at Hogwarts well... not that much. Some kids would surely know who his father was and maybe even the flying professor? He was not sure. He hoped not honestly. Because Clarke loved Quidditch and he wanted to play but he didn't want to be known as his father's son for the rest of his life. The whole point of Hogwarts was to get away from all the mess at home. The last thing he needed was other people to keep bringing it up to him.

Liliafix was about to say thank you when another girl sat down next to Clarke. She introduced herself as Yong. Liliafix thought she had lovely black hair, and seemed very polite. Liliafix certainly wouldn't mind having her as a friend. Or that boy, who seemed very friendly. Liliafix never had friends back home, but maybe things could be different at Hogwarts. Liliafix was interrupted from her daydream as two girls walked by their compartment. One of them began talking to the other. Liliafix could only make out the word 'quidich'. What was 'quidich'? Shortly thereafter, one of the girls joined the compartment. She sat down right next to Liliafix. Liliafix moved her trunk to the side to make room for her. This made her nervous, but she tried to act normal. She forced herself to relax. 'All these people are nice' she thought to herself. Liliafix wanted friends ever so much. Maybe this was a good place to start."So-um. Are you guys excited?" she said, trying to sound confident. "Oh-and I'm Liliafix." Shifting her feet awkwardly, she waited for a response. Then she remembered her question. "And um- what's 'quidich' ?"

Did I hear you talking about Quidditch? Do you actually play?

Anastasia smiled at the boy's words. It was good to know she wasn't the only one from the Wizarding World in the compartment. Not that she had anything against Muggleborns or anything, she just wasn't exactly sure how to speak to them. They knew next to nothing about the Wizarding World and Anastasia knew next to nothing about the Muggle world, which would just make things rather awkward. "I do. I've been playing practically since I could walk. My mother was on the Holyhead Harpies before she married my father, so it's rather in my blood. I'm generally a chaser, but I'm quite good as a seeker as well. Do you play?" she replied, her voice sounding rather elegant for an eleven year old and maybe even a tad stuck up. She didn't consider herself stuck up, it was just how her mother had always trained her to speak. She was about to say more, but the blonde next to her began to speak, so Anastasia decided she would listen since she didn't want to appear rude to these people just yet. There would be plenty of time for that later if she didn't like them. 

So-um. Are you guys excited? And um- what's 'quidich' ?

"I know that I've been quite looking forward to this for some time," Anastasia replied, glancing over at the girl. "And do you really not know what Quidditch is?" She couldn't imagine not knowing what Quidditch was. Yes, her mother had played professionally, so she had more knowledge about than average, but how could somebody not know what Quidditch was altogether? She didn't know whether or not Muggles played, but surely they had at least heard of it.   

Clarke's eyes lit up, finally someone he could relate to here. He felt like he had to explain Quidditch three thousand times this summer with all the muggle borns he had met. And even excluding them the wizards his mother allowed him to hang out with rarely cared about sports because she herself found them to be very juvenile. It had been why she left his father in the first place. He never grew up. Which may be true but Clarke wasn't sure why that had to apply to all athletes and Quidditch Players.

"My father plays professionally too, He's a chaser for the Falmouth Falcons," Clarke told her, "Quidditch is one of my favorite things in the whole world I've played my whole life too although my mother didn't want me learning to fly until I was about 5 which my dad thought was too late," Clarke shrugged, "but I think I've made up for it," he said.

Distantly he was aware of how fast he was talking. Surely no one really cared about Quidditch that much but he had gotten rather excited just to talk about it. He felt a tad foolish but he wasn't sure if that was because he was actually being foolish or if that was the response his mother had trained him to have. Maybe it was a little childish but Clarke couldn't really stop the rush of energy and happiness that came whenever he talked about it.

"I guess I play chaser the most," he said after he managed to calm down his voice, "but I wouldn't be picky about what position I play, I probably wouldn't make a good seeker though, I'm not the most graceful person," he admitted.