Ma's words rang in Joni's head as she plopped down in an empty compartment on the train.

"Have fun, darling! Make friends!"

How unbelievably ridiculous of her. How did she expect Joni to make friends? Joni couldn't talk to anyone except her family; she hated everyone except her family. Since she had been adopted she'd shamelessly insulted and pushed away everyone except Ma, Mama and Emmett. Learning she was a witch, being sent to Hogwarts...
It didn't feel like the "incredible, once-in-a-lifetime" experience her mothers had described to her. It felt like she was riding a train to her execution.
The second she had found out she was magical, Joni had done her best to hide it. Being sent away from her mothers and little brother for a whole school year was her worst nightmare. But then came supper that same day, where Emmett had proudly declared that Joni had made his toys fly when they were playing. Joni regretted bribing him with Sugar Quills.
So now, inevitable as it was, she was on her way to Hogwarts. She adjusted her fox mask on her face before standing on the seat and trying to force her trunk into the overhead compartment. It was comically large compared to Joni; her mothers had fussed over and packed every single thing imaginable. She started thinking about her family; how she'd miss playfully fighting Mama, how Ma would help her take care of animals she found in their backyard...
And then she heard a crash, feeling her trunk hit her stomach and her back hit the floor of the train. Great.

"You took everything, didn't you, Lenora? You didn't forget anything right?""

Cassandra asked the same question for perhaps the hundredth time, wanting to make sure there had been no problems since they left home.

"Honey, I think if you delay a little longer, our daughter's only problem will be not being able to catch the train."

Lenora stared blankly at the train while Brandon spoke playfully. It was difficult to adjust to such a novelty.

She was brought out of his thoughts when the train whistle blew. She said goodbye to her family.



"Stay out of trouble and be good."

Lenora waved and started carrying her suitcase towards the train.

The train was crowded. More crowded than Lenora had imagined. As Lenora wandered between compartments, she suddenly heard a crash, which brought her hazy mind to a halt. She went to the compartment where the sound was coming from.

She saw a girl fall to the ground with her trunk. The fox mask on her face caught Lenora's attention. Without thinking, he dropped his suitcase and backpack on the ground and picked up the girl's trunk.

"Are you okay. Are you hurt?"

She had spoken louder than he intended. When she saw what he had done, she blushed involuntarily, which was normal because her skin was very sensitive.

@Joni St. Winters

Joni sat up and stared at the girl with an unreadable expression.
It was on purpose.
Slowly, she reached over and took her trunk, starting to silently pack her things back into it, her eyes narrowed. She didn't trust this girl, just like she didn't trust anyone. And she didn't like how loudly Lenora had spoken to her. Who did she think she was? Was she teasing Joni? Because how dare she even think about-
Joni caught herself. She had no reason to dislike this girl, and she didn't think the girl was bad, per se. No, she knew she wasn't. The girl seemed to have good intentions. With a carefully neutral expression, Joni picked up her trunk and leaned back in her seat with it next to her. She studied Lenora.
White hair, pale skin, and pretty blue eyes. She reminded Joni of a bunny, in a way. She seemed shy, nervous. Probably how Joni would've acted if she weren't so prideful. Joni quickly decided that she wouldn't push this girl away. If anything, she simply wanted to see where talking to this girl might go- but she knew for a fact that she would certainly not befriend the girl.
No, she would not be making friends here.

Lenora watched silently as the girl got up and packed her things. She found it somewhat strange that she didn't speak or thank her.

She couldn't help but think, "Maybe I should help." "If she's expecting this, I'm being incredibly rude right now." As she thought about this, she realized the girl had stopped collecting.

""Can I sit here? I understand if you don't want to or if you're waiting for someone else."

Not expecting to stay up for long, Lenora put her things upstairs without waiting for an answer and sat down opposite the girl.

Her eyes were shaking as he watched around. She bent his head forward to prevent it. She took a deep breath as she remembered his mother's words about avoiding starting conversations.

""Uhm my name is Lenora. what is you're name?"

She tried to make eye contact with the girl. 'This is a good start,' she thought.

Her hand involuntarily goes to her bag and starts playing with the zipper. This gesture was a way to comfort Lenora.

""I love you're fox mask. Very creative. Did you make the mask?"

She asked, not giving in to her curiosity. She averted his eyes, the thought occurred to him that perhaps the girl didn't want to talk about this.

@Joni St. Winters

Joni watched as the girl asked if she could sit with her, then did so without waiting for an answer. She rolled her eyes behind the mask but said nothing.
Then she asked, "Did you make that mask?" and Joni froze up slightly. She didn't know why, but she didn't want to talk about it; was it embarrassing? A good luck charm her mother made that she's had since she was a toddler? A mask that she'd never taken off for fear of being in danger? Maybe it wasn't even real danger she was afraid of, maybe she just didn't want to be close to people.
She had all of these thoughts in about a second. Then she slowly looked up and, in a measured tone, mumbled, "My Ma made it for me.".
She kept her eyes on the girl. She looked like she was waiting for something, anticipating a move- like she was paranoid.
She tightened her mask on her face, still watching the girl, and lifted her trunk into her lap. Nothing would get past her, and she would make sure there was no way for this girl to trick or double-cross her. She would make sure no one here got the best of her.

Mary was in a bad mood by the time she got on the train. It wasn't that she had got gum on her shoe, (she was able to scrape most of it off anyway). It wasn't the embarrassing beanie her father had made for her that was in the worst shade of pink, 'for luck' her father had said. What a joke. It definitely wasn't because the snack cart didn't have her favorite flavored bean. No, the reason she was in such a foul mood was because she hated the idea of her poor dog Tulip being away from her for so long. While the other terrible things that happened contributed to her bad mood, the fact that she couldn't bring Tulip was the biggest. What was even worse was that she packed too much and her trunk was heavy. So, all alone Mary had to drag her over packed trunk onto the train, so in desperation Mary had shoved her trunk into the nearest compartment, which was already occupied by two girl, and peculiarly one girl had a fox mask. Mary blushed slightly and cleared her throat, "l'm terribly sorry, but can l rest in here for a bit? This trunk is too heavy for me to carry!"

Joni immediately looked up, her face twisting into a slight scowl before she quickly schooled it back into its usual neutral expression. Why the hell was she cursed with having to talk to people? Why couldn't these girls, who were clearly desperate for friendship in her mind, go to another compartment and bother anyone else?
Regardless, Joni folded her hands in her lap and looked out the window silently. She didn't respond to Mary, instead letting Lenora do all the talking. They could have their little friendship. Ignore her in the corner and bond over being so bothersome. Joni was here to do her classes, talk to no one, and go home as soon as possible.
To drive her point home that she cared oh so little about them, she carefully unlatched her trunk and took out a book that she cared oh so little about. She started reading, pretending to be absorbed in.. what was it? A book about famous witches and wizards, or something like that. Why had she packed this again? She'd always found famous people pretentious and stupid- she often said that you would have no room to grow if everyone around you loved everything you did.
In her desperation to forget about and ignore the girls, she actually did. Absorbed in her own thoughts as she mindlessly stared into the book, she'd tuned them out completely.

""Masks are worn to hide the truth, and foxes symbolize cunning. Why are you wearing a cunning mask? Fear? Or something else?"

She spoke absently. When Lenora finally realized what he had said after a while, her eyes widened in understanding, and the trembling in them increased a little..

""I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

At that moment, she heard someone else enter the compartment and turned his head towards it. It was a dark-skinned girl with curly black hair. When he looked at Joni, he saw that she didn't care. She sighed deeply and spoke with a smile.

""Of course, you can sit down."

The two girls looked to be about the same age as Lenora. She thought at least someone could answer her questions about school.

"Do you know what the school is like? Are the lessons difficult?"

She asked this with some trepidation because lessons that were easy to get used to would be more helpful. *I hope there is no math. Please let my math teacher's words, 'Math is everywhere,' not apply here.*

She took out her book from her bag and started reading, holding it close to herself. She was humming a song while reading without realizing it.

@Joni St. Winters @Mary Bueno

Mary breathed a sigh of relief at not having to drag her bag anymore, and sat down next to the girl across from the one with the fox mask, Mary sensed that the girl with the fox mask was ignoring her, which was fine since all Mary wanted was to sit down. "Thank you so much! If l had to carry that any longer l thought l would pass out!" Mary laughed a little and blushed "l'm very sorry for interrupting. l promise l'm not usually that intrusive.", "Do you know what the school is like? Are the lessons difficult?" Mary winced at the sound of lessons, Mary was never that good at focusing on homework "l don't know to be honest! l really hope not, and besides l'm mostly only here because l heard Hogwarts had the biggest library," Mary lowered her voice, as if she was telling a secret, "l'm also really hoping to sneak into the Restricted Section." Mary's blush deepen as she returned to normal volume, "l'm not a rule breaker but the idea of forbidden knowledge fascinates me!"

"There's a restricted section?"
Joni's head shot up, her eyes widened, before she cleared her throat and composed herself.
Well, that didn't seem right.
A restricted section? Why would there be a restricted section? Is there something they weren't allowed to know? That didn't sit right with Joni.
Suddenly, she wanted to talk to this girl. Mostly because she wanted to talk more about the restricted section (and possibly how to sneak in), but also because she thought this might possibly be something she could talk to someone else about. She started talking in a neutral tone.
"That doesn't feel right. Why is there a restricted section? There's probably something being hid from the students, and I personally want to see what it is." Joni shrugged. "Maybe something to do when we get there."
Joni didn't like to break rules- unless she personally found them unreasonable. Her mothers raised her knowing that telling her to do things "because they said so" wouldn't work. And she, personally, found the notion that books could be dangerous quite ridiculous. In fact, she would've bet that there was nothing in that section of the library that she didn't already know. So what could possibly go wrong?