The Start of a New Year (And we're off! Official Beginning of Forum)

Mikhail may have had to remain related to his brother, but he didn't have to enjoy it. He didn't have to listen to his brother drone on and on about some muggle invention called "google" (Why in the world would he care about some stupid muggle thing, and where had Piter even found out about this "google" thing, anyways?) just to annoy him. He didn't have to pay attention to his brother waving his wand around after he got his wand from Ollivanders, not even when his brother attempted a spell (although he did laugh when the spell backfired and his brother got a faceful of smoke. That's what you get for attempting magic without knowing anything besides what you read in books). So after Mikhail passed through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, he pushed his cart carrying his trunk away and left. Piter could figure things out on his own. He was going to find his friends and settle in for the train ride to Hogwarts.
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Kliment didn't really understand what Ksyusha's ((His nickname for Kseniya)) problem was. She seemed really ticked off at him for some reason, and he hadn't even done anything yet. Sometimes she was such a dope. He stopped abruptly in front of the barrier that led through to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, preparing for the moment he was going to run straight through the seemingly solid brick wall.

His sister's cart almost crashed into his, and she frowned at him as she pulled hers back away from his cart. "Well? Do you want me to go first or something?"

"No, of course not, I'm going first!"

"Then why'd you stop--"

He didn't wait to hear the rest of what she was saying as he ran through the barrier, relishing the thrill that he got from the adrenaline that rushed through the split second before it looked like he was going to crash into the brick wall. He slowed his cart down to an unsteady stop for his sister to catch up (She liked strolling leisurely through the barrier because she thought it looked more suspicious for someone to be running into a wall then suddenly disappearing than for someone to walk through a wall instead).

"Come on, stupid, let's go," he said as he resumed pushing his cart down to the train. He ignored the huff of annoyance from Kseniya and pulled his cart up to one of the train cars. "I'll get your trunk," he told his sister, shoving his own into the storage space.

"No, you'll bang it up. I'll take care of it myself."

Suit herself. Kliment wandered off then, his empty cart left besides the train, heading for one of the passenger cars. He should go find some friends or something to sit with unless he wanted to be saddled with sitting next to an annoyed Ksyusha for the entire train ride. Not something he wanted to be a part of.
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Elias hugged his parents goodbye and promised to send them letters every week (with a more discreet owl and also alternating owl species though, the barn owl he used last year from the post office was starting to attract the attention of their neighbors apparently). He grabbed his suitcases and loaded up a cart with his luggage. After one last "I love you! Yes, I promise to change owls, Mom, I'll remember," he set off in the direction of the platform.

After putting his things into the train, Elias found an empty compartment (Lucky him, they were filling up fast), and before long a few of his friends presented themselves. They set up a chessboard and started the game before the train even started moving.
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Niklas wasn't very sure what to bring, the letter being rather vague about anything other than school supplies, the fact that he possessed magic, and how to get to Platform Nine and Three Quarters (which didn't exist, if anyone was curious, on the map of Kings Crossing). So he was standing between Platform Nine and Platform Ten, eyeing the brick that was supposed to be hiding some mysterious extra platform with a full backpack and suitcase and wishing that the brick didn't look so... solid. His mom gave him another hug and told him to remember to brush his teeth everyday before handing him his last luggage item. He grabbed it in his free hand and decided just to go for it.

"I guess I'm leaving then. Bye, Mom! I'll call you when I get reception!" he yelled as he ran through the wall, forcing himself to keep his eyes open as he fought the urge to save himself before he crashed. Instead of a painful impact, however, Niklas found himself in an equally as busy train station (but with more oddly dressed people) with a massive old-fashioned steam engine train with the words "Hogwarts Express" emblazoned on the side. That was going to take him to wherever this Hogwarts School was located? Steam engines were a technological fossil from the 1800s, not the computer age. If wizards were living in a technological ice age, he was going to hate his new magical life.

He watched people pass by him and figured out that they were taking their luggage to some sort of storage car, so he headed over there himself to relieve himself of his burden. After dropping off their belongings, they walked over to what were probably passenger cars and entered the train. He followed their example, and found himself in a normal looking train car. So much for it being bigger on the inside.

The compartments in his train car were all occupied, so Niklas went down the train, looking for an empty compartment. He eventually found what must have been the very last empty compartment at the last passenger car and took a seat. He pulled out his phone and checked to see if there was any reception in the wizarding train station. There wasn't. Things weren't looking very good. Hogwarts would have reception though, and wifi, as well. It was a school.

Note:: oh woah okay so ive established what everyone's doing haha just pick and choose. (ksenie struggled with her heavy trunk for a bit because she wanted to make sure it wouldn't get all banged up, like klem's (and she wasn't sure if she was allowed to do magic yet to try to levitate her trunk into the train), so she ended up boarding the train late. no empty compartments for her, sorry.)

Piter was rather excited. Or, as excited as he could be, at least. He had walked through the streets of Diagon Alley, content that he would finally begin learning magic.

Or at least he would be, if Misha wasn't there.

Unfortunately, the presence of his older brother had caused much unhappiness and irritation for Piter, and he was happy to see that Misha had abandoned him after passing through the wall to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, now only a trailing figure in crowds of other soon-to-be and returning wizards and witches.

He approached the train, hefting his trunk up not without some trouble (he'd never had to do much labor in his life) and pushing it into a storage space, along with the pet cat he'd bought, which gave softly meowed once situated. Satisfied that everything seemed to be in order, Piter boarded the train with a small bag that contained books and searched around for an empty compartment, settling down in one near the middle of the train and pulling out a book to read. He didn't want to be bothered, and he tried to make that clear to any newcomers who shuffled past.

A female voice interrupted his reading yet again. What was this, the fifth visitor?

He sighed, not moving his eyes from the words on the page before him, and asked, "What is it?"

--

Adair, for one, had never been one to excel in his studies. He looked forward to his time in Hogwarts almost solely because of flying class. The thrill of the wind whipping against his face and looking down at everything that looked so small--it would be like being on an airplane, only better in every way.

When the barrier to get into Platform Nine and Three-Quarters came into view, a wild grin plastered itself across his face, and he raced towards it, flying with utter abandon as the scenery warped and changed around him.

He stuffed his trunk and pet rat into a storage space and jumped onto the train, making sure to pass by a compartment filled with Slytherins (the one Mikhail's in) and poking fun at them before he was told to get out.

He kept roaming the train, looking for compartments with newbies, and he found one at the back of the train.

"Hey," he began, sliding into the seat across from the new kid. "What's your name?"

--

Victor was upset. He never liked crowds, and being in them made him jumpy, aware that a murderer could be hiding anywhere, and that they could easily run a knife through him if they so wished.

So he rushed, as he did every year.

All his supplies were bought in a hurry, and he treaded briskly through the barrier leading to the platform he was supposed to be at. He quickly tossed his things into a storage space, not wasting any time, and entered the train, eyes darting from compartment to compartment, looking for a compartment with Ravenclaws.

Oh, there was one. Elias (he thought that was his name at least) along with a few friends.

"Hello," he said in as casual a tone he could make it, "is there room for another?"

One of Mikhail's friends had closed the compartment door and drawn the curtains closed to make it clear that the compartment was full, and no intruders were wanted. Yet, of course, someone decided that it would be funny to rap on the glass of the door. After a half-minute's attempt at ignoring the disturbance, Mikhail muttered a spell to open the door, revealing a presumably Gryffindor boy that Michael thought he recognized from Hogwarts last year. A second year, then. The boy was disparaging the house of Slytherin, which was hardly original, and Mikhail gave the Slytherin sitting across from him a "this again?" look. Mikhail used to get irritated by the smug assertion of the Gryffindor house of Slytherins being innately evil back when he was a first year, but now that he was a third year, he was rather unfazed by the assumption. If knowing what one wanted to do in life and having the brains to achieve that goal was considered evil, then Mikhail didn't mind all that much.

Nigel, a third year who just seemed to grow bulkier and bulkier every year, frowned at the Gryffindor. "Look, idiot, do you want a hex in the face or not? Get out of here." He brandished his wand threateningly, and it must have been sufficiently intimidating, as the second year Gryffindor muttered a final insult before leaving. Mikhail gave an appreciative nod to Nigel before continuing to relay his summer experiences to the group.
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it doesn't look like Klem's getting any action today-- /SHOT
it's fine he's having fun playing Gobstoppers with his friends he dun need any of you losers messing up his vibe
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"Bishop to G5."

"Oh, good move, but you didn't notice my queen. Queen to G5." The queen moved to the bishop's square and took the poor chess piece captive. Elias smiled. He had the upper hand for once against his friend, and the game was shaping to be an interesting one. Hmm, the black pawn was trying to sneak to the end of the board to where the captive pieces were kept and made a very concerted effort to be discreet about his attempt. Elias would have to contrive a trap for the pawn later, but for the moment, he was more focused on the rook that was currently threatening his knight.

"Elias. Elias. Elias! Earth to Elly??"

The voice drew Elias out of his ruminations. "What?" He looked around and saw that someone had entered the compartment. The someone was a fellow Ravenclaw in the same year of the name Victor.

The same friend who had drawn his attention spoke again. "Victor here wants to know if he can join us. You mind?"

"No, why would I? Hey, Victor."

"See, told you he wouldn't. We didn't need to bother Elias anyways," he said to the other boy sitting in the compartment with a book spread open on his lap. "Also, rook to C7. I'll be taking that knight of yours, Elias."

"Yeah, just wanted to check, you know? You can sit down anywhere, Victor," the boy with a book said to the standing Ravenclaw.

Elias returned to his game, watching the captured white knight slink miserably to the other side of the board with his fellow captives. He should have been more careful with his knight, but he could recover easily enough. Perhaps after the wizard chess game was finished, he could start a conversation with Victor.
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Niklas didn't notice the compartment door opening, his headphones already on and blasting his favorite band and his attention drawn by the phone app. However, he did notice the sudden appearance of pant leg across the seat from him, the owner casually taking a seat. The intruder said something that Niklas didn't hear, so he paused the music and took off his headphones.

"You say something?" Niklas wasn't entirely pleased with the prospect of having to ride to Hogwarts with a companion as he was hoping that he could avoid the pain of small talk with a stranger. This was the very last compartment in the very last train car. Surely the person had someone else to sit with than Niklas?
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After Kseniya had finally managed to place her trunk neatly in the storage car, she got into one of the passenger cars and began looking for a place to sit. It would have been easier if she knew if she was allowed to do magic in Platform Nine and Three Quarters or not, but she had managed it in the end anyways through pure effort and willpower. She was rather proud of herself on that front, but it looked like relying on things the muggle way took a lot more time than if she had taken the magical route. The compartments around her were occupied with people she didn't know, so she quickly moved down the train. Kseniya opened a compartment and found several faces that she knew, including a couple of her roommates. Perhaps she could sit here?

"Mmm, I agree, he's not cute at all though--Oh, hey, Kseniya. How was your summer?" one roommate asked.

"Ah, it was good, thanks! I had a lot of fun; we went to--" Kseniya was interrupted by another one of her roommates.

"Silly, it was a rhetorical question. And yeah, I know, right? He is not attractive at all."

"Um, okay, it was? And who are you talking about?" She seemed to be in the middle of another conversation about a boy who had been condemned by the girls in the compartment as unattractive.

"Don't worry about it," the first roommate replied, seemingly to both queries. There was a short pause in which Kseniya looked around expectantly at the girls in the compartment before the same roommate spoke again. "Oh, wait, do you want to sit here? I.. don't think there's room. Sorry." She gestured to the rest of the compartment. Kseniya was a bit disappointed to see that her roommate was probably right. It already looked like the girls were kind of squashed in the bench, so adding another into the mix was probably a bad idea.

"Oh... Um, sorry then for bothering you. I can sit somewhere else, I guess." She wasn't that upset. The occupants were just talking about unattractive boys, a topic in which Kseniya wasn't too crushed about missing out on.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Kseniya. Good luck though! There's probably an empty one out there."

After she wished the girls in the compartment goodbye, she resumed her search for a place to sit. It was only after passing up on sitting with a group of giggling unsorted first years and sitting with her brother and his loud friends that Kseniya realized that she probably shouldn't be so picky, considering that the train was due to leave soon, so she needed to find somewhere to sit quickly. She found a mostly empty compartment with only one person sitting in it, reading. Weighing her options, she decided to venture to ask to sit there. Even thought it was odd that the boy, who she was pretty sure was a first year since she'd never seen him before, was alone in the rapidly filling train, he was reading, so she wouldn't even bother him too much on the train ride there.

"Um, do you mind if I sat with you?" she asked. "Everywhere else is full or..." she trailed off. Or the compartment was filled with her brother and his ilk. While she didn't dislike Gryffindors, she didn't like the bravado and cockiness that the boys in the house seemed to love exhibiting.