Having found a compartment with a few things, along with a sketchbook, Mahou thought that the person who owned the belongings was off gawking at the situation.

Sitting down, Mahou didn't touch the books, didn't touch anything, her own small bag in her lap. She pulled out a book but didn't begin reading. She thought of all the things that had happened so far.. Someone knew she was an elf, but not half.. and she hoped to keep it that way.

Through the haze in his head, the repeated echo of Shinrei Hikari's proud voice accepting the High Lord's marriage proposal and the still-excited crowd in the train, Luis managed to trudge his way back into his compartment.

He was contemplating on how nice it would feel if he just jumped out of a window in order to clear his head. It seemed quite an inviting thought.

He did not even express surprise in seeing Mahou Amberstone sitting in his compartment. "Hey there," he greeted her, taking the seat across from hers, "seems like the school year started off with a bang. Hah."

The disdain in his voice was evident. "So...you want me to tell you a secret? So it would even out between us? There's one I really want to get off my system right now."

Unlike Luis, Mahou had no problem showing her utter and complete surprise. This boy, who was quite older than her, wanted to share a secret?

"Alright," she told him, looking up from her lap. "If it will make ye feel better." She smiled encouragingly at him and set her things on the seat beside her.

Looking around and noting the door to the compartment was closed, Mahou pulled off her hat, glad to be rid of it for at least a moment. Her hair ignited in the light of the sun from the window, her thin features cast in mute shadows. She looked at Luis with her strange, vivid eyes, her hands clutching her hat.

"Oh," she interjected, before he could begin, "thank ye fer tellin' me this.. I guess no one else kens it, aye?" She waited for the young lad to begin.

Luis looked at Mahou for a long moment, contemplating his decision. Finally, he scowled to himself and reached for his sketchpad on the seat beside her.

"Yes, no one else knows about this." He took the sketchpad into his hands and leafed over to the centre pages, where the most beautiful face in the world stared back at him from several pages. A face that belonged to a girl he would never have the chance to call his own. The very thought cut deep.

He unceremoniously handed the sketches over to Mahou. "You just heard her being engaged to some high-and-mighty lord back there, no? Dios mio, why the hell did I ever think--or hope--she would give someone like me the time of the day?"

"The first time I saw Shinrei," he said in much softer tone, "I knew she was different. Special. I never even thought of the reason why she drew me in, so suddenly."

He averted his eyes to the passing countryside and crossed his arms on his chest. He had said his piece.

The pain was searing through him like lightning bolts. He hoped Mahou would get the message that it was pointless to engage him in further conversation.

Mahou stared at the sketches with fascination as she listened to Luis talk. She didn't know what else to say.. she longed to help the boy.. to help him achieve his heart's desire. She gazed long at the picture, long after Luis had finished speaking.

Still holding the pad of paper, Mahou just sat.. letting the time slide around her and Luis, wishing against all she had that she could help the boy. She found a sort of friend in Luis, she surmised, and thought that she might try to help out, at least. If he would help her.

Looking up at him, the girl put her hat back on her head, holding the pad gingerly in her lap. She contemplated telling Luis her story.. all about the fabled school of Cerridwyn's. But she couldn't.. not yet.. She noticed that he didn't want to talk anymore, so she scooted forward a little in her seat, reaching across to lay a small, slender hand on the boy's knee.

No words were spoken, just an expression of sadness and hope for the boy bore deep into her strange eyes. Her thin features showed no threatening signs, no anything that would denote that she thought him stupid, or anything of the sort. She just.. sat.. with her hand on his knee, hoping that she would be able to be his friend, and perhaps help him with his problems.

Sitting back, Mahou looked at the picture again, smiling to herself as she traced the features with her finger, but never touching the paper. She was happy Luis found someone to feel such for, but sad that he hadn't been able to share those with her yet.

"Luis," she began softly, not looking up to him, "I'll share one more secret with you.. that not even my parents ken o' me.." She glanced up at him. "Cerridwyn's is nae th' best place I made it out ta be.." She lay the sketchpad beside her, gripping her hands in her lap, staring at those hands.

"I nae had any friends.. I be half an elf.. half a witch.. an' nae anythin' in b'tween." She shook a little.

"I was ridiculed, beat, an' humiliated b'fore th' whole school. It was this past year.. an' it be Samhain, or Hallowe'en as ye call it, an' we were ta have a ceremony ta pick th' Lady an' Lord o' the Samhain Feast. I got picked.. but.. it had been a horrid joke played by everyone in th' school. E'en th' teachers laughed as a cauldron o' thick candy mix was poured on me.. they all laughed as I ran from there.. ta me room.. while e'eryone else.. feasted.. an' chose a new Lady." She bit her knuckle. Putting her hand back in her lap, she finished. "Tha's why I hope tha' no one else kens o' what I be, Luis. b'cause I nae want tha' ta happen again."

She looked at him finally, knowing that no more words would be spoken, only a silent understanding of secrets shared, and secrets kept.

*********

Sarah had been feeling somewhat jumpy for the last few minutes. She gazed out of the window watching the countryside pass by. She was somewhat concerned about Raphael - that knock to his head.

"Hidden talents? Oh, it's theoretical I think. Be cool if we get to try stuff. We'll have to wait and see. In duelling you get to have mock fights with each other so there's you place to practice fireballs.

"You need to do things that you feel are interesting for your options. You really like the idea of blasting things huh?"

She then smiled at the boys and Ruth (and Breana I think she is still there quietly), "I'm going to stretch my legs and take a walk down the train. I'll be back in a few minutes OK?"

"I'm going to stretch my legs and take a walk down the train. I'll be back in a few minutes OK?"

Looking up at Sarah, who was standing and about to leave the carriage, Raphael could do nothing but stare at her. She moved so slowly and... to Raphael... gracefully. Her hair, softened by length, moved a little, flickering about her head; her eyes were glittering. He could stay like this for an eternity and watch her, simply to see how she moved -

Perhaps it truly was her eyes, in the end. They made contact, Raphael knew, when they wanted, often while she laughed or winked... deep pools that drew him in. Raphael wondered to himself... perhaps... perhaps he could see the magic in them.

If he could, then he'd be able to tell Nathaniel that he should definitely be on the train... and he could teach the old man the same trick... find out if he, Raphael, was meant to be here... thoughts and memories of the past day surged into his mind. Perhaps with this sudden drawing into the world of Hogwarts and wizardry, he had been changed.

Raphael knew he wasn't as stable as before. He did not know why.

Sarah was still there. Still standing. As if Raphael's need to watch her, to think in the instants of time about what and who he was, had frozen time - given him just a moment to think for an eternity. He could feel his hand grasped around the wand in his left pocket, but this wasn't magic - just a need for time to still. A need for a moment of stability. He had had stability, these last six months, or at least the semblance of stability - he had fought, screamed at, kicked, punched his uncle... but no blackouts, no loss of memory, no strange happenings that he hadn't been able to halt. So, the last six months had been stable, if rock bottom in terms of emotions.

...and what about before then? Pain shot through his forehead, causing his vision to swim for just a second, and for time to start again, it seemed. Sarah left.

Was she okay? Raphael wondered... if he hadn't got stability... why? And how could he cope without that... that... without any... safety net? He stood, and looked at Nathaniel for a moment, trying to tell the other with his eyes of his concern for Sarah and what they came from - concern for himself as well as her. "I'm - I'm gonna check on her for a sec, okay?" he said, and quickly exited the small room.

Sarah was in the corridor outside, and as he snapped the door to the carriage closed, he caught her attention. Walking closer to her, Raphael asked simply: "you okay?"

As Raphael approached Sarah she appeared to be examining the tattoo on her upper arm with a slight look of concern on her face.

However, upon hearing his voice she looked up. "OK? Yes, I think so. Just was feeling a little warm in there."

Much of today was uncharted territory for Sarah and she was slightly panicked as to how she should behave. She was quite capable of doing some playful flirting or teasing as she had with 'Magnus the Magnet' but that obviously didn't mean anything. She'd never felt the slightest bit of awkwardness around the boys in school.

However, Nathaniel and Raphael were different and she wasn't quite sure how you were suppose to behave around boys that were your friends. She couldn't deny she was feeling awkward. It was an interesting feeling though at the same time a scary one.

Raphael looked at Sarah, and wondered. Wondered if she was okay. She seemed a little... flustered...

Sarah had managed to cover her slight flusteredness by suggesting she and Raphael take a walk down the train. Back in the carriage the card game and the bags of food they had bought at Kings Cross helped make the time fly by.

But, a good walk later, when they sat down, and started to play the oddest game of snap that Raphael had ever played back in the carriage with Nathaniel it slipped his mind, just like it slipped his mind to be worried about the school, magic, Nathaniel himself, or anything.

Then, the train started to grumble to a halt. "Oh, gods," was Raphael's only comment. "Are we... here...?"

He started throwing things into his bag, the mess he was making showing just how nervy he was. "...books... clothes... get the cloak on... put the robes... er..." so when he stood up, and pulled on an odd looking, thick and luxurious looking cloak (totally unlike any of his other, remarkably tatty clothes) with his bag over it, and announced he was ready, he had to pull it off again and put in the last of his second hand books that he'd missed.

As the train neared Hogsmeade, Sarah had taken Ruthie and Breana into another carriage so they could get changed into their school robes. She privately thought that Ruthie might be nursing a little crush on Nathaniel.

As was allegedly traditional, Sarah did her best to wind Ruthie up about the dangers and terrors she and the other First Years would face once inside the Castle.

*******

In a corner seat, in the last carriage of the train sat Piotr Rachinov, his personal space bubble and sheer disdain radiating several seats from him. The closest anyone dared sit next to the sullen looking boy was about four seats away.

He turned to stare out of the window momentarily and instantly regretted it. The flashing of the scenery hurt his sensitive eyes and the very motion of the train made him feel slightly sick - not that he would have admitted such a thing - oh, no.

So this was it. Hogwarts. He sneered at himself in derision. Fancy deciding to come here out of sheer spite. He should have stuck to his original plan and held out for continued home schooling - but even he knew that his chances of success were virtually nil.

He closed his eyes behind his sunglasses. Trying to get sleep was futility itself: the pressing need to

take his potion at increasingly regular intervals meant that daytime naps were out of the question. The only way he successfully got any sleep at all during the night was to take a bigger dose that would allow him to sleep in four-hour bursts.

The chatter of the other students on the train irritated him and he fought down the urge to bark out in anger at them. Softly, softly, he coaxed himself carefully. It was going to be hard enough. No point in making things potentially worse for himself before he even arrived at the stupid school.

All in all, not a happy camper.

********

Nimue, Kat, Shinrei, Andy, Jian and Marvo were able to spend the much of the journey in quiet conversation without further dramatic incident. The rolling fields of the English countryside soon giving way to more desolate moorland and then into Scotland where the terrain grew more mountainous.

"Time to get changed." said Nimue slipping her black school robes over her dress. It felt good to be wearing them again.