Hufflepuff Express!!! ((Plot Huffles))

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy felt some relief at the end of the school year. It would give her time to not work so hard, and relax and enjoy herself. She wasn't going to spend the whole summer idly - she would hopefully be going to one or two people's houses. But home always intensified the pain, the sense something was missing. Made her feel as if she couldn't go on without her father. While she was away, she didn't feel it so much. But when she was there, where he should still be, that always hurt. She'd been home before since he'd gone, but this was the summer now, and she felt fresh apprehension at going back. She didn't have the responsibility of keeping her father well now, but she did have the responsibility of looking after herself and also took on that of the Ashton children whenever she was needed.

Ivy was in a horseless carriage with her best friend Nokomis and the fifth year Hufflepuff Kaitlyn Robbins. Their trunks were piled up on the spare seat. Ivy had cast a feather weight charm on hers, so although it was bulky with everything she had struggled to fit in, the amount of things in there did not show with the weight she carried. The carriages jolted as they came to a halt and Ivy had to catch her trunk to stop it from flying into her face. She clambered out after Kaitlyn, and made her way quickly over the station platform, made hot by the late morning summer sunshine and onto the waiting train shouting, "C'mon!" to the other two so they would follow her. She wanted to get them a good carriage so they could have one to themselves and not get split up if there was no room left on the rest of the train. She found what looked like a decent carriage in the second compartment - big enough for other Hufflepuffs to join them but not so big that they would get lots of people she didn't know in. Ivy pushed open the compartment door, checking behind her to see that Nokomis and Kaitlyn were still there and waving at them to make sure they knew where she was before going further in and securing her trunk in the bag rail above the seats.

[kaitlynrobbins]

Kaitlyn dragged her trunk along to the train, trying in vain to keep up with Ivy’s quick pace. “For Merlin’s – sake!” Kaitlyn huffed to Nokomis, “Can’t she slow – down just a – a little?” Not just for physical reasons did she want to slow down. Kaitlyn loved Hogwarts and was trying to savor every last bit of it before having to get on the train home. It’s not that she wasn’t eager to go home and see her friends and family . . . and the horses, but she would really miss Hogwarts. After all, she had been living there for the past ten months. Taking one last glance at the beautiful castle, Kaitlyn stepped inside the train and followed Ivy into a compartment.

“Whew!” Kaitlyn huffed, dropping her trunk and collapsing onto one of the seats. She eyed Ivy as she was placing her trunk in the bag rail above the seats. There was no way she was going to be able to lift her trunk into the luggage rack with her own measly strength. Good thing she was a witch. Kaitlyn pulled out her wand and said, “Wingardium Leviosa.” The trunk loomed dangerously near Ivy’s head for a moment before Kaitlyn was able to direct it into its proper place in the luggage rack. “There we go. So, Ivy, what are your plans for the summer?” Kaitlyn settled herself more snugly into her seat and made herself comfortable for the long ride ahead.

[Jordan Elizabeth Cortes]

"School's out for summer! School's out forever! School's been blown to pieces!" Jordan sang as she frolicked through the school. She smiled at all her favourite teachers and pretended to not even notice the ones she didn't quite care for. She wore her uniform still- not feeling the need or want to change just yet and was carrying her trunk behind her. Last day of school. Today she was going home. She was going to see her parents, and her brothers, and her sisters. They were to be at Kings Crossing when the train pulled up. Jordan pranced through the entrance doors and hopped down the steps.

"No more quills! No more books! No more teacher's dirty looks!" Her voice rang out over the grounds. She let go of her trunk and grabbed some Gryffindor 1st, well he would be a 2nd year now wouldn't he?, year's hands. She twirled around and laughed as he stumbled backwards, "Sorry!" She apologised as she grabbed her trunk again and ran to the carriages. She couldn't believe it had flown by so fast! Not that she was complaining, but it did feel like she had to refasten her head to her shoulders how fast time had flown past her.

"Out for summer! Out till fall! Some won't be back at all!" She found herself a carriage that was empty, or she thought it was empty. Oh well, Jordan wasn't talking to anyone. She bounced in her seat as the carriage was pulled by....well...nothing. She looked out the window, quite intrigued- but when she continued to see nothing; she shrugged and sat back in her seat. Moments later the carriage stopped at the Hogsmeade station. Jordan jumped out, and walked over to the train.

"School's out forever! School's out for summer! School's out with fever! School's out completely!" Jordan sang as she skipped through the corridors with her trunk bumping behind her, causing everyone to look at her with bad looks. Jordan giggled and found a compartment with some Hufflepuffs. Ivy, Nokomis, and Kaitlyn. Jordan leaned against the door and spoke rather cheerfully, "No more school!"

[ghost]

Zenia walked through the entrance hall with her trunk bumping and rolling behind her. She sighed deeply, she would miss this place, even though she would be back in the fall she would miss it. This huge castle had not only been she school, but also her home, and it wasn't like she was going to see her family, it was just her brother. Zenia sighed again and spun around the hall trying to memorize every tapestry hanging from the halls, every staircase, every portrait, even the rugs! Once she had spun herself dizzy she walked outside, and suddenly felt a rush of excitement, it was summer! She skipped down the path excitedly fought the urge to sing with glee. She hoped in a carriage with a bunch of Ravenclaws and sang a strange, yet merry song

"School is out for the year!!!!
Nows the time to scream and cheer!
No more homework. No more school!
No more boring things to doooooo!
Let us all frolic and play!!!
The next school day is months away!!!!
School is out for the year!!!
Let us all scream and cheer!!!!!!!!!!!"

She finished her song just as the carriage stooped and she dashed out of the carriage first ignoring the weird looks the other students gave her. She hoped on the train and found her way to a compartment with Ivy, Nokomis, Kaitlyn, and Jordan, who where three fellow Hufflepuffs. Feeling brave she stood by the door to the compartment and started signing her song yet again.

[Sadie Rivers H6]

Sadie noticed Ivy, and Nokomis boarding, and wondered if they would mind if she sat with them. She ran to catch up to the two girls, and managed to see which compartment that they had sat in. As she got on the train, and made her way down to the compartment, she knocked on the door. After it opened, she peeked in and saw Nokomis. " Hey," she said, " I was wondering if you guys minded if I sat with you on the way home." She stood at the door and waiting, hoping that they would be okay with it, since she had not made any new friends this year.

[Nokomis Astarra H5]

Nokomis sat quietly in the horseless carriage, her forehead pressed to the window as she looked back at the castle. Many students seemed happy to leave the school for the summer, and while she was happy to go home and see her mum, she was going to miss Hogwarts. After her first year, it almost felt welcoming to come home to the world she knew for so long, but now that she was leaving again, it felt strange to know she wouldn't be able to draw her want. There would be no more lumos, no more levitating, and worst of all, no more quidditch. Luckily, with her own broom now, she would be able to practice a bit, but it was still sad to be leaving the game behind. Quidditch still on her mind she looked over at Ivy.

"Do you think we could practice over the summer?" she asked, realizing Ivy probably had no idea what she was talking about. Color rushed to her cheeks, but she smiled at her friend, Ivy never cared when she said something that didn't make sense. "Quiddich...I don't want to go all summer with out playing."

Before she knew it they reached Hogsmead and everyone was stepping out of the carriages and toward the express. She tried very hard to levitate her trunk, moving it along but it kept bouncing off the ground. "Of course she can't slow down, thats why she makes a good chaser." She giggled at her own Quidditch comment as they finally stepped into an empty compartment.

Soon though, other Hufflepuffs slowly made their way to them. It was funny how houses always seemed to gather together. She grinned when she saw Jordan. The fifth year, well, soon to be sixth, was on the team too. Most people she could barely talk to, but now the team she could handle.
"Hi Jordan...did you want to join us?"

Soon she saw a girl she didn't really know, and after that she saw Sadie. She had only met Sadie a little whole ago, but she really liked her.
"Hi Sadie, of course you can sit with us." She smiled and moved over on her seat, making room for Sadie beside her.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy soon had her holdall in place, which gave her time to worry about how near Kaitlyn was sending her trunk to her head with a Levitating spell. Ivy watched it apprehensively and grinned at Katie nervously as it was directed away. "Gordon Bennett that was close!" she exclaimed as Nokomis followed Kaitlyn in saying something about making a good chaser Ivy didn't quite understand. Ivy grinned at her best friend nevertheless and took a seat next to her as Kaitlyn asked about Ivy's summer plans. The question almost unsettled her from her generally good mood as she contemplated spending the summer mainly on her own, but she had learnt recently how to not show so much when she was slightly uncomfortable with herself and gave a small smile as she tried to think of anything interesting she could say she might be doing.

"Well, nothing too eventful planned," she said flippantly, "I mean I'm not going anywhere much, not on holiday anywhere or anything." Ivy hadn't been on holiday last year either. Her father's health had been getting more and more frail. It really was all her fault, she thought miserably, blaming herself as she had blamed herself many times in the past. If she hadn't been a witch in the first place, her mother wouldn't have gone and her father would have been fine. If she'd known what to do he would have been okay. If he'd had her at home he would probably have been okay too. But she hadn't stayed at home. She'd gone off to a boarding school hundreds of miles away in Scotland and left him on his own. When he'd sacrificed a lot for her to do it. True, she went home as often as she could. But... the evidence was that it hadn't been enough. This time a shadow had passed over Ivy's face which was probably enough for at least Nokomis to pick up, and Ivy looked down at her feet as she finished replying to Kaitlyn in a mumble. "I might be going to my grandfather's house for a bit, but I'm not sure. But I think he said something about that at Easter. And one of my neighbour's isn't very well so I might be helping look after the children." Ivy had been down there only recently at a time when there had been an emergency and Mr. Ashton had been taken into hospital for a while. He'd got better since then though, and apparently he was on his way to a complete recovery, which Ivy was immensely relieved about.

Ivy looked up again with some colour in her cheeks and gave Nokomis a small smile as Jordan entered the compartment with a cheerful comment. Ivy didn't know much about Jordan, save for that she played on the Quidditch team and usually seemed determined to be cheerful whatever the weather. Ivy gave the older Hufflepuff a braver smile than the slightly unconvincing one she had given Nokomis and greeted her genially, looking back to Nokomis again and considering what she had been saying just before the carriage came to a halt and she had concentrated on getting a compartment to themselves.

"Were you saying something about playing Quidditch over the summer?" she asked. "Actually Kaitlyn should join the team shouldn't she... bet she'd be good... I can't play much where I am in Taunton seeing as I don't think my neighbours would appreciate seeing me on a broomstick in the air... how about for you in Killeen? I doubt it'd be possible to get together though it'd -" Ivy broke off as the compartment door slid open once again and Zenia appeared before bursting into song. Ivy kept quiet and smiled at her dormmate once she'd finished singing. "Nice song Zenia," she said quietly. "Want to come in?" Ivy indicated a seat and smiled at the other third year, looking at Nokomis again, who didn't seem to have recognised Ivy's dormmate. Ivy wondered whether she should introduce the two to each other but decided not to for the moment as Sadie opened the door of the compartment shyly. Ivy had a very high opinion of the first year - she always seemed very nice. Ivy smiled brightly at her as Nokomis told her to come and sit with them, before expressing her line of thought. "Sadie will be allowed to have a broom next year too of course," she said cheerfully, consciously pushing her previous morbid thoughts out of her mind as she did so and smiling at the first year thoughtfully.

[Sadie Rivers H6]

Sadie stepped into the compartment and put her trunk away. She had been thinking of going home, wondering what she would find when she got there.

Sadie had also been thinking of going to Nokomis' this summer. She didn't know how long she would be able to stay, but she was definately going to go.

She smiled back at Ivy, and took a moment to say hi to her. Then she sat down, and started to listen to the conversation. Suddenly she heard Ivy mention brooms. She was right, Sadie would be allowed a broom next year. The thought of this almost freaked her out. " Oh, wow!!" Sadie exclaimed suddenly. " I haven't even thought about the fact that I'll be able to have a broom." Sadie wasn't sure which broom she would try to get, but she did know that she would be able to get one, even if things weren't right at home.

[Nokomis Astarra H5]

She nodded about the quidditch comment. She knew that it was stepping outside her comfort zone to ask all these people to her house, but she was team captain now, and they needed to practice. Besides having the team become closer wasn't a bad thing, maybe it would even help them play better in the future.

"Killeen is pretty small...and there are lots of trees so its hard to see back where I am. I practiced last summer after I got my broom...you just can't fly too hight."

She really hoped that Ivy would be able to come over at least. She didn't want to go the whole summer with out seeing her best friend. She had already invited Sadie to come for a visit, so at least she wouldn't have to spend the whole summer with out seeing her friends.

"It would be wonderful it you got a broom Sadie! I got mine for my Birthday...maybe you could as for one too?"
She paused for a moment, imagining Sadie getting a broom and then coming over to her house where she and Ivy would help her learn to ride it like a proper quidditch player.
"Wait!" she suddenly explained, quickly starting to dig through her trunk. It look her longer than she wanted to find what she was looking for, but then she could only blame herself. She didn't organize things in her trunk, instead she had simply thrown everything inside. When she sat back down on her seat her cheeks were pink with embarrassment, but she had a copy of 'Witch Broom' and 'Quaffle This,' two of the wizarding worlds leading magazines on brooms, flying and quidditch.

[kaitlynrobbins]

Kaitlyn listened intently as Ivy explained to her the plans she had for the summer. “Well, it sounds like you’ll be having a relaxing summer. I don’t know much of what I’ll be doing either. I’ll be down at the barn a great deal of the summer and catching up with some friends and family I suppose, but nothing else that I know.” She sighed contently and took to stroking Dusty, who had just crawled up into her lap. Kaitlyn could remember when the little gray cat was small enough to fit in her coat pocket. Of course, he was still quite small, but not that small. She smiled a greeting at Jordan and said a casual hello, as the girl entered into their compartment. She seemed nice enough, but Kaitlyn didn’t know her all that well.

“No way!” she replied when Ivy mentioned her joining the team. “I don’t like heights as it is, much less sitting on a household cleaning appliance trying to throw things and not get hit by others. No Quidditch for me. I’ll just sit in the stands and cheer the rest of you on.” Kaitlyn watched as a girl she didn’t know entered the compartment. She certainly seemed to be rather upbeat from the way she was singing. Kaitlyn smiled politely at Zenia (was that what Ivy had called her?). Soon afterwards, another new face joined in. She had always liked the name Sadie. It was quite pretty. She smiled politely at her as well, but was starting to feel more than a little uncomfortable. Kaitlyn never did too well with new people. Her conservative nature always made her nervous around those she didn’t know. She decided to just sit back and listen until she felt a little more at ease.

[Sadie Rivers H6]

" I don't even know where to start to pick out a broom." Sadie said. She was so excited that she would be able to have a broom, that she didn't even think about what lied ahead for her at home.

Sadie didn't know if Ivy or Nokomis would be able to help her pick out the right broom for her, but she might ask them before she got off the train. She would just wait and see how the trip turned out.

[Nokomis Astarra H5]

She looked at Kaitlyn, trying to hide her disappointment when she said Quidditch was not for her. She knew that some people weren't nearly as focused on the game as she was, but she never really did understand it. She thought of hardly anything but quidditch since she saw her first match when she was a first year.

She looked over at Sadie, who she had already handed two of her quidditch magazines to. Sadie would be a second year in just a few months, and she couldn't help but use herself as an example. She came from never having played to being captain in her second year. Maybe Sadie would have real talent with the game too.

"I'll help you find a broom if you want. The magazines talk about the different types, and you can find them right at Diagon Alley."

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy looked anxiously around at all the people that were now in the carriage. A lot of them... how many was it? Nokomis, Sadie, Kaitlyn, Jordan, Zenia... that made five... and Ivy was there too so six. A lot of people! At least they hopefully wouldn't be short of conversation on the journey home now. Nokomis and Sadie were already discussing which broom Sadie should get. Ivy was more than pleased that Sadie seemed to have taken to the idea. It would be great if she joined the team! Hufflepuff were going to do well next year, and they would do better if everyone on the team together were friends. That was what gave the Hufflepuff team strength in Ivy's opinion - the fact they were all friendly to one another and there wasn't rivalry and they all worked together. You couldn't ask for a better or more dedicated team captain than Nokomis either. Ivy sat back in her seat and listened to their conversation since Nokomis was the most knowledgable person possible about Quidditch and brooms, giving Gilbert a little pet through his cage. She wanted to get him a bigger cage over the holidays, so that he'd have more room for journeys like this when she couldn't let him fly out all that often. She was going to be working at the shop of a student who'd just graduated from Ravenclaw though over the holidays, Catalina's Cubby, for just one afternoon a week and since the pay was really rather decent she would be able to afford one. Ivy made a note to herself to put aside a good bit of her pay to get a bigger and better cage for Gilbert.

Ivy looked at Kaitlyn with a mixture of unhidden disappointment and slight amusement as she referred to broomsticks as 'household cleaning appliances' and gave her a small, barely visible smile. Kaitlyn was being rather quiet too and Ivy wondered whether it was merely she didn't like the subject matter of Quidditch or was feeling a bit shy. Ivy probably had an advantage over her in terms of knowing the people in the carriage - Ivy knew everyone at least a little but Kaitlyn probably only knew Nokomis and Jordan. Ivy smiled at Jordan too before saying, "I'm not particularly scared of heights although I don't really like them... but I never really notice it when I'm playing Quidditch because there's so much else to think about. And as long as you don't have a really temperamental broomstick it's not hard once you've got the hang of it." Ivy wanted to say more... she didn't want to seem pushy and that certainly wasn't her nature nor the way she meant her words... but she couldn't think of the words to express what she was thinking about so instead she finished off with another smile before looking over at what Nokomis and Sadie had concluded.

They were looking at a couple of Quidditch magazines of Nokomis'. Ivy recognised the broom pages of Quaffle This immediately, since it had become one of her Quidditch Bibles since Nokomis had paid subscription for her to get it. She could see the feature page for the Chasers' Broom of the Month page, with a large picture of a very handsome looking new broom in the centre which kept on changing to show all the different features of the broom and different famous players that owned one, as well as any memorable moves they'd done on them. Of course Quaffle This was the best magazine around for anything to do with Chasers, which was perfect for Ivy. It had lots of other brooms in there too which it weighed the pros and cons of, all with pictures with features similar to the one on the Chasers' Broom of the Month page but with the relevant brooms and smaller in size. Ivy couldn't recognise the other one immediately - it wasn't one she read regularly - but it looked to have a lot of pictures of brooms in it than Quaffle This, and with even more information about each broom than Quaffle This. Ivy wasn't sure whether all the information at once might not be a little overwhelming, but she could see that Nokomis was eager to share everything with Sadie and excited at the prospect of her being able to play on the team with her very own broom. Ivy gave her best friend a happy smile as Nokomis pledged to help Sadie find one.
"You won't get better than Nokomis if you're wanting help to find a broom, Sadie," she said when she was sure she wouldn't be interrupting. "Since I think she reads about everything there is to read about Quidditch I don't think you'll find anyone more knowledgable."