How TIme Flies...((Vince and Ivy))

[Sophia Hallington H7]

It was the day that everyone was to return to Kings Cross Station. Sophia got out of her mysterious carriage-identical to all the rest-that appeared to move on their own (apparently you could see some sort of creatures if you'd seen someone die), and made her way over to the train. Within a few minutes she was on, and looking for a carriage where she could go, trunk and owl cage included. She had had a bit of trouble with Crazy, her owl, that morning, as-living up to her name-she refused to get back into her cage after her morning flight. As if Sophia needed any more hassle, making sure she had everything, and didn't leave anything in the dorm. But as she often said, that's life, and it was all sorted relatively soon.

Sophia considered herself lucky once se found a free carriage with little trouble. For once she was one of the first people there, and not one of the last, being forced to sit next to someone she'd rather not be with. She heaved her trunk up to the storage area, and placed the cage carefully next to her, as she looked out of the window to the rest of the students still waiting to get on the train, and taking in the peaceful space she had to herself while it lasted. Sophia, ever the pessimist, couldn't help thinking that someone would come and invade her space within a matter of minutes, but she tried to think of other things.

The main thing she thought of was how time flies. She had now been at Hogwarts for 3 years, yet it seemed like just yesterday that she was a nervouls little first year, waiting to be sorted into her house. She couldn't have been more pleased to be sorted into Hufflepuff. She didn't want the reputation for being evil that the Slytherins had (besides, she wasn't a pureblood), and she wasn't brave or clever enough for Gryfindor and Ravencaw. Overall, she had quite enjoyed her time at Hogwarts, although she often found the work challenging, and she didn't expect to get particularly good OWLs. That was another though that went through her head-she'd be starting the OWL work once she returned in September. Scary...she was getting old! At least she thought she'd chosen the right subjects to suit her-COMC and Arithmancy, but she wished she could drop some of the other subjects she had to take-namely Potions and History of Magic...but for the next 2 years she'd just have to face the truth that she had to take them, no matter what.

Out in the corridor of the train, it was getting busier, with more students trying to find seats, and just the general hustle and bustle of the train journeys. Squawking owls, cats pattering all over the wooden floor, and the professors trying to get the student traffic moving. "Not long now..." Sophia thought, sighing. "Better get prepared...look alive, at least."

After a few minutes, the train started moving. And, fortunately, she was on her own. Now, everyone was on, and there were some people still wandering around, so there was bound to be someone looking for a seat still. And she was partially right-at that moment, she heard the sliding door open, and in the doorway was a big, scary-looking Slytherin boy. By the looks of it, a seventh year. Yes, the train had been on the move for the grand old length of time of ten minutes, and she couldn't help think the worse-she was about to get bullied. Why else would a big scary-looking Slytherin come into her carriage....she doubted he was looking for a seat...

[Vincent Crabbe Jr.]

Here again. The last time. No more school. No more hard work. No more leisure time either - just a whole lot of Mudbloods to clear from the world on the Dark Lord's behalf. Vincent took in Hogsmeade station carefully. Perhaps the next time he saw it it would be in flames. And they would have to extinguish the flames from the water tank the steam belching scarlet engine was currently slurping from. He could see the flames flickering now, the black smoke rising from the ladies' waiting room; the tinder dry ground of the summer fulfilling its bonfire potential without the need for sparks; the tracks getting hotter and hotter until they melted; the train with all those students approaching the burning station closer and closer... that scarlet steam engine in front of him right now, which the students of the school he'd gone to for seven years were now boarding.

As Draco was fond of telling him, Vincent had the brain of a dinosaur: pea-sized. Vincent also had the brawn of a dinosaur. Both great characteristics that would contribute to making him a first rate Death Eater. But he had a human heart, and that was where his problems lay. Where the misgivings lay. Problems he must overcome, because there wasn't any other future for him. Nothing else for him to do, to escape his responsibility. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. There was no hiding from the Dark Lord. He grunted more out of discomfort at that thought than out of any particular exertion as he hauled his trunk up onto the train, knocking a first year attempting to board at the same time back as he did so. With not a backward glance, he commenced dragging his trunk along the train, stepping on a few people's toes since they hadn't been quick enough to get out of the way. His trunk moved through without being obstructed at all except for occasionally getting snagged on a carriage coupling; Vincent was a heavy boy and if he stepped on your toes you were likely to move out of the way.

The train lurched into movement and Vincent had to work extra hard to keep steady, stepping on the few remaining people's toes without even having given any particular care to ensuring he did so. But he had almost arrived at the compartment he, his friends and his 'friends' always shared, and it didn't take him too long to get there even with the extra hindrance of unexpected movements of the ground under his feet. He was significantly disgruntled to find it occupied. How long would it take people to learn that this carriage was not free even when it was empty? This girl would soon have experienced a thorough education. A cramming-college course in where not to sit on the Hogwarts Express. It took him a good while to work out what he could do to impress upon her the importance of this lesson (other of course than flinging her with all his might out of the compartment and into the carriage wall opposite with the hope it wouldn't derail the train) and so he stood stupidly for some moments in the doorway of the compartment before taking any action. The first thing he did was to put his trunk on the storage shelf over the seat before giving the girl a hard stare.

"This was never your compartment." he stated somewhat menacingly, but instead of throwing her straight out as he would usually do he made a concession (this was his last time catching the train for a legitimate reason after all) and instead grumbled a single extra word - "Food?" He didn't want a reply to that either. He was about to find out for himself: within a trice he had pulled down the girl's trunk, opened it and started pulling everything out of it in a fruitless search for food. None was to be found, but what was worse was that there were no comic books to read either! Two cloyingly sweet slippers he'd flung onto the floor now caught his attention and he ripped the puppy heads off them in his anger at the uselessness of this girl in not having one interesting thing on her, before throwing them out of the window, leaving the vandalised slippers on the floor of the compartment. A teddy bear close by followed as he sat down and brought out the stores of food he'd reliably brought himself and started munching, regardless of how early in the journey it was. Such disappointment brought on peckishness!

[Sophia Hallington H7]

Sophia was terrified-the look on the boys face was that of annoyance, anger, and oppurtunity all in one-annoyed that someone had occupied his compartment, angry for the same reason, and the oppurtunity to get some serious bullying in on what was quite possibly his last trip on the Hogwarts Express as a student. She cowered into the corner, hugging Crazy's cage as tigth as possible-she could feel the tears swelling up in her eyes. "Why me", she though "Why is it always me that gets it. Why is it always the little, young, innocent one that gets it. Even the previous year it had been a Hufflepuff that had been killed by the Death Eaters.

He thoughts were interrupted when he dragged her trunk down from the storage space above her. All he seemed to care about was food, comics, and who his next victim would be. The first 2 were what he was actually searching for to start with, but without any luck. She didn't have any food with her as she always decided to buy her lunch while on the train-a pumpkin pastie, with some pumpkin juice, a couple of cauldron cakes and some chocolate frogs would keep her going for the journey. She wouldn't want to eat too much-she was staying with her gran for the night, before her parents took her home the next day. As for comics, Sophia had never bought one in her life-she was more of a book person. She read all sorts-classic novels, modern stories, various non-fiction books-she read the lot, and enjoyed most of them. Luckily she had hid her book-'Holes', by Louis Sachar, currently-in the 'secret compartment' of her trunk, so nobody could find it, except herself, in case of situations like the one she was in presently.

However, Sophis said nothing. Even if she had wanted too, and hadn't been too afraid, she probably wouldn't have-there was no point, as she thought it unlikely that he would take any notice of her. Even when he wripped the puppy heads off her slippers and the head of the teddy that she'd had since she was born, she didn't say anything-she only wimpered. She hoped that sometime soon someone would come and help-whether a teacher or another student, she didn't care-she couldn't take it any more, she placed the cage onto the floor, and huddled her knees up to her face., as the first tears and cries started. But still she said nothing, even as the boy sat down opposite and started to eat.

Eventually she drifted off into her own thoughts again. What was he going to do next? Just walk away, and pretent that it was something else, and go to find another compartment? Or maybe he'd throw her wholetrunkout of the window! She doubted that he'd do the first, and she wouldn't be surprised if he did the latter. She couldn't help thinking if he would actually turn up on the train in years to come. She wouldn't be surprised at all if he became a DE in the future-he was evil enough, and he seemed to look the part-he certainly had the strength and brawn for the job. But the thought that kept popping into her head was that of hwat would happen if nobody came to help, and if someone did come, when would they come?

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. The mid-morning sunshine was shining into the compartment, and she could feel a cool breeze gently lifting her wavy hair. All in all, she felt quite content. She turned her head to the side where Charlie was sitting, and gave him a bright smile. He was coming to stay with her for a few days, and she was as glad as anything that she wasn't going to be alone in the first days of her holidays. Then she realised that Charlie wasn't sitting next to her; in fact no one was sitting next to her. She hadn't bothered to check that he was in the compartment but... he had been right behind her before. She had just assumed that he'd followed her in. Frowning somewhat, Ivy got up again and trundled off with her trunk. She supposed that someone must have pushed in front of him and, not looking out for her, he'd gone another way down the corridor. She'd not really been paying attention either. Oh well. She'd just have to carry on going until she found him.

Ivy had made her way through a couple of carriages when the train jerked into action. She'd been able to hear the engine warming up into working order, and now smoke billowed past the window, the breeze blowing some of it in through the open window. The soot glittered slightly, and Ivy wondered what exactly they used to power the Express. Not quite normal coal - that she was sure of. But it was the next thing going past the window that caught her eye. In the brief moment that she'd seen it, it had looked distinctly like someone's soft toy. Ivy hadn't placed her faith in her toy elephant for a long time, but the thought of throwing one out of the window still seemed appallingly cold hearted to her. She didn't hesitate before striding to the window and saying "Accio teddy bear". She waited patiently to start with, then anxiously, and then the abused toy came zooming through the window, almost hitting her straight in the face. She only just jumped out of the way in time, picking the bear up from the floor. It was blackened with soot, but intact, just a bit dirty.

Ivy shrugged and continued on with the teddy bear in hand, looking into each compartment for a sight of Charlie or someone who looked likely to be the owner of the unfortunate bear. Eventually she found the latter - a Hufflepuff she thought might be in the year below her was sitting, almost cowering, with her knees drawn up to her face. On the other side of the compartment, a Slytherin notorious for his combination of dimwittedness and cruelty was sitting glowering and gorging himself. It looked a likely enough candidate for the origins of the teddy bear, and even if it wasn't, Ivy knew that she had no choice. She'd suffered misery alone herself at the hands of a group of Slytherins, and even if she herself walked into problems, it had to be better for the other girl to know that there was someone didn't think ill of her. She pushed open the compartment door and walked in with her back to the huge boy, dragging her trunk behind her.

The girl seemed to have just finished an outburst of crying; every now and then she would emit a strangled sob. Ivy wasn't sure about this approach; a quick glance at the boy behind her confirmed her suspicions that this was an irritant for his temper. She wondered how long she had before it would explode. Probably her entrance had rather shortened the time. She hurried over to the girl and shook her into a less submissive position, handing over the teddy bear. If it didn't belong to her, that was just too bad as far as Ivy was concerned right now. She picked up the cage from the floor, handing the alarmed owl and Gilbert's cage over to the girl, and picked up both trunks herself. They were heavy, and it was hard not to notice it. Ivy staggered towards the door of the compartment without saying anything, feeling that words might trigger a rather worrying response from the malevolent presence they currently shared a compartment with. Unfortunately it was a bit too late; she looked up to find a large bulk blocking their way out. He was quite a lot taller than her, and many people with greater courage than Ivy would have felt intimidated. It was all that she could do to prevent herself from quivering on the spot.
"Excuse me, we're trying to get out." she tried.

[Vincent Crabbe Jr.]

Vincent had trained his eardrums to react patiently to one kind of sound, but that was the sound of Draco's endless jibes and sneers, aimed at his friends just as often as at his rivals. Friends didn't mean much more to Draco than status and backup, and Vincent was not foolish enough to have not realised this a few years back. But his eardrums were not accustomed to this kind of assault. A whining noise. It pierced further than any scream of pain, yelling or shouting. It was a constant irritation, more persistent even than Draco's taunts. Couldn't she just scurry out instead, and remember that she'd been spared the worst of his wrath? He regarded the wimp across from him with more than a little ill will, but remained content enough where he was while he was still munching his way through his supplies. He'd just have to go and raid someone else's once he'd run out. Though he still hadn't forgotten that first humiliation Weasley's stupid rat had given him before he'd even got to the school he was now leaving.

His attitude changed, however, when another Hufflepuff saw fit to invade his designated space. Did they think this was a party? Rumours did spread that the Hufflepuffs spent all their time partying, and that was why the majority of them got such poor grades. Vincent, now, he had to work hard for his poor grades. Not that they were poor. They were quite adequate for the kind of work he was going to go into. Yes, he excelled at teaching scum lessons. Vincent gawped for a small while, unable to believe that she had the gall to just enter the compartment like this. It wasn't as though he hadn't already had his fill of being bothered. But he couldn't think of anything sufficiently clever to say. He knew one thing, though. They weren't getting off as easily as she evidently thought they could, making for the door like that. Not now that two of them had presumed they could enter his private space.

He sniggered at her comment. It was pathetic. It didn't occur to him that it was also about the only thing she could have said without being stupid enough to escalate the conflict that already existed. But now he had something to say, much better than his previous lack of words.
"I'll help you do that, then." he said, a sneer evident in his tone of voice, at least if you knew what that kind of thing sounded like in Vincent's soft spoken but menacing tones. And he raised his wand, using a blast of cold air to force her out of the compartment. Unfortunately, he forgot to open the compartment door first, so she had a rather more unpleasant experience than even he had intended. Nudging her out of the way with his foot, he forced open the now jammed compartment door, and tried again, this time successfully propelling her into the corridor. He did the same with the other girl, and the trunks that had been left behind when he smashed the older Hufflepuff into the compartment door. They all ended up in a heap on the corridor, and he slammed the compartment door shut again, chuckling. He'd used magic to do it - now, that would surprise some of his critics. Let that show them that he did have the necessary brains, after all. He tucked into his supplies ravenously.

((That's it from Vince.))

[Sophia Hallington H7]

Sophia watched as Crabbe sat there. Sheb was surprised that he wasn't actually doing anything anymore. She started to relax a bit more as he wasn't doing much-just eating. it didn't look as if he needed to eat though-he was big enough as it was. All part of the image, she suspected-big, scary, powerful, especially as he didn't seem to have the brains-it was all compensating for that. She was thinking about moving away, but she feared that he would hurt her if she dared to move. If only she was more assertive and could stand up for herself more. But no, she just had to be a complete wimp, didn't she. The perfect target for the typical bully. She wondered why he hadn't bothered to do any more damage. All he'd done was rummage in her sack, throw her slippers and bear out of the window and tell her that it wasn't her compartment. Yet she was still crying.

As she attempted to stop herself crying, by drying her eyes and telling hersef she was just being stupid, the door slid open once again. This time a friendly looking girl was standing there...a Hufflepuff she vaguely recognised despite her blurred vision from the common room. Clearing her eyes, her vision became more focussed and she noticed that it was Ivy Tunstall...a girl she'd heard quite a bit about, but she'd never talked too-she already seemed to have quite an extensive network of friends, from what she'd seen in school. Overall she seemed like quite a friendly girl overall Ivy walked over to her, dragging her trunk behind her, and handed over her teddy which had recently been thrown out of the window. She inspected the damage done outside, and was pleased to find that the only problem that it was covered in soot, and that it was still in tact.

"Th-thanks, I-Ivy" stammered Sophia, among the occasional sobs. She was then handed an owl's cage, presumably Ivy's, as the older girl picked hers up from the floor and handed that to her aswell. She took both of the cases, with Sophia watching carefully. She eventually stood up, cage in each hand, to see that Crabbe was blocking their way out, not surprisingly. Sophia slumped back down onto the seat, as Ivy attempted to ask him to let them out. She wondrered if he would actually let them out, and if so, where Ivy would lead her. Most likely somewhere where her friends were. At least she would be safe, even if she did feel as if she was about three years old again. Three years old...young and care free. She didn't even know witches existed at the time, and she hadn't shown any qualities at that age. But she was 14 now, and still felt immature. She sat, waiting for Crabbe to do something, whatever it was.

Then, not surprisingly, he chucked Ivy out of the compartment, leaving the trunks inside it, and as she stood up, he did the same to her.Rubbing her leg where it hurt having banged it on the floor, and attempting to stand up, she turned to Ivy again. "So...what do we do now then? How will we get our trunks back?" She atammered, once again scared about what to do.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy had known she was in trouble before she'd even entered the compartment, but even having known that, it wasn't pleasant knowing that your comeuppance was imminent. She stared upwards at Crabbe's face, thinking that it seemed an awful long way up. She must just need to grow a bit more. It appeared to take him a while to complete his computations; she didn't have much choice but to stand there and give him a chance to finish them. Finding his offer of help rather ominous after his previous behaviour, she stood in indecision for a moment. She would rather like to call his bluff and hand him a trunk to help with, but on the other hand, she didn't much want to see her personal possessions go the same way as Sophia's teddy bear, and her courage wasn't without bounds. That would be too far.

When his idea of retribution did come soon after, it was somewhat worse than she'd been braced for. Compartment doors were more solid than they looked, and the strength of Crabbe's spell was also painfully solid. She didn't get up, knocked almost senseless for a moment, and thus suffered the indignity of being pushed out of the way with his huge foot in silence. She was rewarded by finding herself launched into the corridor, out of further harm's way (apart from the trunk which fell on top of her shortly afterwards). Ouch. This being helpful and standing up for other people thing hurt quite a lot, even more than standing up for yourself. Ah well. The Hufflepuff beside her was stirring and appeared to be all right - okay enough to ask a nonsensical question with a quaver in her voice. Perhaps a bit confused.

Ivy groaned as she sat up, shoving the trunk off her legs. It had hurt less just lying there, but it didn't do to lie in the corridor of a train. Generally everything seemed all right, in working order, which was pleasing, she noted, feeling suddenly cheerful. She'd banged her head against the compartment door though, and she could feel an angry bump swelling there. She wondered whether she was turning black and blue, and opened up the trunk. It was hers, and she took out her bottle of water gratefully. Once she'd drunk a bit, she pointed her wand at it, swished her wand around a little in easy movements, and said "Gelo". An icy blue coloured substance gushed out of her wand, freezing the water inside her bottle as soon as it touched it. She used 'Finite Incantem' to turn off the gush of Instant-Freeze, as she liked to think of it, and held the bottle up to her forehead, which ceased its throbbing to a satisfactory extent.

"It's okay, we've got our trunks right here," she said, pointing to the one she'd pushed off her legs and finding the other one had landed on her other side. "Have you still got the cages?" she asked, looking around for Gilbert anxiously. She was very fond of the small owl. She sat back reassured as she saw him, nursing her forehead. "Oh, okay. Yup. All good then. Not the greatest gentleman I've come across... but I guess at least we didn't share the same fate as your teddy bear. It is your teddy bear, I presume?" She waited for a moment, looking a bit exhausted after their short ordeal. Then she continued on, barely aware of if she'd had an answer. "Um... I don't know your name. You seem to know mine, I should know yours, but I don't. What is it? And we should probably go somewhere else," she said reluctantly, standing up with an effort. "I've lost my friend, so your choice... left or right?" She peered each way along the train as she handed the other girl's trunk back to her.

[Sophia Hallington H7]

A while after Sophia felt the pain in her leg, she felt a headache coming along too. She'd probably banged that too, but she'd heard that pain was always much stronger where the worst injury was-in her case, her leg-but as that wore off her head throbbed even more, and she couldn't help but raise her hand to the back of her head, which she suspected had banged against the door of nthe opposite compartment, to see if there were any signs. She felt a slight bump, and her hair was very out of place, but that was all. She was starting to feel dizzy too now, so she decided not to move. At least her leg was starting to feel better now, so if she wanted she could walk...that is, if she wasn't dizzy. At least she had the owls with her, and they hadn't been left in the compartment.

"Ah, great. I thought they might have been left inside the compartment, for Crabbe to do whatever with them. Not that there'd be that much in there, except books and clothes and stuff. But at least you have them. And yeah, I still have the cages." The head injury must have been worse than she expected, to make her so confused that she thought the trunks had been left with Crabbe, but a sense of relief came, knowing that they were safe. As she'd said, it was mostly clothes and books in hers-she didn't know about Ivy's-but still, she wouldn't want to lost anything because of some big oaf of a bully. Thank God he was leaving after this journey, and that she probably wouldn't see him again. She just hoped he didn't have any younger siblings to taKe hisn place.

"Oh, yeah, that is my teddy. Of some sentimental value too...it was a present from my grandma when I was born, and I've taken it with me everywhere I've had to stay the night, for as long as I can remember. Thank you so much for rescuing it." She could feel tears returning to her eyes then, with the thoughts of her grandparents. She didn't get to know them that well-her grandmother had died when she was five, and her grandad a year later. Her mothers parents were both still alive, but they lived in France, so she only saw them in the holidays. She was looking forward to seeing them and her cousins in a couple of weeks time.

"Umm, I'm Sophia...Sophia Hallington. And yeah, I dunno how I know your name...I guess I just see you around with your friends quite a lot. And don't worry about not knowing mine. I'm not surprised you didn't know it." Sophia didn't have many friends, so she often spent her free time alone, in silence, so not many people knew her name. Well, people she shared classes with did, but as Ivy was in OWL classes now, they didn't share any classes, so she wasn't at all surprised she didn't know her name. Sophia tended just to sit in a corner and read, or do homework, rather than go and talk to other people and make new friends, although she did like having someone to talk to. She was just too shy to be social.

"Yeah, we should move on somewhere else. Let's try right first, seeing as you came from the left and if any of your friends were there you probably would have seen them. But anyway, we should move." She was still slightly dizzy, and she wasn't completely balanced when she stood up, but she still managed to walk on through the train, following Ivy, looking for her friends. She was looking forward to meeting them, and getting away from Crabbe, hopefully forever. She wouldn't want to face him again for the rest of her life. She wanted the rest of the journey to be peaceful, without any trouble. Well, there was another 4 hours or so to endure.