Platform 9 3/4 and Train

...

"Sheesh, I thought they'd never let go so we could get on the train!" Exclaimed Ash, glancing up at her friends who had gone through the brick divider before her and rubbing her neck gingerly. "I don't think I've ever been strangled by a hug before."

Amy stared blankly back at where the wall had been. "There was a wall over there. A wall." She repeated herself. "Right there. It was a wall. I saw it. Except now I'm here, and the wall's still over there. And I'm not in serious pain. Even though somebody," she glared at Ash, "pushed me right through said wall. Is it normal for there to be walls that don't work? Because generally the point of walls is to not let anyone through."

"Not this wall," Avery said, clearly looking amused by her friend's speech. "The point of this wall is so that muggles don't wander onto the platform and then get extremely confused."

Amy was still babbling about the wall, despite Avery's speech, and finally Ash just tapped the back of Amy's head with slightly more force than was necessary. "Would you shut up about the bloody wall?" She demanded, glaring at Amy who rubbed the back of her head and glared back. "We got here really late, so if we don't haul these suitcases onto the train soon, the train's going to leave without us, and while I've heard stories about people getting to school on flying cars after missing the train, we don't have a flying car! Plus, in a minute, all the good carriages will be full up. So let's get a move on!" She plunged into the crowd of parents and students, lugging her suitcase after her, and not bothering to wait around for her friends. She was fairly confident that they'd follow before they lost sight of her.

Avery followed Ash closely, grinning as she spared a moment to look at the train in front of her. She was very excited that she was finally heading to Hogwarts. Dragging her suitcase onto the train, she looked around only to notice that the compartments around them looked either pretty full or had students in them who looked a lot older then they were. Or both. She began pushing through the crowd with her friends, looking to see if there was any empty compartments.

"I hope we can find someplace..." She said after a few minutes. Of course it was right after she said that, that she finally saw an empty compartment. "Let's go in here."

Avery pulled the door open and stepped slipped inside, shoving her trunk up on the rack and carefully setting down Seeker's cage.

"Dibs on a window seat!" Amy announced as soon as she got into the compartment. She tried to get her luggage up on the rack while staying as far away from Seeker as possible. The train started to move just as she got the luggage up, making her squeak in surprise and fall clumsily onto a seat. "Oh. That works, I guess. Good timing."

Ash snickered at Amy's klutzyness and plopped down in her seat, pulling out a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, popping a red one in her mouth. "Wait until you see the castle, Ams, it's fantastic, Mom showed me pictures from when she went to school there. And believe me, there's a lot more "good-timing" and "lucky things" there then in the muggle world. This'll be fun!"

"You've seen pictures?" Avery asked, "My dad's told me stories but I haven't actually seen pictures of it. I'm really excited about seeing it."

She grinned and sat down on the window seat opposite Amy.

Amy shrugged. "You're both one up on me. I've only heard your stories of stories so far." Glancing over at Ash, she grinned. "Jellybeans! I can mooch, yes?"

Ash grinned and dumped a few of the beans into her hand, picking out some grey coloured beans and handing them to Amy. "Here, I think these might be cloud flavoured ones. When they say every flavour beans, they do mean it." She explained at Amy's sardonic expression. "The cloud ones are good!" Protested Ash. "Here, try 'em."

Amy glanced skeptically at Ash. "Clouds shouldn't taste like anything but water." She shrugged and popped the jellybean into her mouth anyway.

And instantly regretted it. The jellybean tasted like a dumpster smelled. Despite her better judgement, she forced herself to swallow it. "You," Amy announced, fighting the urge to gag. "Are a terrible person. Urgh."

Avery, like usual, was just watching the two of them as Ash doubled over in laugher. It was easier to just sit there when they decided to do things like trick each other, and she never could think of anything to say when they were doing it half the time.

She looked up when the compartment door slid open and a small girl with red hair tied back in a braid stuck her head nervously inside. She raised her eyebrows at Ash and Amy before turning to Avery. "Um... Do you mind if I sit in here? I had my own compartment but... it was overrun by Slytherins so I left."

"It's fine with me," Avery said, looking over at her two friends. "Don't mind them. Ash just decided to introduce Amy to Bertie Bots Beans."

"Best....joke...ever..." Choked out Ash, giggling madly. "You should have seen the look on your face!! Come on, you know I couldn't resist, you did the same thing to me with those gross Swedish Fish things you like so much." She grimaced slightly. "Even thinking about those leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. Hold on a second." she dug through the box of jelly beans and pulled out a red one, popping it in her mouth. "Mmm, red velvet cake." She sighed happily.

"Hey, no fair!" Amy snapped. "You give me the Gross-mc-Grossington one, and then take a Red Velvet Cake for yourself? And Swedish fish are delicious," she added, reaching over and picking up a promising-looking red bean. It was probably cherry, or something like that. Popping it into her mouth, Amy hastily revised her assumption. "Huh. Blood. That was unexpected." She kept chewing on the jellybean, though.

"You are one twisted bugger." commented Ash warily as she glanced at Amy suspiciously.

The girl who was still standing uncertainly in the doorway of the compartment looked from one girl to another before deciding that they were better then the Slytherins and that she didn't want to bother trying to find another compartment. She entered the compartment and took the seat next to Avery. "My name's Ivy," She said, "Who are you?"

"I'm Avery," Avery said before pointing to her two friends. "And they're Ash and Amy."

Ash got her breath back under control quickly and stuck a hand out to the new girl with a happy grin. "Ash, Asha, Ashi, whatever you like, unless I say otherwise." She introduced herself cheerfully. "And I promise not to pull any pranks on you, those are restricted to Amy here and anybody who really annoys me. Like Jake." She added, almost as an afterthought. "I'd prank him. Too bad the boys a wizard, I could do without him at Hogwarts."

Helena tugged her trunk (which was nearly as big as she was) along the corridor, in stops and starts, finally stopping outside a compartment, breathing hard. She brushed her hair out of her eyes before opening the compartment door. "Is it all right if I join you here?" she asked. "I can't move my trunk another step."
On top of the trunk was a cage with a large Great Grey Owl, who seemed to glare suspiciously at the compartment's occupants from his perch.

"That boy deserves to be pranked. On that point I certainly agree with you," Avery said before turning towards the new girl who had appeared.

Avery smiled faintly at her and nodded, "Sure, sit down.

Ivy also nodded her agreement.

"Thank you..." Gratefully, Helena found the strength to lug her trunk through the doorway and collapse in a seat. The owl clicked his beak, swiveling his head to look at them all.

Amy grinned at Ivy and the girl who had just arrived. "Hey, nice to meet you." Her smile faded, however, when she noticed the pet that the new arrival had brought with her. "Oh. Great. More birds." She huffed slightly. "Why did it have to be owls?"

Hearing that, the Great Grey ruffled his feathers and hissed irritably.
Helena frowned, reaching through the bars to sooth him. "Take it easy, Herodotus... I'm Helena Cuthbert, by the way," she said to the others.

Ash grinned and tossed a small, octagon shaped box at Amy. "Because the whole world is out to give one massive coronary. Eat that, it's a chocolate frog. Not a real one, I swear, it's not a prank. Although, the chocolate frogs do move, so if you want to eat it, you've got to bite it's head off real quick 'fore it jumps for it. They've only got one good jump, and that one usually lands them somewhere you don't want in your mouth."

Avery grinned. She loved chocolate frogs. Hopefully she'd be able to get some when the trolley went around.

"I'm Avery Armistead," She said to Helena. "And those two over there are my friends, Amy and Ash. We grew up in the same neighborhood."

"And I'm Ivy Jenkins," Ivy told her.