a whole new world

Paloma grinned when she got to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross. The last time she was there was four years before, seeing her sister off. She still remembered wanting to go so badly, and then the year after that, her father was transferred to Germany and she started her first year at Durmstrang instead.

"Pallie," her little brother Robert called, "Do you need help with your trunk? Can I go with you?"

She smiled at him, "Nah, it's okay Rob. I got it. And you'll go to Durmstrang next year, don't worry!" She laughed seeing his frustrated expression and turned to her parents, "So. . . this is it. Hogwarts. I better be getting in the train, so. . . yeah." She gave both of them a hug, "I'll owl you later, alright?"

Her father put a hand on her back, "Alright, honey. Don't have too much fun!"

"Goodbye, sweetie. Have a good year," her mother said, "And remember to study and be the best. I swear, Lola, if you get one more grade like the one you got in your Care of Magical Creatures exam. . ."

"It was once!" she protested, "And everyone went badly!"

"I'm not everyone's mother!" her mom exclaimed, "I thought we'd already had this talk, once or not, I don't want that grade again, understand me?"

She nodded, resisting the urge to roll her eyes, "Alright mom, it won't happen. But I have to go now, okay?" She gave them one last hug and got on the train. She walked around, looking for an empty compartment. There weren't too many students there yet, so it wasn't hard to find one. She walked in and sat down, looking outside the window and watching her family leave.

Hogwarts. No one knew how much Paloma had wanted this. She couldn't believe she was going, she couldn't believe she would be in the same school her sister had been, she couldn't believe she had actually gotten accepted to the student exchange program. She wondered if it was as magical as her sister made it seem.

Riley flounced aboard the train, a bouncy little Emma trailing behind her. Riley was convinced the little girl was to be a Hufflepuff; she was friendly, so Riley felt no need to worry. She'd already been gathered up by a group of other bouncy little girls.

Riley waved at Caleb and her parents, smiling once last dimpled smile at them before disappearing, her trunk in tow. She couldn't find a compartment anywhere, no matter how hard she looked. Instead, she found a nearly empty one containing one girl, unfamiliar, but somewhat close to her age. She knocked quietly. "Is it alright if I sit here?" Riley said through the glass.

Vincent was strolling calmly down the trains corridors when he couldn't find an empty compartment he decided to talk to a student in the same situation. "Hey, can't you find a compartment either? Vincent by the way Vincent Furtell" he grabbed her free hand and kissed the top of it. His usual greeting for beautiful girls.

He looked into the compartment and waved laughing This girl must feel so popular

Paloma turned her head when somebody knocked on the glass, and saw a blonde around her age. She smiled, "Of course, come on in."

She raised an eyebrow when a younger boy came in, laughing. Alright then. "Hello," she greeted him with a smile.

Lora was walking across the halls, looking for an empty seat. She grinned widely when she spotted Pal and Riley in one of the cabinets. "Riley! Pal!" She shouted and hugged both her friends. She then turned to Riley with laugh, "See? I'm coming to Hogwarts!!" She greeted the boy with a smile. "Hello!"

Evie passed the next compartment, realising that running in her human speed would not be good enough where Karma was concerned. She stopped for a millisecond and then set off again, going at a super human speed.

Karma paused also, sniffing the air, before setting off at a superhuman speed once more.

Evie'd gone this way.

She hadn't been there for more than a second.

She seemingly vanished, running after the girl. That ten second head start wouldn't get her far.

"Lora!" Paloma exclaimed when she saw her friend. She got up and hugged her, "Hey! I can't believe we both got in! How've you been?"

She looked between the girl - Lora had called her Riley - and the Slushatel, "You two know each other?" She supposed she shouldn't be surprised. Lora was friendly with everybody, she'd probably met half the wizarding community.

She frowned when a girl passed by, running. She was about to ask if everything was alright, when the girl ran off at superhuman speed, her eyes widened.

"Wow. Does that. . . happen a lot here?" she asked, as another girl stopped by, sniffed the air, and left running, probably after the first.

Riley grinned at the girl. "Thanks," she smiled, sitting down across from her. "An exchange student?" she questioned, considering the girl didn't seem to be much younger or older than her.

"Lora!" Riley exclaimed, getting up and hugging her Slushie friend. She turned to the girl in the compartment and explained, "I met Lora in Azorat a while ago." She turned back to Lora and grinned, then walked back to her seat.

Riley turned her blue eyes out on the running girl. She watched Karma run past, chasing the girl, and sighed a little. It was somewhat sad that she wasn't surprised. "I don't really know," Riley shrugged. "I haven't seen it before." In truth, she hadn't. In the back of her mind, she wondered what the running girl had done to piss Karma off.

Paloma smiled as the girl sat down and nodded, "Yes, I'm from Durmstrang."

"Oh, I see," she said, tying her hair into a messy ponytail.

"Cool!" Riley exclaimed. Thn she remembered she should probably introduce herself. "I'm Riley. Fourth year Ravenclaw," she grinned.

"Yup," Riley shrugged. She absently snapped the rubber band on her wrist, thinking it was a ponytail, muttering a few nasty curses under her breath upon discovering it wasn't.

Paloma laughed softly as the girl snapped a rubber band on her wrist, "Are you alright?"

"I'm Paloma, by the way," she introduced herself, "Fourth year Uchitel. Or ex-Uchitel, I'm not sure if we'll be sorted again or . . ."

"I know, right? Gosh, this is going to be so much fun!" Lora exclaimed happily. Of course, the only downer was that she still hadn't found Kait. But who knows? Maybe they'll find her somewhere in London. After all, she wasn't going to give up looking. Plus Dylan was there as well, so she didn't have to worry much.

"Yup, and this is the advantage of having contacts from different schools," she told with a laugh and winked at Riley.

Deciding to break the silence, she said, "I bet Hogwarts is going to be much less dark compared to Durmstrang. I mean, I don't think the Hogwarts students might like our school much, huh Pal?" She asked the Uchitel. "So how was everybody's holidays?" She questioned her friends.

"They wouldn't," Paloma said, "I mean, not that it's bad school. I like it, it's pretty cool, and it ended up being better than I thought it would be. But after going to Hogwarts for so many years. . . "

"They were good, I guess," she said, smiling, "I met a couple of new people and yeah, it was pretty fun. What about yours?"