[Private] Meanwhile, at Hogwarts... (Buffy and Julie)

[Carl]

Ciel Huxtable stood hesitantly near his cart as his parents approached the barrier between tracks 9 and 10. He'd been told about this hidden platform, but he'd never been here before himself. He was nervous about it; he'd been a part of the wizarding world his entire life, and he had seen and done many things Muggle children would be shocked and amazed by, but he'd never walked through a solid barrier before. Going to Diagon Alley several weeks ago with his grandparents to buy his school things hadn't been out of the ordinary, he and his parents had been there rather often during his childhood. It had been exciting, though. He was finally getting his school robes, he was finally getting a wand, he was finally almost going to learn to do magic himself! But now, here he stood, it was about to happen. He was outside the platform, and he was about to leave his parents for quite a long time. Not to mention, he'd heard the rumors just like everyone else had, this year, the boy who lived was coming to Hogwarts. He might be meeting Harry Potter, to top it all off! What if they were placed in the same house, even! His nerves were killing him, and the boy wasn't sure if he could do it.

"Come on Ciel, we want to make sure you get a good seat on the train," his mother said, smiling at her boy.

He took a few steps nervously towards the barrier. "I don't know if I can do it, mom," he mumbled as he got closer.

"Of course you can son. We'll be right behind you," his father said. Ciel nervously kicked at the ground for a moment before he responded.

"Could you go first, Dad?" he asked finally. His father chuckled and nodded.

"Of course I can," he said. With that, he smiled, first at his son, then to his wife, and walked through the barrier. Gulping, Ciel managed a weak smile to his mother before he ran through, pushing his cart ahead of him. As he burst onto the platform, he looked around in wonder. His parents had insisted they come a bit early, but there were already starting to be a good number of people here. There were owls and cats in the midst of the people, and there were even some wide-eyed adults. He figured they must be Muggles whose kids were going to Hogwarts this year. His father stood before him, and a moment later, his mother was right behind him.

"Right then," she said, "Time tofind you a compartment. We'll be over here if you need anything, dear." She hugged her son and then stepped off to the side with her husband, out of the way of the entrance to the platform. Ciel sighed. It was time. He made his way over to the Hogwarts Express and soon had found an empty compartment. He started trying to get his trunk into the compartment, and, with some difficulty, succeeded after a few moments. The boy then opened a window and waved to his parents. He'd done it. He was on the train. There was no going back.

While he sat there in suspense, another boy began loading his own trunk into the compartment with him. Ciel stood and helped him out, the two hefting the trunk up the steps and putting it in a corner not occupied by Ciel's trunk. The other boy had reddish brown hair and was of a more lean build than Ciel.

"Thanks," he said, smiling at Ciel, "My name's Henry. Henry Strange." He extended a hand for Ciel to shake. The bright-haired boy took it for a quick shake.

"Ciel Huxtable," he replied, introducing himself in turn. With that, the boys took seats next to one another and began to wait for the train to leave the station.

[Buffy]

Aurelia Reid arrived at the King's Cross train station with her parents and younger brother. It was a beautiful September morning and the air was cool. Aurelia hurried towards platform 9. She had gone through all the details with her father, who had been here on numerous occasions as a child, and he had told her exactly where to go.
While she had grown up with a bit of magic, her mother, being a Muggle, had wanted to live in a 'normal' area, and therefore the use of magic was limited. However, as soon as Aurelia had received her acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she had wanted to experiment more and more with magic and had therefore done that whenever there was an opportunity.

Her parents and brother caught up with her about a minute later. She had not yet crossed the barrier as she was slightly nervous about it. Who wouldn't be? The idea of walking through solid brick wall sounded mad. And yet that was one of the requirements to get to Hogwarts. She turned around to see her family approaching. They had gone to get a trolley for her trunk and cage, which held her pet cat whom she had named Cabbage. Well, technically she hadn't named him. She had made the dumb decision of allowing her younger brother Andy to name him, thinking he'd go for the obvious name like "Kitty" or "Toby" or even "Scratchy", but no, he had chosen Cabbage. At the moment Cabbage looked uneasy. He wasn't used to cages or noisy train stations.

"You ready?" Her father asked her, which snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked at him a little confused before she remembered why they were all here.

"Err... Yes. I think so." She replied, still feeling uneasy about walking through a brick wall.

"Hey, don't worry! Trust me, you'll be fine." He said, which reassured her a little bit. She figured she couldn't put it off any longer anyway, the train left at exactly 11 o'clock AM, and it was now 10:52. She took a leap of faith and walked quickly to the wall. In the moment before she hit it she thought she would get a concussion for sure, but instead she walked through it with ease. She came to the other side and looked around. She instantly caught side of the big train and couldn't believe she was finally here. Ever since she had gotten her letter she'd been counting down the days, but now that the day was here it was practically unbelievable! She was pushed forward by her brother Andy, who having been nervous, had run through the barrier instead. He would've definitely regretted that move had the barrier not worked.

"Andy, geez! Watch your step!" Aurelia said, pulling him a bit to the side, remembering her parents were coming in with a trolley. When they came through they walked her up to the train and handed the trunk and cage to her. They had a short and sweet goodbye before Aurelia boarded the train and began walking down the aisles. It was quite crowded, she figured she should have arrived earlier. But then again it wasn't all her fault. Getting Cabbage into his cage took a whole 5 minutes.

She kept walking until she found a compartment with only two boys in it. She silently hoped they weren't allergic to cats, although seeing as everyone here was a witch or wizard, she was sure that a cure for cat allergies had already been invented. She placed Cabbage's cage on the seat which allowed her to use both hands to get her trunk into the compartment. She then took a seat across from the two boys and finally began to relax.

"Hello! My name's Aurelia Reid. I hope you don't mind cats. What are your names?" She tried to come off as friendly, but realized that once again she may have just come across as weird. She didn't really mind. She was at last on her way to Hogwarts. A new chapter of her life had just begun.

[Carl]

"I'm Henry Strange, and this is Ciel Huxtable," the more talkative of the two boys said, noticing his new friend's slight unease. "He's rather nervous, I think, so he's not saying much. I don't mind your cat at all. My family has a cat, and while I don't really like them, I don't have a problem with them." Henry was a rather confident person, and as a pure-blood, he figured most people would give him a chance before shunning him. Not that he had a problem with Muggle-borns, himself, but he knew that many pure-bloods looked down on them from the company his family kept. Though, he didn't have really have anything against those people either. To anyone looking at him, he seemed the epitome of a bright, cheery boy.

"I wanted a cat, but my grandparents wouldn't pay for a pet for me," Ciel told the new girl.

"Your grandparents?" Henry interjected, "Why didn't your parents get you one?"

"Well, my parents and I don't have much money, so my grandparents offered to buy my school things," the other boy mumbled. Quite the opposite of Henry, Ciel was still extremely anxious, and all the commotion was a bit much for him. He wasn't really used to going anywhere without his parents, and though his two companions in the train car seemed like nice people, he couldn't help being nervous. He'd almost rather the two talk only to each other and leave him be, but he knew if they did, that would make this all the more nerve wracking. He knew he would get used to it with time, anyway. At least, he hoped he would.

"Oh. Well, at least you've got someone to get your supplies. I've heard some families use the same books year after year for their younger children, and sometimes the same robes, too," Henry said, turning back to the girl, "What's your cat's name? Is he friendly?"

Ciel was saddened at the thought of those families, and more so, at the thought of what would have been the case for him if his grandparents weren't so well off. He was an only child, so he wouldn't have had that option. He sighed inwardly. 'You're withdrawing into yourself, again, Ciel, smile, be friendly,' he told himself. With that he tried to smile and turned back to the conversation the other two were having.

[Buffy]

"Very nice to meet you two." Aurelia replied with a bright smile. She listened intently to what Henry was saying and was beyond relieved to find out he didn't mind cats. Aurelia's facial expression softened when Ciel spoke up. She always knew that she was lucky to have parents with good jobs, but when you live in a world where you haven't met many, for lack of a better word, poor people, it's hard to believe someone could have little money. She listened in on the conversation, noticing the different personalities the two boys had. Ciel was very quiet, whereas Henry was considerably more talkative.

She had never heard of families re-using their school supplies, but she definitely felt for them. She hoped that her family's money situation would stay good so that when Andy went to Hogwarts he wouldn't have to use her stuff. Then again, he'd probably refuse to use them because they have 'girl germs' on them or something. Silly boy! Who knows, maybe he'll mature a bit more in the next 2 years.

Aurelia noticed Henry turning back towards her and when he asked about Cabbage, well, she didn't know what to say. Was it too late to re-name him? Honestly, who names their cat Cabbage? Well, apparently Andy did. She blushed lightly, normally she tried to avoid sharing his name, but since he asked...

"His name is Cabbage. And yes, he's very friendly. A big baby, really. He just doesn't like cages, so he was a bit grumpy today. But really, he's very nice. Would you mind if I let him out? He seems kind of anxious at the moment." She said, noticing how Cabbage was fidgeting inside his cage.

[Carl]

"Not at all," Henry said gesturing towards the cage, "I wouldn't want to be cooped up in one all the way to the school myself."

"Yeah, go ahead and let him out," Ciel agreed.

"That's an odd name, Cabbage, but as good as any I suppose," Henry remarked. By now the train had began pulling away from the station, and the boy's mind went to other things. "How long do you think it takes to get to Hogwarts? I never asked my parents."

"I dunno, I never asked my parents either," Ciel admitted.

"I was always more interested in hearing about the different Houses and the things at the school, so I didn't even think to ask," Henry said. Now that they were talking about it, it occurred to both of the boys that they weren't even sure what part of the country the school was in. They had both heard that the train ride was long, but other than that, they had no ideas. Ciel remembered his father exaggerating, "I swear, the ride on the Hogwarts Express was longer than the whole term!" Of course, he knew that wasn't possible, after all, it was a normal length year of schooling.

As he was beginning to feel a bit more at ease around these two, Ciel turned to Aurelia, "Do you have any idea how long we'll be on the train?"

[Buffy]

[OOC: Sorry! Had planned to reply yesterday but my bestie and I had an unexpected impromptu sleepover.]

"Thanks." Aurelia replied to the boys. She hated having Cabbage locked up, especially since he had never been locked up before. She opened the cage and immediately Cabbage ran out. He really did hate being in there. As soon as he discovered his freedom he immediately began to relax and simply lay down. He looked at the two strangers curiously, but didn't seem to mind them at all. Aurelia was sure he would end up falling asleep after being so stressed all day. She smiled at Henry's comment about Cabbage's name. Sure, it wasn't the worst name in the entire world, it was just a bit strange. She could live with strange. She had for the past 3 years.

She pat Cabbage lovingly to calm him down while the boys pondered on how long the ride would be. Cabbage instantly began purring and that's when Aurelia knew he'd be okay. She had been a bit worried about him, but he seemed to adapt very well to his surroundings. She looked out the window as the train began to pick up speed. This was it. She was going to Hogwarts. No turning back now.

She looked to Ciel as he addressed her and felt slightly hopeless when she heard his question. She hadn't thought to ask her parents either. "No, I have no idea. Like you two, I never thought to ask... Perhaps there's someone on the train that we could ask." Aurelia suggested, although she wasn't crazy about the idea of leaving the compartment just yet. Everyone would still be quite hyped up at this point.

[Carl]

"If someone happens into our compartment, we'll ask. Chances are there aren't many people who know, so it would probably be a waste of time to go asking around. Besides, most everyone's probably too focused on finding out if Harry Potter's really starting this year; they're likely looking through compartments trying to find him, hoping the ride is long enough for them to succeed," Henry said dismissively. There was really no need to find out how long it would be. He continued, "It's not all that important to know when we'll arrive anyway, is it? I mean, this train only has the one stop, and we have to wait for it to get there either way."

"I had almost forgotten about the rumours about Harry Potter," Ciel said distantly as he watched Cabbage absently. Though it had been one of the things he'd been nervous about before boarding the train, he'd become so wrapped up in talking to his new companions that he'd barely even thought about it. He wondered what the boy who lived was like. Was he friendly? Did he remember You-know-who's attack? Did he miss his parents? If they ever met, Ciel hoped to get the answers to these questions.

Henry was wondering about Mister Harry Potter as well. Some of the people his mother's family associated with didn't seem to think this Harry Potter should have lived; well, by all rights the boy should have died that night, but in this case, the people saying so seemed to think his survival could be a bad thing. Henry was only a boy, so he didn't understand it all that much, but he didn't see how the boy's death could have been a good thing. At that thought, he reminded himself that no one really knew this Harry Potter, so it would be hard to say much about him at all. Not that he was particularly concerned with such matters. After all, Harry Potter was just a boy like every other on this train, except he'd gotten famous for being lucky. The fuss over him would die down when everyone figured that out.