Leaning out the open train car window, I waved to mom in farewell as the whistle blew and the train started to pull out of noisy platform. With steam billowing out of the spout at the front of the train; I noticed a man, with dark hair and glasses; chasing after the train, with a panicked expression on his pale face waving, his glasses were sliding down the bridge of his nose. I pulled myself back into the compartment; shut the window, when the door slid open.

"Hey Lissy, guess what?" said Sarah excitedly as she lead the small group of girls into the compartment and shut the door behind Katey.

"What?" I asked with a hinted laugh.

"I got a new broom, a nimbus; though it's a used one, but it should work." She said with a smile as she reached for the trunk above my head, shoving her body against mine in an uncomfortable sort of way. This was good news for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, as Sarah's old broom had caused a lot of trouble last year and her old broom, a Cleansweep, hadn't made her any better. It bucked every time she sped up to fast, which as a result, threw her off and landing either on stone or grass, and with something broken. Madam Pomphery is; as always, an excellent nurse. She always fixes Sarah in no time and she always climbs back on her old Cleansweep to practice. Sarah is one of the three chasers on the team.

As Sarah dug through her trunk for the package, the door slid open again. This time it was Allie, her colorfully sleeved arms burdened with what looked like chocolate frogs.

"Hello there everyone, I brought one for each of you." She said as she started to toss them at the rest of us, and when she only had enough left for herself, she took the seat across from me. I took mine and started to nibble on the head. Now there were seven girls, of all different houses, in a compartment only meant to hold five.

"Uh…guys, I think we need a little more room in here" as I said this; I shoved Marissa, who shoved into Katey; who in turn, knocked Danielle out of her seat, she hit the floor with a loud thud.

"Owwwwww" Danielle complained as she tried to untangle herself from her mess of robes.

"Sorry, Marissa pushed me." Said Katey with a sincere look on her face. She offered her hand to help her up and Danielle accepted.

"Well Lissy pushed me first." Marissa pouted as she said this and then glared at me.

"It's not my fault this space is too small for all of us." I said biting the head off of another one of the chocolate frogs, "I mean not everyone could have come in here for the looooooong train ride to Hogwarts. Get your own compartment if you want more space." Snuggling into the seat and ignoring all the noise everyone was making, I turned to stare blankly out at the many trees and lakes fly by as the train made its way to Hogsmeade Station.

A few hours, and a lot of chocolate, later; everyone decided to finally change into their school robes. Sarah, with her scarlet and gold ties and scarfs, had hers strewn all over the compartment, she now occupied one of the seats closest to the window, staring at the gloomy gray sky lost in thought.

"Sarah, could you at least TRY to be neat?" I scoff as I toss a scarlet tie into her face.

"Oh come on Lissy," she smiles and picks off the dust bunny that had collected on her tie, "don't be so bossy."

Throughout the trip, most of the girls had cleared out of the compartment. They had cleared out to find their trunks and change into their uniforms as we got closer to Hogsmeade station. The only ones left in the compartment were Sam, Sarah, Marissa and Katey and me.

Tagged with Sarah and Katey, Sam could be quite a handful. Always pulling pranks or messing something up, it's hard to believe that between Peeves and them how they keep up with all the other hooligans in the school. Despite the fact that they almost always get caught by the ever aging Filch, they still continue to create panic among the student body. Mrs. Norris had died of old age in our second year and Filch had locked himself into his office for a whole week. Till the head master busted into his office, we had all thought he had died of grief. Filch was the only "security" the school had and, if I might say; he got even worse after Mrs. Norris died. (If that is even possible) Personally I think that the previous headmasters kept him a part of the staff because he felt like he belonged here, though I'm not sure how much longer that hospitality will last.

Last year, Sam had the "brilliant" idea of testing one of her inventive spells on one of the first years. The first year's name was Rina Hayworth, and she obviously didn't know what she was getting into. Poor Rina came screaming down the stairs and into the common room and knocked several people off their feet, and ran out the hole in the wall. Not thirty seconds later Sam comes running from the same direction screaming after her "TAKE THIS! HURRY! BEFORE IT FESTERS!" then she herself tore through the hole in the wall. The common room was quiet after that. Katey and I were working on our Astronomy homework at the time and we just looked at each other in astonishment. Then went back to our homework and only hours later did Sam crash into her bed and fell asleep almost immediately. We never asked her what happened between the times of when she was racing through the hole to crashing on to her bed, but we assumed it wasn't too bad considering it never came up again.

"See how I've kept mine all neat and not in everyone else's stuff," Sam said as she pulled one of Sarah's Gryffindor robes out of her trunk, "how did you even get that in there anyway? My trunks been locked."

"I don't know but I found your hat Sarah," Katey handed her a squashed student hat that looked like it had been shoved in between two texts books. Sarah punched the hat out and decided to shove it on her head in a "cool" manner, which to her meant way to the side and her making a shrewd up face making us laugh.

"Why are you still here? Why don't you go join your other housemates in the Gryffindor compartments?" I asked without looking at Sarah, fiddling with a loose string on my skirt.

"Yes why aren't you there? Sarah." Sam mocked me in a teasing manner. Sarah huffed and turned away, "Because I like hanging with you guys, is that a problem?" she smirked.

"That may be, but the prefects are about to do a head count of their house students so you had better head to your department same with you Marissa." I glanced up to notice that Marissa had curled up in the corner and had fallen asleep. Apparently she had been like that for a while because her hair bundled into a rats nest on the side of her head that had rested against the scratchy material that covered half the wall on the far side of the compartment. Sarah got up and shook Marissa roughly.

"Get up dork, time to go back to the pit of despair." Marissa groaned and glared at Sarah with a stare that crackled with electricity. She got up, strawberry blonde hair bunched and standing on end with Sarah at waking her. She stomped out of the compartment and slammed the door behind her shut. I sighed and picked up my trunk to put back on the racks above. Sam intervened when she saw that I was struggling with the heavy trunk. I thanked her and then we lifted hers and Katey's on the opposite racks. We sat down in silence, for the first time since any of us boarded the train, and looked at each other.

"So…" Katey said looking awkwardly between Sam and me. I scooted closer to the window to look out a rain spotted window to see a slowly darkening sky as the sun set behind the clouds. I looked farther down the outside of the train and I saw a speck of light that was slowly getting brighter.

"We're almost to Hogsmeade; we'd better get our stuff together." I turned to dig through the bag that I had already slung over my shoulder. I pulled out my wand, and taped my head. My hair turned a bright blue before it settled for dark purple highlights.

"Much better." I say as I tuck my wand away back in my bag and fluff my medium length hair.

"Back to the crazy hair again, honestly why don't you just keep your hair one color? That's the third year in a row that you have done that same style but in different lengths." Sam protested as she collected the scattered papers that littered the seat beside her and shoved them into her shoulder bag.

"Because I like it, and it's too expensive to go to a salon every other month to get it redone. Besides why do you always pick on my hair? There are a million things you could go for and you always go for the hair." Sam looked at me and thought about what I said.

"Maybe because she thinks that your hair looks prettier one color?" Katey asked while looking at Sam. Sam turned away, not looking at Katey while I glared at her.

"Oh don't give me that look Lissy." Katey laughed while I turned out the window to see the lights became clearer as the train pulled into the station. It really bright and I could feel the train start to slow just as the train whistle blew signaling our arrival.

"Please remain seated till the train comes to a complete stop." The conductor came over the speaker to tell the whole train. Despite the fact that this train takes witches and wizards to and from the muggle world about 4 or 5 times a year, it still runs like a normal train. Nothing magical about it.

With Katey still glaring at me, the train pulled into the depot and with a giant steam hiss came to a complete stop.