The countryside blurred into a green line through the window as Anna sighed and flopped her head into her hand propped up on the sill.

I cannot believe I am taking a train to go to school right now. This is so English , I bet someone is going to come round with an entire tea tray and make me sing God Save The Queen.

Anna herself had no resentment towards the British folk, but her last name had caused her some stress. She wasn't exactly sure if the muggle tensions between the Irish and English were universal to the wizarding community, but so far no one had even mentioned anything to her as they helped her load her bags and she found an empty compartment not full of screeching twelve year olds.

Her focusing in and out of the remarkably gorgeous landscape in the window had made her a bit dizzy, so she closed her eyes and released a breath out her nose. Kai had said it would be a lovely ride over, not so much as beautiful as the broom rides her mother and she had taken over the Irish peninsulas when she was younger, but still lovely all the same.

Anna had to admit that the highlands were quite a sight, but the memories of her mother's freckled face twisted up in glee as Anna flew upside down on her MeeMaws old Tinderblast was what truly made her smile.

Shaking her head and taking a calming breath, she slowly opened her eyes, replaying her goodbye to Kai merely a few hours before.

"So ya heard about the houses right? They'll sort ya into one and such. Christ I hope you don't have to go up there with the first years, that'd be a sight, wouldn't it?"

"Well I am short enough; they may just mistake me for one anyway. Let's just hope my boobs manage to single me out as a non-prepubescent and save the day ya?" Anna returned with a weak smirk that didn't manage to brighten her pale face.

Kai chuckled once and returned to looking at the rest of the families rushing about the train station. Young parents came through the wall on the platform laughing at the wincing expressions of their children who hadn't had complete faith when their parents told them to run at a solid pillar of bricks.

Her grandpa took a deep breath and his jaw tightened. Anna's gaze was focused on a father who was rather excitedly securing some sort of pin to his daughter's robe before wrapping her up in a bear hug.

Two soft fingers wrapped gently around Kai's own index and forefinger. He glanced at reddened aqua eyes briefly before casting his view down and his face flushing.

"Right, just memories you know."

"Course."

They stood in silence for a bit, making small talk about the houses, the coursework and all the idiots with rats squealing in cages. ( "Why on earth would ya keep an animal as boring as that as a pet?" "EXACTLY! THANK YOU! We are literally magical beings and someone thought, yes, I must have this rat, forget about the flaming gecko over there, this rat is my spirit animal." )

Eventually the train horn interrupted another bout of silence between the two.

"Right then, I suppose you're off, my girl." Kai's mouth formed a hard smile, his eyes quite visibly trying to not loose anymore tears. "Erhm…I'm sure they'd…. well…right."

Anna took a deep breath and kept her eyes on her grandfather's face as she placed a hand up on his shoulder. To Kai's surprise, she had steeled her expression into the one that she wore when she was about to walk out onto the pitch before a Quidditch match.

"We have been dancing around each other for weeks grandpa. It's gotta end. I don't need anymore space or time to work through anything, I just need a hand to hold and my family to keep on laughing with me. Understood?"

"We've only got each other, is that what you're going on about then?"

"Just you and me, Grandpabby McKay"

Kai hadn't thought that he'd be able to smile fully ever again without his face crumbling, but leave it to little Anna to bring it back.

"Oh for fuck's sake, I thought we all agreed that Grandpabby made me sound like a hillbilly."

"Oh honey child, you most certainly are," Ann drawled out, affecting a far more deep southern accent than her normal timbre.

They both grinned and Kai snatched up Anna into his arms and twirled her once, before complaining that his knees were about to give out and that she must have been putting on weight eating all the sympathy dishes that had been feeding them for the last month.

Smacking his arm playfully, Anna flipped him the bird and quickly hugged him again.

" I love you darling. Your parents would be so proud right now. I certainly am."

Anna's eyes prickled but she simply squeezed him tighter and whispered her love and promises to write as soon as she was settled.

"Don't be sending me your love letters about all the girls or boys you fancy now, I don't wanna read that shite."

"Hush your mouth gramps, or you're getting descriptions that'd make Miley Cyrus blush!" Anna returned as she began backing away quickly to the doorway, rucksack and broom in tow.

Slapping her dark jean's back pocket for her wand, she threw a final wave and smiled her biggest grin. Kai couldn't help but laugh: his teenaged granddaughter, practically a woman, was boarding the first year compartment with her hair done in pigtails and shouting sexual innuendos at her grandpa for the entire platform to hear.

A loud bang against her door brought Anna snapping out of her memory. The door slid open with force, and slammed back shut after a dizzying amount of cool air accompanied by a flurry of dark green and silver rushed in, panting heavily.

"Holy shit, you okay?" Anna exclaimed to the feminine figure.

The girl whipped around so quickly that her braid nearly caught Anna in the face. Miss whirlwind had her knees bent slightly, and left arm raised, looking for all the world like she was anticipating a fist to the face.

In a defensive stance and she didn't even draw her wand. Odd.

"Easy there honey buns, let's not go all Kung Fu master on me." Anna said with a worried laugh, slowly extending her hands to show she too wasn't armed.

"Kung Fu? What the bloody hell are you on about?" the girl breathed out, tilting her head to the side as she stood her full height, light blonde bangs slowly floating back down in her face.

And what a lovely face it was, if Anna was being honest.

The girl was around Anna's age, but a whirlwind was truly an apt description: her wild light locks looked as though someone had blasted them with a Ventis jinx, even in the confines of her braid.

Girl probably never wore white, Anna thought, too close to her skin and hair color. Honestly, she'd look like a snow cone.

Finally Anna met her intruder's sky blue eyes and grinned,.

"Right, not American, my B. Well, you're welcome to stay in here as long as you like, as long as no troll or pixies are chasing you. I ain't fixin to deal with that shit today."

Betraying her momentary shock, the girl's jaw dropped for a mere moment but then snapped back up.

"Goodness, you're the American transfer?"

Anna nodded and held out her left hand, hoping she had assumed blondie here was a leftie correctly. "That's me! Anna McKay, really nice to meet you whirlwind."

A soft laugh graced Anna's ears as the girl took Anna's left hand and shook it.

"Christ, the rest of the prefects are in for a bit of a shock then. It's a pleasure Anna. My name's Elsa."