To most people, a huge crowd of people in a train station would mean an irritating wait to get on the said train. For Alphonse however, the usual crowd that formed on the foot of the Hogwarts Express signaled the start of his fifth year at school with his schoolmates he had already come to consider as friends. Even the sight of the Slytherins made his stomach lurch with excitement, for it also meant the continuing quiditch rivalry.

He caught sight of Laurene Malfoy, the Slytherin seeker who was also in his year and daughter of the Minister of Magic. The Malfoys had been in the ministry, weather as minister or as some high official, for as long as anyone could remember. She gave him a sneer as he past by. Before he could reply, he felt as though he was to fall back with excitement as Kairi went past him, giving him a soft "hi!" Her luscious, gold hair swirled as she walked towards the train's doorway. She had her small, blue backpack on as she did since they were first years. She playfully rolled around her hands, bending the water around it.

Just as he felt he were to drop Prissine's cage as his stomach continued to do back flips, Jeff went over to him, suddenly holding his shoulder. Alphonse felt surprise, then felt his train of thought coming back; however, he felt a bit of regret as the image of Kairi drifted from his consciousness.

"Hey Al," said Jeff loudly as though he knew that if he didn't say it loudly enough, Alphonse would drift off again.

Oh, hey!" replied Alphonse, trying to hide the regret in his voice. In spite of this, Jeff still seemed to sense it.

"Well, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news," said Jeff playfully with huge hints of sarcasm, trying to sound like a priest at a funeral, "but I've heard that Kairi's been assigned as a Gryffindor prefect, so I'm afraid you're gonna have to hold off you're urge to snog and make due with me instead."

"Stop being so childish," he replied as if it were from his mother. They both laughed. They knew it was childish, but it was fun to start the year like that.

They both walked into the train and looked for friends to join in the compartments. They past by many Slytherin compartments, making faces at both Jeff and Alphonse, occasionally giving them sneers and curses.

As they neared the end of the first part of the train, they caught sight of the dark hair of one of their friends, Katrina, on the mirror of the inside of her compartment. When they went closer to her compartment, Alphonse drew the door open and saw his cousin, Timothy, sitting beside her, looking as though he had just missed on something important as Jeff and Alphonse walked into the two-seater compartment. He had silvery black hair which acted as a cage to his forehead, his eyebrows sitting at the bottom tip. His eyes had a shade of violet which matched Katrina's black ones with a slight shade of emerald, twinkling as she gave her incoming friends a warm, welcoming smile.

Alphonse was sure they were holding hands and were talking unusually close to each other, but just broke off and gained distance when he started to open the compartment door. Apparently, Jeff noticed the same thing as he noticed a huge grin formed in his face.

"Hi guys!" said Jeff, making no effort to hide his grin. Alphonse had to hold the side of the seat to stop himself from rolling with laughter from Jeff's voice accent.

"Hi Jeff and dear cousin," forced Timothy to them in a kind of dead, you-couldn't-have-come-at-a-worse-time tone. He forced a huge grin, making Alphonse stager once again with laughter.

"Hello!" said Katrina in her usual, cheery voice, but even that couldn't hide a streak of the tone not unlike Timothy's.

"So… what have you two been doing?" asked Jeff, his grin getting larger. "Having fun?"

"So, err… I missed you during the summer, Katrina. How was it?" Alphonse cried quickly, changing the subject seeing as Timothy was going through his robe for his wand with an I'll-just-show-you-now look. Even though Jeff had his hand inconspicuously in his pocket, which he knew meant he had his hand on his wand in case Timothy would shoot a spell, he didn't want trouble.

"Oh, it was okay," she replied, giving Alphonse a grateful look as she held Timothy's shoulder down.

"So guys," Timothy interjected, cooling off and gave them a genuine grin, "what made you come here?"

"Well, we've been looking for friends to join in, and we were about to ask you if you've seen anyone who would still have space in their compartment," replied Alphonse.

"We know what you mean," said Timothy, "the Slytherins got to you two?"

"Yeah, I hate those bastards," Jeff popped, finally letting his grin go.

"Hey, I think J.M. was looking for them a while ago, right Tim," said Katrina

"Yeah, he said to tell you if we'd see you two that he'd save a spot for you two on one of the middle compartments in the second part of the train."

"Hey Al, we have to hurry there! I haven't had much contact with J.M. last summer aside from the one in the Leaky Cauldron," said Jeff.

"Yeah, I haven't had any contact at all!" replied Alphonse. "Let's go! Thanks you guys."

"Yeah, we'll get going now! Thanks," repeated Jeff.

Katrina and Timothy bid them goodbye as Alphonse and Jeff made their way to the second part of the train. As Alphonse closed the compartment door, he noticed that their hands got closer to each other once more; he didn't linger on the thought, however, as they neared the door that separated the first part of the train from the second, he got excited about finally going hear news about another friend he had missed over the summer.