The time has come to start a great journey to a new place

A journey to a new place filled with new things to learn and being able to use magic all the time.

It was like a dream come true for Jayden and his sister. The two had been anticipating the day when they would finally be allowed to go to Hogwarts where they would learn to be a great witch and wizard. The only real probelm Jayden had with going was all the people that would be around him. He was used to being alone with his pets and sister and even though he'd been to plenty of places where he was surrounded by others, he wasn't exactly comfortable with all the new people that would be hurled at him on the way to Hogwarts. That wasn't enough to ruin his mood though. He was determined to make the trip a good one and when they finally reached platform nine and three quarters, Jayden felt the excitement of seeing the Hogwarts Express for the first time well inside of him.

He gazed at the red train with widened eyes as his sister joined him and they exchanged a look of excitement. Almost immediately, they were almost trampled by many parents and first through seventh years who were trying to get their children on the train as fast as possible. Stefan and Rada quickly walked their children to the train and helped them make sure they had everything they needed. Once they were on board, his sister immediately came across a friend and she decided to stay in the same compartment as her. Jayden didn't mind it much, he preceded to be alone with his pets anyways, although he highly doubted he would be alone for long. After all there were many first years from the looks of things.

After searching for a compartment for a few minutes, he managed to find an empty one and he quickly took his things and went inside. He placed his trunk on the rack above the window and he looked outside to see his parents waving at him. He gave a shy smile and waved back at them before moving away from the window and taking a seat next to his white kitten, Athena. "Are you nervous about going to a new place?" he asked the kitten, stroking her fur. "Not really. Are you?" she asked back and he nodded sheepishly. "A little. Mostly cause of the people." he said softly.

Hogwarts - the final frontier. This is the voyage of the train, the Hogwarts Express. It's mission: to transport young witches and wizards to a strange new world during a grueling, shamefully unsupervised, day-long train ride in the blazing sun, going boldly go where no students have gone before (at least since the last year). 

 

Two years ago Katarina had come here to drop off her brother to go to Hogwarts. Finally, after years of waiting, it was her turn to go to the magic school. Every summer Kendall had come home with his pockets full of gobstones and firecrackers, happily throwing around stories about flying, sneaking around after hours, and doing magic of every kind. There were no words for the kind of jealousy that Katarina felt towards him. Full of promises and dreams, he became her hero for the same reason that she hated him. But when she voiced her wishes he had just ruffled her hair and told her "Don't worry, Kitty. Your time will come." And, finally, it had. Katarina had put on her best dress had bought her and her Mother had even done her hair up for the occasion. Katarina felt like nothing less than a princess. And in her own right she was. The only female heir to the Rookwood name gave her a little bit of status. Although it wasn't nearly as much as Kendall (lucky for him, he had been born a man). She had been privately tutored so far in life and hadn't spent much time with other children her age. There were a limited few who's company she had been allowed in. But most of them had just never been close with her. Gisele Delacour thought she was perfect, despite the fact she was notably less wealthy than the rest. Cecilia Krum had always been annoying. Only Cerelia Avery had been able to become her closest friend. But Cerelia was going to a French school for magic, leaving Katarina to bear going on the train alone. 

As they arrived on the platform, Kendall squeezed her hand once comfortingly then looked away like she hadn't touched her at all. He gave his Mother one last kiss on the cheek and spoke a few brief words with their father before running off to greet his friends. Most of the Slythirins were bunked in the same section of the train cars and Kat could see the faces of Athena Goyle and Mira Anderson crammed together as they looked out the window at the children passing underneath. The two girls had been seen more or less frequently at Rookwood Manor over the years but their two years above Kat had given them significant reason to pretend she didn't exist. Katarina decided to just get on and get it over with so she said her goodbyes to her parents and headed onto the train. Walking down the hallway was torture. She kept glancing into compartments with hopes of finding a known face but everywhere was either full or contained strangers. At one point she met a kind-faced girl who introduced herself as "Georgie Wheelbarrow." but when Kat asked Georgie had told her she already had a compartment. Later on she saw Georgie sitting and laughing in a compartment with a mousy boy and brown haired girl. "Shut up, Roxanne." the mousy boy was grumbling as she passed, though he said it with a jovial tone to his voice so they could tell he didn't mean it at all. Kat almost entered to join them but stopped herself and continued. 

Eventually she got towards the end where less and less people sat. In one compartment a couple older students were already making out and Katarina realized she was staring. "Beat it, firstie." the girl threw at her when she saw Kat looking. The guy laughed, the tone of his voice casual like he put up with this all the time. "It's cool, Jamie. Let her go." and before the girl could reply Kat had already hurried down the hall a little more. Behind her she heard a young girl peek into Jamie's compartment and ask "I lost my skrewt. Have you seen it?" which was only followed by jumbled words that sounded angry coming from inside the compartment. 

Katarina pulled open the nearest compartment and was relived to find one boy, probably about her age, sitting inside it. Who cared what his blood status was at his point. "Can I sit here?" she asked hopefully, gesturing to the seat across from him. "I'm Katarina Rookwood. I promise I'm not awful or annoying." She laughed softly and smiled shyly, knowing that she needed a place to stay and there was no way she was headed back out there. 

Not long after he'd settled down in the compartment and Athena had begun to take a nap, Ritual decided to come out of being and interact with her master and Athena. The small snake had coiled herself up on his shoulder and started to talk about something that involved the kitten laying next to him, curled up at his leg. "What do you mean Ritual?" he asked the snake, though it seemed like he was talking to him. "I mean she's evil." the snake answered him and Jayden looked down at the sleeping kitten in disbelief. "I doubt she'd try to hurt you. She was probably only trying to play." he defended the kitten. Jayden never liked it when his pets fought.

"Of course you'd defend your precious cat." Ritual hissed at him. "Ritual. You know how much Athena means to me. I nursed her back to health when I found her at less than two months. I've sort of made a bond with her. And you know how much I care about you too. You're both my pets, no, you're both my friends. I don't want there to be problems between you two." Jayden said to the small snake. "Then tell her to leave me alone." she replied and then refused to speak to Jayden anymore. At this point Athena was awake again and her tail flicked back and forth as she watched with narrowed eyes and heard everything they had just said.

"She'll be fine Jayden. She's just mad because I accidently stepped on the end of her when she tried to grab something. I didn't even notice she was there, and I apologized so she'll be fine soon." Athens got up from the seat and stretched herself out, before rubbing herself again Jayden's arm. "I know Athena. Ritual's always been like that when she's mad. Remember last time what happened with Sora? And she's fine now. So I'm not worried." he said softly. Athena meowed softly and looked at the door to the compartment just as a girl opened it.

Her fur stood on end as the sound of the door hitting the other side of the wall scared her. Jay looked across the compartment to where she indicated and he nodded slowly. "Um, sure." he smiled at her and laughed softly at her comment about not being annoying or awful. "It's alright. I wouldn't mind if you were anyways." he smiled a bit awkwardly now. He was trying to be nice, since he would be around a lot of people for the next seven years, even if he wasn't used to them. "I'm Jayden Volkov." he said, extending his hand to her. "Nice to meet you Katarina."