All Aboard! [The 'Official' Thread]

[Hatsuharu Smith]

OOC: Pretty much anyone who's student/teacher who just doesn't get it can post here as a sort of universal topic. We'll do these for major school functions (like the feast) as well. This just gets it started. If you wanna interact with Haru, great, if not, then whatever ^^;;

IC:

Hatsuharu was on the platform, that was for sure. He knew that there was a 'between nine and ten,' and he had since run through a wall (how did the Muggles not get that he was running into one to begin with...) and was just about ready to find himself a place to board.

Nutters was at his side, as a good Kneazle always was, staring at all the students, eyes like a hawk, making sure none of them came near his precious master.

"It's alright Nutters," Hatsuharu said with a small coo, "If any of the students attempt to harm me here, they'll find out why I'm their new professor... besides, no offense to any of these students, but it looks like they'll need a bit of learning, eh?"

The Kneazle meowed and flicked his tail back and forth once before leaping atop Hatsuharu's floating trunk and plopping himself down on it, as if to keep an eye on everything around him. Hatsuharu merely chuckled.

"Alright Nutters... let's get aboard," he said, American accent cutting deep through the crowd. He might have caught someone's attention with it, but if he cared, he did not show it at all.

And he boarded the train, in an attempt to find a good compartment before all the students hogged them all...

[Kudri Donovan]

If there was one thing that Kudri made an effort to be early for, it was boarding the train to school. The last thing he wanted was to have last pick of the compartments and get stuck riding the whole way with some loser third year Hufflepuffs or some other morons. Not that he couldn't just butt into whatever group of people he wanted and immediately be accepted (it was great being popular!), but he liked the quiet of an empty compartment. It left him alone to plot out his year and maximize the amount of mischief he could cause. Everyone needed some sort of plan, right?

With his school trunk in tow, following him in midair across the platform, and his hawk safely confined in the cage that he was carrying in his left hand, Kudri strode toward the train, an air of confidence surrounding him that none could miss. That is, if there was anyone around to notice. The platform wasn't very busy at the moment, since he was about half an hour early. Not many people showed up that early, not when they could rush around in a panic at the last minute, trying to gather all their belongings and make sure they weren't forgetting anything. Kudri was smarter than all that, and made an effort to start packing the night before. With no last minute rush, he managed to arrive before most other people and have first pick of the compartments. And, once he was situated, lock the door to prevent visitors.

He stepped onto the train and turned into the carriage on the right. Every single room was empty so he chose the first one he came to and stepped into it. He levitated his trunk up to the shelf behind one of the seats, making sure that it was secure up there and wouldn't fall off during the trip. He then set the cage down on the floor under the window and opened it to let Aislinn out. The hawk perched herself on the windowsill and ruffled her feathers.

The final step: shutting and locking the door, and plopping himself down, spreading out on the seat along the wall and making himself comfortable.

[Professor Roibin Vespers]

Kneazles in general, Roibin found, were a great deal smarter than people. Most wizards, of course, were horrified at the idea that anything even vaguely non-human could possess close to human intelligence. After so many years of studying creatures and speaking with magical beings, he'd quite disavowed himself of this wizarding superiority nonsense. The fact that after all the months of being home, Floofles still remembered the exact location of Platform 9 and 3/4. Which was quite lucky, as Roibin had passed the area several times in a daze without noticing the platform numbers. Darting in behind the feline, he'd hoped none of his students recognized him ambling around the station aimlessly.

He looked at the huge scarlet train idling in the station with an inscrutable expression. His memories of getting on this train and leaving for Hogwarts when he was a student weren't fond ones. Steeling himself, he reminded himself that he hadn't been a student for years, and that his time as a teacher had been nothing but pleasant (This was, of course, a lie. In the course of his life, however, Roibin had told himself so many that it was becoming practically impossible to differentiate what he actually thought and what he desperately wanted to feel).

Floofles seemed very oblivious (or more likely far too aware) of her companion's troubled thoughts. She thoroughly distracted Roibin by sweeping around his legs and hopping up into the train. Not wanting to lose the Kneazle in a train that would soon be flooded with careless children, Roibin quickly followed Floofles down the narrow corridors at the train. It seemed Floofles had chosen a compartment without his input yet again. The cat was determined to socialize him. Or herself, perhaps, as the compartment contained not only another professor, but another Kneazle as well.

Roibin giggled a bit nervously at the new professor. There had been so many new hires recently, he wasn't sure who this man was, but he certainly didn't want to make the same impression on him as he had Rafe.

"Excuse me," he mumbled in heavily accented English. "It seems my Kneazle wanted to be friends."

Floofles was quite comfortable with herself, it seemed, darting around the other feline with something akin to hellish glee. Roibin thought perhaps he should stop giving her tiny bits of alcohol. Clearly she had just as bad a judgment as he did when he'd drunk.

[Hatsuharu Smith]

Hatsuharu found himself a wonderful compartment, barren of students, and was reading up on the old material given to him by the Headmistress. 'Just in case you want to design a lesson plan to adapt to the old professor's,' was what she told him to do. It was interesting stuff, but would not, in any way, help him or the students for what they were going to learn in his class. This was his class after all.

His attention was on the book until he heard his own Kneazle let out a hiss of discomfort. Glancing upwards, he found another Kneazle, running around like it was on the best catnip of it's life. Nutters had his back arched slightly, in an attempt to tell the other magical cat that this was where he belonged, not some other strange Kneazle.

Hatsuharu sighed and closed his book.

"Nutters, play nice."

His eyes darted towards the compartment's open door. At it stood the strange man, who seemed to belong to the other Kneazle. Kneazles never belonged to their humans; it was always the other way around. Hatsuharu had a hard time getting that from time to time, but he had had Nutters for as long as he could remember (almost literally), so he was used to it by now.

"Guess so. Might as well sit down before the rest of the bipedal hellions outside trample all over you. Name's Hatsuharu Smith. I'm teaching the Defense class now... Shame. I hear Cadamus was actually good at his job..."

[Professor Roibin Vespers]

Floofles was really out-doing herself on making a horrid impression it seemed. She'd effectively made the other Kneazle uncomfortable, and now decided to focus her efforts on bounding about the compartment with all the nervous energy she could muster. Roibin sighed.

"I swear, I told her to run herself off this morning or on the platform. She's usually not like this...." Well that wasn't quite true. It was just that she normally wasn't like this in such closed quarters, and in Roibin's experience her boundless energy didn't seem quite as irritating when she had room to run about. With a sigh, he sat across from his fellow professor and smiled tiredly at the man.

"I wouldn't say they are all uncivilized little monsters.... Though you are right about the trampling. One would think that it would stop when boarding the train as a teacher instead of a student, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. It's nice to finally meet you, by the way Professor Smith," he added with a smile. "I'm Roibin Vespers, Care of Magical Creatures and the rather inglorious Head of Ravenclaw, a job I would not wish on some of my worst enemies. I wish you the best of luck in settling into your new position."

Roibin leaned back at the mention of Hatsuharu's predecessor. "He was a good teacher. And a good man. I'm afraid to say you may find it difficult to fill his slot, at least where the students are concerned. Though I'm sure you'll do quite well," Roibin smiled reassuringly. He levitated his trunk up to the luggage rack, ousting Floofles from her temporary entertainment area. The Kneazle leapt beside him and gave him a very put out look. "Well, I didn't tell you to be a silly, now did I?" Roi asked the irritated feline. "You made that decision sans my input."

[Hatsuharu Smith]

"They can be civilized and still be hellions," Hatsuharu pointed out, "And if you worry too much about your Kneazle you'll worry yourself silly. Those creatures are way too independent for their own good."

Nutters glared at the other, wonderfully hyper Kneazle with complete disdain. He followed the look up with a meow that could either be classified as happily content or extremely ticked off, though which of the two none of the others (aside from possibly the other Kneazle of course) could tell. Hatsuharu paid no heed, just gave his magical cat a pat on the head.

"Nice to meet you too," Hatsuharu replied, "As far as the students being worried about whether I 'fill the role' of such a teacher is none of my concern until they decide to start pranking me about it..."

He reached into the pocket of his jacket, which was hanging off of the booth's coat hanger, and pulled out a couple of Ice Mice.

"Want one?" he asked, and tossed one to the Care of Magical Creatures professor anyways, reaching in once more to pull out a couple of other mice shaped goodies. These were much smaller, and, judging by how Nutters reacted to them, were probably made out of catnip.

"Drives 'em crazy... and the fact that they move around just makes 'em freak out more," he said, grinning, "Treat from over in America... dunno if you've heard about the Troubling Toffee store, but they've got some pretty neat stuff..."

He gave Nutters a look.

"Are you gonna be good and share with the other Kneazle?"

The gray cat stared at Hatsuharu, innocence filled in his eyes.

"Fine, but I'm holding you to it..."

He ripped open one of the smaller packages and threw the mouse onto the floor of the cart. In an instant, Nutters leapt after the fake mouse. The cat seemed much more lively.

"Well?" Hatsuharu asked, the other small package out towards Floofles, "You want one too?"

[Professor Roibin Vespers]

"Civilised hellions?" Roibin questioned, amused. "Ah, so you've figured out my Ravenclaw already then," he giggled. "Impressive, one usually has to be one to realize that."

As Roibin caught one of the Ice Mice, he looked thoughtfully at the other professor. "I don't know about pranking, outside a few random incidences. Even I didn't get pranked that much my first year, and it took quite awhile for all my students to like me." He eyed the mouse he was offering to Floofles. Floofles was, of course, eyeing it too, and as soon as she got a good opening leapt upon it with a mighty flourish and much butt-wiggling.

Roibin snorted down at Floofles. "I love you, darling, but you have no dignity." Floofles gave him a look that clearly read she thought Roibin had little dignity himself, and how dare his pot call her kettle black.

[Daphne Blydon]

Daphne's parents were currently hugging and kissing her goodbye as they asked all of the usual departure questions that parents were apt to ask ("Do you have enough underwear?" and "You won't forget to take your medication, will you?" and "Did you remember to pack your schoolbooks?"). Some questions were more difficult to answer, and to those she responded with a blank stare until her mother had the brilliant idea of opening her trunk and double-checking everything herself.

With her parents assured that she had been properly packed for her months away at school, Daphne was finally released to board the train. She left her luggage with her father, who she knew would load her trunk and bags on for her once she found a suitable compartment to spend the duration of the trip. Not that everyone stayed in the same place the whole time. It was quite common for the students to move around and visit their friends while they waited to arrive at Hogsmeade station. Daphne was no different (she did, after all, have a lot of friends), but this time she might actually stay in one place. Once she found her new fiance!

She bounded onto the train at the first door she came across and made a right, heading toward the front of the train. She peeked in through every door she passed in search of Kane, but he wasn't in any of them. The closest person she could find was Kudri, so she went to open the compartment door.

It was stuck!

"Kudri!" she called through the window, tapping loudly on the glass to get his attention. "Your door won't budge! Let me in."

Of course it wouldn't occur to her that the door was locked. All that mattered to her at the moment was getting inside so she could ask Kudri where Kane was. She had to find her snuggly-bear!

[Kudri Donovan]

Kudri would have refused to open the door for her if he hadn't known better. If Daphne didn't get what she wanted, she had the tendency to adopt a high-pitched whine that always made dogs howl and, thus, would likely break the glass in the door, making his efforts to keep her out futile. So he reluctantly unlocked the door and opened it, though he stood in the doorway to prevent her from entering. The last thing he wanted was for her to decide he was just as good company as Kane and sit around waiting for him to show up.

"I don't know where he is, Daphne," he said, mildly annoyed. He knew about Kane's recent engagement and had a very good idea of what she wanted. Kudri was not, however, in charge of Kane's whereabouts and could not help her. "I'm not his bloody keeper. Go find him yourself."

What he didn't mention was that Kane was probably searching for Rena, given his sudden attraction to her and desperation to not have to marry Daphne. Telling her that would, however, get rid of her and send her off looking for the pair of them.

"I know where he might be. Do you know Rena Holmes? Sixth year Gryffindor. He's probably with her. If you find her, you'll find him."

[Clara Mulciber]

“Thanks for taking us, Theo,” Clara said to her brother warmly, as the two of them and their sister Talulla walked through the station. Clara was bubbly and rather invigorated at getting to spend time with her favorite family member and go off for another year at school. There were people she wanted to see, classes she wanted to resume, and family members she wanted to get away from as soon as possible.

One of those family members was also there, and the feeling was intensely mutual. Talulla was supremely uncomfortable in the presence of Muggles, and had the attitude that suggested she thought it could catch. She could put up with Muggleborns being in the same castle as her, but pure Muggles mere inches away in the heavy hustle and bustle made her pale complexion take on a greenish hint, and having to do all of this with her siblings—whom she was not particularly fond of—only heightened her displeasure.

“So glad this is the last time I’ll have to do this,” she hissed, wrinkling her nose and holding her arms up to her chest lest they touch someone. That was hardly any better than the prospect of actually having to wheel her trunk around herself, rather than getting Clara to do it.

“Oh, cheer up, sis,” Theo cajoled, playfully pushing Talulla’s shoulder. Despite the lightness of the touch, she went staggering to the side and nearly crashed into a Muggle. She sent her brother a look that dripped venom, which he blithely ignored. “And it’s the least I could do, Clara. You know I miss my schooldays—not that work hasn’t been delightful so far.”

Someone else might have mistaken his words for sarcasm, but the truth was that he really did love his job. Sure, it was a fairly low-ranking position in the department, but he knew that would change soon enough. All he had to do was pull the correct strings, say the right words, make small talk with the biggest blowhard he could find—basically it was like climbing the social ranks of school all over again, something he’d been superb at the first time around.

The three reached the platform and Talulla marched ahead as quickly as possible, abandoning all pretense of hiding her switch from the Muggle platform to the wizarding one by simply charging through. Clara and Theo exchanged exasperated looks, and Theo merely strolled over, pausing with his back to it a moment before casually sliding through the barrier. Clara followed suit, pulling the trolley behind her as she backed in.

“Ah, and here we are on the platform,” Theo announced cheerfully, clapping his hands together. Talulla glanced at him darkly, and he cut in quickly, “Yes, yes, I know that much was obvious.” The seventeen year old huffed and rolled her eyes nonetheless, perhaps because her brother had stolen her sour thunder. He paid her no mind, however, turning instead to the youngest of the trio. “Alright, Clara, do you have the trunks all set?”

“I think so, yes,” she responded, wheeling it around to show them. Talulla wasted no time snatching at the handle of her trunk, only to pause when she noticed a small rat sitting atop it. “Get your vermin off my bloody trunk,” she snapped, and Clara could have sworn the animal’s squeak in reply was an indignant one. She reached down and the rat obligingly crawled up her arm to settle herself on Clara’s shoulders. “You keep letting that thing run loose, it’ll die or get us kicked out of places, I’ll warn you now. I can tell you which I’m rooting for,” Talulla added in a grumble, yanking her a trunk off the trolley with one hand and her horned owl’s cage with the other.

“She says that, yet we still let her run loose,” Theo muttered under his breath, leaning in for Clara to hear. She bit her lip to contain a giggle, but Talulla still noticed and narrowed her eyes, even as her cheeks glowed. Straightening, Theo smoothed his suit and scanned the crowd. “Well, you two don’t have to leave just yet now. There’s plenty of time before the train leaves. Feel free to stay out here on the platform for awhile, I’ve got plenty of time…” he said absently, straining his neck as he scrutinizing the people around them.

“Yeah, I don’t think so. I am not going to act as some prop as you chat on with important Ministry officials seeing off their kids and you put on the loving brother display.” Talulla hefted her trunks as Theo shot her a startled look. “Oh, yes, I know exactly why you volunteered to take us, and why you insisted on arriving so early. Well, your little groupie may be willing to put up with it out of her stupid hero worship, but I’ve actually got a life to attend to. Ta.”

With that, the elder Mulciber sister marched off haughtily, heading for the door of the train to settle herself in a compartment and catch up with her friends. Pointing his wand to his throat, Theo shouted in a voice dripping with affected sap, “I know that’s your way of crying out for attention, sis! Don’t worry, you are worthy of love! We love you, Tally-wassle! Remember to write us every day!” The effect of Sonorus amplified his voice so that most of the people on the platform clearly heard him, many heads swiveling to look. Talulla didn’t look back, but her shoulders hunched and her pace radically quickened, clearly mortified.

Pulling his wand away, Theo looked down at Clara, who was grinning. “Ah, I may be a grown-up, but I’ll never get too old for that,” he proclaimed happily, lacing his fingers behind his head. “You know that’s not the only reason I decided to come with, don’t you? Don’t get me wrong, it’s invaluable talking to higher-ups and showing them I’m a real family-type bloke who likes children and small animals and whatever it is family-types are supposed to like, but I do want to see you off for its own sake. Tal’s a real sea hag, but you know you’re my favorite little ginger.” He grinned and ruffled Clara’s hair, causing the rat hiding under the coppery curtain to squeak and scuttle to the other shoulder.

“I know, Theo,” Clara said fondly, not even minding the fact that he was making her hair messy. “And I’ll stay. It gives us some more time together and it helps your career, after all. And maybe I will see people I know from school and chat for a bit.”

“That’s the spirit, chippie.” Theo turned his grin towards the crowd, hoping to catch the eye of a Ministry official he knew, still messing with Clara’s hair.

((-headdesk headdesk headdesk-))

[Rena 'Hitomi' Holmes]

Twenty minutes till eleven. She was all set to go, with all of her school supplies, plenty of chocolate frogs, and less crazy twins all packed and ready to go. Already she told Bianca that she was going ahead to make sure that they would get a good compartment. Usually, if Rena was quick, she could get one for her and Bianca. Now that this was the fifth year of her finding a good compartment, she knew exactly what she was looking for.

So, running into what looked to be a rather grumpy seventh year Slytherin girl was probably not the best option she had going for her.

"Oh, sorry..." she muttered, but then found herself staring into the face of Tallula Mulciber. The door was right there! Why did she have to run into this one!? She was such a loose canon!

"I... uh..."

She wanted to tell Tallula that she was a horrible Slytherin, or just some random, generic insult, but she felt that would not be necessary.

Her trunk floated behind her, and, while trying to keep up with her quick pace, bumped into her again, causing her to fall towards the older girl.

This was not a good day.