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Hogwarts Express
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Carriage 1: Compartment A
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[Enter Kat Åkerstedt-Swanstrom from Carriage 1 Corridor, message 5.]The barest hint of a smile crept up Kat's dark red lipsticked lips at Bradley's comment about Sage. "Only made worse when coupled with Alexa," she remarked wryly as she stepped inside the compartment. Realizing that Bradley was in fact following her inside, Kat hid her disappointment and simply scanned the room, looking for where her driver had placed Hel's glass tank. Spotting it almost immediately on one of the benches, she nodded in approval. Her little queen was coiled up and deathly still. Instead of continuing the conversation with Bradley, Kat simply walked over to the bench that had her tank and sat down next to it as she removed her kid gloves.
[Enter Bradley Xardel from Carriage 1 Corridor, message 6.]Bradley shrugged, unable to disagree. He plopped down on the bench across from Kat and put his arms up behind his head. "So, tell me more about your summer." Clearly, he didn't get that she didn't feel like talking to him. That, or he did and simply didn't care. Both were equally possible.
Kat paused in her actions at Bradley's statement, blinking once when she realized he actually wanted to have a conversation. Well. She was nothing if not polite and so as she continued the process of removing her gloves, Kat replied, "I spent some time in Sweden... then Iceland... visiting family," she added, in an attempt to not sound so curt, "but mostly, I spent time studying for my N.E.W.T.s. Yourself?" she asked, arching a delicately thin brow ever so slightly.
Bradley's face split in a wide grin, pleased as punch that Kat was willing to talk to him. "I practiced a lot of Quidditch and helped August study while studying myself." He frowned, thinking back on something or another. "Actually, it might be more fair to say she helped me to study." His cat, Jerry, hopped up onto his stomach and laid down on its side, looking wide-eyed to Bradley in hopes of attention. Absent-mindedly, he began stroking the cat, who shortly started purring.
At the mention of the "great" wizarding sport, Kat resisted the urge to roll her eyes. That's all anyone ever hears: Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch.... Even her closest male friends, like Ender and Nathan, were so obsessed with the game it was impossible to speak about much else at close family functions. At the sight of his cat, Kat absentmindedly raised her pale, delicate hand to her chest as her lips parted ever so slightly. When did the creature come inside the compartment? She hadn't seen it in the hall. Staring at the quirky tabby, Kat hummed concomitantly in response and asked, "August is... your sister?"
"Indeed." Bradley couldn't help but laugh at Kat's question. It seemed no one knew his sister, and what he found most funny of all was that she didn't seem to care. A peculiar one, that girl. This one too. "Yes, she's a Ravenclaw, a year behind us. Most people don't know I have a sister. She's so shy she barely knows half her year in her House, let alone the school."
Kat mmhmm'ed again in response and then giving him a look that said, Well, this conversation is over, she stood up then and turning her back to him, she lifted herself onto her tiptoes to reach for her gorgeous, leather school bag that her driver had secured for her in the compartment above the benches. She really wanted to get a few hours to studying in and maybe Bradley would take the hint and excuse himself to Sage's compartment.
Bradley whipped out his wand, red oak and dragon heartstring, and directed his attention to the bag Kat was reaching for. "Wingardium Leviosa," he murmured, with a swish and flick. The bag floated out and into Kat's grip. He gave her a small smile and returned his wand to the inside pocket of his coat, where it had previously resided.
Surprised yet again and somewhat annoyed that she hadn't thought to do that herself, Kat turned to face Bradley and dipping her dainty chin, she said to him, "Thank you." Seating herself back down, she cleared her throat gently, wondering what on earth to say to him now--he clearly wasn't leaving--when she thought that it might be a good opportunity to discuss school business with him. He was a Prefect after all. "So, Bradley," she began, pulling out her books, "have you thought about who would make a good Head Boy for this year?" As far as Kat knew, there wasn't one yet.
"Clearly, myself," Bradley said. He was jesting, but now that he'd said it out loud, he really would. At least in his opinion. "Have you given it much thought?" He figured she would have, given the attitude she'd always displayed in school. He should know, after all, they had been in school together for seven years now.
"I have..." Kat replied, retrieving a rolled up scroll and placing it on the desk. "I made a chart," she told him seriously. "Of each Prefect with their strengths and weaknesses." Raising her thin brow then at him, she asked, "You want to be? It means a lot more responsibilities," she warned him, knowing that Quidditch took up a lot of his time no doubt.
"It was joke," he said, waving off her last comment. Had she really made a chart? He sat up, his brow furrowed in curiosity, which sent Jerry scrambling for the floor, promptly dashing from the room to the corridor of the carriage. "Could I see the chart?"
Kat arched her brow up even further, wondering why he would joke about wanting to become Head Boy. It was clearly an honor. "If you wish," she replied in answer to his question. It was a beautifully designed table, something she had worked on and off all summer long, even though it was not her job to do so. She thought she would present it to the professors as a sort of informal tool to help them make their decision.Bradley's name was on the list and under strengths, it said: POPULAR, OUTGOING, WELL LIKED AMONG HIS PEERS. Under weaknesses, it said: QUIDDITCH, GRADES?
Bradley spent a few minutes examining the chart, impressed by the sheer amount of detail contained within. And it was so neat and pristine... He handed the scroll back, arguing in mock-anger, "My grades are fine, I'll have you know."
"I see," Kat replied as she gently placed her scroll down on the table. Flattening it with her paper weights, she proceeded to pull out her quill and then wrote down in Bradley's column: (FINE) next to: GRADES? "Happy?" she asked, her face completely serious.
He nodded, his face initially serious, but bursting into a grin as he lost control of those facial muscles. "Yes, very." Was she really so serious about this? About everything? He couldn't help but be amused and slightly intrigued.
And this was why he couldn't be Head Boy, Kat thought to herself with slight irritation at his goofy grin. He thinks everything is a joke. Ignoring his mirth for the moment, Kat then removed the question mark next to: GRADES and finally when she was done that, she glanced back up at Bradley--he was still grinning at her--and folding her hands in her lap, she arched a pale brow again and asked, "What's so funny?"
At her question, Bradley's grin just grew, but rather than answering her question, he just shook his head, grinning at the floor. Jerry took this moment to waltz in from the corridor, meowing and winding around Bradley's ankles until the boy scooped him up.
His cat suits him, Kat thought to herself as she watched the boy pet his quirky tabby. Wondering why it had come back inside, she realized then that she heard growing voices from the hall--feminine, high-pitched squeals and loud chatter. Frowning slightly, she turned to Bradley then and asked, "Is that... Sage I hear again?" What were they doing in the corridor?
"I believe so. I shall go investigate!" Bradley declared, slipping out the doorway with Jerry at his heels. He flashed the blonde-haired girl one last brilliant, cheeky smile before passing out of view.[Exit Bradley Xardel to Carriage 1 Corridor.]
Kat watched the tall boy's retreating figure for another moment and when he disappeared through the door, she exhaled a sigh of relief and shaking her head, she turned to her books to continue her studies for her upcoming N.E.W.T.s, the barest hint of a smile lingering on the corner of her dark red lips.
[Enter Val Romanovna-Nyström from Carriage 1 Corridor, message 43.]Once she was inside the compartment, Val heaved a sigh of relief as she placed Einstein's cage down on the ground and giving her best friend a smile, she followed her towards the table where Kat had her homework neatly laid out on the surface. "Studying already?" Val grimaced.
"I never really stopped," Kat admitted.
"I don't know how you do it," the Gryffindor shook her head as she sat down across from the Slytherin, grabbing a handful of her auburn hair to inspect its tips. Val was a good student herself, but... Kat's obsession with her grades borderlined on ridiculous. "You need to get out more," she teased her friend to which Kat simply replied with a slight roll of her ice blue eyes. Shaking her ash blonde head, she said nothing in return but she smiled slightly nonetheless, secretly grateful that she could call Val friend without the risk that she would try to undermine her.
[Enter Bart Llewelyn from Carriage 1 Corridor, message 50]Bart tentatively entered the compartment. He was not nearly as confident with the prefects and Head Girl as he was with the drooling posse of female students that followed him everywhere. Having been a prefect before his appointment as Head Boy, Bart knew from experience that it wasn't a good idea to be unprofessional with the Head Girl and Boy. Even now, as Head boy, he still felt slightly intimidated by Kat Åkerstedt-Swanstrom, a girl whose reputation he had known since his first year. Gingerly, he placed his trunk on the rack above, and collapsed into the seat opposite Kat, attempting to avoid her eyes.
The two friends glanced up at the "intruder" and said nothing as the boy placed his trunk away before seating himself down on the same seat as Val. Exchanging looks, an amused smile crept up Val's sensual mouth as Kat's remained impassive although her light brows rose with the slightest hint of inquisitiveness. There was a long stretch of silence as none of the teenagers spoke until finally, unable to stand the awkwardness, Val turned to face the Hufflepuff and said, "Hello, Bart. How are you?" Kat was again grateful for her best friend's presence. It made her disinterest in speaking to people that much easier to placate.
[Exit Kat Åkerstedt-Swanstrom and Val Romanovna-Nyström to Hogsmeade Platform.]
September 1st: The train has arrived at Hogsmeade Station and all students have unloaded onto the platform, dressed in their robes.
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The first compartment of Carriage 1. It can seat eight, but for comfort's sake, usually seats no more than six. This carriage is for prefects and the head boy and head girl only.