Chapter 1: Merlin's Lost Book

Caroline slowly and nervously makes her way through the train full of loud and wild children, her head lowered, making her appear even smaller than she already is. Caroline is pale and skinny with green eyes, some light freckles on her face and chin-length dark hair. She is wearing a black skirt and jacket with a shirt underneath that's suspiciously Slytherin-colored. All her clothes are of highest quality and seem to be tailored to fit the skinny girl perfectly.

She had hoped she would be able to sit with her sister on the train but Mallory had clearly told her she would be with her friends and did not want her baby sister with her. Caroline dodged through the carriages, getting bumped into by older students who just don't seem to notice the small girl. She clutches her Divination school book to her chest. She had decided to take it with her instead of leaving it in her suitcase in case she wanted to read something during the train ride.

Finally, she reaches an almost empty compartment. Just one boy is sitting in there, curled up and apparently crying. She gathers her courage and opens the door slightly.
"Good morning." She gives him a weak smile. "Could I maybe sit with you, if you don't mind?"

She enters the compartment and sits down opposite to him, her eyes catching the fluffy cat next to the boy. "How adorable! How could you be sad with such a cute kitty next to you? What's her name?", she asks, reaching out to pet the cat.

Bexley's breath came out in a ragged exhale as he ran a hand through his messy black hair. No matter what, there were always two small peaks in it that almost-but-not-quite resembled ears. (not show in character portrait). He was tall for his age, thin, quick. Among his belongings were a broom, a long eared owl, and a smoke-grey kitten who ducks between his feet as he walks. His golden eyes are constantly alert, taking it all in.
He wears black slacks and a white shirt, a black vest over the top. He mutters about why he needed to go to Kingscross in the first place, no explanation unless someone asks, as he enters the only open compartment.


"Oh. Hello." His accent is a bit of a mess. Welsh, with a touch of the North, tinged with a slight Scottish lilt. Perhaps only Henry Higgins would be able to trace his origins through it. His curious kitten approaches the other.

There are certain moments in life where you must make a choice. And these choices - They shape the very core of someone. Rafa had just made a choice, although not quite that important.

Rafa had insisted to her Daddy to let her shop on her own in Diagon Alley. She had played the "other students are going to make fun of me because I'm with my daddy!" card and, of course, it had worked. There were many reasons why she wanted to shop alone, on her own. One of them was that she wanted to pick the lamest familiar of them all. While not necessarily elitist, Daddy did proud himself on our acquired pedigree as he had told little Rafa time and time again. So when she entered the shop and saw fattest, weirdest looking toad ever - Well. It was a match made in heaven, certainly. The connection she felt was unnatural.

Her Daddy had reserved an owl for Raffa. A very majestic owl, big and elegant. The shopkeeper was told that the girl with the surname of Souza was to pick up only the owl and nothing more, and so she couldn't be united with her own true familiar. Well. Not like she would let the shopkeeper stop fated destiny.

According to the shopkeep, the toad itself was to be picked up by another kid. So, of course, she waited outside. Eventually, a stubby boy with raven hair and a rather angry face entered the shop and emerged from it with the toad on a cage.

She remembered his face.

On the day of the departure, her daddy couldn't come. It hurt little Rafa, but she had a mission to complete. She scoured the platform until she found the boy, who she just had realized that was a bit older. No matter. Everyone eventually entered the train.

She followed him, trying to sneakily carry her heavy bag as best as she can while hiding between people. But oh no! He's about to enter a compartment! And she's so far away, too... Is this the end?

Rafa frowns. Bag in one arm, the owl in the cage in another. He's carrying a lot of stuff. If he puts the toad down to open the doo - He did it! Rafa immediately runs, frenetically bumping into people, whispering a sorry here and there, while determinedly looking at the handle of the toad's cage. She just has to swap cages! The boy will surely not notice. At the most decisive moment, she drops her original familiar's cage and picks up the toad's, and don't stop running.

Of course, even if the boy hadn't noticed her before when she was running at him and bumping into almost everyone, he certainly did when the girl dropped her cage at his side and stole his own. Rafa thinks she hears him scream. What is important is that when she looks back, well... He's running after her.

She looks genuinely alarmed, not having expected that at all. Well, destiny will not keep Rafa and the toad apart. She runs, and runs, and runs. At some point, she can still hear him running, but she can't quite see him. She lost him! Now she just had to hide.

Without thinking, she immediately opens the closest compartment, forcefully pushing the tall boy that was blocking the entrance, dragging her stuff inside and then promptly closing the door.

Her green, mudded eyes dart between everyone in the room as she puts her index finger against her lips and shushes everybody. While she initially seems distressed, her lips slowly curl into a mischevious smile. Her long, dense blonde hair hangs only from her left shoulder, a simple red shirt, black jeans, pink plastic bracelet on her left wrist, cool-looking sneakers and a brown jacket that she is sliding off from her arms right now making her outfit. She seems smaller than usual for her age, but she is very skinny, if not even athletic. As athletic as a kid like her can be, that is.

She waits for a second or two and seems to finally about to offer an explanation when she notices the dried tears in one of the boy's face. She straightens her back and suspiciously eyes the other two as she sits next to him. Not actually whispering, she speaks. "Why so guttered? ... Are these two giving ya trouble?" Her accent is typically Welsh, if not a bit more Londonian. As she says this, she crosses her arms, trying to look imposing. Even then, she can't help but shoot a quick glance at her new familiar, a small smile again forming in her face. When she realizes this, she abruptly shakes her head and stares seriously at the other two once more.

"Sorry!"

*thump*

"Oh... oh, no. I'm sorry! Excuse me?"

"Would you watch where you're bloody going?"

"I know! I know! I'm sorry!"

A commotion sounds from outside the compartment. It sounds a lot like someone's tromping blindfolded through the crowd, from the amount of running-into-something and grumpy-people-complaining noises. There's a moment of relative quiet, and then a girl appears in the open doorway. Well, a girl and a whole lot of things she's carrying: two book bags (one over each shoulder) that are stuffed to bursting, an armload of books, and an owl cage currently occupied with the scruffiest grey owl you can remember laying eyes on. She carefully... carefully... sets the owl cage down, and then it all comes crashing down -- bags, books, owl -- with a thump and a crash and a dissatisfied hoot.

Now that she's not so burdened down, you can get a look at her. Average height, sort of generally roundish, with skin the color of coffee with cream. Her straight black hair has fallen across her eyes, and she lets out an exasperated "humph" and blows it a little bit back out of her face, at least enough to see her dark (and irritated) eyes. She's wearing a yellow blouse patterned with large, abstract flowers and plain jeans, unremarkable black shoes.

"Bother!" she mutters sharply, in the tone someone older might use a particularly scandalous curse word. She sighs, tucks her hair behind one ear and crouches down to start gathering her things. She gathers up the three or four books she was carrying in her arms, and only then realizes she's standing in the doorway. "Oh." It's a long moment before she decides what to do next, when finally she says, "Hi. Sorry about the... interruption," she says with a rueful smile. "I don't suppose there's any room in this compartment? All the others are full, and... well..." she indicates her heavy load with a vague wave of her hand. "I've got a lot of things."

Ava puts the owl cage inside the compartment, with the fluffy grey owl still making low, dissatisfied sounds. She tries to heft one of her bags into an overhead compartment, but is neither tall enough or strong enough to make it happen, and she rests back on the ground until she's ready to make another go at it.

Ava looks from person to person, eyebrows raised, and back to the boy. "Did I miss something?" she says. Her tone is crisp and businesslike. "Why are you crying? Was someone mean to you?" She tilts her head in curiosity, and then her eyes go wide and she puts a hand to her chest. "Oh, bother... it wasn't me, was it? I mean, I know I sort of showed up out of nowhere and, well, collapsed, but..."

Feeling a whole lot of eyes on her, she suddenly stops, clears her throat, and adds lamely, "I'm going to stop talking now."

A tall, older boy trips over the pile of books Ava's left in the corridor outside the compartment and falls over, cursing. Ava closes her eyes, her head droops, and she lets out a sigh. This day is not going her way. At all.

Caroline leans over to Ava and whispers in her ear: "He was already crying before you got here."
She looks around the compartment, paying more attention to all the animals than the other kids. Then she says: "I'm Caroline Scrivener, you've probably heard of my dad. It's nice to meet you all!" She pauses before adding: "Something is not right here! My dad said we have to put everything into the storage compartment... But now all of you have your pets with you and Pecker is all alone in storage. That's not fair" Caroline frowns, looking almost like she's on the verge of tears herself for a moment.

"I'm sure others put their pets in. I was a bit late...My family had to come down from practically at the castle already to meet thw bloody train". He pauses and smiles. "[Bexley Fangbourne. But you can call me Bex." He bites his lip as he tries to sit and his kitten hops into his lap. " You may have heard of my mum actually. She was the Welsh Keeper in the 80s"

"Maybe he's crying because he couldn't bring his pet with him." Says the blonde girl, playfully moving her suspended legs thanks to her feet that don't quite reach the floor yet. She eyes the people that are introducing themselves, and can't help but roll her eyes. She speaks in an elongated tone, making it sound exaggeratedly aristocratic. "And of course, you must know of my family as well! I myself am Countess Souza, the heroine of the battle of Hogwarts. See, the truth is, the villains used a forbidden spell on me, that made me look way younger! And way less important-er!" While the whole thing started as a snide, Rafa is actually starting to articulate as well, expressing her line of thought with her arms, hands, and fingers. "Yes, they also struck me with a terrible curse! No one remembers my face! Dare I say that this is an actual catastrophe? The battle itself pales to this situation." And finally, she breaks in a laugh. Very sincere and honest.

She grabs her toad's cage, bringing it to above her legs, and rests her head on top of it. "This is how you're all sounding. I dunno any of your families! And to be honest, I don't really care about them. So much so that I won't even tell you my surname!" She offers everyone in the room a mischevious smile. "But you can call me Rafa. And this..." She pats the cage of her animal. To be completely honest, she hadn't even thought about a name, and she was about to introduce him already. Oh no... Everyone's looking, and she hasn't said anything yet. Oh, whatever. "His name is Toad." She relaxes her eyebrows, a cattish smile forming on her face. "Can ya guess why?"

After a second or two, she elbows Monty on the shoulder, having sat beside him. "Now c'mon, out with it! Shared sorrow is a double joy. Why ya crying?"

Rafaella frowns at Monty's words. "Bullies!" She angrily exclaims, hitting her seat with her fist in frustration. As if she had realized that something is wrong, her watered down green eyes lock at her seat companion. "Monty! You shouldn't be cryin'!" She puts one of her hands on his shoulders and starts to shake him, quite energetically. "If you cry, they win, Monty! So the first step is not to cry, yeah?"

Her face relaxes into a cheerful smile, the only thing she can offer him right now, and then proceeds to eye her compartment fellows. A fine group. Yeah... Maybe...

Rafaella's expression clearly hints on what she's about to say next, a large, mischevious smile forming on her face as she keeps staring at everyone but the bullied. "Let's get it back!" Playful enthusiasm shows in her tone. "We can do it! I mean, we can't go to whoever's the authority in here. Why would they listen to a bunch of first years? We have to take matters in our own hands. Besides, us first years have to stick together!" She hits Monty again, this time in the leg. Not too hard: It's just her eagerness showing. She stares back at him, giving him a thumbs up. "Yeah! C'mon, Monty. Tell us about the thieves.". Before he can even respond, she shoots her now allies a curious glance. "Or maybe some of ya wanna ask the questions?"

"I'm..."

Ava stops, mouth half-open, and then she scrunches up her lips in a thoughtful frown. "Well... I'm Ava Richardson," she says then. "And," she adds, lifting up the three books she's holding in her arms, and poking at one of her bags on the floor with a toe. "I obviously like books. So helping to find yours, yeah. That'd be fun."

She squints thoughtfully at the boy. "But I'm confused. I thought the cat was Monty."

"Ahh, I think I get it now! They're both Monty! Monty the cat and Monty... the kid"
Caroline grins at her joke and waits for a reaction for a moment. Then she turns to Raffa. "Also, I didn't mean to brag or anything! My dad is just really important, I think!"
She's visibly embarrassed from being called out on her awkward introduction but she tries to keep her face straight. Trying to recover and make herself look good, she puts on a wide grin, which is not quite real, and says: "Let's find Monty the kid's book!" And then, right after, she adds: And while were doing that, maybe we can sneak into the storage compartment to find Pecker!"

Edit: Spelling

"An excellent idea. Vesper can keep you and Mpnty company while we look. Unless you want to join us?"
He glances from the terrified boy to this...forceful isn't the right word, but definitely something like that. Dynamic? Spirited...?Indefatigable waa a good word but didn't fit here...any way the four of them were a bit much for this boy.
"what is your name?" He smiles, golden eyes flashing.

"Did you notice if he was wearing any house colors? the one who took the book I mean? Im sure we can figure it out."

"Huh? No, it isn't. C'mon, Richardson, you gotta pay attention!" Says Rafa, as she hits both her hands against her seat. To her surprise, the other kid, Scrivener, makes matters more confusing. She stares at her, a half-frown half-disoriented look in her face. "Nooo-oo! What do you mean? Monty the kid is only Monty, the cat is called Montague. Monty the kid is the kid, obviously. Monty the cat is not Monty, it's Montague!" A triumphant smile plasters between her sharp cheeks. Caroline proceeds to explain, about before, but Rafa simply cocks her head. "Well... Apologize accepted, Scrivener." She says, despite the freckled girl never actually having apologized, simply offering her a spontaneous and brattish smile. Her eyes lit up at her suggestion. "Of course we can sneak into the compartment! Good idea, Scrivener! Well thought!"

Rafa immediately corrects the boy, Bexley. "No, Bex. Vesper and Toad can keep him and Montague company." She sighs, a defeated look in her face. "C'mon, guys...". Then Monty himself speaks, and Rafa simply frowns, a genuine confusion in her face. Are they all... Pranking her? No, of course not. Why would they? That would be too random. Or maybe... They were sent by Rafa's mortal enemy? Hmmm...

"R-Right, yeah. Merlin, then. Let's assume that I was the one in wrong here. Suuure." She says, suspiciously eying everyone. "Well, Merlin, then also go ahead and please tell us how the prefect looked like. Did you catch his name?" She stars at him, sharply. "Or did you happen to mishear, too?"

Ava pipes in, "And what does the book look like?" It's easy to tell where her focus is.

She finds a place to sit down, though on the edge of her seat. Carrying all those books around is probably exhausting. She leans forward, elbows on her knees, watching Merlin intently. Her gaze is focused, excited, and quite possibly intimidating thanks to its intensity.

"Yes, and... umm... what did their shoes look like?" It's clear that Caroline just got caught up in the energy but didn't actually have anything to contribute. She looks around sheepishly, hoping that nobody noticed that her suggestion was kind of dumb.
"Anyway, let's go find Monty the kid's book!"

"That's just how prefects are. Could have been a Quidditch fan scarf....hmmm. You said he had an odd accent? Maybe he's transferred. " Bex is clearly thinking out loud, and worries his lip as he does. His hair "ears" get a bit more pronounced.

or do they?

"Does Hogwarts even DO Transfers?"

"Huh?" Rafa raises one of her eyebrows at Scrivener when she asks about the shoes and confusedly stares at her for a second or two. After that, she simply gets back at the topic.

"Dunno." Rafa says, dismissively shrugging away Bex's question. She proceeds to stretch her eyes and pout, hard, as if she's thinking as best as she can. "Hmmmm..."

Her gaze lowers to the floor as she seems contemplative. "He has an accent and is sporting an ugly scarf, that may from Quidditch. I mean, we can proly find him with this information, eventually, if we ask compartment by compartment!" She gives everyone a thumbs up and a big, proud and convinced smile as she puts Toad's cage beside her and suddenly leaps from the seat. "Everyone ready? C'mooon!" She says, clearly thinking that asking compartment by compartment is in any way practical. She is about the open the door when an alternative hits her. "Although... There's someone that sells food on the train, right? We could wait for them to show up and ask'em directly. It would save us time, and if they don't know anything about it, it means that the boy with Merlin's book is after this carriage."And while this idea seems much more sound, Rafa herself doesn't seem very enthused by it. She quickly finds a flaw on her own, however. " We dunno how much time it may take for them to show up, though! So we really should get out there. Yeah?"

"Wow, it's a divination book? Monty, when we get it back, can I read in it? I bet it has some cool stuff that this book does not! And can you keep an eye on this for me while we go find that bully?" She hands her divination school book to the boy. Then she turns to the other kids. "Waiting here is dumb. We should just go to the other compartments and look for the bully. That will be much faster. Also, we need to find the storage compartment, so staying here is not an option anyway."

Ava scans the rest of the group with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Wait wait wait. Am I the only one thinking that we should ask someone in charge for help?" she says, as if dumbstruck that this wasn't the first plan of action offered. She turns to Merlin, "You said the prefect had her uniform on... what House was she from?" She taps her lips with a finger. "All snooty like that, probably a Gryffindor or Slytherin," she murmurs, mostly to herself, but audible nonetheless.

Ava is taken aback by Merlin coming to help her with the last bits of her things, but after a moment, she offers a warm smile of gratitude. "Thanks!"

With the last of her things out of the hallway, Ava stands up, hands on her hips. "So what's the plan? Split up and meet back here when we've got clues? Stick together? I'm all ears."

"We can't split up! We're a team now!" Caroline's eyes are sparkling. She hasn't even arrived at Hogwarts yet and she's already making friends. Now she has to keep them close so they don't have time to realize that they don't want her to be her friend.
"We have to stay together so that we can save Monty's book and Pecker!" She pauses and then adds quickly: "And if we meet the trolley witch, I'll buy a chocolate frog for everyone!"
Now they just had to be her friends!

"That's something I get behind. And his name is Merlin. The cat is quite fetching and likely smart, but I doubt he can read. Perhaps The trolly Witch first? Pretend we're looking for someone we got separated from on the platform"

He smiles watching the cats play and closes a hand over a fist. "A fine Caper on a train! Like a muggle crime novel!"

Rafa's eyes wander to the window and she does kinda zone out for a second, hearing everything perfectly fine though her mind is not quite in the room. Her eyes widen when she hears about the chocolate frogs, however. " That's an amazing idea, Scrivener!" She says enthusiastically, supportively hitting the freckled girl's back - Maybe a bit stronger than she should. "Don't worry, we'll get Pecker as well."

The blonde brat tumbles around anyone in her way until she's in the hallway, crossing her arms and confidently grinning at everyone else. "We got our clues, we got time, there's no reason for us to not stick together. Safety in numbers, people! And Bexley is kinda right! But more than a muggle crime novel, think of it as the tales of old! The dragon has just stolen Merlin's magic book! Like Arthur and his knights, we gotta get it back! Oh no, but we're one short! Scrivener's friend, Pecker, is imprisoned! So first let's save him, and then let's go for the book, yeah?" Rafaella closes her fist with a self-assured expression. "Yeah! C'mon, then!" She decisively swirls around and starts marching towards wherever the storage might be.

Having led, or pressured, every one into what seemed to be the entrance of the storage carriage, Rafa quickly spins around and show a mischevious grin, raising her arms and cracking her knuckles. "Now, C'mon, everyone. Who can pick a lock?" Rafa suddenly thinks back on the prefects they passed by. They surely have a key on their own. "I could probably... Borrow one of the keys of the prefects, if none of you can. Whadja think?" Her grin turns into a proud, confident smile as she gauges everyone's reaction to her brilliant idea.

Ava's scandalized expression would say all anyone cares to know about what she thinks of the idea, but she goes ahead and explains it anyway. "That would be stea..." she bursts out, and then lowers her voice to a whisper. "Stealing! That's not much better than taking poor Merlin's book!"

She sighs, maybe recognizing that devious look on Rafa's face and figuring there's no other way around what she does next. Ava pulls her wand out of her pocket, taps the lock with the tip and says with a slightly defeated little sigh, "Alohomora."

Ava Richardson might be uptight about rules, but anyone who's watching closely enough can still see the little thrill of excitement that lights up her eyes when the lock clicks open.

Caroline's eyes go wide.
"You know how to use that spell? My sister showed it to me but she said it's way too difficult for a little kid!"
She pushes open the door and runs into the storage compartment.
"We have to find her cage! Pecker is a giant eagle owl with super cute ears and big eyes, so she shouldn't be too difficult to find! Her cage is silver and has a Scrivener name plaque on it!"Caroline starts digging through the stuff, throwing suitcases and bags around carelessly.

Assumes the owls are at leaat together and suggests that from the door. he then moves ome car up to keep an eye out for any trouble.

"you're exactly who I was looking for! I could use some help. Friend of mine had his book stolen. thought if I started at the back and went forward...perhaps Id find a perfect or the ...person who took it (the pause is clearly him trying not to swear in front of the prefect. He isn't lying, mot really, and maybe just maybe, she can help

"Huh?" Rafaella sounds very, very confrontational when Richardson starts babbling. She raises her eyebrow as if she's trying to dissuade the girl with curled hair of any nonsensical accusation. Her eyes go wide as she reactively pouts. "No it isn't!" She says, quickly repeating herself. "No, it isn't! It isn't stealing!" She stomps the ground in defiance. That's when Richardson takes off her wand and actually casts a spell. The blonde girl can't help but look surprised, if not for a short moment, as she crosses her arms and tries to hide her jealous expression. "Whatever. You don't need to show off, Richardson. We're to help Pecker." As the realization that they are about to embark to grand rescuing mission hits Rafa, an eager smile appears back in her face. She lets herself be carried by those emotions as Scrivener opens the door. "Yeah, c'mon guys! Let's be heroe-" And when she finally see the real storage room, she stops. "Oh. Bollocks." It's the first time she's swearing, but she was always a fan of that particular word. And here she is free, so... Yeah. Bollocks!

As she slowly walks into the room, she sighs, and any enthusiasm she has seems gone at the prospect of actually having to look around in the place for more than five minutes. "Oh, man... Well... I mean, someone has to save Pecker, after all." She says, as she falls into the floor and starts crawling between, well, everything. Maybe if she moves silently, and through stuff, she will be able to find any clue of Pecker or something like that.

Ava makes a little gasp at Rafa's accusation of showing off. "I wasn't trying to show off... I worked really hard to teach my...self..." She trails off once she sees the room.

"Bollocks is right," whispers Ava. "This could take for. Ever." She taps her lower lip with one finger, studying the layout of the baggage car to try and gain some sort of insight into where the most likely place to find Pecker would be.

After the barn owl's protest, Caroline stops for a moment and goes up to its cage. "I'm sorry, Mr. Owl!", she says. "Have you seen Pecker by any chance? She's really big!"
She's not expecting an answer, obviously but she puts her hand into the cage to try and pet the upset owl to calm it down. She'll also try to figure out where in this compartment they could keep Pecker's cage.

Please, it's important. You should have seen how hurt he was. He said some strange boy with an odd scarf and accent attacked him. Don't comment on Hufflepuffs supposedly being nice......

Caroline lets out a yelp of pain but then tries to put on a strong face in front of her new friends. "Silly owl! I must have scared him. But luckily it didn't even hurt me."
She looks up at the owl that's screeching at her. "Please, Mr. Owl, don't be so loud. You'll get us in trouble!" She holds out her arm towards it, allowing it to sit on her. "I'm sorry for scaring you. But you'll have to go back in your cage now. Come here and I'll take you into it."

"Pecker, Pecker..." Whispers Rafaella, her eyes narrowed as she keeps crawling between the cages, insistingly looking for Scrivener's bird. If I was an eagle owl, in what kind of cage would I like to have...

Ava calls to the other girls in a harsh whisper. "This side of the car! I think all the owls are on this side!" she says, moving to the right side of the carriage. "If nothing else, let's get out of sight of the door," she pleads, a worried moan escaping her as she speaks. "I can't get expelled before I even get there..."

As she moves toward the last of the rows, farthest away from the door, she can be heard musing, "Can you get expelled before you're even sorted? I'll have to look that up..."

She starts quickly looking up and down the shelves for the missing owl, tiptoeing her way along.

"Oh!" she cries, all pretense of being quiet lost at the sudden appearance of the other two girls. She winces, then, squeezing her eyes closed. "Sorry!" she says, more quietly this time. "It's so creepy in here, I didn't..."

She trails off as she opens her eyes and looks up at the sound of the owl. "Oh! Is that Pecker, Caroline? She's gorgeous!" Her worries seem to melt away in the face of a happy reunion of student and pet owl.

Caroline runs up to the cage and opens it without a moment's hesitation. She points at her head and Pecker makes her way out of the cage and sits down on the girl's head. Although the giant bird is lighter than she looks, she is still too heavy for the young girl.
After only a second, she flies off of Caroline's head and sits on top of her cage. Caroline's hair that had until now been very neat and clean was a bit of a mess now.
Caroline turns to her new friends, her eyes sparkling with excitement. She points at the huge owl. "Let me introduce you! This is Pecker. Well, actually, my dad said she's called Charlotte but I think she looks more like a Pecker!" She then points at the other girls and says to Pecker: "And these are, umm... Raffa and Affa, I think! We came to rescue you, Pecker!"

Turning again to the two girls, she asks: "So what are we going to do now? We still have to find Monty's book"

Yes that was him! They stole a book that his mum gave him. Didn't see the scarf...would have known that ....So..can you help? Bex smiles hopefully, giving puppy eyes, which he's rather good at considering what he is

"O-Oy!" Squeaks Rafa as she tries to jump back while crawling, having not seen anything more than a few quick shadows passing through as her gaze was more against the floor than anything else, immediately falling in her butt. She raises her face and stares dumbfounded at both Richardson and Scrivener, although her expression quickly dissolves into an annoyed frown. "Hey! Watch it!" She says, clearly bothered by having the two girls suddenly showing up. Her expression softens, however, when she realizes that Scrivener is opening a cage.

She gets up, crossing her arms as she inspects the pair. " Well, it's not your dad's owl, it's yours. It's you that gotta pick the name." She says approvingly. If only dads listened to their daughters more.

The blonde little girl does cock her head a little bit to the left when she hears Scrivener calling Ava, well, Affa. "Huh?" She proceeds to stare at Richardson for some good seconds as if examining her. "No, she doesn't have an ''Affa'' face. She looks more like Richardson." She glances back at Caroline. "Just as you look more like Scrivener. Anyways! Pecker, we're very glad to help. That's what heroes do, after all." She says, shooting a beaming smile at the owl. She does recoil a little, apologetically, when Scrivener brings the book up. "A-Ah, you're right! Our job is not done. We still have loads to do! C'mon, girls! We gotta save Emm's book!" An enthusiastic smile appears on her face as she reaches out to both's girls hands and tugs them in her direction, quickly letting them go, spinning around and eagerly running at the door, with the intention of quickly opening it. Plus, Bex's gotta be waiting for us, the poor guy!

Rafa slams the doors open, immediately freezing in place when she notices the prefect. Her scare is only momentarily, however, as she quickly frowns at the girl's stare. And wow, she's even a Hufflepuff. Aren't they supposed to be nice? I'm not a kid! What a turd.

But Rafa being Rafa, a large, brattish smile swiftly creeps in her face. She grabs Scrivener by the wrist with one arm, and with the other she forcibly crosses it with Richardson's, pushing her to Bex's side until she can grab his wrist as well. "Nah, don't worry." Rafa starts marching, dragging everyone with her. When she passes beside the prefect, she shoots her a very challenging stare. "We'll do your job for you." She winks tauntingly and keeps walking unless someone forcefully stops her - Be it the prefect or her own allies.

Ava's jaw drops at Rafa's cheeky response to a Prefect, of all people! Dumbfounded for a moment, she stares at the prefect, and offers a pained smile and a shrug in wordless apology, stumbling behind Rafa as she's dragged along.

"Rafa, you can't speak to a prefect like this! We'll get in trouble!" Caroline seems shocked. Then she realizes that Rafa will think she's lame if she keeps talking like that. "Although she's just a lame Hufflepuff, I guess so it's okay!"
She quickly runs forward, in the direction the perfect pointed them, pulling Rafa, and by extension Ava, with her. "Let's find the book thief and then I'll let Pecker peck him for being mean!"

That took...something. Might have been foolish. he sighs. My friend is rude! Apologies. he then mutters something that sounds like "damned puffs"

Bex looks sadly toward the trolly witch as Rafaella drags them along. Chocolate makes things better, and everything has been going so well until he was dragged away. She was going tp bloody help! This stress was going to make him change and that just might ruin everything.

He put a hand on his wand trying to remeber if he was any good at the Accio spell, the moment he saw the book.
Accio book he makes the motion hoping the crowd doesn't impede him, or that it actually even works

Rafaella's gaze is held by the trolley's witch cart for more than a good second, but alas, she and her troupe must carry on. For Monty's owner's sake, whose name right now evades the blonde's mind.

She follows the direction of Scrivener's discreet pointing finger and a proud smirk appears on her face as she lets everyone go and friendly elbows the girl on the ribs. "Scrivener! I knew you weren't dead weight, good job!" She whispers, as she as her eyes narrow on the book. Now she just had to get near it and s-

She hears Bexley and her eyes go wide as the book simply flops under the villain's elbow. She slowly turns her face to Bex, a very criticizing frown slowly forming on her. "What the frack?" She whispers, words barely escaping her mouth. That's when she realizes something.

Why would she mad at Bexley? They are the ones that stole Monty's book.

They are the villains. Not us! They're not worth being sneaky over.

She quickly turns her face to the boy, crossing her arms as she steps ahead. "Oh, cut the craic!" She is not whispering anymore. In fact, she's purposefully being loud, so everyone else hears. "We know that you shook poor Mon- Merlin down! That book is one hundred percent his. Plus, let's be frank, what would you do with so many pages like that, huh?" She says, her angry frown quick dissolving into a taunting smile.

Ava's eyes widen at the scene, between the kids smirking and sneering, Bex trying to accio the book (though admittedly, her eyes widen in interest at that, rather than outrage), and the argument breaking out. She walks over, hands on her hips, putting on her best disapproving look. She's had lots of training with it, after all. "Rafa is right. That's not your book. Whatever you're doing with it, give it back. Now."

Looks like she's already got a head start on her campaign for a prefect's badge.

Caroline pauses for s moment, unsure how to react to this. She simply tells out "Hey!" but at that moment, Rafa is already running off towards the boy with Ava following closely behind her. Caroline looks at Bex and then walks over to the thief as well, although she's a bit nervous about confronting him, so she stays behind the other two girls.

Caroline peeks at the two kids from behind Rafa's back. Could they be telling the truth? Maybe Monty had misunderstood them and only thought they were trying to rob him?
"Well, give it back now! Monty wants it back!", she orders Rory with an uncertain sounding voice. She looks at her companions. "Right?"

Right, hand it over then. Bex is beginning to feel the stress. He wants to run, he could run faster if he were a fox. There are far too many people in this car. People are annoying. Especially the boy, Rory, and his snarky friends. He's also slightly annoyed at Raffaela right now, though he isn't entirely sure why.

Rafaella's angry stare quickly dissolves into a slightly confused expression. "Well... I mean, yeah." She says, answering Scrivener back while not actually looking at her. Carefully, she grabs the book from Rory while eyeing everyone in that group of theirs.

There's something wrong, though. She wasn't going to say anything and simply grab the book and return to their wagon, guilty for a small second for dealing with the situation with a possible wrong assumption., but the girl with eyeglasses, rolling her eyes? Excuse me, missy, but nuh-huh. Furrowing her eyebrow, she kinda uninterestedly puts the book on Ava's arms as she herself crosses hers, angrily letting her hip sway to the right. She's staring directly at the girl now, ignoring Rory's watered eyes completely. "Pft, first, to begin with, you are not cool enough to pull an eye roll like that. Secondly!" This time, her gaze shifts to every one of their group, not only the girl. "How did you think that the crying, awkward kid was okay with you borrowing his book?! You're either dense as a muggle, or something stinks here. And it's not the Trolley Witch's Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans!"

Welp, Rafa clearly didn't expect that. The people at her home, from family to servants, they all had said that at some point. Is that... Bad? She does look humbled, however. She offers them an apologetic half-shrug as she looks away, clicking her tongue in dissatisfaction. She can't look bad. She's a heroine! Plus, she didn't actually mean to be indelicate. And whatever she feels in her chest kinda sucks. Is that what people call guilt? Gosh, guilt sucks.

She doesn't say anything for a few seconds, however, letting the awkward silence linger there for a good moment. She finally sighs, trailing her stare from the floor to the twins. T-This situation is ridiculous! They are the ones that made Merlin cry in the first place, not her! She's cool as beans! In fact, to prove that she's better, she's going to do something they would never do, the villains: Apologize!

She rolls her eyes, trying to pass it off that it's not that big of a deal, although she quickly clicks her tongue, annoyed at her own attitude. She sigh, again, and begin from there. "So... Yeah. I haven't actually ever spoken to a muggle, so I didn't even think that could be offensive. Not that it matters, though. I shouldn't be calling people dense like that." Well, it's not like Rafa is going to stop doing that, but she sincerely didn't mean to actually offend anyone. "I'm sorry." She says, her cheeks in a light tone of red of shame. When she feels them burning, she does look away, muttering to herself although loudly enough for anyone to hear. "The whole thing still looks mighty suspicious.".

She waves both her hands around as she shrugs the topic off. "Anyways!" She says, a small, proud frown showing up on her face again as she perks up. "Merlin thinks you guys stole his book. He's an awkward kid, so we offered to get it back. So..." She looks at Rory again, extending her hand to him. Or to the book, more accordingly.

Ava fumbles with the book Rafa shoves into her arms, then stands, more than a little dumbfounded at what's gone on, looking from person to person in surprise. "Um... sorry for barging in like that," she says, offering a pained smile. "We'll, um... tell him that. Of course."

She turns slightly, as if to go, and then says to the other kids, "Probably a really weird time to be saying this, but... hi. I'm Ava. And sorry about all the confusion." Her arms tighten around the book. "Just out of curiosity... why did you want to borrow the book? It seems kind of... obscure?"

It's not quite a question, but it's not quite a statement either. This whole situation has put her all wrong-footed, and she's still struggling to regain her balance.

Ava's already replying to Rory before he even finishes his statement. "It does, doesn't it!" she says excitedly, holding the book out to look at the cover. "And there are lots more like this one at Hogwarts! I mean, according to what I've heard. From my brother."

That takes a bit of wind out of her sails, talking about her brother. But she moves on quickly. "I'm a first-year, so I don't know for sure. I just know that I can't wait to visit the library!" It's a good thing the tall girl interrupts and moves people along, or she might get caught up in a book conversation that would make the both of them miss the Sorting, and then where would she be? She nearly bounces toward the door, looking back over her shoulder to call to Rory, "Nice to meet you, Rory!"

When Rafa apologizes to the twins, Caroline suddenly speaks up as well: "Yes, I'm really sorry, too."
For the rest of the conversation, she stays awkwardly in the background, only throwing weird glances at the twins. When the group gathers and leaves, once they are out of earshot of them, Caroline says: "That's really sad. Poor kids. Can you imagine being...muggle-born" She whispers the last word as if it was a curse.

Bex runs a hand through hia hair feeling awkward. Yeah..we just saw him. crying and looking all broken up. Hopefully you can forgive us."

Rafaella watches the interaction between Ava and Rory with narrowed eyes, a small, mischevious smile slowly popping up between her cheeks. It does go away when everyone starts saying bye. She shrugs when she notices she's the last one standing, a bored expression taking in as she's left alone with her so-be rivals, as she spins around in her feet and starts following the crew back to our compartment. Being a bit far away from her companions, she can't help but kneel down and pretend to tie her shoes, barely out of the view of her enemies' nook, her intrepid curiosity winning over any sense of decency. Yes, she's trying to hear what they may have to say in privacy.

She obviously doesn't take long, and may even untie her shoes and tie them again in case anyone may confront her. She'd just say they felt loose! The perfect plan, indeed. Unless the chattery seems particularly interesting — As in, if they admit that they actually stole the book, or they're continuously talking about her —, she doesn't stick around much, getting up and jogging to her companions so she won't be left behind.

She'd arrive just in time to hear Scrivener's comment, which makes Rafa cock her head. "I dunno. I thought muggles were dense, but the twins seemed pretty sharp for Muggle-borns. I'd hafta think that adults may lie about them, for whatever reason". She says, shrugging off her commentary nonchalantly. A naughty, mean grin appears on Rafa's face as she stares at Caroline, however. She was growing fond of bothering the girl. "I know denser wizards, anyway. Food for thought".

As soon as the group enters their wagon, Rafa saunters over their compartment and either playfully kicks it or suddenly slides it open, leaping inside with both hands on her hips and a triumphant smile on her face. "Tanananana! Merlin and Merlin's cat, Monty, your group of knights have arrived, and we come bearing gifts!" She steps off the door and signals to the arriving group, especially Ava who is the one carrying the book, and starts announcing everyone. "Here comes forth Bexley the Grump! Despite his grumpiness, he managed to fend off the evil Prefect while we scoured the never-ending wagon-thing for Scrivener's owl, Pecker! And here comes forth Scrivener the Wuss, showing everyone that despite her, uh, wussines? Yeah, anyways, despite that, she showed everyone that she can get whatever she wants, 'couse she got Pecker! Oh, and she makes me laugh, I guess." The same devious smile of before appears on her face, however, when Richardson herself finally enters the compartment. "And this, of course, is Richardson the Wise, with your shiny ol' book! And that wasn't the only reward for this quest, oh no! For Richardson herself has found a boyfriend! His name is Rory!" Her smile quickly dissolves into a contained cackle, as she drops at her seat, at Merlin's side. When she finally manages to halt her laugh, smiley Rafa looks at Merlin with a curious expectation. "Hey, so, those kids didn't mean to steal anything. Is it possible that you just kinda felt overwhelmed and started crying because you thought they wanted to, like, have have your book?" She says, putting emphasis on both haves to make it clear that they just wanted to borrow it. Or, well, at least Rory said he did. "Anyways, I think they also apologized. Richardson would know for certain, right?" She says, teasingly staring at the girl.

Ava flushes instantly and furiously at Rafa's comment. Her mouth gapes open as she stares at the blond girl. "I do NOT have a boyfr... I mean, he seems friendly, but..." She looks down at the book in her arms, which she still clutches in a hug. Offering it forward to Merlin, she says in a tiny, squeaky voice like a grumpy hamster. "He likes books. I like books. Doesn't mean he's my boyfriend. I don't know where you got that ridiculous idea."

The words are there, sure, but her blushing only becomes more intense. Perhaps the bookworm doth protest too much. Book delivered, she retreats to stand against the wall before she says anything irretrievably foolish.