Siobahn maneuvered through the crowds of families and hefted Pabu's carrier cage up high so not to bump it into someone and startle the poor Jarvey as she stepped onto the train. Her sharp green eyes shrewdly passed over the kids in the first car and frowned. Jacques wasn't there. She pushed her way past the kids talking excitedly and pushed by to go back to the private compartments to see if he'd found a quieter spot for them to sit. The two of them had been writing to each other over the holiday and she couldn't wait to actually talk to him for a change. Three months was a long time to not talk to your best friend. In time Siobahn hoped that perhaps they might become something more than that, but for now, she was happy to have a friend. "Jacques!" She called seeing the boy's familiar blue eyes and black hair. She couldn't help but think of how dashing he looked in his new dress robes. It also looked like he had gained a few more inches on her over the summer. She smiled as she walked up to him and glanced up at him. "You've grown."
Jacques blinked and glanced at Siobahn and smiled lightly at the sight of the familiar Hufflepuff. " Hi Sio!" He said excitedly before jumping off his seat and greeting her with a warm hug. He bent to say hello to Pabu. Before standing upright again "haven't really grown that much just a 3 or 4 inches" he told her. "Your summer sounded like it was exciting, or at least from what you've written me over the summer holiday," he said "You should come visit me one summer and we can go out and do stuff" he said told her with a smile, giving Cinnamon a pat.
Siobahn grinned wider when he slipped his arms around her and gave her a warm hug. She hugged him with her one free arm and sighed happily. "Hi, Jacques." She said with a big smile. She watched him say hello to Pabu and moved to set the cage down on the seat. "Well I haven't grown at all, so you look a lot taller to me." She said with a bit of a sigh. "I hope I grow eventually. Though if my grandmother is any indicator of how I'll grow then that doesn't give me much hope. She's only five inches taller than I am!" She moved to set her bag on the seat and smiled at Cinnamon. "It was a lot of fun. Granddad took me to some really great places over the summer. I wasn't sure what he had planned, but seeing Ireland was loads of fun. I think he's planning on taking me and my Gran to China for the Christmas holiday. Oh, I'd love that! I'm sure Gran would be okay with that. I'll ask her. " She replied back moving to sit on the bench seat. Her legs were still too short to touch the ground. "Maybe I should have thought to bring a stool." She said watching her dangling feet. "Oh was your Cousin Trevor going to join us on the ride later? It sounded like you and he had a rather exciting summer as well."
Jacques shrugged his shoulders "I'm not sure, but probably not since I was hoping to just sit with you during the ride so we can talk and catch up and what not" he admitted "But, I suppose I can ask him and see if he wants to" he told her and feeds Cinnamon a treat and glances at Sio with his blue eyes "Well, I'm sure you will grow soon, I wouldn't be too worried, we all grow at some point." He answered.
Siobahn's face went a bit pink at his words. She couldn't help but feel happy that he wanted to spend the ride with her. "Okay," She said grinning at him. "I'm good with that. I wasn't sure if he'd have other people to hang out with or not. I know what it's like to feel left out. Last year was a bit nerve wracking on the train. This year's even better cause I have you to hang out with." she added with a happy smile. She watched him feed his cat some treats. "If Pabu wouldn't try and run off I could let him out of his cage," She said glancing at her jarvey for a moment. "I don't think I'll chance it though. The stinker led me on a merry chase all summer." She said sticking her tongue out at the jarvey. Pabu immediately stuck his tongue out at her and blew a raspberry and swore some choice swear words making her giggle. "You have such a potty mouth Pabu." She shrugged at Jacques' words. "Thanks. I think though it's going to be awhile. I'll try not to worry about it too much. Short people have an easier time of hiding."
"Tall people, on the other hand, do not have the luxury of hiding, because we are usually easy to spot in a crowd" he said and frowned afraid that this would be the same as last year where he was a target for Slytherins, but hopefully it would be different this year especially with Sio, she was also a target for Slytherin students so he would need to be extra vigilant to make sure she didn't get picked on during the year. He had every intention to make sure that she wasn't.
Siobahn nodded and her mind went back to the previous year when she had been chased down by Slytherins and the two of them had met. "Yeah, that is true. Let's hope we don't get any Slytherins stalking us this year. If they do, we'll just have to stick together to keep them from picking on us. At least you're taller now, that might deter them a bit." She replied. "Oh, want to try some candy I got in Ireland? It's pretty good," She said pulling out a tin from her bag.
Jacques nodded his head agreeing with her "I'm hoping we don't, I don't want another year where we are a target for Slytherin students" he said. Mind you his cousin was also a Slytherin but one of the few good Slytherins, he was dreading the start of the school year but he was pretty sure it would be a good one, especially it meant that he could hang out with Sio and do homework with her and walk her to class. "Let's hope, it does but I'm not going to get my hopes up, that just might give them another reason to tease me," he said letting out a sigh.
"It would be nice if they could just leave us alone," She agreed. "I kind of doubt they'll do that though. Maybe we should find some other people and make a group. If there are more of us there's a less likely chance of them coming after us." She said thoughtfully. "I think you look quite dashing," She said smiling at him. "They should really find out better things to do with their time."
She opened the tin and held it out to him. "Want to try a piece?"
" I wish they would too" he told her with a small sigh and glanced at her soft features before blushing a bit as she commented that he was dashing "thanks, you are just as lovely" he told her before shaking his head a little at her offer to let me try her candy " no, thanks. I'm okay for now but perhaps later" he answered.
Siobahn nodded. Life would be so much easier if the Slytherins would just find better things to do with their spare time. She noticed his blushing at her compliment and blushed back at his own to her. "Thank you Jacques," She said ducking her head with a wide smile. She closed her tin and smiled at him. "All right, later then." She said putting it back away. "So is there anything else you want to talk about?" She asked.
Jacques pondered for a bit before speaking up " well, I'm hoping that we are in the same classes because last year we weren't, even though I did quite enjoy waiting for you outside your classes, mind you I was nervous as hell when I was" he admitted to her. "At least if we are in the same classes this year we can stick together and get through the year together, that is if want to. You don't necessarily have to" he told her suddenly feeling sheepish around her. He wondered what was going on with him, he hadn't felt like this for anyone before, it was new, different and refreshing. He glanced downwards at his feet.
Siobahn waited patiently while he thought of what to say. She was playing with her braided pigtail when he finally spoke. She smiled. "I hope so too. Oh this year we don't have broom flying lessons, which I'll miss. Even If we aren't in all the same classes I would like that." She said smiling a bit shyly at him. "I always did look forwards to seeing you after class got out every day. I would like to do that again, we can even study together," She suggested still playing with her pigtail. She bit her lip and swung her feet back and forth. The butterflies in her stomach were rolling around again, she normally got these when she thought of Jacques and she didn't know why. "Umm so do you have your schedule? we could figure out if it'll work this year," She suggested looking up at him with a small smile
Jacques smiled lightly to himself before mustering up the courage to look at her face "I think that is a good idea. We can be the inseparable duo" he said excitedly. He pondered a bit, had he gotten his schedule yet, he wasn't entirely sure if he had. "I think so, not sure though" he answered as he started rifling through his bag for his class schedule, now where did he put it. If his thought process was right he had put it in with all the important pieces of paper for school. After a bit, he pulled it out "ah ha! Found it!" He said handing her the piece of paper, his hand lightly brushing against hers.
Siobahn smiled at him even wider when he called them the inseparable duo. "We'll have to come up with a cool nickname or something." She giggled back. She moved to pull her schedule out of her satchel and waited for him to find his own. She took the offered paper blushing a little when his hand brushed her own and compared them. "hmm..looks like we do have a few classes together this semester, though not all of them. We can make it work though." She said and moved to sit over next to him to show him. "At least we only have core classes still, though we have to pick elective courses for next year. Oh, if we like similar ones we can look those over and pick the same ones. We might be able to share those." She suggested smiling up at him.
Jacques moved over a little on the bench so Sio could sit beside him, he looked at her schedule to his. "Hmm, well core classes is better than not having any classes together. As for the electives I'm sure we will figure out which ones we want" he told her as he tried to keep his heartbeat as normal as possible but, with Sio sitting beside him it just made his heart race. " if not we still have the weekends together too" he told her. He set his schedule down and looked through his bag, he had decided to buy her a small gift over the summer and he was hoping he had packed it.
Siobahn nodded at him. "Looks like we have Herbology together on Tuesday and Wednesday, so that will be fun. And Care of Magical creatures together on Thursday and Monday. Oh and we can eat lunch together. We don't have to sit at our own tables all the time." She replied with a small smile. Her stomach was getting all tied up just being close to him, she bit her lip a bit as he spoke. "The weekends will be fun, even if we can't go off of the school grounds. We can spend a lot of time together." She said feeling really excited and remembered something she had found on her trip that she had wanted to give him. Now was the perfect moment. She stood up to grab her bag and sat back down and sorted through the small bags that she used to organize her things. She pulled out a green bag and held onto it waiting until he was down looking through his bag. "I-I got you something." She said a bit shyly, wondering what he would think of it.
Jacques nodded his head "it looks like it, we can meet up somewhere and we can walk to those classes together, only if you want to it's not necessary" he quickly told her, he didn't want to seem like he was forcing her to do what he asked. He smiled at the thought of having lunch with her every single day. He searched through his bag and finally found a small red box "I got you something too, over the summer just because I missed you and couldn't wait to see you again" he said excitedly before opening the box and showing her a gold bracelet with the Hufflepuff insignia and her name engraved on the inside of the gold band. "I hope you like it," he said to her with a smile and brief peck on her cheek.
Siobahn leaned in closer to listen to him as he spoke. She merely smiled at his suggestion. "I'd love that." She assured him. "Oh!" she said her eyes widening at his sweet words and leaned closer to watch as he opened the box to show her the bracelet. "It's so beautiful, I love it!" She replied and blushed as he pecked her cheek. She took the bracelet and looked it over with shining eyes. Then she pushed up her sleeve so she could put it on and look at it on her wrist. 'It's the best present I've ever gotten," She said beaming and took her turn to open the bag and pull out a pendant that had a very detailed Celtic knot on it that looked like a lion's head. "I saw this and thought of you, I don't know if you wear necklaces or not, but I figured you could find some way of using it." She said handing it to him.
Jacques grinned lightly glad she liked what he had gotten her "I'm so glad you like it, I was a little worried you wouldn't so it's a relief to know you do," he told her and smiled as she took the bracelet he closed the box and set it in his lap. He glanced at the pendant in his hand and smiled at her "thank you! I will treasure it forever." He told her and put it around his neck right away, he studied it, it was a very intricate design which he liked and the fact that the Celtic knot looked like a lion's head made it more awesome. He vowed silently to himself that he would never take it off, especially when it came from someone he was starting to really care deeply about.
Siobahn moved to put a hand over his. "You shouldn't have worried Jacques," She said smiling sweetly at him. "I'd love anything you gave me because it was from your heart." She smiled, even more, when he looked over the pendant. "I'm glad to hear that." She told him. She felt like she had been smiling for the past hour because she had been smiling so much. Then again she had felt like this last year as well whenever she was around Jacques. She grinned when he put it around his neck right away and watched as he studied it closely. "It was hidden under a pile of necklaces in the shop I went into, I think the shop owner got a bit miffed because I had him pull all of them out so I could look at them." She said with a small laugh. She realized then that her hand was resting on his leg and flushed as she pulled her hand away.
Jacques blinked and glanced at Siobahn and smiled lightly at the sight of the familiar Hufflepuff. " Hi Sio!" He said excitedly before jumping off his seat and greeting her with a warm hug. He bent to say hello to Pabu. Before standing upright again "haven't really grown that much just a 3 or 4 inches" he told her. "Your summer sounded like it was exciting, or at least from what you've written me over the summer holiday," he said "You should come visit me one summer and we can go out and do stuff" he said told her with a smile, giving Cinnamon a pat.
Siobahn grinned wider when he slipped his arms around her and gave her a warm hug. She hugged him with her one free arm and sighed happily. "Hi, Jacques." She said with a big smile. She watched him say hello to Pabu and moved to set the cage down on the seat. "Well I haven't grown at all, so you look a lot taller to me." She said with a bit of a sigh. "I hope I grow eventually. Though if my grandmother is any indicator of how I'll grow then that doesn't give me much hope. She's only five inches taller than I am!" She moved to set her bag on the seat and smiled at Cinnamon. "It was a lot of fun. Granddad took me to some really great places over the summer. I wasn't sure what he had planned, but seeing Ireland was loads of fun. I think he's planning on taking me and my Gran to China for the Christmas holiday. Oh, I'd love that! I'm sure Gran would be okay with that. I'll ask her. " She replied back moving to sit on the bench seat. Her legs were still too short to touch the ground. "Maybe I should have thought to bring a stool." She said watching her dangling feet. "Oh was your Cousin Trevor going to join us on the ride later? It sounded like you and he had a rather exciting summer as well."
Jacques shrugged his shoulders "I'm not sure, but probably not since I was hoping to just sit with you during the ride so we can talk and catch up and what not" he admitted "But, I suppose I can ask him and see if he wants to" he told her and feeds Cinnamon a treat and glances at Sio with his blue eyes "Well, I'm sure you will grow soon, I wouldn't be too worried, we all grow at some point." He answered.
Siobahn's face went a bit pink at his words. She couldn't help but feel happy that he wanted to spend the ride with her. "Okay," She said grinning at him. "I'm good with that. I wasn't sure if he'd have other people to hang out with or not. I know what it's like to feel left out. Last year was a bit nerve wracking on the train. This year's even better cause I have you to hang out with." she added with a happy smile. She watched him feed his cat some treats. "If Pabu wouldn't try and run off I could let him out of his cage," She said glancing at her jarvey for a moment. "I don't think I'll chance it though. The stinker led me on a merry chase all summer." She said sticking her tongue out at the jarvey. Pabu immediately stuck his tongue out at her and blew a raspberry and swore some choice swear words making her giggle. "You have such a potty mouth Pabu." She shrugged at Jacques' words. "Thanks. I think though it's going to be awhile. I'll try not to worry about it too much. Short people have an easier time of hiding."
"Tall people, on the other hand, do not have the luxury of hiding, because we are usually easy to spot in a crowd" he said and frowned afraid that this would be the same as last year where he was a target for Slytherins, but hopefully it would be different this year especially with Sio, she was also a target for Slytherin students so he would need to be extra vigilant to make sure she didn't get picked on during the year. He had every intention to make sure that she wasn't.
Siobahn nodded and her mind went back to the previous year when she had been chased down by Slytherins and the two of them had met. "Yeah, that is true. Let's hope we don't get any Slytherins stalking us this year. If they do, we'll just have to stick together to keep them from picking on us. At least you're taller now, that might deter them a bit." She replied. "Oh, want to try some candy I got in Ireland? It's pretty good," She said pulling out a tin from her bag.
Jacques nodded his head agreeing with her "I'm hoping we don't, I don't want another year where we are a target for Slytherin students" he said. Mind you his cousin was also a Slytherin but one of the few good Slytherins, he was dreading the start of the school year but he was pretty sure it would be a good one, especially it meant that he could hang out with Sio and do homework with her and walk her to class. "Let's hope, it does but I'm not going to get my hopes up, that just might give them another reason to tease me," he said letting out a sigh.
"It would be nice if they could just leave us alone," She agreed. "I kind of doubt they'll do that though. Maybe we should find some other people and make a group. If there are more of us there's a less likely chance of them coming after us." She said thoughtfully. "I think you look quite dashing," She said smiling at him. "They should really find out better things to do with their time."
She opened the tin and held it out to him. "Want to try a piece?"
" I wish they would too" he told her with a small sigh and glanced at her soft features before blushing a bit as she commented that he was dashing "thanks, you are just as lovely" he told her before shaking his head a little at her offer to let me try her candy " no, thanks. I'm okay for now but perhaps later" he answered.
Siobahn nodded. Life would be so much easier if the Slytherins would just find better things to do with their spare time. She noticed his blushing at her compliment and blushed back at his own to her. "Thank you Jacques," She said ducking her head with a wide smile. She closed her tin and smiled at him. "All right, later then." She said putting it back away. "So is there anything else you want to talk about?" She asked.
Jacques pondered for a bit before speaking up " well, I'm hoping that we are in the same classes because last year we weren't, even though I did quite enjoy waiting for you outside your classes, mind you I was nervous as hell when I was" he admitted to her. "At least if we are in the same classes this year we can stick together and get through the year together, that is if want to. You don't necessarily have to" he told her suddenly feeling sheepish around her. He wondered what was going on with him, he hadn't felt like this for anyone before, it was new, different and refreshing. He glanced downwards at his feet.
Siobahn waited patiently while he thought of what to say. She was playing with her braided pigtail when he finally spoke. She smiled. "I hope so too. Oh this year we don't have broom flying lessons, which I'll miss. Even If we aren't in all the same classes I would like that." She said smiling a bit shyly at him. "I always did look forwards to seeing you after class got out every day. I would like to do that again, we can even study together," She suggested still playing with her pigtail. She bit her lip and swung her feet back and forth. The butterflies in her stomach were rolling around again, she normally got these when she thought of Jacques and she didn't know why. "Umm so do you have your schedule? we could figure out if it'll work this year," She suggested looking up at him with a small smile
Jacques smiled lightly to himself before mustering up the courage to look at her face "I think that is a good idea. We can be the inseparable duo" he said excitedly. He pondered a bit, had he gotten his schedule yet, he wasn't entirely sure if he had. "I think so, not sure though" he answered as he started rifling through his bag for his class schedule, now where did he put it. If his thought process was right he had put it in with all the important pieces of paper for school. After a bit, he pulled it out "ah ha! Found it!" He said handing her the piece of paper, his hand lightly brushing against hers.
Siobahn smiled at him even wider when he called them the inseparable duo. "We'll have to come up with a cool nickname or something." She giggled back. She moved to pull her schedule out of her satchel and waited for him to find his own. She took the offered paper blushing a little when his hand brushed her own and compared them. "hmm..looks like we do have a few classes together this semester, though not all of them. We can make it work though." She said and moved to sit over next to him to show him. "At least we only have core classes still, though we have to pick elective courses for next year. Oh, if we like similar ones we can look those over and pick the same ones. We might be able to share those." She suggested smiling up at him.
Jacques moved over a little on the bench so Sio could sit beside him, he looked at her schedule to his. "Hmm, well core classes is better than not having any classes together. As for the electives I'm sure we will figure out which ones we want" he told her as he tried to keep his heartbeat as normal as possible but, with Sio sitting beside him it just made his heart race. " if not we still have the weekends together too" he told her. He set his schedule down and looked through his bag, he had decided to buy her a small gift over the summer and he was hoping he had packed it.
Siobahn nodded at him. "Looks like we have Herbology together on Tuesday and Wednesday, so that will be fun. And Care of Magical creatures together on Thursday and Monday. Oh and we can eat lunch together. We don't have to sit at our own tables all the time." She replied with a small smile. Her stomach was getting all tied up just being close to him, she bit her lip a bit as he spoke. "The weekends will be fun, even if we can't go off of the school grounds. We can spend a lot of time together." She said feeling really excited and remembered something she had found on her trip that she had wanted to give him. Now was the perfect moment. She stood up to grab her bag and sat back down and sorted through the small bags that she used to organize her things. She pulled out a green bag and held onto it waiting until he was down looking through his bag. "I-I got you something." She said a bit shyly, wondering what he would think of it.
Jacques nodded his head "it looks like it, we can meet up somewhere and we can walk to those classes together, only if you want to it's not necessary" he quickly told her, he didn't want to seem like he was forcing her to do what he asked. He smiled at the thought of having lunch with her every single day. He searched through his bag and finally found a small red box "I got you something too, over the summer just because I missed you and couldn't wait to see you again" he said excitedly before opening the box and showing her a gold bracelet with the Hufflepuff insignia and her name engraved on the inside of the gold band. "I hope you like it," he said to her with a smile and brief peck on her cheek.
Siobahn leaned in closer to listen to him as he spoke. She merely smiled at his suggestion. "I'd love that." She assured him. "Oh!" she said her eyes widening at his sweet words and leaned closer to watch as he opened the box to show her the bracelet. "It's so beautiful, I love it!" She replied and blushed as he pecked her cheek. She took the bracelet and looked it over with shining eyes. Then she pushed up her sleeve so she could put it on and look at it on her wrist. 'It's the best present I've ever gotten," She said beaming and took her turn to open the bag and pull out a pendant that had a very detailed Celtic knot on it that looked like a lion's head. "I saw this and thought of you, I don't know if you wear necklaces or not, but I figured you could find some way of using it." She said handing it to him.
Jacques grinned lightly glad she liked what he had gotten her "I'm so glad you like it, I was a little worried you wouldn't so it's a relief to know you do," he told her and smiled as she took the bracelet he closed the box and set it in his lap. He glanced at the pendant in his hand and smiled at her "thank you! I will treasure it forever." He told her and put it around his neck right away, he studied it, it was a very intricate design which he liked and the fact that the Celtic knot looked like a lion's head made it more awesome. He vowed silently to himself that he would never take it off, especially when it came from someone he was starting to really care deeply about.
Siobahn moved to put a hand over his. "You shouldn't have worried Jacques," She said smiling sweetly at him. "I'd love anything you gave me because it was from your heart." She smiled, even more, when he looked over the pendant. "I'm glad to hear that." She told him. She felt like she had been smiling for the past hour because she had been smiling so much. Then again she had felt like this last year as well whenever she was around Jacques. She grinned when he put it around his neck right away and watched as he studied it closely. "It was hidden under a pile of necklaces in the shop I went into, I think the shop owner got a bit miffed because I had him pull all of them out so I could look at them." She said with a small laugh. She realized then that her hand was resting on his leg and flushed as she pulled her hand away.

When she finally got to his side she smiled up at him. "So now that we're done with dinner, want to find something to do before curfew is enforced?" She asked with a smile.
Her hand moved over the bracelet on her other wrist playing with the bracelet that Jacques has given her earlier that day. She had the feeling that she'd be wearing it everyday.