"i know life well enough to know you can't count on things staying around or standing still, no matter how much you want them to. you can't stop people from dying. you can't stop them from going away. you can't stop yourself from going away either."...
'and it gets colder and colder, when the sun goes down'- coney island
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At 3 o'clock on September 1st, compartment D was ringing with the sound of singing and laughter. Inside, Ophelia, Ginny, Luna, Neville, Daisy and Elijah were dancing along to music playing from Daisy's new Walkman, a birthday gift from her muggle grandparents.
Muggle music was new to the young wizards, but they'd found so much joy in listening to Loser on repeat for the last couple of hours, they had all picked up the words, giddily singing along.
"...I'm a loser babaaayyyyy, so why dontcha kill meeeee!" Neville was beside himself with laughter as Elijah and Ophelia were standing in the centre of the compartment, giving an extremely over the top 'concert', singing into their wands like microphones, completely out of tune. It was clear the pair had had way too much sugar from the trolley.
Their fun was interrupted by a sharp knock on the compartment window before it was pulled open. Daisy rushed to switch off the music.
"Hey guys, could you keep it down a bit?" Penelope Clearwater was now stood in the doorway, her long blonde hair tied in a low ponytail, and a blue badge reading 'head girl' was pinned to the edge of her robe. Percy must be thrilled.
"Yeah of course Penelope." Ophelia smiled at the girl, who returned the gesture.
"Thanks!" The head girl turned to leave before looking back at Ophelia. "Oh and please, call me Penny." And with that, she headed down the corridor.
"How on earth did Percy get her?!" Ginny retorted, tucking her feet up onto her seat. Her sister slumped into the space between her and the window as Elijah did the same opposite.
"No clue."
~~~
The group had calmed down slightly now. Elijah had evidently reached his sugar crash, snoring against the window opposite Ophelia. Beside him, Daisy was braiding her dark hair, undoing it and redoing it every two seconds. Ginny was lying on her sister's shoulder, nearly drifting off while Neville and Luna were engaged in a conversation about herbology, something Ophelia had noticed the boy showing a great deal of excitement towards the subject. He looked almost animated as he discussed a new plant he'd received over the holidays, it was quite cute.
But Ophelia was bored, twisting her ring over and over, watching the moonstone orbit around her middle finger.
"Anyone wanna play some exploding snap?" Ginny removed herself from her sister's shoulder, nodding sleepily. Luna and Neville agreed too, as Daisy brushed out yet another braid, before nodding along.
"Great, I think Ron's got it in his trunk," Ophelia stretched upwards, shaking her legs in attempt to wake them up, "I'll go find him."
She set off down the train's corridor, checking each compartment as she went. She was about to check the fifth one as the train jolted, knocking her backwards onto the floor, before coming to a complete halt.
