BEGINNING OF THE END [TRAIN] || MAXIMA

[Deleted]

'Cause I feel like I can do anything when
My head is spinning and my feet off the ground
When I can't stop dancing like no one's around

1 SEPTEMBER 2025

Summer had officially concluded, and it was already time to head back to school. It felt weird like this wasn't the last time that she would be riding this train towards school. Sure, she would be heading home for a holiday, but this was her last first day of school unless she went to muggle college. It just didn't feel like it was real, as if she were dreaming and would wake up. Was she excited? Of course, she was ready to see what the future would bring. But at the same time, she wasn't prepared. She wondered if this was what her older siblings had felt on their way to Hogwarts for their last first day.

Now that it was only her, Persephone and Penelope, she wasn't sure what this year would bring. There was no Cara, no Kinsey, just the three of them. The last of the Bainbridge children to go through Hogwarts, at least, until Dustin had kids, and they headed off to Hogwarts. But she wasn't exactly sure where Dustin was, or how he was.

She shook her head from the thought, looking outside for a section to get her head back on her shoulder. Watching as the train moved, the outside world zooming past. Her attention returned to the book on her lap for only a split second before the door to the car she occupied opened. She had been alone, but it seemed that someone had found their way, not that she minded. Her head slowly rose, brushing a strand of blonde hair behind her ear just as the person entered.

OPEN THREAD

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

While she probably could have spent the entirety of the journey to Hogwarts in the prefects’ carriage, Max wasn’t sold on it. She didn’t mind her fellow prefects, but she saw a lot of them as it was. While she took the role seriously, she wasn’t one of those prefects who centered her whole identity around being a prefect, and spending time around only the other prefects would have been weird and exclusionary and likely boring, to boot. So, as with most of the other students, she boarded the train without much regard for which carriage it was that she was boarding; she could always walk to the prefects’ carriage once it was time for all of them to meet.

Carrying her cat and belongings, she walked down the train corridor and found a place to sit, in one of the places nearest the door to the compartment. Max had barely gotten herself comfortable, however, when the younger students began to play a game of Exploding Snap. Though the train was in motion and well out of the station, she took the explosions as her cue to leave. They reminded her too much of what had happened at the Quidditch finals, and the noise agitated her cat, Oscar, anyway.

Max tried to remain casual about it, but of course it wasn’t typical to see someone get up and leave their compartment entirely once the train had left the station. The younger students didn’t seem to notice or care, so she simply left them to their game. Most of the compartments, understandably, had filled up; the few seats that were visibly empty appeared to have been vacated only for the moment, and jackets or bags or books marked where the occupant was going to return.

When she came across a relatively empty compartment—with only one person in it—she took the opportunity without a second thought, adjusting her grip on Oscar’s carrier so that she could slide the compartment door open. As the other student in the compartment looked up, Max saw that she had ended up seated with another prefect after all: Peyton Bainbridge, a Hufflepuff in her own year.

“Hi, Peyton,” Max smiled, setting her trunk down upon the first available seat and Oscar’s carrier beside it. Both were heavy enough that she didn’t want to have to carry them any longer than necessary. “Er… You don’t mind, do you?” she checked, since she had sort of assumed rather than asked. “The compartment I was in was a bit loud.”

@peytonbainbridge

[Deleted]

'Cause I feel like I can do anything when
My head is spinning and my feet off the ground
When I can't stop dancing like no one's around

The blonde wasn't sure where her sisters had run off to, but that wasn't enough to stop her. She enjoyed the quiet sometimes, and having a compartment to herself was something that she wouldn't mind. It gave her time to read, to think, to give pause to the moment. She had been doing that a lot lately, just taking in the silence as if it was a breath of fresh air - and sometimes it was. Her new power that had only developed a few months ago added to the loudness of any given room.

When she had looked up to see who had entered, a smile slowly fluttered onto the young Hufflepuff's face, mirroring the one that the brunette had. "Max, hey," she replied in greeting, watching as the girl put down her trunk and a carrier before she spoke. She shook her head, brushing one of her hands toward the seat, "No. By all means."

maxima ruqayyah greyback

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

September 1, 2025

"Max, hey," Peyton greeted her, a small smile upon the blonde's own face as she spoke. She shook her head, and gestured towards the seat. "No," she said. "By all means."

Max, who had already marginally intruded upon Peyton's space in the compartment, nodded her head, though she would have left if Peyton had expressed any hesitation about letting her sit there. "Thanks, Peyton," she replied, carefully hoisting her trunk up onto the luggage rack over the row of seats as the train rolled on its way. It was weird to think that she would only have to do the same thing a few more times—going home at Christmastime being the most likely occasion—before she, too, would be done with school. She adjusted Oscar's carrier, too, and sat down beside it.

"I got stuck in a compartment with some younger students who were playing Exploding Snap when I left them," she mentioned, sighing slightly. "How were your holidays?" she asked Peyton of the break that they had had from school, though it felt much shorter than it really had been in hindsight.

@peytonbainbridge

[Deleted]

'Cause I feel like I can do anything when
My head is spinning and my feet off the ground
When I can't stop dancing like no one's around

The girl was quick to thank her, resulting in the blonde merely nodding her head and moving in her seat to get more comfortable. Both the movement of her body and the loud noise of the trunk being placed on the luggage rack disturbed the young cat's sleep. It's head popped up for a movement, the blanket that was on her crossed-legs having moved to reveal Kitty. She seemed unphased after a few seconds, curling back up and returning to her past state.

'I got stuck in a compartment with some younger students who were playing Exploding Snap when I left them,' The blonde wrinkled her nose and shook her head, "I would have exploded," she breathed out with a soft sigh. After the words left her lips, Max asked about her holidays, and she smiled, "It was okay. I went to that Weekly bash thingy, that was pretty interesting. It was pretty bland not being able to travel cause of the fever. How about your holiday?"

maxima ruqayyah greyback

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

September 1, 2025

"I would have exploded," Peyton stated in response to Max's comment about the game of Exploding Snap that had been going on in her previous compartment. At least she wasn't alone in that, Max thought; she had been bothered by it, as had Oscar, though there unfortunately wasn't actually any rule that said that they couldn't play Exploding Snap on the train.

"It was okay," Peyton said about her summer. "I went to that Weekly bash thingy," which Max had all but forgotten had happened, although she had been invited to it, "that was pretty interesting. It was pretty bland not being able to travel cause of the fever. How about your holiday?"

Apart from the terror that she had felt at coming so close to death in the fireworks explosion, Max's summer had been alright, too. She had turned seventeen, so that was a milestone. Aside from trying to avoid catching Hag's Fever, she didn't really leave the British Isles under normal circumstances, so the travel restrictions themselves hadn't really affected much for her. "Yeah, it was alright," she replied. It wasn't the best summer she had ever had, but it also wasn't the worst. "What was the Weeklys' party like?" Max wondered if it had been the party equivalent of the Exploding Snap game that she had left behind. With how many Weeklys there were and how wealthy they supposedly were, it must have been wild.

@peytonbainbridge

[Deleted]

'Cause I feel like I can do anything when
My head is spinning and my feet off the ground
When I can't stop dancing like no one's around

Peyton often preferred peace and quiet, and the idea of having to deal with a game of Exploding Snaps was not her idea of fun. Just like Max, she likely would have left the compartment in search of something much more peaceful and relaxing. She already knew once they arrived at the castle and everyone was thrown into the Great Hall together for the Welcome Back Feast, it would be loud. So the train ride had to be silent, or somewhat quieter, right?

She began explaining her summer and the lack of traveling due to the fever. What she didn't tell her about was struggling with her newfound gift, something that had seemed to take hold of her on her seventeenth birthday. Not many people knew about it, not even some of her family. She had only told Penelope and Persephone; she couldn't keep secrets from them. But Max didn't really need to know that.

'Yeah, it was alright. What was the Weekly's party like?' Peyton slightly smiled at the girl, shrugging her shoulders, "Extremely loud. Lots of drinking. I left pretty early..." she breathed out. She didn't mention that she had lost drunk Jimmie in the crowd of people and, after searching for her a bit, gave up and decided to hide in the corner before heading home. Peyton and parties didn't go well together; she usually ended up alone somewhere or leaving early.

maxima ruqayyah greyback ● sorry for the wait!

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

September 1, 2025

Max made a face at Peyton's description of the party, which she said had been loud, with lots of drinking, and that she had left early on. It sounded absolutely horrible to her, too. She had been to a handful of those kinds of parties at Hogwarts, but she couldn't imagine how much wilder it would have been if people weren't concerned about the possibility of getting into trouble with their teachers. There probably hadn't been adult supervision at the Weeklys, either, which had given people more freedom to do what they wanted without consequence. Knowing how their fellow students acted even while at school, well… Max couldn't say that her hopes were too high.

"Merlin," Max muttered. She couldn't blame Peyton for leaving that sort of thing, not when she would have done the exact same thing. "I'm sorry," she commented, not that she could do anything about it. "That sounds awful." Maybe she should have gone, she thought, if only to give Peyton some company. "Hopefully there aren't any parties at Hogwarts tonight?" she offered. They might get a break from that for the first night. After that, wasn't there always something popping up?

@peytonbainbridge

[Deleted]

'Cause I feel like I can do anything when
My head is spinning and my feet off the ground
When I can't stop dancing like no one's around

Parties weren't exactly Peyton's scene; she rather be elsewhere on her own. Though there were a few times that she had enjoyed herself, the Weekly gathering was not one. She had found Jimmie after she had been punched but had lost her pretty quickly within the crowd. The girl had been hammered, and after a while spent searching for her, the young Bainbridge had given up.

Maybe that was stupid of her, but she didn't know what else to do. If Jimmie didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be. But sometimes, she questioned if she should have stuck around longer than she had, but after a while, it became too much.

She shook her head, "Don't be sorry. It was my fault for even attending; I should have known what I was getting into," the words came out with a soft laugh. As the brunette mentioned no parties happening tonight, their first night back, she nodded her head. "Hopefully, you are right. But I wouldn't be surprised if, in the coming days, someone threw some event."

maxima ruqayyah greyback ● sorry for the wait!

MADE BY VEL OF GS