The road home (Chase & Anna)

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna found a compartment that was empty, finally. The train didn't have that many people on it, but they all seemed to have grabbed their own compartments. She had looked at all the other compartments before finding this empty one, so she knew he wasn't waiting for her to come find him. She set the bag she'd carried over her shoulder down on the seat next to the window and lowered herself to the cushions as well. A few minutes later, the horn blew and the scenery outside the window began to move. Annabelle turned from the window and watched the door of the compartment for him to appear. Her hands played with the shoulder strap from her bag, hoping that Chase hadn't changed his mind about sitting with her.

[Chase Firebrand]

Anna had caught Chase before he left that last day behind the greenhouses. The look she'd given him as she'd asked if she'd see him on the train still brought a light curve to the corner of his lips. He'd told her probably, but he'd fully intended to hunt her down, as long as she wasn't in a compartment full of idiots. He couldn't imagine she would be.

His thoughts were justified when he finally found her. He'd been called to the compartment with the prefects in it for a while and given the same speech about watching out for the other students that he'd gotten a hundred times before. And of course the requisite sharp look, though he'd never abused his power. Without damn good reason.

So when the compartment door opened, Chase didn't have his trunk with him. He'd have to go back and get it when the train stopped, but since he was planning not to step off the train with Anna anyway, it just made sense to do so. Thank God she was alone. Chase gave Anna a brief greeting and took up the most reflexively comfortable position, sitting sideways on the opposite bench, back against the wall, with one leg stretched out to take up the entire thing and the other bent so his foot was flat against the floor. If he and Anna got beyond conversation, they could move.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna looked up from the book she'd pulled out after waiting for a while. While Chase settled she marked her spot with her Pirates of the Caribbean bookmark and tucked it into the front pocket of the black messenger style bag, zipping it shut. She looked up at him with a twinkle in her eyes. "Thanks for finding me, I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be alone the whole trip." She said, not able to keep the excitement out of her voice. Her parents' package had arrived by owl this morning, just barely in time. She couldn't wait to share it with Chase, but kept quiet about it, waiting until the time was just right.

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase had eyed Annabelle's odd-looking bag, finally deciding it had to be some kind of Muggle thing. "Head Boy stuff and prefect duty take a while," he said. "I'll have to leave a couple times and make the rounds." Which he hoped didn't take long. Of course, by this far into term, the younger kids tended to stop whatever they shouldn't be doing but were as soon as they noticed him. It made it far easier to walk by and ignore minor infractions like passing around dungbombs.

Chase finally lifted his gaze to Anna, and his brows lifted a bit in unison. If he'd somehow missed the excitement in her voice, that on her face was unmistakable. Apparently she was one of those who bursted with holiday spirit. Not that he could claim surprise. "Looking forward to going home?" Chase asked.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna had forgotten about his Head Boy duties. It seemed so weird to her that he was Head Boy; he didn't exactly fit the mold of the goody-two-shoe that she always envisioned when the title came to mind. She wondered how often he was required to make his rounds, and hoped he'd be able to get an hour or two break without being interrupted. She knew he'd like what she had to show him, he had to.

She had been thinking of asking him how often the rounds occurred, when he broke through her thoughts with a question of his own. "Of course, I always enjoy seeing my family and I miss them while I'm away. But I know I'll miss Hogwarts while I'm home too." A slight frown crossed Anna's face while she contemplated the complexity of not only living away separate from her family, but also learning things that they would never be a part of. "It's as if there are two worlds I'm a part of, and I'm trying to balance in between. I don't know how it will all work out once I graduate, I can't live in both worlds on a daily basis."

[Chase Firebrand]

One of Chase's brows arched at Anna, but he didn't comment on anything she'd said. He couldn't imagine missing much of anything at his father's house, except maybe the creature comforts that Hogwarts couldn't really compete with. Of course, it was a boarding school, not the family seat. "I'm sure you'll figure something out," he assured her. "You have another year and a half, right?"

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"Yeah. I don't have a clue what I want to do either. There are so many possibilities out there." It wasn't that Anna didn't have any aspirations or interests, it was that she had too many. As a child, she'd wanted to be all these muggle professions. Once she'd found out she was a witch, even more possibilities opened up. She loved so many different topics, it seemed like an injustice to limit herself to one specialty. "What about you?" She asked Chase, adding the old cliche. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase gave Anna a look of mild annoyance at the way she'd asked. When you grow up. As far as he was concerned, he was grown up. He was legal, and it was time to step up. "I'm going into politics." Hadn't he told her that before? Or had it been Dru? Chase tore his mind away from that thought. "I'm sure my father will be thrilled that I've finally given in."

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna raised her eyebrows at the comment and quickly filled in what he hadn't said. It was obvious by the way he said it that he didn't want to go into politics, or at least he didn't at first. She wondered why his father wanted him in politics, if it was a family tradition, and if it was, why Chase hadn't wanted to follow in his ancestors' footsteps. Her mind traveled to what Chase had meant by I've finally given in, and hoped his father hadn't gone to any drastic measures to ensure his son's obedience like Michael's father. A frown fell on her face while she tried to follow the paths her mind had traveled. "Oh?"

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase looked at Anna again. "Yes," he said. She hadn't asked anything else, and he wouldn't bore her with any of the details. He'd just end up complaining and she'd feel the need to comfort him or something. So he went silent and turned his gaze back to the window, where the world rushed by, just like life. It didn't matter any more than life either, with glass and metal separating them. It was pointless to keep pretending he could avoid reaching his destination.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna squirmed in her seat, aware that they'd just killed their conversation. She glanced at her bag, wondering why she had even waited, and what she was waiting for exactly. She couldn't think of a reason for needing a perfect scenario between them to show him anyways. She moved the bag so it was laying on her lap, the zippered part horizontal so she could open it. She placed both of her hands protectively against the top and looked at Chase hopefully. Her nerves were on edge, praying that she hadn't begged her parents for nothing. It had taken a lot to convince them to send the contents, even if she'd only have it for a day or so. She desperately wanted Chase to be impressed and like it. "I have a surprise to show you."

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase's gaze moved directly to Anna from the window, and one brow arched slightly as he looked at her. Why in the world she'd have something for him he could not fathom. He hoped it wasn't a Christmas present. That would be extremely awkward, considering he hadn't so much as considered getting anything for her. He would have liked to assure himself that she'd realize that, but he hadn't been able to miss all the starry-eyed looks she'd been giving him lately. "What is it?" Chase asked, not moving from his seat. If it was a present, he wasn't going to take it.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"You'll have to come over here to watch properly." Anna answered, patting the seat beside her. She unzipped the front pouch of the bag and pulled out a few DVDs. She seperated them into three piles, noticing the taste in movies meant that her dad had chosen the selection as she had asked. If it had been her mom, 'comedy' would have included a humorous chic flick, and a note would have been inserted saying that horror movies were horrible. She smiled at the variety and asked, "Are you in the mood to watch an action, comedy, or horror movie?"

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase hadn't been at all sure what Annabelle was talking about until the word movie. Then his look of mild, skeptical interest sparked into crimson in his eyes. "You're kidding me," he said, booted feet already hitting the floor. "You have a movie... in there?" He stood up, his eyes scanning the little book-shaped boxes imprinted with those odd unmoving pictures. He picked one up at random, then sat absently beside Anna as he turned it over in his hands. "How does it work?" he asked. There were words on the back, but they weren't moving either, so he gave the box a shake. Still nothing.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna let out a light giggle at his reaction to the DVD. "That's just what the movies are stored in. The back of the box tells you what the movie is about, so pick one out that sounds interesting. I'll play it on this computer." Anna unzipped the main portion of the bag and took out a laptop. She flipped it open and pressed a button to turn it on. As the system came up she tried to explain as simple as possible so she wouldn't just confuse him more. "There's a disk in those boxes that I'll stick into the computer. Then the movie will show up on this screen, sort of like a portable telly."