Thus far, the second year at Hogwarts had been...challenging. Since her father had been mangled by a werewolf during summer vacation, she had been looking into ethical issues concerning werewolves which had lead to her to SAWS. She had become more aware of the dangers werewolves possessed and had been writing home a lot to her family. Garrett and Elle's presences at Hogwarts were comforting, but it wasn't enough to help Serenity. She was only a second year and the serious topic had so far left a negative impact upon her. This wasn't because of her dad, of course. He wasn't to blame. It was, in her opinion, society. Many students were against the SAWS group and didn't think that werewolves should have rights in the wizarding world. They were feared and hated by many and that sort of attitude was a major influence on the younger generations.

Since some students had found out that the Thornton kids were involved with SAWs, though for reasons that the siblings were not yet exposing, some of their friendships had ended. One of Elle's best friends had bad-talked SAWS and the result was a rather violent end to the friendship. Garrett was not his usual self, either. Many of his friends kept pestering him about why he was involved until he just stopped talking. Nowadays, he spent his time with a nose in a book which not something Garrett would ever do. Between Elle's constant bickering with her friends and Garrett's newly discovered obsession with his grades and schoolwork, Serenity was left to ponder her own predicament. None of her Ravenclaw friends had said anything, but every so often they would give her a look. She never brought it up as a subject to discuss. What must they think of her?

The ride home was lonely without her older siblings, but the pair of Gryffindors had decided to stick with their own agendas during the journey to London. Serenity was therefore left to find her own compartment and had trouble finding one that was primarily empty at the start of the journey. The curious oddball had made her way up and down the train at least three times before finding a compartment with a pair of Hufflepuff girls. Shortly after she had sat with them, however, they had abandoned her muttering about SAWS. She was not too troubled by this; by now, that was usual. Serenity reached into her trunk and removed a fictional book to read. Inside were some notes she had taken during a SAWS meeting. The Ravenclaw idly cast them aside to the empty seat and continued her progress on the book, Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock.

"Aughfurgashi--"

It was really sad when Philo spent a retrospective moment wondering if it had been himself or his Swear Frog, Arlaug, that muttered the jumbled curse. It was Philo's toe that was smarting from the box that had fallen out of the package rack at the end of the carriage car when it jostled, so it must have been him. Whatever was in the box weighed like a sack of bricks and hissed ominously.

At this point he wouldn't be able to hobble far. He'd been looking to see if he could sit with anybody he knew, preferably his own age group, but most were either in packed compartments already or weren't traveling home for the holiday. He thought Drea was supposed to have gone home, that was what she said when talking with him and Helio once about Helio staying. The mermish Hufflepuff's excuse for remaining in the castle made sense in some respects, what with most of her loch being iced over.

Adapting his gait to keep his toe in the air, Philo worked his way back from whence he came on the car. When he passed a compartment he thought had been empty on the first passing he noticed a fellow Ravenclaw.

"Um, hi Serenity," Philo said, sliding open the door. "Just you is it?"