"Yeah, not a problem," Benji said slowly, standing up from his crouch as soon as the younger boy revealed himself to be fine. Well, relatively fine; he had just been hit by fireworks, after all. It was definitely a relief if only because Benji didn't want this year at Gaol to start off with broken bones or any real bodily injuries for himself or others.
"My names Max Avarus, by the way. Nice to meet you." The name, at least the last one, tugged forcefully at Benji's memory. Where had he heard Avarus before…? Oh, right, Daniel Avarus. Benji hadn't known Daniel Avarus, hadn't even ever shared a word with the older boy, but you had to be insanely out of the loop to not know of him. The teachers had loved him, the students had adored him, opposing Quadpot teams had quaked with fear, or at least that's how the general rumor went. Seeing as Benji avoided Quadpot or, really, most things involving flying as a rule, he'd never seen the older boy in action on the playing field or in academics.
"Nice to meet you too, even if the circumstances could be better. Benji Fox, Strix House," the introduction came out a bit stiffly, but not unkindly given that it was more from the awkwardness. "If you need anything at Gaol, ah, don't hesitate to ask." With a smile that came out luckily more pleasant than his first greeting smiles tended to, Benji waved goodbye, making his way back over to Sophie who had long since lost interest in the situation as soon as she'd realized that everyone was alright.
"Ready to go back?"
"Of course," She sniffed, tucking her secret purchase in her bag and starting off towards the ship leaving Benji to follow in her wake. Well, this year was certainly going to be an interesting one.
When they made it back to the ship, the two split apart easily into different compartments. After all, it wasn't like they'd never see each other again given that they were not only in the same house but also Benji was Sophie unofficial official tutor for all things magical(and just a few things mundane because, honestly, for many purebloods Muggle Studies was insanely hard). Anyways, they had their own sort of friends to stick with. There was Benji with Thomas and whoever happened to be hovering around either boy at the time, and then Sophie with whoever she deemed the least annoying at the moment.
Finding Thomas was an easy enough task because, while it did take a moment of two, most Gaol students were creatures of habit and had their own preferred compartments by their third year at the Academy.
"Hello, Thomas," Benji greeted the other boy, dragging his assorted pieces of luggage plus one cage filled with sleeping owl into his friend's compartment, closing the door behind him in one smooth move. "Sorry I didn't find you earlier. Today's been… Kind of hectic."