Anything is possible on a train: a great meal, a binge, a visit from card players, an intrigue, a good night's sleep, and strangers' monologues framed like Russian short stories.
Chapter 2
In Which Creatures Lurk in the Depths of the Luggage Car
~ Albus ~
The train shook abruptly, causing Albus to fall back in his seat. He slipped his head out of the door, peeking out in the corridor. He was trying to figure out what happened, like almost every other student in the train. Rose had Hogwarts, a History opened on her lap, reading about the Great Hall again. Ignis, finally tired of playing with Albus’s chocolate frog, had let it go. The frog was still jumping around restlessly; it probably wouldn’t stop until it melted, or someone took it. The Kneazle was sleeping now, curled next to Rose.
Albus exchanged a look with a brown-haired girl, who looked curiously around from her own compartment. Both of them returned to their seats as soon as the train moved again. A while later the lady with the food trolley started passing from compartment to compartment, assuring the students that the way the train shook before was nothing worrisome and that something had probably been caught in the wheels.
“Rose, I’m going to take a look around,” Albus informed his cousin and stood up.
“Hmmm…” she murmured, absorbed in her book.
As soon as the door opened, the chocolate frog jumped out and vanished somewhere. Well, no problem. I couldn’t eat it anyway after Ignis toyed with it on the train’s carpet… he thought.
Walking around, passing in front of other compartments, he realised that most students were gathered in big groups of five or even more people, while Rose and he were alone in their compartment. This was because they didn’t know many students here, except of course their huge family… each of whom was with their own group of friends.
He pulled a small chocolate bar out of his pocket, and after making sure it wasn’t from Uncle George’s shop and wouldn’t cause him a pucking fit or have any of the other equally unpleasant side effects, he took a bite. His dad always used to say that a small bite of chocolate helps with stress.
Without realising it, he stumbled upon the brown-haired girl he had seen before.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t notice you…” Albus started to apologise.
“It’s okay. I was rushing out… I didn’t notice you either.” She gave him a sweet smile and tucked a tuft of hair behind her ear, making him think of his own hair, which was messy as usual, like his dad’s. His dad had told him that his uncle, Vernon Dursley, had hated it. Albus had met the Dursleys only once, so he had to trust his dad on that one.
“I’m Albus,” he introduced myself, thinking how rude it would be to leave without at least saying his name.
“I’m Emily Rose. You can just call me Emily.”
“Funny. My cousin’s name is Rose.”
They shook hands, and she seemed to notice the half-eaten piece of chocolate. Her expression finally turned… relieved. “Are you Muggle-born too? I picked a random compartment. It was filled with children who were all from wizard families and I just felt so… I mean of all compartments I had to go to this one… I didn’t dare to utter a word. I was so afraid I’d make a fool of myself… everyone was talking about magic like it was something so natural…”
Albus wanted to correct her, but she seemed to be really happy she could finally get it all out, so he thought it would be nicer to let her finish first.
“Actually, I am from a wizard family,” he said quietly.
She blushed from embarrassment, and her hair fell in her face again. “So sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s okay. You’re not the only one feeling lost in here. It’s my first year, so I can’t say I’m in a better position. Everyone in my family is with their own friends – too busy to show me and my cousin around. Of course she’s a moving encyclopaedia, so we don’t need them for a tour, but…” His words were meant to soothe her, but she looked even more nervous than before. “You know what? Come with me and my cousin. I think you really would like her.”
He turned around and hurried back to his compartment. Rose had taken off her shoes and had brought her knees close to her chest, her nose literally buried in the book. Ignis was fast asleep, squeezed between Rose and the window, his tail hanging lazily over the edge of the seat. Albus cleared his throat discreetly, and his cousin looked up.
“Rose, this is Emily. Emily, this is my cousin, Rose.”
Rose jumped up, placed the leather-bound, yellow-paged book on the booth, and shook Emily’s hand. “Nice to meet you. So you’re a first year as well?”
“Yes. And an absolutely horrified one too,” she admitted.
“Why?” Rose asked curiously. She is so lucky, Albus thought. In that clever mind of hers, most things were black and white. If she knew how something worked, she didn’t really need anything else; she was absolutely sure of how things would happen. Like the fact that they were both going to Gryffindor because of their character traits and the history that their families had in that particular House.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Did you check your school books? Hogwarts, a History covers almost everything according to my mom. I brought her copy instead of buying a new one. It has notes all over the place.” Rose lifted the book and offered it to Emily, who hesitantly took it and sat next to Ignis, looking at him as if he’d jump on her any second now.
“My books are all second-hand. I got them from a small shop in Diagon Alley. Almost all of them have dog tags and look really fragile… I didn’t really dare to open them. Some looked like they’d fall apart or become pulverized by the smallest touch.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. There is a really simple spell to fix that. If you give me the books when we get to school, I can repair them for you.” Among others, Rose had checked out her Charms and Transfiguration spells and was excited to try some as soon as they set foot in Hogwarts. That was the only thing she had talked about during the past week.
Emily looked at Rose as if she had spoken Greek or something, but nodded. “Okay.”
“So, it’s really easy to explain how students get sorted out.”
“S-s-sorted out? What do you mean?”
“It’s nothing frightening, don’t worry about it,” Albus said, smiling. The thoughts of him becoming a Slytherin came rushing back. But Rose said that we don’t fit in Slytherin. Dad said we won’t be sent there if we don’t want to. We will not be Slytherin. We’re a hundred percent Gryffindor…
Rose opened the book again, which still lay in Emily’s arms, and Albus saw the school’s crest in a coloured picture, where the animal on each of the four emblems of the Houses moved, just like most pictures in magical books.
“The school is split into four Houses,” Rose said. “Gryffindor, that’s the red one. Its symbol is the lion. Then there is Hufflepuff; see the yellow piece of the crest right under Gryffindor’s piece? It has the badger representing it. Ravenclaw is the blue one with the eagle and the green one with the snake is Slytherin.” Emily was completely silent while Rose explained to her.
“Then, there is the Sorting Hat.” She flipped the page, pointing at a moving picture of a grey-brown hat and tapping her thin, pink finger on it. The hat moved its tip from side to side, as if it was singing. Albus silently wished it wouldn’t sing him to his House in front of everyone.
“They put it on your head. It figures out your character and decides which House fits you best. And while you are at school, you sleep in your House’s dormitories, eat at your House’s tables, have classes with the students that are at the same House as you, and so on.”
Emily’s face seemed to relax a little, and her hands stopped being two tight fists half-hidden by the book.
“That seems easy. Do you know in which House you are going to be?” she asked.
“Um, we’re not–” Albus didn’t manage to finish his sentence because Rose told her that they were going to Gryffindor, like everyone else in their family had.
They sat and talked to Emily, answering all her questions about the school and the Wizarding world. It wasn’t much later when Ignis woke up, looking sleepily around the compartment. It took him only seconds to spot the intruder and… rub his head against her sweater. Emily was lucky that Ignis appeared to like her. If not, she would probably have had a scratch somewhere on her hands or face by now. Ignis was an odd creature, unbelievably suspicious by his nature. All Kneazles were meant to be like that, to be able to spot the liars and the frauds. Since Emily was neither of those things, Albus didn’t consider it necessary to mention it.
“Did you bring a pet along?” he asked, thinking about his new, still unnamed owl.
Emily shook her head. “No… I wasn’t sure I could afford feeding it. Pet foods are really expensive…”
“Hmm…” Rose seemed thoughtful. “I think the school takes care of that. I could ask my parents if you want.”
“Um… thanks. But I’m not sure I’ll get to buy one this year.”
“Well, it’s not bad to know anyway,” Rose replied, beaming at her.
“I have an owl,” Albus said. “But it doesn’t have a name yet. My dad picked a name from a history book for his own owl when he was a student, so I thought I could do the same maybe…”
“An owl? Wow. Can I see it?” she asked, smiling shyly.
“Sure,” he agreed. He remembered his dad loading the owl in a carriage towards the end of the train, where only luggage and pets were placed.
* * * * *
Uneasy hooting and hisses echoed as the various pets around the carriage came around, noticing the children’s entrance. Emily flinched at the sounds and approached with small, quiet steps.
“It’s okay,” Albus assured her. “They mean no harm; we just woke them up.”
She gave him a shaky nod, and Rose pulled both his and Emily’s hands as she spotted his owl and rushed to it. The owl, startled by their noisy footsteps on the metallic floor of the carriage, flew back, its wings hitting against the back of the bars, and the cage almost fell on the ground.
“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” Albus kept saying as he caught the cage until the owl stilled. It gently bit his finger, and he knew it had calmed down.
“Doesn’t it hurt you?” Emily asked, taking some hesitant steps forward and crooking her head on the side to take a better look. The owl kept nibbling on Albus’s finger, never breaking the skin.
“No.” He chuckled. “But it tickles a little.”
With a demanding meow, Ignis announced his presence and climbed on Albus’s trunk, sitting right next to the cage.
Rose and Ignis exchanged a look before Rose said, “Don’t even think about it. That bird is way too big for you to eat.” Ignis looked down as if disappointed and started licking his paws lazily.
“The only reason you wouldn’t let your cat eat my owl is because it’s too big for him?!” Albus exclaimed.
Rose gave a foxy grin and stroked Ignis’s head.
A ear-piercing voice made Albus turn around, forgetting his cousin and their new friend momentarily. “Idiots! Idiots! You’re all idiots!”
“What’s that?” Emily asked, covering her ears with her hands.
“I dunno,” Albus said, curiously looking around, trying to spot the source of the insulting and annoying noise.
“Idiots!” the shrieking voice said again.
“Probably some kind of object that’s meant to insult everyone in the same room with them?” he murmured, deciding it was coming from somewhere on his left.
“Careful,” Emily said.
“Don’t be scared. Whatever it is, it can’t be dangerous. Our luggage is checked before the train leaves the station,” Mrs. Know-All said. She was talking with such a certainty about it, as if she was the one who had checked the luggage.
Her explanation didn’t appear to hold much comfort for Emily. Albus took a couple more steps forward. The voice didn’t say anything else again, and he began to doubt he was going the right way. Something started shaking on the pile of luggage and pet transport cages, making him think twice about moving again.
Rose pushed past him, mouthing Chicken at him. That made him follow her instantly and peek over her shoulder as she spotted the moving cage. It had the initials S.M. carved over the lock.
“Maybe you shouldn’t touch it,” Emily spoke Albus’s thoughts aloud, and he was glad she did because he didn’t want to give Rose any more reason to call him a chicken. She was always a little braver than him,, a real daredevil. Albus wasn’t a chicken though. He just preferred to stay out of trouble.
“Come on. What’s gonna happen? It’s not like there’s a Monster Book of Monsters in it!” Rose said, smiling cunningly.
“What’s a Monster… whatever?” Emily asked, and by the sound of her voice, they could tell that she didn’t like the name. Albus remembered the growling book in the big study room at the first floor at their house… It was always tied, and he had never seen his dad or mum touch it. It seemed dangerous. And Rose knowing about it and acting like she had actually opened it before made the whole thing just worse. Albus decided it wasn’t a good idea to explain all that to Emily though.
“Never mind. Just a book. No big deal,” he muttered.
In the meantime, Rose’s hands were working miracles, trying to pull the cage from between other trunks. “Besides,” she continued, unaware of Emily’s worry, “I believe I know what is in it.”
“Oh, sure you do,” Albus said sarcastically. He moved back, giving her space to pull the cage out. He didn’t want that thing landing on my face.
She placed it on the floor, and it kept rattling and shaking. Rose placed a searching hand to her head. After a lot of effort, she pulled a thin, colourful hair clip from her bushy hair and began picking the lock.
“I don’t think it’s right to be picking locks…” Emily murmured shyly, looking around as if she was expecting someone to be spying on them. Rose just shrugged, and her smile grew bigger, causing her freckled nose to look even wider than it was.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Albus asked. If he didn’t know it was his cousin, Rose, kneeling in front of a cage, picking the lock right now, he’d bet it would be either his other cousin, Fred, or maybe his own brother, James. They were more like the sort one would imagine being blamed for breaking and entering.
“I learned a trick or two this summer when I was hanging out with Freddie.” Her eyes sparkled with some kind of wild excitement, and Albus wasn’t sure he wanted to know what other tricks she had learned.
The lock clicked, and Rose placed the clip back in her hair. “Eureka!” she said, pushing the cage’s door open. Ignis’s form seemed distorted as the hair on his back and his lion-like tail rose, his whiskers twisting as he hissed angrily. He didn’t move from the top of Albus’s trunk though.
Something hairy flashed into view and rushed onto Rose’s lap. She smiled triumphantly and petted the constantly moving fur ball. Albus realise that the long, striped, brown and white fluffy thing moving was the creature’s tail. The other side ended on a pointy pink nose and two small, round, faint pink ears.
“I– I– I’ve seen ferrets before… We have some around home… And they’re not that big,” Emily said.
Ferrets! That was the word I was looking for.
“What’s that thing, Rose?” Albus asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “A forest troll?!”
“That’s what trolls are like?” Emily asked, her eyes growing huge with surprise.
“Don’t listen to him,” Rose told her. “Even a Muggle would know that trolls don’t look like this.” Albus frowned, and she stuck her tongue out at him. “It’s a Jarvey.” The thing stood finally still, and he realised it was indeed like an oversized ferret. It nudged Rose’s chin and pulled at her shirt. “It won’t hurt you. Come on, touch it,” Rose urged Emily.
“Are you sure?”
“Yep. A hundred percent.”
Emily had barely started stretching her arm when the Jarvey leaped out of Rose’s arms and went to Emily. For a second, it look as if it was going to attack to her, but to his surprise it sniffed her shoes and rubbed his muzzle against her leg.
“It’s not so bad, is it?” Rose asked her, and she shook her head, relief washing over her face.
“It’s rather social,” Emily agreed.
The metallic door of the carriage slid open with a loud bang, and all of them instantly turned around to see who came in. The yellow light from the carriage behind him lit the edges of his figure, and his face was dark. Albus saw a thin body, not too tall, more childish. The frame of his head was surrounded by short, bleached-blond hair. In the dimming afternoon light, his skin looked pale, as if the sun didn’t see him much. He was dressed in the school robes and was holding something long and thin, probably a wand.
Any words that he tried to say seemed to be stuck at the tip of his tongue, not daring to go any further. His throat felt tight and dry, and he exchanged a nervous glance with Rose, who finally, even this late, had realised how much trouble this could get them into.
The figure moved, a hand stretching on the side, looking for the light switch.
The room turned brighter, his face now in full view. He was that boy we had seen at the platform, the one with the blond hair and the grey eyes. Crabbious Malfoy or something like that… Albus couldn’t recall his first name… It had to do with some kind of animal… something with pinchers.
“Hi, Scorpius,” Rose said calmly, as if they were actually friends.
Scorpius! Yes, that’s the name! Albus thought and peeked at the Jarvey’s cage. S.M. That’s what it must mean. Scorpius Malfoy.
Scorpius didn’t appear to be too enthusiastic about Rose’s intimate greeting. “What are you doing?” he demanded, lifting his wand. He was holding it all wrong though… Albus could swear Scorpius didn’t know how to use it any more than he did.
Rose’s Kneazle hopped off his trunk finally, landed gracefully on four hairy legs and walked towards them, coming to stand next to Rose. Ignis’s hair seemed to rise from standing too close to the Jarvey, but it wasn’t his biggest concern now. Ignis was eyeing Scorpius carefully.
“We came to check on my cousin’s owl,” Rose stated simply, as if she spoke the truth. Now that he came to think about it… she was being honest.
“Then why are you holding my jarvey?!” He moved his gaze from Rose to Emily, who looked really nervous.
“I’m not holding it! It’s standing at my feet,” Emily said, sounding more confident than she probably was.
“It was out of the cage, jumping around when we came here,” Rose continued. Okay, now that is lying. “And put that thing down before you get hurt.” She pointed at his wand with a small pink finger, but he ignored her.
“I don’t believe you.”
Rose shrugged and got on her feet, dusting herself off. “As you wish.”
“Annoying small cage! Annooooying small cage!” The high-pitched, scream-like voice reached their ears again. Until now, he hadn’t believed that it was really the Jarvey making that sound, but seeing its mouth moving made it all real. It hurried to get around Scorpius’s feet, repeating the same thing in its eardrum-piercing tone.
A smirk of annoyance was plastered on Scorpius’s face, but he hid his wand in his school robes.
“Maybe you should take it with you wherever you’re sitting,” Rose suggested. “It doesn’t like that cage much.”
Without another word, Scorpius turned around, the jarvey right on his tracks, fluffy striped tail going up and down as it followed its master.
As soon as he was out of sight and the door slid back in place, Albus glared at my cousin.
“What?” she asked, grinning cunningly.
“We could have gotten in trouble already.”
“But we didn’t, right?”
Albus took a deep breath, trying to swallow back his annoyance. “No. We didn’t.”
“Maybe we should go back and sit,” Emily suggested, trying to ease the tension between the two cousins. The truth was, that they rarely fought with each other. Rose and he were practically siblings. The inseparable, never fighting kind. That day though, Albus couldn’t help but be a little edgy. No matter what Rose said, he had a bad feeling about the Sorting Hat. He didn’t know why… It was just that James’s words kept spinning around my head.
“I'm sorry, Albus, you're just doomed to be in Slytherin. You have all of the characteristics of someone I knew who ended up in there.”
What if, for some reason, James was right? Maybe he had some kind of premonition… because he’s a Parseltongue? He couldn’t help but wonder.
They headed back to their compartment, Rose and Emily talking excitedly while Albus was too lost in thought to even pay attention to what they were saying. He took a book out of the small bag his mum had forced on him and noticed his school robe stuffed in it.
“We should change soon as well,” he reminded them and started reading, trying to forget Houses and Sorting Hats and anything that had to do with their arrival at Hogwarts.
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