Ted rolled his eyes. He glanced at James. “This is what it’s like dating a girl whose family I’ve known all my life,” he said. “They know me too well for my charms to work on them.”
“Your charms work just fine,” Victoire sniffed. “In fact, if it wasn’t for your charms, you wouldn’t even have this problem.”
“Sorry to interrupt,” James said, raising his hands, palms out. “I just wanted to say hello. I’ll just fade away into the mist again.”
“Wait a minute,” Ted said, his face growing thoughtful. “I’ve got an idea.”
Suddenly, he grabbed Victoire and hugged her to him. She resisted for a moment, but then he kissed her, and she relaxed. Slowly, she dropped the handbag she was carrying and wrapped her arms around Ted’s neck. James took a step backwards and looked around nervously.
“Er, like I said—” he began but stopped as Ted held up a finger, still kissing Victoire. Finally, he broke away and looked aside at James, smiling crookedly.
“You saw that, right?” he asked.
“I don’t think I saw anything but that,” James replied uncomfortably.
“Good. Now do me a favor.”
Victoire looked at Ted, her arms still around his neck. “Teddy, no…”
Ted’s smile didn’t waver. “Go tell everybody what you saw.”
“What?” James blinked.
“Just tell them. Say I came to see Victoire off, and you saw us snogging right here on the platform. Say you interrupted us and I told you to shove off. It’s the juiciest bit of gossip on the platform this morning, and you get to be the one to share it. It’ll get the word out about us and we won’t even have to say a thing,” he turned back to Victoire. “Happy?”
She tilted her head haughtily at him but smiled. “You’re a rogue,” she replied.
Ted shrugged. “I’m simply good at coming up with reasons to kiss you. So what do you think, James? Are you up to the task?”
James grinned. “I learned how to lie from Zane. I’ll make it as juicy as possible.”
“Excellent,” Ted replied. “And just to make it as realistic as possible,” he made his face stern and looked at James, “shove off, will you? I’m busy.”
With that, he kissed Victoire again. She grinned and giggled, pushing away from him playfully. James turned on his heels and trotted back into the crowd. After a moment, he saw his family gathered with Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione near the train. They were all looking back toward the station. James followed the direction of their gaze and saw Draco Malfoy standing with his wife and son near the partition. Draco nodded curtly in their direction, and then turned to his son. The son had the same sharp features and whiteblonde hair. He glanced toward James, seeming to recognize him. After a moment, the boy looked away again, as if bored.
James remembered the news he was supposed to share. He ran toward his family, dodging and weaving through the crowd. As he approached, he heard Uncle Ron say to Rose in a pointed voice, “Don’t get too friendly with him though, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pureblood.” James was glad to interrupt the uncomfortable pause that followed.
“Hey!” he yelled as he approached. Rose saw him first and smiled. The rest of the family turned curiously. “Teddy’s back there. Just seen him. And guess what he’s doing? Snogging Victoire!”
The adults looked down at James rather blankly. James raised his eyebrows, exasperated at their lack of response. “Our Teddy! Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked him what he was doing— “
“You interrupted them?” Ginny said incredulously. “You are so like Ron…”
James plowed on, committed to telling it like Ted asked. “—and he said he’d come to see her off! And then he told me to go away! He’s snogging her!”
Lily spoke up, “Oh, it would be lovely if they got married.”
James rolled his eyes, ignoring the rest of the conversation. Well, at least he’d succeeded in getting the word out. Ted would be satisfied. After a moment, James heard his dad saying, “Why don’t we just invite him to come live with us and have done with it?”
“Yeah!” James agreed instantly. “I don’t mind sharing with Al. Teddy could have my room!”
“No,” Harry interjected. “You and Al will share a room only when I want the house demolished.” He checked his watch, and smiled. “It’s nearly eleven. You’d better get on board.”
James hugged his mum and dad and a minute later climbed aboard the train, leaving the noise and steam behind him. He clumped into the nearest compartment with Rose right behind him. She pushed the window open and leaned out to wave. James joined her and glanced out. Albus was still on the platform with their dad squatted next to him. James remembered Harry doing the same thing with him last year, and didn’t doubt that Albus and he were having a very similar conversation. Ginny saw James and waved at him. Lily skulked nearby, loosely holding her mum’s free hand.
Albus disengaged from his dad, hugged his mum, and then clambered onto the train. A moment later, he entered the compartment with James and Rose. There was a commotion behind them as several other students crowded into the compartment, leaning toward the open window, chattering excitedly.
“Why are they all staring?” Albus asked as he and Rose turned.
On the platform, Ron shrugged and called up, “Don’t let it worry you. It’s me. I’m extremely famous.”
Albus smiled, and then laughed a little. Rose chuckled at her father. With a loud rattle and a jerk, the train began to move. James couldn’t help noticing that his brother seemed to feel a little bit better. Albus smiled, allowing some excitement to show on his face as he waved. Alongside the train, their father walked, one hand raised and a wistful smile on his face. The train slowly gathered speed and James watched his parents get smaller and smaller on the platform. Rose leaned out the window and waved heartily at Ron and Hermione, then pulled herself in with a sigh, drawing the window shut.
“Well,” she said, plopping onto the seat across from James, “we’re off!”
James nodded. Albus watched out the window until the platform was out of sight, and then joined Rose on the seat. He leaned back and watched the window as London began to stream past.
“So what do you think, Al?” James asked, remembering Lucy’s admonition on the platform. “Looking forward to your first year?”
Albus looked at James for a long moment, and then sighed hugely. “I’d be looking forward to it a lot more if I knew you’d packed me some socks.”
James blinked, smiling a little, and kicked his brother’s foot. “You never change them anyway. I didn’t think you’d need any more than what’s on your feet already.”
“That’s disgusting,” Rose announced.
There was a loud knock on the compartment door and the three looked up.
Ralph leaned in, his face flushed and smiling. “Hi, everybody. Room for one more?”
“So Zane is going to Alma Aleron this year?” Rose asked, feigning disinterest.
“You knew he was ever since he visited with his parents last July,” Albus said.
“Well, he wasn’t completely sure then, was he? He said there was a chance his father might get his contract extended.”
“No,” Albus insisted. “He said even if that happened, he’d probably end up going back to the States with his sister and mum. You’re just sweet on him and can’t help thinking that one bat of your eyes should have been enough to get him to climb mountains and forge mighty rivers to be at Hogwarts with you this year.”
Rose rolled her eyes theatrically. “That’s patently ridiculous. I barely know him, and what I do know of him, I find completely insufferable.”
“Insufferable enough to try to make the Draught of Enamor?” Albus grinned.
Rose whipped her head around and gaped at Albus. “I never…!”
Albus shrugged, still grinning. “You need to learn to lock your diary with more than the silly l
ittle Forget-me-knot Charm that came with it. You of all people should know how easy those are to jinx open.”
“Why, you rat!” Rose cried, her voice rising so that it was nearly inaudible. “If I knew how to perform any curses, I’d turn your head into a marshmallow!”
“Is this what things are always like in your family?” Ralph asked James, munching a licorice wand.
“Pretty much,” James nodded. “It’s a good thing Louis hasn’t found us yet. He really brings out the worst in Rose.”
“This isn’t her worst?”
James dug in his bag and produced his wand. Finally, now that he was on the train, he was allowed to use it again. He was tempted to strike up a game of Winkles and Augers with Ralph, but he knew that Ralph would defeat him easily with his unorthodox green-tipped wand. James would’ve liked to believe that Ralph’s skills were only due to the fact that his wand had once been a part of Merlin’s magical staff, but he knew better. Ralph was talented, and he probably didn’t even know the limit of his own talents. Being beat by Ralph at Winkles and Augers was particularly galling because Ralph tended to apologize for it.
“It is a shame that Zane couldn’t come back with us this year,” James said. “It’s going to be a bit weird without him.”
“Well, it was always a bit weird with him too,” Ralph said. “So maybe it’ll all even out. Besides, we’ll still get to see him. He says that the Alma Alerons have some experimental new communication methods. He’s going to be on the testing team for them.”
James nodded. “Sounds like old Chancellor Franklyn has been hard at work since he left.”
“I’ll say,” Ralph agreed. “Dad visited them over the summer and they took him on a tour of the school and grounds. The whole campus is packed into a single yard surrounded by a stone wall in some old neighborhood of Philadelphia. You’d never even notice it if you walked past it. Talk about unplotted space! They even have a Timelock!”
James furrowed his brow. “What’s a Timelock?”
“Oh, it’s totally cool,” Ralph enthused. “It’s the only way into the school. It’s kind of like an airlock. You know how when rockets connect to a space station, they have this locked off chamber between them?”
James raised his eyebrows sardonically.
“Oh yeah,” Ralph said, “I keep forgetting you were raised by wizards. All right, an airlock is kind of a closed chamber between two places with really different atmospheres. It has doors on both sides. When you go into the airlock on your side, you bring your atmosphere in with you. Then the doors lock and your atmosphere is swapped out for a new one. That’s the only way a spacewalker can get inside the breathable environment of a space station.”
James’ expression didn’t change.
“All right,” Ralph said defensively, “so I grew up watching science-fiction films. Not all of us were born with a silver wand in our mouths, you know.”
James laughed. “Go on, Ralphinator. So what’s a Timelock?”
“Well, that’s just it! It’s an airlock for time! Not only is the Alma Aleron campus hidden inside some magical stone wall that makes it seem loads smaller than it is, it’s hidden in time, too! You have to go in through the Timelock to exchange your time for whatever time the campus is occupying on any given day.”
“That’s impossible,” Rose chimed in, lowering the book she’d been reading. “Time travel is not only highly unstable, but extremely risky. The Ministry has even outlawed Time-Turners because too many people were fiddling around in the temporal fluxstream, making history all wonky.”
“The ‘temporal fluxstream’?” Ralph repeated, blinking.
“‘Wonky’?” Albus grinned.
“Rose takes a little bit of getting used to,” James said. “But she’s the person to go to if you need a cure for poison ivy.”
“Or the occasional love potion,” Albus added.
“It would’ve worked if I’d succeeded in getting him to drink it,” Rose pointed out primly. “And I was only testing it on him. I just find him slightly less obnoxious than any of you.”
“What kind of wand did you get, Rosie?” James asked, changing the subject.
“Only my dad’s allowed to call me that, Jameson,” Rose replied, reaching for her bag.
James smiled. “‘Jameson’ isn’t even my real name.”
“It’s willow,” Rose said, flourishing her wand daintily and holding it up. “Eight inches, with a Pegasus feather core.”
“What about yours, Albus?” Ralph asked, popping the last bit of licorice wand into his mouth.
Albus’ face changed a little and he shrugged. “It’s a wand. Eight and a half inches. It’s made out of yew.”
Ralph nodded. “So what’s the core made of?”
Albus glanced aside, out the window, his face darkening. “What’s your wand core made of, Ralph?” he asked pointedly.
Ralph blinked. He reached into his bag and produced his wand. James looked at it, remembering it well. It was at least a foot long, and thick as a broomstick. The end was whittled to a dull point and painted lime green. It looked as silly as always, and yet James knew, perhaps more than anyone, what that wand was capable of in Ralph’s hand. It had saved James’ life at least once.
“Well,” Ralph admitted, “I used to think it had a yeti whisker core—”
“A yeti whisker?” Albus said, leaning forward and grinning.
“We’ve been through this,” Rose sighed. “Nobody knows what’s inside Ralph’s wand except maybe Merlin. And I’m sure not going to ask him. He creeps me out.”
James looked at Rose. “He does? Why?”
Rose gave James an expression of exasperated disdain. “He’s only the most famously self-serving wizard in the history of the magical world, you know.”
“Yeah, I suppose, but he’s not evil.”
“Hasn’t it occurred to you that a wizard as powerful as Merlin could be all the scarier because he’s not evil but just selfish?”
James frowned incredulously. “Where in the world did you get that? Your own parents were part of the committee that succeeded in getting him appointed Headmaster.”
Rose put her wand back into her bag and shoved it under her seat. “Let’s just say even his strongest supporters think there’s a lot we don’t know about him.”
“Like what?” James demanded.
“Like things we don’t know,” Rose repeated pedantically. “That’s pretty much the point: we don’t know them.”
James scoffed and turned away, fingering his wand.
The sky outside the train window was still grey as slate, promising rain. Fields marched past monotonously. James decided to go see if he could find any of his other friends. He stood and shoved the door open.
“Hey,” Ralph said, not looking up from the tabloid he’d flipped open, “if you see the cart lady, send her back down this way, would you? I’m starved.”
James nodded and stepped out. He was about to close the door again when Albus squeezed through, joining James in the corridor.
“Why didn’t you tell Ralph what your wand core was?” James asked as they walked.
“What business is it of his?” Albus replied, as if daring James to respond.
James shrugged. After a moment, Albus sighed.
“Look, it’s bad enough everyone makes those jokes about my name. Asp, a kind of snake, ha ha. If word gets out that my wand core is a dragon heartstring…”
“I think it’s kind of cool,” James said. “Nobody messes with a dragon.”
“Except for Uncle Charlie and Harold and Jules,” Albus said, allowing a small grin.
“Yeah, but they’re totally dotty. They’re almost as bad as Hagrid when it comes to dragons.” James stopped in the corridor and looked at Albus. “It really isn’t a big deal, you know. I tease you about it, but really, it’s only because when I was being sorted, I actually considered—”
Something flickered past them in the corridor. James saw it and whipp
ed around, gasping.
“What?” Albus asked, glancing around.
James shook his head, still studying the shadows of the corridor. “I don’t know. Something. I think I’ve seen it before, but I don’t know what it is yet.”
“I see your first year of school has you just brimming with knowledge,” Albus said.
James held up his hand toward Albus, silencing him. The light in the corridor was watery and indirect, full of flitting shadows as the train passed through a stand of woods, but James was certain he recognized the shape and movement of the tiny shadow imp. He was intent on finding it.
There was a sudden noise and burst of air, making James jump. He glanced up as a large man with very short dark hair stepped into the corridor from the adjoining car. He slid the connecting door shut easily, slamming it into place.
“Bitter day out there, boys,” he boomed, stalking toward them down the aisle. “You’d best be getting to your compartments. It’s not wise to be gallivanting about a moving train.”
“We’re just, er, looking for our friends,” James replied.
“Same as me, then,” the man grinned, sidling past. “Better luck finding them than I’ve had, eh?”
The large man moved to the end of the corridor and yanked the door open, letting in another burst of air and noise from the connecting breezeway between the cars. A moment later, he slammed the door.
“Was he a teacher?” Albus asked, looking after the man.
“I’ve never seen him before,” James answered, distracted. He noticed that the door through which the man had come was not entirely closed. It had slid slightly back open when he’d slammed it. A whistle of cool air pushed through it.
The shadow imp suddenly landed in front of the door, examining the small opening. James saw it and his eyes widened. The creature seemed to turn back to him, as if daring him to follow. The crack was far too narrow even for the tiny shadow shape, but then it turned and squeezed through, pouring through the space like smoke.
James bolted toward it.
“What is it?” Albus said, following.
“Did you see it?” James asked, trying to keep his footing on the swaying floor.
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