Harry found an empty train compartment and sat down in it. Quickly he busied himself with staring glumly out the window, every so often nervously flattening his bangs. He had the faint glimmer of a hope of making a friend at Hogwarts, but he knew it was pointless, nobody liked him. He'd probably be miles behind everyone else, too. When they would be turning their classmates into frogs, he would most likely still be trying to figure out how to hold his wand. Oh well he sighed. It can't be any worse than life on Privet drive.

Suddenly the train compartment door slid open to reveal a short, brown haired first year boy. "My friends banished me from my compartment, do you mind if I sit here?"

"Not at all," Harry said, sitting up. "Why did they banish you?" The boy, however, didn't need to answer the question, Harry found out the moment the boy walked in and a foul smell filled the entire compartment.

"Some red haired kid named Fred dumped an entire bottle of armadillo bile on my head. I've tried washing it off."

"Ahh…" said Harry. "I see. I mean, I smell."

"So is this your first year?"

"Yup."

"My name is Dominic Frogger. I'm a first year too. Do you know any spells yet? I don't know any, which is probably why my sister picks on me so much. She's a fourth year. She turned my hair pink once. Had to wait for it to grow out because I didn't want to shave my head and my mum wouldn't turn it back 'cause she said it served me right for never cleaning my room." Harry was beginning to wonder if Dominic's friends banishing him had anything to do with armadillo bile. "So anyway, I'm really excited to start school. My sister says there's this one teacher who's actually a vampire and if you turn your homework in late it's-" he pretended to cut his head off with a finger. "Seriously," he added, apparently not getting the desired response from Harry, "it happened to two of her friends! Say, what's your name?" But before Harry could answer, the compartment door opened again. This time, there was a red haired boy standing in the opening.

"Ewww…" The red haired boy said, plugging his nose, "what's that smell?"

 "That's me!" Dominic said overenthusiastically. The boy looked strangely at him. "Say, you look a lot like the boy who dumped armadillo bile on me!"

"I do not!" The red haired boy started to lunge for Dominic, but Harry held him back by the scruff of his neck. "Sorry," he said, calming down and taking a seat next to Harry. "Just that's my brother, see, and I hate it when people say I look like my brothers. It happens a lot, I have five of them."

"At least they don't say you look like your sister." Dominic sighed. 

"That would be a consolation if they didn't. By the way, I'm Ron Weasely."

"Dominic Frogger," Dominic said.

"Harry Potter," said Harry.

"Ha ha, good one," Dominic laughed.

"Seriously?" Ron was gaping.

"Of course not, idiot," Dominic said, "He's joking."

"Oh."

"I'm not lying." Harry couldn't figure out why they didn't believe him. Then he remembered back at the Leaky Cauldron with Hagrid.

"Oh yeah?" Dominic said in a challenging tone. "Then let's see your scar." Harry lifted up his bangs.

"Wow!" the two said together, gazing at Harry's forehead. Harry took his hand away, but they kept staring.

"Anyway," he said in a desperate attempt to change the subject, "do you know uh, how long it'll take to get there?" It worked.

"Well, my sister says it takes at least a week. They don't serve any food either, so I brought some. I can share with you if you want." Dominic pulled a lunchbox the size of a suitcase out from under his seat as the food trolley rolled past the window of their compartment. 

"That's not true; it only takes a few hours."

"Says who? My sister is a fourth year, she would know!"

"She was probably joking," Harry said, not even completely convinced himself. Knowing his luck, it would probably take longer than a week.

"Your sister sounds like a loony, Dominic." Ron said. 

"My nose is going to fall off or rot if we don't do something," Harry said before Dominic could start talking again. "Isn't there some sort of spell for deodorizing things?"

"I don't know," Dominic said shaking his head, "Do you think I'd still be covered in armadillo bile if I did?"

"Hey!" Ron said with growing excitement, "I know one that my brother taught me! I don't remember exactly what it does, but I think it's makes bad smells go away!"

"Great!" Harry and Dominic cried in unison.

"Okay, but brace yourself, Dom, my brother sometimes has a tendency to, you know, not tell the truth."

"Er…" said Dominic, apparently having second thoughts.

"Don't worry, what's the worst that could happen?" Dominic's mind automatically began to fill with gruesome images of himself being lit on fire or turned inside out, images that had probably gotten there because of his sister. Ron cleared his throat, trying to remember the words. Then, waving his wand at Dominic he said "Severiere Nasal!"

There was a cloud of smoke and the three coughed. The smell, however, was still there. Finally the cloud dissipated. This time it was Dominic's turn to get stared at. "What?" Then he looked down at his nose, only it wasn't there. He shrieked. "Where's my nose? What did you do?"

"Sorry, I told you my brother…" Ron started, but spun around when he heard a sardonic laugh in the doorway. Three pairs of eyes met a frizzy-haired girl with rather large teeth.

"That was pathetic," she said with an air of superiority that was so imposing that it almost made the smell fade. "Move over and let some one with talent try." She walked into the compartment paying no heed to the fact that she was stepping on Ron's feet.

"Who in the bloody hell do you think you are?" Ron asked.

"Hermione Granger," she said haughtily. "Do you have a problem with me trying to do you a favor?"

Without even thinking she drew her wand and flicked it at Dominic's noseless head. "Decapitus Complet," she said.

Immediately Dominic's head flew off his neck and landed in Harry's lap. "Ewww!" he said as he flung it away to where it ended up on the seat next to Dominic's body.

"Oops." Hermione mumbled. "Wrong spell."

"Oops?" Ron cried. "Oops! You just killed our friend!"

"I did not, it was an accident. See? He's still alive." She pointed to Dominic's hand which was twitching. Ron and Harry glared at her, completely disgusted. "Anyway, we have to get him to an adult right away! The book I read, Magical Medicine for beginners, says that armatures should not attempt to handle serious situations by themselves." Harry wondered if she would have otherwise tried to fix it herself. "Help me carry him," she ordered Harry. "You," she said pointing at Ron, "Get his head."

Harry complied, still in shock, but Ron hesitated. "Get his head? How am I supposed to 'get his head?'?"

"Don't be a baby, just pick it up!" Ron grabbed it by the ears and turned away to avoid puking.

"Ugh…"

Harry and Hermione held Dominic by the arms and started dragging him to the front of the train car. People piled out of their compartments to stare and laugh. Hermione, however, paid them no heed and plowed straight ahead. Before they reached the front, they met a teacher.

"Professor McGonagall!" Hermione squeaked, stopping dead in her tracks.

"Tell me what is going on!" she demanded. 

"Well, he made his nose disappear," she began, pointing at Ron who was holding Dominic's head at arms length. "So I came and tried to fix it, but they messed me up, and the spell went wrong and it took his head off."

"That's not true!" Ron shouted, but Professor McGonagall silenced him. "

"He needs medical attention, Professor!" Hermione continued, ignoring Ron's outburst.

"I can see that, bring him up here." Harry followed, still holding Dominic's right arm. "How could he get medical attention?" he thought. "His entire head is off!" But, he reminded himself, if Hermione could magically decapitate him, someone could probably magically put his head back on. Professor McGonagall led them into a room occupied by six beds. Only one was occupied. A girl, who looked about sixteen, was covered with what seemed to be large snails.

A woman dressed in white came through a door and sighed in exasperation. "Another one? We've only been on the train fifteen minutes!"

"Madam Pomfrey, did you honestly think it would be any better last year?" Professor McGonagall sighed.

"Set him down on this bed," Madam Pomfrey directed. Harry and Hermione hoisted Dominic onto the bed. "And his head too!" she said to Ron who immediately dropped it onto the white sheets. "Alright, now get back to your compartments so I can take care of him!"

"Will he be all right?" Harry asked. Dominic might be a little annoying, and he might smell like armadillo bile, but he just might be a friend too, and he hoped Madam Pomfrey could get him back together. Ron might be his friend too, but he didn't like Hermione at all.

"He'll be just fine, but you might not see him for another week. It could take a while. Now get out!" Hermione, Ron, and Harry scurried out of the room and back to their seats in their compartment.

THE END

Funny how no one ever writes about friends decapitating each other…