"EE-Yew. Stay away, you look gross." A girl with long black hair said
"Bet he's still contagious too," Scoffed a boy with brown hair flopping past his ears.
"Urgh. My Uncle died from dragon pox. Get outta here!" shouted a wiry African kid.
Eleven year old Elphias slowly closed the door of the train compartment and turned away sadly. That had been the last one. He sank down to the floor of the Hogwarts Express and put his head in his hands He was just beginning to wonder if Hogwarts was even worth it, when he heard a commotion inside one of the compartments.
"Yer outta yer tree."
"I wouldn't, Al, you'll never live it down."
"W-what if you catch something-"
"Forget it, you're nuts."
"There's no way-"
"There's a way. Watch me."
The door was thrown open with a bang and he heard footsteps approaching.
"Come sit with us."
Elphias looked up. "Huh?"
"There's room in our compartment. Come sit with us."
The boy speaking had reddish brown hair and unbelievably bright blue eyes, piercing him, almost looking through him. He had already changed into his Hogwarts robes.
"Are you sure, I mean, my spots…"
"Any fool can see you're not contagious any more. Well, maybe not those fools," he said gesturing back at the compartment," But I can."
"You probably aren't foolish, then," Elphias decided.
"No, I'm Albus Dumbledore."
"I'm Elphias Doge."
"I had a cousin named Elphias, but he was a muggle, and he was killed in war. Do you by any chance happen to like acid pops or cockroach clusters?"
They talked for a few more minutes, and then Albus lead him back to his compartment.
"I told you," A boy with spikey white-blonde hair sneered," You can't bring him in here."
"Yeah," A red haired kid with a scar above his eye added," Leave him outside, or you don't get to sit with us."
Elphias glanced around the carriage, full of chocolates and game cards and happy, laughing people flipping stray galleons at each other, and knew what Albus's choice would be. He turned sadly to leave.
"Alright, then." Albus said. "Come on, Elphias, I thought the corridor sounded like more fun anyway."
Once they were outside, Elphias looked at his feet in shame. "Thank you." He mumbled.
"What ever for?" Albus asked.
When Elphias didn't answer, he merely shrugged, then took a seat on the dusty gray carpet. "I've brought a chess board, would you like to play?"
Elphias nodded greatfully and sat down as well as Albus extracted a game board from his robes, and though he lost every single one of the following matches, he couldn't remember having more fun.
It was the beginning of a friendship.
"So you see," Elphias said many, many years later, glaring at Great Auntie Muriel, "He really was a great man."
He glanced at the disappearing red hair of Harry Potter, disguised as a Weasley, then back at Muriel, but her sharp retort was interrupted by a falling silver shape.
"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."
The last words reverberated around the room, and he barely had time to rise to his feet before cloaked figures appeared all around him. The lights suspended from the tent's canopy flickered and went out, and all he could see were the bright beams of the spells. Before he could fully comprehend what was going on, people were falling all around him, and screams and the cracking sound of people dissaperating. He made to make himself among the number of those disappearing around him, but he was old, his reactions slow, and he didn't move quickly enough .A flash of green collided with his chest, and he was falling, yet he never hit the ground. He felt himself flying, then floating and then…., and then nothing. His vision blurred, and as it focused, he was certain he saw a shock of long silver beard standing out from a background of soft white light .The light surrounded him, lifted him up, brought him nearer.
"Old friend, I'll say it's about time," a very familiar voice said serenely, and he felt the blue eyes pierce him once more.