This was written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Round 5. I'm the Keeper reserve for the Chudley Cannons :) Our "box" was next-gen, and my chosen prompt was "Setting: Hogwarts Express."

Eurovision 2016: thunder

Trying to muster up the little strength he had, Albus Severus Potter heaved his trunk into the overhead compartment. The Hogwarts Express had taken off about five minutes ago, and the first-year was sitting alone in an empty compartment.

Albus didn't really mind, though. He had his books with him, and that was good enough.

He was about 31 pages into The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 when the compartment door slid open.

"Hi, Al. Can I sit with you?" Rose Weasley asked him. "All the other compartments are filled."

"Of course. You don't need to ask," he said, barely looking up at his cousin and friend as he flipped to another page.

Rose put her trunk up above, and then took a seat opposite from Albus. She sat in silence for a few minutes, but it was obvious that she was absolutely bored.

"Will this rain ever stop?" Rose muttered to herself, unable to resist a small, uncharacteristic frown. The redhead was always full of sunshine and daisies no matter what, so Albus was a bit startled.

He followed her gaze to the window, and confirmed for himself that it was indeed raining. Albus had noticed a very light drizzle when they started their journey, but it had started pouring more heavily by now.

Albus shrugged and went back to reading.

All of a sudden, there was a sharp knock on the compartment door. Immediately, Rose stood up to check who it was.

Her back blocked Albus's view of the visitor, but he wasn't really looking in their direction anyway.

"... Thanks, Weasley," he heard, and he swiveled his head forwards. About to sit himself down was Scorpius Malfoy. Albus's eyes widened but he said nothing. Scorpius frowned at him in return.

And then, the compartment door just plain slid open without knocking. Albus's brother sat himself down quickly and dared any of them to question him. His eyes were shifting around awkwardly, as if sitting with a bunch of first years on the train wasn't his ideal seating arrangement.

"Hi, James," Rose started to say with a smile, but Scorpius smirked and interrupted her.

"The third year Potter is here? Is he afraid of the rainstorm? Is he a coward, just like his—-"

"Scorpius, that's enough! If you two are going to sit with Al and me, you're going to do so without having a stupid argument or bringing up a family feud!" Rose said, scolding them both.

Of course, Albus knew that the petty bickering would resume somehow no matter what Rose said.

The rain had started pouring a lot more, and the sky had considerably darkened from before. The entire Hogwarts Express seemed to fall into mostly silence, save for a few footsteps.

Albus's compartment was no exception. While he had also been quiet from the start, the others sitting beside or in front of him were without words.

The candy trolley had come by about fifteen minutes earlier, and James had risen to buy some Chocolate Frogs for himself. Scorpius had tried to snatch one or two of the candies, but James hissed at him, and slid them out of reach.

When the first boom of thunder came, none of them were prepared. James practically jumped out of his own seat, although the sound of it had seemed to shake the entire train itself, anyway.

Scorpius started to open his mouth, but James cut him off with a sharp glare. "Don't you even utter a word, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. You were just as scared, maybe even more, so you don't have the right."

"James—"

"Hey! Who took my candy?" James' eyes started focusing in on Scorpius, muttering curses under his breath.

Indeed, the candy was not where it had been thirty seconds ago. Scorpius's eyes widened.

"I didn't take it, I swear!" he shouted, throwing his hands up as if to prove he was empty handed.

"And neither did Rose or I," added on Albus. Scorpius is lying, isn't he? The candy can't just have disappeared.

James combed every inch of Scorpius's part of the compartment, looking for the candy, but it was to no avail.

Suddenly, there was a loud crunch that sounded like somebody was now eating James' Chocolate Frogs. Immediately, his head whipped around, but everybody's jaws had dropped open. None of them had candy in their mouth, so who could have taken it? Was there an invisible wizard in their compartment?

There were more munching sounds, followed by a prolonged sigh that implied that whoever it was had enjoyed the Frog.

"Show yourself!" James said, pulling out his wanding and pointing its end around the compartment. By now, Albus had shut his book and was watching what was going on curiously.

There was a chuckle, and a poof.

"They've really improved the quality of the candy here over the years," noted the ghost of Fred Weasley as he popped another one into his mouth.

"... Uncle Fred? What are you doing here?" asked Albus.

"Eating Chocolate Frogs, of course!"

"But you're a ghost—you can't taste the flavor of the Frogs, can you?"

"... Well, sometimes it's just more fun to steal them from others than to actually eat them. I'm itching for mischief even more nowadays…" His voice trailed off for a second. "Now where was I again?"

Rose had been about to answer, but then there was another boom of thunder. James let out a little shriek, but Rose, who was unphased, spoke over him. "You were telling us why you were here, Uncle Fred."

"Yes. Right. Besides wanting to cause mischief among small first-years, I also need your help."

Scorpius scowled. "Well you can consider your help not granted by me, then. I have no debts due to a Weasley."

"I haven't even told you the plan yet, Malfoy."

Rose put her head in her hands. "First my brother, and now my uncle, too?" she mumbled under her breath.

The ghost promptly ignored her. "For all the years I've been a ghost, I've been planning a great prank to be set at Hogwarts, but I've needed a group of students to actually carry it out for me."

"And what is this prank?" James asked, leaning forward with eyes gleaming. He was probably the only one in the group who would actually go along with the plan.

"In short, you're going to turn the entire Slytherin house into weasels."