"There are two types of people in this world, the good guys, like our parents and the bad ones like that lot over there. Avoid them at all costs," lectured James as he pointed towards Scorpius Malfoy and three other first years that came from pureblooded families.

"My mum always said that no one is ever completely good or bad. The world isn't in black and white James, we can't judge people just by what their parents are like," replied Rose Weasley, a slight frown hidden between her murky brown eyes.

"What about Voldemort, Rose, wasn't he completely bad?" asked James, still adamant on his beliefs.

"If you had read the history books, which I'm sure you haven't, you would have known that Voldemort was an orphan, and was never shown love. I'm sure that if his mother had survived and took care of him, he wouldn't be the monster that he was."

Rose walked ahead, searching for the over filled compartment that the Weasley clan was sure to be in.

"Besides, Malfoy hasn't said anything to us yet, so don't go bothering him or play some stupid prank that would upset the Slytherins or anything," said Rose as she turned around, only to find that James had disappeared.

"Bloody hell," muttered Rose. Suddenly, there was a big crash and a round of laughter coming from the direction of the Slytherin compartment. Sensing trouble, Rose jogged over to the heavy oak doors and saw Fred, James and their friend Kyle Jordan snickering as Scorpius Malfoy wiped pus away from his eyes.

Rose rolled her eyes. How typical of them.

"Honestly, you guys, attacking a first year? And three against one too! I'm writing to Aunt Ginny and Alicia about this."

Fred and James looked rightfully ashamed of themselves, hanging their heads as the murmured their apologies. Kyle snickered.

"Who would have known? Two of the toughest of the Weasley clan bowing to their 11 year old-"

"I haven't forgotten about you Kyle, your mother will be hearing about this." Kyle abruptly joined his two friends in hanging their heads.

While Rose had been busy telling the trio off, Scorpius had been watching her, open mouthed, the pus dripping off his forehead, long forgotten. Rose looked at him quizzically.

"Scorgify," said Rose, pointing her 8 inch oak wand with a dragon heartstring core at Scorpius.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" asked Rose

"Why did you defend me from them?" Scorpius spoke for the first time, his voice surprisingly soft, not at all like the arrogant piercing tone one would expect from the son of a death eater. Rose quickly recovered herself and answered.

"Don't worry Malfoy, I wasn't giving you any special treatment. After all, you didn't do anything to hurt them, so their attack was unreasonable and unprovoked. Not to mention stupid," Rose glared at the three of them, who looked like they wanted to sink into the red carpet. Scorpius seemed to accept her answer and nodded.

"Thanks Weasley."

Rose looked back at the boys again.

"C'mon guys, we have to get into our compartment."

As they walked out, Humphrey Nott and Vincent Goyle went in, exchanging glares with their fellow sixth years.

When she entered the Weasley compartment everything was in absolute chaos. Winged pygmy puffs flew around, singing happy messages like, 'Welcome back to school!' or 'Happy Birthday' or for some of the red and green ones, 'Merry Christmas'. Due to the popularity of the pygmy puffs Uncle George and Rose's father Ron had decided to create a new range of them. Irritating, flying, shrieking ones. Hogwart's new Headmaster, Professor Brocklehurst, had even put a restriction on the amount each student could bring to school. Which was of course, ten each.

Others were playing a loud game of exploding snap, the special jelly edition, the one where it exploded tasty, sticky, strawberry jelly when you played. What fun.

Regardless to say, Rose had a hard time fitting her new Light'n Flash broom and her trunk into the compartment. In the end, she shrunk both of them and kept them in her pocket while curling herself up in the corner, trying to avoid the green exploding howler butterflies that James were sending towards Albus. Each time they hit him they would explode and scream, "SLYTHERIN!"

Rose sighed to herself. Albus looked a little worse off than she was. Maybe it was time the Weasleys took two compartments. Just in time, Simone Scamander opened the door, a dazed look in her eyes and said, "It's nice to see you and Albus here, Rose. Would you guys like to look for another compartment with me? It looks a bit crowded in here and my mum says there are Snooglewhumps in the end compartments,"

"Course we would!" said Albus gratefully. The three of them walked towards the end and found an empty compartment. After lugging the wooden doors open, the three of them coughed. They were hit with a strangely musty smell that stung their eyes. After rubbing their eyes they gasped. Scorpius was on the ground, a strange silver substance strangling his neck. Rose was just about to wrench it off him when Simona stopped her.

"This could be really dark magic you know, I would stay away from it if I were you,"

"But he's dying Simona!" cried Rose.

"Remember what Aunt Hermoine said? She fought the Devil's Snare with fire," suggested Albus.

Scorpius gave a strangled cough. They looked at him worriedly.

"And Uncle Harry used happy thoughts to get rid of dementors," added Rose. There was a moment of tense silence between them where Scorpius struggled for air, his pale face turning impossibly white. He pointed to a note beside him. Rose picked it up.

I can't rise above 10 inches.

"We need to get him higher than 10 inches. The liquid can't get him there."

Scorpius coughed and nodded as best he could.

"What about Wingardium Leviosa?" asked Simona.

Rose nodded and tried. As soon as he was lifted off the ground he was bounded back onto the floor. The feeble spell was no match for the silver substance.

"Levicorpus!" shouted Albus. Scorpius flew into the air and the silver substance disappeared. Gasping he shouted, "You can put me down now!"

"Libracorpus."

Thunk. Scorpius rubbed his head at looked up at the three of them.

"Thanks guys. I don't' know what's wrong with this compartment but I was trying to escape from some Slytherins trying to bore me to death when I saw this empty compartment and went inside. The silver stuff and the note just jumped out of nowhere when you guys opened the door. Crazy isn't it?"

Rose frowned. "This is serious dark magic. We should report it to the headmaster."

Simona nodded and said, "Does anyone smell pumpkin pasties?"

"This isn't the time for food Simona this is-" Albus stopped mid sentence as he spotted eight pumpkin pasties as well as chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's every flavour beans.

"Don't touch it guys, it could be a trick, more dark magic like the silver liquid," warned Scorpius, looking at the food warily.

"Malfoy's right. Let's get out of here guys," said Rose. Albus and Simone tried pushing the door open, only to find that it was sealed tight.

"We're doomed," remarked Scopius dryly. The three of them glared half-heartedly at him, knowing he was partially right.