Chapter One - The Train

Geran walked down to the basement of the Citadel with his father and Belsambar. There had been a test ride, and they had returned soon enough. Today, on Geran's eleventh birthday, he was allowed to do a journey. Wolf joined in, waving his tail happily.

"It'll be great fun, dear friends", Belsambar said right after the train took off from Riva. "We'll meet Albus Dumbledore at King's Cross soon enough, and hopefully my wife, too".

"Why do these people have two names, Belsambar?" Geran asked.

"A custom" Belsambar replied. "In truth, most of them have even more names. It's his first name, Albus, that's really his, personally. His last name, or his surname, is a family name. Albus has a brother, whose first name is Aberforth. They both share the same surname, Dumbledore".

"Complicated" Geran said, shaking his head. "Can't they just make do with first names?"

Belsambar smiled. "They did. But then they were so many with the same name that they just had to add one. At first it was mostly to do with a profession or a description, and when sons usually learned their father's profession and looks, that name became hereditary".

"Dumbledore doesn't sound like a profession" Geran said doubtfully.

"It's an old word for bumblebee, so it's a descriptive one" Belsambar replied.

"Albus Dumbledore is a bee?" Geran marvelled.

"No, but his ancestor could turn himself into a bumblebee" Belsambar laughed. "It's what wizards call animagi. They can change into an animal, and only one animal".

"But what would our last name be in this world?" Geran wondered. "I mean, we should have one, just to fit in".

Belsambar nodded. "I suggest you go with profession. One that is hereditary..."

"Profession? What... king?" Geran blurted. "or perhaps regal or royal?"

Belgarion frowned a bit.

"...and preferably shared by the both of you" Belsambar added, ignoring the interruption.

"Keeper" Belgarion put in firmly. "That's a duty we're born with and what we're doing here as well. Royalty is what we left behind when the train left — I hope".

"I don't see how I came to forget that" Geran said regretfully. "Then again, that Tolnedran tutor Mother hired kept telling to me about being royalty and about that ridiculous way of recording history."

"You won't be having a Tolnedran tutor anymore, Geran" Belgarion told him. "It is, I presume, easy enough to forget the first duty. Yet, it should be as hard to forget as your right hand. You do know what the mark means, don't you?"

"Yes, Father" Geran replied.

Then Belsambar decided to change the subject. "Tell me, Geran, has anything odd happened when you've been angry or scared?"

"Well, something always broke when I had that nightmare" Geran said doubtfully, "and my tutor's ink-bottle used to break when he was saying something insulting about Alorns or Rivans."

"But I heard nothing" Belgarion said. "I would have, if it was Will and Word".

"It could have been wizardry, though" Belsambar said. "Many wizard children do uncontrolled magic when in stress".

"You mean. I am a wizard?" Geran asked.

"And I think you might do with learning how to control it" Belsambar nodded. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry might well be the place for you. Albus Dumbledore is the current headmaster and I can almost guarantee you get in - they're all eleven when they start their first year". Belsambar chuckled. "Just thinking. Aldur sent me off to Kell in order to learn Wizardry once, but my study with other worlds brought me more information on that particular subject than Kell could ever provide."

"Um… what's witchcraft?" Geran asked.

"Same thing as wizardry, except that women do it, not men" Belsambar replied.

"Oh" Geran said.

"Anyway, I had to take on several disguises to hide my extra-ordinary long life" Belsambar added, "Muggles, who at some point begun to execute anyone they believed was doing magic by fire - not that it worked, mind you, real witches and wizards did a simple Flame-Freezing Charm and pretended they died. That provided excellent means for me to fake my death. Took me twenty times to learn how to keep it from wizards - Wyndelin the Weird, my dear friend, needed forty-seven times. Anyway, we finally succeeded, and managed to convince wizards. I was known as Dedalus Dumbledore for nearly two centuries since Hogwarts was first founded and as William Weasley for the next two. Then I assumed the name of…"

Belsambar was interrupted by a loud creak as the train slowed down. They had arrived at King's Cross.

Just outside the train Belsambar busily did the introductions; His wife, Perenelle, and both Albus and Aberforth Dumbledore had turned up at the platform. Geran wondered how Belsambar could tell the two apart, but guessed that the gold-and-scarlet bird sitting on Albus' shoulder had something to do with that, as well as the grey goat Aberforth had on leash.

Aberforth complimented Geran and Belgarion on their Rivan cloaks made of goat-hair. "It sure was a fine goat to give that hair", he noted. "I guess you people eat goats?"

"Too much" Geran said, his face turning sickly. "I prefer ham".

"Right you are", Aberforth chuckled, "but those wizards that come up and slay them for some stone and don't even bother to eat them afterwards."

"Now, now, Aberforth, you know it's for antidotes against..." Albus soothed.

"An antidote on a cost of a goat's life!" Aberforth snapped. "Just because goats don't bother to read, doesn't make them unworthy to keep their stomachs intact! What ever happened to making draught out of Mandrake leaves?"

Belsambar looked at the brothers with amusement. Their argument reminded him of Belgarath and Beldin, as well as his very own debates with his brothers in Aldur's Vale. Geran realised the similarity between the Dumbledore brothers and how Belgarath always argued with Polgara. Geran turned his attention to the odd sign above the platform. It had only one symbol in it, two straight lines connected with a curly one on the top. However much Geran stared at it, he could not say what it was supposed to mean.

Belsambar explained that it was a symbol used for how many times, exactly, the diameter of a circle fits around the circle. "It's one of the most famous irrational figures there is" Belsambar said. "We leave the natural numbers - one, two, three and so on, to Muggles. Fractions - like the Platform nine and three quarters for Hogwarts - are for wizard- platforms within this world, being also the so-called rational numbers. The Irrationals are for travelling between worlds - not that there's any but this one yet".

And then they stepped trough the gate onto the Muggle platform 3 at King's Cross. Belsambar on the front, they went into the Leaky Cauldron trough a door many would not notice without knowing it was there. Belgarion wondered if the doors for the Cave of Gods worked that way, you could find it if you knew it was there, or if you had need to find it. Not that it meant much as they entered the pub, which had not many customers at all.