Chapter Four: The Slytherins
There was plenty of room on the Express that year, and several students other than Abigail Vincent were traveling in their own compartments.
Richard Forsythe was not one of those students. He found himself rather squashed just as the train moved out of the station, sharing a compartment with George Roberts, James Gryffiths, Victoria Darcy, Elizabeth Warren, and Mary Tillinghouse.
They had been called "the Royal Firsties" when they arrived last year, seeing as they all shared the names of various British muggle sovereigns, with the notable exception of Victoria, who considered herself to actually BE royalty in her own right and to the devil with what she had been named.
It had, of course, come with its share of problems. Once their fellow Slytherins had beaten the joke as far as it could go, they had left them be. Their fellow year mates had not been so kind. Slytherins in general were automatically considered arrogant and snobbish, and once the title got out, they had never been rid of it. Gryffindors especially liked to mock bow to "King Richard", just before tripping him in the halls. As a result, the 2nd years had bonded together uncommonly close, for Slytherins were a little less open by nature, but nothing holds a bond together stronger than uncalled for persecution in adolescence.
"Pass the pies, Vic." James was forever hungry.
"We're all out, you will just have to wait until Mary gets back."
"Well she didn't have to go buy any, we're quite well set up with other sweets."
Victoria and Elizabeth rolled their eyes. "She didn't go buy anything, she's stealing some from the Gryffindor compartment."
"Oh, not that I object, but why?"
Vic shrugged, "She did the same last spring, it's pathetically easy, the boys are usually running wild somewhere else anyway. It's harder to steal from the girls, they tend to actually remain in the compartment. Elizabeth bet her three chocolate frogs that she wouldn't be able to steal a pastry from Kathleen Connell."
"You have chocolate frogs there, old girl?"
"Yes I do, and no, you can't have them, there's three left and on the off chance that she IS able to steal food from Kathleen, I'll have to pay up. You are just going to have to wait James."
"I hate waiting."
"Here, have some of this."
"What is it, it isn't snails, is it George?"
George's mother came from Paris, had attended Beauxbatons, and therefore had a very low opinion of English school food. As a result, George was sent off to school with a large supply of what Helene Roberts considered to be "healthy food for a growing boy", which did, from time to time, include snails and suspicious smelling spreads. There was, however, always plenty to go around.
"It's cheese James, perfectly safe."
James devoured the heavily laden cracker with absolutely no respect for the hours the Roberts cook had spent making it.
The conversation turned to Quidditch, as it always did, and little thought was given to pies until the compartment door opened with a slam to reveal a panting 12 year old girl with long curly brown hair that was somewhat disheveled, torn stockings, and no pies in sight.
"I win," Elizabeth chirped cheerfully.
"No, you don't," Mary collapsed into the seat after closing the door.
"What do you mean Mary? And what have you been doing?"
"They came back in unexpectedly, so I hid behind a few boxes on the luggage rack. I thought I was a goner for sure, but I wasn't."
"Huh?"
"They weren't staying very long, it seems all the Gryffindors are clustered together up at the front of the train."
Elizabeth looked bemused, "I still don't see how this gets you out of owing me three chocolate frogs."
"I couldn't steal anything from Kathleen Connell."
"And that would be why you owe me three chocolate frogs."
"Listen Elizabeth! I couldn't steal any food from here because SHE'S NOT HERE!"
"What?"
"She's muggle born, and she's from Ireland, and her family went to America over the summer, and they took her with them."
"They just left?"
Mary nodded. "I don't think she's the only one, either. The Gryffindors were all buzzing, I think there's a lot more."
The compartment went silent. Rivalry or no, none of the Slytherins was rejoicing at the idea that spunky Kathleen Connell, who knew more swear words than any other second year, had been shipped across the ocean because there was nothing to eat in Ireland. The Famine had been a strange sort of detached issue for the Slytherins, there had been no muggle born students sorted into the house in centuries, so they all knew their close friends were safe from the dangers of the muggle world. This being their second year at school, it was the first time the little group had been affected by a "famine loss." They weren't sure what to do.
Elizabeth mutely handed her chocolate frogs to James and went back to reading her book.
James looked down at the frogs in his lap. He stared at them all the way to Hogwarts, but he didn't eat them.
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"Has anyone seen Cordelia?"
Priscilla Van Veldhausen stuck her head into a compartment on the last car of the train, which had been the privileged haunt of seventh year Slytherins for generations.
Her friend and year-mate Helena Cadaver was lounging across her seat, devouring a summer's worth of copies of "Equality Now!" a suffragette witch magazine. Mrs. Cadaver was a traditionalist who disputed the necessity of girls learning anything beyond scouring spells and the proper management of house elves, and as such Helena had to have her subscription forwarded to Molly Puffin, a seventh year Hufflepuff she had known since primary, for the entire summer. Mrs. Puffin was one of the first witches to be appointed to the Hogwart's Board of Governors, and therefore heartily approved of her daughter's apparent interest in female liberation. In reality, Molly had never really felt oppressed by "the domineering sex" and she tossed the things in a pile the minute they arrived and didn't think about them until the first of September, when she dropped the lot in the top of her trunk to be passed off to Helena on the train.
"Of course I haven't. It's the first day of school, she probably hasn't had an unsupervised moment with Brian since they came out of the baggage car last June, where do you THINK she is?"
"Helena!" Honestly, women's liberation was all fine and good, but the things that girl suggested...
"Oh Priscilla don't be such a ninny. Merlin knows wherever they are they aren't playing chess. They can't anyway, their pieces get all moony looking at each other and when the time comes for checkmate they'd rather kiss the queen than properly decapitate her, it's disgusting."
Priscilla sighed and dropped into the seat across from Helena. "Well, how do you think poor Ari feels, we've got each other, without Brian he's all by himself." The shortage of seventh year Slytherin males was a predicament that both Mrs. Van Veldhausen and Mrs. Cadaver found appalling. After all, one of the benefits of tolerating seven years of female education was that by the end of it they came out practically engaged! But their daughter's year had only five students, three girls, and two boys, and there was nothing to be done about it.
Helena snorted, "Aristotle Logan, alone? He has eleven cousins in the school, Caesar is his best friend anyway, I don't think he lacks any company."
At that moment a blond haired eleven year old boy stuck his head in the door. Helena quickly pulled a copy of "Housewitch's Digest" over her magazine.
"Helena, can I borrow a few sickles ... for the food trolley?"
"I thought father gave you your allowance before we got on the train?"
"He did."
"You ate it all already?"
"Well... no, not all by myself, I shared."
"Then have your new friends buy you some candy, and you have chocolate on your nose."
Oberon Cadaver rubbed his nose with the back of his sleeve, which only served to smear the chocolate further across his face. He had an earnest expression on his face, too earnest to be for chocolate frogs, Helena noted, her youngest brother had never been keen on sweets, strangely enough.
"Please Helena!"
"No."
"But-"
"God's teeth Oberon, go bother your brother, or go play somewhere interesting, like under the train."
Oberon frowned and turned to leave, coming face to face with the towering figure of Aristotle Logan.
"Oh hello? You must be Helena's."
"I claim no responsibility whatsoever for that, and before he asks, you are not to give him any money, Aristotle."
Oberon, having lost his chance, headed up the train, closing the compartment as Aristotle took a seat.
"You won't believe what I just heard about Bartley Murphy and Declan Quinn...."
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"Do you have any more pies Rupert?"
"No."
"Any juice?"
"No."
"Any chocolate frogs?"
"Sal, you know how many more chocolate frogs I would have if I'd just ignored Despard and sold you eight years ago?"
Dylan O'Fallon chuckled and tossed Sally a piece of rock candy from his pile of sweets. "Here you go Sal."
Sally grinned, popped the candy into her mouth, and went back to staring out the window in rapt fascination. Rupert could scowl over his chessboard all he liked, but she really had been practically invisible the whole trip. The Murgatroyds were not what you would call a widely traveled family, not by wizarding standards, and Sally had never seen so much of England at once.
Of course, one could stare at the scenery or Rupert's never ending game of chess with Dylan for only so long, and every so often Sally would try to engage the boys in conversation.
That had never gone particularly well, as Rupert and Dylan were very serious about chess, and it usually ended in allusions to Sally's near-sale to circus folk or a suggestion that she go play in some perilous part of the train.
She probably ought to have just found a compartment on her own, but Sally was eager to learn all about Hogwarts, having suspected that her brothers had fed her slightly altered versions of the truth her entire life, including this morning when they were discussing the pool in the Slytherin dormitories. So she had followed her brother back to a compartment in the third car from the end of the train, near the other Slytherins. However, once the chess had started, all communication that wasn't in the forms of grunts or curses seemed to have ceased.
"Knock, knock," a smiling red headed girl opened the door, "Has anyone seen Nicodemus? He's wandered off."
"Is his a third year too?" Sally pounced, eager for someone to talk to.
The girl laughed and shook her head, "No, he's a cat. And who are you?"
Sally stood up, "I'm Sally, Sally Murgatroyd."
"Oh, you're Rupert's little sister! Oh he's told us all about you! I was wondering when you'd turn up." She turned on Rupert, who had barely looked up from his game, "You beast, I bet she's spent the whole trip staring out the window, poor thing! Did they even feed you? I bet not. You could set off a dozen dung bombs around them when they're in the middle of a game and they'd hardly know it. I'm Tess, by the way, Tess Windlass. Come on, you better come sit with the girls, these games can get violent towards the end."
Before Sally was even aware of it she was pulled out of the compartment and into the next. This one was already occupied by two girls, a tall brunette and smaller girl with glasses and black curly hair.
"Now the one on the left is Beverly Chase, and the one on the right with the glasses is Claudia Vernberg. This is Sally, she's Rupert's little sister. I rescued her from a game of Murgatroyed-O'Fallon chess."
Tess dropped down on the empty bench across from Claudia, Sally sat beside her, near the window.
"Pass the pies, Bev, I'm famished. I bet you are too, aren't you Sally?"
Sally didn't really have a choice as a pie was thrust into her hands.
Claudia looked up from her book, "Did you find Nicodemus?"
Tess frowned, "No, I didn't really get very far. He's probably wandered up the train towards the food closet. He'll be back in a hurry if they catch him in there."
Beverly smiled at Sally, "So Sally, are you excited about Hogwarts?"
Sally nodded, "I'm afraid that what I've been told about it is mostly lies, however."
Claudia grinned, "With Rupert and Despard for brothers that's no small wonder. What do you want to know?"
"Everything, but, does Slytherin really have a swimming pool in the dormitories?"
Tess smiled enigmatically. "We can only tell you the truth behind THAT if you're sorted into Slytherin."
Sally's face fell a bit.
"Don't worry, with both your brothers in, it's more than likely you will be too. And there's plenty we can tell you without violating house privileges."
They then proceeded to give Sally a crash session in Hogwarts history, traditions, the rules, ways to break them without being caught, and all the generally known secrets of the castle that weren't particular to Slytherin House.
They were halfway through a description of Hogsmeade and the wonders therein when the door opened to reveal a tall boy with a disheveled tie carrying a cat.
"Nicodemus!" Tess squealed, scooping a grey cat with white feet and a white chin and neck into her arms.
"Found him on my way back down the train, he was snooping around the food closet."
"Told you," Tess sat down, sliding over so the boy could sit next to her. "Sally, this is Socrates Logan, Socrates, this is Sally Murgatroyd-"
"Rupert's little sister, he told me you were in here. Said you were eager to start school."
Sally nodded.
"Yeah, well, wait until you blow something off in potions class."
Beverly passed Socrates a pie. "What were you doing up at that end of the train? Chasing the food trolley?"
Socrates shook his head, "I was up talking to my cousin."
Claudia rolled her eyes, "Oh, that's helpful." She turned to Sally, "He HAS eleven on the train."
Socrates grinned, "Actually, this year it's more like fourteen."
"You're kidding."
"Nope, there's a Logan, a Parker, AND a Clark starting this year. You're going to get to know my relatives pretty well Sally."
"I DEMAND A REMATCH!"
There was the sound of banging and shouting, and suddenly a disheveled Rupert appeared in door to the third year girls' compartment.
"Hey Sal, be a sport, go run and get Despard to let me borrow his chess set, will you?"
Tess groaned, "I told you they got violent."
Rupert rolled his eyes, "He's claiming I did something to the chess pieces. I'll give you your worth in chocolate frogs if you can get it to me in ten minutes."
Sally shrugged and slipped out and toward the back of the train.
"What do you mean her worth in chocolate frogs Rupert?"
"Long story, hey, where have YOU been?"
"Up front talking to the family. Go get Dylan, you will never believe what I heard about Sheila Murphy and Tommy Concannon."
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"And you're certain it was the Budapest Beater's Bludgering Bible?"
"I told you, I saw them buying it this morning, they must have been up at dawn, they got the last copy."
"Are they going to reprint it?"
"It's your move, Edgar."
"I don't know, but it's printed in Hungary, and with this whole scuffle about the import tax it may take months to get another shipment."
"Well how did the first one get here?"
"It came through France, I think. In any case, there's no way we'll get a copy before the first match of the year."
"It's your move Edgar."
"There's not any way we could get a copy by, alternative means?"
"Not bloody likely, we're going to have to start 'paying closer attention' to their practices."
"They never try out the good stuff in practice, they always wait till the game."
"It's your move Edgar."
"They're going to HAVE to practice this stuff."
"They're Ravenclaws, Alfred, they can do anything if there's a book on it."
"But this is Quidditch! You don't learn Quidditch from books!"
"You can tell that to the Hufflepuffs when you explain to them why they didn't win the Quidditch Cup last year."
"IF YOU DON'T STOP TALKING ABOUT QUIDDITCH I AM GOING TO TRANSFIGURE YOU ALL INTO BUNNIES!"
Alfred Hogarth, Edgar Fortinbrass, and Rueben Foster stared in astonishment at the very frustrated form of Mildred Hesperus, who, true to her word, had her wand out and a look in her eye that in no way suggested she was bluffing. Transfiguration was Mildred's second best subject after Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Sorry Mildred," Edgar moved his pawn, only to have it viciously torn limb from limb by Mildred's knight, who had been waiting to do so for quite some time.
Mildred liked the boys in her year, she really did. But when the sixth year Slytherin males got going about Quidditch, sometimes the threat of being irreversibly transformed into something cute and fluffy was the only way to get through to them. They had been debating over the repercussions of Julius and Augustus Parker's purchase this morning in Diagon Ally of the latest in professional international Quidditch playbooks for over an hour, and frankly, she could take no more.
She would normally have been traveling with her female year-mates, however, Siobhan Bronwen was off in the Hufflepuff car having tea with Gwdion Goodfellow, and Eva Atwater was doing Something with Ravenclaw Archibald Tumnus. At their suggestion that she go with Siobhan and make conversation with Algernon Northumberland Mildred had stammered an excuse and retreated to a game of chess with Edgar. She and Algie were just friends, that was all.
Siobhan returned just after Edgar had been thoroughly trounced and Mildred's pieces had danced a hornpipe across the board in celebration.
"What, over so soon?" Mildred teased as a disgruntled Siobhan settled next to her.
"Yes, sadly, we were, interrupted, and then decided that it wouldn't set a good example for two prefects to be caught, er...."
"Using the baggage car?" Reuben smiled.
"Neglecting their duties," Siobhan finished, but she blushed anyway.
"Besides," she added in a quiet undertone to Mildred, "the baggage car was already in use. I swear, that is NO way for the Head Girl to be behaving."
"Well, she probably hasn't had a moment alone with Brian all summer."
"True. So, Algernon asked after you, by the way."
Mildred blushed to the roots of her light brown hair. "Oh?"
Siobhan chuckled, and was about to go into a detailed description of the conversation when Eva Atwater slipped in, shutting the door behind her and leaning back against it.
"How was Archie?" Mildred asked sweetly.
"Oh, we didn't get to have a very long conversation, Augustus Parker had some book he needed to show him, and I could tell he really wanted to go, so I told him I'd just have a chat with the girls."
Siobhan and Mildred nodded. "The girls" referred to the two female Ravenclaw sixth years, Rosella Zobell and Charlotte Mortimer. They were uncommonly talkative and reasonable, for Ravenclaws, unlike the girls in Gryffindor, who ran positively wild sometimes and had to be treated rather delicately, or they were prone to snap.
"You didn't get a look at the book, did you?" Edgar, it appeared, had been paying attention to the conversation.
"No, not at all."
"Oh," no longer interested, he turned back to the game of Exploding Cribbage he was playing with Reuben and Alfred, all squashed together on the seat.
"Anyways, Julius calls in about halfway through, and as a courtesy to Rosella really we invite him to sit, they really are terribly shy about it- "
"I can't imagine Julius Parker being shy about anything," Siobhan added dryly.
"Well, in any case, he'd just been up front talking to his cousin-"
"Which one?"
"Oh Merlin only knows, and anyway, you won't believe what I just heard about Eamon Murphy, Michael Delving, and Seamus O'Connor."
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"Despard?"
Sally flung her head into a compartment containing three fifteen year old girls.
"Oops, sorry, I get turned around on this train. I was looking for my brother."
"You're Despard's little sister! Oh he's told us all about you! We were wondering when you'd turn up. And they have you running errands for them? Horrid boys, have they fed you? Come sit down."
As a pretty blond girl pulled her down onto a seat, Sally wondered what it was that made her so popular with the girls in her brother's years.
"Actually, I really do need to find Despard-"
"Oh, we'll get him for you. Geri, be a lamb and go snag Desi will you?"
"Desi?" Sally nearly choked. Despite the fact that they called her Sal, she had NEVER, EVER been allowed to bestow upon her siblings any sort of affectionate nickname. Especially not one as bad as 'Desi'.
The blond girl smiled, "We don't call him that to his face, naturally. I'm Georgiana Vernberg, by the way, and that girl who just trotted off was Geraldine Idyll, but you can't possibly call anyone that sweet Geraldine. And the girl with her nose stuck in the book is Winifred Dayton."
Winifred pulled her head out of the book to stick out her tongue.
"You see, she's quite awful enough to actually be called Winifred, aren't you Winnie?"
Winifred nodded, "I'm afraid I am. Fear me child, fear me."
The effect of the words was somewhat ruined by the fact that she was crossing her eyes and wiggling her ears as she said it.
"That's an attractive look for you Freddie," Despard commented smoothly as he leaned against the doorjamb.
"My mission in life."
"What's the matter Sal? Did Rupert go tell you to play under the train? Because I can tell you where it is but I'm not coming with you."
"Despard!" Georgiana frowned.
"Ah, he's just teasing her. Sally likes it, don't you Sal?"
This came from a messy haired well built boy with shoulders a little too broad for the door. He slipped awkwardly past Despard and sat down next to Winifred.
"I'm used to it, how are you Benedict?"
Benedict Poe was one of Despard's closest friends, both in the emotional- bonding sense and the physical one, their other male year-mate lived in Scotland, and Sally had seen Benedict frequently over the summer.
"Fine, can't complain, you still eager for Hogwarts?"
Sally nodded and grinned.
"Well, it'll pass. Wait until you blow something off in potions class."
Sally rolled her eyes and turned back to her big brother.
"Rupert wants to borrow your chess set, and I get my worth in chocolate frogs if I get it to him in the next four minutes."
"Did you check that he actually had that many before you came rushing over?"
"Of course."
"That's my girl."
"What does she mean, her worth in chocolate frogs?"
"Long story, come on, it's in the other compartment."
Sally was waiting in the aisle while her brother rummaged in his satchel for the chess set. She was facing the back of the train, and not really paying attention. As a result, she jumped a mile when a polite cough came from behind her. She spun around to see a tall, dark haired boy that reminded her strikingly of someone she had just met. However, she had met quite a few people today.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you, I just need to duck in here."
Sally stepped back as the boy entered her brother's compartment.
"Where have YOU been? Sally, here's the chess set, tell Rupert not to get the pieces all riled up, some of us like a more civilized game."
"Oh, is this one yours?" The boy asked.
"This is my little sister Sally. Sally, this is Plato Logan, he has a few cousins starting this year as well."
"So I've heard."
"Pleasure to meet you Sally. Did I hear you're going back to Rupert? Can you do me a favor and remind Socrates to fix his tie? It's always crooked."
That's who the boy reminded her of. "Of course."
"Thank you so much. So, where's Benedict?"
"In with the girls, you're going to be late Sal."
As Sally trotted towards her forty-eight chocolate frogs she heard the conversation float away.
"Well you better go get him, I just came from Cassandra, and you will not believe what I heard about Patrick Murphy and Sean McAllister."
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"Someone's coming."
"Who?"
"Don't know, never seen him before, he's probably harmless."
"Constant vigilance, Gloria."
"He looks pretty small."
"Let me see...oh, he's all right, he can come in."
The fourth year Slytherins occupied the front most compartments in the second car from the end of the Express. As a guard against a repeat of last spring's dungbombing by the Unholy Trinity of Hedgpeth, Vincent, and Babcock, they were monitoring the doors to the car, and had been for the entire ride. The inter-house warfare between the fourth year Slytherins and Ravenclaws was rather more aggressive than other rivalries, and every year they sought to top the deeds of the last.
Moments later, Gloria Levinton opened the door for a small blond boy with chocolate smeared across his face, who trotted past and pulled open the door to the second compartment.
"Hey Puck, can I borrow a few sickles for the food trolley?"
"You already asked Helena and she already said no, is that it?"
Oberon paused a minute, before deciding on the truth. "Yes."
"If you're hungry you can have my last pie."
"Oh, no, I'll just buy my own."
"I really don't want it Oberon."
"Well, I-"
"You don't want the money for the food trolley Oberon, you want it so you can stay in the poker game that...let's see, Cassius Clark, has to be, is running right now along with his cousins."
Oberon stared at Puck. "How did you know?"
"Because it is a time honored Clark tradition to swindle as much money as you can out of your classmates on your first train ride to school. You haven't been sorted yet, so everyone's friendly, and you get more people to play. They make it sound like it is all nice and get-to-know-your-fellow- wizard-like, and they end up with all your money. It's a hustle. Calisto ran it my first year, Cassandra ran it the year before that, Iphigenia ran it during my second year, and Electra ran one last year. They are a dynasty of card sharks, there's nothing else to do in Scotland in the winter."
An olive skinned boy with glasses dropped onto the seat across from Puck.
"We checked the floorboards again, and all the storage racks, we even made people get up so we could check for hollowed out seat boxes."
"Nothing?"
"That we can see, but they have been WAY too quiet for there not to be something in place. Besides, by now they must have discovered the remarkably strong glue that Jasper and Vanessa injected into their lemon cremes."
Puck whistled, "Where did she get that stuff?"
The boy shrugged, "Her big brother works in the Experimental Potions Department at the Ministry. She always has the latest stuff. By the way, is this one yours?"
Puck lazily waved his hand from Oberon to the new boy. "Nate, this is my little brother Oberon, Oberon, this is Nathaniel Dicken. Nathaniel, under no circumstance are you to loan Oberon here money. Ever."
"Sorry old man, I have to live with him."
"And don't let me catch you bothering the girls about it either, it is ungentlemanly to ask ladies for money."
"But it's all fine and dandy to go ask them to dangle under the train?" In the door stomped a small girl with plaited brown hair, with a greasy black substance on her arms and forehead.
"Did you see anything?"
"I am afraid so. It's entirely too clean in some places, someone's been mucking about. I think they broke into a vent while the train was in the station."
"It could be anywhere."
"It could be everywhere, in this car at least. Oh, hello?"
"Vanessa, my little brother Oberon, Oberon, Vanessa Harrington, of the glue fame. Where's Jasper?"
"Watching the other door. What glue fame?"
"Never mind. Listen, if it's already here, we don't need to bother anymore, call them back in."
A few minutes later two more people crowded into the compartment, one was the girl Oberon had seen when he came through; the other he assumed was Jasper.
"Oh, everyone, this is my little brother Oberon. You are never to loan him money. Now, Gloria, if there is something in the vent, is there anyway to 'accio' it out?"
Gloria Levinton, a girl of medium height and superb intelligence, was the smartest of their number. She shook her head. "Not if we don't know what it is."
"Well, it can't be a dungbomb, right? You have to light that." Jasper Hogarth was something of an expert at dungbombs.
"Not if they figured out how to detonate it remotely."
"Why the vent?"
"Because we can't get to it and they knew we'd be looking?"
"Because it would get the whole car?"
"There's a thought."
"So we just leave, easy enough."
Puck shook his head, "Not good enough. Now, they are going to want to do this when it would cause maximum chaos, when everyone was back in their seats."
"Right before we get into the station?"
"Exactly. That gives us at least an hour."
"For what?"
Puck grinned, "A counter attack. Now, Nate, you still know how to break into the baggage compartments while the train is moving, right?"
Nate nodded, "Of course."
"All right, Gloria, Vanessa, you work on clearing this car, tell everyone to go either to the back car or the third car from the end, but not beyond, we want to keep the knowledge of this in house. Oberon, go back to Priscilla's car, find Aristotle Logan, we need some information."
As the fourth year Slytherin's set about combating Hugo Vincent and Co,'s mysterious devilish deed, they ran into the frowning figure of Calisto Clark.
"Where have YOU been?"
"Up front with my cousin."
"Oh, that narrows it down."
"What's going on?"
"We're beating the Ravenclaws at their own game."
"Really? Splendid. I knew Arachne was being far too nice to me this morning."
"Good then you can show us the way, Oberon, cancel that order, come with me and lend a hand."
"Oh, but first, you will never guess what I just heard about Sean Murphy and Daniel Kelly."
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There was plenty of room on the Express that year, and several students other than Abigail Vincent were traveling in their own compartments.
Richard Forsythe was not one of those students. He found himself rather squashed just as the train moved out of the station, sharing a compartment with George Roberts, James Gryffiths, Victoria Darcy, Elizabeth Warren, and Mary Tillinghouse.
They had been called "the Royal Firsties" when they arrived last year, seeing as they all shared the names of various British muggle sovereigns, with the notable exception of Victoria, who considered herself to actually BE royalty in her own right and to the devil with what she had been named.
It had, of course, come with its share of problems. Once their fellow Slytherins had beaten the joke as far as it could go, they had left them be. Their fellow year mates had not been so kind. Slytherins in general were automatically considered arrogant and snobbish, and once the title got out, they had never been rid of it. Gryffindors especially liked to mock bow to "King Richard", just before tripping him in the halls. As a result, the 2nd years had bonded together uncommonly close, for Slytherins were a little less open by nature, but nothing holds a bond together stronger than uncalled for persecution in adolescence.
"Pass the pies, Vic." James was forever hungry.
"We're all out, you will just have to wait until Mary gets back."
"Well she didn't have to go buy any, we're quite well set up with other sweets."
Victoria and Elizabeth rolled their eyes. "She didn't go buy anything, she's stealing some from the Gryffindor compartment."
"Oh, not that I object, but why?"
Vic shrugged, "She did the same last spring, it's pathetically easy, the boys are usually running wild somewhere else anyway. It's harder to steal from the girls, they tend to actually remain in the compartment. Elizabeth bet her three chocolate frogs that she wouldn't be able to steal a pastry from Kathleen Connell."
"You have chocolate frogs there, old girl?"
"Yes I do, and no, you can't have them, there's three left and on the off chance that she IS able to steal food from Kathleen, I'll have to pay up. You are just going to have to wait James."
"I hate waiting."
"Here, have some of this."
"What is it, it isn't snails, is it George?"
George's mother came from Paris, had attended Beauxbatons, and therefore had a very low opinion of English school food. As a result, George was sent off to school with a large supply of what Helene Roberts considered to be "healthy food for a growing boy", which did, from time to time, include snails and suspicious smelling spreads. There was, however, always plenty to go around.
"It's cheese James, perfectly safe."
James devoured the heavily laden cracker with absolutely no respect for the hours the Roberts cook had spent making it.
The conversation turned to Quidditch, as it always did, and little thought was given to pies until the compartment door opened with a slam to reveal a panting 12 year old girl with long curly brown hair that was somewhat disheveled, torn stockings, and no pies in sight.
"I win," Elizabeth chirped cheerfully.
"No, you don't," Mary collapsed into the seat after closing the door.
"What do you mean Mary? And what have you been doing?"
"They came back in unexpectedly, so I hid behind a few boxes on the luggage rack. I thought I was a goner for sure, but I wasn't."
"Huh?"
"They weren't staying very long, it seems all the Gryffindors are clustered together up at the front of the train."
Elizabeth looked bemused, "I still don't see how this gets you out of owing me three chocolate frogs."
"I couldn't steal anything from Kathleen Connell."
"And that would be why you owe me three chocolate frogs."
"Listen Elizabeth! I couldn't steal any food from here because SHE'S NOT HERE!"
"What?"
"She's muggle born, and she's from Ireland, and her family went to America over the summer, and they took her with them."
"They just left?"
Mary nodded. "I don't think she's the only one, either. The Gryffindors were all buzzing, I think there's a lot more."
The compartment went silent. Rivalry or no, none of the Slytherins was rejoicing at the idea that spunky Kathleen Connell, who knew more swear words than any other second year, had been shipped across the ocean because there was nothing to eat in Ireland. The Famine had been a strange sort of detached issue for the Slytherins, there had been no muggle born students sorted into the house in centuries, so they all knew their close friends were safe from the dangers of the muggle world. This being their second year at school, it was the first time the little group had been affected by a "famine loss." They weren't sure what to do.
Elizabeth mutely handed her chocolate frogs to James and went back to reading her book.
James looked down at the frogs in his lap. He stared at them all the way to Hogwarts, but he didn't eat them.
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"Has anyone seen Cordelia?"
Priscilla Van Veldhausen stuck her head into a compartment on the last car of the train, which had been the privileged haunt of seventh year Slytherins for generations.
Her friend and year-mate Helena Cadaver was lounging across her seat, devouring a summer's worth of copies of "Equality Now!" a suffragette witch magazine. Mrs. Cadaver was a traditionalist who disputed the necessity of girls learning anything beyond scouring spells and the proper management of house elves, and as such Helena had to have her subscription forwarded to Molly Puffin, a seventh year Hufflepuff she had known since primary, for the entire summer. Mrs. Puffin was one of the first witches to be appointed to the Hogwart's Board of Governors, and therefore heartily approved of her daughter's apparent interest in female liberation. In reality, Molly had never really felt oppressed by "the domineering sex" and she tossed the things in a pile the minute they arrived and didn't think about them until the first of September, when she dropped the lot in the top of her trunk to be passed off to Helena on the train.
"Of course I haven't. It's the first day of school, she probably hasn't had an unsupervised moment with Brian since they came out of the baggage car last June, where do you THINK she is?"
"Helena!" Honestly, women's liberation was all fine and good, but the things that girl suggested...
"Oh Priscilla don't be such a ninny. Merlin knows wherever they are they aren't playing chess. They can't anyway, their pieces get all moony looking at each other and when the time comes for checkmate they'd rather kiss the queen than properly decapitate her, it's disgusting."
Priscilla sighed and dropped into the seat across from Helena. "Well, how do you think poor Ari feels, we've got each other, without Brian he's all by himself." The shortage of seventh year Slytherin males was a predicament that both Mrs. Van Veldhausen and Mrs. Cadaver found appalling. After all, one of the benefits of tolerating seven years of female education was that by the end of it they came out practically engaged! But their daughter's year had only five students, three girls, and two boys, and there was nothing to be done about it.
Helena snorted, "Aristotle Logan, alone? He has eleven cousins in the school, Caesar is his best friend anyway, I don't think he lacks any company."
At that moment a blond haired eleven year old boy stuck his head in the door. Helena quickly pulled a copy of "Housewitch's Digest" over her magazine.
"Helena, can I borrow a few sickles ... for the food trolley?"
"I thought father gave you your allowance before we got on the train?"
"He did."
"You ate it all already?"
"Well... no, not all by myself, I shared."
"Then have your new friends buy you some candy, and you have chocolate on your nose."
Oberon Cadaver rubbed his nose with the back of his sleeve, which only served to smear the chocolate further across his face. He had an earnest expression on his face, too earnest to be for chocolate frogs, Helena noted, her youngest brother had never been keen on sweets, strangely enough.
"Please Helena!"
"No."
"But-"
"God's teeth Oberon, go bother your brother, or go play somewhere interesting, like under the train."
Oberon frowned and turned to leave, coming face to face with the towering figure of Aristotle Logan.
"Oh hello? You must be Helena's."
"I claim no responsibility whatsoever for that, and before he asks, you are not to give him any money, Aristotle."
Oberon, having lost his chance, headed up the train, closing the compartment as Aristotle took a seat.
"You won't believe what I just heard about Bartley Murphy and Declan Quinn...."
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"Do you have any more pies Rupert?"
"No."
"Any juice?"
"No."
"Any chocolate frogs?"
"Sal, you know how many more chocolate frogs I would have if I'd just ignored Despard and sold you eight years ago?"
Dylan O'Fallon chuckled and tossed Sally a piece of rock candy from his pile of sweets. "Here you go Sal."
Sally grinned, popped the candy into her mouth, and went back to staring out the window in rapt fascination. Rupert could scowl over his chessboard all he liked, but she really had been practically invisible the whole trip. The Murgatroyds were not what you would call a widely traveled family, not by wizarding standards, and Sally had never seen so much of England at once.
Of course, one could stare at the scenery or Rupert's never ending game of chess with Dylan for only so long, and every so often Sally would try to engage the boys in conversation.
That had never gone particularly well, as Rupert and Dylan were very serious about chess, and it usually ended in allusions to Sally's near-sale to circus folk or a suggestion that she go play in some perilous part of the train.
She probably ought to have just found a compartment on her own, but Sally was eager to learn all about Hogwarts, having suspected that her brothers had fed her slightly altered versions of the truth her entire life, including this morning when they were discussing the pool in the Slytherin dormitories. So she had followed her brother back to a compartment in the third car from the end of the train, near the other Slytherins. However, once the chess had started, all communication that wasn't in the forms of grunts or curses seemed to have ceased.
"Knock, knock," a smiling red headed girl opened the door, "Has anyone seen Nicodemus? He's wandered off."
"Is his a third year too?" Sally pounced, eager for someone to talk to.
The girl laughed and shook her head, "No, he's a cat. And who are you?"
Sally stood up, "I'm Sally, Sally Murgatroyd."
"Oh, you're Rupert's little sister! Oh he's told us all about you! I was wondering when you'd turn up." She turned on Rupert, who had barely looked up from his game, "You beast, I bet she's spent the whole trip staring out the window, poor thing! Did they even feed you? I bet not. You could set off a dozen dung bombs around them when they're in the middle of a game and they'd hardly know it. I'm Tess, by the way, Tess Windlass. Come on, you better come sit with the girls, these games can get violent towards the end."
Before Sally was even aware of it she was pulled out of the compartment and into the next. This one was already occupied by two girls, a tall brunette and smaller girl with glasses and black curly hair.
"Now the one on the left is Beverly Chase, and the one on the right with the glasses is Claudia Vernberg. This is Sally, she's Rupert's little sister. I rescued her from a game of Murgatroyed-O'Fallon chess."
Tess dropped down on the empty bench across from Claudia, Sally sat beside her, near the window.
"Pass the pies, Bev, I'm famished. I bet you are too, aren't you Sally?"
Sally didn't really have a choice as a pie was thrust into her hands.
Claudia looked up from her book, "Did you find Nicodemus?"
Tess frowned, "No, I didn't really get very far. He's probably wandered up the train towards the food closet. He'll be back in a hurry if they catch him in there."
Beverly smiled at Sally, "So Sally, are you excited about Hogwarts?"
Sally nodded, "I'm afraid that what I've been told about it is mostly lies, however."
Claudia grinned, "With Rupert and Despard for brothers that's no small wonder. What do you want to know?"
"Everything, but, does Slytherin really have a swimming pool in the dormitories?"
Tess smiled enigmatically. "We can only tell you the truth behind THAT if you're sorted into Slytherin."
Sally's face fell a bit.
"Don't worry, with both your brothers in, it's more than likely you will be too. And there's plenty we can tell you without violating house privileges."
They then proceeded to give Sally a crash session in Hogwarts history, traditions, the rules, ways to break them without being caught, and all the generally known secrets of the castle that weren't particular to Slytherin House.
They were halfway through a description of Hogsmeade and the wonders therein when the door opened to reveal a tall boy with a disheveled tie carrying a cat.
"Nicodemus!" Tess squealed, scooping a grey cat with white feet and a white chin and neck into her arms.
"Found him on my way back down the train, he was snooping around the food closet."
"Told you," Tess sat down, sliding over so the boy could sit next to her. "Sally, this is Socrates Logan, Socrates, this is Sally Murgatroyd-"
"Rupert's little sister, he told me you were in here. Said you were eager to start school."
Sally nodded.
"Yeah, well, wait until you blow something off in potions class."
Beverly passed Socrates a pie. "What were you doing up at that end of the train? Chasing the food trolley?"
Socrates shook his head, "I was up talking to my cousin."
Claudia rolled her eyes, "Oh, that's helpful." She turned to Sally, "He HAS eleven on the train."
Socrates grinned, "Actually, this year it's more like fourteen."
"You're kidding."
"Nope, there's a Logan, a Parker, AND a Clark starting this year. You're going to get to know my relatives pretty well Sally."
"I DEMAND A REMATCH!"
There was the sound of banging and shouting, and suddenly a disheveled Rupert appeared in door to the third year girls' compartment.
"Hey Sal, be a sport, go run and get Despard to let me borrow his chess set, will you?"
Tess groaned, "I told you they got violent."
Rupert rolled his eyes, "He's claiming I did something to the chess pieces. I'll give you your worth in chocolate frogs if you can get it to me in ten minutes."
Sally shrugged and slipped out and toward the back of the train.
"What do you mean her worth in chocolate frogs Rupert?"
"Long story, hey, where have YOU been?"
"Up front talking to the family. Go get Dylan, you will never believe what I heard about Sheila Murphy and Tommy Concannon."
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"And you're certain it was the Budapest Beater's Bludgering Bible?"
"I told you, I saw them buying it this morning, they must have been up at dawn, they got the last copy."
"Are they going to reprint it?"
"It's your move, Edgar."
"I don't know, but it's printed in Hungary, and with this whole scuffle about the import tax it may take months to get another shipment."
"Well how did the first one get here?"
"It came through France, I think. In any case, there's no way we'll get a copy before the first match of the year."
"It's your move Edgar."
"There's not any way we could get a copy by, alternative means?"
"Not bloody likely, we're going to have to start 'paying closer attention' to their practices."
"They never try out the good stuff in practice, they always wait till the game."
"It's your move Edgar."
"They're going to HAVE to practice this stuff."
"They're Ravenclaws, Alfred, they can do anything if there's a book on it."
"But this is Quidditch! You don't learn Quidditch from books!"
"You can tell that to the Hufflepuffs when you explain to them why they didn't win the Quidditch Cup last year."
"IF YOU DON'T STOP TALKING ABOUT QUIDDITCH I AM GOING TO TRANSFIGURE YOU ALL INTO BUNNIES!"
Alfred Hogarth, Edgar Fortinbrass, and Rueben Foster stared in astonishment at the very frustrated form of Mildred Hesperus, who, true to her word, had her wand out and a look in her eye that in no way suggested she was bluffing. Transfiguration was Mildred's second best subject after Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Sorry Mildred," Edgar moved his pawn, only to have it viciously torn limb from limb by Mildred's knight, who had been waiting to do so for quite some time.
Mildred liked the boys in her year, she really did. But when the sixth year Slytherin males got going about Quidditch, sometimes the threat of being irreversibly transformed into something cute and fluffy was the only way to get through to them. They had been debating over the repercussions of Julius and Augustus Parker's purchase this morning in Diagon Ally of the latest in professional international Quidditch playbooks for over an hour, and frankly, she could take no more.
She would normally have been traveling with her female year-mates, however, Siobhan Bronwen was off in the Hufflepuff car having tea with Gwdion Goodfellow, and Eva Atwater was doing Something with Ravenclaw Archibald Tumnus. At their suggestion that she go with Siobhan and make conversation with Algernon Northumberland Mildred had stammered an excuse and retreated to a game of chess with Edgar. She and Algie were just friends, that was all.
Siobhan returned just after Edgar had been thoroughly trounced and Mildred's pieces had danced a hornpipe across the board in celebration.
"What, over so soon?" Mildred teased as a disgruntled Siobhan settled next to her.
"Yes, sadly, we were, interrupted, and then decided that it wouldn't set a good example for two prefects to be caught, er...."
"Using the baggage car?" Reuben smiled.
"Neglecting their duties," Siobhan finished, but she blushed anyway.
"Besides," she added in a quiet undertone to Mildred, "the baggage car was already in use. I swear, that is NO way for the Head Girl to be behaving."
"Well, she probably hasn't had a moment alone with Brian all summer."
"True. So, Algernon asked after you, by the way."
Mildred blushed to the roots of her light brown hair. "Oh?"
Siobhan chuckled, and was about to go into a detailed description of the conversation when Eva Atwater slipped in, shutting the door behind her and leaning back against it.
"How was Archie?" Mildred asked sweetly.
"Oh, we didn't get to have a very long conversation, Augustus Parker had some book he needed to show him, and I could tell he really wanted to go, so I told him I'd just have a chat with the girls."
Siobhan and Mildred nodded. "The girls" referred to the two female Ravenclaw sixth years, Rosella Zobell and Charlotte Mortimer. They were uncommonly talkative and reasonable, for Ravenclaws, unlike the girls in Gryffindor, who ran positively wild sometimes and had to be treated rather delicately, or they were prone to snap.
"You didn't get a look at the book, did you?" Edgar, it appeared, had been paying attention to the conversation.
"No, not at all."
"Oh," no longer interested, he turned back to the game of Exploding Cribbage he was playing with Reuben and Alfred, all squashed together on the seat.
"Anyways, Julius calls in about halfway through, and as a courtesy to Rosella really we invite him to sit, they really are terribly shy about it- "
"I can't imagine Julius Parker being shy about anything," Siobhan added dryly.
"Well, in any case, he'd just been up front talking to his cousin-"
"Which one?"
"Oh Merlin only knows, and anyway, you won't believe what I just heard about Eamon Murphy, Michael Delving, and Seamus O'Connor."
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"Despard?"
Sally flung her head into a compartment containing three fifteen year old girls.
"Oops, sorry, I get turned around on this train. I was looking for my brother."
"You're Despard's little sister! Oh he's told us all about you! We were wondering when you'd turn up. And they have you running errands for them? Horrid boys, have they fed you? Come sit down."
As a pretty blond girl pulled her down onto a seat, Sally wondered what it was that made her so popular with the girls in her brother's years.
"Actually, I really do need to find Despard-"
"Oh, we'll get him for you. Geri, be a lamb and go snag Desi will you?"
"Desi?" Sally nearly choked. Despite the fact that they called her Sal, she had NEVER, EVER been allowed to bestow upon her siblings any sort of affectionate nickname. Especially not one as bad as 'Desi'.
The blond girl smiled, "We don't call him that to his face, naturally. I'm Georgiana Vernberg, by the way, and that girl who just trotted off was Geraldine Idyll, but you can't possibly call anyone that sweet Geraldine. And the girl with her nose stuck in the book is Winifred Dayton."
Winifred pulled her head out of the book to stick out her tongue.
"You see, she's quite awful enough to actually be called Winifred, aren't you Winnie?"
Winifred nodded, "I'm afraid I am. Fear me child, fear me."
The effect of the words was somewhat ruined by the fact that she was crossing her eyes and wiggling her ears as she said it.
"That's an attractive look for you Freddie," Despard commented smoothly as he leaned against the doorjamb.
"My mission in life."
"What's the matter Sal? Did Rupert go tell you to play under the train? Because I can tell you where it is but I'm not coming with you."
"Despard!" Georgiana frowned.
"Ah, he's just teasing her. Sally likes it, don't you Sal?"
This came from a messy haired well built boy with shoulders a little too broad for the door. He slipped awkwardly past Despard and sat down next to Winifred.
"I'm used to it, how are you Benedict?"
Benedict Poe was one of Despard's closest friends, both in the emotional- bonding sense and the physical one, their other male year-mate lived in Scotland, and Sally had seen Benedict frequently over the summer.
"Fine, can't complain, you still eager for Hogwarts?"
Sally nodded and grinned.
"Well, it'll pass. Wait until you blow something off in potions class."
Sally rolled her eyes and turned back to her big brother.
"Rupert wants to borrow your chess set, and I get my worth in chocolate frogs if I get it to him in the next four minutes."
"Did you check that he actually had that many before you came rushing over?"
"Of course."
"That's my girl."
"What does she mean, her worth in chocolate frogs?"
"Long story, come on, it's in the other compartment."
Sally was waiting in the aisle while her brother rummaged in his satchel for the chess set. She was facing the back of the train, and not really paying attention. As a result, she jumped a mile when a polite cough came from behind her. She spun around to see a tall, dark haired boy that reminded her strikingly of someone she had just met. However, she had met quite a few people today.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you, I just need to duck in here."
Sally stepped back as the boy entered her brother's compartment.
"Where have YOU been? Sally, here's the chess set, tell Rupert not to get the pieces all riled up, some of us like a more civilized game."
"Oh, is this one yours?" The boy asked.
"This is my little sister Sally. Sally, this is Plato Logan, he has a few cousins starting this year as well."
"So I've heard."
"Pleasure to meet you Sally. Did I hear you're going back to Rupert? Can you do me a favor and remind Socrates to fix his tie? It's always crooked."
That's who the boy reminded her of. "Of course."
"Thank you so much. So, where's Benedict?"
"In with the girls, you're going to be late Sal."
As Sally trotted towards her forty-eight chocolate frogs she heard the conversation float away.
"Well you better go get him, I just came from Cassandra, and you will not believe what I heard about Patrick Murphy and Sean McAllister."
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"Someone's coming."
"Who?"
"Don't know, never seen him before, he's probably harmless."
"Constant vigilance, Gloria."
"He looks pretty small."
"Let me see...oh, he's all right, he can come in."
The fourth year Slytherins occupied the front most compartments in the second car from the end of the Express. As a guard against a repeat of last spring's dungbombing by the Unholy Trinity of Hedgpeth, Vincent, and Babcock, they were monitoring the doors to the car, and had been for the entire ride. The inter-house warfare between the fourth year Slytherins and Ravenclaws was rather more aggressive than other rivalries, and every year they sought to top the deeds of the last.
Moments later, Gloria Levinton opened the door for a small blond boy with chocolate smeared across his face, who trotted past and pulled open the door to the second compartment.
"Hey Puck, can I borrow a few sickles for the food trolley?"
"You already asked Helena and she already said no, is that it?"
Oberon paused a minute, before deciding on the truth. "Yes."
"If you're hungry you can have my last pie."
"Oh, no, I'll just buy my own."
"I really don't want it Oberon."
"Well, I-"
"You don't want the money for the food trolley Oberon, you want it so you can stay in the poker game that...let's see, Cassius Clark, has to be, is running right now along with his cousins."
Oberon stared at Puck. "How did you know?"
"Because it is a time honored Clark tradition to swindle as much money as you can out of your classmates on your first train ride to school. You haven't been sorted yet, so everyone's friendly, and you get more people to play. They make it sound like it is all nice and get-to-know-your-fellow- wizard-like, and they end up with all your money. It's a hustle. Calisto ran it my first year, Cassandra ran it the year before that, Iphigenia ran it during my second year, and Electra ran one last year. They are a dynasty of card sharks, there's nothing else to do in Scotland in the winter."
An olive skinned boy with glasses dropped onto the seat across from Puck.
"We checked the floorboards again, and all the storage racks, we even made people get up so we could check for hollowed out seat boxes."
"Nothing?"
"That we can see, but they have been WAY too quiet for there not to be something in place. Besides, by now they must have discovered the remarkably strong glue that Jasper and Vanessa injected into their lemon cremes."
Puck whistled, "Where did she get that stuff?"
The boy shrugged, "Her big brother works in the Experimental Potions Department at the Ministry. She always has the latest stuff. By the way, is this one yours?"
Puck lazily waved his hand from Oberon to the new boy. "Nate, this is my little brother Oberon, Oberon, this is Nathaniel Dicken. Nathaniel, under no circumstance are you to loan Oberon here money. Ever."
"Sorry old man, I have to live with him."
"And don't let me catch you bothering the girls about it either, it is ungentlemanly to ask ladies for money."
"But it's all fine and dandy to go ask them to dangle under the train?" In the door stomped a small girl with plaited brown hair, with a greasy black substance on her arms and forehead.
"Did you see anything?"
"I am afraid so. It's entirely too clean in some places, someone's been mucking about. I think they broke into a vent while the train was in the station."
"It could be anywhere."
"It could be everywhere, in this car at least. Oh, hello?"
"Vanessa, my little brother Oberon, Oberon, Vanessa Harrington, of the glue fame. Where's Jasper?"
"Watching the other door. What glue fame?"
"Never mind. Listen, if it's already here, we don't need to bother anymore, call them back in."
A few minutes later two more people crowded into the compartment, one was the girl Oberon had seen when he came through; the other he assumed was Jasper.
"Oh, everyone, this is my little brother Oberon. You are never to loan him money. Now, Gloria, if there is something in the vent, is there anyway to 'accio' it out?"
Gloria Levinton, a girl of medium height and superb intelligence, was the smartest of their number. She shook her head. "Not if we don't know what it is."
"Well, it can't be a dungbomb, right? You have to light that." Jasper Hogarth was something of an expert at dungbombs.
"Not if they figured out how to detonate it remotely."
"Why the vent?"
"Because we can't get to it and they knew we'd be looking?"
"Because it would get the whole car?"
"There's a thought."
"So we just leave, easy enough."
Puck shook his head, "Not good enough. Now, they are going to want to do this when it would cause maximum chaos, when everyone was back in their seats."
"Right before we get into the station?"
"Exactly. That gives us at least an hour."
"For what?"
Puck grinned, "A counter attack. Now, Nate, you still know how to break into the baggage compartments while the train is moving, right?"
Nate nodded, "Of course."
"All right, Gloria, Vanessa, you work on clearing this car, tell everyone to go either to the back car or the third car from the end, but not beyond, we want to keep the knowledge of this in house. Oberon, go back to Priscilla's car, find Aristotle Logan, we need some information."
As the fourth year Slytherin's set about combating Hugo Vincent and Co,'s mysterious devilish deed, they ran into the frowning figure of Calisto Clark.
"Where have YOU been?"
"Up front with my cousin."
"Oh, that narrows it down."
"What's going on?"
"We're beating the Ravenclaws at their own game."
"Really? Splendid. I knew Arachne was being far too nice to me this morning."
"Good then you can show us the way, Oberon, cancel that order, come with me and lend a hand."
"Oh, but first, you will never guess what I just heard about Sean Murphy and Daniel Kelly."
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