Chapter Fifteen: Arrival

Well, Neville went off to look for his toad, so he got to miss our next guests. He also missed the trolley lady but that isn't as interesting.

"No, this isn't it," the blond haired boy said as he opened the compartment. He looked at Ron and sneered. "You're a Weasley. I can tell. Red hair and hand-me-down clothes." He looked at Malcolm and Hermione and his sneer became a smirk. "Oh, look what we have here. You two must be the muggle twins everyone's talking about."

Malcolm smirked back. "And you must be the jabbering idiot we were warned about." He pointed at the two large boys behind the blond boy. "And they must be your bodyguards. Without them you wouldn't last a minute."

The blond boy frowned. "When you insult someone, it helps if you don't talk with an accent. It makes you sound like a stupid American, instead of just stupid."

Malcolm stood up, his fist raised, "Then let's see how good your bodyguards are."

"Draco?" one of the bodyguards asked.

"No. They're not worth it. Let's go find him."

"OH!" Hermione said with a hint of surprise. "Are you looking for the Boy-Who-Lived?"

"What's it to you?" Draco snarled.

"I've met him. He thinks you're an idiot, just like Malcolm said."

Draco muttered something inaudible as he left, but it was obvious from the tone that it wasn't nice.

"I give him five minutes," Hermione said after the three boys left.

Ron smirked. "You mean, before he guesses who Malcolm is? Try five hours. No one knows it's Malcolm. And Malfoy obviously has a lot of practice arguing with people."

"Five minutes," Hermione repeated. "Or do you honestly believe that Neville hasn't told anyone? After all, it's not a secret."

A loud shout was heard in the corridor. "WHAT? YOU'RE LYING."

The compartment door swung open. It was Malfoy and his two bodyguards.

"It's a lie, isn't it?" Malfoy snarled.

Malcolm smiled and raised the hair off his forehead.

"But?" Malfoy said in confusion. "You have a twin sister?"

"What are you talking about? Hermione's parents picked me up at the airport. I never saw her before then." Malcolm turned to Hermione. "I was right. He is a raving idiot."

"You said he was a jabbering idiot," Hermione corrected.

Malfoy went red as the three in the compartment started laughing. When he reached inside his robe for his wand, Malcolm jumped at him and hit the blond boy in the face as hard as he could.

Francis taught me the first rule in an argument. If he reaches into a pocket, he's reaching for something. Hit him hard and hit him fast.

In order to oblige Malcolm's assault, Malfoy quickly pulled his hand out of his robe and grabbed his nose. When Malcolm hit him the second time, he backed away. Then Malcolm paused as he came face to face with the two bodyguards. One of them grabbed Malcolm by the shoulder and pulled his fist back. Then he screamed and pulled his hand away, waving something furry in Malcolm's face. It was Scabbers!

The rat was finally flung off the bodyguard's thumb and into Malcolm's arms. Unsure of what was going on, Draco and his two friends fled into the next car. Malcolm looked down at the rat lying lifeless in his arms.

"Um, Ron. Your rat."

"Is he dead?" Ron asked with a hint of fear.

Suddenly, a small burping noise was heard and Ron smiled. "He's fine. He's only asleep."

Malcolm frowned. "Asleep? But what was that noise?"

Ron looked embarrassed. "He's an old rat, you know. He used to belong to my brother Percy. " He shrugged his shoulders. "Sometimes he snores." The rat made the burping noise again. "See."

"Hello, dears," A lady said from the corridor. "Food Trolley. Would you like anything?"

"Sure," Malcolm said as he turned around. He stopped before he could say anything, looking at the strange candies. "What can I get for this?" He asked as he pulled out two Sickles.

With Ron's help and an American quarter, the three each had two Chocolate Frogs TM. As Malcolm opened his up, Hermione had to ask, "These aren't real frogs?"

"Naw, They're just chocolate. It's the cards you want. All the famous wizards."

"I've got Dumbledore," Malcolm said, turning the card over to read about Mugwumps, Nicholas Flamel and twelve uses of Dragon's blood.

"He's not in his picture," Hermione said when she looked at Malcolm's card.

"He'll be back," Ron assured her. "You can't expect him to hang around all day."

Hermione nodded at the apparent logic. "Ron, do you know much magic? You are from a wizarding family. Malcolm and I tried reading the books, but it's not the same."

"Not much. I know what some of the spells are, from watching my Mum. And I just got my wand." Ron paused as he blushed. "But it's another hand-me-down. It's not in good shape."

"I know what it's like," Malcolm told him. "Before I found out I was adopted the only thing new I got was a baby brother. If my mom had the chance she'd have made me get hand-me-downs too. Just to save my money for later."

"Lucky you," Ron said with a hint of jealousy. "I ended up with a baby sister."

"I'm sure that was terrible, having a sister," Hermione said with a touch of anger.

"It was," Ron answered rudely. "Who do you think gets all the attention? Mummy's little girl. Who never gets someone else's castoffs? Mummy's little girl. Who always gets away with everything? Mummy's little girl."

"You made your point," Hermione acknowledged. "And you made me happy I'm an only child." She began to stare at Ron. "Do you know? You have dirt on your nose. Right there."

"FIRS' YEARS, THIS WAY."

Malcolm, Ron and Hermione followed the sound of the booming voice and found themselves in front of Hagrid.

"Malcolm, ye made it."

"Yeah, Hagrid. This is Hermione. She met me when my plane landed. And this is Ron. He showed us how to get to the train."

"Ye must be a Weasley," Hagrid said with a grin. "I've seen enough of yer family to know one on sight." Hagrid looked up. "Excuse me. YOU THERE, IS THIS YOURS?"

Neville Longbottom came running up, eagerly taking the toad that Hagrid had pulled out of his pocket.

"Now, ye keep hold of 'im this time. And all of ye follow me."

Malcolm followed Hagrid down a dark path to the lake. There were no lights to see by and he had to hope that he was following the right path.

You know, I'm not sure Hagrid is following a path. I think he's making one.

"Look," Someone called as they reached the lake. "It's beautiful."

Malcolm looked across the lake to see a castle, brilliantly lit and unbelievably huge. His jaw dropped at his first sight of Hogwarts.

"In the boats, now," Hagrid called out, and the four of them (Malcolm, Ron, Hermione and Neville) climbed into one boat. Hermione began to tell them some of the history of Hogwarts and continued her dissertation across the lake and up to the front door. By this time, only Neville was listening to her and Ron was explaining to Malcolm about Quidditch, which both boys found much more interesting. Then all conversation stopped when they entered the castle.

"May I have your attention," a stern looking woman said. "I am Professor McGonagall. You will be sorted momentarily but I need you to line up in alphabetical order. Do you have any questions?"

"Excuse me, Professor," Draco Malfoy asked, his right eye discolored and puffy.

"I'll call Madam Pomfrey to take care of you."

"About the person who assaulted me . . ."

"I know about that, Mr. Malfoy. The woman who runs the Trolley Cart informed us of what happened. The matter will be taking care of."

"Soon, I hope," Draco said fawningly.

"I'll take care of it now. Malcolm."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Fighting is not allowed in the school or on the Hogwarts Express. Don't do it again."

"I'll try, Ma'am."

"Thank you. First Years. If you will follow me."

Wow. That never happened before. I guess the Trolley Lady did see everything, including Malfoy reaching for his wand.

A First Year screamed, then another. Malcolm looked up as Hermione said, "Those must be the ghosts. I read about them. They're actually quite friendly."

"Like Casper," Malcolm added.

"Who?" Ron asked.

"Casper. You know, Casper the friendly ghost."

"You know a ghost? But I thought you were raised as a muggle?"

"They made a movie about him."

Ron gave him a confused look that convinced Malcolm to drop the subject. His timing was excellent because Peeves the Poltergeist chose that time to introduce himself by hurling insults and trash at everyone.

"I'll bet his name's not Casper," Ron muttered, grateful that McGonagall chased the spirit away. "I'll see you in Gryffindor," he told Malcolm, showing him crossed fingers, and took his place in the back of the line.

McGonagall walked up to Malcolm and led him to a different part of the line, by two twin sisters named Patil. "I need to place you here."

"But I'm not in order."

"We're sorting you by your birth name. The headmaster thought it would be a good idea to sort you by calling your birth name followed by your adoption name."

"I get it," Malcolm said with a smile. "Everybody knows me by that other name. That's a good idea."

McGonagall gave him a thin smile. "Why, thank you Malcolm. I'm glad you approve."

The sorting was great. The ceiling. The floating candles. The talking hat. Well, the hat tried to talk me into going into Slytherin but I argued with it. And that thing about my name took a lot of people by surprise. The best part was when the hat called out Gryffindor. Ron's brothers stood on their seats and began shouting, "We've got What's-His-Name. We've got What's-His-Name."

A/N: I would like to, once again, thank all of those who have been reading this story. I also apologize again to those of you who find the storyline confusing, and I want to assure those readers not to worry. When you are dealing with Malcolm, feeling confused is a normal reaction.

In case anyone has missed it: HP VI is set to be released on June 18, 2005.