Chapter 3

Divinations

"King's Cross Station." an accented voice announced, jolting Joe from his doze.

"Poopie trip." he muttered, as he awoke. It was early in the morning, too early for Joe's brain to be fully awake yet. Need to form a regular waking schedule. he thought. Get my brain used to early mornings again.

They paid the fare and stepped out. "Which platform do we want?" Joe asked his companion.

"9 3/4." Micky answered as they pushed their luggage carts. Joe had one suitcase, and a case for his bagpipes, and a bookbag, Micky was packed similarly, save for replacing the bagpipes, with a guitar, and an old staff, almost as tall as he was.

Joe rounded on him, not sure if he was being messed with or not. "You deliberately hold back information like that till the last minute just to see the look on my face when I finally hear it don't you."

"It's what makes you so much fun to be around."

Joe grumbled to himself. As they reached platform 9, he and Micky looked around.

"Well," Joe said. "Don't keep me in suspense, how do we get to that platform?"

Micky didn't answer, he was counting columns. "There it is." he said, and ran through the wall.

Joe merely stood for a moment, staring at the wall. "There is no spoon." he sighed finally.

Micky was waiting on the other side. "Oh good, it worked."

The taller Scotts-American gave him a dangerous look. "And what me lad, pray tell, does that mean?"

"Well I wasn't sure a Muggle could get through that wall."

"You're pushin' it Mick. Seriously. Fun's fun, especially at the expense of friends, but you're getting just a bit too smug about all this."

Micky realized that was true. Joe had showed tremendous good humour ever since the revelation that when Micky did magic, he didn't just put cast circles and pray to the Goddess for good fortune or somesuch. He'd endured being called a Muggle, countless ribbings at his expense by Micky, and though Joe pretended not to notice, had been on the receiving end of several contemptuous glances from Wizards and Witches throughout his venture into the Magical world.

"I'm sorry man. This is new to me too really, it's hard not to revel in."

"Okay, just try to act as surprised as I am next time something unusual happens."

"Like that for instance?" Micky gaped, his eyes wide.

Joe looked where the boy was pointing.

"Well I'll be damned. Green skin, spiky hair, loudly colored zoot suit? Lorne! What in the hell are you doing here?"

The Pylean exile whirled, obviously as shocked to see them as they were to see him. "Joey Mac? Baby doll what are you doing here?"

"We asked you first."

"Well you got me there kids. I'm the new Divinations teacher at Hogwarts."

"You're giving up show biz?" Micky said sadly. Several of their High School friends, and even some of their college friends had decided it wasn't the path for them. Each time it happened he felt disappointed.

"For a while anyway." Lorne answered. "Hey don't fret though, thinking of starting a little band or drama club at the school. Speaking of which, what brings two American cats such as yourselves to the Hogwarts express?"

"My parents went to Hogwarts."Micky explained. "I managed to get permission to check the place out."

"Hoping the trip will do you good?" Lorne said, it was half question, half statement. The last time he'd seen Joe, a few months ago, he'd been a wreck. He looked slightly better now though.

The threesome had the train to themselves. The Students were not due to arrive till tomorrow, and most of the other teachers had already settled in. Lorne, having had to travel the farthest, and try to keep his unusual appearance hidden at the same time was just arriving.

"Oh hey," Lorne grinned. "I ran into Keesil the other day."

"Keesil?" Joe asked, noticing the rising blush on Micky's face.

"Turlian Demon. Blue skin, tall, sweet girl. She took quite a shine to our little Irishman here."

"You dog, you didn't tell me about that. What happened?"

"It uh, wasn't meant to be." Micky answered. In point of fact Turlian mating resulted in both parties occupying the same body. He hadn't been ready for that kind of commitment.

Tbc…