Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or anything else that may be referenced in this chapter.
A/N: Huge thank you to you all for reading, reviewing, following and favouring and I hope you all enjoy this chapter! :)
Twitter: Prof_McGonagal
Chapter 4: On the Train
"Hey, Rachel- I thought I heard your voice!" Marcus appeared at the top of the stairs suddenly, smiling. "How was your time at the Parkinsons'?"
"Hey, Marcus," Rachel smiled back. "It was lovely, thanks, I had a lot of fun." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her parents glance at each other at her words, their expressions sour. Her smile faded.
"Great," Marcus grinned; his grin fading as he, too, glanced in the direction of their parents and caught sight of their expressions. "…Er- I was just feeding Artemisia- I think she's about to go hunting, so if you want to say hello I'd come now."
"Yeah," Rachel nodded, hastening to cross the foyer and hurry up the stairs. Her parent's attitudes stung, but Ceesy's friendliness and the warmth of Marcus's greeting comforted Rachel considerably; especially when combined with the fact that in just a few days, the summer holidays would be over, and she would be going back to Hogwarts.
Rachel woke up very early on the morning of the first of September, a broad grin spreading across her face as she registered what day it was; what it meant. She'd done it- the summer holidays were over; and she was going back to Hogwarts. Fumbling for her glasses and putting them on as she found them, Rachel leapt eagerly out of bed to get ready for the day and finish off the last of her packing.
Some forty-five minutes later, Rachel forced the lid of her trunk shut over her cauldron, which she had filled with all of her Gilderoy Lockhart books to save space for her other books, and set about persuading Artemisia to get into her cage. Her owl was very disgruntled at being shut away, having had free rein of Rachel's bedroom and was able to come and go as she pleased all summer.
"Come on, A," she pleaded, stroking Artemisia's thick brown feathers, emptying half a bag of Owl treats into Artemisia's food tray. Artemisia sat on the window-sill, watching Rachel with an air of great resentment. "You can have all these treats for the journey and lots of water and when we get to Hogwarts you'll be staying in the Owlery with all the other owls, free to do whatever you want for months. You'll only be shut away for a day- not even that… please?"
Artemisia shook her wings, and after a moment hopped down off the window-sill and into her cage, setting down on her perch.
"Thank you," Rachel smiled, stroking her beak. "You're the best owl ever."
Artemisia hooted, nipping Rachel's finger gently. Drawing her finger from the cage; Rachel refreshed Artemisia's water and closed the door of her cage; picking it up and placing it carefully on top of her trunk.
"Ceesy!" she called.
CRACK!
"Good morning Mistress," Ceesy curtseyed, apparating into Rachel's bedroom with a smile. "How can Ceesy help?"
"Morning," Rachel smiled back. "Can you take my trunk and Artemisia downstairs, please?"
"Yes, Mistress." Ceesy nodded.
"Thank you," Rachel smiled, leaving her room in search of some breakfast. She glanced at her watch as she hurried down the stairs- it was a quarter to ten- they would be leaving for Kings Cross Station soon. Marcus's trunk and his pet rat Newt in his cage sat at the foot of the stairs- Rachel edged passed them, eyeing Newt rather apprehensively as though she had Marcus's assurance that Newt would not hurt her if she didn't him, she was none too fond of rodents. Entering the dining room, Rachel found her parents and Marcus sitting around the table eating breakfast- Flavius with the Daily Prophet in front of him as usual.
"Good morning." Rachel said to the room at large, slipping into her usual seat and reaching for the toast rack. Her parents said nothing.
"Good morning," Marcus replied, raising his voice slightly as though to make up for their parents' silence. "You ready to leave?"
Rachel nodded, smiling. "Yeah- Ceesy's bringing my things downstairs now."
Flavius cleared his throat slightly, startling both Rachel and Marcus and causing them to look around at him. "Here is your money for the year, Marcus- thirty galleons; I thought you may need a little more now that you're going to be going to Hogsmeade," he said, pulling a moneybag from his pocket and handing it to Marcus.
"Thanks," Marcus replied with a smile, taking the moneybag and pocketing it.
Flavius smiled back briefly, but his expression soured soon after. "…Twenty galleons for you," he said curtly after a moment, taking a second, smaller moneybag from his pocket and pushing it across the table towards Rachel without looking at her.
Rachel stared at the moneybag in surprise. "…Thank you," she said gratefully after a moment, picking up the bag and pocketing it, feeling rather surreal. She certainty hadn't thought that after the way they had been treating her, her parents would give her money for the year- in fact, the idea hadn't even entered her head.
But Flavius did not reply; instead, he looked very disgruntled indeed. "The Ministry of Magic car will be here in a quarter of an hour," he announced, getting to his feet and leaving the dining room, tucking The Daily Prophet under his arm as he did so. Rachel noticed her mother's lips were thin behind her cup of tea as she took a sip, and she exchanged glances with Marcus, suddenly feeling rather uncomfortable- clearly her parents were not happy about giving her money, but Rachel felt very reluctant to return it, for without it she would not be able to buy gifts for her friends for their birthdays and Christmas, or be able to order things from The Daily Prophet and Witch Weekly if she wanted to. Marcus shook his head slightly, seeming to sense her dilemma.
"Keep it," he mouthed at her across the table, giving her a comforting smile and taking a bite of toast. Rachel smiled discreetly back and poured herself a glass of pumpkin juice, deciding to take his advice, knowing that without the money she would find herself feeling helpless and embarrassed.
A quarter of an hour later, Rachel and Marcus had said goodbye to Ceesy and were climbing into the back of the Ministry of Magic car with their pets in their cages. Susanne was sitting in the large front passenger seat, and the Ministry of Magic driver and Flavius were loading Rachel and Marcus's trunks into the boot of the car. Looking out of the back of the car window to see how the trunks were going to fit into the boot without attracting the attention of any Muggles, Rachel saw her elderly neighbour, Edith Dawson, watching the two men from her front garden, her slate grey hair wrapped in curlers.
"Dawson's watching," Rachel said to Marcus. He had been looking out of the window, at the Boots house across the street; but he turned and looked out of the car's back window as Rachel spoke.
"Don't worry; she's not going to see anything; Dad's blocking her view," he replied, turning back to look out of the window at the Boots' house. "Doesn't look like the Boots are home- Oliver said they were going to visit his Mum."
"Is she getting better?" Rachel asked. Oliver and Terry's mother Sally had been hospitalised with a nasty case of Dragon Pox just before the start of the previous school year.
"They thought she was, but now they're not sure." Marcus turned back to face the inside of the car, pushing his hair from his eyes, "It's been over a year and she's still got Dragon Pox; Oliver told me that they're starting to wonder if Gunhilda of Gorsemoor's cure doesn't work on everybody."
Rachel grimaced, "So- is she going to be okay?"
"Honestly, I don't know," Marcus replied. "But the Healers at St. Mungo's are really smart so I'm sure they'll work something out."
"Yeah," Rachel agreed, nodding. The boot of the car being closed sounded from behind them as she spoke. A moment later, Flavius got into the car beside his wife; the ministry of magic driver got into the car behind the steering wheel, and a few moments later the car pulled away from the curb. Suddenly, it occurred to Rachel that she was not going to see her home again her several months- but she did not want to turn around.
Guilt pricked at her insides at the realisation. She may not have had a very pleasant summer at home- quite the opposite, in fact- but it was her home; she had lived there ever since she was born- before she had been Sorted outside of Ravenclaw; surely she should still feel an attachment to the place… Rachel grappled with her emotions, prodding and poking at them, trying to figure out why she felt how she did; if she really did feel the way she did-
But before she could work things out, or change her mind, the car had rounded a corner and her house could no longer be seen. Rachel bit her lip, conflicted, but then pushed them out of her mind, deciding to write about the feeling in her notebook later and try and work things out. There was no point dwelling on it at present; she couldn't see her house anymore and in any case, the further away the car drove from it the closer it got to Kings Cross and the faster she, Rachel, would be on the school train and heading for Hogwarts; a thought that was gradually consuming her mind, filling her with excitement and making it very difficult to think much about anything else.
At twenty to eleven, the car pulled up outside Kings Cross Station. Everyone got out; the driver and Flavius went get two trollies; Marcus and Rachel stood holding their pets in their cages while Susanne stood by the car, checking her watch slightly anxiously. Kings Cross was very busy indeed and they still needed to load the trunks and pets onto the trollies; get to the barrier between platforms nine and ten; make sure they wouldn't be noticed by any Muggles, and pass through the barrier. Rachel and Marcus were feeling slightly nervous, too, for they had to both get securely onto the train after all of that; but mostly Rachel felt excited to get away from her parents and away from the feeling of being an ostracised leper for longer than a week.
Soon enough, Flavius and the driver were back with the trollies; Marcus and Rachel's trunks had been loaded onto them, as had their pets in their cages; the Belbys had said thank you and goodbye to the driver and were hurrying through Kings Cross to the barrier.
"Go at the same time, you two- we've only got ten minutes." Susanne said, gesturing towards the barrier as they reached it.
"Okay," Marcus nodded. Looking around them carefully, he and Rachel waited a moment, until there was a break in the swell of Muggles around them before hurrying straight at the seemingly solid brick wall- Rachel closed her eyes as they reached it despite knowing what was going to happen, waiting for the impact that she knew would never come-
The time in which she thought she would have hit the bricks if it were possible passed, and after a moment- and taking a few more steps just to make sure- Rachel opened her eyes, exhaling with slight relief as she saw she was standing on Platform Nine and Three Quarters. The platform was filled with students and their families exchanging goodbyes and greeting their friends. Owls screeched and hooted over the babble of conversation, toads croaked and cats mewed, pawing at the bars of their cages in their displeasure at being shut away, adding to the din, and standing alongside the platform, blowing smoke over everyone's heads, was a magnificent scarlet steam engine- the Hogwarts Express. Rachel felt a thrill of excitement run down her spine at the sight, but forced herself to stay beside Marcus and wait for their parents to come through the barrier. Her resolve was tested a mere moment later, when she caught sight of a girl who looked very like Millicent sitting in one of the compartments adjacent to the station.
"Quickly; quickly, put your things on the train- you've only got five minutes." Susanne said, sounding rather frazzled as she and Flavius came through the barrier. The Belbys hastened to move out of the way and half ran over to the train, Marcus in the lead, as a tall, thin red-haired boy Rachel recognised to be the Prefect Weasley boy came through the barrier, followed closely by the man Rachel remembered from Flourish and Blotts to be his father.
Reaching the train, Flavius and Marcus raced to lift Marcus and Rachel's trunks and their pets in their cages into the nearest carriage- one down from the one Rachel thought she had seen Millicent in. So short on time where they that Rachel and Marcus boarded the train, too, leaning out of the door to say goodbye to their parents; Marcus looking rather guarded as they were so near their fellow students and Rachel hanging back feeling rather nervous.
"Bye Mum; Dad," Marcus said, leaning quickly out of the train door to hug Suanne briefly.
"Have a good term," Susanne said, smiling.
"Concentrate on your studies." Flavius added, nodding and smiling too; clasping Marcus's hand, pulling him forwards into a hug before he could protest.
"I will; I promise," Marcus squirmed out of his father's embrace and stepped back, giving room for Rachel to reach their parents.
Almost instantly, Susanne and Flavius's smiles stiffened, and the atmosphere within the family shifted. Rachel swallowed, managing a smile back- albeit a tentative one.
"See you at Christmas," She said.
"Goodbye," Susanne replied. Her stiff smile replied in place as she spoke, but there was a distinctly curt edge to her tone and she did not move to hug her daughter.
"Goodbye," Flavius echoed, in the same curt tone as his wife. He, too, made no move to hug Rachel.
Rachel hesitated, a lump rising in her throat at her parents' coolness and the uncertainty she felt as she thought about whether or not she should try and hug either or both of her parents. But a moment later her parents took several steps to one side, moving away from the train as a group of fifth year students approached and boarded the train with their belongings.
Rachel ducked her head as she and Marcus moved out of the way of the fifth years, trying to gain a hold on her emotions as her throat positively burned and tears pricked at her eyes. When she looked up again a few moments later, Rachel noticed that her brother looked rather indignant. Indeed, the moment the fifth years had moved away to find a compartment, he moved forwards and leant out of the train door, frowning in the direction of their parents.
"Hey-"
But whatever he had planned on saying was cut short as the train's whistle pierced the air. Those students that were still on the platform hastened to board the train as the platform guards moved along the train, slamming the doors shut.
"Move back, please," one of the guards said to Marcus. Marcus had no choice but to obey and moments after the guard shut the train door; and a moment later, steam gushed up from the bottom of the train as it started to pull away from the platform. The last Rachel and Marcus saw of their parents was once the steam had cleared from the window of the train door and they glimpsed them Apparating away from the platform.
Marcus sighed, running his hand through his hair as he turned to face his sister. "I'm sorry, Rachel."
Rachel shook her head, pushing her glasses up her nose; forcing herself to keep hold of her emotions. "You haven't done anything."
"I know," Marcus nodded, "I'm sorry for them... you know?"
Rachel nodded, too, slowly; swallowing thickly as she felt the lump in her throat starting to burn again. Feeling rather desperate, she strained to think of something positive that would stop her from bawling. "But look on the bright side," she smiled as a thought occurred to her. We're going be away from t- from all of that until Christmas!"
"Yeah," Marcus nodded, grinning as he went on. "Well, I can't stand around talking to you all day- Oliver and I said we'd meet in this carriage and I have to defeat him at Gobstones."
Rachel laughed. "Okay," she said. "I think I know where Millicent is, so I'll see you at school."
"That reminds me- remember it's only the first years who take the boats," Marcus said, "so when we get to Hogsmede station you'll get to Hogwarts the same way you did after Christmas last year- the horseless carriages."
Rachel nodded. "I remember."
Marcus smiled. "See you later then," he said, taking hold of his trunk and Newt's cage and setting off down the carriage, glancing into compartments as he went.
Gathering up her own trunk and Artemisia in her cage, Rachel set off in the opposite direction, heading for the carriage she thought she had seen Millicent in, looking in the other compartments as she passed them in case she had been mistaken. But she hadn't been- when she reached the door of the compartment she thought she had seen Millicent in, she saw both Millicent and Pansy sitting inside, the latter with an open faced copy of Witch Weekly in her lap.
"Hi," Rachel smiled, opening the compartment door and entering with her things, closing the door behind her.
"Hey," Pansy smiled back.
"Hi," Millicent smiled back, too. "How are you?"
"Looking forward to the new year," Rachel replied, lifting her trunk and Artemisia's cage onto the luggage racks and sitting down beside Millicent, opposite Pansy. "You?"
"Good- and me too," Millicent nodded.
"Same- and I'm so looking forward to Gilderoy Lockhart's lessons," Pansy said. "They're bound to be fascinating."
"Speaking of fascinating- anything interesting in there?" Rachel asked, nodding towards her copy of Witch Weekly.
"Not yet," Pansy shook her head, "then again, I rarely look at the contents page; I like to be surprised."
"Exploding Snap, anyone?" Millicent asked, pulling a new pack of cards from her pocket.
Pansy declined with a smile in favour of returning to her magazine; Rachel, however, agreed and she and Millicent struck up a highly competitive best-of-five match that soon proved to be very tense indeed as Millicent's pack of Exploding Snap cards were extremely temperamental, some reluctant to explode and others very eager.
"…Guys," Pansy spoke up, sounding rather strange as Millicent won the best of five match and reshuffled the cards.
"Did you find something interesting?" Rachel asked curiously.
"Something like that," Pansy replied in the same strange tone as before, turning the magazine towards her friends.
The right hand page was divided into two photographs. The left hand side of the page was devoted to a photo of a beautiful, tall dark-skinned woman with long back hair, and dark, almond shaped eyes with long lashes, who was smiling alluringly out of the page, blinking slowly and slowly tossing her long hair around her shoulders. The right hand side of the page was devoted to a picture of a handsome man with thick, curly brown hair and bright green eyes. He wore crisp red dress robes and posed as though he was to be featured in a newspaper. The page beside it was tilted with a big, bold headline. Rachel's eyes widened as she read:
Love, honour and obey… for as long as you shall live.
Is Giselle Zabini to be married for an eighth time?
Socialite Giselle Zabini, 33, (pictured previous page, left) is reportedly a ten-month relationship with Bulgarian multi-millionaire Kostadin Nedelcho, 36, (pictured previous page, right) and a source close to the former Italian supermodel claims that she is now eager to tie the knot writes RITA SKEETER.
'Giselle is madly infatuated with Kostadin,' the source said. 'She claims she has never felt this way about any other man.'
An extraordinarily beautiful and captivatingly guileful witch, Zabini was born in London, her childhood was reportedly split between there and in Italy, and has been married seven times before, each time to incredibly wealthy wizards - most recently to former beater for the English National Quidditch team Troy McLachlan, between the years of 1988-1991. McLachlan passed away in January 1991, following stomach-related complications.
Zabini's other husbands have similarly met untimely deaths; leaving Zabini large amounts of gold in their wills, and though all seven deaths were treated by the Auror Department as suspicious, and rumours pertaining to Zabini's alleged first-hand involvement swell, the Auror Department constantly found evidence that served to eliminate her as a suspect; and furthermore, there has never been any conclusive evidence to bring charge against any person involved in any case.
It is unknown if Nedelcho is aware of his girlfriend's past; if he is he is evidently unconcerned, for he and Zabini have been seen together on multiple occasions, most recently last week in Italy, where they were said to be accompanied by Zabini's two children from her third, longest, marriage to the late Amato Zabini- Irma, 13, and Blaise, 12. The marriage lasted for three years, ending in December of 1980, after Amato Zabini passed away, following a severe allergic reaction. Those close to Nedelcho refused to comment when asked by your Witch Weekly reporter if they feared for his wellbeing.
"…Did you know?" Pansy asked, looking at her friends with wide eyes as they finished reading and looked up. "All that about Blaise's mother?"
"No," Millicent shook her head slowly, her brow creased.
Rachel shook her head slowly, too, trying to process everything she had just read. Her mind flashed back to the previous year as she did so, as she remembered what her mother had said about Giselle Zabini in Diagon Alley; on their way to The Leaky Cauldron-
"…I don't know that much about the woman- only that she's Italian; very manipulative and shrewd in nature, and has two children- oh, and what they say in the papers, of course…"
Rachel pushed her glasses up her nose. She had, she remembered, asked her mother what was said in the papers but her mother hadn't replied… it was, she thought, now very clear what was said… but her mother had made it sound as though what was said was printed in a newspaper, not in a girly magazine written by a reporter notorious for rumour mongering and being nasty about those she wrote about… Rachel had never known her mother to read Witch Weekly; indeed, it was difficult to imagine her mother reading it at all, never mind as religiously as she and her friends did- she had, in fact, reminded Rachel pointedly when the girl had used her birthday money when she was nine to pay for her first subscription, to take the articles with a pinch of salt, Rachel remembered; but it seemed her mother was not as above mindless gossip as she appeared…
But was this really mindless gossip? Rachel looked down at the article again, her brow furrowing. Rita Skeeter was notorious for rumour-mongering, yes, but she had mentioned that the Auror Department had been involved- which could be checked; possibly refuted, and surely Rita Skeeter would not risk her credibility by printing things that could be indisputably proven false as fact- and if the Auror Department had been involved, and every single one of Giselle Zabini's husbands had died suspiciously, and rumours surrounded Giselle Zabini after each murder and still did today…
The door to the compartment slid open suddenly, and the three girls jumped, looking around.
"...Hi," Theodore Nott smiled around slightly nervously from where he stood in the doorway; a packet of cakes with a Spanish label in his hand. Zabini stood beside him as usual, as expressionless as ever; and his haughty demeanour firmly in place. The gazes of both boys flickered over the faces of the three girls and in seconds, landed on the open pages of Witch Weekly on which the pictures of Giselle Zabini and Kostadin Nedelcho, as well as Rita Skeeter's article were printed.
"Hi," Pansy smiled back slightly awkwardly, colour rising to her cheeks, quickly closing the magazine and stuffing it into the gap between herself and the wall of the train.
"I've, er, got some of those Spanish versions of Cauldron Cakes I told you about," Nott spoke quickly, holding up the covering whatever awkward silence might have fallen. "You said in your last letter you wanted to try them."
"I do, yeah- er, come in," Pansy said, glancing at Millicent and Rachel as she spoke. The two nodded; Rachel rather begrudgingly and sighing inwardly as she did so, for wherever Nott went Zabini followed.
Indeed, something that looked rather like pain flickered blatantly through Zabini's eyes as Nott entered the compartment and sat down beside Pansy, but after a moment he, too, entered the compartment and sat down beside Nott, opposite Millicent; his face twisting into a glare as he made eye contact with Rachel. Rachel glared back at him, her irritation at Zabini's presence spiking.
"Did you have a good summer?" Pansy asked the two boys.
Zabini shrugged in response, looking away from Rachel, his face falling back into its usual expressionless form.
"Yeah- Spain was really cool." Nott said, "How about you three?"
"Yeah it was great- France is beautiful," Pansy nodded, smiling.
"Yeah, it was pretty good," Rachel replied; there was no way she was going to tell the truth to Nott and Zabini.
"Mine, too," Millicent said cheerfully. "Want to play Exploding Snap?" she held up her pack of cards.
"Sure," Nott smiled.
"No," Zabini shook his head as Millicent looked towards him.
"Four it is," Millicent said, starting to reshuffle her cards.
The Hogwarts Express flew steadily through the countryside, so quickly that the trees and fields outside were a blur when looking out of the train window. Pansy, Millicent and Rachel passed the time playing card games with Nott and sharing the package of Spanish cauldron cakes at Pansy's request. Zabini refused Pansy's offer of a cauldron cake and sat in silence, looking at his feet. He seemed, Rachel thought, looking at him discreetly as Pansy and Nott battled out a particularly long game of Exploding Snap, rather sullen.
"What?" Zabini snapped harshly, glaring as he looked up suddenly and caught Rachel's eye. Rachel started inwardly and glared back at him, feeling a rush of defensiveness.
"Snap! HA!" Pansy cried triumphantly before Rachel could snap back at Zabini, stopping any argument before it started by winning the game; slamming her hand down on the deck of cards. Moment's later, however, she was forced to pull her hand back quickly as the deck of cards exploded.
"Wha- that's cheating!" Nott protested.
"No it's not," Pansy smirked at him, gathering up the cards as they repaired themselves. "you just lost."
"She's right," Millicent pointed an acknowledging finger at her friend.
Nott shrugged, grinning good-naturedly. "It was worth a try," he said, as a rattling nose suddenly echoed down the carriage.
"Is that the food trolley?" Millicent stood up and looked through the glass compartment door. "it is- thank Merlin; I'm dying for some pumpkin juice."
Nott elbowed Zabini, getting to his feet. "We'd better get back to our compartment; make sure it hasn't been taken over by first years; and get our own money," Nott said. "See you later," he smiled at Pansy, then at Millicent and Rachel, too, as Zabini got to his feet.
"See you." She replied, smiling back.
"Bye." Millicent and Rachel replied, smiling briefly, too, and rummaging through their trunks for their moneybags.
"Thank you for the cakes; they were delicious." Pansy called after Nott as the two boys left the compartment.
"You're welcome," Nott replied, turning and grinning briefly at her before hastening to catch up with Zabini as his friend kept walking.
"You alright mate?" Theo asked Blaise as they made their way back to their compartment, which was just after the entrance to in the next carriage down. "I know you don't like spending any more time around Rachel- Belby- than you have to, and I owe you one for coming with me-"
"Yes you do." Blaise muttered.
"- but you seemed a bit… extra annoyed." Theo continued as the boys reached and entered their compartment, which thankfully had not been overtaken by first years. "So are you alright?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," Blaise replied sarcastically, flopping down and putting his feet up on the seat opposite him. "If enough people didn't know about my mother before, now a whole new load of people know- which is just wonderful; and I'm really looking forward to Belby throwing it in my face at some point."
"I don't think she would do that," Theo replied mildly, reaching up and fishing through his trunk for his moneybag, taking it from within. "I mean, I know she hates you and has a go at you pretty much whenever she can and everything, but I don't think she'd bring up your mother- that would be really low."
Blaise shrugged. "Nedelcho is a bloody idiot, anyway," he went on scornfully. "He's always raving on about how much he loves my mother," he snorted contemptuously. "Love is stupid. Love and- and feelings and relationships and all that slushy stuff- it makes people go all stupid; which makes them vulnerable- and yet, somehow they're still surprised when they get hurt. Or- or worse... It's all stupid; and dangerous."
"…I guess; I dunno," Theo replied after a moment, shrugging, too. "Look, don't worry about that stupid article," he went on frankly. "Aunt Artemis read it this morning and she said about it was that your mother had grounds to sue, like Irma did on the platform earlier; and it was written by Rita Skeeter for Merlin's sake, and printed in Witch Weekly! It's not that credible, really."
"But it's true." Blaise pointed out. "The article, it's all true."
"…Well, yeah," Theo nodded. "But the general public don't know that."
Blaise smiled faintly and briefly, getting up and reaching for his trunk and his own moneybag as the sound of the trolley witch entering their carriage reached their ears. "Maybe you're right."
"I must be- you smiled." Theo smirked.
Blaise rolled his eyes, his usual expressionless mask falling over his face as he left the compartment, looking down the carriage for the trolley witch. Rolling his eyes at Blaise's custom, Theo followed.
A/N: Please review! :)