No Room in the Caboose

The train pulled away and his parents, waving, grew smaller and smaller until the rails turned, robbing Al of even that.

"It's all right," said his cousin, Rose. "Neville will be there. Or Professor Longbottom, we should say. Strange isn't it, calling him Professor Longbottom, when he's been Neville since forever and ever and ever. I wonder if we have to call him Neville in Hogsmeade although that'll be ages before we can even think that even if James and the others managed to get there before they were allowed to. D'you suppose they got punished? Punishment is quite rough at Hogwarts, isn't it? I heard tell of grindylows in the Black Lake that nibble on your fingers and toes when you don't finish your homework on time. That's rather counterproductive, don't you think?"

Al blinked. "Why?"

"Well, if you get your fingers and toes nibble don for tardiness then how are you supposed to write any others without being late? Writing without fingers is impossible unless you've got a dexterous mouth and maybe a tongue, too, like an oboe player. Mama said that oboe players need to be able to bend and twist their tongues around in knots to play properly and I said wasn't that what all the buttons and things are for? But she said no, that's only part of it and I thought, isn't that just like everything else? Take the train. You'd think the wheels and coals would work well enough but it's got magic for it too so it's all part of how it works. I suppose it's not very environmentally friendly though."

"The train?"

"Yes! Coal-powered in this day and age. They should try hybrid engines; much better for greenhouse--"

The door to their compartment slammed open. In popped a boy, small, skinny and light-haired. "Hullo. I think I finally found the right one." He helped himself to a seat beside Al, leaving his trunk on the floor behind the door.

Rose blinked at him.

He blinked back.

"That's a fire hazard," said Rose.

"What is?" asked the boy.

"Your trunk behind the door. My mama said that doorways should never be blocked because in case of a fire, it would 'cause all sorts of accidents even if we could just banish things but apparently, during emergencies, even the simplest things fly out of one's head."

While she babbled, the boy jumped off his seat, pulled his trunk close to the benches then climbed back on, turning the trunk into a footstool.

"That's clever," Al said, starting to smile.

"Thank you. I like being clever." He stuck his hand out. "You're Albus Potter. I'm Scorpius Malfoy. We're going to be best friends."

Al stared at the outstretched hand. "How do you know?"

"I just do," said Scorpius. His expression stayed firmly cheerful but the hand trembled for a moment.

Al took the hand and was pleased to see the boy-- Scorpius-- release a pent-up breath.

"What about me?" Rose exclaimed. "He's my cousin, you know!"

Scorpius blinked at her. "Oh. Can girls be best friends with boys?"

"Of course they can! You're a very silly boy if you think not. After all, girls and boys do lots of things the same except maybe go to the loo but I heard Teddy-- that's our cousin-- say that he knew this girl who could also pee standing up but I didn't hear how because Mama told me to get out of the room and for Teddy to stop talking about such crass subjects in front of us children although we weren't really children then, we were ten and I think by nine you know about peeing anyway."

"Does she talk like this all the time?" Scorpius asked.

Grinning, Al said, "This is her being quiet. You'd better make her your best friend too or you'll never hear the end of it. Literally."

A very pleased Rose shook Scorpius' proffered hand. "I'm Rose Bryony Granger-Weasley which is a mouthful, I'm know, but it just meant I learned my letters a little faster than--"

"Scorpius Malfoy." He made a face. "If it makes you feel better, my middle name's Krasimir."

"Mine's Severus," Al said. "Albus Severus. Ghastly, isn't it?"

"Sever us. Gross!" Scorpius snickered.

Not to be left out, Rose said, "At least yours isn't a pun. Al, tell him what Bryony means."

"Vine," Al answered immediately. "So her name is Rose Vine."

"You should've seen my room before last summer. Roses everywhere-- on the walls, on the dresser drawers, on the carpet, a climbing vine just outside my window. I loathe roses--"

"She does. They make her sneeze and break out in hives."

"--and no one will stop going on and on with the roses no matter how much I tell them. They just move on to a different color rose and apparently there's thousands of breeds so I'll never be rid of them--"

"Even rose hip tea. I like rose hip tea though with a twist of lemon."

"-- I mean, just because your name's Scorpius, does that mean you want thousands of scorpions for your birthday?"

Scorpius shook his head. "No. Well, yes. I have a collection."

Al and Rose's eyes widened. "You have a scorpion collection? Wicked!"

"Much better than stupid, smelly roses," Rose mourned.

"They're not alive; just dried and pinned to a box."

"What do you do with them?" asked Al.

For the first time, Scorpius seemed uncomfortable, gathering folds of his robe in fists. "I... erm... look up their habitats and markings and... um... figure out what they're good for. Potions and things."

He was surprised when his two new friends clapped. "Wicked!" Rose exclaimed. "Oh, you're a right proper swot like the both of us! Here I was afraid that when we got to Hogwarts it would be all Quidditch and House Cups and Al and I would go spare having no one else to study with when you pop in here and tell us you like researching as well even though I like history better and Al there will read anything he can get his hands on but we're both quite good at chess. Do you play?"

"Chess?"

"No, Quidditch, silly. Of course chess. My dad says that chess teaches you all sorts of strategic critical thinking which is probably why he's a good Auror but Mama says he just likes seeing the pieces smash each other to bits--"

"Ours use tomahawks," said Al. "We got them from an American consul."

"Ours duel," said Scorpius. "She really doesn't stop."

"She even talks in her sleep."

Rose threw a chocolate frog at her cousin. "I do not Albus Potter, you take it back!"

"Ow! Rose Bryony!"

"Albus Severus!"

"Rose Bryony!"

"Albus Severus!"

Laughing, Scorpius said, "You're mad, both of you. My dad said you would be."

"My dad said I should try to beat you at everything," said Rose. "I haven't the foggiest idea why."

"Parents are strange sometimes," Al said, feeling quite sage.

His two companions nodded, at that bit of wisdom. The refreshment cart rattled by and the children lost track of nuttiness, parental or otherwise, as they debated the benefits and detriments of licorice snaps versus pinwheels versus lemon fizzles.

"My father was going to send me all the way to Beauxbatons. He said he still might." Scorpius looked down on his pack of pinwheels and kicked his heels on his trunk.

"Oh but youcan't!" Rose said, flailing her arms. "Not now that we're best friends and going to be sorted into Ravenclaw."

"How do you know you're going into Ravenclaw?" Al asked.

"I just do. I refuse to be in Gryffindor, smothered by all our cousins-- I'm sorry, Al, but James is such a prat-- and no one wants to be Slytherin. I suppose Hufflepuff is all right but no one really takes account of them so the only one left if Ravenclaw. Also, there are no naturally occurring blue roses."

Scorpius tilted his head to one side. "Can you do that? Request a house? My father says there's no choice."

"Mine says there is," said Al as he munched thoughtfully on his chocolate frog. "He said the Hat in the end, you'll have a choice if you really want another. But you can't tell anyone else that I told you that! It's supposed to be a secret."

"Not any more, it isn't." Scorpius grinned. "Then I suppose I'll go into Ravenclaw if you two are." The last two words were more a question.

Al only shrugged. Rose threw her rubbish at him.

"Do you really want to spend the rest of your life with James and the others? Prats, all of them. Just this morning, James drenched us in flour as we were leaving the house. He'd put a bag of it on the top of the door so that when Al and I opened it, it would fall. He said he got it from the telly and Uncle Harry said it was a rather old trick but he supposed the wizarding world hadn't seen much of muggle pranks so technically it's new here, isn't it? But that's why were in such a rush and you'd never seen Aunt Ginny in such a tizzy as when she was cleaning us both up. I think I still have flour under my collar." Rose stuck a finger behind her neck and, sure enough, came up with a bit of white powder. "Yuck!"

"Yes, but at least we can tell Mum and Dad about them." Al turned to Scorpius. "Do you have brothers or sisters?"

He wagged his head 'yes'. "Mother's pregnant right now. She says it's a girl."

"That's a long time between," Rose said. "By the time she's in Hogwarts, you'd've been gone for three years."

"Mother said she's always wanted two but Father said he could only juggle one hurricane at a time. I don't remember making a hurricane though." Scorpius screwed his face up in thought. "All I ever seemed to do was break things."

"I lit things on fire," said Rose. "Al floats."

"Floats what?"

"Himself."

They snickered at each other which turned quickly to laughter then to outright guffaws for no reason other than the sinister mix of sugar, nerves and giddiness.

When they finally managed to take a breath without sniggering, Rose announced, "It's settled then; when the time comes, we're all going to think 'Ravenclaw'."

Three sticky hands clasped, fears forgotten. The train kept chugging north.