New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤
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Wizarding sweets were much cheaper than Callan had expected.
Even after he bought enough to cover the little table, the total came to less than a Galleon.
A dozen Sickles, give or take, had been enough for Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands, and several strange-looking things Callan could not immediately identify.
Steve knew almost all of them.
“That one bites if you squeeze it too hard,” he said, moving a packet away from Lily.
“And don’t eat too many of those unless you want to burp smoke for half an hour.”
Lily looked fascinated.
Snape looked cautious.
Callan looked rich.
Lily sampled each sweet in turn, already wondering whether she should buy extras to send Petunia.
“You really are generous,” Steve said with admiration.
“Only when I am buying information,” Callan replied, opening a Chocolate Frog.
The frog sprang up the moment the box opened.
Callan caught it easily, took a bite, and then pulled out the card.
Albus Dumbledore smiled up at him from the front.
“Chocolate Frog cards,” Steve explained automatically.
“They have famous witches and wizards on them. My family has completed several sets. Dad says people are always more excited about the cards than the frogs.”
Callan turned the card over and read.
Albus Dumbledore, currently Headmaster of Hogwarts.
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times.
Particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon’s blood, and for his work on alchemy with his partner Nicolas Flamel.
His gaze paused briefly on Grindelwald and Nicolas Flamel.
Then he turned the card back over.
Dumbledore’s portrait was still smiling.
Callan poked the little painted head with one finger.
“Where do portraits go when they leave the card?”
“Maybe to other cards?” Steve guessed.
“Or wherever portrait people go.”
Callan did not like the feeling of being watched, even by a card.
He flicked it lightly.
“Go on, then. Leave.”
The tiny Dumbledore stared at him in astonishment, then gave him what looked suspiciously like a glare before walking out of the frame.
Callan handed the card to Snape.
“Look carefully,” he said.
“Dumbledore, the greatest wizard alive. Learn from him.”
Snape choked on a piece of Cauldron Cake.
Lily hurried to pat his back, glaring at Callan as she did.
Callan only opened another Chocolate Frog.
“Steve, what does your family know about Acromantulas?”
“We do not keep any, so I do not know much about them,” Steve admitted.
“Probably sensible,” Callan said.
The door slid open before Steve could answer.
A young woman stood outside.
She was beautiful in a sharp, cool way, and she was not wearing school robes.
She looked old enough to be an older student at first glance, but the timing was wrong.
The train had been moving for quite a while, and she had luggage with her as if she had only just decided where to sit.
“Is there room here?” she asked.
Callan’s eyes swept over her once.
Then he put his legs on the empty seat beside him and gave Lily a quick look.
Lily hesitated, clearly unable to be that rude, but she still placed Balian on the remaining empty space.
“No room,” Callan said.
The woman smiled as if she had not heard him.
She stepped in, ignored Balian entirely, and sat down near them anyway.
“What a nasty little thing,” she said.
Callan stood up immediately, took down his trunk, and looked at Lily and Snape.
“We’re leaving.”
Lily and Snape froze for a moment, then followed at once.
Steve, however, was left sitting there with his mouth slightly open.
The woman looked at him.
“Not going with them?”
Steve finally recognized her.
His expression changed.
“Dorcas? Why are you here?”
“Professor Meadows, soon enough,” she said.
“Or at least Miss Meadows if you want to be polite.”
Steve looked even more uncomfortable.
“Are you…”
“Going to Hogwarts?” Dorcas Meadows finished for him.
“Obviously.”
She rose, took his luggage in one hand, and pulled him up with the other.
Then her gaze fell on his trunk.
Something about it made her eyes narrow.
Steve gave a guilty little laugh.
“Do not make trouble for Newt,” she said in a low voice.
“Hogwarts is not as safe as it used to be.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. You only think you do.”
Steve lowered his head.
Dorcas released him.
“Go on. Take the food with you before your new friends decide I ate you.”
Steve gathered several packets and escaped from the compartment as quickly as he could.
After the door closed, Dorcas sat down again in the exact posture Callan had used earlier, one leg stretched across the empty seat.
Her gaze fell on the Chocolate Frog card Snape had left behind.
Dumbledore had returned to the frame and was frowning.
Dorcas picked up the card.
“You never praise me, no matter how hard I work, Professor. You only scold me over the smallest things.”
The tiny portrait said nothing.
She slipped the card away anyway.
“One hundred and seven,” she murmured before leaning back and closing her eyes.
“At this rate, I might actually complete the set.”
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Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.