The Hogwarts Express rolled steadily through the countryside, its wheels clattering rhythmically against the tracks.
Felix sat beside Kratos’s cage while Fred and George occupied the seats opposite him, their trunks already stowed above them.
The three boys had been talking since the train left King’s Cross, jumping between Hogwarts, their older brothers’ stories, and what their first few days at school might be like.
Fred leaned back against the seat.
“Charlie says the castle is enormous. He reckons you can get lost if you don’t know where you’re going.”
George nodded.
“Percy said the same thing, but Percy makes everything sound more important than it is.”
Felix smiled.
“Maybe it really is that big.”
“It probably is,” Fred admitted.
“Still, we’ll figure it out.”
George glanced toward Kratos.
“At least Felix has a falcon. If we get lost, we can send him up to find the way.”
Felix looked at him.
“I’m not sure that’s how falcons work.”
“It could be.”
“You’d probably just get him lost too,” Fred said.
George considered that for a moment.
“Fair point.”
Before Felix could reply, someone knocked lightly on the compartment door.
The door slid open, revealing Cedric Diggory standing in the corridor with his trunk beside him.
He looked into the compartment and immediately recognized the three boys.
“There you are,” Cedric said.
“I’ve been looking for you two.”
Fred grinned.
“Told you we’d find somewhere.”
Cedric glanced at the remaining space.
“Mind if I join you?”
“Course not,” George said, moving his things out of the way.
Cedric brought his trunk inside and settled into the seat beside George.
He looked at Felix, whom he had met before, then nodded toward Kratos’s cage.
“So that’s the famous falcon.”
Felix laughed.
“Famous already?”
“Fred and George wouldn’t stop talking about him earlier.”
“We mentioned him twice,” Fred protested. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
“Three times,” Cedric corrected.
George shrugged.
“That’s hardly excessive.”
Cedric shook his head with a smile, and the four boys settled comfortably into the compartment.
Felix noticed how naturally Cedric fit in with the twins.
There was none of the awkwardness of people meeting for the first time.
Cedric and the Weasley family had lived close to one another for years, and he and the twins had known each other since they were children.
The conversation drifted from one subject to another as the train carried them north.
Fred told Cedric about their plans for exploring Hogwarts, and George added his own ideas whenever Fred left something out.
Cedric listened, occasionally correcting them when one of their stories became a little too exaggerated.
Charlie had apparently told him about the moving staircases, and Fred immediately decided that being chased up a shifting staircase sounded like an excellent way to lose a pursuer.
Cedric pointed out that you couldn’t control where the staircase went, which Fred considered a minor detail.
Felix said little during most of it.
He was content to listen, watching the countryside slide past the window and letting the rhythm of the train settle into his bones.
Three weeks of footwork drills had taught him the value of stillness, and he found that sitting quietly in a compartment full of people was not so different from standing at the edge of a dueling circle.
You learned more by watching than by talking.
After a while, the subject turned toward Houses.
Fred was the first to bring it up.
“I’ve been wondering when we’ll get sorted.”
George nodded.
“I already know where I’m going.”
Cedric raised an eyebrow.
“You do?”
“Gryffindor,” George said confidently.
Fred nodded.
“Same.”
Felix looked at them.
“You’re both that certain?”
“Pretty much,” Fred replied.
“Our whole family’s been Gryffindor. Mum, Dad, Bill, Charlie, Percy. It’s practically tradition.”
“I suppose there’s always a chance the Hat surprises us,” George said, “but I’d be pretty shocked if we ended up anywhere else.”
Cedric leaned back against the seat.
“I think I’d like Hufflepuff.”
Fred looked over.
“Because of your dad?”
“He was in Hufflepuff, and he always talks about how much he liked it. I think I’d be happy there.”
George nodded.
“I could see you in Hufflepuff.”
“So could I,” Fred agreed.
Cedric smiled, then glanced at Felix.
“What about you?”
Felix looked out the window for a moment before answering.
“I’m not sure yet.”
It was the truth, more or less.
He knew what the Sorting Hat looked for.
He knew which House each of his parents had been in, and he knew which Houses would serve him best depending on what he intended to do with his time at Hogwarts.
But he also knew that the Hat had a way of seeing things people didn’t see in themselves, and he had learned long ago not to assume that his own reading of a situation was the only one that mattered.
Fred grinned.
“You could always join us in Gryffindor.”
George nodded.
“We’ve got room.”
Felix laughed.
“Is that an invitation?”
“Obviously.”
“Very generous.”
“We’re generous people,” Fred said.
George nodded solemnly.
“Extremely.”
Cedric shook his head, smiling.
The rest of the journey passed quietly.
They talked about what their first lessons might be, wondered what the professors would be like, and shared stories about their families.
Fred and George occasionally teased Cedric about things from when they were younger, while Cedric was more than happy to remind them of times when their plans had gone wrong.
Felix listened to most of it, adding a comment here and there, but for the most part he kept his attention on the window and on the growing sense that something was about to begin.
The train continued north, carrying the four boys toward a castle none of them had seen yet.
For Felix, however, the journey carried a strange weight beneath the excitement.
He knew how much Hogwarts would change his life.
He knew the people he would meet, the friendships that would form, and the events that were still years away.
He had spent the last month preparing for this — footwork in the dueling hall, Andros’s notes in the library, the wand that had chosen him in Ollivanders — and yet none of it had prepared him for the simple fact of sitting in a compartment with three boys who were becoming his friends, watching the countryside pass by as the Hogwarts Express carried them toward their first year.
Somewhere ahead, Hogwarts was waiting.