Chapter 1: Merlin's Lost Book

Merlin looks a little uneasy at the barrage of questions from the four other kids, but he pats Monty for comfort and wracks his brain."Hmm... he d-didn't have his uniform on, and he didn't have anything Hogwarts-y..." he looks upset at himself, scrunching his face up, like he might start tearing up again, but then his face brightens and he turns to Bex. "Oh! He had a scarf on! But it wasn't one of the Houses... I think it was black and red?"

He turns next to Rafaella, looking a little nervous, like he's afraid she'll start going off again. "The prefect was a girl, but she just asked if I was okay, she didn't tell me her name. She was in her uniform with a prefect badge on. She looked sort of like..." Merlin sticks his nose up in the air and purses his lips acting all fancy, hoighty-toighty.

Next he turns to Ava, "And what did you ask... OH! The book! It was leather with a gold gilded cover and a picture of golden woman with a sword. It's a really old divination book about signs and symbols, and a magical artifact," his face goes white. "Mum will kill me if she realizes its missing. I just couldn't put it down..."

Merlin gladly takes the divination book, looking chuffed that no one expects him to go with them. "Um, it's M-Merlin! And yeah! I don't mind looking after your stuff!"

He realizes Ava is still moving some of her things into the compartment, so Merlin slides Monty off his lap and stands up, helping her, dangling his grey scarf for Vesper to chase after while he pitches in. "The prefect actually had a badger crest on her cloak. So Hufflepuff right?"

As Rafaella, Bex, Caroline and Ava make their way towards the head of the train, a light misting of rain begins to dance down the windows of the Hogwarts express, wetting the kids' hair ever so slightly as they move between carriages. Grey rain clouds darken the skies above as the train rumbles across a bridge. The tamed farmlands and villages of the south begin to make way for wilder forests. There's still plenty of daylight left, though.

The four companions pass through the corridors of two passenger carriages, heading towards the front of the train where the baggage car is. Students cram the halls, chattering about everything from Quidditch to boy bands--both Magical and Muggle--and you gaze into compartments where students chase after chocolate frogs, or others play games of Exploding Snap. The group keeps their eyes peeled, but they don't see any sign of a dark-skinned boy with a red and black scarf. No sign of the Trolley Witch, either, maybe she's further down the train.

At the end of the first passenger carriage the group passes through the door onto a walkway between the carriages with a locked door leading into the next carriage. Mounted on the door is an old wooden sign in rather rude, authoritative golden script that reads:

BAGGAGE CAR: HOGWARTS EXPRESS CREW ONLY, ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY NO STUDENTS

The four first-years are conspicuous standing on the walkway before a locked "crew only" door. They've passed two boy prefects making rounds, heading in the other direction a couple of carriages back, and the group checked before heading out onto the walkway. There were no prefects or adults around, but anyone could come along.

At first Caroline, Ava and Rafaella think the job will be easy, there's only about a dozen rows of shelves with the door to the locomotive just beyond.

Then they peer around the first corner of shelves and realize the inside of the baggage car has clearly been enchanted. The rows stretch out on either side like long hallways housing more than a hundred trunks, furniture and cages arranged in no particular order. Caroline begins to tear through the mess, garnering an annoyed "screeeee!" from a nearby dozing barn owl, but it's going to take a concerted search effort to find a single owl among the dozens of cages.*

Meanwhile, a couple of cars back, a thin, older girl with her dirty blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail is heading down the train, going the same way as the baggage car, her arms laden with what look like small fireworks, a set of Wildfire Whiz-bangs. She takes long, purposeful strides, her long nose high in the air, eyes glancing back and forth suspiciously at the students.

"Excuse me," she intones disdainfully to Bex as she heads for the door.

Bex notices the Prefect badge on her collar. He can't help but wonder from her manner if this is the prefect Merlin mentioned. If she keeps going through the next car she'll head right into the place where his new friends are.