บท 13: Journey 2

"Anything off the cart, dears?"

Honeydukes Express was here, Harry lept to his feet and rushed to the trolly while Ron muttered that he'd brought sandwiches with a flushed face. Thea wanted to pack sandwiches too, but Ben managed to convince her otherwise, he got some extra allowance to spend on the train.

When Harry bought some of everything from the cart and Ron stared with his mouth open, Ben decided to buy some too, he got a few packs of Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, some Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, a few boxes of Chocolate Frogs to restart his card collection and few Pumpkin Pasties for the way.

Ben wasn't a fan of Pumpkins in his previous life, it was something that he got after he arrived here, it made him wonder what else changed about him.

He put most of what he bought in the trunk, he won't be able to visit Hogsmead anytime soon and he didn't want poor Aquila to haul snacks for him just yet.

"You guys are really hungry huh," said Ron.

"Starving," said Harry.

"Here, have some," Ben said handing a pumpkin pastry to Ron, which Ron took hesitatingly.

Harry also offered to trade some for corn beef sandwiches with Ron, they chatted while sharing treats, Ben mostly just listened and occasionally participated, when Ben said that he sold his chocolate frog cards collection for 3 galleons(one septim), Ron almost lost his marbles.

He wanted to sell his cards too, but unfortunately Ben couldn't afford to spend more galleons and no one would accept septims as payment.

There was a knock on the door and a round-faced boy came in.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

Harry and Ron shook their heads.

"No, maybe it became someone's lunch," Ben said and the poor boy almost cried. Ben had to reassure him that it'll turn up eventually and that maybe it just wanted to explore the train.

Neville reminded Ben of someone he went to middle school with, he was his distant cousin and cried very easily and was bullied because of it. Ben remembered that he liked to tease him a lot but would feel terrible when he started to shed tears afterwards.

In this life, Neville was in fact his distant cousin and he felt terrible when he made him almost cry.

While Ben was reminiscing his past, Ron was trying to make his rat yellow.

Just as he raised his wand, the door slid open again and Neville was back, this time with a tiny girl with large front teeth and bush brown hair.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she almost commanded, it was as if she was already a prefect.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, he seemed annoyed, maybe because she reminded him of Percy.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

She sat down next to Harry.

"Er - all right."

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,

Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

Everyone just stared at the rat for a while but nothing happened.

"Maybe shake the rat a little, it'll spread the colour evenly on him," Ben joked but to his surprise, Ron actually gave the poor old man a good shake.

Now everyone stared at Ben.

"I was only kidding, I didn't think you'd actually do it," Ben shrugged.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl and started talking so fast that Ben could hardly catch anything from what she said.

"I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" She said at last.

Looking at the stunned faces around, Ben was certain that nobody understood what she said.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

"Benedict Brown"

"Harry Potter," said Harry.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course-" and then she started listing all the books that mentioned Harry Potter.

At some point Ben was expecting her to name all of Rowling's books and break the fourth wall too, he was relieved when that did not happen but the wall was broken nonetheless.

"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad...Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You three had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon." She again started speaking at 1.75 times the normal speed and then left with Neville in tow.

'She's had too much sugar for sure'

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.

"Now you've jinxed it," said Ben with certainty.

Ron started talking about Houses and Harry asked him what his brothers did, Ben did not want to participate in this talk lest he ends up with a Slytherin Harry Potter. He pulled out his history book and started reading and they left him alone.

The History of Magic book for Ben was like a missing Harry Potter Wiki article, everything in it was fascinating and made him realize the realness of this world, it no longer was a world that he used to escape to once a year, but a living, breathing, magical world full of real conflicts and problems.

There were more ways a person could die here than an Avada Kedavra, all sorts of magical creatures that were less than harmless and unimaginable magical calamities that can wipe out city blocks without anyone knowing.

This was no longer a children's book that grew up with its readers and showed the triumph of good over evil with the power of love and friendship.

As the realness of this world and its dangers set in, so did Ben's anxiety. He was just a normal guy living in the city, he was not made for this shit. The last time he faced a beast, he was in front of a TV, let alone a magical beast.

The door to their compartment was opened again and three boys stepped in.