On the platform, Ron shrugged and called up, 'Don't let it worry you. It's me. I'm extremely famous.'
Albus smiled, and then laughed a little. Rose chuckled at her father. With a loud rattle and a jerk, the train began to move. James couldn't help noticing that his brother seemed to feel a little bit better. Albus smiled, allowing some excitement to show on his face as he waved. Alongside the train, their father walked, one hand raised and a wistful smile on his face. The train slowly gathered speed and James watched his parents get smaller and smaller on the platform. Rose leaned out the window and waved heartily at Ron and Hermione, then pulled herself in with a sigh, drawing the window shut.
'Well,' she said, plopping onto the seat across from James, 'we're off!'
James nodded. Albus watched out the window until the platform was out of sight, and then joined Rose on the seat. He leaned back and watched the window as London began to stream past.
'So what do you think, Al?' James asked, remembering Lucy's admonition on the platform. 'Looking forward to your first year?'
Albus looked at James for a long moment, and then sighed hugely. 'I'd be looking forward to it a lot more if I knew you'd packed me some socks.'
James blinked, smiling a little, and kicked his brother's foot. 'You never change them anyway. I didn't think you'd need any more than what's on your feet already.'
'That's disgusting,' Rose announced.
There was a loud knock on the compartment door and the three looked up.
Ralph leaned in, his face flushed and smiling. 'Hi, everybody. Room for one more?'
'So Zane is going to Alma Aleron this year?' Rose asked, feigning disinterest.
'You knew he was ever since he visited with his parents last July,' Albus said.
'Well, he wasn't completely sure then, was he? He said there was a chance his father might get his contract extended.'
'No,' Albus insisted. 'He said even if that happened, he'd probably end up going back to the States with his sister and mum. You're just sweet on him and can't help thinking that one bat of your eyes should have been enough to get him to climb mountains and forge mighty rivers to be at Hogwarts with you this year.'
Rose rolled her eyes theatrically. 'That's patently ridiculous. I barely know him, and what I do know of him, I find completely insufferable.'
'Insufferable enough to try to make the Draught of Enamor?' Albus grinned.
Rose whipped her head around and gaped at Albus. 'I never…!'
Albus shrugged, still grinning. 'You need to learn to lock your diary with more than the silly little Forget- me-knot Charm that came with it. You of all people should know how easy those are to jinx open.'
'Why, you rat!' Rose cried, her voice rising so that it was nearly inaudible. 'If I knew how to perform any curses, I'd turn your head into a marshmallow!'
'Is this what things are always like in your family?' Ralph asked James, munching a licorice wand.
'Pretty much,' James nodded. 'It's a good thing Louis hasn't found us yet. He really brings out the worst in Rose.'
'This isn't her worst?'
James dug in his bag and produced his wand. Finally, now that he was on the train, he was allowed to use it again. He was tempted to strike up a game of Winkles and Augers with Ralph, but he knew that Ralph would defeat him easily with his unorthodox green-tipped wand. James would've liked to believe that Ralph's skills were only due to the fact that his wand had once been a part of Merlin's magical staff, but he knew better. Ralph was talented, and he probably didn't even know the limit of his own talents. Being beat by Ralph at Winkles and Augers was particularly galling because Ralph tended to apologize for it.
'It is a shame that Zane couldn't come back with us this year,' James said. 'It's going to be a bit weird without him.'
'Well, it was always a bit weird with him too,' Ralph said. 'So maybe it'll all even out. Besides, we'll still get to see him. He says that the Alma Alerons have some experimental new communication methods. He's going to be on the testing team for them.'
James nodded. 'Sounds like old Chancellor Franklyn has been hard at work since he left.'
'I'll say,' Ralph agreed. 'Dad visited them over the summer and they took him on a tour of the school and grounds. The whole campus is packed into a single yard surrounded by a stone wall in some old neighborhood of Philadelphia. You'd never even notice it if you walked past it. Talk about unplotted space! They even have a Timelock!'
James furrowed his brow. 'What's a Timelock?'
'Oh, it's totally cool,' Ralph enthused. 'It's the only way into the school. It's kind of like an airlock. You know how when rockets connect to a space station, they have this locked off chamber between them?'
James raised his eyebrows sardonically.
'Oh yeah,' Ralph said, 'I keep forgetting you were raised by wizards. All right, an airlock is kind of a closed chamber between two places with really different atmospheres. It has doors on both sides. When you go into the airlock on your side, you bring your atmosphere in with you. Then the doors lock and your atmosphere is swapped out for a new one. That's the only way a spacewalker can get inside the breathable environment of a space station.'
James' expression didn't change.
'All right,' Ralph said defensively, 'so I grew up watching science-fiction films. Not all of us were born with a silver wand in our mouths, you know.'
James laughed. 'Go on, Ralphinator. So what's a Timelock?'
'Well, that's just it! It's an airlock for time! Not only is the Alma Aleron campus hidden inside some magical stone wall that makes it seem loads smaller than it is, it's hidden in time, too! You have to go in through the Timelock to exchange your time for whatever time the campus is occupying on any given day.'
'That's impossible,' Rose chimed in, lowering the book she'd been reading. 'Time travel is not only highly unstable, but extremely risky. The Ministry has even outlawed Time-Turners because too many people were fiddling around in the temporal fluxstream, making history all wonky.'
'The 'temporal fluxstream'?' Ralph repeated, blinking.
''Wonky'?' Albus grinned.
'Rose takes a little bit of getting used to,' James said. 'But she's the person to go to if you need a cure for poison ivy.'
'Or the occasional love potion,' Albus added.
'It would've worked if I'd succeeded in getting him to drink it,' Rose pointed out primly. 'And I was only testing it on him. I just find him slightly less obnoxious than any of you.'
'What kind of wand did you get, Rosie?' James asked, changing the subject.
'Only my dad's allowed to call me that, Jameson,' Rose replied, reaching for her bag.
James smiled. ''Jameson' isn't even my real name.'
'It's willow,' Rose said, flourishing her wand daintily and holding it up. 'Eight inches, with a Pegasus feather core.'
'What about yours, Albus?' Ralph asked, popping the last bit of licorice wand into his mouth.
Albus' face changed a little and he shrugged. 'It's a wand. Eight and a half inches. It's made out of yew.'
