Niki sat obediently then examined the Muggle sweets with suspicion, as if she expected them to jump up and being to tap dance on her nose. Finally, she took one, and smiled a thank-you. "Where do you get all the Muggle candy?"

"Oh, my pet hawk," he grinned, "and I roamed bits of the Muggle world during the holidays. Pays off to have a guide who really knows his way around Muggle shops... do you know that they have places where you can get money without having to deal with goblins? You only put a small card into some apparatus and get money... quite amazing, really. Anyway, my father wasn't too happy about me spending several days among Muggles, but as it seemed, I played the part of a Muggle quite well since nobody seemed to have noticed."

He stuffed a handful of M&Ms into his mouth and winked at Niki. "Waff mutff fun!"

"Now I shall have to be extremely jealous of you," Niki said complacently, "because my holidays were very boring. Except for the moments of complete terror...I wasn't allowed to fly, you see, so I had to do it when my grandmother was out... I didn't get caught, but there were some close calls. And I'm beginning to think that Sko is some sort of anti-Kneazle...you know, instead of people attracted to nice people, he's attracted to bad."

"Anti-Kneazle..." Nathan chuckled. "Sorry, I know this is a serious subject. I always thought Sko likes you. Maybe your grandmother ... convinced him, so to speak, to like her better? Anyway, have as many of the sweets as you like."

He leaned forward conspiratorially. "I have some Muggle books with me in case you'd like to read some of them. And magazines." He grinned. "Teen mags, to be exact. Wouldn't you like to know what kind of guys the Muggle girls like best? I found it rather interesting..."

"Okay, what kind of boy to Muggle girls like best? Tall, handsome, blond Quidditch players?" Niki teased. "Oh, wait--they don't know about Quidditch, do they? But why in the world were you buying Muggle teen girl magazines? Didn't you get strange looks?"

Nathan laughed. "Teen mags in general, not girls mags. Mostly about music and stuff, I love Muggle music, did I ever tell you? Wish Drake's walkman would work at Hogwarts so you could listen to - hey! It should work here, right? Maybe I could ask him to let you listen to some of the stuff..."

He looked out of the window to see whether Drake was still outside, but didn't see him. "I'll ask him when the train starts going," he thought aloud.

"Anyway," he grinned, "tall, handsome and blond seems to work with any kind of girl, really..."

"Can't imagine why," Niki said dryly. "That must be why girls are throwing themselves at David Ollivander...wait, you said handsome. Never mind."

She thought for a moment. "Muggle stuff is interesting...particularly Muggle science and maths and things. Wizards don't do any of that because we have magic to do it for us. Cheating, really."

You really should have a chat with Drake, then," Nathan said with a smirk. "I mean, he's been to a Muggle school and all, knows all the tricks... actually, I find Muggles to be very interesting. I don't get why so many Slytherins dislike them so much, they're very interesting, all those things they've invented to compensate the inability to do magic - planes, for example, and then enormous things like space shuttles... quite amazing, isn't it? I mean, I prefer flying on a broomstick, but still... it's interesting."

He started to munch on a Snickers bar. "Not to mention the sweets... chocolate frogs are great but something else for a change is nice, too, isn't it?"

Niki nodded noncommittally. Her knowledge of Muggles and the Muggle world was pretty well limited to chemistry, algebra, and geometry, and though she found them intriguing, she didn't think it would be anything very important. "But you have to admit, their jelly beans aren't as good as Bertie Bott's."

"True." Nathan smiled. "Both worlds have their good and bad things... I think broomsticks are much more fun than motorcycles, for example."

He leaned back and looked at Niki. "So, precious, what now? I'm afraid Miss Fudge won't like the idea of the two of us sharing a compartment or doing late-night studies... we both know she's a plotting little hag, cute as she might be, so we'd better think up some ways to block any kind of assault by her."

"Is that possible?" Niki asked doubtfully. "I mean, Arcadia likes to use potions...is there any sort of all-purpose antidote? I don't much fancy blowing up like poor Branwen, you know."

"There is no such thing as a cure-it-all-Potion," Nathan replied, looking a bit worried. "I guess we'll just have to be careful what we're eating and drinking for a while. She'd better not try anything! She may be good at Potions but so am I, and contrary to her, I'm quite good at doing hexes and curses as well...."

Niki bit her lip. "Don't do anything stupid....I mean, you've already been expelled from Beauxbatons. Arcadia would milk anything for all it's worth, and we both know it... Too bad spouting equations won't help," she added, smiling in spite of herself. Arcadia was always something to worry about.

"I won't hurt her as long as she leaves us alone. However," he grinned, "if she insists on being a nuisance, I'll make her learn a lesson. Oh, don't worry," he said quickly on seeing Niki's worried face, "I won't be expelled again. I only got expelled the first time because the teachers didn't like me, I was too clever for them."

"Whereas the teachers at Hogwarts love a smart-a--I mean...never mind. But maybe you should tell her...she'd be less upset than if she found out, wouldn't she? And an upset Arcadia is not a good thing. At all." Niki's face was pensive, and she was biting her lip again--a bad habit, but one she'd never been able to stop.

"Tell her?" Nathan grimaced. "Niki, you make it sound as if she was a girlfriend I needed to break up with - she's not! Let her be upset if she insists, she'll see what she gets from it... But now let's talk about something nicer than Arcadia Fudge." He smiled at Niki. "About you, for instance..."

"You may not think she is, but *she* does...think you're a girlfriend, I mean." Niki shrugged. "But if I get turned into a...a rhinoceros, or something, I'm going to come and trample you." She smiled a little bit. "What about me?"

Nathan sighed. "I'll make quite clear to her that she is to leave you alone."

"Who will leave her alone?" Morticia suddenly asked from the door where she had quietly sneaked in. "Not Arcadia? She'll never leave you guys alone, Nat, she's still crazy about you and -"

"Thank you, Tish," Nathan interrupted icily, "that will do. Why don't you go see some of your friends and leave us to ourselves? We have private matters to discuss."

Morticia stared at him. "I'm sure!" she hissed then and stormed away.

Niki frowned. Nathan might be...well, Nathan...but Tish was still her best friend. And she was angry--about what was unclear--and Niki didn't like that. It was, she considered, a drawback to having 'study sessions' with your best friend's older brother. "So," she said awkwardly.

" So?" asked Nathan

Niki inspected her fingers, "I don't know."

"So, what now? Like to play cards?" he flicks his wand through the air and produces a pack of playing cards.

"Can't that stupid girl knock?" Nathan frowns and then sighed.

" Well, you didn't put up a 'Do Not Disturb' sign. Why's she angry?"

"Dunno... probably her certain days of the month." He grinned.

Niki rolled her eyes, "Is Drake awfully nervous about teaching?"

"Drakey? Yeah, I guess... had this run-in with one of the students which upset him a bit."

"What happened?"

"Well, he wouldn't really say... seems he offered the kid some help but got shouted at or so."

"I'm a bit sorry I'm not taking Muggle Studies..." Niki smiled sadly, "Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike my grandmother, by the way?"

Nathan hugs her, "I'm sure Drake will be happy to tell you things about Muggles. I know quite a lot myself, you know? We could add that to your schedule."

"But I am doing languages, so I'm glad about that. Maybe some Greek. I hope so." Niki rested her head on Nathan's shoulder.

"There are so many subjects this year... I'd love to take them all but I suppose my father wouldn't like it - too much diversion from "Important Things", you know?" Nathan sighed again.

"What are you planning to do once you graduate? That's the end of this year, isn't it?"

"Technically next but I hope it's this year... I have to see Dumbledore once we get to Hogwarts to give him a letter of my father." Nathan sighed again. "What will I do? Take a break, I think.."

"I guess you'll be pretty tired of school. But after that? Do you have any ideas?"

"No." he sighed again, "Dad wants me to either play Quidditch or try to get something at the Ministry... I don't want any of that, though..."

"Well, what do you want to do? Write for the Prophet? Teach? Be an Auror?"

Nathan shrugs and grins, "Live out on my family's money?"

"Could do that, too." She grinned, "But with another two children on the way, won't it all go into nappies and...toys...and...and...and things?"

"Oh, god, please don't remind me of that!" Nathan moaned, "All right then, something sensible. Seriously, Drake and I were thinking about co-writing a book and doing research for it..."

Niki looks very interested, "What kind of book?"

"About the different kind of spells all over the world. Drake's found some weird stuff when visiting Inuit, for example."

Niki nodded, "There are lots of different things just in Morocco. Or Greece. Different from Britain, I mean. That would be interesting."

" Oh yes!" Nathan beamed, "That'd be fun... just don't think my father would like that - his oldest one roaming the world with a filthy ugly Mudblood."

"Well, once you've graduated, you're all grown up, aren't you?"

"Oh, really?" Nathan sneered. "You know how things work in high society! I mean - my father is an ambassador, YOU know what that means! He won't allow me to have fun, I bet... just like he want Tish to stop Quidditch and study more, imagine that!"

*************

There was a large commotion at one end of the platform as a young man pushed his way through the gathering crowd of students. An ominous crash was heard as a large trunk dropped on the platform. It had split down one side and a large pile of books and papers were spewn across the platform. A number of elves were busily trying to gather the books from under the feet of a number of gathering students.

"I said be CAREFUL!" He shouted as he approached the group of house elves that had obviously been struggling to get a number of trunks onto the train. "I told you those cases have my valuable possessions in them, and I don't want everything broken before I even get there!"

One of the elves turned to face the young man who now stood at the scene, his frustration showing clearly in his blue eyes. "It is not our fault master. If master had not packed so many heavy items into one trunk then this would never have happened. We are sorry for dropping the case, we promise it wont happen again." The elf was also showing signs of frustration and guilt at the same time.

The man looked down to the elf and spoke more quietly. "I hope it won't."

He sighed. "At least it was only the..." he cringed as another trunk wobbled dangerously for an instant before being loaded onto the train. The elf noticing ran back to his job of supervising the other elves in the hope that no more cases would be dropped.

"...books." The man said to himself. He sighed again and lifted a battered suede hat off his head. He pushed his brown hair back from his forehead and reseated the hat before turning round to survey the students who had been watching.

"This isn't a show, you know!" He said to the assembled crowd. Some of the students had the decency to look embarrassed and return to what they were doing. Others just carried on watching and wondering what could be in all those cases to make the house elves struggle so much.

The young man shook his head, and pushed his way through the crowd to the train door and disappeared inside.

**************

In a cabin already on the train, Randal stared out of the window. He watched the milling students on the platform. At least no one had managed to join him in here. He knew he shouldn't have but he had placed a mild 'disinterest' spell on the door. It should effectively stop people entering, causing their minds to wander when they tried to look in.

He had no idea what was going to happen this term but he was sure it was not going to be good. How he had ended up with a girlfriend last term he had no idea. He certainly had been able to think a lot about that over the summer while he had been training in Switzerland. And now he was avoiding her. He dreaded seeing her again. She was going to tell him off so much for not writing and not visiting. He was not even sure, after a summer on his own, of what he had seen in her.

Randal continued to stare out of the window. It should probably have been raining to fit his mood. No, returning to Hogwarts would not have been his choice of things to be doing right now...

**********

He looked around the corner of the station wall, and at the blank space between platforms 9 and 10. It was now or never, he guessed. Being fashionably late obviously did have its disadvantages.

The timing had to be right. Staring at the wall with concentration, he pushed the trolley ahead of him, hoping that not too many people would stare at the luggage, at the chest he was carting around. It wouldn't do much for being unnoticeable, although once on the other side...

The people cleared from the wall for just a second, and he walked to it. Behind him, they suddenly closed again, the magic activating to disguise his movement... through the wall... onto the other side... he was through!

Strolling out, looking smug as the baggage handler sprung into magical life, he strutted across the station. Magnus was back.!