"What was going on between you and Marvo, Raph?"

Raphael looked up at Nathaniel once he'd reclaimed his seat on the floor beneath the window. For a second, he just seemed to pause... and think. "It's a bit... complicated."

"That glowy eye was freaky..." Nathaniel said quietly. "... like he was trying to look right through me."

Without being able to help it, Raphael nodded and started to speak. "And... he just... when you... I mean, when he offended someone, he was just... like... amused."

He paused. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that, Nathaniel," and then glancing at Sarah, "and you too. He just made my blood boil. And..." but with that, Raphael fell silent, the frown hitting his face like a pile of bricks.

Suddenly needing to be doing something, anything, Raphael thought desperately.

Sitting with his head against the cold side of the train, sitting on the floor, Raphael produced a sad looking thing from his left pocket, and waved it around at Nathaniel and Sarah. "Did you know that I paid good money for this?" he asked, as he held up the laurel.

It was a wand, he guessed. Having a wand was right at the top of the list from his uncle, although he'd put it off until last. It was... a stick, wasn't it? 12 long and not particularly stiff inches long, the laurel... stick... was supposed to have an "angels" heart string in the core. Well, that was ridiculous. For one, how could you get an angel to give up its string? If it even had one... he sighed, as the wand visible bent downwards a good few inches.

He shook it. Wasn't it meant to, like, start flashing? "I paid far too much good money for this," he sighed, showing the other two. He shook it a little more. It was obviously trying to explode or fire a fireball, Raphael thought to himself, and failing. One more try.

He waved it around madly. Nothing. "I think it's broken," he confessed to Sarah. "Should we give this up as being a bad job and go and, like, talk to people? Isn't... that... what you want to do?" he asked, going a little red.

Nathaniel watched Raphael wave his wand a bit, and sighed. "Mine's no better."

Reaching into his robes, he produced nine inches and an eighth of black cherry wood. It seemed to sulk in his hand and he tossed it up and down a bit.

Sarah gave a little smile at Raphael's waving his wand around.

"Your wand is a focus only - they are not magical just by themselves. Though woods have certain traditional properties and the combination with the core will make it more suited to different types of magical working or styles - that's why it is a good idea to have a wand that is fitted to you personally. The wand chooses the wizard they say. Well David's father says. "

She took out her own wand and showed it to Raphael. "It's Acacia wood with unicorn hair in the centre. Not a usual wood. Most prefer the native trees that were part of the old Celtic wood lore. The Acacia is from Africa."

"I doubt it's broken - I think you just need the right circumstances to activate it. Fireballs in here wouldn't be a good idea would they?"

She was surprised Raphael seemed to be a little embarrassed, "What I want to do? Oh I am happy to do whatever you want to do. I guess we could go talk to people sure." She looked a little unsure of herself.

"I've had Marvo on my case since the word go." said Sarah, "It does not surprise me at all that he was giving you the once over with his icky eye. He's always acting way important and if what the Skeeter woman said was true about his status - well I don't see how there will be any fun at school any more. He and Shinrei ought to team up and form a spoilsports club."

Nathaniel nodded and started trying to teach the mostly black kitten not to go rooting in his pockets for something the cat obviously found fascinating but that he didn't want seen yet.

The kitten nosed its way in under his overrobe again, and seemed intent on ferreting something out of a pocket. "NO, cat!" he said sharply. The cat stopped and looked innocent for all of ten seconds before reverting to its original quest.

She looked at Nathaniel's cat. "He's obsessed with your pocket. You know cats he won't stop. Very single-minded cats."

The mostly-black kitten suddenly pounced on something and Nathaniel tried to pull it away... but a globe of glass suddenly rolled out of his sleeve and landed in Raphael's lap.

Raphael started in surprise, looking away from his wand, stopping treating it like it was about to explode, and touched the ball gingerly with his fingers, looking into the surface. Taking a breath, he looked up at Nathaniel curiously.

Nathaniel blushed instantly, threw the kitten up onto the overhead rack where it landed neatly on all four paws, and reached out a hand. "Sorry."

Handing it to Nathaniel, Raphael asked: "why sorry? What is that, Nathaniel Greenleigh?"

"Why sorry... it could have hit you in the face...." Nathaniel mumbled, making the globe vanish into a pocket somewhere. Persisting, perhaps without realising just why, Raphael asked again: "so, what is it?"

"It's a contact juggling ball." Nathaniel said very quickly and quietly.

"Oh, yeah!" Raphael leant back against Sarah's seat, with her to his left, and prompted Nathaniel. "Show me," he asked, although a little timidly. "I'd love to see."

Nathaniel stood up straight, shaking his hair out of his face and seemingly produced the glass globe by simply shaking his sleeve again and letting it drop into his palm. Without unnecessary drama, he rolled it against gravity from the palm of his hand to the back of his hand. Then he flung his right hand upwards and the ball gravitated over his fingers back to the palm of his hand, but it didn't stop there. Instead his hand carried on moving towards the floor of the carriage, and at the last moment twisted his lean wrist in on itself and the ball moved smoothly along the base of his wrist to suddenly be in his palm again.

Raphael blinked, and let the air out of his lungs ... very... very... slowly.

Ignoring his audience, Nathaniel repeated the move again, halfway through shaking another identical globe from his sleeve into his other hand. He brought his hands together, and the balls spun lazily upwards into the air, only to be caught in the palm of his left hand a second later and spun around each other on the palm of his hand as he held it pointing downwards at the floor.

Raphael waited, his breath bated. This was cool...

Then Nathaniel did something very complicated and fast with both hands weaving in and out of each other and the glass globes moving in fast sweeps and curves, and then he shook out his sleeves again and the balls were gone again.

"Contact juggling." he said matter of factly, shrugging and sitting down again. On the luggage rack overhead the kitten was purring smugly.

Standing up quickly, Raphael pulled Nathaniel to his feet by shaking his hand far too much. "That's good, old man, that had me totally hypnotised for a second."

Grinning, he thought to himself for a second, and then went on. "All you'll need to do is show that at school and they'll invent a new class for it where you'll get all the decent grades..." he announced, grinning.

Nathaniel went a deep brick red. "It's nothing." he said shortly, extricating his hand and sitting down again. "Anyone can do it."

"That was impressive." Sarah said to Nathaniel though could see he was embarrassed.

Raphael sat down too, resuming his position below the window. "Come on, Nathaniel," he said, raising an eyebrow, but then turning, he asked Sarah just what weird and wonderful talents she had.

He was getting better at knowing when Nathaniel was in a stress, he thought to himself. Better...

.Then it was Sarah's turn to be embarrassed when Raphael asked her what weird and wonderful talents she had. "Me?" she took a bit of a breath, "Nothing too weird or wonderful I'm afraid. Just a normal girl who does magic and sings. Sorry I couldn't be more - you know...weird and wonderful."

The kitten dropped onto his knee and sat there purring and looking smug, and suddenly Nathaniel felt less terrible about the whole world.

"Couldn't have put it better myself." he smiled an almost carefree smile at Sarah's description of herself. Absently he patted down his pockets and produced a very small green jade ball, which he let roll backwards and forwards over the knuckles of his left hand.

Stress practically melted away from him now that he felt he could do his usual preoccupying habit without the eyes of the wizarding world laughing at him.

Raphael nodded at the pair, finding that finally he had calmed down after Marvo. Things had been complicated. Too complicated.

For just a moment, looking at Nathaniel absorbed in his juggling, and Sarah watching him. And then he thought of what had happened outside - the argument - the appearance down the carriageway - the harsh words - the look on his face - and he started to crumble.

Why couldn't he tell these two people about one of his secrets? Why couldn't he make their fellowship of four - him, Sarah, Nathaniel and the cat - a fellowship of five?

He sighed, suddenly, and put down his wand. He knew he couldn't. This was a pointless debate. He dropped it. "Sarah - teach me how to use this wand."

Sarah looked up and came and sat beside Raphael. "Right well this is something pretty useful to know and can be used safely anywhere."

She took out her own wand again and giving it a little swish and flick motion, saying at the same time - 'Lumos'. A beam of light like a flashlight shined from the end of her wand. She played it about a bit. "See it's just light - very useful in the dark and when skulking about the darker regions of the castle."

She gave the wand another flick saying 'Nox' and the light extinguished. "OK, now you try - just be gentle with it."

Reaching into his right pocket, Raphael groped around for his laurel wand, grabbing it from where it was getting bent into more interesting shapes in his pocket and extricating it. As he waved it about, feeling useless, he wondered what Sarah meant by: "be gentle".

"Lumos," he muttered under his breath, softly, hoping that it wouldn’t explode.

If he’d wondered about it, he would have thought about the feathers that he honestly hadn’t seen in the corridor outside, but… The wand just looked at him smugly. He could have sworn it was smirking at him.

"Lumos," he said a little more forcefully, standing fully up, Nathaniel forgotten, Sarah, forgotten, and he intoned "Lumos" once again, louder, more forceful, feeling something like a caged beast trample around in his chest. "Lumos, goddamn you!" he shouted as the wand failed to respond.

The door to the carriage swung open as the train door opening created a breeze. In frustration, Raphael threw the wand out of the door, spinning around and falling against the window.

Nathaniel and Sarah both saw the flash from the wand… but then the door closed before it hit the ground. Raphael, though, banged his head softly against the glass window, three times, and then just leant. He was muttering under his breath, his heart was pounding, all his nightmares… all his fears about this place… he had to know… he knew the answer, though… and he would still have to find out. He was already on the train. And plus, he’d promised Nathaniel.

The kitten leapt from Nathaniel's knee as he stood up and stepped outside. Pushing its head under Raphael's hand, the kitten looked at Raphael and purred softly.

Nathaniel returned with the wand and dropped it into Raphael's lap, the graceful loop of the small jade ball between and around his fingers a habit long practised and not stopped while he moved.

"Throwing it away isn't going to increase your chance of success with it, kid." he grinned at Raphael. "And we gotta talk about your idea of 'gentle', real soon, before you find yourself a pretty girl ..."

Then he looked at Sarah. "Lumos? Nox? That's latinish, right? Except it should be Lumen...?"

He made no attempt to retrieve his own wand from his inside pocket. It didn't look as though he was going to volunteer to do that as confidently as he had the contact juggling.

Sarah was totally embarrassed by this remark of Nathaniel's about 'before you find yourself a pretty girl' but she recovered well thankful that she hadn't made such a comment.

She did look in his direction though with his question about Latin. "Yes, it is - many spells were written centuries ago when Latin was the language of scholars and of wizards. Ancient Greek as well is used and though in theory a word is just a word - it is the association between word and intention that directs the magic to achieve a certain result. After a while it becomes second nature."

She sat down again with Raphael on his left side. "Now just put your hand 'gently' upon my arm about here - so that your hand will move with mine as I do the spell. You may feel a slight tingling sensation."

She waited for him to do this before she proceeded.

Still a little crotchety about the total lack of magic from the wand, Raphael sat down by Sarah, as she directed, and took a deep breath before moving his hands. As he did so, he noticed something about the 'wand' in his lap. "Nathaniel," he said curiously, "that isn't the wand, that's -"

Then he recognised what it was, grimaced slightly, and shoved the thing back in his right pocket before either Sarah or Nathaniel could see just what had caused him to go gray. He cursed, although, probably not dangerously, he admitted, under his breath.

Looking up at Sarah, and then Nathaniel, and keeping his expression dull, he murmured "sorry, my mistake, thanks for fetching it," quickly, before taking another breath. Right. What had Sarah said? Place his hand... there...

Gulping a little, Raphael touched the inside of Sarah's arm, ever so gently, somehow expecting her to object, although... that was stupid, he told himself. Stupid stupid stupid. She told me to... well, just so that she could show me a spell, he thought. Moving his touch again, his left hand grasping her right softly, his index finger almost touching her wand where she held it, his thumb and other three fingers curved around her wrist. Her hand... it was so warm...

Forcing himself to speak, Raphael whispered "okay" to Sarah, "go ahead." Totally involuntarily, he swallowed convulsively just once.

"Just relax" she asked moving her hand gently and then gave a small movement that 'swished and flicked' the wand. She did this a couple of times quite slowly and then more quickly so that he could get a feel of the movement before again saying 'Lumos' then again swish and flick 'Nox'. She repeated the charm one more time and then turned to him, eyes quite bright.

"Did you feel any difference Raphael between my just waving it about and directing my energy through it?"

Raphael, not letting go of her hand for just a second, didn't know that his eyes were bright too. Staring across at her... he knew... he had felt the tingle of power as it had flashed through the wand... he had felt the magic for just a second... he had felt it move through the wand... the heat against his skin... the ripple... the sweet touch of her magic...

Biting his lip, Raphael stepped away from Sarah, still smiling, still remembering the feel of that magic, still remembering how it had touched him for just a second...

To both Nathaniel and Sarah, Raphael seemed to slow. He reached deep into his pocket and retrieved the wand, holding it differently to Sarah, between the middle and index fingers of his left hand, clasped almost entirely down his wrist, only the tip of about an inch poking from between his fingers. For just a second, it seemed gnarled to Nathaniel: black shadows seemed to lurk in cracks and twists of the wood.

To Raphael... the wand flashed black at him too... that tingle of power... he'd felt that before... if he could take that memory, that single flash of pure energy... if he could remember it clearly... go back to that moment... go back to that moment... remember... under the stars... green fire, black fire... wet... memory... memory... memory...

Sarah and Nathaniel watched as Raphael visible changed stance, his eyes unfocusing, linking his right hand under his left and holding the wand to him. looking at it. "I remember another way," he said, his usual bright words slurred, slow and somehow alien. Different. He sighed, and looked at the wand once again, seeming to forget Nathaniel and Sarah. ...

She would have seen the light... he could make the fire brighter... he could make it flash... a reflection... it wasn't the feel of power from that memory... but... that power... the light Sarah had shown him... there was another way... there was a way he could remember... what he had been given...

They watched as Raphael breathed out, slowly, and took a breath in, and then the alien voice returned. It was Raphael's, although different. "I remember the way. I remember the light. Envocate - Piccolo - Selene." Before Raphael, a dot of light appeared, a sphere that glowed milky white, spinning softly around and around. For a second, Raphael seemed to be able to move it side to side, just by moving his hands, as if it was on a piece of string, but then... ...

the words... the words... the words... He staggered and it disappeared. Falling towards Nathaniel, he seemed to refocus, standing up again. The wand slipped back into his left pocket. His face was the colour of the sphere: milky gray. "Oh well. It didn't work." Starting to blink rapidly, he went on: "maybe I'll be able to get some light next time. I felt... something... anyway, Sarah, show us another spell neither of us can get to work."

He turned to Nathaniel, speaking cheerily and grinning as the colour came back into his cheeks. "See, I told you there'd be someone as bad as you - I can't even get the wand to do anything!"

"In Sarah's defence, I haven't got it to work because I haven't tried it; and maybe... just maybe if you tried Lumos instead of all that other gibberish, you might just get it?"

Nathaniel looked equably at Raphael. If what had just happened had phased him in any way, it certainly wasn't showing in his face.

Sarah also seemed non-phased by what had happened.

"You did feel a little something there I could tell" she said encouragingly. "You have the feel for it you just may be used to thinking about magic in a different way - more instinctive or something. You said 'Selene' that's for the Moon isn't it? That little globe of light was a little moon like."

She relaxed a little, "There really is less pressure than you think at school. Magic is suppose to be something enjoyable not a task. The way Nathaniel over there does his juggling - or playing music or dancing. There can be quite hard work involved but there is also a joy to it if that makes sense. You flow with the magic and it flows through you. Sometimes the harder you try the more difficult it is but when you relax then... it happens."

Raphael looked from one to the other. Huh? He could practically hear a Yorkshire policeman's drawl in his head: 'what's goin' on 'ere then?'

"Um.." he said to both of them. Well, that was... interesting. Nothing had happened... and... nothing had happened, he could swear it... Selene? Who? "Yerwhat? What gibberish? What happened?" He glanced from face to face, looking back and forth... both Nathaniel and Sarah were calm... he expected that... just... gibberish... didn't...

He took in a breath, and then had to let it out again because he needed to breathe, and he hadn't thought of something to say, not yet. Another breath in. Funny. He let it out in a snort that turned into a friendly laugh. "Look..." he said to both of them, unable to stop the grin that slipped across his face, "I dunno what on earth you two are talking about. Tell me about it another time. And..." yeah... he said to himself... "I feel much better about school. Thanks. You two being weirdos actually helps, you know," he said with a grin. "Hey," he said more gravely, trying to remove the expanding smile, "we should make this years test crop into a whole field's worth."

Reaching into his right pocket, Raphael looked a bit grave for just a second, and then pulled out a thing. It was long. It was covered in stuff, dried mud that looked like bark. It was rather an odd shape - generally long and not too thin. He rubbed it off and presented it - it being a leek - to Sarah and Nathaniel.

"Don't ask why," he said, "but, I reckon, you two should swear on this leek that if I start talking gibberish again, you'll clobber me over the head with it. Sound good to you?" he asked, waving the leek at the both of them with overtones of bendyness.

Being somewhat 'weird' herself, Sarah smiled broadly at the suggestion they swear on the leek and happy that Raphael was feeling better about Hogwarts.

She knew from experience that most of the students at the school were friendly and supportive of one another. Certainly Ravenclaw was - where Nathaniel would be.

"OK, sounds interesting - any special words or just make them up as we go. Oh, can I have a test clobber?" she had a wicked gleam in her eye.

Raising an eyebrow to Sarah in mock anger, Raphael waved the leek again under her nose. "You getting uppity with me, young lady?"

"So, words," said Raphael, going grave and thinking to himself. Biting a lip, and rubbing his wrist against his temples, Raphael thought. His face became graven, thoughtful. "Okay. I have it," he announced softly.

"Repeat after me," he told them both. "I solemnly swear," he started, "on this leek of power and majesty, to humbly hit the graven head of the first idiot to start gabbering. Jabberwocky is not allowed," he told them quietly.

"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Nathaniel quoted, and gently took the leek away from Sarah. He regarded it with an openly derisive look and dropped it casually in the litterbin. "Raphael, look.... I like you a lot, kid, but I utterly refuse to swear an oath so binding on something so casual as a limp leek."

He looked from one to the other, smiling and pocketing the green jade ball. "Three's a good number. How about we do this the old fashioned way?"

He caught hold of Raphael's left wrist with his right hand, and gently caught hold of Sarah's hand to place it on his right wrist, and then steered Raphael's left hand to Sarah's wrist, so that their interlocked hands and wrists made a triangle of sorts.

"Friends." Nathaniel said quietly, sincerely, still looking from one to the other. "And that's all that's needed."

Sarah had given a little giggle with Raphael's waving the leek under her nose and crossed her eyes trying to follow it back and forth.

She was just about to say something cheeky in response to his 'getting uppity remark' when Nathaniel quoted the poem and drew them gently into forming the interlocked triangle of friendship.

The usually breezy young girl was deeply moved by Nathaniel's quiet words. Sarah had her serious side, she just rarely showed it preferring the mask of the clown. She returned his gaze levelly and then looked to Raphael. "Friends." she said to each of them in turn a definite lump forming in her throat.

The poem had reminded him of something... of a ditty sung under different stars. Somewhere else. There the song had been about something different... not the jabberwocky, not the jaws of verbal crippling, but it had made him think of a voice, singing to the moon. Singing to the flowers. Singing in the scent of wildflowers.

He looked down, at the triangle that Nathaniel's, Sarah's and his hands formed. Nathaniel had seen something. He had seen the leek, of course. But he had seen the jabberwocky. And then he had seen the triangle. Sometimes Raphael found himself silent... silence in his mind so stark that it scared him, the silence filled his with awe and fear. Silence was like loneliness. He wished there would be sound. He wished that there could be the sound of singing in the wildflowers forever. He wished that there could be sound of friends, echoed thrice. That was all he needed, for now.

Looking from Sarah's bright eyes to Nathaniel's green, Raphael nodded slowly, his heart weeping slowly in his chest. "Friends," he said, completing the oath, and with that a slow smile lit up his face.