7) The Golden Trio

The train had just begun to move when the duo heard the door of their compartment open. Standing there was a girl who was slightly taller than them, grinning widely.

“Can I sit here?” she asked but even without waiting for a response, she walked in.

Keith silently stared at her while Neville stammered, “U-um sure. There’s so much space here.”

Then he frowned and felt his pockets before looking at Keith with urgency, “Keith, I think Trevor’s missing…”

“Again?” Keith asked sounding slightly bored as he watched the girl stuff her trunk and a bag under the seat.

Neville didn’t respond and instead crawled down on the cold metal floor before he began to reach out for the empty gaps between the trunks and their bags in an attempt to hopefully find his pet frog.

“Oh, you lost your pet?” the girl asked as she too knelt on the floor and began to search while she continued to speak, “My name is Tracey Davis. Nice to meet you two!”

The duo introduced themselves but after a minute of intense searching, Neville and Tracey got back up.

“He’s not here…” Neville said, sounding distressed as he moved towards their compartment’s exit, “Keith, can you help me find him please?”

“Sure.” Keith said and got up from his seat before following his friend out. As he left, he turned to look at Tracy, “One more person is fine, but don’t allow more people inside. It won’t feel good if the compartment is too crowded.”

“Aye aye captain!” She said energetically as she brought her hand to the side of her head in a salute, making Keith smile.

He then left and closed the door behind him before facing Neville, “You go that way and I’ll go this way.” he said and pointed at the opposite direction, towards the front of the train.

“Once I’m done asking everyone or if I find Trevor, I’ll rush back to find you.”

Neville nodded and set off while Keith took his sweet time standing in one place, thinking. He placed his hand over his pocket and felt his mother’s wand inside.

The wand he had gotten from Ollivanders was stashed safely in his trunk, which meant that he could not hear the voices of creatures at the moment.

Not until he walked back into the compartment and took out his wand, which he had no plans of doing. With a soft sigh, he began to open the sliding doors of the neighbouring compartments and asked about the toad.

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Time quickly passed and he had managed to reach the front of the train.

“Not on my side.” he muttered and walked backwards. He passed his own compartment and continued onwards until he heard Neville’s name being mentioned. He turned to look to his right and saw a bushy haired girl standing inside a slightly spacious compartment.

And right beside her, was Neville who stood there with drooped shoulders.

Keith walked in and placed his hand on Neville’s shoulder, “I couldn’t find him on the other side.”

The girl turned to look at him and so did the two boys who were sitting in the compartment. Just as he was about to ask them if they had seen a toad, the red haired boy spoke up.

“No, we didn’t see any toad in here. Just in case you were about to ask.” he said, sounding slightly annoyed.

Keith stared at him and squinted his eyes slightly as he recalled the stuff his mother had told him a few times.

Once he recalled it, he smiled and nodded, “You must be one of the Weasley’s. It’s a pleasure to meet you, my name is Keith Black.”

For a second, the boy looked surprised but he quickly recovered and nodded, “Ron Weasley. Uh nice to meet you too.”

The boy sitting opposite to him also quipped in, “Harry Potter.”

Keith nodded, “Oh, so that was you. I knew I’d share the same year but didn’t really expect meeting the well known harry potter even before reaching Hogwarts.” he said and then turned to look at the girl.

“Hermione Granger.” she said with a confident tone before turning her head to look at Ron, her eyes fixed on the wand that he was holding, “Are you doing magic? Let’s see it, then.”

Keith silently watched as she sat down while Ron looked slightly taken aback, but went with the flow anyways.

“Er… All right.” he said and pointed his wand at the grey rat that was in front of him.

He cleared his throat and began to chant with a sing-song voice.

“Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,

Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow.”

Keith couldn’t help but chuckle when he didn’t see any sort of change on the rat, while Hermione began to chatter about how she tried out multiple simple spells from her books.

“Well, I’ve tried some out too.” Keith said and took out his wand before he looked at Ron, “It’s a spell that does the same thing you wanted to do. Do I have your permission?”

Ron nodded, looking slightly disgruntled but also excited. Keith focused his attention on the sleeping rat and pointed his wand at it.

“Multicorfors Fur”

A bright flash of light shot from the tip of the wand and hit Scabbers accurately, changing it’s fur from grey to bright green.

Ron, Neville and Harry clapped in amusement while Hermione sat with her mouth wide open. Before she could speak, Keith used the spell again.

“Multicorfors Fur!”

And this time, the ran turned yellow. Then, he used it again and again, changing it’s colors multiple times before he finally turned it back to it’s original grey.

“That… That spell isn’t in any of the books I have!” Hermione exclaimed as she looked at Keith, but he simply shrugged.

“My mom taught me that spell. My sister is a metamorphmagus.” he said and when he saw the bewildered expressions on Harry, Ron and Hermione’s expressions, he explained.

“You see…” he began, “Metamorphmagus basically means that the person can change their appearance at will, without the help of any spells or potions. I had to beg my mom for two whole months before she agreed to teach me this spell. It’s a cool spell, but it’s nothing compared to what my sister can do.”