𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐘 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃 ━━ harry potter

chapter three

Ben immediately regretted doing what he had just done. He looked at his clock, to find out there were still a couple of hours left until they'd reach Hogwarts. And now he didn't have a compartment to stay in.

He considered going to Malfoy's, as he had been told to do, but he really really didn't want to see him. So he only stood on one side of the hallway, observing people running up and down as though the train was some kind of park.

All of a sudden, he remembered Audrey still had all of his stuff, including his uniform. Perhaps he could stay there for the rest of the journey, if he made up an excuse as to why he wasn't with Malfoy.

He walked through the hallways, trying not to bump into any of the other first year students who kept chasing each other up and down the train. After a while, he recognised the girl Audrey had been talking to before, so he approached her.

"Erm- Hello!"

She furrowed her eyebrows. "Hi?"

"Do you know my sister?" he asked. "Her name's Audrey Walker."

"Oh," her frown disappeared, and her narrow dark eyes softened. "You're Benjamin, aren't you?"

He nodded. "I'm trying to find her."

She glanced over at the compartment next to her. Ben followed her gaze, and took a small step towards it, but the girl quickly covered the door. He frowned.

"Why? Is everything alright?"

"I'm feeling a bit ill," he lied. "And Audrey has my trunk in there."

The girl stared at him for a couple of seconds. She sighed, and knocked twice on the door. Some moving sounds came from inside the compartment before Audrey slid the door open, her head poking out, hair messy and a frown on her face.

"What?"

"I think I'm dying," he replied, his voice a mere whisper, supporting himself on the wall to add on to the dramatic effect.

"Lovely," she said, glaring at him. So he made his best effort to look very sick, and gave her the saddest look he possibly could. Audrey rolled her eyes. "What happened?"

"I'm feeling terrible, you know I don't like train rides," he complained. The second part wasn't too far from the truth. "So I wanted to stay here with you."

She blinked. "I'm busy."

"I won't bother, please, just let me stay here."

He had never imagined he'd plead to stay with his sister, but there he was. Audrey turned to look inside the compartment, and Ben suddenly realised who was there. Steve. Now he wasn't too sure about wanting to stay there.

"Okay, come in," she finally said. She opened the door, wide enough to let him in. He hesitated. "Merlin's sake, Benjamin, do you want to come in or not?"

"Yeah, yeah", he rushed to enter. Audrey closed the door again. Ben's guess was right; Steve was sitting in a seat next to the window, playing with Audrey's owl, which was still inside his cage. The older boy waved at him, so Ben did the same.

Audrey sat beside Steve. "Are you not going to sit or what?"

Ben sat down, as far away from them as possible, in case they started snogging. "Where's my stuff?"

"There," she pointed at the trunk under the seat in front of him. He bent over to pick up his drawing notebook, his pencil and his rubber, before sitting back down.

"What are you going to draw?" asked Steve, looking genuinely interested.

"I don't know," he shrugged.