Another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had begun. The Hogwarts Express had left London, and was riding through the countryside which was dimming into darkness, as it tends to do. Two fifth year Hufflepuffs had just left the Prefect compartment, and were pegging it down the corridor. Unusual for two prefects to do? Yes. Of course, these two were not actually prefects. Hence the pegging. They thought their disguises had been truly genius - however, both dressed as Draco Malfoy, they were quickly noticed and chased out of the compartment. Not so much chased as Bat Bogey Hexed. Awkward but true. Having dodged all spells, cuz they're awesome, the two spun into a compartment majestically, landing on its occupants without apology or regret. In fact, they continued as though they were alone.

"Next time," Casper panted, clutching a stitch in his finely muscled side, "You dress like a girl, dummy."

Ellison stuck out her tongue at the boy. "Well I'm sorry, who was it that conjured the wigs? Eh, yeah, that would be you! Pardon me for going with the flow!"

Casper was slightly hurt by this. He was quite proud that he had managed to conjure stuff - even if he'd meant one wig to be long, brown and frizzy. He harumphed noisily. "Well next time you can conjure the stupid wigs!" He turned slightly away from her, scowling. After a moment he noticed he was scowling in a most dreadful fashion at some poor first year girl he was sitting on. He coughed nervously and turned back to Ellison, "I think this compartment's taken..." He stage-whispered.

"Don't try and distract me from -" Ellison began, before really taking notice of their surroundings. Yep. There were people here alright. "Oh! You're right..." she stage-whispered back. "Well, this is awkward..." Tapping her lip with an index finger, Ellison considered the best plan of action. After a moment, it was clear what had to be done. Hopping off the unsorted girl, Ellison crouched down to her level, and looked her in the eyes. "I'm really sorry about this - this is all a terrible misunderstanding," she shook her head mournfully to emphasise her point. "But you know, I think this is a great opportunity for you... girls? Girls. Yes. I think that you two should head on down to another compartment, meet some other painfully shy first years and make friends! How nice!" Ellison smiled brightly at the two. "Go on, off you go! Have fun!" The two girls hastily vacated the compartment, and Ellison sat down once more. "That was grand! So anyway... What were we saying?"

"That you were stupid and also have to conjure the wigs next time we try to pose as Draco Malfoy – I mean prefects," Casper coughed. He hoped that his friend would have forgotten about his "failure".

"Oh yeah!" Ellison's face lit up delightedly. "Yes. You fail, fail face! So much fail. No more wigs, ok? They were stupid. It took the Head Boy mere seconds to find out that we were phonies! If it had just been the Head Girl we'd have been fine!But noooo, someone insisted on getting chocolate frogs from the trolley first!"

"Well how was I supposed to know that stupid Malfoy was a sugar quill man? Well? So I was hungry, and Draco is a prat! You can't blame me for that! Stupid Malfoy… Stupid… Delicious… Malfoy…" Casper remembered who, what and where he was and slapped himself quietly across the face.

Ellison shook her head at the boy, before proceeding also to slap him. Yet she had no mercy, and her slap made a nice resounding onomatopoeic slapyness. "Get a hold of yourself!" She pleaded. "This is no time for daydreams!" She nodded sternly, then looked out the window dramatically. "This is a time for… action."

Casper lifted his head, hand clamped to his throbbing cheek where Ellison had slapped him. He felt his spirits lift at the thought of Adventure! "So… Trolley Lady?"

She looked up to him with a look that promised epicness. "You know me too well, my friend. Too well."

At that moment in time, neither of them truly understood the significance of this undertaking. It was this epic undertaking indeed that would change the course of their lives, and their children's lives, forever.

To be continued…