Ben watched as the people got distant and smaller, the train picked up speed and houses flashed by the window. He had been on many trains in his previous life, his very first train journey had been almost two days long. The compartment door slid open as Ben was going through those memories and feeling nostalgic.

"Got room for one more? Everywhere else is full," said the awkwardly built redhead.

I nodded my head, and he sat beside Harry, taking a glance at Harry's forehead.

"I'm Ron by the way." He said, introducing himself to Ben.

'Duh, who else could you be?' thought Ben, staring at the dirt on his nose.

"Ben," I said, nodding at him.

Awkward silence took over the compartment as nobody said anything.

"Hey, Ron" A pair of twins walked in.

'Wow, they really are identical.'

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Right," mumbled Ron.

"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. And he is..."

"I don't think we've met him before George"

"I'm Ben Brown"

"Have we stopped growing or are firsties getting taller George."

"We have to do something about that Fred, first Ron and now him."

"Anyways, see you later." said the twins.

"Wait! Can I come too? I-- I'm curious about the spider." asked Ben as he followed the twins out of the compartment.

"You hear that? George."

"This one's braver than Ron, that's for sure."

"You can tag along, but we don't guarantee your safety, right Fred?" He said with a mischievous smile on his face.

Ben was already starting to regret this, he followed the twins because he didn't want to come in between Harry and Ron's first meeting. He had been a Harry Potter fan in the past, but that was when it was just a story. Now it was real life and he wanted to play it safe, for now.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He didn't want to make any significant changes to the story and keep some distance from Harry to avoid Dumbledork's attention.

Ben did not trust that meddling old fool one bit, he wanted to stay as far away from his radar as possible.

Stalking an 11-year-old and making elaborate plans to test and shape his character so that one day, he will join your secret order of the chicken and sacrifice his life for the greater good. That's called grooming and it is creepy. Ben did not want to be a part of that.

Ben got down to the middle of the train where there was already a bit of a crowd gathering, in the middle was a boy with dreadlocks and a huge tarantula on his head.

Ben had seen the spider on the platform and it was normal-sized then, but now it had grown to the size of his head.

"Blimey Lee, how did you get it this big?"

"You used the Engorgement Charm on it, didn't you Lee?" asked the other twin.

Ben was astonished by the size of the spider. He remembered seeing Charm in the movies before.

'Have to learn that'

"Oh yeah, been practising this summer, did explode a few things in the process"

"Wicked, I blew up my attic last week," said Ben, and the twins looked at him approvingly.

"We've blown up the attic before. Haven't we, George?"

"Oh, twice, I believe. Mom was livid." said the other twin, who may or may not have been George. The twins often swapped their names.

"Oh, blowing things up is tight." Ben couldn't help but say, he was a fan of Pitch meetings. He did get weird looks from everyone around.

Most of the people around just wanted to see the spider from a distance, they didn't want to touch it at all, except Fred and George. They got to their weird antics and even tried to prank Ben by placing the huge spider on his shoulder when he was not looking.

Although Ben was a little startled, he was prepared for something like this. He used [Oakflesh] and hardened his skin and then gently picked up the spider and placed it on the shoulder of another unsuspecting boy.

One drawback of this spell is reduced sensory feedback, it can be useful in situations such as this.

The resulting screaming and jumping dance from the boy got him some approving looks from the pranksters.

After some time, the crowd was dispersed by the Prefects and everyone went back to their seats. While the twins were taking Jabs at Percy for being too uptight, Ben decided to go back to his compartment, this one was already pretty crowded as the Twins were quite popular.

Harry and Ron were sitting quietly in their seats, it seemed that they had run out of things to talk about. Ron was now sitting next to the window, so I sat beside him. They both were staring out the window quietly. It was getting a little awkward.

"You guys should have seen that spider, it was the size of my head."

Ron made a weird face, it seemed that the thought of the Tarantula sent shivers down his spine.

"Are they common? The spiders that size." Harry asked.

"Oh that was just a regular-sized spider, but Lee enlarged it with Magic," Ben replied.

"But I've heard there are some huge spiders in the Forbidden Forest."

"W-What!! Are there really?" Ron asked with a pale face.

'Wow, he's really scared of spiders, isn't he?' Thought Ben as a menacing light flashed in his eyes.

Ben had always enjoyed messing with children, he was the eldest child in the family and all his cousins were at least 10 years younger than him. He used to tell them ghost stories and throw fake snakes and lizards at their feet. He had to spend summer vacations with them every year, might as well find ways to stay amused.

"Who knows, there might even be some in the castle," said Ben and watched the blood drain from Ron's face even further.

Before Ben could terrify the poor lad further, the trolly witch slid open the door and said,

"Anything off the trolley, dears?"