“What’s this?” Amelia asked Scarlet as she watched Alexis having just left with a teasing smile.

Scarlet sat in the compartment with her roommates, Maya and Amelia, along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, the protagonist trio. The group, brimming with excitement, had been exchanging stories about their summer holidays when the curious notebook Alexis had handed Scarlet became the centre of attention.

“It looks like a notebook,” Maya remarked, studying it. “Though, to be honest, it looks rather poorly designed.”

“Probably because Alexis didn’t have access to Fred and George during the summer holidays,” Scarlet replied, flipping through its pages. “Or maybe they meant for it to look like this. They do love bold, cartoonish designs.”

Amelia frowned, her distaste evident. “It looks more like something a boy under the age of eight would own.”

“I’ll be sure to pass on your critique,” Scarlet said with a chuckle, turning to a page labelled with Alexis’s name at the top.

Ron, who had been frowning at the item in confusion, suddenly lit up. “Oh! This is one of Fred and George’s new inventions! I remember them messing around with tons of paper scraps trying to figure it out. Looks like they pulled it off...but I’ve got no clue what it’s supposed to do.”

Hermione leaned in, her tone sceptical yet intrigued. “It’s definitely not an ordinary notebook. Maybe it’s a prank item? Something that splashes ink all over your shirt?”

Scarlet grinned. “that’s a great idea! I’ll write it down and tun a test.” Taking out her favourite quill, she scribbled in the notebook with her trademark maple-coloured ink:

Scarlet: [Is this a notebook that splashes inks on me?”]

Maya, peering over Scarlet’s shoulder, praised, “Your handwriting is gorgeous as always. I wish I could write like that.”

“Practice makes perfect,” Scarlet replied lightly. Before she could continue, her words were interrupted by a new line of writing. Black ink appeared beneath her text, clearly in a different handwriting.

Alexis: [Of course not! It’s a messenger, remember?]

Alexis: [OMG, those GENUISES praised ur idea of an ink-spatting notebook –fainted stick figure-]

Alexis: [Hell, handwriting is sooo slow compared to typing on keyboard]

Alexis: [I’m gonna make them to add a keybord widget to this thing –tiny figure clenching fist-]

Alexis: [Just wait, sensei! Soon we’ll send DMs across the globe! -fireworks-]

Scarlet blinked in surprise. “Oh, so this is the messenger she was talking about.”

Everyone leaned closer, staring at the notebook in amazement.

Harry tilted his head. “You’re...talking to Alexis? Through the notebook?”

“Apparently, yes.” Scarlet shrugged, though her words drew gasps from the group. “I kept complaining about how slow owl posts are and how here’s not telephone here. Alexis must’ve passed that idea on to Fred and George. It looks like they took it as a challenge to create something that lets us chat instantly, even across long distances.”

Ron’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Whoa! You mean I can talk to Harry instantly even during holidays?”

“And I could monitor their studies!” Hermione exclaimed, her expression equally enthusiastic. But her words instantly wiped the smiles off both boys’ faces. “This is brilliant! You have no idea how worried I get knowing they probably forget half of what they learned in class the moment they leave Hogwarts.”

“Hey, I’m not that forgetful...” Ron protested weakly, but his voice was drowned out as everyone continued marvelling at the notebook. Maya, particularly curious, grabbed Scarlet’s quill and scribbled something in the book, asking about its price.

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Alexis: [Handwriting’s diff]

Alexis: [Who’s that?]

Alexis: [Wait, I think I recognize this]

Alexis: [Maya?]

Alexis: [Well, the geniuses are glad you like the new invention, but it’s a prototype]

Alexis: [Still needs work]

Alexis: [Gosh, their design makes NO sense! I CANNOT imagine my dear sensei holding such an eyesore in her hands!]

The handwriting suddenly shifted, sharper and more controlled, but it still appeared under Alexis’s name on Scarlet’s side.

Alexis: [Milady, we SWEAR our design is perfectly fine!]

Alexis: [It’s this misguided damsel who’s picky about every little detail of the Tweet-It-Owl!]

Amelia raised an eyebrow. “It’s almost like I can hear their voices shouting at each other. Those scribbles are getting more chaotic by the second.”

“What an excellent observation,” Hermione agreed. “I can imagine the notebook jumping between hands as they squabble over it, each one desperate to write their bit first.”

The sentences continued to appear, chaotic and overlapping, until Scarlet’s original question disappeared from the page. Scarlet flipped through the notebook, searching for any button or section to retrieve previous conversations, but here was nothing.

Maya giggled when Ron rolled his eyes, clearly imagining the chaos of his brothers fighting over the book. Harry, on the other hand, seemed thoughtful. “Scarlet, does this mean you can talk to William now through the notebook?”

Scarlet froze for a moment, startled by the question. Her gaze flicked to Harry, who looked different – less like the timid and miserable boy she vaguely remembered from the films and more contemplative.

Harry continued, his tone thoughtful. “You’ve been sponsoring Hogwarts owls so you can stay in touch with William and your dad for your business dealings, right? This notebook could be a faster way to send orders or updates. They’d only need owls for signed documents or urgent packages...Right?”

For a moment, the compartment went utterly silent. Then Ron broke it with a nervous laugh. “Mate, you’re starting to freak me out.”

“What?” Harry asked, blinking innocently. “It’s a logical conclusion, isn’t it?”

“No!” Ron yelped, grabbing Harry by the collar and shaking him wildly. “This isn’t ‘logical conclusion’ stuff! What happened to you over the summer? Did that house-elf you mentioned in your letters do something to you?”

“No, no!” Harry protested, gently prying Ron’s hands off him. “I’m fine! I just spent some time reading a few books, that’s all.”

“What kind of books?” Hermione asked, her curiosity piqued.

Harry shrugged. “A bit of everything - autobiographies, self-help books, food history, mythology, fairy tales, fantasy novels, detective stories...Probably the detective novels sharpened my thinking a bit.”

Hermione turned to Ron, her expression alight with suggestion. “Harry, why don’t you pass some of those books to Ron? It’s be lovely to see a few...improvements.”

“Oi!” Ron mumbled indignantly, but his attention quickly returned to the notebook, “Anyway, how’s the notebook working so far?”

“Well,” Scarlet said thoughtfully, “we’ll need to test the distance limits. Can it really connect people from across the globe?”

She passed the notebook to her friends, who were still captivated by the scribbled arguments of the inventors and designer. Occasionally, another random handwriting would pop up, likely from someone else in the compartment sharing Alexis’s notebook.

“It must be Lee Jordan. He’s been helping Fred and George with their pranks and inventions,” Ron commented, holding the notebook. This was the first time he’d gotten a glimpse into the details of how his brothers created their inventions.

Usually, he was the unwitting test subject for their prototypes, often ending up on the receiving end of pranks thanks to their unstable creations. Their antics had always irritated him, but now, as he read the heated arguments in the notebook – Fred and George fiercely defending their ideas, Alexis dismissing them as “geniuses with idiotic ideas”, and her repeated emphasis on safety concerns – Ron found himself with mixed feelings.

For the first time, he realised just how much thought went into their inventions, even if their approached was haphazard. It wasn’t about upsetting him; their goal was to spread joy, even if their were insensitive and thoughtless in execution. Alexis’s involvement, with her sharp tongue and insistence on precautions the twins likely never considered, seemed to balance their recklessness perfectly.

“Have they come to a conclusion yet?” Scarlet asked, glancing at Ron, who was lost in thought as he stared at the notebook. Her voice snapped him out of his reverie.

“Huh? Oh, maybe. There’s not much writing happening now,” Ron said, handing the notebook and quill back to Scarlet.

Scarlet quickly scribbled something, and a reply came almost instantly in point form. The handwriting, unmistakably Alexis’s, was neat and precise. Scarlet nodded in satisfaction. “Good. They’ve reached a conclusion and plan to give me another version after fixing flaws. I’ll send one to my dad to test and see if it works.”

Alexis: [Sensei, trust me]

Alexis: [this invention will be revolutionary]

Alexis: [the entire wizarding world will experience a drastic change, just like how touchscreen phones transformed our world!]

Revolutionary or not, all I care about is whether it can actually help me connect with my dad or William, Scarlet thought to herself, her mind already racing with possibilities for messaging in ways that no owl could manage.