What's it like travelling on a train full of students?

Luke had only one thought, it was too loud!

The sounds of saying goodbye to parents, the sounds of friends playing and giggling, the sounds of rushing to unpack ......

"Luke, Harry ......" a voice that surprised them in every way rang out from behind them, although the loud voice also made the place seem even noisier.

It was Fleiger Brown.

"Fleiger." Harry waved vigorously with particular glee.

"Make way, please make way ...... Thank you." Fleiger dragged his case through the crowd.

"I didn't realise we'd both received our Hogwarts entry letters. My parents and I thought it was a prank from the bad guys when we were travelling in France. It was only when Mrs Rolanda Hockey came to notify us personally that my parents believed it... Oh, and in case you guys didn't know, Mrs Hockey is the Flying Lessons teacher at Hogwarts, which is especially cool!" Fleiger, as usual, seemed rather verbose.

"Great didn't realise you were a wizard too! Aunt Vernon literally did everything in his power to keep me from getting the letter, luckily Hagrid came to get me." Harry was also thrilled to find out that he was actually reunited with his best friends from the muggle school, and his nervousness about the strange world was instantly eased.

"Why don't we go find an empty compartment and sit down first?" Luke gestured for his two best friends to look at the large box he was carrying, "Otherwise I'm afraid we'll have to sit separately if we're any later."

With that the three of them made it all the way to the back half of the train before finding a compartment.

Several people helped each other to place their luggage, Fleiger couldn't help but ask, "When did you guys realise that you're a wizard? My parents thought Madame Hockey was a fraud when they met her, and it wasn't until Madame Hockey pulled my mum into the air on a broomstick and flew around...my mum's hair changed when she landed...and my dad looked around for any contraptions, that they believed the whole thing about me being a wizard. After accepting it, they thought it was a surprise that there was a witch in the family. My sister was very envious, she thought being a wizard was much cooler than being a lawyer."

"I didn't know I was a wizard until the summer holidays either, but Luke was raised in a wizarding family, it seems that according to the wizarding world he's pureblood." Harry and Fleiger shared a delightful look at life at Luke's house.

"Wow Luke, that's really cool, can I come visit your house next summer too?" Fleiger envied Harry for being a guest in a real wizard's home, "Mrs Hodge won't let us tell anyone else, says it's against some kind of secrecy law in the wizarding world."

"Of course it's no problem." Luke agreed somewhat perfunctorily. In fact, he thought that when they got to the school branch, if they weren't in the same house, maybe their relationship would fade a little as a result; after all, it wasn't like a muggle school where not only were they in the same class there was also the presence of a common enemy, Dalek Dursley.

Next, Fleiger gushed about what he had seen in France, "My favourite food is flaming mussels. Fresh mussels are arranged on a wooden pallet with four nails in the centre, around which they are arranged in orderly concentric circles spreading outwards, one next to the other like dominoes. The mussels are then covered with pine needles. Pine needles are flammable, and burning pine needles give the mussels a characteristic pine aroma and a distinctive smoky flavour. When they have burned down, remove the pine needle ash covering the surface of the roasted mussels and put some butter on them to enjoy ......"

Luke thought the Fleigerian flair placed on the descriptions of the food was particularly appropriate, and after almost a year of being ravaged by the occasional mix of English food with German food, he now felt a great yearning to hear them.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Harry had written so much about how much he wanted to eat, he'd basically had to make do with their leftovers at his aunt's house, and only recently at Luke's house had he really satisfied his appetite for a while.

Talking about it, Fleiger was getting hungry himself.

It was just about midday, and the three of them were staring at each other, unable to carry on the conversation.

"I'm hungry." Frankly, Fleg was the first to call out his hunger.

"Me too." Harry covered his stomach pitifully, despite Mrs Harris having fed him three times in the morning, as a boy about to enter puberty, he was surprised that his belly still felt empty now.

"I'll go out and see, there should be snacks for sale on the train." Luke stood up, it was hands-on.

Just as he pulled the door open, Luke was bumped into by a tall, skinny teenager with red hair.

"Ron?" Luke rushed to help Ron to his feet.

Ron opened his mouth before he was fully on his feet, "Luke, it's so good, I was looking for you. You know, I heard from my father that Harry Potter is on this train, I wish I could meet him."

"You come in first." Luke stepped aside, deliberately placing Ron next to Fleiger, thinking that the two could talk together.

Two equally chatty men, equally reddish hair, just one taller and one shorter.

The image of the two giggling at each other at the moment was comical to Luke's eyes.

"Ron, next to you is Fleiger Brown, you're going to be very good friends. Next to me is Harry Potter, who you just read about." Luke introduced Ron to his two little friends.

"Hello, Fleiger. I'm Ron Weasley." Even though his face was red from what he had just said, Ron finally put on a show of composure and held out his hand, introducing himself in a somewhat pretentious manner like an adult.

The two men met as if they had been friends for years, perhaps sharing a common hair colour helped the bond deepen? Luke wasn't so sure.

"Are you really Harry Potter? Then you're really - you know ......" Ron pointed to Harry's forehead.

Harry skilfully swiped away a lock of hair from his forehead, helplessly revealing the lightning bolt-shaped scar.

Ron's eyes widened, "This is what Mystique did? "

"Yes," Harry said, "But I don't remember it anymore. "

"Don't remember any of it? " asked Ron eagerly.

"Well - I just remember a lot of green light and nothing else."

Luke shrugged, "It's impressive that you can remember green lights...I can't remember anything from when I was a baby."

Ron sat there staring at Harry for a few moments before he seemed to suddenly realise what he was doing and hastily turned his eyes out of the window.

"What were you guys talking about? What happened to Harry's scar?" Fleiger's curiosity was completely cranked up, but he hadn't meant to go through his textbooks earlier in the holiday at all before, so he wasn't sure about the identity of the boy who had been in a major accident.

"Aren't you hungry?" Luke interrupted not wanting Harry to reminisce any further.

"I just saw some food sellers pushing carts from compartment to compartment when I came over, they should be here in a few minutes." Ron said matter of factly.

"That's great." As they were talking, a loud cacophony of noise came clicking down the aisle.

A smiling, dimpled woman pushed open the cubicle door and asked, "Can I get you anything, dear?"

Luke immediately stood up while Ron, his ears reddening again, muttered that he had brought sandwiches.

Harry saw this and immediately jumped up as well, coming down the aisle and stopping Luke's hand that was pulling out money.

"Luke, I ate a lot of you and Fleiger's food earlier, how about this time it's on me instead?" Afraid that Luke wouldn't believe him, he hastened to add, "My parents left me a large sum of gold at the Ancient Spirit Court."

Saying that, Harry pulled out a large handful of gold and silver coins from his pockets; he never had a cent of pocket money to buy sweets when he was at the Dursleys' house.

"Thanks then." Luke blinked and stopped pulling out his money - his family, while not poor by any stretch of the imagination and considered purebloods, was nowhere near as rich as the half-blood Potters, and it was always nice to save a little pocket money... though he couldn't actually afford to go shopping in Hogsmeade Village himself right now.

The trolley was full of Bibbidi Multi Flavoured Beans, Blowbot Super Bubble Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pies, Pot Cakes, Liquorice Wands, and a few other weird and wacky foodstuffs that Harry had never seen before, and as long as he could hold them, Harry bought a few of each and paid the salesgirl eleven Silver Siches and seven Bronze Nuggets.

Ron watched straight on as Harry and Luke carried the purchased food into the cubicle and dumped it all on the empty seats at once.

"Flagg it's your fault for the description you just gave, I'm starving." Harry said taking a big bite of his pumpkin pie.

"I brought sandwiches." Ron, the red in his ears now expanding down to his neck, pulled out a bulging cardboard box and opened it, containing four sandwiches. He took one out and said, "She never remembers that I don't like tinned corned beef."

Harry, keenly aware of Ron's embarrassment, walked over and took one straight away taking a few big bites, "I do like it."

"Try it, my sister said it was her favourite thing to eat on the train." Luke casually tossed Flagg and Ron a piece of pot cake each as well.