An hour or so later, with the help of all the boys in the compartment, Draco had his own set of collectable cards. They had taken advantage of their compartment floor, with all of four of them spreading out their spares and allowing Draco to take the ones he needed. He didn't have nearly as many as the others, as their stacks were much bigger, but they promised him that he was definitely off to a good start. However, as he remained in his own seat beside Huxley with his cards in hand, Draco had yet to really smile.

Harry was just about to ask him if he was alright, but it was Ron that beat him to the punch first.

"You don't talk very much, do you?" he asked.

More than likely, it wasn't meant to come across as blunt, but it didn't mean that it came across as the most tactful either. Immediately following the question, Draco turned bright red in the face and looked down at the cards in his hands to avoid the gazes of everyone in the compartment.

"I'm not sure what you want me to say," Draco said, " I already said thank you for the cards. You know my name, what more is there to say?"

Before Ron could say anything, Huxley kicked the bottom of his shoe and turned to Draco. " I think what Ron was trying to say is, why don't you tell us about yourself? We all know each other here because we grew up together, but we don't know a lot about you besides your name."

Draco glanced around the compartment before swallowing. "What do you want to know?"

"Well, you could tell us about your family!" Neville told him.

It seemed like an innocent enough place to start as all the boys came from different types of families, whether they were being raised by a single parent, both parents, or a grandparent, they weren't there to judge. But unbeknownst to them, Draco had already been advised about discussing his family, the less people knew, the better. However, what his mother hadn't anticipated was the fact that Draco had become so desperate to interact with other children his age, rather than only having the company of Narcissa in his own.

"It's just my mother and me," he answered finally. "It's been that way since I was a baby."

"What happened to your father?" Huxley blurted out, only to have Neville kicking his shoe. The boys had become so accustomed to being open with one another that it was almost automatic for them to question things when they didn't get all the information they were after.

"You don't have to answer that," Harry said to Draco. "Only if you want to."

With the awkward silence looming over them, Draco felt like he had no other choice but to tell them.

"My father is in Azkaban."

If the boys thought it had been awkward before, they hadn't been prepared for such a confession so early on into the trip. Of course, they were curious enough to wonder why Draco's father was in the maximum wizarding prison, but neither one of them dared to ask such a thing. And the longer the silence remained in the air, the redder Draco became in the face. Simply because he knew why his father was in Azkaban, it wasn't a secret to him, but he feared the others weren't going to welcome his company if they knew of his father's crimes.

"I understand if you want me to leave," Draco said quietly as he stood up. "Here are your cards back."

He held them out to Harry to take as he went to take a step towards the compartment door, but Harry pushed them back towards him while shaking his head.

"You don't have to leave," he said, " you can stay in here with us."

"But I just told you that my father is in Azkaban?"

Harry nodded his head. "Yeah, but my mother told me over the summer that being related to bad people doesn't make us bad people. So your father might be in Azkaban but that doesn't make you bad."

Draco looked at him for a moment before peering over his shoulder to see if the others agreed. The other three didn't appear to put up any sort of protest to him staying either. Holding the cards close to him, Draco was about to thank them when suddenly, the compartment door opened rapidly and he pushed back.

The five boys were startled to see a girl standing in their compartment as she kept her back facing them after sliding the door closed. Rendered speechless, they could only exchange looks with one another, confused by her presence, only to become even more confused when she let out a loud sneeze and her hair turned pink.

Then she sneezed again and her hair turned blue.

Finally, she turned to face them, using the sleeve of her robes to wipe under her nose as she let out a little sniffle and Harry immediately recognised her from his embarrassing morning encounter.

"Marleigh?"

Quickly, Marleigh Mullins' hair turned back to the black curls that Harry had initially met her with.

"Oh Merlin, it's you, the Barrier Boy!" she looked over to see the other boys, before letting out a heavy sigh. "I didn't realise there were so many people in this compartment, it was so qu..qui...ACHOO! Ugh."

With her hair bright green, Marleigh let out a groan.

"You're a metamorphmagus," Draco suddenly pointed out. "My cousin Tonks is one too. That's why your hair is changing colours, isn't it?"

"Shhh!" she shushed him harshly. "Can we not announce it to the whole train? I was trying to come in here to hide until I stopped sneezing!"

"Why are you sneezing so much?" Huxley ventured to ask.

"I'm pretty sure it had to do with these two redheaded twins that were running up and down the train, they sprayed this powder and then everyone started sneezing out in the walkway. The Trolley Lady sneezed so hard and knocked over all the Chocolate Frogs, so they're everywhere! It's absolute chaos out there!"

Ron turned a feverish red in the face, due to no other ability besides feeling embarrassed, knowing damn well who the two red-headed twins were.

As Marleigh attempted to fix her hair back to her dark curls, she forced herself between Harry and Neville to sit down.

"What a day this is turning out to be," she sighed. " First, someone decides to run me over with their trunk at the station. Then I find a compartment that seems quiet for the most part, some light chatter, and then this girl joins us. Nice sort, but has loads of questions for everyone. Pretty sure she's a muggle-born, nothing wrong there, but I just wanted to take a nap, not be bombarded with questions. And then, get this, she starts pulling out her textbooks and starts reading up and practising spells. We're not even at school yet!"

She blew the hair out of her face, before using a hair tie to pull it back and settled back into her seat while closing her eyes.

"Why don't you want people to know you're a metamorphmagus?" Draco asked her. "My cousin Tonks love being one. She likes turning her hair all sorts of colours, even though it drives my aunt mad."

"Well good for her, but I'm fine with just looking like this," she said, " I don't want to look like anything else. And I don't like the fact that I can't control it if I happen to sneeze. So, all of you have to swear to me that you're not going to say anything to anyone."

"What!? We don't even know you!" Ron cried out. "And you're already swearing us to secrecy?"

"Yes," Marleigh said, " but if it eases your mind, I'll introduce myself. I'm Marleigh Mullins, that's really all you need to know. Now, you're sworn to secrecy and that's the end of that. I'll owe the lot of you a favour for this."

"OH NO!"

Everyone turned to where Neville had suddenly screeched, seeing that he had his hands clapped to the side of his face and was up on his feet, looking around in a panic.

"I'm never going to get a nap in today," Marleigh muttered, " I can feel it."

"Neville, what's wrong?" Harry asked him. "What are you looking for?"

"Trevor!" Neville told him. "He was right next to me just a few minutes ago, but I think he might have hopped out of the compartment when Marleigh came in. I can't find him in here!"

Harry took a quick look around, along with Huxley, but it was quite obvious in the small space that Trevor the Toad was no longer present. And the longer he was missing, the more Neville descended into panic.

"Well, Marleigh," Harry called out to her with a grin, " it looks like we could use that favour today. You can help us search the train for Neville's toad."

"Yes, but, when I initially offered that favour, I met for it to be used in the future, not now!"

There was no sense in arguing as Harry slid open the compartment door and held out his arm, meaning that she was to walk out first. She gave him a look before taking the lead in the search to find Trevor.

The group filed out into the walkway and approached each compartment, opening the door to see if Trevor had managed to squeeze his way into any of them. Luck did not seem to be on their side and Neville looked almost on the verge of tears when Marleigh stopped until he fell in step with her.

"Look, I'm sorry about opening the door and letting your toad get out," she said softly, " I didn't know that you had a pet. But don't worry, we're going to find him. He could only go so many places, you know? You don't have to cry."

"I know it's not your fault," Neville said, "I just can't help it. Whenever I get that lump in my throat, I end up crying."

"I know some way to get you to stop crying," Marleigh told him, " I learned them from my mother. Try tilting your head back, close your eyes and take a deep breath."

As they paused in the walkway, Marleigh grabbed Neville's hand and squeezed the skin between his thumb and pointer finger causing him to quickly jump and pull his hand away from her.

"What was that?" he asked her with an incredulous look. " I thought-"

"You don't want to cry anymore, do you?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Problem solved!"

Neville glanced over in Harry's and Huxley's direction with a questioning look, only to see them shrug their shoulders.

"We haven't looked in this compartment," Draco called over to them. Marleigh peered inside, only for her gaze to widen before she ducked down.

"What are you doing?!" Ron questioned her, but he only screeched as she dragged him down.

"This is the compartment I was in before I left. That girl with the textbooks is in there. I'm not going in there again! She's going to start up with the questions again!"

"Well, Trevor might be in there," Harry said as he grabbed the handle to the door, " we have to check."

She tried to stop him but it was too late as Harry slid the compartment door, gaining the attention of everyone inside.

Apparently, the world was a lot smaller than Harry initially thought. For him to see Draco on the train, it wasn't all that surprising considering they both grew up in the wizarding world. But to see another familiar face from his childhood, he couldn't help but smile. So many afternoons at the little outdoor library his parents had taken him to when he was younger. He couldn't help but recognise a face he had seen many times as a book was read to them as they sat around in a circle.

MY-KNEE.