Courage

-2-

"Fine," smiled Harry, accepting the chocolate and popping it in his mouth, immediately feeling the popping candy crackling on his tongue. "Okay, you were right. This is great."

"Told ya," smirked Layla, unwrapping another bon bon, popping it in her mouth.

The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and a round-faced boy came in. He looked tearful.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?" When the three of them shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"Hey, it's okay... I'm sure he'll turn up," said Layla, feeling bad for the boy.

"Yes, thanks," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him..." He left.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, my rat, so I can't talk."

"You should be nicer to that poor boy," said Layla. "My dad always taught me to be kind to the people who are kind to you. If they are not kind to you, then they do not deserve your kindness in return. But that boy was so sweet!"

"Yeah, yeah," Ron playfully rolled his eyes at the girl he was already rather fond of. Layla noticed that a rat was snoozing on Ron's lap.

"Is that Scabbers?" she asked. "The rat you just mentioned?"

"Yep. He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..."

He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.

"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway—" He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then," she sat down in the open seat beside Layla. Ron looked taken aback.

"Er — all right," he cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough — I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

She said all this very fast. Layla looked at Ron, who looked rather stunned, and then looked at Harry, who seemed confused. Layla was just finding the girl funny.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered. Hermione shot him a look of disgust, seeing the sweets he was going back to shoving in his mouth.

"Hi, I'm Layla Lupin," Layla introduced herself politely and as kind as possible. She was always a kind person. Hermione smiled kindly at her.