An Ancient Legacy || HOGWARTS LEGACY

#1: The Dragon's Carriage

He ended up being squashed between the dark-haired girl referred to as Artemis, and Professor Fig. George and the other two his age were sat opposite them, and it was clear by the obvious discomfort in the air that there wasn't enough room as they would've preferred.

There was a brief silence whilst everyone waited for the carriage to start, before George suddenly said, "Ah! I forgot to introduce myself to you four. I'm George Osric, pleasure to meet you all. I'm sure you'll enjoy Hogwarts, I haven't seen that old pile of rocks in years."

The blonde girl was the first to speak, a smile on her face as she introduced herself as well. "I'm Pippa Finch! Pleased to meet you sir, and, everyone else," She looked around the rest of the carriage, her eyes bright. The girl never seemed short on optimism, and Reid was glad for that.

He went next, "Reid Prewett. Nice to meet you all."

"Prewett, eh?" Professor Fig gave a small smile, like he knew something everyone else didn't, "I know your brother. Leander?"

Reid nodded slowly, "That's the one."

His heart sank as he realised that even at Hogwarts, he'd always be compared to his brother. He wondered how Leander felt about it.

Artemis seemed to notice him tensing from beside him and gave a grin to the rest of the carriage, taking over swiftly as she eased the atmosphere, "I'm Artemis Varma. None of us have met, I don't think? It's nice to meet you."

"Michael Adler," the boy with the blue eyes by the window introduced himself as well, his eyes glancing over the rest of the group. He smirked at everyone, though seemed friendly enough.

"Wonderful!" George's mouth curled into a wide smile, and suddenly, the carriage started moving forwards and then upwards. Reid looked out through the window and down with a small smile on his lips, watching the city grow smaller and smaller. They were really off to Hogwarts.

There were a few compliments passed between Professor Fig and George, where Reid managed to catch that George was a member of the Ministry. The boy wasn't quite sure why the man was with them, but he didn't have too much time to ponder on it as a newspaper was quite literally pulled out of thin air by George, whose expression had become a lot more solemn, and waved in front of Fig. Gravely, he asked, "Have you seen this?"

The students in the carriage strained to get a look at what as being displayed. On the paper, there was an image of a sinister-looking goblin beside the headline: "RANROK'S GOBLIN REBELLION: TRUTH OR GOBBLEDEGOOK?"

"I have," Professor Fig replied with a sigh, "Opinions differ on how great of a threat Ranrok really is."

The students exchanged uncertain glances, and Michael opened his mouth to say something, but shut it again. Reid was hoping slightly that he would ask the question on all of their minds, but maybe it wasn't any of their business anyway. He gazed out of the window, and through the clouds he caught a glimpse of something dark - just for a moment - pass through the fog. He frowned, yet nobody else had seemed to notice. Perhaps it was a plane.

George's voice continued: "Although I've yet to convince my colleagues at the ministry, I believe he is a significant threat. And it was your wife, Eleazar, who alerted me to his activities months ago."

Reid raised an eyebrow, feeling the way that Professor Fig stiffened from beside him and how he leaned forwards in his seat, "Miriam? How?"

The two adults were speaking like they weren't even there, and he wondered was it all that wise. Not that he had wanted anything to do with all of this 'Ranrok' talk, yet he listened in nonetheless.

George sighed, "She wrote to me about Ranrok before she died - wondering what the Ministry knew about his activities."

Now Reid felt a lot more uncomfortable than he was before. He shifted in his seat, and his eyes met Artemis' for a moment, who gave him a shrug in return and a slightly amused smile.