Utility and Safety

The first thought to be fully formed was that he wanted to be able to use his wishing magic without worry, either that it would be discovered or that it would backfire on him in some unexpected way. Picking out the right wording was a hassle, but he eventually picked a set of qualifiers that he thought would cover his intent appropriately.

"I wish that nobody aside from me would hear or notice me making wishes."

That wish was more costly than any that he had made before, pulling over half of his total magic in one go. Harry found himself winded as the wave of magic flowed out of him steadily, and staggered from his position leaning against the sink to taking a seat on the closed lid of the toilet. That had been unexpected, but he was happy that it had both worked and not turned out poorly for him.

Being drained of that much magic for a wish brought to mind a few different ideas for wishes that would help solve that issue, but he rationalized that all of them that would actually handle the problem would likely cost far more magic than he could bring to bear even at his best. Instead, he made a wish for knowledge.

"I wish that before any wish that would expend more than a quarter of my total magic took effect, I would be made aware of how much of my magic it would cost and would have to verbally confirm my wish for it to take effect."

The drain on his magic was more manageable this time, noticeable but not exhausting like his previous wish had been. With that done, he began breathing deeply in an attempt to calm himself down. His magic was slowly replenishing itself, but he didn't want to seem like he was spending too long in the bathroom.

As it turned out, he did actually need to use the bathroom in addition to using it as an escape from the madness that Susan had introduced into his life. He quickly did his business, thinking about everything that had been revealed to him in the back of his head.

When he returned to his compartment, he was greeted with the sight of Susan playing with Silver to mixed success. The dragon was mostly indifferent to her, showing more of a reaction to Harry opening the door to the compartment than any of her attempts. She handed Silver back to him after he had seated himself once again, and for a few minutes they sat there with nothing but the sounds of the train ing through the countryside.

"Thank you for telling me everything, again." Harry was the one to break the silence. "I realize that there's probably no good way to tell someone all of that, and... you were kind about it. Are there any other revelations that I should be aware of? Secret cults, grand conspiracies, anything like that?"

"No, I think that's everything," Susan replied, her shoulders relaxing at the silence being broken. "Well, unless you count everyone who read the 'Adventures of the Boy Who Lived' book series as cult or conspirators."

"You have got to be kidding me." Harry put his head in his hands. Despite the serious nature of every other piece of news, Harry somehow thought he could stand being the subject of a series of children's books even less. "Please tell me that you just made that up to mess with me."

"Don't worry, the books treated you pretty well. I mean, you didn't have a dragon as a pet in the books, so maybe not as good as you are in real life, but you were a surprisingly realistic character."

Surprisingly, that lead the two of them pretty well into a more normal conversation where they ended up actually getting to know each other. Susan had a tragic backstory of her own, with most of her family having been killed in an attack by the Dark Lady and her followers, leading to her being raised by her aunt in a similar way to Harry's upbringing with his grandparents. The two of them had a surprising amount of common ground, and she had a similar enough sense of humor to Harry that the two of them were laughing almost as often as not.

Silver also became the topic of much attention. Apparently, Susan had dropped her pet owl off in the train car where they were cared for throughout the journey, a design that Susan had justified as the cleaning staff trying not to have stray feathers and owl poop all throughout the train. In theory all pets were to be kept in a travel cage, carrier, or terrarium throughout the journey, but Harry's earlier wish for people to find him having Silver normal also seemed to extend to Susan not seeing anything wrong with him having his pet with him.

There was only one interruption in their journey, and that came when an older woman in uniform came by with a trolley of snacks. Harry, curious about some of the claims (animated chocolate animals? glowing, color-changing gum? every flavor of jelly bean?), purchased one of everything that stood out to him and happily shared them with Susan. She had eaten most of them before, having grown up in the magical world, and was far more willing to 'kill' the chocolate animals than he was.

Strangely the most interesting find was a collectible card in one of the chocolate frog boxes that featured him, describing him as the only survivor of the killing curse and actually naming the Dark Lady that he had defeated - Voldemort. As a joke, Harry had signed his name on the card and given it to Susan, describing it as the first and only of its kind. Though she had laughed it off at first, she did end up asking him to take her trunk down from the overhead bins so that she could put it away.

As the sky outside began to darken, there was another knock on the door. Upon Susan inviting them inside, the door opened partway and a woman stuck her head into the opening. She had a double take at seeing Harry, but at least he had an idea of why.

"The train will be arriving at Hogwarts in about fifteen minutes, you should change into your robes before the train comes to a stop. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be moved to your dormitories before dinner is over. My name is Penelope Clearwater, I'm one of the Prefects and if you have any questions you can find me in the compartment at the front of the car."

She pulled back and closed the door just as quickly as she had arrived, likely continuing on her way down the train car to let everyone else know as well.

Susan, whose trunk was already down from the overhead storage, simply grabbed a set of robes from where she had packed them. Harry turned his back on her to get his own trunk down, and when he turned back around he was met with the sight of her with her sweater off, beginning to unbutton her shirt.

"what... why are you changing?" Something was off about Harry's voice as he asked that question, though he was a little distracted to identify exactly what it was.

"Didn't you hear the Prefect? We don't have long before we arrive at Hogwarts, so I;m getting changed now." Her response was nonchalant, to the point where he didn't think she found anything wrong with the words she was saying.

He tried again, hoping to clarify what he meant. "While I'm still in the room?"

"Yes, why would that be a problem- oh." She fell silent for a moment, her hands becoming still. What she said after a moment of thought, however, might have surprised him more than anything else that she had told him throughout the train ride.

"Well, I get that it might be strange, but you'll have to get used to it sooner or later. I mean, Hogwarts doesn't have separate dormitories or bathrooms for boys, what with only women being able to use magic and everything." She was quiet for a few seconds before she continued, her voice a bit more hesitant. "Still, if it makes you uncomfortable one of us could step outside while the other changes or go and change in the bathroom or something. What would you like to do?"