Sometimes, but not always, Casey would wind up sharing train compartments with a fellow housemate Buster Mastiff. A doddering brute if easy to reason with, loads better to handle than when his brother Bruno started attending Hogwarts as well. And rides with the be-speckled Slytherin bullies were never 'dull' with prior attempts at ill conceived behavior. Such as trying to smuggle in their gigantic dog Chugger of a breed like their namesake, or unleashing Monster Books of Monsters in the luggage compartment, or a bulk load of items banned by the caretaker to try and 'start a market.' The events that, if they didn't get Slytherin negative points at the start of the year landed one or both of them in immediate detention.

But, Buster Mastiff had crossed a line this year, one not so easily forgiven. In that the entire compartment now reeked with his horrendous, Godric-awful cologne.

And where you had both Mastiffs their squabbles were also completely pointless. Apparently the cologne was part of Buster's attempts this year to meet ladies at school, or 'birds' as he kept calling them, and Bruno was complaining that he was hogging it all.

So, stale train car air was a better alternative than that muggy stench, though Casey was now greatly peeved that he would have to find some other place on the train to wait out the rest of the ride to Hogwarts. It almost made him wish he could just have Dingy his house elf apparate him to school, even though that would make him sick.

The car lurched as the train rounded a bend, knocking Casey off his feet and slamming into a window.