Chapter 4 - Does it really matter?

"Anything from the trolly?"

Alice hesitated before giving a glance at Arth. "Hey Arth."

"Mmm?"

"Did you bring any gold?"

"I have a couple of Galleons, what do you wanna buy?"

"Hmmmm, grab the whole lot. We will save the remainder for later."

Arth paid the lady a Galleon and in turn received silver and bronze coins as change. He then grabbed a few packs of everything.

Alice immediately picked up a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans before giving Arth a smirk.

"Hey Arth. Wanna play a game."

Arth's face immediately contorted into that of disgust. "I thought we swore to never eat one of those ever again."

"A new beginning means a fresh start. Come on Arth, it won't hurt. Or are you scared?"

Arth sighed before holding up a hand. "Hurry up then, pass me one. I can't wait to see you cry again."

Alice rummaged around the box until she found a satisfactory bean before tossing it to Arth.

Arth caught it and gave it a quick glance. Before popping it into his mouth. "Meh, salt flavored. Not bad but not good either. It's your turn now Alice, pass me the box."

Arth caught the box and quickly pulled out a greenish brownish bean. He passed the bean to Alice who caught and quickly ate it.

She savored the taste for a moment before giving Arth a triumphant look. "Beef Broccoli. Very good."

They continued to pass the box back and forth and throw each other beans as they made a multitude of faces ranging from ecstatic to horror.

Suddenly, Arth heard a loud yell from the compartment right across. "Take that back!"

"I won't! Slytherin is a house filled with disgusting idiots like you who likes to play around with dark magic!"

Arth gave Alice a smirk. "Two Galleons that the people fighting are first years like us."

Alice hesitated. "I'm not taking such a stupid bet-"

"I'll help you with homework for the entire year if I lose."

"Deal."

Arth smirked before making his way to opposite compartment. He opened the door and gave a peek.

There where three boys and a girl, one boy was watching from the sidelines lazily as the other two yelled at each other. The girl had red hair and was holding back one of the boys and preventing things from taking a bad turn.

The moment Arth popped in his head, the boy with black disheveled hair and glasses, the one who was yelling, scowled. "Who are you and who said you could come in?"

Arth ignored the arrogant glasses boy and turned to the handsome boy with shoulder length hair in the corner. "Hey you in the corner. Is the boy next to you a first year?"

"Yep," nodded the boy, "We all are."

"Sweet," said Arth with a grin before tossing his head back. "Oi, Alice. You owe me two Galleons."

"Damn! I knew I shouldn't have taken the bet."

"Pay me later ok?"

"Oi, don't ignore me!" The glasses boy shoved Arth onto the wall of the compartment when someone yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!" And a jet of white light came flying and smacked the boy in the face. The boy fell onto the floor like a stiff board and lied there unmoving.

Alice came into the compartment and gave the boy a snarl. "Get your hands off my brother you arrogant prick."

Arth sighed and massaged his collarbone before lightly tapping his sister on the head. "Calm down Alice. Violence is never the solution. But that was a really nice curse. I approve."

Alice huffed, "he should be glad that mama only taught me the full body bind curse. Otherwise, I would've used something worse."

The red haired girl and the boy she was holding back slowly sat back down with wide eyes while the lazy boy let out a wide laughter. "James, man, you ok?"

James, the boy with glasses on the floor, wildly moved his eyes but did nothing else. Arth sighed before taking out his wand. "Let's see here.... the way to cure a body bind was.... Reparifors?"

A stream of purple light washed over James as he immediately came to life. James scowled and gave Alice a wary look before nodding at Arth. "Thanks, and sorry for pushing you. I'm James Potter."

Arth waved it off with a smile. "It's nothing,

my name is Arthur Kingscrown, but you can call me Arth. The one who cursed you is Alice, my sister. We are both first years."

"I'm Sirius Black," said the lazy looking boy while raising his eyebrow. "You two related?"

Arth nodded. "We are paternal twins. I take after our father while Alice takes after our mother."

Sirius squinted his eyes as he analyzed Arth's and Alice's faces. "I guess you do look similar."

Alice turned her head towards the red head and remaining boy. "What are your names? You two have been so silent until now."

The girl was the first one to speak up. "I-I'm Lily Evans.... nice to meet you?"

"Hello Lily," replied Alice with a warm smile before turning her gaze to the last remaining boy. "And you?"

"Snape. Severus Snape."

(A/N: DUMBLEDORE!!!!! *only a few of you guys will get this.)

"No wonder he wants to be a Slytherin," said James mockingly. "His name is similar to Snake."

"Shut up Potter. Before I make your tongue resemble a foot long rat tail."

Arth raised an eyebrow. "So what exactly started this entire argument? House disputes when you haven't even been sorted yet?"

James let out a snort. "Slytherin is a house filled with rats. They stick their noses into dark magic and are evil to the core."

"To be fair, we had a fair share of good non-dark magic using wizards from Slytherin. There was Callahan McFury, the guy who established the first wizarding orphanage, Salanda Sleeter, first witch to tame a dragon, and Luke Vendit, known for for dueling Grindelwald and surviving."

"Wasn't he brutally maimed and barely escaped?"

"He still survived. Something not a lot of people could accomplish."

Snape gave a smug grin and towards James. "What did I tell you? Slytherin is superior to you idiotic Gryffindors-"

"I wouldn't call Gryffindors dumb," Arth immediately interjected. "Although Gryffindors come off as reckless, they can be quite smart when they want to. Albus Dumbledore is an irrefutable example. He alone has discovered many things in the wizarding world."

James and Snape narrowed their eyes in confusion before simultaneously yelling, "Which side are you on then? What is the best house?"

Arth just shrugged. "Does it really matter?"