"Well. Thank you."

(Tintin has not unhugged.)

"I'm fine," he tells Tintin, nodding. "Thank you," he adds to the not-prefect. "I'm James, by the way. —wait, does this mean I can't hug him anymore?" he thinks to ask, hiking a (still kinda awkwardly hugged) thumb in David's direction. "Ooh, or am I like extra immune now, that'd be cool. Like look at him he needs lots of hugs."

"Tom Marvolo Riddle. As fascinating as the experiment might be, I'd rather you try it with a healer on standby. And I'm not a healer."

David shrinks in on himself a bit more.

"Okay, we are going to try it again with a healer," he decides, then he looks at David again. "Unless you don't want to, I guess? But only if you don't want to because of you, I get to decide if I want to get hurt again or not, this body is mine."

"...fine. After the healers check you out, and with a healer on hand, and - carefully."

"Okay!" he suppresses the impulse of hugging David again and tries to sit up, in spite of the gremlin he's got attached to his torso.

The gremlin unhugs reluctantly.

"It is true that David needs hugs," he admits, "but I wish they could happen without all the fuss."

The train gradually rolls to a halt. "Oh, excellent," Tom says, "I was about to suggest you try walking and see if you're dizzy or anything. Come on, up we all get."

Up he gets!

Dooooown he goes and catches himself on a rail. "Okay, a bit dizzy." He pauses then laughs to himself. "Deborah is gonna make such a face." And he giggles some more.

"Oh, you're Deborah's little brother? I'm sure she will, but she'll be trying to look cool in front of her friends, she can't lecture you. And you've managed to arrange an infirmary visit before even getting Sorted, that's bonus points in Gryffindor Tower. I don't think you'll have any trouble."

(Tintin gets his shoulder under James's arm and supports him, demonstrating surprising strength for someone so prodigiously tiny.)

Cool! Hup! He can walk with Tintin's help.

David walks a few feet behind them.

     "First years, over here!" shouts a man as they get off the train.

"That's my cue to leave you," Tom says. "Enjoy Hogwarts. I'm sure we'll see each other around."

First years are a go! Hogwarts awaits!

They pile into boats. Tintin and David and James end up sitting with another boy, who introduces himself as Edmund. "Hullo!"

"Hi! I'm James he's Tintin he's David," James introduces all of them.

"Good to meet you all! Are you excited for Hogwarts?"

"Yes! I wanna find all the secret passages!"

"Oh, that does sound fun. I'm looking forward to learning proper magic. I've practiced a bit, but only what my older siblings could teach me."

"You get to practice magic at home? I thought that was illegal?"

"Um. It's pretty well warded."

"It's only illegal to do it unsupervised, although it's hard to do magic without a wand."