After walking through the train, Manus found the compartment Bellows was in. Jasper and Quirinus were there too.
"What are you talking about?"
Manus pulled open the door, startling the three inside. They only relaxed when they saw it was Manus.
"Why do you all look like you've been caught doing something bad? Don't tell me you were talking behind my back?"
"How could we? Everyone in Ravenclaw knows we're your most loyal supporters, Your Majesty!"
Jasper spoke in an exaggerated tone as he shut the door, then lowered his voice.
"We were just talking about... what happened at the Quidditch World Cup."
Manus drew his wand and gave it a wave. His suitcase slid neatly onto the luggage rack. As Bellows shifted toward the window to make room for Manus, he said helplessly,
"The two of them took part in the protests too. They said everyone else was protesting, so they just joined in—though, how come we haven't seen you at all these past few days?"
"Anyway, back to what we were saying. After seeing that chairman resign, they felt pretty awful about having joined the protests before. I repeated what you told us to them, but obviously I'm nowhere near as persuasive as you. The treatment didn't work very well."
"I knew you couldn't possibly come up with something that profound. So you were just copying him."
Jasper chimed in from the side, while Quirinus shrugged.
"You could tell at a glance that only Manus could say something like that, all right? People are saying Manus's tongue is likely to become Ravenclaw House's next House relic..."
After all, Ravenclaw House did not have that many people. The students Manus had talked into quitting school... stood out rather noticeably within the House.
"Who started that rumor? It doesn't sound