The council assembled at the round table, waiting for their Lord to apparate. Apparition, the spell that allowed one to appear instantly, was one of the strictly banned spells. Only Albus and Lily could apparate; the latter would be absent from the meeting with other matters to attend to. The snake whisperers had been forced to make the journey by train, an old red steamer kept functioning by powerful magic. Albus was old enough to remember when the steam train had been a real mechanical thing run by a locomotive engine which burnt coal to spin a turbine, spinning the wheels. The engine had long since malfunctioned, and, not having the muggle knowledge to fix such things, Albus had been forced to put a spell on the train to make it run as normal.