Bastian had already secured a train compartment, and lined the seats and floor with old Daily Prophets that didn't contain anything that interesting. If that alone didn't put people off from stealing his claimed seats, he figured the sign he'd hung up that said, "Off limits due to freak owl accident," would.
Now he was off to unload the rest of the papers on Lily.
Pushing through the growing crowd, marveling on how little the first years looked, he spotted his target and shifted the stack of papers to raise one arm and wave it wildly through the air.