Although the two ships were expected to be underway consistently from their departure last week until their scheduled return in mid-summer, the Voyager made an unexpected port call in Southampton yesterday in order to unload two stowaways who had reportedly been onboard since the vessel's departure in London: Claire and Celeste Benet, of Hogsmeade. The girls are the twin daughters of wealthy French immigrant Damien Benet, who took up residence first in London and later in Hogsmeade upon his departure from France in 1877.

The girls were discovered onboard the ship several days ago, leading Captain John Alfred Darrow to inform the Ministry of Magic and arrange for someone to meet the ship and collect the two girls. The logistics of the situation were rather troublesome, as Southampton's Muggle docks are relatively new (having been built in the 1840s) and there is no magical accommodation for seagoing vessels in the town. Ministry officials had to cordon off a large area of the docks and modify the memories of nearly three dozen Muggles in order to arrange the transfer, all over a weekend on which these employees are typically at home with their own families.

A Ministry official said that Mr. and Mrs. Benet can expect to face a hefty fine for the inconvenience, as it appears that the two girls' disappearance had nothing to do with crime or abduction, but was simply, as one representative put it, "the result of bad breeding."

How the girls got onboard the ship — and, in fact, how they navigated London at all — with no one having knowledge of their whereabouts it still a mystery.

There is no word at the moment as to whether this unexpected delay hindered the progress of the expedition enough to push their return date this summer back.