"What? Everyone knows Gryffindors are a bunch of brainless idiots."
The compartment door was shoved open.
A pale, light blond boy with a sharp, mean-looking face stood there.
Two large, chubby boys followed behind him, guarding the little brat like a pair of door gods.
"Draco Malfoy?"
"Wasn't this supposed to happen at the castle gates in the movie? The butterfly effect?"
Basil wondered in confusion.
What surprised him even more was that this Malfoy looked directly at him.
Not Harry?
Was he here to teach him a lesson?
Because sending Fenrir to kill him had failed?
Did Draco Malfoy know about that too?
That was possible.
After all, Lucius Malfoy had dared to gossip about Harry right outside the headmaster's office. At least, he had in the movies; Basil did not know that it had not happened in the novels.
Draco Malfoy would also become the youngest Death Eater in the future.
Malfoy first sneered at Neville.
"Oh, crybaby Lumbaton. You want to go to Gryffindor too?"
Then he paused and said somewhat formally, "You must be Granger."
"A relative of Finn Granger, the current president of the Extraordinary Apothecary Association."
"The one who killed the infamous werewolf Greyback."
"And caused quite a stir at the station today."
"Your chart of people with real power and their connections is apparently quite reliable too."
"But unfortunately." Malfoy paused again and glanced at Ron with disdain.
"You seem to have made the wrong friends. Though I would rather believe that certain people stuck themselves to you like chewing gum."
"I can help you with that."
As he spoke, Malfoy extended his right hand. "My name is Draco Malfoy."
With a casual glance, he indicated the names of the chubby boys. "As for them, Crabbe and Goyle."
Faced with Draco Malfoy's highly provocative introduction.
The people in the compartment reacted differently.
Hermione, who had also entered without knocking, looked disgusted. "How rude! Don't you know to knock?"
Harry and Ron jumped to their feet.
Draco Malfoy acted as though he could not see them.
He narrowed his eyes and studied Hermione shrewdly. "Oh? And who are you?"
Hermione lifted her chin and replied proudly, "Hermione Granger!"
The disdain in Malfoy's eyes vanished instantly as he looked at Basil. "Granger? You two are related."
Ron, who had been ignored, immediately mocked him. "Doesn't your family always think it's above everyone else?"
"Oh, I know."
"My dad said several of your family's potion shops were recently shut down."
"You even lost your seat on the Hogwarts Board of Governors."
"What, are you here to lick Basil's toes?"
A faint flush rose in Draco Malfoy's cheeks. "My father also told me that everyone in the Weasley family has red hair, freckles all over their faces, and so many children they cannot afford to raise them."
"And you," he said, as though he had only just noticed Harry, "I remember you come from a wizarding family too. If you spend time with people as unsavory as the Weasley family, they'll rub off on you."
Harry did not even look at Draco. "Get out! You're not welcome here!"
His attention was completely drawn to Goyle and Crabbe.
The two chubby boys reminded him of Dudley.
Especially since they were currently staring greedily at the pile of snacks.
Crabbe had even reached directly for a Chocolate Frog.
Harry said, "Take your hand off that!"
The ignored Draco said commandingly, "Ignore him! You deserve it!"
Crabbe gave a foolish grin and stuffed the Chocolate Frog into his mouth.
But the next second, Crabbe frowned. "It tastes a little bitter? Feels like there's some kind of sauce smeared on it."
Having watched the show—especially the wonderful scene of Crabbe eating Scabbers sauce—Basil rose to his feet as well.
[Stunning Spell]
He casually raised his middle finger, and a red beam shot from it before splitting into three.
Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were sent flying by the force of the Stunning Spell.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Three crisp impacts rang out.
The three of them crashed into the compartment door opposite.
Then collapsed to the floor.
Tears filled Draco's eyes, and his voice trembled with tears.
"I-I'm telling my father!"
After throwing out those words, he and Crabbe and Goyle scrambled up and slunk away.
Basil stroked his chin and thought, Just a little boy who only knows how to call for his daddy? Ridiculous!
Unlike Ron, who was openly delighted; Harry, who was struggling not to laugh; and Neville, who was secretly smiling.
Hermione frowned.
She ignored Basil's crude gesture, as well as the unfamiliar spell that interested her most.
She focused entirely on the fact that Basil might get into trouble.
"Basil, you should be more careful. Fighting before we've even entered school isn't a good thing!"
"Still, I won't tell the professors this time. School hasn't started yet, has it?"
Ron looked utterly incredulous. "What's wrong with you? Malfoy insulted our House, and you still want to tell the teachers?"
Harry and Neville also began to wonder whether something was wrong with the girl's head.
Basil saw the concern hidden in Hermione's words. "She's only worried about me. She's afraid Draco Malfoy will tell the teachers."
"But he doesn't have the nerve, especially since he was the one who got taught a lesson."
Then he looked seriously at Hermione. "Don't talk about telling teachers in the future. We're all classmates. Nobody likes being controlled, even if you mean well."
Hermione did not mind.
She only noticed one thing.
Basil had seen through her concern!
That made both her heart and expression leap with joy!
Hermione's delighted expression made Ron clearly misunderstand.
So he was about to say something else.
Basil cut him off and decided to change the subject.
"Let's introduce ourselves again!"
"You only know my name."
Hermione nodded eagerly. "Mm-hm, mm-hm, mm-hm! I only just found out that Basil is a Granger too!"
"But no one in my family knows magic. In fact, Basil and I aren't related."
Neville and Ron followed by giving their names as well.
Finally, Harry said, "My name is Harry Potter."
Hermione and Neville sucked in sharp breaths.
Hermione said, "Is it really you? I know all about you."
"A History of Modern Magic, The Rise and Fall of Dark Arts, and Important Magical Events of the Twentieth Century all mention you."
"But it's not just those books. I've memorized all the textbooks!"
"The only pity is that I got Basil's book list too late."
"I wonder whether the Hogwarts library will have the corresponding books."
She launched into an endless stream of words.
Harry and Neville stared blankly ahead, their minds empty.
After wiping its backside with a cauldron cake, Scabbers covered its ears and crawled into Ron's pocket.
Only Ron.
While Hermione talked, he persistently inserted his own opinions about Slytherin and the Malfoy family.
As for Basil, he let out a breath.
He finally had time to consider the changes in Malfoy's stats after the Stunning Spell hit him.
In fact, the moment Draco Malfoy extended his right hand, the system had recognized him as Basil's friend.
After Malfoy fled in disgrace, Basil had even received a blue-quality, activatable, growable Echo.
He opened the friends list and clicked on Draco's portrait. His data appeared.
Name: Draco Malfoy Race: Wizard Health: 8 Magic Power: 5 Luck: 2–5 Family Traits: Blond Hair and Pale Skin (Awakened), Self-Suppression (Awakened), Proficiency in Dark Arts
There was nothing particularly special about his data.
It was not strange for family traits to include physical characteristics.
Some families in the wizarding world were simply like that.
The Weasley family always had red hair and freckles; the Potter family had bird's nest hair, and their hair length remained constant.
As for that Self-Suppression trait, Basil had his own guess.
The twin sisters had both said that Draco Malfoy was especially good at suppressing his sympathy in order to bully others.
That was why he later learned Legilimency from his aunt Bellatrix so quickly and attained such a high level of mastery.
Malfoy's Magic Power and Health were merely above average among ordinary young wizards.
Basil had collected plenty of data at the station.
A wizard's Magic Power ranged from 3 to 7.
Most lower-year wizards hovered between 3 and 5, while upper-year wizards ranged from 4 to 7.
Health ranged from 7 to 10.
This confirmed one of Basil's guesses.
The value of Health was limited by physiological structure.
A level-one Devil's Snare had 130 Health.
That was because as long as one of its vines remained, it could survive.
But wizards, unless they had undergone magical transformation, could be killed with a pitchfork if they did not use spells to defend themselves.
Yet if that was the case, then even taking one Stunning Spell should seriously injure a wizard.
Because Basil's level-one Stunning Spell card had the following stats.
Stunning Spell Level: 1 Magic Power Cost: 3 Fires a red beam that renders the target unconscious Damage: 3 Effective Range: 10 m. Beyond 10 m, damage decreases by 1 point for every additional meter.
A young wizard's Health could be as low as 7.
That one hit would take away more than a third.
Not to mention that Basil could "consume" several times more Magic Power to deal several times the damage.
That was why he had conducted this experiment.
For Malfoy and the others' safety, he had not additionally used his wand or Wand Appearance.
He had only cast through the Grimoire.
Of course, that also made it more flexible.
While casting silently and without an incantation, he could expend Mental Power to split the spell's force.
If he fueled it with Magic Power, he could even produce effects beyond the spell itself according to his will.
The Stunning Spell split into three portions, each with 1 damage, struck the three of them.
Under Basil's intention to drive them out of the compartment, they were sent flying.
The Stunning Spell had taken on the form of a Banishing Spell.
When the spell hit Draco, however, his Health did not change. Instead, an illusory -1 appeared after his Magic Power.
But his Magic Power did not decrease.
From their outward appearances, the three merely seemed to have been punched, feeling the pain of being struck by the spell and then flung to the ground.
If the damage from my Stunning Spell doesn't exceed his Magic Power, it can't knock him unconscious?
So Magic Power isn't just spell strength; it's also spell resistance? Huh? Wizards are all walking little fairies!!??
"Cough, cough."
Could multiple shots hitting a human at once be life-threatening? How is that calculated?
Does each one subtract spell resistance before adding together, or what?
And what would Hagrid's data panel look like, if he could withstand multiple spells and escape unharmed?
Before you continue