Your Friend Rubeus Hagrid Sent You a Friend Request

The sky gradually darkened.

Flat fields stretched past, and the cattle and sheep gradually vanished.

In their place rose towering mountains and lush forests.

Ron had long since fallen silent.

Hermione, who had held on until now and loved lecturing people, finally shut her mouth due to physical limitations.

Seizing the chance while Hermione was recovering her energy in silence, Ron and Neville immediately looked at Basil as if he were their savior.

Harry directly brought up a topic. "Basil, did you know? You were in the newspaper today too. The Daily Prophet."

Basil, who had been considering how to befriend Hagrid and swipe valuable things like unicorn tail hair when visiting his cabin, suddenly looked up.

"The newspaper? How is that possible? I left home early this morning and got to the station at ten!"

Hermione nodded along. "The book Magical Societies of London mentioned the Daily Prophet. The paper is delivered to subscribers by owl, and the subscription fee is one Knut. It has both a daily edition and an evening edition, the latter called the Daily Prophet Evening Edition. The Daily Prophet's weekend edition is the Sunday Prophet."

"Today is Sunday, so Basil should have been in the Sunday Prophet!"

To stop Hermione from opening up another lecture, Harry hurriedly admitted his mistake. "Then maybe I remembered wrong."

Ron shook his head. "That's just what the book says. Everyone calls it the Daily Prophet except the people who publish it."

"On Sundays, there's no distinction between the daily and evening editions. The Modification Charm on it isn't just used to correct inaccurate news, either."

"Important events that happen during the day get updated in real time."

"That's why a newspaper subscribed to at seven in the morning could record what Basil did at the station at ten."

Knowing from Ron's earlier performance that he was not as dumb as in the movies, Basil still wore a shocked expression.

Was this Ron?

Wasn't Ron supposed to be an idiot who only knew how to stuff chicken legs into his mouth with both hands?

Hermione wanted to say something else.

But Neville's sudden scream interrupted her.

"Trevor!"

Hermione said, "We're looking for your Toad!"

Ron blurted out, "A toad? People still keep those? They're worse than rats. They were only popular for a while decades ago."

Basil was deeply moved inside. He's back. The Ron I remember is back.

Harry covered Ron's mouth. "Let's help Neville look for it together."

Alarm bells rang in Basil's head.

Unlike the original owner of this body, he did not enjoy running around everywhere.

That was why, during his Previous Life at Youzhou No. 4 High School, there had been activities like watching films at the Great Hall of the People, a week-long study tour in Japan, and a publicly funded summer exchange at Eton.

He had not attended any of them.

At most, he played golf on weekends.

So Basil quickly said, "Our belongings and pets will all be carried to our dormitories by House-elves."

"Neville, just sit back and relax."

"And if you've read the book Our Magical Pets, you'll know that the first pet we raise forms an invisible contract because of our attention."

"That's why our pets are smarter and longer-lived than their counterparts in the Muggle World."

"While they're alive, that is."

"Young wizards who keep toads become more physically resilient."

"Domestic toads are highly adaptable to spells and can be used well for practicing magic and testing potions."

"Their liquid-absorbing skin also makes it convenient to test potions that need to be taken orally."

"Trevor is that amazing?" Neville's eyes widened.

"What about owls?" Harry asked curiously.

"What about rats?" Ron stroked Scabbers.

Hermione leaned forward slightly.

"What about cats? I spent all the magical coins I exchanged on books. I'm planning to get a cat as a pet next year."

Basil shrugged.

"Owls deliver letters."

"If it's just delivering messages or pulling small pranks, they can find any wizard you know."

"Young wizards who keep them become more agile and have a more accurate sense of direction."

"Rats just live longer."

"Young wizards who keep them eat more and don't gain weight easily."

Ron beamed. "That's brilliant! I can eat more without worrying about getting fat!"

Basil complained internally, That's assuming it really is a rat. A rat that normally lives three years becoming a wizard's pet and living nearly eleven years is ridiculous. But maybe too few people keep rats as wizard pets. No one knows how long rats can live after becoming wizard pets. Is that why Ron's parents never found it strange?

Then he was about to talk about cats.

Hermione hurriedly pleaded, "Basil, could you not tell us the benefits of keeping cats? I want to eat more without getting fat too."

"I'll ask another question. For the second, third, and later pets, will there no longer be a contract?"

"Fine." Basil yawned. "With later pets, the relationship between us is no longer a contract, but a one-sided blessing. They only enjoy the power brought by our attention. That is, after our Magic Field transforms their own fields, they gain all kinds of talents unlike those of their counterparts in the Muggle World."

"We wizards no longer receive anything in return."

"If there really were returns, then Newt Scamander would be the most powerful wizard alive."

With that, he looked out the window.

The sky had already turned deep purple.

The endless mountains moving backward had gradually slowed their pace.

"If you want to talk about cats now, it's probably too late."

"Hogwarts is almost here."

Neville stood up, preparing to return to his previous compartment and change clothes.

Hermione reluctantly left the compartment for the moment as well.

The three in the compartment took off their outer clothes and changed into black robes.

Ron's robe was a little too short, exposing his sneakers underneath.

A voice suddenly echoed through the train.

"The train will arrive at Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train. We will deliver it to the school for you."

Harry and Ron suddenly became nervous.

Ron's face even drained of color.

But even so, he did not forget to stuff the remaining snacks and candies into his pockets one by one.

Driven by the last remnants of his conscience, Basil twitched his little finger and cast Scourgify on the food.

About five minutes later, the train slowly came to a stop.

After the five of them gathered in the compartment, they followed the crowd toward the carriage doors.

Many students who recognized Basil greeted him one after another.

Harry cleverly covered his scar with his fringe.

Then, after they stepped onto a small, dark platform in the cold night, a deep voice completely exposed Harry's identity.

"First-years! First-years, over here! Harry, come over here! How are you?"

Basil turned his head and saw his future great benefactor, Hagrid, holding a lantern in his left hand and waving toward Harry with his right.

As if he were afraid no one else would recognize Harry.

In an instant, the crowd split apart, leaving a person-wide passage between Harry and Hagrid.

While awkwardly wishing he could dig a hole and crawl into it, Harry could only wave like Basil had earlier, with the same extroverted ease.

As the leader, he led the first-years toward Hagrid.

Just as Harry was about to reach Hagrid, Basil jumped out and threw an arm around him.

He raised his head and revealed a gentle, refined smile.

"I'm Harry's friend, Basil."

"Are you Hagrid?"

"Harry has mentioned you many times."

"Dumbledore's most trusted person, a kind giant, guardian of the Forbidden Forest."

"Can we be friends?" Basil extended his right hand.

Hagrid froze for a moment, then saw Harry nod along.

He extended his fan-sized hand as well.

As the large hand clasped the small one—

Ding! Your friend [Rubeus Hagrid] sent you a friend request.