To be honest, you remind me of my dad

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

Night had already fallen outside the window. Beneath the deep-purple sky lay mountains and woods, and the train's speed gradually slowed. A loud announcement suddenly rang through the carriage corridor.

"We should change into our uniforms."

George took off his coat and put on the black wizard's robes of Hogwarts.

Luna, Ginny, and Colin reacted as well, quickly changing into their own uniforms.

After the train stopped, the young wizards swarmed out, pushing and shoving in the aisle, terrified that if they were a step too slow they might miss something. Some of their faces were squeezed out of shape.

"Don't rush!"

Seeing this, George decisively stopped Ginny and the other two behind him from trying to squeeze in.

They had already arrived at the station. Hogwarts was such a huge castle; it wasn't going to run away. There was no need to panic and squeeze their way out.

Unlike the other young wizards, he was also curious about and looking forward to Hogwarts, but he was not nervous or flustered.

For one thing, he was not really a child. For another, after transmigration and rebirth, a split soul, and fleeing and fighting for his life, his heart was far steadier than that of an ordinary adult.

About two minutes later, the number of young wizards in the aisle began to thin out. Only then did George lead The Trio out of the compartment and make his way unhurriedly to the train door.

"Follow me. Don't wander over to the upper-year students."

"George, honestly, sometimes you make me feel like you're my dad. Like you're really reliable."

Ginny followed behind George and could not help saying it.

"Mm, even a bit more reliable than my dad."

Thinking of how unreliable her father Arthur could be at times, she added another sentence.

Colin and Luna nodded in agreement.

Although they had known him for less than a day, George had left them with an extremely reliable impression.

He spoke calmly, rarely showed surprise at anything, helped them lift their luggage up and down, wiped their faces when they got them dirty while eating snacks, and even got up to cover them with wizard robes when they grew sleepy in the afternoon.

Even now, as they were getting off the train, there was a feeling that an adult was at their side, and as long as they listened, they would be safe.

George smiled at this. In truth, those actions of his were merely the things an adult would subconsciously do when seeing children, especially children they did not dislike.

His body in this world was that of a child, but asking him to keep pretending to be one really was not easy.

So he felt there was no need. Given his background in this world, being a little precocious was perfectly normal, and it was not a bad thing.

"First-year students! First-year students, over here!"

Just then, a familiar voice rang out.

George turned his head and saw that it was Hagrid, the gamekeeper, standing to one side of the station with a magic lantern in hand, shouting loudly.

Even with several hundred students at the station at the moment, Hagrid's height of three to four meters still made him stand out especially clearly. It was hard not to see him.

"Stay close to me."

After turning back to give that instruction, George plunged into the dense crowd like a sharp knife, easily parting the upper-year young wizards blocking his way, and soon reached Hagrid's side.

In terms of strength, even seventh-year wizards were far inferior to him.

"Good to see you again, little boss!"

Seeing George, Hagrid immediately bent down and greeted him.

He still remembered this young wizard boss from Knockturn Alley, who had sold him potions at a discount.

"Hello, Hagrid."

George also smiled and nodded.

"You know Hagrid? Why did he call you little boss?"

Ginny leaned close to George's ear and asked curiously.

She had never met Hagrid, but she often heard her brother Ron mention him, so she had guessed his identity.

"My adoptive father ran a Potions shop. He died in an accident some time ago. Hagrid came to buy potions before."

George answered casually.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. I hope you're not too sad."

Hearing George say that, Ginny's expression immediately turned guilty, and Luna and Colin beside her also wore looks of sympathy.

"It's fine."

George smiled. He very much wanted to say that the old bastard had been killed by his own hands, but he knew that saying so would definitely scare the three little ones badly.

After waiting beside Hagrid for a while, the first-year young wizards soon all arrived, around thirty of them in total.

In fact, Hogwarts did not have many students. Normally, it stayed at around three hundred, with roughly forty students per year. In years when they enrolled more, there were over forty; in years when they enrolled fewer, there were just over thirty.

Thinking about it, that made sense. After all, the school did not have many teachers either. Take Defense Against the Dark Arts, for instance: all seven years took it, but in reality only one teacher taught it. If there were too many students, it would be impossible to teach them all.

Once everyone had arrived, Hagrid led them through a narrow path to the edge of the Black Lake, then, as usual, had them sit in boats in groups of four to head for the castle. This was the traditional ceremony required for first-year enrollment every year.

Its purpose seemed to be to commemorate the four legendary wizards who had founded Hogwarts.

Most of them sat with the people they had gotten to know on the train, so George naturally brought Luna, Ginny, and Colin onto the same boat.

But these boats were not ordinary boats, either. They were boats enhanced by alchemy with special spells, needing no oars to row them; they could generate wind on their own to carry the boats forward.

To be honest, the journey by boat across the Black Lake into Hogwarts Castle was still rather awe-inspiring. Even George, when he looked up and saw the castle towering into the clouds, could not help feeling moved.

One young wizard was so overwhelmed that he accidentally fell into the lake halfway there.

But nothing unexpected happened, because the moment the young wizard fell into the water, a giant squid lifted him out of the lake and placed him back on the boat.

Do not underestimate the Black Lake. Quite a few Magical Creatures lived inside it.

After crossing the Black Lake, they went ashore from the castle's underground dock and followed a tunnel between the rocks to the castle gates, where Hagrid handed them over to a tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes.

This witch was none other than the Transfiguration professor, Head of Gryffindor, Minerva McGonagall.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term feast is about to begin, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you must first be sorted into your respective Houses."

Professor McGonagall led them into a small room on the left side of the First Floor Great Hall and briefly introduced them to the four Houses, as well as the extremely important House Cup.

After Professor McGonagall left, the young witches and wizards began buzzing with discussion, and naturally, the topic was the Sorting Ceremony.

George was no exception on this point, because at that moment he was also thinking about which House he would be sorted into.

He was not Harry Potter. The Sorting Hat could not possibly waste time on him, nor would it let him go to whichever House he wanted just because he wished it. Like the other young witches and wizards, he would be assigned directly according to the result of the magical assessment.

But it did not really matter. In his view, every House was the same, each with its own advantages, because no matter which House he went to, he would become the most outstanding and dazzling one there.

From today onward, Hogwarts would welcome the most powerful and extraordinarily gifted wizarding genius in its history—and that was him, George.