Hogwarts Express Departs

The secondhand suitcase he had bought for seven Galleons had been a great deal. It not only held all of Luan's school necessities, but also everything he had accumulated over the past three months.

A mattress, blankets, old clothes—these had all been collected from the relief office. He did not know what the school dormitories would be like, so he brought them all with him.

There were also two carving knives, a small handful of slingshots, and Bouncing's home: a wooden tree-hollow house.

Luan had cut it from a dead hazelnut tree and carved it into Bouncing's little nest.

"Squeak?"

Seeing Luan put the tree-hollow house into the suitcase as well, Bouncing stood on the empty stone bed and looked over curiously.

"That's right, we're leaving. Remember to say goodbye to this place."

"Squeak~~"

The clear, lilting sound echoed beneath the bridge for a long while, as though the bridge hollow itself were saying goodbye to Bouncing.

Seeing Luan crawl out from beneath the bridge, Bouncing reluctantly followed, then scampered up onto Luan's shoulder in a few quick movements.

King's Cross Station was not far from where Luan lived, less than an hour on foot. But he had never seen so many wizards along this route before.

He had worried that something might go wrong on his first train ride, but it seemed that would not happen now.

Following the people with long bars above their heads, Luan successfully reached the station platform as well.

Seeing the wizards who arrived on the platform, looked around, yet did not board the train, Luan quietly hid behind a pillar.

That male wizard had glanced at him several times already. Luan suspected the man had mistaken him for a Muggle. It was a word Luan had only recently learned, apparently what wizards called ordinary people.

Sure enough, after Luan ducked behind the pillar, that wizarding family quickly disappeared.

Hurrying back over, Luan looked at the pillar where the male wizard had vanished.

It was the stone pillar between Platforms Nine and Ten. When he reached out to touch it, he could still feel the hard texture of stone.

Having already seen the passage wall behind the Leaky Cauldron, Luan was not surprised by this pillar.

After making sure no one was around, Luan took out his wand and tapped the pillar three times, then muttered softly.

"This is magic, this is magic, this is magic."

Step back, sprint, pass through the wall—all in one smooth motion.

The moment Luan opened his eyes again, he saw a dark red train before him.

The sign ahead read: Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock.

There were many adults on the platform, all reluctantly saying goodbye to their children.

Luan had no such trouble. He picked up his suitcase and boarded the train directly.

There were already many young wizards playing and roughhousing in the carriages. Every one of them had a bar above their head, though the lengths varied.

Near the front of several carriages, Luan spotted older students with three-segment bars above their heads.

There were very few such people. Luan had only found four; most of the other older students had two segments.

Luan was now increasingly certain that these bars were related to a wizard's abilities, though he still needed to verify exactly what kind of ability they represented.

Finding an empty compartment, Luan went in. He stepped onto the seat to stow his suitcase, then looked out the window at the people outside saying their tearful goodbyes.

Luan had thought that wizards in Britain were completely hidden away, and that ordinary people knew nothing of their existence.

But when he saw quite a few people at the station without bars above their heads, he realized that was not the case.

Several very conspicuous red-haired children passed through the pillar Luan had just used to enter. A little boy was crying as he said something to an elderly woman, and many people carried owl cages.

These were pets wizards used to send messages. Luan had once seen Professor McGonagall use one.

He did not find it strange. Back in Xilin, Luan had heard Uncle Neil, who had once served in the military, say that the Federation army sometimes used a kind of flying eagle to deliver messages. They were extremely fast.

Just as Luan was reminiscing about his days in Xilin, a childish voice sounded at the compartment door.

"Hello, is anyone sitting here? All the other compartments are full. You're the boy who sold wooden carvings!"

"You're the boy who got bullied by that chubby kid!"

Luan was quite surprised, because the polite-looking boy with glasses before him was the only young wizard he had encountered at the zoo.

Back then, he had seen a chubby boy bullying him and casually taught that chubby boy a lesson with his slingshot.

"Actually, that was my cousin Dudley. Oh, right, I still haven't thanked you for the knight's sword you gave me."

Luan had indeed given him a wooden carving of a knight's sword that day, but he had only made it to pass the time.

"That was the first gift I'd ever received. I brought it with me too. It's in my trunk."

The polite little boy started to open his trunk as he spoke, but Luan stopped him in time.

"Alright, I get it. Do you need help putting your suitcase up?"

"Thank you. I'm Harry, Harry Potter."

Luan stepped onto the seat again and put Harry's suitcase up as well. He was now even more certain that buying his own suitcase had been the right choice.

Harry's suitcase was incredibly heavy, about as heavy as a basket of hazelnuts Luan carried in the Hazelnut Forest.

"Luan Scarlett. Nice to meet you."

After the suitcase was put away, Harry sat opposite Luan and began talking animatedly.

Countless owls, an acceptance letter that flew out of the chimney, an angry Uncle Vernon, the huge Hagrid, the magical Diagon Alley.

As Harry and Luan chatted, the train slowly began to move. They stopped talking and looked out at the scenery together.

Before long, the compartment door opened again. A red-haired boy covered in freckles stood in the doorway and pointed to the seat beside Harry.

"Is anyone sitting here?"

Luan was just about to answer when another pair of red-haired students came over.

Seeing that the three people at the door all had the same hair color, Luan guessed they were brothers.

"Harry, we haven't introduced ourselves yet, have we? Fred and George Weasley. This is Ron, our little brother."

After the two red-haired boys left, Ron took the opportunity to sit beside Harry.

"Are you really Harry Potter?"

From their conversation, Luan guessed that the bespectacled boy across from him must be someone famous, but he did not pay close attention to what the two of them were saying.

Because ever since Ron had appeared at the compartment door, Bouncing, who had been sleeping in his pocket, seemed to have been startled by something. It became restless and tried to climb out.

After the two older students left, Luan gently took Bouncing out and placed it in his palm.

"Wow, you have one too. Is that a rat?"

Seeing the little creature in Luan's hand, Ron looked over curiously.

"Probably not. I call it Bouncing."

"It definitely isn't. Look, a rat's nose isn't that long."

As Ron spoke, he took a fat gray rat from his pocket. It was currently sleeping soundly.

Bouncing, standing in Luan's hand, had been staring warily at the red-haired boy across from it. But when Ron took out the rat, Bouncing seemed to confirm something. Its little eyes flew wide open, and it leaped down into Ron's hand.

"Squeak!"

"Ah! Stop it!"