Hermione Granger

"Are you sure that's really a spell?" the little girl asked. "It doesn't look like much."

"I tried a few simple spells at home, just for practice, and they all worked. No one in my family knows any magic, so when I got my acceptance letter, I was absolutely shocked—but also thrilled, because, I mean, as far as I know, this is the best school of magic..." The little girl began talking away to herself.

"Oh, heavens, you're reading? What are you reading, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them?" Seeing Tierra reading, the little girl quietly sat down beside him and glanced at the cover. "Oh, heavens, I haven't read this one... I mean, before coming to school, I'd already read through all the textbooks once... and memorized them too. I definitely haven't read this book, so it must not have been on the book list..."

"Of course, I think those textbooks are enough... Oh, right, I'm Hermione Granger. By the way, what are your names?"

"Ron Weasley."

"Tierra Wu."

"Harry Potter."

"Is it really you?" Hermione asked, her eyes wide.

"I know all about you. Of course, that's mainly because I bought several extra reference books—A History of Modern Magic, The Rise and Fall of Dark Magic, and Important Magical Events of the Twentieth Century. They all mentioned you." Hermione Granger paused and glanced at Tierra. Seeing no reaction from him, she added, "Those books are really useful. They taught me so, so much about the Wizarding World."

"They mentioned me?" Harry suddenly felt dizzy. He did not quite like the feeling of abruptly changing from a pitiful little radish into a golden rose admired by everyone.

"Heavens, you don't know? If it were me, I'd find every single book that mentioned me," Hermione said in astonishment.

"Do either of you know which House you'll be sorted into? I've asked around everywhere. I hope I get into Gryffindor. Everyone says it's the best, and I heard Dumbledore himself graduated from there. Though I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad either..."

"You'll be sorted into Gryffindor," Tierra suddenly said, looking up.

"What?" Hermione did not quite follow. "Why?"

"Because you're the cleverest witch, so you'll definitely get into the best House." Thoroughly fed up with Hermione's endless chatter, Tierra had no choice but to compliment her.

You could not put down this kind of overconfident little know-it-all. The more you criticized her, the more worked up she became.

That was the experience Tierra had summed up as a student teacher. You had to flatter her, but not too much.

That way, she would stop coming around to bother you all the time.

"Oh... thank you, thank you." A faint blush seemed to flash across Hermione's face. No one had ever praised her so bluntly before, especially not a stranger.

"I, we... We'd better go look for Neville's toad first. You three should change into your robes quickly. We'll probably be there soon." Hermione did not give Tierra time to respond. She pulled Neville away and turned to leave.

"Thank you," Tierra said politely, not caring whether Hermione heard him or not.

"Whatever House I'm sorted into, I hope I'm not sorted with her." Ron tossed his wand back into his trunk.

No... someday, you'll be utterly addicted to her... Tierra silently thought. He stood up and put on the school robes he had taken from his suitcase, several sizes too large for him.

To save money, Tierra had simply bought robes sized for his fourteen-year-old self. That way, he would not need to buy new robes for the next few years, saving him quite a bit of money.

Besides, in a world with magic, mending clothes was easy.

"Why are your robes so big?" Harry asked in confusion.

"That way, I won't need to buy new robes until third year." As Tierra spoke, he used rope and clips to cinch his robes tight. They looked a little bulky, but overall, they were no different from Harry and Ron's robes.

"Which House are your two brothers in?" Harry asked as he changed into his robes.

"Gryffindor." Ron seemed unhappy again. "Mum and Dad were in that House too. If I don't get in, I don't know what they'll say. I don't think Ravenclaw would be especially bad, but just think—don't let me end up in Slytherin House."

"That was Vol..." Tierra suddenly realized he could not say that person's name. "The House Voldemort was in?"

"Yes." Ron changed into his robes and flopped back onto the train's soft seat.

"Almost all Dark wizards come from Slytherin," Ron said.

"Look, I think the color at the tips of Scabbers's whiskers has faded." Harry tried to distract Ron from the subject of Houses.

"Now that your two brothers have graduated, what do they do?" Harry wanted to know what wizards did after leaving school. Did he still need to go back to the Dursleys' house?

"Charlie studies dragons in Romania. Bill works for Gringotts in Africa," Ron said.

"Oh, have you heard about Gringotts? It's all over The Daily Prophet, but you two lived with Muggles, so I suppose you wouldn't have seen the paper... Someone tried to rob one of the heavily guarded underground vaults."

Harry's eyes widened.

"Really? What happened afterward? I mean... did he get anything?"

"Nothing happened, and that's why it became such big news. They didn't catch the robber. Dad says only the most powerful Dark wizards could possibly escape Gringotts's pursuit. But they didn't take anything, and that's the strange part. Of course, whenever something like this happens, everyone gets scared, worrying that Voldemort might be behind it."

"When did it happen?" Tierra asked.

"Er... I can't remember very clearly... Er... I think it was, I think it was July thirty-first. Yes, July thirty-first. I remember now. That was the day Mum yelled at George and Fred for throwing Dungbombs into the pigsty."

"July thirty-first!" Harry stared at Tierra in astonishment and found that Tierra was looking at him too.

"What's wrong? Is there something special about July thirty-first?" Ron looked at their reactions in confusion.

"July thirty-first is Harry's birthday. That day, Hagrid, Hogwarts's gamekeeper, took Harry and me shopping. When we went to Gringotts to collect Harry's parents' inheritance and exchange Muggle money, Hagrid seemed to take out something that looked very important as well," Tierra said.

"What was it?" Ron asked curiously.

"I don't know." Harry shook his head. "We didn't see it."

"So Gringotts was attacked after Hagrid took that thing away? Could it have been because of that?"

"Um... I don't know..." Harry said. "I, I'm not sure whether that was just a coincidence..."

"I hope it was a coincidence," Tierra murmured. "If the attacker really attacked Gringotts because of the thing Hagrid took away... would he attack Hagrid on the way back to Hogwarts? After all, Hagrid is such an obvious target."

In criminal psychology, criminals often took part in discussing a case or returned to the crime scene. Aside from a few driven by twisted desires, most did so to keep track of the investigation's progress.

At Tierra's words, Harry instantly became nervous. Just as he was about to ask something else, the compartment door was opened from outside for the third time.