Heading Toward Danger Despite Knowing It Lies Ahead

"I hope this month's manuscript doesn't get mangled."

Andrew carefully tied the manuscript to the owl's leg, then bid his Rose farewell with the solemnity of someone seeing off a bomb. (The owl had pecked apart a blooming rosebush while hunting mice. After Andrew scolded it for ages, it had somehow accepted that name instead.)

Still, Andrew knew he had no choice.

He insisted on refusing any reader letters forwarded by the editorial department, and he refused to change the protagonist's name. In any case, the protagonist in the manuscript he submitted was Gryffindor. If anything went wrong, it would be best to let the second author take the blame—though that was idealistic, and at this point, preserving this bit of independence was all he could do.

Fortunately, the people at Magical Legends magazine were quite skilled at dancing back and forth along the line of courting death. Judging from the magazines Andrew had secretly bought, both the localization and the grammar had been corrected very well.

So he could finally relax—yeah, right.

The manuscript he had just submitted was for the September issue, and September meant Hogwarts was about to begin.

Going by the usual publication date of the seventh, he would already be at Hogwarts by then.

Well, getting to watch the headmaster's autobiography he had made up get published at Hogwarts would certainly be quite a surprise...

Thinking about it, even going to Hogwarts no longer seemed all that exciting.

Still, at least he had sent the manuscript off before the deadline—he really did not want an editor to Apparate over with a wand and demand his copy when the deadline was near. If that happened, all his precautions would be useless...

He packed his luggage, said goodbye to the people at the orphanage, and before he knew it, August thirty-first had arrived.

Though he could theoretically take the train that day and transfer along the way, Andrew still boarded the afternoon train to London—the only people who believed trains would not run late these days were fools...

Just as he had expected, the train arrived in London in the morning, and Platform Nine and Three-Quarters had opened early as well.

When Andrew, who had spent the night on the train, entered the platform with a yawn, the train had only just begun being cleaned.

After exchanging polite greetings, Andrew found a compartment that was neither good nor bad, pulled a blanket from his trunk, wrapped himself up in it, and drifted blissfully off to sleep.

He had studied the ticket when he received it. It was a special train with no assigned seats, so if he did not arrive early to claim a decent spot, he would be doing himself a disservice—besides, he did not need anyone to see him off.

He was not awakened until activity outside the compartment disturbed him. He checked his watch and found that it was already half past nine. Looking out the window, he saw parents and students beginning to trickle onto the platform.

He set his trunk beside the seat and left the blanket draped there to show it was occupied, then Andrew began weaving through the carriages in search of the trolley.

Even if he got exposed after arriving at Hogwarts, he had to taste some good food first—though he had tried bravely at both the orphanage and The Leaky Cauldron, only to fail.

Fortunately, the trolley offered a fairly wide variety of food, giving him plenty of room for trial and error. With the attitude that it would be a shame to get exposed without trying them, he decisively bought some of everything and asked about the trolley's route so he could restock later.

To Andrew's surprise, someone had already entered the compartment by the time he returned—and it was an older student.

Logically, the compartment he had chosen was not one of the best, and there should still have been better seats available at this hour.

"Hello, I'm a first-year," Andrew said, setting down the food and taking the initiative to extend his hand. Judging by the decorations on the other boy's robes, he was from Hufflepuff, so he should not have too bad an attitude. "My name is Andrew. Andrew Taylor."

"Hello, Andrew." The other boy shook Andrew's hand. "I'm Cisse. Cisse Will, Hufflepuff, third year."

"Want some snacks?"

Andrew pushed the pile of snacks on the table toward the middle. "I'm from the Muggle world. It's my first time seeing snacks like these."

"Then you've come across some good stuff." After confirming that Andrew was not merely being polite, Cisse reached for a Chocolate Frog. "Without a doubt, Chocolate Frogs are the most recommended snack."

"Watch carefully. You have to tear it open like this, so you won't damage the card inside—that's hard currency among students."

"Oh, no." Cisse showed the card to Andrew. "It's Dumbledore."

The pentagonal card startled Andrew. He tore open a pack of his own, then his heart jolted—an image he had just seen.

"This card has no trading value at all..."

Cisse handed him the card. "You should start collecting cards. A slightly rarer card can get you a whole essay. If it's one of the rarest cards, it can even cover half a month's homework."

It sounded no different from ordinary elementary school kids collecting Water Margin cards...

"You can challenge Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans when you have time, but don't eat them mixed with other food. If you get an earwax-flavored one, it completely ruins the food."

"Licorice Wands aren't a good choice. If you ask me, they should bring in a new batch of sweets from Honeydukes."

"Cauldron Cakes are good for filling your stomach, and Pumpkin Pasties too—but they're only so-so. Don't eat too much. Hogwarts dinners are even more delicious than you think, though they still can't compare to our House's."

Cisse casually bit into Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as he evaluated the snacks, then began enthusiastically explaining things to Andrew.

"After third year, you can go to Hogsmeade. The snacks there are much better quality. Or, if nothing else, you can order by owl post. That's also a little trick for stocking up on snacks."

"If you miss a meal, you can try the kitchens. The house-elves there can provide delicious food at almost any time."

"You just have to watch out for the paintings..."

"Speaking of paintings, that knight painting is really outrageous. Several times when I passed by, I..."

Perhaps because he had gotten talking, Cisse revealed a great deal of information, until someone came to call for him.

"Don't share a compartment with first-years. The prefects said we should let them get to know each other before they enter school, especially about the sorting!"

The boy who came in to call him was also wearing Hufflepuff robes, and he spoke with a smile. Cisse froze when he heard the reminder, smacked his forehead, picked up his things, and hurriedly said goodbye. He left without even taking the two packs of Chocolate Frogs Andrew offered him.

"There's even a rule like that?"

Still, it was not much of a problem. Before long, several first-year boys crowded into the compartment.

Andrew recognized them before they even introduced themselves—it was simply too easy. Though he also wanted to do his best to act like a first-year, he could not possibly imitate that foolish urge to poke at everything with a wand.