Knowing There Were Tigers on the Mountain, He Went Anyway

"I hope they don't butcher this month's manuscript."

Andrew carefully tied the manuscript to his owl's leg, then bade his own Rose farewell with the caution of a man seeing off a bomb. (The owl had pecked apart a blooming rosebush while hunting mice. After Andrew spent ages scolding it, the owl had taken to the name.)

Still, Andrew knew he had no choice.

He had refused to accept the reader letters forwarded by the Editorial Office, and he had refused to change the protagonist's name. The manuscript he submitted starred Gryffindor. If anything went wrong, the second author could take the blame. That might be wishful thinking, but at this point, it was the one bit of independence he could preserve.

Fortunately, the people at Magical Legends magazine were adept at dancing along the edge of disaster. Judging by the copies Andrew had secretly bought, they had done an excellent job with both the localization and the prose.

So he could relax. As if.

The manuscript he had just sent off was for the September issue. And September meant Hogwarts was about to start its school year.

If the magazine followed its usual schedule and came out on the seventh, he would already be at Hogwarts.

Watching the headmaster's biography I made up hit the shelves while I'm at Hogwarts. What a delightful surprise...

Suddenly, going to Hogwarts seemed a lot less exciting.

At least he had sent the manuscript before the deadline. He had no desire to see an editor appear through Apparition near the last minute, Wand in hand, demanding his draft. All his efforts to distance himself from it would go to waste...

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

In theory, he could catch a train and make the connection on the day of departure. Andrew boarded an afternoon train to London instead. Anyone who trusted trains not to run late these days was a fool...

Just as he had expected, the train reached London in the morning, and Platform Nine and Three-Quarters was already open.

Andrew entered the platform yawning after a night on the train. The Hogwarts Express had only just begun to be cleaned.

After a polite greeting, he chose a compartment that was neither particularly good nor bad, pulled a blanket from his suitcase, wrapped himself in it, and happily fell asleep.

He had studied the arrangements as soon as he got his train ticket. With a dedicated train and no assigned seats, he would have been doing himself a disservice if he had not arrived early to claim a decent spot. It was not as though anyone needed to see him off.

A disturbance outside the compartment finally woke him. He glanced at his watch: half past nine. Parents and students had begun trickling onto the platform beyond the window.

He set his suitcase beside the seat and left his blanket draped there to show it was occupied, then headed through the train in search of the snack trolley.

Even if he was going to be exposed at Hogwarts, he wanted to taste something good first. He had tried his luck at both the orphanage and the Leaky Cauldron, and both attempts had ended in disappointment.

Fortunately, the trolley carried enough variety to give him plenty of chances. With the thought that it would be a shame to be exposed before trying everything, he promptly bought some of each item. He also asked about the trolley's route so he could restock later.

To Andrew's surprise, someone was in the compartment when he returned. An older student, no less.

The compartment he had chosen was hardly the best. There should still have been better seats available at this hour.

"Hello, I'm new here." Andrew set down the food and offered his hand. From the trim on the other boy's Wizard Robe, he belonged to Hufflepuff House, so he probably would not be unfriendly. "I'm Andrew. Andrew Taylor."

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

"Want some snacks?"

Andrew pushed the pile of food to the middle of the table. "I come from the Muggle world. This is my first time seeing any of these."

"Then you're in for a treat." Once Cisse was sure Andrew was not offering merely out of politeness, he picked up a Chocolate Frog. "Without question, Chocolate Frogs are the snack I'd recommend most."

"Watch. You tear it open like this so you don't damage the card inside. Those cards are practically currency among students."

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

The pentagonal card gave Andrew a fright. He opened a pack of his own, and his heart sank. It was the same face he had just seen.

"This card isn't worth trading for anything..."

Cisse handed the card over. "You should learn to collect them. A slightly rare card can get someone to write a whole thesis for you. One of the rarest could even cover half a month's homework."

That sounds exactly like schoolkids collecting Water Margin cards...

"You can try Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans when you have time, but don't eat them alongside anything else. If you get an earwax-flavored one, it'll ruin the rest of your food."

"Licorice Wands aren't a great choice. If you ask me, they should stock some new sweets from Honeydukes."

"Cauldron Cakes are all right for filling you up, and so are Pumpkin Pasties. But that's about it. Don't eat too many. Dinner at Hogwarts is much better than you'd expect, though it still can't compare with what we get in Hufflepuff."

Cisse casually munched on Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as he gave his verdicts, then launched into advice for Andrew.

"Once you reach third year, you can go to Hogsmeade. The snacks there are much better. Failing that, you can order by owl. That's another handy way to keep yourself stocked."

"If you miss a meal, try the Kitchen. The House-elves there can provide delicious food at pretty much any hour."

"Just watch out for the portraits..."

"Speaking of portraits, that knight portrait is outrageous. There have been several times when I walked past and he..."

Once Cisse got going, he shared a great deal of information. He might have kept going if someone had not come to fetch him.

"Don't share a compartment with a new student. The Prefects said we should let them get to know each other before they reach school, especially with the Sorting coming up!"

The boy who came to get him also wore Hufflepuff colors, and he was smiling as he spoke. Cisse froze at the reminder, then slapped his forehead. He grabbed his things, said a hurried goodbye, and left without even accepting the two Chocolate Frogs Andrew offered him.

There's a rule against that too?

It hardly mattered. Before long, a few first-year boys squeezed into the compartment.

Andrew could tell what they were before any of them introduced themselves. It was almost too easy. He wanted to look like a new student too, but there was no way he could imitate that wide-eyed urge to poke absolutely everything with a Wand.