The Chosen One Was Just Like That

First-year students had endless curiosity, and they had more than enough drive to act on it.

That was why Andrew regretted going to the toilet—the corridor was more crowded than the compartments.

Judging by the crowd's height, some older students had definitely slipped into the corridor. They were trying to sneak a peek at Harry Potter through the compartment window, then leave satisfied that they had seen him.

Life without phones really was boring...

If they had phones...

Andrew imagined a crowd filming TikToks outside Harry Potter's compartment.

Well... it wouldn't have been much different.

Andrew didn't know that Hogwarts interfered with Muggle electrical appliances. After that private complaint, he pushed through the crowd and returned to his compartment. He would see Harry Potter plenty of times later. If the subject came up, he could just make something up...

The people in his compartment were already telling tall tales without a shred of evidence. Making up a story about seeing Harry wasn't going too far.

Just as Andrew was considering how to make his story sound less ordinary, someone knocked on the compartment door again. A round-faced boy came in, his voice close to breaking. "Sorry, have you seen my toad?"

"A toad? Your pet?"

Andrew, who had been listening to the tall tales and was about to join in, said, "We haven't seen it in here, but with the corridor such a mess, I'm afraid you'll have a hard time finding it."

The round-faced boy's eyes immediately turned red.

Andrew, caught off guard, hurried to add, "You could ask a prefect for help, though. I heard some older students say the Hufflepuff prefect is especially kind. You could try him."

With everyone gathered to see Harry, getting a crowd to help look for a toad wouldn't be easy. After queuing all that time and finally getting close to Harry, how many students their age would care how the boy felt if he asked them to stop and check for a toad?

Only a prefect could bring things under control and organize a search—and even then, students from different Houses might argue...

"But the prefect..."

Seeing how close the boy was to tears, Andrew realized that a younger student had already needed courage just to go looking for his toad. Asking him to approach a prefect really was a bit much.

"There's another way. If you really want to find your toad, ask Harry Potter. He's on the train, isn't he? I've heard he's very nice... And he's a new student too, so he might be easier to talk to. Besides, you need to check his compartment anyway, right?"

The new suggestion was still daunting for the round-faced boy, but Andrew could see him considering it.

"Go on. We're new students too, and some compartments won't even open their doors for us," Andrew urged. "But no one will turn Harry Potter away."

As if he had made up his mind, the round-faced boy gave a hurried thank-you, summoned his courage, and left the compartment for Harry Potter's.

"Nicely done, Andrew!"

A second-year student who had squeezed in sounded impressed. "Now everyone will get to see Harry Potter."

"That boy must really love his toad, though..." someone else remarked. "If my family bought me one, I'd deliberately lose it as soon as I could so they'd buy me an owl instead."

"Seriously. I can't understand why anyone would buy a toad."

"Apparently, ten or more years ago, toad eggs produced through Potions could be used as materials for Transfiguration and Potions classes?"

The conversation gradually wandered off in another direction. The people in the compartment, who had been itching to leave, settled down. They didn't need to go see Harry now; they could wait for Harry to come to them.

And that was exactly what happened. Harry was as kind and softhearted as Andrew had heard.

At the round-faced boy's pleading, quite a few people joined the search. They went through the compartments one by one. When Harry Potter arrived with the boy and seven or eight helpers, the boy even managed a small smile as he thanked Andrew.

After searching the compartment again and finding nothing, Harry and the boy—Neville, as he had finally remembered to introduce himself—thanked everyone there. Then they hurried on to the next compartment with their helpers.

"He's exactly how I imagined the Chosen One!"

A Hufflepuff student who had slipped in spoke with quiet admiration. "Of course he'd be the sort of person who goes out of his way to help someone. Sorry, I should go lend a hand."

"There's no need. Too many people will only make the search harder."

Kevin suddenly spoke up. "There's a limit to how many people can fit in a compartment and help search. Otherwise, no one will be able to find anything."

"I'll feel better following along. Maybe I can help with something."

The Hufflepuff student smiled and followed them. Kevin's point had evidently convinced the others, though. After a little thought, they stayed and resumed their conversation.

Andrew stayed too, of course. He had begun to regret his suggestion.

At first, he had merely wondered what would happen if he told the new students that helping to find a toad might be an important part of their entrance exam.

The idea had amused him, but not for long. He soon realized how dangerous it was. If he stirred things up on the first day, would the school start paying close attention to him?

Considering what he had already done, if he drew that much attention from the school...

Yikes...

He drew a sharp breath as an unwelcome scene flashed through his mind.

An engagement broken off, right?

So he would leave the spotlight to someone else. It wasn't as though he refused to help; he just helped in a different way. He wasn't the sort to seek attention.

An hour later, after he had calmly swapped tall tales with the people in his compartment, cheers rang through the carriage. Everyone naturally filed out into the corridor to celebrate the confirmed news.

The news quickly spread like wildfire from one carriage to the next, until it had traveled the length of the train.

Thanks to Harry Potter and the efforts of more than twenty students who had volunteered to help, the missing toad, Trevor, was safely returned to his owner, Neville.

There were a few grumbles from people in compartments Harry had never reached—they had waited ages, only for the damned toad to turn up—but at least eighty percent of the Hogwarts students, new and returning, had seen Harry and spoken with him.

On the whole, everyone was pleased. One toad had tried to escape again, but that was hardly a problem.

That was exactly what the Chosen One should be like.