Hermione's Anxiety

Matthew smiled. "Is he special?"

Jerry's face fell. "He's very ordinary. If I hadn't heard the Weasleys talking about him, I wouldn't even have realized he was Harry Potter. He doesn't seem like the Boy Who Lived at all."

"Just think, he defeated..." Jerry paused. "He defeated the Dark Lord!"

"Maybe that was his parents' achievement." Matthew took a sandwich from his pocket. "Want one? I have more."

Jerry took the sandwich and said in surprise, "That's the first time I've heard anyone put it that way."

Matthew took out another sandwich and bit into it. "The night the Dark Lord disappeared, his parents were there too. The Potter couple were killed by the Dark Lord that night."

Jerry looked excited, as if he'd uncovered a secret no one else knew:

"The Dark Lord disappeared after that night. So it really is possible that the Potter couple took him down with them. That's a lot more believable than a baby who'd only just been born being the Boy Who Lived. But why does everyone think Harry Potter is the Boy Who Lived?"

"Who knows? Maybe people needed a Boy Who Lived who was still alive back then." Matthew didn't remember the details. In his previous life, he'd only watched two of the movies, and what he did know came partly from the internet.

When he'd first crossed over, Voldemort had still been active, but Matthew had been too young to get involved in any of those events.

Just then, a brown-haired young witch opened the compartment door. Holding the handle, she peered inside.

"Have any of you seen a toad?" She gestured to the round-faced boy behind her. "Neville's lost one."

Matthew and Jerry both shook their heads. Seeing Neville's near-tears expression, Matthew reassured him, "Don't worry. Familiars can find their way back to their owners."

The young witch nodded, looking disappointed. "Sorry to bother you."

She was about to continue searching the next compartment when, before she could close the door, a dark blur darted past her feet.

The dark blur entered the compartment and immediately burrowed into Matthew's arms.

When she got a good look, the young witch's eyes lit up. It was a black cat with a pair of beautiful blue eyes.

"Preserved Egg, what have you got in your mouth?" Matthew had a bad feeling. He could see what looked like the leg of an amphibian poking out from the corner of Preserved Egg's mouth.

Preserved Egg rubbed his back against Matthew, then set what he was carrying on the table. It was a toad!

Neville saw the toad lying belly-up and motionless on the table, and his expression shifted dramatically.

Matthew watched Neville's face go from sorrow to blankness, blankness to shock, shock to anger, and then back to sorrow—all in a matter of seconds.

If someone had recorded that and posted it online, it would probably have ended up in the Beijing Film Academy Textbook someday.

Matthew hurriedly checked the toad.

It had only been pretending to be dead. Once Matthew picked it up, it started kicking, and there were no visible injuries.

"Preserved Egg didn't hurt it." Matthew breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, Preserved Egg was clever enough not to hurt young witches' pets without reason.

"Familiars find their way back to their owners." He returned the toad to Neville. "Though sometimes they do it in unexpected ways."

When Neville realized the toad was alive, he burst into relieved tears and hugged it tightly, repeating, "Thank you, thank you."

The young witch relaxed at the sight too. She'd been afraid Trevor had been bitten to death by the pretty black cat.

Cats were adorable, but hunting small animals was in their nature.

She stepped forward and crouched in front of the black cat.

"Is this cat called Preserved Egg? His eyes are beautiful." She paused, then added, "And his fur is lovely too."

"Yes. You can pet him. Preserved Egg won't bite you." Matthew saw what the girl wanted and smiled.

The young witch's face brightened. She reached out and stroked Preserved Egg's back.

Preserved Egg glanced at her, then flopped down and began licking the fur on his foreleg.

After petting him for a while, the young witch seemed to remember that she hadn't introduced herself. She looked up and said, "I'm Hermione Granger, a first-year student."

Just as he'd thought: this bushy-haired girl was the Boy Who Lived's little friend, Hermione Granger.

"I'm Matthew Black, and this is Jerry Abbott. We're both third-years in Slytherin House." Matthew pointed to Jerry, who'd been sitting across from him watching the scene unfold.

Jerry gave an awkward smile and said hello. He might have been quite talkative around Matthew, but he was actually very shy and usually kept quiet around strangers.

Neville had just sat down. When he heard "Slytherin," he shrank back, then jumped to his feet again. "S-Slytherin!"

Matthew said with amusement, "Neville, sit down."

Neville glanced nervously at Matthew and Jerry, then stammered, "Grandma always says Slytherin has the most Dark Wizards..."

Matthew smiled and said to Jerry, "Slytherin certainly has a fearsome reputation."

Jerry rolled his eyes and didn't respond.

"Come to think of it, Gryffindor has just as many Dark Wizards as Slytherin." Matthew smiled. "To be precise, proportionally speaking, Slytherin has the fewest Dark Wizards these days."

Seeing Hermione's puzzled expression, Matthew explained:

"It's been peaceful for years since the Dark Lord fell, and the wizarding population has grown a lot compared with what it was over a decade ago.

"Of all the students who graduate from Hogwarts each year, fewer than one in ten can get a job at the Ministry of Magic. The same is true of other professions. Not every student can find a job after graduation.

"In peacetime, unemployed wizards are the group most likely to produce Dark Wizards.

"Most Slytherin students come from wizarding families, so they have a much easier time finding jobs than wizards born to Muggle families."

Hermione felt as if she'd been struck by lightning. She'd never considered the possibility of not finding a job after graduation. She began to wonder whether she might have to go back and take over her father's dental clinic.

Neville protested, "But Grandma says most Death Eaters were from Slytherin!"

"The Dark Lord has already fallen. The Death Eaters among the Dark Wizards are either dead or locked up in Azkaban." Matthew gave Neville a meaningful look. "The ones who aren't locked up in Azkaban aren't Dark Wizards anymore."

Neville's face quickly flushed red. He wanted to argue with Matthew, but couldn't think of where to start.

"How are students sorted into houses, then? Do the different houses have different courses? Are some better than others? Could it affect our chances of finding a job?" Hermione asked in a flurry of anxious questions.

"There's a test during the sorting. As for the rest..." Matthew spoke cryptically. "You'll find out once you've taken the test."

"There's an entrance test too?" Hermione grew even more anxious.