The Weasleys

King's Cross Station was as crowded and noisy as ever. A multitude of people, wearing all sorts of expressions and carrying all sorts of things, wove through the station. From time to time, the buzzing of arriving trains and the station's announcements rang out, adding to the clamor.

Avada Kedavra was now one of the many people in the station. At this moment, he was pulling only a medium-sized suitcase; he had nothing else with him, nor did he carry a cage of owls or other strange items like the other student wizards, which would have unnecessarily drawn attention. He navigated the station with practiced ease, reaching the space between Platform 9 and Platform 10 in just a few moments.

After a school year of studying Spatial Magic and the Vanishing Cabinet, as well as his research into Floo Powder over the summer, the spatial magic within the platform was no longer completely incomprehensible to him. At the very least, it was traceable—at this time last year, he hadn't been able to understand the magical structure at all and had to poke it before daring to walk through.

"I'm early; I didn't run into the Weasley family or Harry Potter."

He shook his head to himself. Although it didn't really matter, he felt a slight regret at not being able to personally witness the historical process. With that, he took out his ticket, held it in his hand, and walked straight toward the entrance of Platform 9 3/4...

"Ken!"

Two nearly identical voices rang out at the same time, leaving Avada unable to react for a moment as to which of the two was calling him.

"Yo, Fred, George? You guys are here too?"

He turned around to greet the two identical redheads with a smile, only to see a group of other people with red hair emerging from behind them.

Over the course of the school year, Avada had maintained a good relationship with the Weasley twins—aside from the fact that he was the one who had earned them the title of "Prank Magus," the main reason was that these two often missed dinner due to detentions and had to sneak into the kitchen to steal food before curfew. Coincidentally, that was also the time when Avada was busiest, and he often returned to the common room right at the edge of curfew. This led to him running into the twins quite frequently, far more than any other Gryffindor...

Of course, this was also because Avada would always tag along with the twins to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat whenever he saw them. If he had enough time and was in the mood, he would occasionally cook for them himself, and so, through one thing and another, they became close.

"Let me introduce him."

Fred turned to look at his family, pointing a finger at Avada with a solemn tone: "This is 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named', Ken!"

"In all of Hogwarts, from Headmaster Dumbledore down to the first-year freshmen, not a single person can say his true name. Even for the students, his real name has always been a secret; it's said that Dumbledore himself ordered it to be kept hidden!"

"Wow, that's so cool."

Soft exclamations of admiration came from the Weasley family.

"And as a token of our gratitude for taking care of our meals last year..."

Seeing Fred pause, George immediately picked up the thread: "We prefer to call him, the You-No-Full!"

"Pfft! Cough, cough, cough..."

Avada couldn't hold it in and ended up choking on his own saliva, coughing for a long time—how on earth did they come up with such an outrageous nickname?!

"There's no way to address someone like that."

A short, plump woman gave the back of George's head a slap with a look of annoyance, then turned to Avada with a smile: "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ken. I'm Molly Weasley, the mother of these two... Thank you for looking after them last year."

"You're too kind, really..."

To stall for time and wait for Harry Potter to arrive, avoiding the savior being blocked outside the platform in his first year, Avada took the opportunity to chat with the Weasley family outside the platform.

"Percy Weasley, fifth year, Gryffindor prefect. It's a pleasure to meet you."

A tall, red-headed wizard stepped forward to shake his hand: "If Fred and George dare to bother you at school, just let me know, and I'll go sort them out!"

"Hey, how can you call this bothering? You don't know how much effort we put into coming up with this title..."

Fred and George tried to protest, but slowly shrank back under Mrs. Weasley's intimidating glare.

"Ahem."

George straightened his expression and reached out to pull another red-headed child from the crowd: "This is my younger brother, Ronald Weasley—you can just call him Ron—he's just starting at Hogwarts this year."

"And this is Ginny, our youngest sister; she should be starting next year..."

He pointed to a little girl and was about to continue the introductions when he was interrupted by a voice coming from the side: "Excuse me?"

The group turned their heads in unison and caught sight of Harry Potter, who looked nervous because he couldn't find the platform.

"You're here too?"

Avada smiled at Harry: "Can't find where the platform is?"

"Ken? Ah, yes, I don't know how to get to..."

Harry froze for a moment after suddenly seeing a familiar face, then revealed a look of joy.

"That's perfect. We're just about to enter the station, so I'll demonstrate it for you. Watch closely—Mrs. Weasley, everyone, I'll head in first. See you later."

With that, he took an elegant step and easily walked into the pillar, disappearing from everyone's sight.

"That's how it's done."

Mrs. Weasley smiled kindly at Harry, then turned to look at her children: "Percy, you go too."

Never mind whether Harry would run into the platform at a trot like in the original story and then have a rough collision in the second semester, or if he could walk in elegantly like Avada, making it less embarrassing when Dobby blocked the entrance later—in any case, Avada had already witnessed the historical milestone to his satisfaction. After saying goodbye to the Weasleys once they had all entered, he pulled his luggage onto the train and began looking for a compartment.

"Yo, Cedric?"

After walking along the train for a while, Avada saw Cedric sitting alone in a compartment reading a book, so he took the initiative to step forward and greet him.

"Long time no see, Ken."

Cedric looked up and nodded at him with a smile: "Are you looking for a compartment? Would you like to sit here?"

"If you don't mind."

Avada walked into the compartment, feeling a bit surprised—he had thought Cedric would be waiting for Cho.

"How was your summer break?"

"Brilliant! My dad took me to Bulgaria to watch their Quidditch league in person. God, you have no idea, they've got this genius Seeker over there named Viktor Krum, and I heard he's still a student. He's absolutely the best Seeker I've ever seen! You didn't see that heart-stopping Wronski Feint; Merlin, it's hard to imagine he's only a little older than me..."

Once the topic turned to Quidditch, Cedric became endlessly excited, talking for a long time before finally calming down and taking a sip of water to catch his breath.

"Oh, sorry, I was just rambling on. How about you?"

"Not bad."

Avada, seeing that Cedric still seemed reluctant to move on from that spectacular match, took the opportunity to keep the Quidditch conversation going, even though he wasn't particularly interested in it: "Thanks to Baron, I got an early experience with the Nimbus Racing Broom Company's new product, the Nimbus 2000. I have to say, it really is fast and comfortable. Not only that, but I also happened to witness the birth of the project for their next broom, the Nimbus 2001..."

Cedric's eyes had already widened when he heard about the Nimbus 2000, but he forced himself not to interrupt. Avada found it somewhat amusing and quickly cut his story short, allowing Cedric to vent his excitement and envy.

"Are you two talking about new brooms?"

Just as Cedric was pestering Avada for details on how the Nimbus 2000 handled, the compartment door opened once again, and standing outside was Baron Shafiq: "Mind if I join?"

"You're more than welcome."

Cedric gestured for him to come in—after getting to know him over the past school year, almost everyone knew that Baron was a rather easygoing Slytherin who could even hold a normal conversation with Gryffindors, and they all had a pretty good impression of him.