Wizards Have Some Very Strange Tastes / You Can Choose Your Own House

He dragged a heap of hastily packed luggage behind him and looked at the two of them awkwardly, his eyes full of hope.

"Of course you can. Have a seat!" Hermione said generously, pointing to the empty spot beside Harry.

"Oh, thank you so much! I... I'm Neville Longbottom. It's nice to meet you."

Neville seemed a little shy, and he spoke rather slowly. Seeing this, Harry couldn't help forcing an awkward smile.

Mm, not the best start, huh?

Harry had actually hoped to run into a troublemaker like Malfoy on the train. That would have let him get started causing a ruckus much sooner. But if it was an honest kid like Neville, he really couldn't bring himself to pick a fight.

Especially after he realized Neville wasn't just honest, but kindhearted too. Harry felt even worse about bullying him.

"Harry, it's really nice that you got to stay with the Granger family... If you'd ended up with my family, you might've been like me and gotten scolded by my gran all the time."

"Your family was on the list of families willing to foster children too? So your grandmother's a witch as well?"

Hermione and Neville got along pretty well. Neville seemed a little dopey, but apart from Hagrid and Quirrell, he was the third person to approve of Harry changing his surname. That made Hermione feel that he respected her family too.

"Yes... Gran's a witch, and she's got a really fierce temper! Whenever I forget something, she... Oh, no! My Trevor's missing!"

Neville seemed to have a hard time with his grandmother. Whenever he mentioned the old woman, he would instinctively start checking the things around him. And now he'd discovered that his pet was missing!

"Oh no! I have to find Trevor!"

After rummaging through his luggage until it was a complete mess and still finding nothing, Neville hurried out of the compartment in a panic.

"Let's go see if we can help," Harry said, shrugging helplessly. "He'll never find him like that. We can take Crookshanks and help."

Neville was far too shy. Unless the other students already knew him, they probably wouldn't be eager to talk to him. Searching blindly like this, he might not find Trevor before they got off the train.

Hermione's Crookshanks, on the other hand, wasn't an ordinary cat.

Harry had talked to Scamander quite a bit to make sure they were looking after the cat properly, and had also sent him some samples, including blood and fur.

From Scamander's reply, Harry and Hermione learned that Crookshanks had some Kneazle blood!

He had a keen sense of smell and was exceptionally clever. No matter where Harry hid the "special treats" he'd carefully prepared, Crookshanks could easily sniff them out.

So, after raising a cat for a thousand days, it was time to put him to work.

"Coo." Hedwig, for her part, hopped onto Harry's shoulder without being asked.

Hedwig wasn't a stupid bird. With the two people and the cat leaving the compartment, why would she stay behind by herself?

Chapter 30: Wizards Have Some Very Strange Tastes

"Oh no! Trevor... I can't find him anywhere! This is a disaster..."

Sure enough, as soon as Harry and Hermione stepped out of the compartment, they saw Neville again, looking utterly dejected.

He'd just gone around asking people in several compartments, but either they didn't know or they simply didn't want to help him. He was at a loss over what to do.

When he learned Hermione was willing to let Crookshanks help him search, Neville thanked them over and over.

At the same time, he awkwardly realized that he'd been searching in completely the wrong direction.

And so, the three of them set off again to look for Neville's missing pet toad.

Thanks to Crookshanks's excellent sense of smell, they soon pinpointed a compartment. Through the window, they saw Trevor perched there, pretending to be a Chocolate Frog.

The atmosphere inside the compartment, however, wasn't exactly harmonious.

Two groups stood facing off in the doorway... well, to be precise, one person was simply being picked on by a group.

Harry recognized one of them: the leader of the bullies was Malfoy, whom he'd met in Diagon Alley.

This time, he'd brought two lackeys with him. Their looks didn't matter much; they were both about as big as Dudley, and just as ugly.

Facing off against them was a red-haired boy with a few freckles on his face.

There were two other people in the compartment, but they were huddled in a corner and had no intention of getting involved. They were clearly keeping their heads down to stay out of trouble.

"Looks like my father was right. Everyone in the Weasley family has red hair and a face full of freckles, and there are so many kids they can't afford to raise them. With that shabby look, you wouldn't be welcome anywhere."

Malfoy sneered at the red-haired boy. With every word, his expression grew more contemptuous.

The two lackeys behind him lifted their noses higher and higher in support... like those two fools who served Master Hua.

"Say that again!" the red-haired boy shouted angrily, though there was a hint of bitterness in his voice.

In a way, Malfoy was right about his family.

The red-haired boy really was poor. He'd never had much pocket money, and everything he owned had been handed down from his older brothers. The other two boys in the compartment could happily share snacks they'd just bought, while he could only sit alone and chew on a homemade sandwich that was dry enough to choke him.

Of course nobody wanted to be friends with him...

"Malfoy, are you done talking?" Harry's impatient sneer came from behind him. "If you are, move aside. Don't keep us from helping Neville find his pet."

"Harry, you're hanging around with the Longbottoms?" Malfoy turned around and, seeing Harry, gave a mocking smile. "I suppose you can only hang around with weirdos like him now."

"Is that so?" Harry raised an eyebrow, unconcerned. "I think Neville's a lot more pleasant to look at than your two big, dumb lackeys. Birds of a feather flock together. An idiot, a moron, and a bastard—you three make a perfect match."

"Why, you—!"

"What did you say?"

At those words, Malfoy's two lackeys flew into a rage. One of them even impulsively raised his fist.

"Harry, you want to fight me again?" Malfoy glared at Harry, his face dark. "This time, I'll make you regret it!"

"That sounds like a good idea. Hermione, stand back."

Harry wholeheartedly approved of Malfoy wanting to fight here. He'd been hoping to stir up trouble, and now it was being handed to him on a platter.

"Uh..." But when Malfoy saw Harry immediately take up a fighting stance, he started to lose his nerve.

His side had three people, but if they didn't count that Mudblood witch, the other side had Harry, a Longbottom, and three Weasleys.

On top of that, they were being surrounded from both sides. If they got into a brawl, that bastard Harry would definitely take the opportunity to come after him!

And besides...

"Coo!" Hedwig, who'd been dozing peacefully on Harry's shoulder, suddenly opened her bright eyes.

"Meow!" Crookshanks fluffed up his ginger fur and fixed his gaze on Malfoy.

"Hmph! I'll let you off this time. When you're at Hogwarts, you'd all better watch your backs!"

After carefully weighing the threat posed by Hedwig's and Crookshanks's claws, Malfoy decided the best way to resolve the conflict was to let it die down.

He made a few threats, then slunk away with his tail between his legs.

"Ugh, what a coward. He wasted my time for nothing."

Harry curled his lip in disdain. It seemed his plan to get a formal reprimand right at the start of term was well and truly doomed.

"Trevor!" Once things had calmed down, Neville dashed into the compartment with a strange cry and carefully lifted his pet toad off the window.

"Meow..."

"Crookshanks, it's all right. It's over now." Seeing her cat still growling warily, Hermione quickly picked him up and soothed him.

"Could you put your rat away?" Harry asked, ever observant, as he realized what had really made Crookshanks's fur stand on end.

Crookshanks hadn't been showing off at Malfoy and his lot. He'd been reacting to the gray rat in the red-haired boy's hand.

Mm, a toad, a rat, and a snack shaped like a frog stuck to the window... Wizards really do have some strange tastes.

"Oh, sure!" The red-haired boy hastily put away his rat, then held out his hand to Harry. "Thanks, everyone. I'm Ron, Ron Weasley. If you hadn't been here today... I wouldn't have known how to handle things."

"We were just passing by while helping Neville look for his pet." Harry shook Ron's hand naturally, but that was all.

By now, Harry could more or less match the people he met in real life to the characters from the original films. He knew the boy in front of him was the original story's second male lead. Even so, Harry had no intention of striking up much of a conversation with him.

Harry had come to school to get expelled. Apart from Hermione, he didn't need to pay much attention to anyone else.

"Five minutes until the train arrives at Hogwarts. Please leave your luggage on the train; we'll have it delivered to the school for you."

At that moment, an announcement from the train reminded them that they were approaching the station. Harry didn't want to keep the conversation going, so he took the opportunity to say goodbye to Ron and headed back with Neville to change into their school robes.

Hermione had already changed.

Being prepared for anything was one of Miss Granger's mottos. In fact, during the wait to start school, Hermione had already memorized every single first-year textbook.

Of course, Harry had secretly studied them too.

Although he'd made up his mind to get expelled and was always saying he didn't want to be a wizard... he had to admit that the Wizarding World's fascinating novelties were pretty appealing.

Ah, so humanity's three great truths really are... "I don't want it," "I don't want it," and "I do want it."

Chapter 31: You Can Choose Your Own House

Night fell. The train, which had been running all afternoon, slowed to a stop, and the students began filing out through the doors.

"First-years! First-years, over here! Hey, Harry, Hermione, are you all right?"

Harry had just stepped off the train onto the dark, cramped platform when Hagrid's voice, like a motorcycle engine, boomed out.

The enormous Hagrid waved a lantern at Harry. Its dim yellow light traced shifting lines through the darkness, making it look like a giant firefly spinning in place.

"All first-years, follow me! We're crossing the Black Lake by boat!"

Hagrid led the new students down the narrow path leading away from the platform, and eventually they reached a vast, dark lake.

On the hillside across the lake stood a tall, ancient-looking castle. That was Hogwarts, the children's destination.

"Remember, no more than four people in each boat!"

Hagrid called out to remind the students, but Harry couldn't be bothered to find someone to share a boat with. He simply took Hermione and boarded Hagrid's.

As for Neville... he was scrambling around in a panic, because Trevor had gone missing again.

The new students crossed the Black Lake in their little boats. Waiting for them at the castle doors on the other side was a tall, thin witch in emerald-green robes, already well along in years.

Professor McGonagall... one of the people Harry had met when he was little.

When Dumbledore decided to place him with the Dursley family, Professor McGonagall had strongly objected. Unfortunately, she'd eventually been talked around.

Damn it. To stop me from growing up spoiled under the influence of my Boy Who Lived halo, you let my awful relatives abuse me in every way imaginable... Old Dumbledore's thinking is seriously bizarre!

Professor McGonagall was definitely a stern, upright witch. But Harry was disappointed that although she coldly droned on and on to the students about Hogwarts' rules and regulations, she never mentioned the question he cared about most.

Come on, you can't just take points off when we break the rules!

At least tell me what kind of mischief I need to get into to successfully get expelled!

"Anyway, the House Cup is a great honor! I hope..." Professor McGonagall stopped mid-sentence. "Mr. Longbottom, please put away your pet and stand up at once!"

Professor McGonagall's lecture was finally interrupted by a toad on her foot and Neville, who had tumbled onto her foot along with it.

Thanks to Neville's heroic performance, the new students—who'd already been worn down by her earnest lecture—could finally enter the Hogwarts Great Hall.

It was a huge, beautifully decorated hall, ablaze with light. The ceiling above shimmered with Lumos, creating the magical impression that they were beneath an endless starry sky.

The long tables in the middle of the hall were already laden with a dazzling assortment of food.

The smell made many hungry first-years swallow eagerly, but they could only stand in line and suffer in silence. Before they could sit down, they had to go through the Sorting Ceremony.

Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool at the front of the line. A very battered wizard's hat sat on top of it.

The hat was covered in patches and looked old and dirty. The tip was especially bad; the grime had built up until it looked polished smooth.

Then, while everyone stared at the hat and the whole hall fell silent, it began to sing...

Uh... its song was enough to ruin anyone's appetite, so I'll skip it!

In short, the Sorting Hat's song told the new students what kind of sorting they were about to undergo. Meanwhile, Professor McGonagall had brought out the list of this year's first-years.

"When I call your name, please put on the Sorting Hat and sit on the stool to be sorted." Professor McGonagall glanced at the parchment in her hands and called out the first name. "Hannah Abbott!"

A little girl with a golden braid and rosy cheeks stepped out of line. Looking nervous, she put on the Sorting Hat.

Harry vaguely recognized the name. After all, when Dawlish had tried to persuade him earlier, Abbott had been the first family he'd mentioned.

Hannah Abbott... Mm, Hermione really is better.

"A timid nature, not very good at handling pressure..."

"Hm?" Harry's expression shifted. He thought he'd just heard a particularly lecherous voice judging the students.