The Weasley twins finally left without giving Breeze a hard time. As they put it, teasing their little brother was much more fun than playing a prank on a younger student around their own age.
"They're finally gone. I think I can spend the rest of the train ride in peace..."
"Bang!"
Oh, Merlin's holey socks, the ones he'd left in a cheese jar all summer and then put back on!
The compartment door was soon yanked open again. Breeze looked toward it in exasperation. This time, it was a girl who looked like a first-year, with thick brown hair and a prominent pair of front teeth.
"Have you seen a toad? Neville's lost his."
Breeze thought the girl seemed rather self-important. Her gaze swept haughtily over the compartment, but when she saw him, she looked flustered and said stiffly, "Have you..."
Breeze also thought she was putting on an air of confidence to make people think she was capable, but the hand holding her wand had nervously rubbed its handle.
"Sorry, I haven't seen one. But you can look around, of course. Lots of people have been coming and going."
Breeze smiled. It was a small thing, and certainly friendlier than the Weasley twins barging in with a bag of spiders.
"Oh, sorry. I suppose I should look somewhere else. By the way, I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger."
After introducing herself, Hermione Granger immediately closed the door and hurried off.
Breeze shook his head, picked up his Transfiguration book, and started reading again. Before long, though, he heard another knock. It was the trolley witch. Breeze bought a few things; after all that commotion, he was hungry.
But after he'd eaten his fill, Breeze heard someone passing outside. It was Draco Malfoy. Earlier, he'd gone to find Harry Potter with two big lads, apparently to make friends, but it seemed he'd failed.
Tsk. Arrogant Malfoy hadn't won the friendship of the poor Savior. Hopefully, the Savior hadn't been frightened by the two big first-years and Malfoy's pale face.
"The train will arrive at Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train; we'll have it sent to the school for you."
As time passed, it grew dark outside the windows. When Breeze heard a Prefect call out that they should get ready to disembark, he took out his robes and changed, then put his books away in his trunk.
The train slowed and finally came to a stop. There was a crush of people outside the compartments as the first-years hurried toward the doors. Breeze didn't rush. He waited until everyone else had gotten off before leaving.
Outside was a tiny, dark platform packed with nervous first-years. The Giant Breeze had seen in Diagon Alley was holding a lantern. Its light glimmered on hair of every color. Breeze's black hair blended in without standing out, but a closer look revealed a soft purple sheen in its glossy darkness. It was beautiful, and anyone knowledgeable enough to notice would recognize it as a sign of pure magic.
Just like Breeze's pitch-black eyes: pure and powerful. Usually, only a powerful Pure-blood wizard lineage could produce a child like that.
Unfortunately, such traits were rare, and little had been recorded about them. Even Breeze himself couldn't tell whether his parents had been wizards or people with unusual powers.
Breeze pulled his robes tighter and muttered, "It's a bit cold here. Are we in northern Britain?"
The night chill made the first-years around him shiver. As the lantern in the Giant's hand swayed, Breeze heard him bellow, "First-years! First-years, over here! Harry, over here! How are you?"
Harry?
This Harry Potter really was famous. But was that Giant a professor at the school? He didn't look very reliable.
Looking at the Giant's good-natured—or perhaps vacant—expression, Breeze began to worry about the quality of Hogwarts' teaching.
Following the Giant, Breeze joined the line of first-years, while the older students headed down another, wider-looking path.
"Come along, follow me. Any more first-years? Mind your step. Right! First-years, follow me!"
The path was rough and full of bumps. Breeze had to pay close attention as he made his way along the narrow, pitch-black trail. Just then, as expected, a first-year beside him tripped and grabbed Breeze's robe as he fell.
"Oh, honestly..."
Breeze quickly stomped down hard to steady himself.
"Oh, who did that? My robes!" Draco Malfoy, a short distance away, glared at Breeze. Well, Breeze hadn't expected the muddy patch on the ground. Unfortunately, Malfoy had borne the brunt of it.
"S-sorry. I nearly fell."
The boy beside Breeze lowered his head. He looked as though he was about to cry, his shoulders quivering and his eyes brimming with tears.
He muttered, "I was so worried about Trevor that I didn't watch where I was going..."
All right, Breeze knew who this was: Neville, the boy who'd lost his toad. If he wasn't mistaken, that meddlesome Miss Hermione Granger would be along any moment.
"Hmph, I don't care whether you fell. I only care who dirtied my robes. They're made of the finest material, and I doubt you could afford to pay for them."
Draco Malfoy fixed Breeze with a sharp look. In the faint moonlight, he seemed to recognize him. His expression changed, and somehow grew even uglier.
"I wondered who it was. So it's you, you poor little boy. I was curious why you weren't wearing secondhand robes, but I can tell your new ones aren't worth as much as one of my socks."
All right. Breeze's good mood—and his intention to apologize to Draco Malfoy—vanished.
Breeze wore his wand around his right wrist like a bracelet, making it easy to use. As if sensing his thoughts, the wand sprang neatly into his hand.
"Lumos!"
Light sprang from Breeze's wand. He knew the spell well enough to make the light float in midair, letting him take a good look at the pallor and fury on Malfoy's face, as well as the mud on his robes. A small smear had even gotten onto his platinum hair and flushed cheek, though he hadn't noticed it, and neither had his friends, who stood behind him.
Well, Breeze was a kind-hearted person.
"What are you doing?"
Malfoy tensed when he saw Breeze draw his wand, but he pretended to be calm and drawled, "My father is a School Governor. What do you think you're doing? Want to get expelled? A first-year expelled before he's even started school—your name will go down in Hogwarts, A History."
"You're bullying another student!"
The brown-haired, meddlesome Miss Hermione Granger came over. First, she shielded the tearful boy behind her, then challenged Malfoy. "No one's going to be expelled over something like this. Even if your father is a School Governor, you shouldn't have that kind of privilege!"
Malfoy glanced at Miss Hermione Granger. After one setback after another, he was in a foul mood. He sneered, "Hmph, where did this Mud—"
Before Malfoy could finish, Breeze flicked his wand. He smiled at Malfoy and said, "Scourgify!"
At Breeze's spell, the mud vanished from Malfoy's robes.
It was a useful cleaning charm. Breeze tapped Malfoy's cheek with the tip of his wand, then looked at the fury in his eyes. "Ah, sorry, Young Malfoy. But we'd better catch up. The Giant's finally noticed what's going on behind him and stopped up ahead."
Breeze walked around Malfoy and extinguished the light from Lumos. Hogwarts, A History mentioned that the Four Founders had walked this path. Cho Chang hadn't told him, but Breeze had read the book, and he was willing to follow the school's rules in a small matter like this.
Of course, no one noticed that Breeze had secretly cast an Obscuring Charm on Malfoy. The nervous first-years probably wouldn't have noticed.
"All right, Miss Granger. Thanks for your help. I'm Breeze Order. I don't think we should waste any more time."
"Oh, of course. I mean, you can call me Hermione."
"Then you can call me Breeze."
If being meddlesome meant helping Breeze, he didn't mind having a friend like her. Hermione seemed like a kind, fair-minded girl with a strong sense of justice. Breeze liked making friends with fair-minded people—though they couldn't be too rigid. Sometimes, he liked to do as he pleased.
Once the line was back in order, they rounded a bend.
"Once you've rounded this bend, you'll get your first glimpse of Hogwarts."
The Giant muttered, "Hope nothing happened back there. I was watching Harry and didn't see."
Beyond the narrow path, they saw a vast black lake.
On the far shore, a magnificent castle stood atop a high mountainside, its towers rising against the night. Window after window glimmered beneath the stars. Breeze thought it was beautiful, and his unease faded. This was where he'd live for the next seven years. The secrets of magic were all here.
Many little boats floated on the lake.
The Giant shouted, "No more than four to a boat!"
Breeze, Hermione, and the tearful Neville sat in one boat. They'd fallen a little behind, so there was no fourth passenger. Across from them were Malfoy and his friends, while the two big lads had a boat to themselves.
Breeze could see Harry Potter in the boat at the very front. He'd stayed beside the Giant the whole way.
"Duck!" the Giant shouted as the first boats approached the cliff, but he was the only one who needed to duck.
After they got off the boat, Breeze heard a chorus of "Ribbit! Ribbit!"
"That's my Trevor! Thank Merlin!"
Neville cried out in delight and picked up the toad on the shore. Breeze wasn't sure what little wizards saw in toads. Hermione clearly wasn't, either.
Malfoy snorted as he got off the boat.
"Tsk, toads are so outdated, and they're slimy. You should toss it into the Black Lake and let it fend for itself."
Watching Malfoy walk away, Neville was still lost in the joy of getting his toad back. Breeze pursed his lips. It wasn't aimed at him, after all. Only Miss Hermione, with her overblown sense of justice, would glare at Malfoy.
The Giant led everyone to the front of Hogwarts Castle.
"Knock, knock, knock!"
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