Practicing the Summoning Charm, Encountering Miss Otter

"That's hard to say. Sorting is decided by the Sorting Ceremony," George said with a wicked grin. "Getting through the Sorting Ceremony... might be a little difficult."

"Yes!" Fred blinked, then changed tack and said regretfully, "If you want to enroll, you have to get through the terrifying Sorting Ceremony!"

Lee Jordan said solemnly, "Mate, I believe in you. It's only a duel to the death. For you, it definitely won't be hard."

The three of them were perfectly in sync. Each left behind one frightening remark, then slipped out of the compartment.

Wizet remained quite calm. "The Sorting Ceremony... shouldn't be that scary, right?"

"I can't really say either." Cho Chang could not help laughing. "We should arrive at school by evening. Everything will be revealed then."

The train left London behind and raced across the wilderness.

There were few people here, only herds of cattle and sheep to keep the train company.

It was soon twelve o'clock. Bright sunlight spilled into the compartment, and from the corridor came the clack-clack of trolley wheels.

A plump middle-aged woman pushed open the compartment door. "Anything from the trolley, dears? Sweets, cakes, snacks, pies... we've got everything."

As the middle-aged woman spoke, she took out all kinds of snacks to display.

When Wizet had been at Luna's house, what he had eaten was Xenophilius's homemade biscuits, made with Gurdyroot and flour. Their defining taste was a strong onion flavor, with no fragrance at all.

In his previous life, although the meals at the orphanage had been nutritionally balanced, the taste had been hard to describe, so he had never been very particular about food. Getting full had been the top priority.

Faced with a sudden array of choices, he turned to Cho Chang for help. "Do you have any recommendations? I've never seen any of those snacks before."

"It's a little hard to choose. They all have their own features..." Cho Chang frowned in thought. "If you want to experience the fun of snacks, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and Chocolate Frogs are all pretty good."

The snacks were extremely cheap. Wizet bought several of each snack Cho Chang mentioned, and it only cost him fifteen Bronze Knuts.

Wizet said with feeling, "This is the most magical part."

Converted to the prices of his previous life, all these snacks would only have cost around five yuan. It was unbelievably cheap.

Not only that, but the outer packaging of the snacks was brightly colored and very eye-catching.

The blue paper boxes holding the Chocolate Frogs in particular had gold edging on the top and bottom, and looked exquisitely made.

"Thank you!" Cho Chang accepted the Chocolate Frog Wizet handed her.

She opened a box of Chocolate Frog, and the Chocolate Frog inside leaped up, drawing a brown arc through the air.

Wizet's eyes were sharp and his hands quick. He gently pinched the Chocolate Frog and showed a pleasantly surprised expression. "This actually moves? That's amazing!"

Through his Magic Eye, he discovered that magic was attached to the surface of the Chocolate Frog, along with an equally blurry symbol.

"The card inside is amazing too!" Cho Chang took a card from the box.

A blurry magical symbol was attached to the card as well. Inside was an old man with a white beard, along with the person's name—Albus Dumbledore.

Dumbledore smiled and nodded gently at Wizet, then vanished from the card.

Wizet hurriedly said, "How did he disappear?"

"That's magic!" Cho Chang explained with a smile. "There are plenty of moving pictures in the wizarding world. They might leave this picture and go visiting in other pictures."

"The most valuable things in Chocolate Frogs are these cards. If you're interested, you can start collecting them too. The introductions to the people on them are quite interesting."

"Introductions?" Wizet turned the card over and began reading the brief introduction on the back.

"Widely regarded as the greatest wizard... defeated Acolyte leader Gellert Grindelwald in 1945... worked effectively in alchemy with Philosopher's Stone creator Nicolas Flamel..."

Not only was the card interesting, the Chocolate Frog tasted delicious too.

The milky aroma and chocolate scent were extremely rich. After entering his mouth, the Chocolate Frog quickly melted, filling his mouth with silky smoothness.

The bitterness balanced the cloying sweetness just right, making it worthy of the highest praise—not very sweet.

"I should send some to Luna... and Mr. Lovegood!" Wizet's eyes lit up, and he quickly ran into the corridor to look for the witch who had been selling snacks earlier...

Cho Chang seemed to be very popular in Ravenclaw, and students came by to visit from time to time.

Just after noon, another pretty brown-haired girl found her way here.

The girl was a fifth-year Ravenclaw student named Penelope Clearwater.

Penelope wrapped her arms around Cho Chang's waist and poured out her troubles. "Cho, I feel so stressed right now... This school year is my O.W.L. exams, and I ended up becoming a prefect too."

As she spoke, she tugged at the badge on her chest. The badge, made of blue and bronze, gleamed brightly.

Cho Chang patted Penelope's shoulder and comforted her. "Isn't that a good thing? I heard you have a special bathroom, and a very luxurious one at that."

"If you enjoy the benefits, you have to bear the duties." Penelope sighed softly. "For example, patrolling the train. I just changed shifts with Percy Weasley, and I have a meeting later..."

"I only came over to sit for a while during the break after changing shifts, and to practice some magic while I was at it... I couldn't cast spells over the summer holidays, and it set me back a lot."

With that, she took her wand from her pocket and handed a notebook to Cho Chang. "Cho, help me check whether I've memorized the content wrong. The Summoning Charm, the incantation is Accio..."

"This is a charm that can make a distant target fly toward oneself. Points to note when casting it... you must concentrate your will, clearly imagine the target, and it cannot be used on living creatures..."

She pointed her wand in Cho Chang's direction. "Accio Notebook!"

The notebook turned a few pages in Cho Chang's hands, then stopped moving.

"I've gotten rusty from not practicing..." Penelope looked annoyed. "I have to concentrate... imagine it clearly... Accio Notebook..."

Wizet had some impression of this spell. He flipped through The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4 in his mind, and sure enough, there was a description of the Summoning Charm inside.

The description of the Summoning Charm in The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4 was very long, and Wizet felt rather dizzy reading it.

By contrast, he understood everything in Penelope's notes, and even felt he could try it himself.

In fact, when Lee Jordan had been practicing Reparo, he had already wanted to give it a try.

It was just that the circumstances then had been special, so he had not been able to put it into action.

And now was a good time to practice.

He placed the Chocolate Frog opposite him, took out his bayonet-like wand, gave it a gentle pull backward, and said, "Accio Chocolate Frog!"

The blue box holding the Chocolate Frog trembled, then shifted twice in his direction as if tugged by a thread.

A learning environment was very important. As Penelope tried and summarized her experience, Wizet benefited a great deal as well.

As he repeatedly practiced the Summoning Charm, the distance the blue box moved grew longer and longer.

Just then, hurried footsteps came from the corridor.

"Excuse me, have you seen a toad? Neville's toad is missing..."

Wizet looked up, and a panting girl appeared before him.

The girl had a head of bushy, long brown hair, plump cheeks, and a very conspicuous pair of front teeth, making her look like a sea otter.

Wizet subconsciously wanted to take back the Chocolate Frog, but out of habit, he chanted the spell. "Accio Chocolate Frog!"

It worked!

The blue box shot into his palm at tremendous speed.

The girl's eyes widened, her face full of disbelief. "What magic was that? Why haven't I seen it in any book?"