The Talented Hermione

Li Mu looked at Hermione and was momentarily lost in thought.

He was absolutely not some perverted lolicon. He was merely thinking, Those who are meant to meet will always meet. It seemed the world had not changed because of my appearance. Not one bit.

As he thought this, Neville behind the girl also leaned in. "Could you all please help... Have you seen a toad? I can't find it... It doesn't like me!..."

By the end, the chubby boy's voice had taken on a sobbing tone, and every inch of his round face seemed to be twitching with tears.

"No!" Ron said irritably.

He had been about to perform, to put on a show before the famous Harry Potter. But Hermione had suddenly barged in and interrupted him.

Yet Hermione clearly did not notice the disgruntled expression on the freckled boy's face. Her attention had been caught by the wand in Ron's hand, and she asked excitedly, "Are you doing magic? Oh, wonderful! Can we have a look too?"

Before Ron could answer—and Hermione had no intention of letting him—she sat down across from Ron, beside Li Mu. Her eyes studied the tip of Ron's wand and Scabbers, the little rat sleeping peacefully beneath it, with great interest.

Seeing her sit down, Neville timidly took a seat beside Ron as well.

Under the stares of so many people, Ron Weasley's face flushed bright red. A feeling called embarrassment and annoyance rose within him, but there was nothing he could do in this situation.

"Er... all right," Ron said. Then he began waving his wand. "Spirits of heaven, spirits of earth, transform this stupid fat rat. Yellow will do."

The incantation ended, and the wand paused... Nothing happened. Scabbers remained sound asleep, his fur still gray.

"That's not right. I saw George cast this spell on his pet myself. It worked perfectly," Ron muttered, his face full of confusion. His cheeks were nearly as red as his hair, as though they had caught fire.

He quickly waved his wand and softly repeated the spell.

There was still no effect.

"Are you sure that was a spell? It didn't seem very effective." Hermione shook her head in disappointment. "I've tried a few spells too, and they all worked. There haven't been any wizards in my family, so I was really surprised when I received my acceptance letter. I've memorized all the textbooks, so I hope that will be enough... Oh, right. I'm Hermione Granger. And you are?"

As she finished speaking, she asked again and nodded toward Li Mu and Harry as though they were old friends meeting again. Just like in the original story, she was actually quite a lively girl.

"Hello, I'm Li Mu. This is Harry Potter, and that's Ron Weasley." Li Mu could tell that Ron had been dealt a heavy blow and that Harry did not really want to speak, so he simply answered for them both.

"Li... Mu...?" Hermione struggled to pronounce the two syllables, though her Mandarin pronunciation was authentic. "What a strange name... Are you Chinese?"

She looked at Li Mu's black hair, black eyes, and yellow skin, her face filled with puzzlement.

Li Mu nodded, and Hermione looked extremely surprised. "Oh! That's incredible. Hogwarts has never recruited students from China before! Not since the school was founded."

"Oh... really?" Li Mu scratched his head. He remembered that there seemed to be two Indian sisters in the original books, as well as Cho Chang—though her name should really have been Zhang Qiu. That important character was a person of Chinese descent who had been born and raised in England.

He had thought that since India could send overseas students and there were Chinese students attending, Hogwarts recruiting from China would not be such a big deal... Yet he turned out to be the first Chinese international student in history.

"It's true! The appendix of Hogwarts: A History records the enrollment details of every class. In the thousand years since Hogwarts was founded, it has never recruited a student from China... Wait!" Hermione suddenly cried out halfway through her explanation.

"What is it?"

The girl's cry was high-pitched and sharp, and the other boys in the compartment instinctively covered their ears.

"You just said he was Har... Harry..." Hermione had already turned her head. She looked at the equally black-haired Harry. "Harry Potter! You really are Harry Potter? Oh, I know so much about you!"

Harry met Hermione's gaze. He felt a little awkward and could only force a smile.

But Hermione Granger continued chattering excitedly. "Modern Wizard, The Rise and Fall of Mysterious Arts in the Twentieth Century and Major Magical Events, and The Rise and Fall of Dark Arts... All those books mentioned you."

"Oh, really? Those books mentioned me too?" Harry forced a smile.

Harry had long known from Li Mu that many books in the wizarding world mentioned him. Still, he would bet that Li Mu could never recite so many book titles.

And that was indeed the case. Watching Hermione's excited expression, Li Mu felt deeply moved. A top student really was a top student! At the very least, he had also finished reading Hogwarts: A History, and after more than eight years of cultivation, Li Mu believed his memory far surpassed that of ordinary people. Yet he truly could not recall the specific contents of that appendix.

He was incredibly curious about how this girl's brain was constructed.

Hermione then rattled off a few more lines about Harry's glorious history. As she spoke, she suddenly slapped her forehead. "Right... We still have to find Neville's toad!"

It seemed she had only just remembered it. She immediately stood up again, while Neville's round face seemed to relax in relief as he rose too. Just as the two were about to leave, Hermione turned back and asked Li Mu and the others, "Aren't you going to help look?"

The words came out in a tone as though it were only natural.

Ron had not yet recovered from his earlier anger, and the dissatisfaction in his eyes grew stronger. Harry felt somewhat annoyed as well.

However, Li Mu had already agreed.

"All right, helping others is a good thing... Besides, I was planning to look around anyway." Li Mu stood as he spoke. Perhaps because of her gender, age, and looks, he did not find Hermione's arrogance unpleasant. Instead, he found it rather cute.

Besides, helping look for a toad was not some great hardship. Friends helped each other and faced difficulties together—that was how friendship was forged.

Seeing that he had made his position clear, Harry and Ron stood up as well, though they were not especially willing.

A brilliant smile spread across Hermione's lips, her bright eyes and white teeth shining. "Wonderful, you're all good people. Thank you!"

Neville nodded his chubby head repeatedly and thanked them again and again. That finally made Ron and the others feel a little better.

They were children, after all. There was no real grudge they could not get past.

It was New Year's!

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Happy New Year, everyone.

(End of Chapter)