Returning to Hogwarts

For Su Yu, the summer vacation had passed far too quickly. Though he longed for life at Hogwarts, the peace and modern comforts of home were things he wanted too. Sigh...

The weather in London was exceptionally fine today, with such brilliant sunshine being a rare sight.

The gloomy clouds of recent days seemed to have been blown away by magic. The sky was a clean, gentle blue, and King's Cross Station bustled with people. The rumble of suitcase wheels, conversations, and laughter blended together without seeming noisy in the least. Sunlight streamed through the station's towering glass windows, casting bright patches across the floor, as though even the weather were welcoming the new school year.

Just like the previous year, Su Yu wandered through King's Cross Station in a sleepwalking daze. His eyes were half-open, half-closed, reflecting the enormous chandelier hanging from the station ceiling, but the light did not seem to reach his brain.

This time, however, Sister Ka was holding his hand the entire way. She walked on his left, one hand clasping his while the other pushed her trolley. She guided Su Yu forward, making sure he would not walk into a pillar or step on someone's feet.

"Su Yu, could you wake up a little?" Sister Ka shook his hand helplessly. "If you walk onto the platform like this, people will think I brought along a living corpse."

"Mm..." Su Yu responded with a meaningless sound.

Sister Ka sighed and resigned herself to continuing to lead him onward.

Sister Fa followed behind with Nine-Tailed Fox in her arms, while butler Carson pushed the trolley. Nine-Tailed Fox lay in Sister Fa's embrace, still not fully awake, her ears drooping and her tail hanging down, swaying gently. Carson pushed the heavily laden trolley, its luggage piled higher than a person. Azure Phoenix's woven bamboo cage sat on top, and Azure Phoenix was crouched inside with her head tucked under her wings, napping as well.

Hermione had been waiting for them on the platform for ages. She stood beside the entrance to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, standing on tiptoe to look their way, ticket clenched in her hand. The moment she saw Su Yu and the others approaching, she rushed over and said in a rapid, anxious voice, "What took you so long? Hurry, hurry! I've already found seats. If we're any later, there won't be any left!"

"The train isn't going anywhere," Su Yu mumbled.

Hermione glared at him before turning and heading into the train. Sister Ka led Su Yu after her, and Sister Fa followed while carrying Nine-Tailed Fox.

Platform Nine and Three-Quarters was much the same as before. The deep-red Hogwarts Express stood on the tracks, steam billowing from the engine and spreading into white mist beneath the arched glass roof. The platform was full of people—parents seeing their children off, students returning to school, and several owls hooting in their cages.

Hermione led them toward the front of the train and pushed open a compartment door. Su Yu went inside and promptly lay down on Sister Ka's lap, rubbing against it comfortably before finding the perfect angle and closing his eyes. Sister Ka looked down at him, reached out to brush aside the loose strands of hair over his forehead, said nothing, and opened the magazine she had brought along with her free hand.

Sister Fa sat opposite them and placed Nine-Tailed Fox beside her. Nine-Tailed Fox yawned, revealing two sharp fangs, then lay down with her chin resting on Sister Fa's lap. Sister Fa took out a heap of bottles and jars from her bag. Su Yu squinted at them and realized they were all cosmetics—foundation, eyeshadow palettes, lipstick, enough varieties to make it seem as though she had moved her entire vanity table aboard. Hermione sat beside Sister Fa, took a thick book from her bag, and opened it to the dog-eared page.

Hermione peeked over the top of the pages, then immediately leaned closer, her eyes shining. That focused expression was exactly the same as when she attended Potions. She nodded as she watched, occasionally asking detailed questions like, "How do you use this brush?" and "How do you draw eyeliner without making it crooked?"

Nine-Tailed Fox leaned over to look as well, but lost interest after a while and buried her face back in Sister Fa's lap.

Lying on Sister Ka's lap and listening to Sister Fa seriously teach Hermione, Su Yu could not help twitching at the corner of his mouth. The dignified magical princess of Slytherin was actually holding a Muggle makeup class aboard the Hogwarts Express. No matter how he looked at it, the scene felt utterly out of place.

Then again, Hermione really did need to learn some of this. It was not that she was unattractive; she simply never cared much about such things. Sometimes her hair was a mess and she did not bother to fix it, while her clothing combinations depended entirely on her mood. It was a complete waste of her good looks.

As Su Yu let his thoughts wander, the compartment door was pulled open from outside.

Daphne stood in the doorway. Her golden hair had grown longer since before the summer, falling neatly down her back. She wore a simple yet elegant cream-colored dress, and she seemed somewhat more mature than last year, though the gentle expression on her face was still as refreshing as a spring breeze.

"I finally found you all," Daphne said with a smile, her gaze falling on Su Yu as he lay on Sister Ka's lap. A trace of amusement flashed through her eyes.

Then, as naturally as could be, she lifted Su Yu's legs, sat down, and placed his legs across her own lap.

Sister Ka and Sister Fa exchanged a look and simultaneously revealed meaningful smiles.

Su Yu, meanwhile, sat up and hugged Daphne tightly. Lowering his head, he buried his face in the hollow of her neck and took a deep breath of the fragrance he had not smelled for more than two months.

"How was your holiday, Daphne?" Su Yu's voice was muffled against her shoulder.

"It was all right," Daphne sighed, one hand around Su Yu's back while the other stroked his hair. "Didn't I tell you all about it in my letters? Mother kept training me in the bearing a future heir should have. I was exhausted every day. Walking, speaking, eating, sitting posture—everything had to be practiced."

"But I wanted to hear you say it in person," Su Yu replied, lifting his head from her shoulder and looking into her eyes seriously.

Daphne's face reddened slightly, and the smile in her eyes deepened.

"By the way," Su Yu said, "didn't you say your sister was coming to Hogwarts this year too?"

"That's right," Daphne said, shifting slightly to let Su Yu lean against her. "She's in the first-years' compartment. I came late because I was seeing her off just now." She paused, then added, "I also saw that girl called Ginny you mentioned in your letters. She was there too. But she seemed especially late, rushing over in a whirlwind with her hair flying everywhere. That red hair of the Weasley family is really easy to recognize."

The girls all greeted Daphne as well. Sister Fa looked up from her notebook and smiled at her. Sister Ka put down her magazine and nodded. Hermione was the first to speak. "Daphne! You look so pretty today!"

But when Sister Fa and Sister Ka teasingly said, "Su Yu's stepmother is here," Daphne still blushed furiously. She lowered her head and pretended to straighten Su Yu's collar.

"Enough, you two," Su Yu said as he sat up from Daphne's embrace. "My Daphne is the gentlest."

Sister Fa shrugged, Sister Ka smiled, and after exchanging another look, neither said anything more.

They ate and drank all the way there. Hermione took out a bag of sweets, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and Chocolate Frog from her bag and placed them on the table. Nine-Tailed Fox contributed several slices of cheesecake—she had apparently stolen them from the kitchen at some point and wrapped them in greaseproof paper. Su Yu bought a trolleyful of snacks, naturally using Nine-Tailed Fox's money.

Su Yu ate a few biscuits, drank a glass of pineapple juice, and lay back down on Sister Ka's lap. After finishing her own slice of cake, Nine-Tailed Fox began stealing Su Yu's biscuits. Sister Fa smacked her paw, and she withdrew it, only to stretch it out again when Sister Fa turned away.

At one point, Hermione went looking for Harry and Ron. She wanted to see how her two precious sons were doing; Su Yu had taught Hermione that term of address.

She walked from one end of the corridor to the other, poking her head into every compartment, but found no trace of Harry or Ron. When she returned to the compartment, her face held the baffled look of someone thinking, This isn't scientific.

"I couldn't find them," Hermione said. "I searched the whole train. They couldn't have failed to board, could they?"

Hearing that, Su Yu slowly turned his head toward the sky outside the window, then raised a hand and pointed at the clouds.

Hermione and the others crowded by the window and were astonished to discover Harry and Ron flying high in the air in a sky-blue Ford Anglia. The car lurched and swayed like a drunken metal bird.

Harry, who had not fastened his seat belt, was nearly falling out of the car. The door was open, and more than half his body had already slid outside. Only his hands clung to the door, with his entire weight hanging from them. The wind whipped his robes wildly and blew his hair backward, distorting his face. Ron was inside, pulling at Harry's collar, but Ron's own position was unsteady, and he could fall out with him at any moment.

Hermione screamed, her mouth hanging open as she froze completely, unable to react.

Sister Fa was the one who responded quickly. She immediately drew her wand, stretched it out the window, and gave it a flick. An invisible force shot from the tip and struck Harry in the backside. Harry was shoved back into the car by the force and landed on the seat with a bang. The door swung shut, the car wobbled twice, then steadied again.

Hermione was so stunned that she still had not reacted. Her mouth remained open, her eyes wide.

Su Yu sighed.

Those two truly could not scrape together a single brain between them. The idiots had to turn an ordinary bout of lateness into something worthy of expulsion before they were satisfied. If Harry were not the protagonist, being seen like that by six or seven Muggles would have meant certain expulsion. It was a serious crime at the Ministry of Magic. The scheme Lucius had struggled so hard to devise to bring Arthur down seemed, compared to Ron and Harry, like something dreamed up by a child playing in mud.

Only Hermione worried throughout the journey, lifting her head from time to time to look at those two idiots outside.

Sister Fa remained calm and continued putting on makeup. Sister Ka read her magazine, occasionally glancing out the window. Daphne leaned beside Su Yu, tracing circles across the back of his hand with her finger. Having finished the last slice of cake, Nine-Tailed Fox lay on the table napping, her tail swaying back and forth.

Before long, the train arrived.

The Hogwarts Express slowly came to a stop at the pitch-black platform, steam pouring out from beneath its wheels and spreading into white mist in the night wind.

This year, they no longer needed to take the little boats. Professor Flitwick stood on the platform. His small stature made him almost impossible to spot in the crowd, but his pointed wizard's hat gave away his location. Standing on tiptoe and waving his arms, he directed the older students toward the Thestral carriages.

The Thestral carriages waited in the parking area outside the platform. Carrying Nine-Tailed Fox in his arms, Su Yu followed the crowd forward. He still could not see Thestrals, having never witnessed death. He climbed into a carriage, followed by Daphne, then Sister Ka, then Sister Fa. Hermione came last, still clutching the bag of unfinished sweets.

The carriage traveled through the darkness, its wheels crunching over the gravel road.

Everyone arrived in the hall. This time, they were the ones waiting for the first-year witches and wizards. Su Yu sat beside the Slytherin table with Nine-Tailed Fox in his arms, his gaze casually sweeping across the staff table. Headmaster Dumbledore sat in the middle, his long silver-white beard hanging to his chest. Professor McGonagall sat beside him with a stern expression, while Professor Flitwick was saying something to Professor Sprout.

And among the professors sat a particularly eye-catching figure—Gilderoy Lockhart.

He wore an outrageously luxurious aqua-blue robe, his golden curls gleaming beneath the candlelight. His signature dazzlingly white teeth were on full display whenever he smiled. He waved at the students in the Great Hall, looking like a superstar walking a red carpet and making no attempt to conceal how much he enjoyed being the center of attention.

Su Yu noticed that Professor Snape's seat was the only empty one at the staff table. He guessed Snape had gone to rescue Harry and Ron. That tsundere had clearly been extremely worried after hearing the news and secretly gone out to look for them, yet he would rather die than admit it.

The Great Hall doors opened, and Professor McGonagall led the first-year students inside.

The new students stood in a line, each one pale with nervousness. Some were even trembling. The battered Sorting Hat sat on a stool, a tear in its brim making it look as though it were grinning.

The Sorting Ceremony began.

Professor McGonagall unfurled a parchment and called out the first name.

One new student after another stepped forward and put on the Sorting Hat. It twitched on their heads for several seconds before loudly declaring their assigned house. Whenever a student was sorted into a house, cheers and applause erupted from the corresponding table.

"Astoria Greengrass."

When Professor McGonagall called that name, Su Yu felt Daphne tense slightly beside him. Astoria stepped out of the line, her pace so light that she seemed to be taking a stroll rather than attending a Sorting Ceremony. She sat on the stool, and Professor McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on her head.

The hat remained on her head longer than Su Yu had expected. About a dozen seconds passed before it finally shouted—

"SLYTHERIN!"

Enthusiastic applause immediately rang out from the Slytherin table. Daphne visibly relaxed, a brilliant smile appearing on her face as she clapped with all her might. Astoria removed the hat and looked toward the Slytherin table. The moment she spotted her sister, her eyes lit up. She jogged over and sat down beside Daphne.

"Big sister!" Astoria happily hugged Daphne, then turned to Su Yu and blinked. "Hello, Prefect Su Yu."

Su Yu smiled and nodded. "Congratulations on joining Slytherin."

"I knew I would get into Slytherin." Astoria proudly raised her chin. "Everyone in our family has been in Slytherin."

Daphne reached out and ruffled her sister's hair, her expression both proud and affectionate.

The Sorting Ceremony continued.

"Ginny Weasley."

When Professor McGonagall called that name, the Gryffindor table immediately fell silent. The twin brothers Fred and George craned their necks to look at their sister, their expressions even more nervous than Ginny's own.

Ginny took a deep breath, walked to the stool, and sat down. The moment the Sorting Hat settled on her head, it made its decision almost instantly—

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Deafening cheers erupted from the Gryffindor table. Fred and George leaped up from their seats, whistling and shouting in celebration. Percy applauded with a relieved expression, looking for all the world like an old father watching his daughter.

Ginny rose from the stool and walked toward the Gryffindor table, a shy yet proud smile on her face. Su Yu noticed her quickly glance toward Slytherin, likely looking for him.

Then Professor McGonagall called Luna's name.

"Luna Lovegood."

Luna slowly walked onto the stage, moving as though she were taking a stroll rather than participating in a solemn ceremony. She sat on the stool, and the Sorting Hat had barely touched her hair—perhaps it had not even touched it yet—before it shouted—

"RAVENCLAW!"

Polite applause rose from the Ravenclaw table. Luna removed the hat and drifted lightly toward the Ravenclaw table.

Nine-Tailed Fox was clamoring on the table for cheesecake, asking why dinner had not started yet. Her paws tapped against the tabletop with a patter. "I'm starving! Food! Food!" she shouted several times. A few nearby younger Slytherin students secretly glanced at her, then quickly looked away.

Dumbledore did not make everyone wait long. He stood up, bracing both hands on the lectern, his silver beard faintly gleaming in the candlelight.

"Before everyone enjoys the feast," Dumbledore said, his voice echoing through the Great Hall, "I have a few words to say. First-year students, take note—the Forbidden Forest is strictly off-limits. In addition, this year's Quidditch tryouts will begin in the second week. Those interested should contact their respective Heads of House. Finally, this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts professor will be Mr. Gilderoy Lockhart. Please give him a warm welcome."

Enthusiastic applause filled the Great Hall, and many people began cheering.

He paused.

"Now then, enjoy the feast!"

Food appeared from thin air on the golden plates. Roast beef, fried chicken legs, shepherd's pie, peppermint hard candies, buttery mashed potatoes—their fragrance filled the Great Hall. A plate of cheesecake immediately appeared before Nine-Tailed Fox, and she plunged face-first into it. Caramel sauce stuck to the tip of her nose, but she did not notice at all.

After Dumbledore finished speaking, he hurried away with Professor McGonagall. Watching Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore leave, Hermione's concern deepened further.

Throughout the feast, Hermione barely ate anything. She only took an occasional sip of pumpkin juice, spending most of her time watching the doors of the Great Hall and hoping those two familiar figures would appear.

But until the feast ended, until even the desserts had been cleared away, until Dumbledore reappeared and announced the end of the banquet, Hermione never saw Harry and Ron return.

The feast was over. Students rose one after another and followed their prefects back to their common rooms.

Su Yu stood up and picked up Nine-Tailed Fox, who was still licking her paws. Sister Fa and Sister Ka stood beside him, while Daphne held Astoria's hand.

"Let's go," Su Yu said. "Back to the common room."

The Slytherin common room was much the same as before. Deep-green carpets, silver decorations, and a roaring fire in the fireplace. Beyond the windows, the waters of the Black Lake flowed slowly, casting green patches of light across the stone walls.

The new school year had begun.