Casual Chat on the Train

"Goodbye, Uncle and Auntie—goodbye, Mum and Dad! We'll write to you from Hogwarts!"

The Christmas holiday had ended. Li Wei and Hermione bid farewell to the Grangers at King's Cross Station, passed through Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, and boarded the Hogwarts Express.

Not long after the two settled into an empty compartment, Neville Longbottom came over with a mournful face, the notebook Li Wei had given him floating at his side.

The moment Hermione saw Neville's expression, she found it strangely familiar. She glanced around the compartment, immediately understood, and said helplessly:

"Trevor ran away from home again? Sometimes I really wish he were a dog, so we could tie him up with a leash!"

Neville nodded helplessly. Even after more than a year together, he still had to remind himself constantly to keep an eye on Trevor.

Yet this toad that loved running away from home always vanished inexplicably before his eyes whenever he was not paying attention, as though it could turn invisible!

"Fine then. Trevor, come here!"

Hermione was utterly helpless. She only hoped Neville would learn the Summoning Charm as soon as she had, so he could recreate the feat of the flying giant toad!

Having recovered his precious toad, Neville stopped crying and broke into a smile, repeatedly thanking Hermione.

The three of them sat together and talked about their Christmas holidays. Most of the time, however, Neville did the talking while Li Wei and Hermione leisurely read their books.

The two of them had deduced a terrifying future: the Wizarding World would be exposed to Muggles, and conflict between wizards and Muggles would be inevitable.

Thus, in order to resolve the "contradictions" between the two groups, they had recently become especially interested in books about ethnic integration and ethnic conflict.

Although the conflict between