The clash between Draco and Tris's group never escalated into a fistfight.
Hearing the commotion, Fred and George opened the door of the compartment opposite and poked their heads out.
With three more people now on the other side, Draco immediately grasped two pearls of Eastern wisdom: two fists could not beat four hands, and a wise man knew when to retreat.
"Hmph, a bunch of barbarians and paupers. A noble Malfoy won't stoop to your level!" Draco tossed out one last insult, then turned and fled.
Crabbe and Goyle, whom he had kept in front of him as shields, stood there blankly for another two seconds. When they looked back and discovered that Draco and Pansy were almost out of the carriage, they finally lumbered after them.
"Hey, why are you leaving?" Ron shouted after the fleeing Draco. "Is that all a noble Malfoy can manage? Hey, coward!"
Draco did not look back.
So what if I'm a coward?
Malfoys have always gone to Slytherin, not stupid Gryffindor. We've never prized courage or any of that nonsense.
Harry was still struggling to process it. Watching Draco flee, he turned hesitantly toward Tris, who had already sat back down. "Tris, this is the Malfoy family you told me about? The leading pure-blood family today?"
During his month with the Weasley family, he had learned quite a bit about the wizarding world.
That included the disputes over blood purity and the so-called twenty-eight pure-blood families.
"A bunch of relics clinging to the past who can't keep up with the times. All that talk about pure-blood families and glory? They're just losers who can't compete with half-bloods and wizards from Muggle families, hiding behind their bloodlines because they don't dare face the truth," Tris said dismissively.
He had very little respect for the whole theory of blood purity.
As a direct descendant of the Weasley family, Tris was a textbook pure-blood wizard, and he had lived with that identity for eleven years.
But a person's worldview was often established before the age of twenty, and mentally, this life was a continuation of his previous one.
As someone from the East who had been born beneath the red flag and raised in the spring breeze, he had nothing but disdain for bloodlines and hereditary clans.
They were just a bunch of backward, decaying relics, lost in past glories and blind to progress or the future.
Harry was a little stunned by Tris's assessment.
"Er, Tris..." Ron looked at his younger twin, who was nothing like him, and said rather helplessly, "All right, but our family is a pure-blood family too."
"I know. But we don't look down on other people because we're pure-bloods, do we? Or would you look down on Harry because his mum wasn't a pure-blood, Ron?" Tris gave him a sidelong look.
"Of course not!" Ron immediately denied it.
Over the past month, he had come to regard Harry as his best friend. In some ways, they were even closer than he was to his own brothers.
Ron could hardly be blamed for that. His brothers really were not all that dependable or easy to be close to.
His eldest brother, Bill, was ten years older than him and had already been spending most of his time at Hogwarts by the time Ron could remember anything. His second brother, Charlie, was fairly good at looking after his younger siblings, but his rather stolid nature made him a reliable brother, not a close one.
Percy... the less said about Percy, the better.
Fred and George... remembering the spider incident, they were even worse than Percy!
And his younger twin, Tris, was practically a fake twin!
As for his little sister, Ginny, she and Ron did not enjoy the same things either.
That was why he cared so very much about Harry, a friend whose temperament suited his own and who could have fun with him.
Tris's remark had scared him into a cold sweat.
"Why are you so nervous?" Tris asked, amused by Ron's reaction. "I was just giving an example."
Harry grinned along rather cluelessly. He had not even understood what was wrong with what Tris had just said. Although he had learned a few things about the wizarding world at the Weasleys' house,
he still had no real concept of blood prejudice.
"Hmph." Ron gave Tris an annoyed look. There was a reason he had never liked this twin brother of his!
It was not just because Tris was better-looking than him!
"So, as you've seen," Tris continued, "our family may be pure-blood, but that's mostly because the people in the family happened to marry other wizards. Mum and Dad, for example, fell in love, and both just happened to come from pure-blood families.
"But that doesn't mean our family discriminates against wizards from non-pure-blood families, or even ordinary people. You've seen how obsessed Dad is with Muggles."
Ron thought of the Ford they had arrived in and the heap of junk in the yard that Merlin alone knew where his dad had found, then nodded in agreement.
The train had been running for a while longer when a witch pushing a trolley passed their door and asked whether they wanted to buy anything.
Before they left, Molly had prepared lunch for all three of them-bacon sandwiches. Thanks to Tris's reminder, she had had plenty of time, and the sandwiches tasted quite good, so they had no need to buy lunch.
But once Ron spotted the brightly packaged Chocolate Frogs on the trolley, he could not tear his eyes away.
"Twenty Chocolate Frogs." Harry knew what Ron was looking at and immediately pulled a handful of Galleons from his pocket.
At the Burrow, Harry had seen Ron's collection of wizard cards and been very envious. Now that he had the chance, he was certainly going to buy some.
Ron turned a pitiful gaze on Tris.
Thanks to Tris's intervention, the Weasley family's finances had improved considerably. At least Ron and Tris both had new wands and new robes.
When it came to pocket money, however, the brothers were still very short.
It was not that they had none at all, but buying Chocolate Frogs was a luxury unsuitable for Ron, who was only a first-year.
Molly gave her sons pocket money on a sliding scale: more for the older students, less for the younger ones.
Ron did have a few Silver Sickles in his pocket, enough to buy a few Chocolate Frogs. But he was saving up for a Chudley Cannons poster and was reluctant to spend them.
Still, new characters were added to the Chocolate Frog cards every September and December, and this batch on the trolley very likely contained some of them. There was no way Ron could resist the temptation.
He had already collected more than five hundred cards. Most had not been bought directly; Charlie and the others had traded for them, then passed them down when they got bored. Even so, building that collection had not been easy, which showed how much he loved it.
So his hopes rested on Tris.
Unlike his other brothers, Tris received no pocket money from Molly. Her reasoning was not entirely fair, but it was more than sufficient: Tris had money!
Molly clearly still resented the writing payment he had not handed over.
Under Ron's mournful stare, Tris was left speechless. He pulled a few Galleons from his pocket and said, "Ten for us too, please. And three cups of Pumpkin Juice."
Ron knew Tris had no interest in either Chocolate Frogs or wizard cards. These were definitely for him!
For a moment, he was as happy as a husky. Stick a feather duster between his buttocks and he would certainly have wagged it. "Tris, you're a great bloke! Next time we play chess, I'll give you another pawn's handicap."
Tris rolled his eyes dramatically.
Handicap games don't count toward my results anyway. Who wants to play you?
Seeing that Tris had ordered three cups of Pumpkin Juice, Harry felt a little embarrassed and hurriedly added a few more snacks to his order.
With two rich friends beside him-and generous ones at that-Ron smiled so broadly that his already small eyes narrowed to slits.
Before long, a great pile of wizard cards lay on the seat.
Ron was delighted. The ten Chocolate Frogs Tris had bought him happened to contain a new card he did not have, and he was now happily admiring it.
Harry was just as happy. He had acquired more than twenty cards at once-Ron had given Harry all the ones he already owned.
There was only one duplicate, so Harry thought he had been quite lucky.
"Dudley's collected loads of football stickers. He stole a lot of them from people at school, and he wouldn't even let me touch them. But if you ask me, these are much cooler." Harry carefully examined the cards in his hands as he spoke excitedly.
"Football stickers? What are they like?" Ron asked curiously.
Harry described them, and Ron was very interested, while Tris merely curled his lip beside them. Apparently, Europe was already indulging in random card draws, that root of all evil.
Watching Harry engrossed in the short biographies on the backs of the wizard cards, Tris said with some amusement, "I don't get it. I've got the List of Famous Modern Wizards and the List of Ancient Wizards, but I've never seen either of you read those so carefully."
"How is that the same?" Ron pursed his lips. "These are collectibles. Lots of them are rare cards, with limited availability. That Andros card I'm still missing, for example-one could easily sell for two hundred Galleons!"
Tris wanted to point out that the issuer controlled their scarcity entirely, so it meant nothing.
But he opened his mouth and decided not to say it.
Hadn't he foolishly spent 648 at a time on card draws in games in his previous life? What right did he have to lecture anyone?
At that thought, he shook his head, took a book from his schoolbag, and began reading.
Just then, the compartment door slid open again.
"Have any of you seen a toad? Neville's lost one." A slightly shrill voice with a rather haughty tone sounded from the doorway.
Here she is!
Tris's eyes lit up, and he immediately looked toward the door.
Two people stood there. In front was a girl with an excessively bushy head of brown hair.
She had fair skin and reasonably delicate features. What drew the eye were her large, particularly bright and lively eyes. She had already changed into her school robes, and as she spoke, her open mouth revealed two front teeth noticeably larger than the rest.
Hermione Granger!
Tris identified the little girl almost immediately and felt slightly relieved.
Thank goodness. It's the film version of Hermione, not the Latina Hermione from the television adaptation they were already promoting when I transmigrated.
Though he was reluctant to admit it, Tris might actually have been a little racist.
At least, he could not accept a Black Snow White, a dreadlocked Little Mermaid, or an African-descended Helen, the greatest beauty in Greek mythology...
The black-haired, round-faced boy behind Hermione was naturally Neville Longbottom, the future swordmaster of Gryffindor.
At the moment, he was following timidly behind Hermione, looking as though he was trying to shrink his entire body, which was rather comical.
"What did you say? A toad?" Ron was feeding Scabbers crumbs from a leftover piece of sandwich bread. At her words, he looked up at Hermione in the doorway with a blank expression.
"Neville. That's him." Hermione pulled Neville out from behind her. "His pet toad's gone missing, and I'm helping him look. Have you seen a toad come in here?"
"Unless you count Chocolate Frogs, there haven't been any other toads in this compartment," Ron said, spreading his hands.
"Sorry to bother you, then." Hermione frowned and was about to close the door and look elsewhere.
"Would you like us to help?"
To Tris's surprise, Harry actually stood up and asked.
Huh?
Tris looked at Harry, then at Hermione. That's not right. Harry, don't tell me you've taken a fancy to my future sister-in-law?