Harry certainly hadn't taken a fancy to Hermione.
He was a sucker for good looks. That much was clear from the way his first impression of Tris had been a little better than his impression of the other Weasleys.
The Hermione of the future would actually be quite pretty if she tidied herself up. The problem was that she usually didn't. Right now, with her bushy hair and school robes, she really didn't meet Harry's standards.
Harry had offered to help purely out of kindness.
Besides, he was getting tired of sitting in the compartment and wanted to get up and stretch his legs.
Since Harry had spoken up, Ron naturally had to follow. After a moment's thought, Tris decided to join them too.
Hermione certainly had no objection to people volunteering to help. Her gaze swept over the three of them, lingering briefly on Tris.
At first, Tris thought his good looks had earned him an extra glance from Hermione, but he soon realized something was off. She wasn't looking at his face, but at the Charms textbook in his hand.
"What year are you in?" Hermione asked Tris with a frown.
"I'm a first-year," Tris answered cheerfully.
"Then why is your book different from the one I bought?" Hermione asked, pointing at the old textbook in his hand.
"Oh, because this isn't the latest edition." Tris waved the textbook. "It's my older brother's old textbook. There are some of his notes and insights in it, so I brought it along to read.
"This edition is ten years old. A new edition came out the following year, so the one we're using now is a bit different."
Tris was telling the truth.
The textbook in his hand had belonged to Bill.
Bill had been a top student on the same level as Percy, perhaps even more talented. He had been especially gifted at Charms, Transfiguration, and Defence Against the Dark Arts.
That was also why Gringotts had approached him to recruit him.
His textbook contained plenty of insights and observations from his school days. Although it couldn't compare to Snape's old Potions textbook, it served much the same purpose.
Tris had asked for the book, then had his parents use a Mending Charm to repair its damaged cover and pages before packing it in his luggage.
When he read, he spent far more time with this book than with the current textbook.
"I see." Hermione's eyes lit up. "That's a really good idea. Perhaps next time I go to Diagon Alley, I could try buying a few secondhand books. They might have notes in them too."
"That would be difficult." Tris shook his head.
Before he had helped improve the family's finances, Percy, Fred, and George had mostly used secondhand books. But well-preserved books that had belonged to top students were something you could only find by luck.
Most old books in good condition had belonged to poor students-the sort who barely opened them outside class, which was why they stayed in such good shape.
Even that was a good outcome. Far more secondhand books were covered in meaningless doodles.
Fred had once owned an old History of Magic textbook with a short piece of erotic fiction written in it by its previous owner...
Clever as she was, Hermione understood what Tris meant almost immediately. She nodded. "It does sound rather difficult, but that's all right. I might not be able to buy books like that, but I can produce them myself."
As she spoke, Hermione raised her chin slightly.
The gesture made Harry and Ron frown in unison.
It reminded them of Draco and Pansy earlier.
Although Hermione's gesture and expression were quite different from Draco's and Pansy's, they still made the two boys a little uncomfortable.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself." Hermione didn't notice the subtle changes in their expressions. Instead, she remembered that she hadn't introduced herself yet.
"I'm Granger, Hermione Granger. This is Neville Longbottom."
"Hello." Neville had been huddling behind Hermione, seemingly doing his best not to draw anyone's attention. Hearing her introduce him, he had no choice but to poke his head out and offer an embarrassed greeting.
"Hello, Neville. I'm Tris Weasley." Tris smiled and nodded in greeting.
Neville and Luna had both been characters he really liked when he watched the films in his previous life. There had seemed to be a spark between them at the end, and he'd been quite excited at the time.
But later, he'd learned from short videos that the two hadn't ended up together, which had left him a little disappointed.
"I'm Ron, Ron Weasley," Ron introduced himself as well.
After Hermione introduced herself, he felt that although she had a sort of pride that made him uncomfortable, it was very different from Draco's and Pansy's.
It was still uncomfortable, but within the bounds of what he could tolerate.
"I'm Harry, Harry Potter." Harry introduced himself last, then waited to see their reactions.
Sure enough.
"Ah, you-could you be..." Hermione's already large eyes widened further, her little mouth falling slightly open in disbelief.
Looking at the astonished Hermione, Tris inexplicably thought of a Siberian flying squirrel.
They look so alike!
Both were adorable little creatures with big eyes and small front teeth.
The thought made him smile despite himself.
No one noticed his little reaction, because Hermione's and Neville's attention had been completely captured by the name Harry Potter.
"You... you're the..." Hermione was even stammering.
Neville was more direct. His gaze went straight to Harry's forehead.
"Well, if this is what you mean." Harry smiled faintly and lifted the fringe covering his forehead, revealing the legendary lightning-shaped scar.
"Oh my goodness! Oh, I'm a witch now. I should say Merlin's beard," Hermione exclaimed.
"No, it should be Merlin's kneecaps," Ron muttered.
By now, the whole Weasley family had grown used to Tris invoking every imaginable part of Merlin's body. They had even started doing it unconsciously themselves.
"Huh?" Hermione looked blankly at Ron, as though a whole new world had opened up before her.
As Hogwarts' future legendary star student, Hermione had read quite a few books about the wizarding world over the holidays. She had also read about the old wizarding families.
So when she heard the surname Weasley, and Tris mentioned that his old textbook had come from his brother, she immediately connected them to the Weasley family.
This was an old wizarding family with a long history, so what they were saying must be wizarding slang, right?
As a newcomer who had only just discovered the wizarding world, Hermione certainly didn't dare question a young wizard from a wizarding family's use of such slang. She could only nod and do her best to remember the expression.
Of course, if she had paid a little more attention to Neville beside her, who looked equally confused and also came from an old wizarding family, the Longbottom family, she might have noticed something was amiss.
"You know, Harry, I've read lots of books about you. Really, I never imagined I'd meet you here," Hermione said excitedly.
"Well, I'm not as impressive as you think," Harry said casually.
During his month with the Weasley family, he had learned just how famous he was in the wizarding world, as well as the reason why.
He had even read plenty of reports about himself in old newspapers Tris had collected. As a result, Hermione's reaction didn't make him feel anything in particular.
"In fact, I have no idea what happened ten years ago. Reading articles like that is actually rather embarrassing."
"Huh?" Before Hermione could react, Neville behind her was already looking astonished and disappointed.
"You don't remember any of it?" Hermione asked, still unwilling to give up.
"I was only a year old." Harry spread his hands. "If I had to say anything, sometimes I hear screams and see green light in my dreams at night. But I'm not sure whether they're just dreams or something else."
"Green light?" Hermione frowned slightly, seemingly searching her memory.
But clearly, even after devouring so many books over the holidays, first-year Hermione had yet to encounter anything on the level of the Avada Kedavra curse.
"Anyway, weren't we going to help Neville find his toad?" Harry clearly didn't want to continue the topic, so he turned the conversation to Neville's missing toad.
"If I had a toad and it disappeared, I certainly wouldn't look for it. What do you think, Tris?" Ron leaned close to Tris's ear and whispered.
Tris nodded in agreement.
In his previous life, he had seen reptile enthusiasts online, and some geckos really were quite pretty. If people kept those, Tris could just about understand it.
But a toad...
All he could say was that people in the wizarding world were rather unhinged. It wasn't just toads; Tris had a hard time accepting rats and the like too.
At that thought, he couldn't help glancing back at the fat rat sprawled on the seat, lazily dozing-Scabbers.
Hermione and Neville's compartment was in the same carriage as Harry's, so they had only asked at three compartments before reaching them. The next one they tried was Fred and George's compartment, opposite Harry's.
The moment they opened the door, they saw a spider the size of a washbasin on the table. Hermione's words caught in her throat.
Ron couldn't help shuddering either and ducked behind Tris.
"Hmm? Need something?" Seeing Hermione standing in the doorway with a somewhat pale face, Fred and the other two boys showed no awareness that they had frightened anyone-in fact, that was precisely why they were messing around with the spider. All three wore mischievous grins.
Hermione took a deep breath and tried to steady herself.
"All right, this might be perfectly normal in the wizarding world. Hermione, don't make a fuss. You can't let them look down on you," she muttered very quietly.
With the rumble of the train's wheels against the rails drowning it out, her voice was difficult to hear.
But Tris happened to be standing very close to her. His hearing was also exceptionally sharp, though he wasn't sure whether that was thanks to the system, so he heard every word.
Unable to help himself, Tris laughed aloud.
Was little Hermione really this adorable before starting school?
"What are you laughing at?" Hermione heard Tris laugh, then turned and saw his slightly odd expression. She immediately realized he had overheard her muttering. Her eyes widened, and she puffed out her cheeks.
"Haha!" That adorable look made it even harder for Tris to contain himself, and he laughed again. Then, before Hermione could react, he called to Fred and George inside.
"Hey, you two, watch it. A spider that big will scare people."
"We got it precisely to scare people," Fred said without a trace of shame.
"You see?" Tris turned to Hermione with a smile. "Even in the wizarding world, those two aren't exactly normal. Please don't use them as your standard for most wizarding folk."
"Oh, is that so?" Hermione nodded blankly. Whatever had occurred to her, her little face turned slightly red.