As Hagrid introduced Brian to Tom, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, Gryffindor's Seeker keenly spotted two figures, one large and one small, in a corner of the training grounds.
Harry Potter swooped toward them on his broom and nimbly hopped off his Nimbus 2000.
"Oh, Harry, are you all right?" Hagrid hurried over, brimming with emotion.
"Hagrid? I'm fine. What are you doing here? Oh, thank goodness you're here. Did you see what caused that explosion?"
Harry wiped the sweat that had yet to dry from his forehead, while his broom obediently pressed its handle against his palm.
"Your eyes are so red. Er, who's this gentleman?"
"Chet Brian, Hogwarts's soon-to-be librarian. A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Potter." Brian had lost count of how many times he had introduced himself over the past two days.
He noticed Harry sneaking glances at the tear tracks at the corners of his eyes, so he pretended to wipe away sweat and discreetly brushed his sleeve across his face.
That inexplicable surge of sadness had passed. He was now a strong, thoroughly resilient adult working man who did not cry.
"Look over there." Brian directed Harry's attention toward the open leather trunk on the grass and described what had happened.
"What? How did a Bludger get out of the trunk?" Harry exclaimed in surprise.
He rarely got hurt during practice, and the few injuries he had suffered had mostly been courtesy of Bludgers-even a glancing blow from one left an enormous bruise.
"I don't know, but we can find out together." Brian stepped into the sunlight.
He saw the other Gryffindor players racing toward them on their brooms. Wood led the way, unable to hide the panic on his face.
Wood practically jumped off in midair.
Once he landed, he abandoned his broom and flung himself at Harry without a second thought.
Only after running his hands all over Harry and thoroughly checking him did Wood finally catch his breath and say excitedly:
"You're not hurt! Thank goodness! That explosion must have been those despicable, dim-witted snakes' doing! They wanted to stop you from playing!"
Harry was momentarily speechless after being frisked. Wood mistook this for something being wrong with his mind and shouted, eyes wide:
"You can't speak anymore? No... those Slytherins haven't heard the last of me!"
"Keep your voice down! I'm all right! I'm fine!" Harry hastily stopped Wood's imagination from running any further wild.
"It wasn't Slytherin. I caused the explosion," Brian said fairly.
The moment he finished speaking, Wood turned a vicious glare on him.
"You? I remember you, sir. Outside the Great Hall. So you were gathering intelligence! You say it wasn't Slytherin? I don't believe you! What did they give you?"
Wood said darkly,
"Guys, you're just in time. Surround him! We need to take him to Snape and confront them face-to-face!"
The other players landed to discover their captain going mad again. They exchanged bewildered looks.
George Weasley kindly reminded him, "Oliver, you'd better be more polite. Mr. Brian is the new librarian."
Wood shouted without hesitation, "Is he? Then I'm never going to the library again!"
"Hey, he really has forgotten about his O.W.L.s," George whispered to Fred.
"It's a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!" Harry stood in Wood's way, feeling a headache coming on. "Wood, we should be thanking Mr. Brian!"
Wood stared at Harry in shock-his best player, his ace Seeker, appeared to have defected!
Watching Harry step forward, Hagrid couldn't help nodding repeatedly, tears welling in his eyes again.
Brian guessed he was probably thinking of James and Lily once more.
"Calm down, everyone."
Brian patted Harry's shoulder, signaling that he should let him speak.
"Mr. Wood, you're an excellent captain, so you should be capable of keeping your emotions under control. Hear me out first, all right?"
Wood paused, then said, "All right."
Once the "culprits" confessed, the truth behind the runaway Bludger came to light.
As always, the Quidditch training grounds accommodated the players' roaring voices.
"Fred, George, Angelina! How-how dare you! The match is almost here! This is a crucial time-how dare you do something like this behind my back!"
Wood jabbed a finger fiercely at the three huddled together.
His hand shook as rapidly as a running car engine, making everyone worry that he might have some sort of illness.
"Even if you were going to do it, you should have told me beforehand! I'm the captain, in case you've forgotten!"
"Hey, stop shouting, Oliver! We were trying to help Harry! And the ball was coming at me. If the plan failed, I'd be the one getting hurt!"
Angelina, who had been covering her ears, finally lost patience and boldly faced Wood's flushed face.
Wood stepped closer to Angelina without backing down either.
"Does that make it all right for you to get hurt? I told you, losing any one of us would severely weaken the team!
"You know perfectly well I can't do without you, Angelina! What's that look for? If you didn't hear me, I'll say it again! I can't do without you, Angelina!"
Wood's wooden-headed brain battered Angelina into retreat. Her momentum evaporated, and she muttered "idiot" before shrinking back, blushing. She tugged Fred, signaling that it was his turn.
Fred said in frustration:
"Oliver, you know exactly how good George and I are. If we're ready, we're absolutely certain to knock that ball away-we both had our bats gripped tight, and then the ball suddenly exploded. Who could have expected that?"
"Exactly!" George stepped up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Fred.
Wood's hand shook even harder.
At that point, Hagrid quietly asked Brian, "I don't understand. Could you explain it to me?"
Glad that Hagrid's attention had finally shifted away from Harry, Brian explained in a low voice:
"The Bludger wasn't out of control. They deliberately released it.
"The Weasley Twins and Angelina arranged to stage a performance in front of Harry: 'At a critical moment, the team's Beaters effortlessly knock away a Bludger attacking their Chaser.'
"The goal was to let Harry focus on catching the Golden Snitch without being distracted by Bludgers."
Hagrid understood and said happily, "Then what are they arguing about? They're all good kids."
Brian agreed with Hagrid's assessment, but not with the students' approach. He stepped forward and said sternly:
"Everyone, I'll be telling Professor McGonagall about this-and looking at me pleadingly won't help. I know you meant well, but there are far too many accidents in this world. No one knows what might happen the next second.
"Take me, for example. Yesterday I was a Muggle; today I'm a wizard. By rights, I should have gone to Azkaban, yet here I am at Hogwarts-oh, don't worry, I'm not a criminal. Dumbledore vouched for me.
"Try to imagine what would have happened if your plan had gone wrong."
Brian looked calmly at Angelina. He genuinely couldn't understand why this girl had agreed to the twins' absurd plan-did she really know what the worst possible outcome was?
"I'd... end up in St. Mungo's?" Angelina said cautiously.
Wonderful. She doesn't. Brian sighed.
Just as he was about to say something, Fred interrupted. "No, you wouldn't."
"Didn't you know? We put a Protego Totalum on the back of your head beforehand," George added.
"I did know." Angelina's eyes widened. "But why didn't I feel anything?"
"What? Fred, did you forget to do it?" George's eyes widened too.
"...Huh? Wasn't that your job?" Fred guiltily averted his gaze.
"You lot are the death of me." Completely burned out, Wood slumped helplessly onto the ground.
"I wasn't even... wearing a helmet today..." Angelina stood frozen, then suddenly began trembling all over, her face filled with belated terror.
Then she became utterly furious. Raising her broom, she shouted, "You bastards! I'll beat you to death!"
The terrified twins took to their heels.
Brian felt there was no need to say anything more. He turned to look for Hagrid, only to notice Harry standing blankly in place, murmuring something very quietly, barely audibly.
But he could hear it. He heard the boy blaming himself:
"If I'd done better sooner... a little better..."
Brian didn't think Mr. Potter had done anything wrong. The child's response was rather strange. Why was he turning the pressure on himself?
So, while everyone's attention was on the twins, he quietly approached the boy and said softly:
"Mr. Potter, you're doing well enough already. I watched you practice-it isn't easy to work up that much sweat in this weather.
"I think it's precisely because you work so hard that your teammates trust you and are willing to help you even at the risk of hurting themselves.
"So don't blame yourself, and don't feel pressured. Accepting other people's kindness is a kindness in itself, and we can always find our own ways to repay those lovely people, can't we?"
He guessed that perhaps he had unconsciously begun speaking louder since coming to Hogwarts.
Brian waited for Harry's reply. The boy was silent for a moment before saying earnestly:
"Sir, you're right. I'll do my best not to let everyone down."
"I only want you to take some weight off your shoulders."
Brian straightened the glasses that had slipped down Harry's nose, glanced at the sun's position in the sky, and said carefully:
"Speaking of which... aren't you all going to be late?"
The chasing and horseplay on the pitch stopped instantly. Every team member turned paler than the next, except for the two Weasleys.
"Poor choice of words, sir." George smiled breezily.
"We're already late." Fred quietly slipped away from the frozen Angelina.
Coming to their senses, the group hurriedly packed up their training equipment, mounted their brooms, and flew toward the castle one after another.
After taking off, Angelina doubled back and came up to Brian, blushing.
"Thank you for saving me, sir. I won't do anything that stupid again. I hope to see you in the library!"
She soared into the air again.
In front of the Leaky Cauldron's fireplace, Brian said gravely:
"I hate floo powder. I'll never be able to put up with packed underground trains and congested public transport routes again."
Two Sickles a scoop for green powder that could effortlessly transport someone a thousand miles away-such a low price.
Brian had to praise the manufacturer of floo powder.
Two Sickles was an extraordinarily fair price. If those financiers he knew of, the ones who ought to be strung up from lampposts, had set the price, those Sickles would probably have become Galleons.
"The underground... ah, I don't like that thing. The seats are too narrow, the trains are too slow, and the ticket barriers get you stuck."
Hagrid spoke indignantly.
"That's because you're too big, Hagrid," a bald wizard emerging from the back courtyard said with a raspy laugh.
He looked very old, his face covered in wrinkles, and air escaped through gaps in his teeth when he spoke. Yet he seemed surprisingly dependable, familiar and friendly.
Brian suspected this gentleman had taken some time to condense his long life, leaving his entire person looking rather shriveled.
He remembered that this was Tom, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron whom Hagrid had told him about earlier.
Once a person had introduced himself enough times, it became second nature. Brian shook Tom's hand easily and made his acquaintance.
"Tom, you're as fit as ever." Hagrid cheerfully clapped Tom on the back.
"Oh, gently now. These old bones can't take that sort of treatment." Tom grunted and turned toward Brian.
"Brian, you look like a man who can hold his drink. Let me buy you one. What would you like?"
"Thank you, but not right now. We'll have plenty of chances to drink and chat in the future. There's no rush."
Brian's mind was on his wand. Hagrid led him around to a stone wall in the back courtyard. A rubbish bin stood beside it.
Like a magician, Hagrid pulled a pink umbrella from one of his coat pockets and told Brian:
"Three bricks up, two across. Give it a gentle tap, and you can get into Diagon Alley."
Awed by the mysterious number and size of Hagrid's coat pockets, Brian asked curiously, "Tap it with the umbrella?"
"On the outside, it's an umbrella, but actually..." Hagrid opened it to show Brian what was inside.
"...It's your wand," Brian said admiringly. "Very pretty. I've discovered another side of you, Hagrid. I didn't expect you to have a little hobby like this."
"Actually, I have to do it... the Ministry of Magic won't let me use magic, and they don't want to see a wand in my hand."
Speaking in frustration, Hagrid used his pink umbrella to open the entrance to Diagon Alley.
"If Dumbledore didn't trust me and protect me, how could I stay at Hogwarts?"
"Dumbledore is someone you can trust." Brian wisely refrained from asking why. He suspected Hagrid had encountered more than one Lester back in the day.
Brian had thought he might see wondrous sights in Diagon Alley, such as books promoting themselves or clothes heading into the street to solicit customers.
But none of those things existed.
Setting aside the magical elements, a wizard shopping street wasn't all that different from a Muggle one.
Outside Ollivander's wand shop on the south side of Diagon Alley, Brian gazed at the peeling gold sign with excitement surging through him, while Hagrid eyed the narrow storefront with a troubled expression.
"It's small inside. It'll be terribly cramped if I go in." Hagrid scratched his head awkwardly. "How about I wait for you at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour?"
"All right. See you in a bit." Brian pushed the door open and entered. With a crunch, he stepped on and broke a pair of glasses.
Before you continue