The compartment door opened, and a red-haired head poked in.
It belonged to a boy who seemed a little older than Harry and the others, with red hair and a sprinkling of freckles on his face.
Harry remembered this boy. He was one of the four red-haired boys in the family Harry recalled being the last to enter the platform, and apparently one of a pair of twins.
"Hi, Neville. Hello, you lovely first years." The red-haired boy glanced around the compartment and greeted them. Clearly, he knew Neville.
"Hi... Fre... Geor... um..." Neville hesitated.
"I'm George." The red-haired boy, George, laughed heartily, then closed the compartment door. "Not in here. But Neville Longbottom is."
"Not on my side either," an almost identical voice answered. "Could Madam Malkin have been pulling our legs? We've searched practically from one end to the other. Could he be hiding in the toilet?"
"Or in the prefects' compartment? If you ask me, some prefect might have taken him in there."
The voices gradually faded into the distance.
"Who was that?" Hermione asked with a frown.
"Huh? Oh, George..." Neville was unwrapping another Chocolate Frog. This one hopped once on the table, then stopped moving. Neville picked it up and popped it straight into his mouth. At Hermione's question, he hurriedly chewed a few times and swallowed before replying:
"George Weasley. Of course, it might have been Fred Weasley. They're twins, and they love playing jokes. I can never tell them apart," Neville said. "But Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley are both very nice people..."
"They're a wizarding family?" Hermione frowned. "Weasley, Weasley... I'm sure I've seen that surname somewhere."
"I think so?" Neville sounded a little uncertain. "I think my great-uncle Algie said the Weasley family has a long history."
Neville had left part of that out. What his great-uncle had actually said was that the Weasley family, like their own Longbottom family and the Black family, all had long histories...
"I wonder who those two were looking for?" Neville continued.
"I might know." Hermione glanced at Harry beside her with a slightly mischievous smile.
"By the way, Neville, what are you unwrapping?" Harry changed the subject as he stuffed the remaining half of his Pumpkin Pasty into his mouth.
Of course, he was genuinely a little curious about what Neville was doing, too.
In that short time, Neville had already unwrapped five Chocolate Frogs. But he had only eaten two of them, leaving another two lying on the table. The card-like things he took out of the packets, on the other hand, seemed to delight him.
Since Harry was treating them, Neville hadn't bought any Pumpkin Pasties. Instead, he had bought six Chocolate Frogs and already unwrapped five, but he hadn't touched any of the nine Harry had bought.
"Oh, I forgot again." Neville smacked his forehead, then handed over the cards in his hand.
"They're wizard cards, all of really famous, powerful wizards. I think there are more than five hundred altogether? But I only have three hundred or so. George told me their younger brother Ron should be starting this year too. He has nearly five hundred."
When he mentioned five hundred cards, Neville's face filled with unmistakable envy.
Harry took the cards, and Hermione leaned over to look at them with him.
Each of the five cards bore a three-dimensional portrait, with a name written below it in ornate lettering.
The five cards were Bridget Wenlock, Vlad Dracula, Bowman Wright, Mungo Bonham, and Paracelsus. The last name was an abbreviation; his full name was too long to fit on the front. The introduction on the back described him as an outstanding master alchemist.
They were rather like the sports cards Harry and Dudley both collected. Harry collected baseball, basketball, and football cards, while Dudley collected basketball and American football cards.
Those cards were all locked in a small box under the bed in Harry's room on Privet Drive.
Harry, who rather enjoyed collecting things, immediately took an interest in these beautifully made wizard cards. If there were five hundred, collecting them seemed a little easier than collecting sports cards.
As he thought about this, Harry turned the cards over and was astonished to discover that the figures on two of them had vanished.
"I know about this," Hermione said eagerly when Harry asked about it.
"The people in wizarding photographs can move, and sometimes they go somewhere else. That's why you often see people in completely different styles in wizarding photographs or paintings."
"You're amazing," Harry said with genuine admiration. Hermione had only just encountered the wizarding world, like him, yet she seemed to know so much more than he did. It was rather embarrassing, making him look like a complete beginner...
Hermione proudly wrinkled her little nose, looking like a smug little squirrel.
After returning Neville's five cards, Harry began unwrapping his own Chocolate Frogs. Unfortunately, the frog from the first box he opened hopped straight onto the rim of Hermione's cup, then tumbled headfirst inside. Chocolate frogs clearly couldn't swim, and it quickly sank.
"Sorry." Harry gave Hermione an apologetic smile. She didn't mind at all, however, and was eagerly waiting to see his cards instead.
Harry got nine different cards, which made collecting them seem remarkably easy. If the lady with the trolley had come past again, he might have bought some more.
Of the nine cards, two interested Harry the most. They weren't Britain's most famous wizard, Merlin, and his lifelong enemy, Morgana, but Dumbledore and Cliodna.
Before you continue