"Are you really a boy?" The redheaded boy named Ron had asked that question three times in five minutes.
"How about we go to the toilet and check?" Harry asked with a cheerful smile.
"No... no need..." Ron hurriedly shook his head. His feelings were a complete mess. Just now, when Harry Potter-whom he, his brothers, and his sister had talked about countless times-sat down beside him, Ron's heart had sped up entirely beyond his control.
But he was actually a boy?
So someone this cute really had to be a boy?
Ron felt as though his whole outlook was crumbling.
But after thinking about it, Ron couldn't help laughing. "Fred and George are searching the whole train for Harry. No wonder they can't find him. It'd be downright bizarre if they could. Haha."
Harry gave him a knowing smile, while Hermione looked disgusted, thinking the two boys had a rather twisted sense of humor. As for Neville, he was so caught up in his misery over his missing toad that he didn't register any of it.
After learning that Harry was Harry (there was that phrasing again), Ron had happily accepted Harry's invitation to join them in their compartment.
Ron was interested in Harry, and he swore it had absolutely nothing to do with Harry's face, but rather the scar on his forehead. Harry and Hermione, meanwhile, were interested in wizard's chess. Both were at the stage where everything about the wizarding world fascinated them.
Once they returned to their original compartment, Neville looked rather dejected, because his toad Trevor still hadn't been found.
Harry didn't really care much for toads, but seeing the look on his new friend's face, he thought it over and decided to use a little trick.
While Ron and Hermione were matching their chess skills, Harry took a silver coin from his pocket.
The silver coin wasn't a Silver Sickle, the currency of the wizarding world, but a small collectible of Harry's: a One Shilling coin from the Victorian era. Harry played idly with the coin, pretending not to care, while silently repeating to himself: Neville's toad is lost... Neville's toad is lost...
Then he flicked his thumb, sending the coin high into the air. It spun steadily before landing on the back of his hand.
He looked down and saw no sign of Her Majesty the Queen's face.
Not lost?
Harry raised his eyebrows and placed the coin in his hand again. After a moment's thought, he silently repeated: Neville's toad is in this compartment... Neville's toad is in this compartment...
He tossed the coin again, and this time he saw Her Majesty the Queen's smiling face.
So the toad was right here in the compartment. Harry thought things had just become interesting.
He bent down to examine the spot where he remembered seeing the toad earlier. It was a little dark beneath the table, but he could still make things out fairly well. There was no sign of the toad.
Then Harry tried reaching toward the spot he remembered. His fingers touched something soft and slippery. A shape quietly appeared, resolving into a dark green toad in the shadows.
Harry: "..."
Holding him by one foot, Harry hauled the toad out from under the table.
"Trevor?" Neville's eyes, which had been rather downcast, immediately lit up. He took the toad from Harry and asked in delighted surprise, "Harry, where-where did you find him?"
Harry wore a strange expression. "Neville, is this toad of yours a magical creature?" According to the acceptance letter, new students were allowed to bring pets, but those pets couldn't be magical creatures.
"A magical creature? No." Neville shook his head repeatedly. "Great-Uncle Algie took me to buy him, and Miss Zina said he was an ordinary toad. We told her I was going to take him to school..."
"Why do you ask?" Hermione's attention immediately shifted to Harry and Neville. Harry suspected that was probably because she was already at a clear disadvantage in the chess game.
Unlike ordinary chess, wizard's chess was played with each person's own pieces. Ron had two sets. One had been left to him by his grandfather; he had used it for a long time, and the pieces obeyed him well. The other had been handed down by his second-oldest brother, Charlie Weasley, and that was the set Hermione was using.
Those pieces were clearly unruly, and Hermione's chess skills did indeed seem inferior to Ron's, so they had been grumbling nonstop.
"This toad was under the table the whole time, but he was invisible," Harry said.
"Trevor can turn invisible?" Neville looked incredulous. He wasn't the only one; Ron and Hermione were both very interested too.
In Hermione's case, Harry suspected she was partly motivated by not wanting to continue a game she was clearly about to lose. Ron, meanwhile, obviously didn't care much about the outcome either. A toad that could turn invisible interested him far more.
The four of them put the toad on the table and continued playing chess, though this time Harry took over.
Well, after five or six moves, Harry went numb.
It wasn't just that Ron was absurdly good at chess and Harry was no match for him. Those pieces were also unbearably annoying...
"Are you an idiot? If I go there, his rook will take me!"
"Oh, come on, send the pawn over. It's not much use anyway. I'm a knight..."
"You're terrible. Absolutely terrible. At this rate, we'll lose any second..."
Just as Harry was wondering whether it would be better to concede or flip the board, Hermione suddenly gave a soft cry.
Harry and Ron quickly turned their heads. Sure enough, the toad's body seemed to have become just a tiny bit transparent. It was only a slight change, but they had been keeping an eye on him, so they still noticed it.
But whether Hermione's cry had startled him or he had noticed how many people were watching him, the toad opened his mouth slightly. With that movement, all the changes immediately vanished, and he returned to being the same dark green toad as before.
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