After leaving the Granger family, Draco turned and returned to the Hogwarts Express.
When he reached the compartment where Vincent and Goyle were, he instinctively slowed his steps and peered through the window.
Inside, the two hulking boys sat primly on the velvet seats.
Their backs were straight as pines, their shoulders taut, their hands held stiffly on their knees. They did not even dare move their heads.
Their posture was as rigid as mannequins in a shop window, clearly a deliberate "performance" of good behavior, with something indescribably comical about it.
Perhaps sensing his gaze through the window, the two stiffly turned their heads toward Draco.
The moment their eyes met, they forced smiles onto their faces, their mouths stretched wide while their eyes remained tense.
Those smiles looked worse than tears. They were the very image of two stone statues struck by a stiffening spell.
Draco did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Such deliberate "good behavior" would probably make anyone wary. Who would dare set so much as a foot inside this compartment?
Draco pushed the door open and entered, the compartment door giving a soft click.
At the sound, the two immediately tried to rise to greet him, but their movements were so stiff that they nearly slipped off their seats, looking even more awkward.
"Stay seated." Draco raised a hand to stop them, his gaze sweeping over their tense bodies before he slowly spoke. "Listen and do as I say. First, lean back against the seat. You don't need to deliberately straighten your backs. Let the fabric of the backrest support your weight. Relax. Be a little more natural."
The two obeyed, stiffly leaning back until their backs touched the velvet backrests.
"Second, move your shoulders back, then let them sink." Draco reached out and lightly patted Goyle's shoulder, signaling him to relax. "Imagine they're two stones, dropping naturally. Don't hold them up."
Goyle and Vincent immediately tried to relax their shoulders. As their shoulders slowly sank, their taut postures finally softened a little.
"Third, put your hands on your stomachs or thighs. Don't pick at anything with your fingers. Just spread them out, palms up or down. Whatever feels comfortable."
The two hurriedly opened the hands resting on their knees and gently placed them palm-down on their thighs. Their movements were still somewhat deliberate, but much more natural than before.
"Fourth, look at the moving trees outside, or a fixed point inside the carriage, like that lampshade." Draco pointed at the brass lampshade overhead.
"You don't need to scan everything like you're on patrol. Just let your eyes 'rest.' Give your gaze somewhere to land and look a little more casual."
The two immediately turned toward the window, their gazes settling on the trees rushing backward. Their eyes gradually grew less tense.
"Fifth, breathe in through your noses, pause for a second, then slowly breathe out through your mouths." Draco demonstrated the rhythm. "Like slowly venting a boiler. Keep it steady. Do it five times."
The two took a deep breath as instructed, paused briefly, then slowly exhaled. Again and again, their hurried breathing gradually steadied, and much of the tension faded from their faces.
Only after watching them gradually relax did Draco continue, "This is the energy-saving state of our 'Boggart skin.' Whenever you don't need to actively carry out 'standard form' tasks, stay like this."
"It'll conserve your stamina, extend the duration of your disguise, and..." He paused, his sharp gaze sweeping over them. "Make it harder for anyone watching us to judge our intentions."
"Now, maintain this mode until the next 'scenario' triggers. Understood?"
Goyle let out a long breath, as though a tremendous weight had been lifted from him, and his face relaxed. "Boss, have we switched to low-power mode now? Sitting like this really is much more comfortable!"
Vincent nodded along. "I get it, boss! This is part of the disguise technique. It lets us carry out missions longer without easily exposing our true purpose."
"Right." Draco felt helpless as he watched their relieved expressions.
He could not help sighing inwardly. Sitting so stiffly just now must have been unbearable. They did well to hold out that long.
"Keep it up. I have faith in you." Draco gave their shoulders a few encouraging pats, then turned, pushed open the door, and left.
He left the two in the compartment, working to get used to this "energy-saving mode" posture.
After leaving Vincent and Goyle's compartment, Draco continued along the corridor, his gaze sweeping over the compartment doors as he looked for an empty seat.
By then, the compartments on the train had filled up one after another, and laughter and chatter drifted out of them. Only two compartments still had space.
One was Vincent and Goyle's. The other was at the end of the corridor.
Walking up to that compartment, Draco raised a hand and knocked lightly on the door, then pushed it open and asked gently, "Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?"
Inside, a short, plump boy with a round face sat beside the window, looking somewhat timid and holding a battered toad cage in his arms.
Draco recognized him. It was Chubby Neville.
At Draco's voice, he tensed at once as though pricked by a needle and jerked his head up.
The instant he saw Draco, a flicker of panic and unease crossed his brown eyes, and he instinctively shrank back.
His gaze darted toward the girl beside him, his voice as faint as a mosquito's hum and slightly stammering. "Er... I... I think... n-no one?"
On the seat opposite him sat a girl with fluffy curls and a pink hair clip. Her round cheeks still held some baby fat, making her look particularly cute.
At Draco's voice, she immediately turned her head. Her bright eyes shone with a new student's curiosity about everything, and her gaze landed directly on Draco. She was much calmer than Neville.
The girl answered quickly.
"Yes, it's free! Are you a first-year too?" There was friendliness in her voice, but her eyes held an appraising look at the newcomer.
"Yes, I'm a first-year too." Draco nodded, his gaze falling on the girl's cute face, which seemed a little unfamiliar.
Neville visibly sighed with relief at Draco's answer, but then frowned again, a conflicted expression crossing his face.
Clearly, having someone who instinctively unsettled him sit beside him was genuinely uncomfortable for him.
Neville darted another glance at Lavender, as though seeking some kind of support, then muttered very softly, almost to himself, "Oh... um... o-of course..."
As he spoke, he frantically pulled the snack bags and schoolbag on the empty seat beside him toward himself, struggling to clear a space with panicked, clumsy movements.
In stark contrast to Neville's embarrassment, Lavender immediately gave an even brighter smile and said enthusiastically, "Of course! Everywhere else is full, right? The train's really crowded today!"
As she spoke, she took the initiative to remove a magazine from the empty seat opposite, beckoned to Draco, and warmly patted the seat in invitation. "Sit here!"
While speaking, the girl never took her eyes off Draco. Instead, she used this opportunity to "share a space" to study him more naturally.
From his blond hair to his well-tailored robes and the wand at his waist, the curiosity in her eyes grew stronger. She was full of interest in this first-year who looked quite out of the ordinary.
Draco could see Neville's nervousness and unease. Sitting beside him would probably only make him more uncomfortable.
So Draco nodded to Lavender, walked over to the empty seat beside her, and sat down.
[Ding, original plot added. Fortune Points increased by 20!]
Seeing that Draco had not sat beside him, Neville secretly sighed with relief, and some of the tension faded from his face.
He said nothing more, merely turning more fully toward the window, leaving only a small part of his face and his eyes visible as he cautiously watched what was happening in the compartment.
Once seated, Draco turned toward Lavender, a faint smile lifting his lips as he introduced himself. "I'm Draco Malfoy."
"Malfoy?" Lavender paused slightly at the surname, then repeated it, trying hard to search her memory for anything about it.
"Oh! I think I've heard of it! My dad mentioned it. He said it's a very famous family in the Wizarding World."
By the window, Neville's pupils contracted slightly at the name "Malfoy." His body tensed almost imperceptibly for a moment, and his grip on the toad cage tightened.
He repeated the surname quietly, a measure of disbelief in his voice. "M-Malfoy..."
He had heard plenty of negative remarks from his grandmother about pure-blood families like the Malfoys. In his mind, that surname had long since been labeled "arrogant" and "dangerous."
At this, Draco's smile deepened slightly, and he deliberately spoke as though joking. "Really? Then I'm quite honored. I'm already this famous before I've even started school."
The girl clearly had not expected such words from this seemingly proud, aloof boy.
She froze for a moment, then could not help laughing. "Haha, you're really funny! Completely different from what I imagined!"
She looked at Draco with a beaming smile, the curiosity in her eyes growing stronger, even carrying a hint of teasing. "Should I ask for your autograph now, then? You might become a really powerful wizard someday!"
"Of course!" Draco replied with a smile.
After their joking, the girl told Draco her name too. She turned out to be Lavender Brown, seemingly the one who had dated Ron.
Neville, of course, needed no further mention.
As the two gradually grew familiar with each other, Neville beside them was several beats slower to react.
He merely stared blankly at Draco, as though he had not understood his joke, his eyes full of confusion.
Only after quite a while did Neville slowly come back to his senses, Draco's words echoing repeatedly in his mind.
He could hardly believe it. A Malfoy... making a joke? And joking about "being famous," at that?
This was worlds apart from the image of an "arrogant, dangerous pure-blood scion" he had formed from his grandmother's words and his own imagination. It did not fit at all.
He seems... not so frightening? For the first time, this thought quietly flickered in Neville's heart like a faint spark.
Now, as Neville looked at Draco, there was less fear in his eyes and more confusion and curiosity.
Those few jokes gradually lightened the atmosphere in the compartment.
Draco and Lavender chatted casually, moving from wand materials to the Hogwarts houses. She was lively and cheerful, spoke extremely quickly, and always found all sorts of topics, making even the air in the compartment feel more vibrant.
Neville remained by the window, occasionally stealing a glance at them. Without his noticing, some of the nervousness in his eyes faded as well.
Just then, a slender figure quietly came to a stop in the corridor outside the compartment.
It was a girl holding books, dressed in brand-new wizarding robes. Her gaze passed through the window and fell on the scene inside.
The Young Master Malfoy who had helped her family on the platform not long before was sitting beside a girl, a faint smile on his lips as they chatted happily.
Meanwhile, the plump boy huddled beside the window, secretly watching them.
Her steps halted. She stood outside the window, quietly observing everything inside the compartment, neither immediately pushing open the door nor turning to leave.
She simply stood there, as though thinking about something.