Faced with Draco’s threat, Witt remained completely unfazed.
He merely raised his wand in silence.
The moment Draco saw that, he spun around and fled in terror.
“Coward.” Witt returned to the compartment and said disdainfully to Lily, “I could take ten cowards like him with one hand.” Neville quietly spoke up beside him.
“I think my gran once said the Malfoys are on the Hogwarts Board of Governors.” “I’m going to apologise right now—” A wise man knew when to bend and when to stand tall.
“One of them.” Witt stared speechlessly at Neville.
Mate, next time, could you finish the whole sentence before stopping for breath?
I’d already stood up before you added that last part.
He awkwardly sat back down and muttered, “What I meant was, next time I see him, I’ll beat him until he apologises to me.
He’s only related to one of the governors.
Nothing to worry about.” Lily and Hermione rolled their eyes in perfect unison.
The speed at which he’d just jumped to his feet hadn’t exactly matched that fearless attitude.
“Trevor!” Neville suddenly panicked.
He began rummaging frantically around the compartment.
“My toad!
Trevor’s gone!” “When did he disappear?” Witt stood and looked around, but there wasn’t a trace of the toad.
Hermione guessed, “Could he have escaped while you were fighting earlier?” “Could be.” Witt nodded in agreement.
“Why don’t we split up and look for him?” “All right.” The four of them divided into pairs and headed in opposite directions.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ In a nearby compartment, Ron was demonstrating magic to Harry.
Lily walked over and knocked on the door.
“Excuse me.
Have either of you seen a toad?
His name is Trevor.” “No,” Ron answered immediately.
Harry, however, simply stared at Lily standing in the doorway.
For some inexplicable reason, he felt an overwhelming sense of closeness towards her.
It rose from somewhere deep inside him, without explanation or cause.
His eyes even began to sting with the beginnings of tears.
“Thank you.” Lily politely thanked them and turned to ask at the next compartment.
“Wait!” The instant Harry saw her leaving, he jumped to his feet and called after her urgently.
Lily turned around, puzzled.
“Er…” Harry stumbled over his words.
“I think…
we could help you look.” As he spoke, he tugged on Ron’s sleeve.
Ron had absolutely no idea why Harry had suddenly become so excited, but Harry was his new friend, and helping a friend was only natural.
Ron stood up.
“Yeah.
We can help you look.” His sudden movement woke Scabbers, who had been happily stuffing his face in Ron’s lap.
The rat raised his head.
Lily?!
One glance was enough.
Scabbers recognised her immediately.
His entire body froze, and the Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Bean in his paws dropped to the floor.
Impossible.
Lily was dead.
She had died at the hands of You Know Who.
There was no way she could still be alive.
And even if she were alive, she couldn’t possibly be this young.
Scabbers nimbly climbed onto Ron’s shoulder and leaned closer for a better look.
She looked too similar.
Far too similar.
If the timing hadn’t been completely wrong, he would have sworn this girl was Lily.
“Hello.” Harry self consciously tugged at the oversized sleeve of his clothes before holding out his hand.
“I’m Harry.
Harry Potter.” Harry suddenly felt rather embarrassed by how ill fitting his clothes looked.
Lily didn’t seem to care.
She reached out and shook his hand warmly.
“Thank you for offering to help.
I’m—” “Lily!
Come here!
We found Neville’s Trevor!” Witt’s voice rang out loudly from farther down the corridor.
“Coming!” Lily called back before giving Harry an apologetic look.
“It was nice meeting you, Harry.
My friend’s calling me.
Bye.” Harry stood there watching Lily’s retreating figure, unable to snap out of his daze for a long while.
On Ron’s shoulder, Scabbers was almost perfectly synchronised with him.
If he hadn’t misheard…
That girl was named Lily too.
At that moment, Scabbers completely lost his appetite.
He felt as though fate itself were laughing in his face.
Ron picked Scabbers up, shoved him into his pocket, and patted Harry on the shoulder.
“You’ll definitely see her again once school starts.” “Really?” Harry still looked distracted.
“Of course.” Ron nodded confidently.
“Everyone on this train is going to Hogwarts.
You’ll definitely meet again.
Trust me.” For the rest of the journey after saying goodbye to Lily, Harry spent most of his time gazing dreamily out of the window with a foolish smile on his face.
He had no idea why he was so happy.
He simply was.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ By evening, the train finally arrived.
Neither the dim light nor the damp ground could dampen the young witches’ and wizards’ excitement.
“First-years!
First-years, over here!” Hagrid stood holding up a lantern, his enormous frame making him impossible to miss.
A giant?
Witt stared at Hagrid and whispered to Lily, “Stay close.
That bloke definitely knows how to fight.
If he suddenly goes berserk, I’ll protect you.” Lily glanced at Hagrid’s enormous, burly figure and obediently hid behind Witt.
For the entire journey, Witt remained worried that Hagrid might suddenly attack.
Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened.
After passing through a dark, gloomy stretch of woodland, a vast castle appeared before them.
“This place looks terrifying,” Witt whispered, gripping Lily’s hand.
“I hope there aren’t any man eating banshees inside.” Hagrid, who happened to be organising the group nearby, overheard him.
“There aren’t any man eating banshees at Hogwarts!” “This is the safest place in the world!” As a half-giant, Hagrid had a naturally booming voice, and the volume made Witt’s ears ache.
Witt rubbed one ear and muttered, “See?
Told you he could fight.” Determined not to cause trouble, Witt decided not to argue with Hagrid.
He merely pulled Lily farther away from the enormous man.
Before long, the group reached the lakeshore.
Under Hagrid’s instructions, they climbed into the small boats waiting for them and set off towards the gloomy old castle.
As far as Witt was concerned, the place looked far more like a monster’s lair than a school.
The fantastical atmosphere seemed absolutely perfect for vampires, banshees, and all sorts of other creatures.
After crossing the still lake, the first-years disembarked on a flat stretch of grass and followed Hagrid up a long flight of stone steps.
Witt remained on high alert the entire way.
He was constantly afraid that something might leap out and attack them.
But from beginning to end, nothing happened.
At last, they stopped before a great set of doors.
A familiar figure appeared.
Professor McGonagall.
Witt had just raised a hand to greet her when a single stern look stopped him in his tracks.
She addressed the assembled first-years solemnly.
“Welcome to Hogwarts.” “In a few moments, you will take part in the Sorting Ceremony.
Hogwarts has four Houses.” Gryffindor.
Hufflepuff.
Ravenclaw.
Slytherin.
“Each House has produced outstanding witches and wizards.
While you are here, your House will be like your family.” “Good behaviour will earn your House points.
Poor behaviour will lose them.” “At the end of the year, the House with the most points will win the House Cup.” “For now, please wait here quietly.” “Once everything is ready for the Sorting Ceremony, I will return for you.” Under Professor McGonagall’s stern gaze, not a single first-year dared make a sound.
Only after she left did the whispering begin again.
“So it’s true.
Harry Potter really has come to Hogwarts.” Draco strode forward and arrogantly held out his hand to Harry.
“Malfoy.
Draco Malfoy.” Harry ignored him.
The boy reminded him far too much of Vernon.
That same superior attitude.
Looking down at Harry as if merely speaking to him were some tremendous act of charity.
Always planting themselves on the moral high ground, talking to him as though everything they did was a favour, repeating those so-called kindnesses every day in case Harry somehow forgot them— while never once mentioning the cruel things they’d done.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Author’s Notes] Some people say Harry was ungrateful.
In that case, who was it that saved Dudley from the Dementors?
And Harry did it immediately after Dudley and his friends had mocked and humiliated him for not having a mother.
That’s a genuine life debt repaid.
And don’t say the Dementors were only there because of Harry.
What, did Harry summon Dementors to kill himself?
Whoever sent them is the person who deserves the blame.
There is no reasonable way to pin that on Harry.
Oh, the pink toad is a bad person, so naturally everything she does is her own fault, but because Harry is a good person, apparently he shouldn’t have gone out alone, shouldn’t have somehow “tempted” Dudley into coming over to insult him, and shouldn’t have “dragged” Dudley into getting attacked by Dementors.
So being a good person means you deserve to have a gun pointed at you?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Harry hated people like that.
Besides, he’d already seen Draco in Diagon Alley.
His personality was practically identical to Dudley’s.
Harry didn’t like Dudley.
With both reasons reinforcing one another, Harry completely ignored Draco’s outstretched hand.
Instead, he turned and looked around the room.
He wanted to see whether the girl he’d met on the train was here.