While Ron Weasley was happily devouring snacks, a chubby boy with tearful eyes knocked timidly on the compartment door before stepping inside.
“Sorry…” he sniffled.
“I wanted to ask…
has anyone seen my toad?”
The three people inside the compartment all shook their heads.
The boy immediately looked ready to cry again.
“If you see him…
please let me know…” the sniffling boy mumbled before backing out of the compartment.
Ron shrugged and tossed the final Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans into his mouth.
A second later, his face twisted horribly before he let out an impressively loud burp.
A manure-flavored burp.
“—!”
Beside him, Harry Potter stopped breathing entirely and wore an expression beyond description.
“At least it was dry cow dung,” Ivy Doom offered comfortingly.
“That means the smell isn’t too bad.”
Ron immediately covered both mouth and nose with his hands, desperately trying not to empty the stomach he had just filled.
“Please…
stop talking…” he groaned painfully.
After Harry hurriedly opened the window for fresh air, he quickly attempted to distract Ron.
“Ivy!
You’ve eaten now, right?
Hurry up and show us the power of Ancient Magic!”
The moment he heard that, Ron instantly regained all his energy and stared intensely at Ivy’s every movement.
Meanwhile, Ivy calmly pulled out his pale silver wand and revealed a mysterious smile.
“Watch carefully…”
SLIDE—
The compartment door suddenly opened again.
The crying chubby boy had returned.
This time, however, he was accompanied by a girl already dressed in full Hogwarts robes.
“Has anyone seen a toad?
Neville lost one…” she began.
But the proud, bossy tone in her voice abruptly weakened the instant she got a clear look at Ivy’s face.
Apparently, being handsome earned advantages everywhere.
“We haven’t seen—” Ron started to answer before the girl interrupted him completely.
The bushy-haired girl with large front teeth marched directly over and sat beside Ivy, staring eagerly at the wand in his hand.
“Were you about to cast magic?” she asked excitedly.
“Let us see!”
“Ahem.”
“Keep your eyes open…
and don’t blink.”
The silver wand traced a graceful arc through the air before lightly tapping downward.
Sparkling points of light burst from the wand tip and instantly flooded the entire compartment.
“…Did it work?” the girl asked suspiciously.
“Look at your hair!” Harry suddenly shouted.
The girl’s thick brown hair had completely floated upward like drifting jellyfish tentacles.
She screamed and hurriedly tried smoothing it down with her hands.
Unfortunately, touching it only caused the strands to spread farther apart.
“Static electricity?” the girl guessed almost immediately, clearly far sharper than most children her age.
“Whoa—!”
Ron tried standing up from his seat—
Only to launch straight upward and slam directly into the compartment ceiling.
“I’m floating!
This is brilliant!” Harry laughed as he drifted freely through the air.
Meanwhile, a fat gray rat suddenly floated out of Ron’s overstuffed pocket, wildly waving its tiny limbs in panic while searching desperately for somewhere to stand.
The only person unaffected was the chubby boy near the doorway.
Though even the tears still clinging to his face had gathered into wobbling floating droplets drifting through the air.
“You removed gravity inside this compartment!” the bushy-haired girl shouted while desperately holding down her skirt.
“What kind of magic is this?!”
“Ivy’s a one-hundred-and-forty-four-year-old Ancient Wizard!” Ron announced proudly on his behalf.
“This is incredibly difficult Ancient Magic!”
“Ancient Magic?” the girl repeated skeptically.
“I memorized all the textbooks and read plenty of additional books about the wizarding world, but none of them mentioned anything called Ancient Magic!”
“Then you clearly haven’t read enough books!” Ron declared smugly, acting as though he had cast the spell himself.
“Hmph.”
The girl clearly wasn’t impressed.
Then she awkwardly twisted in midair while trying to hold her skirt down.
“Sorry…
but could you stop the spell now?
It’s extremely difficult having a conversation like this!”
“Of course.”
Ivy snapped his fingers.
Everyone—and everything—immediately crashed back down.
Harry and Ron slammed into each other.
The brown-haired girl landed in an extremely undignified heap on the floor.
“Scabbers!”
Ron shouted in horror.
He shoved Harry aside and frantically searched beneath himself before finally pulling out the large gray rat.
“Thank goodness you’re alright!”
Meanwhile, the brown-haired girl climbed back to her feet and immediately introduced herself.
“That was incredible magic!
I never imagined magic could be used like that.”
Then she gestured toward the nervous chubby boy beside the door.
“I’m Hermione Granger, and this is Neville Longbottom.
What are your names?”
“Ivy Doom.”
“I’m Harry Potter,” Harry answered before glancing toward Ron, who was still focused entirely on his rat.
So Harry added helpfully:
“And the redhead is Ron Weasley.”
“Harry Potter?” Hermione repeated with visible interest.
“None of the books I bought mentioned Ancient Magic, but every single one talked about you.”
Harry still wasn’t used to his fame, but he tried his best to sound casual.
“It’s not really a big deal…”
The instant the words left his mouth, he regretted them.
Even to himself, it sounded like bragging.
“Well then…” Hermione smoothly changed topics.
“Do you know which House you want to be sorted into?”
“I’ve heard Gryffindor is the best, considering Dumbledore himself came from there.
Though honestly, Ravenclaw sounds pretty good too.”
“My entire family’s been in Gryffindor,” Ron quickly joined in again after stuffing Scabbers back into his pocket.
“If I ended up in another House, Fred and George would probably mock me for the rest of my life.”
Then Ron visibly shuddered.
“But if I got placed in Slytherin…” he muttered darkly, “that’s where You-Know-Who came from.”
“What’s actually different about the four Houses?” Harry asked curiously.
Although Ivy had recommended Hogwarts: A History earlier, Harry had only flipped through two pages before abandoning it.
Reading really wasn’t natural behavior for most eleven-year-olds.
Ivy casually explained:
“They each represent qualities admired by the four founders of Hogwarts.”
“Gryffindor values bravery.”
“Ravenclaw values wisdom.”
“Hufflepuff values loyalty.”
“And—”
“Slytherin values blood.”
A new voice interrupted from the doorway.
Standing there was Draco Malfoy, accompanied by his two bodyguards.
(End of Chapter)