[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]

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  During the month leading up to the start of the school year, Harry lived fortably at the Dursleys' house.

  Although Uncle Vernon and Auunia strongly disliked magid anythied to it, they had long known that there was something magical about Harry. Now, they were merely firming it.

  Moreover, they didn’t want to upset Harry, who now clearly had magical powers, and naturally, they preferred not to anger him.

  Aside from Harry himself, the most excited person about this was Dudley.

  Even though Auunia and Uncle Vernon were relut to let Dudley get involved in anything magical, he was in the same house, after all. Avoiding magipletely would have been difficult unless Harry deliberately hid it.

  "Oh, Harry, you turn into XXX for me?" was the question Dudley asked most frequently over the past month.

  However, the answer was always no. After so many refusals, Dudley gradually lost i in magi his opinion, nothing seemed impressive, this wasn’t good, that wasn’t good, and magic wasn’t all that great either.

  Harry felt a bit embarrassed. He wasn’t sure whether the kind of magic Dudley expected was even possible, he just khat he, personally, couldn't do it. After all, he was a plete novice who hadn’t eveered the magical world yet. What embarrassed Harry the most was that his ck of ability made Dudley look down on the wizarding world.

  Still, Harry tried his best and mao perform a few simple spells:

  The Unlog Charm (Alohomora), now Harry never o carry his keys when going out.

  The Lighting Charm (Lumos), rendering fshlights useless.

  The Levitation Charm (Wingardium Leviosa), Dudley loved this one, as Harry could make him float in the air for a short time, as if he were swimming.

  The only downside was that Harry couldn't sustain the spells for long. He figured it was because his magical power was still too weak.

  However, as he flipped through his first-year textbooks, Harry noticed something odd, there was ion of words like "magic" or "spells" ihat struck him as strange.

  Acc to Hagrid, once first-year students arrived at Hogwarts, something called the Trace would be pced ohis spell allowed the Ministry of Magic, the g body of the wizarding world, to detey magic performed outside of school. As per the curreions, underage wizards weren’t allowed to use magic outside Hogwarts until they turned seventeen.

  Harry found this rule ridiculous, but Hagrid had spoken seriously about it, so he made a note of it. Fortunately, there were no such restris before the school year officially began. This allowed Harry to show off his abilities in front of Dudley.

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  Oember 1st, Uncle Vernon drove Harry to King's Cross Station in London.

  Initially, Harry had sidered taking the Knight Bus, but after thinking it over, he decided against it. Hagrid had warned him about avoiding magic around Muggles, and Harry wasn’t sure if summoning the Knight Bus in broad daylight ted as a viotion.

  A triple-decker bus appearing out of nowhere and then vanishing was certainly noticeable.

  That m, Uncle Vernon drove Harry to London.

  Dudley threw a fit, g and screaming that he wao go as well. However, he was forced to stay home since he also had to report to his new school that day. Harry figured Dudley would be sulking for days unless Auunia bought him something she normally wouldn’t allow.

  If you didn’t already know about it, it would be hard to imagihat a train to the wizarding world existed inside King’s Cross Station.

  Hagrid was a rather tradictory person.

  He could be quite absentminded, yet he had remembered to give Harry a birthday present on July 31st, a beautiful snowy owl.

  At first, Harry had sidered naming her Jennifer or Fisher, after his two favorite actresses. However, while reading A History of Magic, he felt that Hedwig sounded much better.

  But despite all his attentiveness, Hagrid had pletely fotten to tell Harry how to find the right ptform.

  Fortunately, Harry had assumed that wizards wouldn’t board the same train as Muggles, so he had researched the topi advance.

  Books provided plenty of information about Hogwarts. Acc to what he had read, it was the oldest school of magic still ience. Sihe castle was hidden by entments, it could only be reached through specific means.

  In the past, students used a magical object called a Portkey to reach the school. However, that method had since been repced by the Hogwarts Express.

  Because the wizarding world was kept secret from Muggles, the ptform for the train was cealed within a normal train statioering it required a special method.

  Harry arrived early at the train station. He saw many children like himself, carrying rge and small bags, apanied by strange animals, walking straight through a solid wall oform, sometimes alone, sometimes with their parents.

  What Harry found most iing was that, aside from himself, no one seemed to notice this bizarre se. After all, even though the station wasn’t particurly crowded, there were still enough people around to make it rather unusual for someoo run straight into a pilr and then vanish.

  A fundus Charm!

  This ell Harry had learned about from Hagrid and his textbook, A History of Magic. It wasn’t mentioned in other schoolbooks, including The Standard Book of Spells.

  Harry figured it must be a retively advanced spell. Acc to Hagrid, the entrao The Leaky Cauldron was also cealed using a fundus Charm, ensuring that ordinary people never even noticed the worn-down little pub.

  It seemed likely that the barrier between Ptforms 9 and 10 operated on simir magic, making Muggles pletely oblivious to it.

  Even though Harry was fairly certain about his theory, he still waited for a moment when no one was watg before stepping forward. Crossing the barrier felt no different from walking through a tunnel, and in an instant, he found himself standing before a gleamieam lootive with a sign that read:

  "Hogwarts Express."

  "Wow. Retro style!" Harry nodded seriously.

  The train was scheduled to depart at eleven o’clock. Wizards, it seemed, had a terrible sense of time. Harry had arrived at ten-thirty, yet the train was still nearly empty. He pushed his cart forward and stepped aboard.

  The old-fashiorain carriages were quite refined, with separate partments. Judging by the numbering, each was meant to hold four people, but Harry was fairly certain that unless someone was the size of Hagrid, eapartment could easily fit at least eight.

  He stowed his luggage beh the seat and pced a few smaller bags, along with Hedwig’s cage, in the overhead rack. He had sidered letting Hedwig, his snowy owl, out to fly, but after a moment of hesitation, he decided against it.

  Instead, he thought it would be more iing to chat with his future cssmates, or perhaps some older students.

  Today, Harry had deliberately worn a pin white T-shirt and tied his hair up in a high ponytail. Yes, his mischievous side had surfaced once again. He had fooled over a hundred of his Muggle cssmates before. Now, it was time for the wizarding children to experiehe dark nature of humanity.

  As eleven o’clock approached, more and more people begaering the ptform.

  With less than three minutes until departure, a tall, thin man with red hair and a slightly tired expressioered the ptform alongside a plump woman and six children.

  Despite the increasing number of students b the train, Harry still sat alone in his partment.

  For some reason, most students who gnced inside chose to move on, preferring another seat.

  "Ha, so here you are."

  An arrogant voice came from the doorway.

  Harry, who had been gazing out the window, turned in surprise. Standing at the entrance was a girl with bushy brown hair, her arms crossed as she looked at him with a self-satisfied expression.

  Her lips curled slightly into a pretty, pyful smile, though there was an unmistakable air of superiority about her.

  It was the girl Harry had met at Madam Malkin’s robe shop.

  "Looks like you don’t remember my name.”

  The girl was sharper than he expected. Raising an eyebrow, she dragged her trunk iook a seat across from him, aended her hand.

  "Well the’s introduce ourselves properly this time. My name is Hermione Granger. Hello, Mr. Harry Potter."

  Harry found her quite intriguing, far more iing than any of his previous cssmates. He immediately reached out and shook her hand.

  "Hello, Miss Hermione Granger! o see you again."

  "You don’t sound very happy about it."

  Hermione raised her delicate eyebrows, which made her already-rge eyes seem even bigger.

  "Ba Diagon Alley, why didn’t you tell me you were so famous? I bought a lot of books after I got home, and so many of them mentioned you."

  Harry let out a sigh and spread his arms.

  "If I told you that I learned about my own history at almost the same time you did, would you believe me?"

  "How is that possible?"

  Hermione looked skeptical, but after a moment, she seemed to realize her questioning tone might be rude, so she softened her voice slightly.

  "I mean, how could that be? You’re famous, you know, some neers even call you ‘The Savior.’ Well, that paper stopped publishing a few years ago, but I sahotocopy of an article in Modern Dark Wizard Tactics."

  Harry blihen chuckled awkwardly.

  "Well, I might have to take back what I just said. Looks like you know more about me than I do. At least, I’ve never seen that article before."

  "Really?" Hermioill seemed doubtful, but then she seemed to remember something.

  "Oh! The book said you were raised by retives. And your retives are… hmm… Muggles?"

  Harry smirked at her hesitancy.

  "Yes, my uncles are Muggles. Or, to use wizarding terminology, they’re ‘non-magical people.’"

  Hermione shrugged, clearly seeing no issue with this fact.

  "Haha, then our situations are quite simir." Harry smiled.

  "I live with my aunt and uncle, my mom’s sister and her husband. They’re Muggles too. Before the day I met you, I didn’t even know wizards existed."

  "Seriously?" Hermione’s eyes widened in shock.

  "Then, do you at least remember Voldemort?”

  Before Harry could respond, an unfamiliar, nasally voice came from just outside the partment.

  "Did I hear that correctly? Someoually dares to say the Dark Lord’s name?"

  A boy with ptinum blonde hair and pale skin stepped halfway into the partment. His expression was one of mild curiosity, though his tone carried an unmistakable air of superiority.

  Behind him stood twe, bulky boys. Harry’s first impression was that they could have been Dudley’s cousins.

  The pale boy gnced around the partment before his gaze nded on Hermio was obvious he had identified the source of the previous ent.

  His eyes swept over her critically, and the out a short, amused scoff.

  Both his tone and expression were dripping with disdain. It was almost impressive how vividly he could vey arroga such a young age.

  "A Muggle-born, huh? Well, that expins it."

  Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked away, his two panions following closely behind.

  Hermio frozen for a moment, seemingly too angry to react. Then, as if snapping out of a trance, her face flushed red with indignation.

  "How someone be so revolting?"

  Harry raised an eyebrow.

  "He’s annoying, for sure. We should give him a good beating if we ever get the ce."

  Though he disliked res to physical fights like Dudley did, Harry had picked up a thing or two from his rough childhood and a games.

  At the very least, taking down that sy, smug-looking kid wouldn’t be a problem.

  What Harry didn’t sider was that, iy, he himself looked even more delicate thaher boy.

  After all, most people still mistook him firl.

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