[Chapter Size: 1800 Words.]

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  "Are you really a boy?" The red-haired boy, Ron, asked this question for the third time in five minutes.

  "How about we go to the bathroom and check?" Harry asked with a mischievous smile.

  "N-no… that's not necessary…" Ron shook his head quickly. He was feeling flicted. Just now, when Harry Potter, the boy he, his brothers, and his sister had talked about tless times, sat beside him, Ron's heartbeat sped up untrolbly.

  But is he really a boy?

  Ro a bit troubled.

  But after thinking about it, he couldn't help but ugh again. "Fred and Gee searched the entire carriage for Harry. No wohey couldn’t find him. It would’ve been strange if they had! Haha.”

  Harry smiled knowingly, but Hermione looked disgusted, thinking the two boys had terrible taste. As for Neville, he was so lost in his despair over his missing toad that he didn’t react.

  Once Ron realized that Harry was, in fact, Harry, he immediately agreed to go to Harry’s partment after being invited.

  Ron was intrigued by Harry, not because of his face, but because of the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. As for Harry and Hermioheir i was in Wizard's Chess. They were at an age where everything about the magical world fasated them.

  Ba the previous carriage, Neville was still frustrated, he had yet to find his toad, Trevor.

  Harry didn’t particurly care about the toad, but seeing the distressed expression on his new friend’s face, he thought for a moment and decided to try a little trick.

  While Ron and Hermione pyed chess, Harry pulled a silver from his pocket.

  This silver wasn't a Sickle, the wizarding currency, but a small piece from Harry’s personal colle, an old Victorian one-shilling . He casually pyed with it in his hand, but in his mind, he silently thought: "Neville’s toad is lost… Neville’s toad is lost…"

  Then, with a flick of his thumb, the soared into the air, spinning evenly before nding on the back of his hand.

  He looked down, but didn’t see Her Majesty the Queen’s face.

  "So it’s not lost?"

  Harry raised an eyebrow, pced the in his hand again, thought for a moment, and silently repeated in his mind: "Neville’s toad is in this … Neville’s toad is in this …"

  Once again, the silver flipped through the air, this time, when it he Queen’s smiling face stared back at him.

  “So, the toad is here after all…" Harry thought, finding the situation rather iing.

  He bent down to check the spot where he had a hunch Trevht be. It was dim uhe table, but even in the shadows, he saw no sign of the toad.

  Then, he reached out a around the area in his memory. His fingers brushed against something soft and slippery. A dark shape flickered, and suddenly, the shadow transformed into a deep green toad.

  Harry: “…”

  Raising a hand, Harry pulled the toad out from beh the table.

  "Trevor?" Neville, who had been sulking, suddenly brightened, grabbing the toad from Harry’s hands. "Harry, where did you find him?"

  Harry frowned slightly. "Neville, is your toad a magical creature?" Acc to Hogwarts' admissioer, first-years could bris, but magical creatures were not allowed.

  "A magical creature? No." Neville shook his head quickly. "My Uncle Algie bought him for me. The shopkeeper, Madam Zinnia, said he was just an ordinary toad whe him. We even made sure he was allowed at school…"

  "Why do you ask?" Hermione, now paying full attention to Harry and Neville, seemed eager for an expnation. Harry suspected part of her i came from wanting to abandon the chess match, where she was clearly losing.

  Unlike Muggle chess, Wizard’s Chess pieces had personalities of their own. Ron had two sets, one ied from his grandfather, which he had used for years and followed his ands obediently, and another passed down from his sed eldest brother, Charlie Weasley, which he had given to Hermione.

  That particur chess set was rebellious. Hermione’s chess skills also weren’t as sharp as Ron’s, and her pieces kept arguing and disobeying her.

  "Just now, Trevor was uhe table, but he was invisible," Harry expined.

  "Trevor turn invisible?" Neville asked in disbelief. Ron and Hermione were just as intrigued.

  Harry suspected Hermione’s curiosity was, at least partially, an excuse to avoid her iable loss. Ron, oher hand, didn’t seem to care much about winning, he was more ied ioad that could apparently vanish.

  The four of them pced Trevor oable and tiheir game, but now it was Harry’s turn to py.

  Well, five or six moves in, and Harry was already feeling numb.

  It wasn’t just because Ron was ridiculously good at chess, Harry simply couldn’t keep up. But that wasn’t the worst part.

  No, the worst part was how obnoxious his chess pieces were.

  "Are you an idiot? If you move me there, I’ll be taken by his tower immediately!"

  "Let the pawns go first! Ugh, useless! I’m a knight, this isn’t my job!"

  "You're a coward! A plete coward! Keep pying like that, and you'll lose in no time!”

  At the moment Harry was debating whether it would be more appropriate to admit defeat or simply flip the chessboard, Hermione suddenly let out a quiet gasp.

  Harry and Ron quickly turheir heads and noticed that Trevor’s body seemed to bee slightly transparent. It was only a faint ge, but sihey had all been paying close attention, they caught the difference immediately.

  However, as if startled by Hermione’s gasp, or perhaps realizing that too many people were watg, Trevor opened his mouth slightly. The moment he did, the transparency vanished, auro his usual deep green color.

  "Did you see that? Did it ge just now?" Hermione asked anxiously, worried that her eyes might have been pying tricks on her.

  "Yes, I saw it too. He looked a bit more transparent for a moment," Harry nodded quickly, absentmindedly rearranging the chess pieces as he spoke.

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  her Harry nor Hermione had any i in tinuing their game against Ron. As for Neville, he hadn’t wao py in the first pce, so they all switched to chatting instead.

  Sihey were all udents about to start school, the versatioably turo their arrival at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

  From the books he had read, Harry already khat Hogwarts had four houses and seven years.

  Judging by their earlier experience searg for Trevor, uhere were a rge number of students arriving at the school by other means, which seemed unlikely based on what they khe total number of students at Hogwarts should be around three hundred.

  That was roughly the same size as a small unity primary school. Harry and Hermione had simir thoughts.

  "By the way, have you thought about the S?" Hermione suddenly asked.

  "None of the books I bought mentioned how the houses are assigned. Even Hogwarts: A History only says that the S Ceremony pces students in different houses based on their characteristics."

  Harry and Neville both shook their heads.

  Harry had already given up trying to pare his knowledge to Hermione’s. If they ignored video game soles and Neil’s sce lessons, Harry felt like Hermione pletely outmatched him in every academic aspect.

  As for Neville, well, it felt a bit rude to think this about a new friend, but Harry had to admit Neville wasn’t the most exg persht now, for example, he was just staring at Trevor in a daze.

  "Fred and Gee mentio," Ron, who came from a long line of wizards and wasly stupid, tilted his head in thought.

  "They said it's really dangerous and difficult. Ugh, I have a bad feeling I’ll end up in Hufflepuff."

  At this, Ron looked a bit downcast. "My whole family has been in Gryffindor. If I got sorted into Hufflepuff, they’d probably ugh themselves to death.”

  "I… I want to be in Hufflepuff." Neville muttered softly.

  From what little he had read and from Ron’s ents, Harry vaguely felt that Hufflepuff was full of good people.

  Gryffindor valued bravery.

  Slytherin prized pure-blood lineage.

  Ravencw sought intelligend wisdom.

  And Hufflepuff took whoever was left.

  But if that were the case, Harry was a little fused about where he would belong.

  Slytherin was the easiest to rule out.

  Acc to Ron’s expnation of pure-blood ideology, Harry teically ted as a pure-blood wizard sih his parents had been magical. But in a stricter sense, he wasn’t a true pure-blood, since his mother came from a Muggle family.

  Ravencw seemed uoo. pared to Hermione, Harry didn’t think he could be sidered knowledgeable at all.

  As fryffindor and Hufflepuff, Harry didn’t think of himself as particurly brave either.

  "Looks like I’ll be in Hufflepuff too…" Harry thought, then patted Neville’s shoulder. "Don’t worry, Neville. If I’m with you, we’ll face together."

  "What a joke!" Hermione looked at him in disbelief.

  "Harry, sidering your situation, you’re almost certainly going to be in Gryffindor. Your parents were both Gryffindors, and they were heroes! How could you not be a Gryffindor?"

  At this point, Hermioraightened up proudly. "I also want to be in Gryffindor. I want to bee a great witch, like Dumbledore."

  "I thought you’d want to be in Ravencw," Harry smirked.

  "Ravencw does sound good… but I really admire Professor Dumbledore and Professonagall, and both of them were in Gryffindor," Hermione admitted, looking slightly hesitant. Clearly, the appeal of being 'the smartest' was very tempting for her.

  "We still don’t know how the S works, so there’s no point w about it now," Ron sighed, shaking his head. But he still turo Harry and added,

  "But I think Hermione’s right. You’ll probably be in Gryffindor. After all…"

  "Harry? Did I just hear someone say Harry?"

  A voice suddenly called out from outside their partment.

  The train had been noisy ever since lunch, wizards clearly didn’t have a tradition of keeping quiet while traveling. Harry and the others hadn’t paid much attention to the otion outside, but they hadn’t expected that their versation would be overheard.

  "Where? Where?" A chorus of voices responded.

  A momehe partment door ulled open from the outside, and a group of young wizards crowded around the entrance.

  Standing at the front was the ptinum-haired boy who had mocked Hermione earlier.

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