The moment he saw her, Felix's first thought wasn't about the "game plan" or "character development" scenarios he had imagined for so long. Instead, he wondered why the story of the Harry Potter world had been written as novels and made into films back in his original world, and why the actress who played Hermione Granger bore such a strong resemblance to the real Hermione, yet wasn't identical.
He didn't believe the Harry Potter world was created because of the novels and films. On the contrary, he was more inclined to believe that the Harry Potter world had influenced his original world, leading to the creation of those works.
For now, however, he couldn't prove this. But he believed that as his study and research into magic progressed, his talent with space-time abilities would undoubtedly lead him to discover a method of traversing different planes of existence. He felt that through continuous journeys of transmigration, he would eventually find the truth.
Snapping back to the present, Felix began to observe the girl before him, so famous in his own world.
She was a proud girl, like a swan with its neck gracefully extended. In terms of appearance, she was very pretty, clearly a budding beauty.
"Is this cat yours?" she asked, without any pleasantries or self-introduction. "May I pet her?"
"Meeeow..." Himari whimpered, scrambling back into Felix's backpack, only her bright eyes visible as she observed from the darkness.
"Certainly not. You've frightened Himari," Felix said, raising an eyebrow, exasperated. He honestly couldn't figure out what the girl in front of him had done to scare Himari so badly.
"Himari? Why did you give your cat a name like that? Is it some kind of magical language?" Hermione asked curiously, her attention apparently completely diverted.
"No, it's Japanese. It means 'Himari'," Felix explained.
"Oh, so you're of Japanese descent," Hermione nodded, seemingly half-understanding.
"No, I'm of Chinese descent."
"Then why did you use a Japanese name for your cat?"
"Because I like it."
Hermione's persistent questioning left Felix somewhat exasperated and amused; he hadn't expected her curiosity to run quite this deep. Fortunately, the young girl knew when to stop and moved on to another topic.
"My name is Hermione Granger," she introduced herself. "I come from a Muggle family; no one in my family knows1 any magic, so I was utterly astonished when I received my acceptance letter, but also incredibly happy because, I mean, from what I know, this is the best school of witchcraft and wizardry there is—I've memorized all the textbooks, of course, just so I can catch up with everyone else—so, what's your name?"
She spoke incredibly fast, rattling off her long introduction like a machine gun, even finding an opportunity to show off her learning ability.
Just a kid, Felix thought with an inward sigh, then introduced himself. "I'm Felix Chance. I come from a Muggle orphanage, so I don't really know if I have any wizarding blood."
"By the way, would you like to sit in here?" Felix invited.
This invitation stemmed partly from curiosity, but also because he wanted to test whether the so-called "plot" could be changed, starting with Hermione.
Felix planned to influence Hermione to join Ravenclaw with him instead of Gryffindor. This would inevitably cause a massive change to the "plot," potentially altering the future beyond recognition. Besides, he genuinely believed Hermione's intelligence and studiousness were better suited to Ravenclaw—and hoping that proximity would grant him an advantage was one of his hidden motives.
Hearing that Felix also came from Muggle society, Hermione immediately felt their connection deepen. She readily accepted his invitation and sat opposite him, and the two began to chat about the magical world that had so suddenly appeared in their lives.
Clearly, Felix, having read the original Harry Potter books, possessed far more knowledge in this area than Hermione. Coupled with his extraordinary learning ability, the little girl soon found it difficult to maintain her usual pride in this domain.
I've met my match, Hermione thought to herself, but at the same time, she acknowledged that Felix was indeed an academically gifted peer.
At that moment, there was another knock on the compartment door.
Felix opened it. Outside stood two girls slightly older than Hermione. One was a brown-haired girl with freckles, and the other was a dark-haired girl with delicate East Asian features, clearly still a young beauty in the making. The second girl looked as if she had been reluctantly dragged along. Both were carrying luggage.
"Hello, my name is Marietta," the brown-haired girl introduced herself. "This is my good friend, Cho Chang. She's of Chinese heritage. We saw from outside that you also looked like you might have an East Asian background, so we thought we'd come and say hello."
"Hello," the dark-haired girl also nodded shyly at Felix.
Felix introduced himself and Hermione to Marietta. Then, he turned to Cho Chang and spoke in Mandarin Chinese: "你好,张秋,我叫叶霆." (Nǐ hǎo, Zhāng Qiū, wǒ jiào Yè Tíng. - Hello, Cho Chang, my name is felix .)
Hearing this, Cho Chang's mouth fell open in surprise.
"You... Hello! I didn't expect you to be Chinese too!" She looked pleasantly surprised, a clear expression of finding a kindred spirit in a foreign land. The two began to converse happily in Chinese.