"Toot toot..."
"Excuse me, are there any empty seats inside?"
Hearing the knock and inquiry, both Leo and Hermione, who were reading, looked up simultaneously. Before either could reply, the door was pulled open with a whoosh.
Two small boys stood at the doorway. One had messy black hair and wore round glasses with an obvious crack, peering into the compartment at Leo and the others with bright green eyes. The other had red hair, a large nose, blue eyes, and a face full of freckles. He was as thin as the black-haired boy.
The two boys looked at each other, and finally the red-haired one spoke up: "Ahem, sorry to disturb you. All the other compartments are full. Could you let the two of us sit here?"
His expression was awkward, and his tone was quite weak.
Hearing this question, Hermione didn't speak directly. She felt it was quite nice with just her and Leo reading books together and didn't really want anyone to disturb the quiet atmosphere.
Glancing at the two standing boys, the black-haired one with glasses seemed fine... he looked quite quiet. As for the red-haired one... she somehow felt he would be noisy. Though it was their first meeting, Hermione already felt that red-haired boy was troublesome.
However, Hermione just turned to look at Leo, wanting to ask his opinion. But Leo was currently examining the two boys at the door with a half-smile, not noticing Hermione's meaningful glance.
Black hair with round glasses, plus green eyes, and red hair with freckles. Well, well, wasn't this the Saviour and his good brother?
How fitting... the trio was finally gathering.
Perfect. He could observe them in advance, since he'd need to keep an eye on Harry later to find the Philosopher's Stone and brew potions. To repay the Qilin loan, Leo needed to use the Philosopher's Stone to brew a potion.
The simplest way to find the Philosopher's Stone was to follow Harry through the plot. Leo believed old Dumbledore had arranged everything... Harry would definitely get the Philosopher's Stone.
Could he encourage Harry to look for the Philosopher's Stone earlier so he could start brewing potions sooner and repay the loan quickly?
Just as Harry was becoming uncomfortable under Leo's scrutiny, Leo looked away, his smile becoming more obvious but still within polite bounds. "Please come in."
Hearing Leo's words, Harry and Ron quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Hermione also stood up and moved to sit on Leo's side of the compartment. Harry and Ron nimbly put away their luggage.
"Hello everyone, I'm Ron Weasley."
Ron rubbed his messy red hair and introduced himself to the others. Leo and Hermione each responded with greetings and introduced their own names.
Finally, all three looked toward Harry. This seemingly frail and introverted boy was the only one who hadn't spoken yet. Feeling somewhat uncomfortable being stared at, Harry had always been isolated and discriminated against by his aunt's family and the people around him. This was his first time meeting so many "similar people"... presumably they were all like him, possessing that strange ability called magic.
Harry adjusted his glasses and gathered his courage. "Hello everyone, I, I'm Harry, Harry Potter."
Hearing Harry's name, Leo just nodded, having expected this. But Hermione and Ron's reactions were much bigger, especially the latter.
"You're Harry Potter!"
"You're the Boy Who Lived?!"
Hermione, being from a Muggle family, had only read some wizarding world books during the summer vacation and learnt about such a person. But Ron was different. He was a Weasley... no matter how impoverished, this was still one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight pure-blood families.
Harry's reputation was truly thunderous to Ron's ears.
"Do you really, really have that scar?"
Ron looked at Harry with shining eyes. Harry nodded and lifted his bangs, revealing the thin lightning-bolt-shaped scar.
This made Ron even more excited, and he began talking endlessly about rumours concerning Harry. Many of these left Harry himself completely bewildered, having no idea such things existed.
Hearing Ron's incessant "speech", Hermione pursed her lips. She had found it somewhat interesting at first, but the more she listened, the more ridiculous it became. Now she just wanted to read quietly.
This redhead is indeed very noisy!
Just as Hermione was about to interrupt Ron, a vendor arrived at the compartment door. "Anything from the trolley, dears?"
Ron stared directly at the diverse snacks on the small cart, swallowing hard. However, he turned his head and pulled out a lump of unidentifiable food from his pocket. Muttering quietly: "No, thank you, I brought my own."
The Weasley family was indeed a pure-blood family with a long heritage, but their poverty was also genuine. Moreover, Ron had five older brothers, three of whom were still in school, plus a younger sister. The pocket money that could be allocated to him was really limited.
"I'll take some."
It was Leo speaking. He pulled out several Galleons and Sickles and handed them to the vendor. Ron's eyes went straight seeing this... that casual handful was more than his yearly allowance!
"Then, then I'll take some too."
Harry also took out several Galleons, which left Ron even more confused. How could he not even have Sickles or Knuts? Did he really know the value of Galleons? Was the Potter family really this wealthy? Was selling shampoo really this profitable?
Actually, Ron's thinking wasn't wrong... selling shampoo really was profitable, especially since the Potter family's shampoo was so effective that they essentially monopolised the wizarding world's shampoo market. With a monopoly, what wouldn't be profitable?
Of course, the main reason was also that the Potter family only had Harry as their sole heir, with the entire family's wealth concentrated in this one boy's hands.
Leo and Harry essentially bought out the entire trolley of snacks. Looking at the pile of snacks heaped on the table, Ron swallowed again. He really wanted to eat them but was too embarrassed to ask.
"Take what you want to eat."
As Leo spoke, he casually waved his wand, and snacks flew toward the other three. Children were easy to win over anyway... give them some food and toys, and you could lead them away.
First establish good relationships with the three little ones, so when they found clues about the Philosopher's Stone, they would think to discuss it with him. He could also stay updated on any progress they made.
To Ron's ears, Leo's voice was almost heavenly. Especially his generosity in distributing snacks, combined with that handsome face... he was simply an angel!
So much so that Ron subconsciously ignored Leo's wandwork, forgetting how rare it was for a new student to skilfully use the Levitation Charm.
Harry also shared his snacks with Leo and the others, but since he didn't know magic, he could only hand them out one by one. Ron accepted Harry's snacks and thanked him but was still not as moved as he was by Leo, who had given him snacks first.
Leo opened a box of Chocolate Frogs. The frog inside leaped up the moment the lid opened, wanting to escape to freedom. But with a quick grab, it was instantly captured!
Chewing the chocolate frog, Leo flipped over the card in the box. Each Chocolate Frog came with a card featuring portraits of different wizards and describing their deeds and contributions.
He glanced at the portrait on the card. Ugh, the old bat.
Snape's cold, deep eyes gazed through his greasy, straight black hair, making eye contact with Leo. Tsk tsk tsk, time for a hair wash.
Leo's mouth twitched as he wondered if he could send Snape some shampoo in the future. Looking at the back of the card, it described Snape's achievements: systematic improvement of Veritaserum, optimisation of bezoar extraction techniques...
"Um, um..."
Leo looked toward the voice to see a round-faced, stocky little chubby boy standing nervously at the door.
"Have you seen my toad? His name is Trevor."