Sean felt a little puzzled.
Was this girl also attracted by his fame?
Members of the Crouch family were people he needed to be wary of. Barty Crouch Jr., that fanatical Death Eater, had practically ruined this prestigious pure-blood family.
Who knew whether there were other Death Eaters hidden within the family besides him?
After leaving Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, Sean headed to the shop he was most familiar with in Diagon Alley.
The junk shop.
Every one of Sean's textbooks had come from here.
The shopkeeper was a sloppy old man with brown hair and a hooked nose, wearing clothes that looked as though they had been pulled straight out of the trash pile.
Peter Norwell glanced at Sean as he entered and greeted him indifferently.
"Kid, I assume you're not here to buy fourth-year textbooks."
"Old Peter, I need a standard Size 2 cauldron, a set of glass or crystal potion bottles, a telescope, a brass scale, a pair of dragon-hide gloves, and a black pointed hat."
Sean listed the required supplies from his Hogwarts letter one by one.
Obviously, he couldn't afford new ones, so he had come here to buy second-hand goods.
As for an owl or a cat, the neighboring shop—the Magical Menagerie—sold them.
But the acceptance letter didn't strictly require first-year students to bring a pet, so Sean had decided not to buy one.
"Little Sean, I've got all those things here," Old Peter said. "But do you have enough money?"
"How much?" Sean asked.
It was hard to price things in a junk shop.
Negotiation was necessary.
Old Peter didn't answer.
Instead, he turned around and disappeared into the shelves behind him.
After rummaging around for a while, he came back out carrying a pile of items.
"Fourteen Galleons," he said.
Sean only had ten Galleons left.
He looked at the pile of battered equipment and thought Old Peter was being outrageously greedy.
"Greedy Old Peter, this pile of junk is worth seven Galleons at most," Sean said, immediately cutting the price in half.
"Little Sean, when it comes to stinginess, you really are a true Grylls," Old Peter said sarcastically.
He was mocking the Grylls family for being notoriously stingy.
Sean simply smiled.
"Old Peter, my Uncle Hearns isn't rich. Just give me a discount."
"Fine. Eight Galleons. Not a Knut less."
"Kind Old Peter, thank you. Please pack them in a bag for me."
Sean felt delighted inside.
He would still have two Galleons left.
Carrying a worn burlap sack, Sean left the junk shop.
Now he had finally gathered everything he needed for school.
"July 31st… one month until school starts. I can use this time to get familiar with my wand."
Then Sean suddenly remembered something.
"Wait… today is Harry Potter's ninth birthday."
"Well then—happy birthday, Harry."
Sean returned to the Leaky Cauldron and went up to the second floor, into the storage room Old Tom had cleared out for him.
Compared to Harry's cupboard under the stairs, this room was practically luxurious.
Sean felt lucky that he had reincarnated into the body of a pure-blood wizard and lived within the magical world.
The Ministry of Magic had strict rules forbidding underage wizards from using magic in the Muggle world.
But the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley were part of the wizarding world.
If Sean had lived in an ordinary Muggle neighborhood like Harry, the Ministry's Trace would have detected his constant practice of the Levitation Charm long ago.
Inside his small room, Sean eagerly began practicing the magical frameworks in his mind.
He pointed his wand at a wooden spoon broken cleanly into two pieces on the table.
"Reparo."
This basic spell, like the Levitation Charm, only had a single magical framework.
It was one of the simplest spells.
But the spoon didn't move.
Sean had failed.
"Made a mistake… missed one framework line."
Even though he had memorized these simple spells long ago, actually casting them with a wand for the first time still produced small errors.
"Reparo."
The tip of the black walnut wand began tracing the magical framework.
This time Sean moved quickly and precisely.
The two broken ends of the spoon glowed faintly before snapping together.
In an instant, the spoon became whole again.
"Practice really does make perfect," Sean muttered.
"Memorizing the framework alone isn't enough."
Before long, a month passed.
Hearns pulled a large suitcase while Sean dragged a smaller one beside him.
Both suitcases had turned slightly black with age.
They were genuine family heirlooms.
Sean's grandfather had used them when he attended Hogwarts.
Later they passed to Sean's father.
Now it was Sean's turn to take them to Hogwarts.
The two first took a Muggle bus to King's Cross Station.
Sean looked at the ticket in his hand.
Platform 9¾.
He glanced ahead at the platform numbers and counted them one by one.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9… there it is."
Just as Sean was about to pull his suitcase forward, someone called out from behind him.
"Hey, genius."
Sean didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.
Well—actually, he did.
He still couldn't tell George and Fred apart.
"Mrs. Weasley," Sean greeted politely as he turned.
Behind Molly stood five children.
The Weasley twins were obvious.
Another boy slightly taller with short red curls was Percy Weasley. Sean had met him once at the Leaky Cauldron. He was two years older than Sean and would be starting his third year.
Another tall Weasley boy—about five foot ten—Sean hadn't met before.
But judging by the ages of the Weasley children, he could guess.
This must be Charlie Weasley, the second son of the family, who would later go to Romania to study dragons.
Charlie should be starting his sixth year.
And the short little boy standing beside Molly?
That was obviously Ron Weasley, the future foodie of the famous trio.
"Mrs. Weasley, with four of your children at Hogwarts, you must know the school very well. If possible, I hope the Weasley kids can look after little Sean and be his friends," Hearns said, squinting his narrow eyes as he forced out a rather awkward smile.
"Of course," Molly said warmly. "Sean is a clever boy. I'd be very happy if George and Fred became friends with him."
Sean hadn't expected his uncle to say something like that.
Perhaps Sean had simply been too indifferent to notice.
But Hearns' concern for him had always been there, in his own quiet way.
The group passed through Platform 9¾ and arrived at the Hogwarts Express.
With his uncle's help, Sean lifted his luggage onto the train.
As the whistle blew, Sean officially began his journey to Hogwarts.
Or rather—
his journey into the magical world.
Sean walked down the corridor of the train looking for an empty seat.
He passed through two entire carriages, but every compartment was already full.
"Where did the Weasley twins run off to?"
Just as the thought crossed his mind, Sean spotted them in the first compartment of the third carriage.
The two troublemakers were happily telling jokes to two young girls, laughing loudly.
Sean shook his head.
In the compartment next door, he finally found two empty seats.
Each compartment had four seats.
Two people were already inside—a boy and a girl.
Sean immediately recognized the beautiful girl.
Christina crouch.
To be honest, Sean didn't really want to sit next to her.
Something about the girl felt… strange.
But he had no other choice.
Sean knocked on the door and asked politely,
"May I sit here? All the other compartments are full."
"Of course," Chris replied with a sweet smile.
"The Boy Who Lived."