Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Night had fallen. Beneath a deep violet sky, mountains and forests wore a hazy veil of black.
“We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school for you.”
The announcement echoed through the corridor several times.
“Gentlemen, I need to change. Please wait outside.”
Hermione closed her book, stood, and clapped her hands.
Suer and Neville obediently stepped into the corridor. Suer considerately pulled the compartment door shut and made a point of checking for gaps.
There were none. The Hogwarts Express might look old, but its workmanship was solid. The door fit into its frame without leaving so much as a crack.
Coincidentally, Malfoy and his two companions had been driven out of a compartment almost directly opposite, two doors down.
The groups looked at one another.
“I asked whether they’d seen Trevor when I went into their compartment earlier,” Neville quietly told Suer. “They threw me out.”
Oh?
Suer narrowed his eyes.
Malfoy flinched backward the moment he saw him. Then, remembering that they were nearly at Hogwarts, he recovered his courage, puffed out his chest, and glared.
Back in China, the exchange would have amounted to:
*Malfoy: What are you looking at?*
*Suer: You. What about it?*
“Mr. Malfoy, you still seem rather dissatisfied with our earlier encounter.” Suer struck first with a smile.
Malfoy froze.
*He knows who I am? Good. That makes this easy. Everyone knows my father sits on the Hogwarts Board of Governors.*
“You caught me by surprise. If you have any courage, duel me once we reach Hogwarts,” Malfoy sneered. “Though a Mud–someone like you has probably never even heard of a wizard’s duel.”
Several other boys who had also been sent out of their compartments pricked up their ears. Trouble was brewing.
“I don’t think that will be necessary, Mr. Malfoy.”
Suer drew his wand at a leisurely pace.
“I have better things to do at school than play childish games with you.”
“Come. Draw your wand, Mr. Malfoy.”
Oh, they were going to fight!
The onlookers watched with open excitement.
Malfoy stiffened. But with Suer pressing him like this, would refusing to draw not make him look like a coward?
He was the sole heir of the noble Malfoy family. His father always said it was his duty to uphold the family’s honor.
Malfoy pulled out his wand.
He was a pure-blood, destined for Slytherin and a brilliant place in Hogwarts history.
“Then let’s see what you can do,” he said.
“I admire your courage, Mr. Malfoy.”
Suer rolled his wrist, twirling his wand once, and murmured an incantation.
A point of red light shot from its tip.
He deliberately aimed slightly aside. They were nearly at Hogwarts, after all. Covering Malfoy in blood might affect the Sorting.
“Oh…”
The spectators gasped.
Malfoy felt the magic streak past his ear and strike the wall behind him. His face grew even stiffer.
He wanted to retaliate, but he had never practiced any respectable spells at home. Most of what he knew were childish jinxes incapable of posing a serious threat.
“What are you doing?”
A tall, thin older student hurried toward them, shouting. A vivid red badge was pinned to his chest.
“We are about to reach Hogwarts. Stop causing trouble!”
He wore a stern expression, and his unmistakably red hair declared his identity.
“Nothing.” Suer put away his wand. “Mr. Malfoy and I were only playing a little game.”
“Isn’t that right, Mr. Malfoy?”
“Hmph.”
Malfoy snorted stiffly and shoved his wand back into its holster.
“It had better be.” The tall boy looked suspiciously between them. “Get back inside and change. The train is already slowing down!”
The compartment door behind Suer slid open.
Hermione stood there in well-fitting school robes, gathering her bushy hair over one shoulder as she tilted her head.
“Why is it so noisy? What happened?”
“Nothing.” Suer laughed. “Neville, we should change too.”
Across the corridor, Malfoy turned away at the same time. No one noticed the quiet breath of relief he released.
Another door slid open–this time, the one Malfoy had grabbed.
A chorus of girls’ screams erupted, followed by a violent clatter and Malfoy’s cry of pain. The commotion echoed for a very long time.
Changing took far less time for the boys than it had for Hermione. Suer and Neville merely removed their outer clothes and pulled their school robes on.
As they stuffed their old clothes into their trunks, the train gradually came to a halt.
Through the window, they could make out a dark platform ahead and the dim yellow glow of a swaying lamp.
Students crowded and jostled their way out of the carriages.
Only after Suer, Hermione, and Neville stepped down did they see that the lamp was held by an enormous, heavily bearded man.
“First-years! Over here!” he bellowed. “All right there, Harry?”
Only one person at Hogwarts possessed such a massive build: Hagrid, the half-giant keeper of the Forbidden Forest.
Suer ought to get to know him if he had the opportunity. After all, Hagrid surely ranked among the wealthiest figures at Hogwarts, at least by the value of the creatures he handled.
Suer noticed that some students separated from the first-years after leaving the train and headed in another direction. Faint neighing carried from somewhere ahead of them.
“First-years, come on! Follow me, and watch your step!” Hagrid boomed.
His lamp began swaying forward.
The students followed him, slipping and sliding down a steep, narrow path. Hermione and Neville clung tightly to the left and right sides of Suer’s robes the entire way, afraid that one misplaced foot would send them tumbling into the darkness beside the trail.
“Round this bend, and you’ll get your first sight of Hogwarts!” Hagrid called from the front. “Mind the step down here.”
The first students around the corner released a loud, collective gasp.
Beyond the bend, the narrow path opened onto a black lake. On a towering cliff across the water stood a magnificent castle, its countless spires vanishing into the darkness and its windows glowing with enchanting golden light.
“It’s beautiful,” Hermione breathed, stars reflected in her eyes.
It truly was.
No matter how many years passed, this sight would remain forever etched in memory.
“No more than four to a boat!” Hagrid shouted, pointing toward a crude pier made from a few wooden planks. Dozens of little black boats crowded around it.
Suer, Hermione, and Neville naturally took one together. A slightly plump, brown-haired girl they did not know joined them.
“Do you still have your toad?” Suer asked kindly after climbing aboard, glancing at Neville’s head.
“He’s right here.” Neville patted his pocket with a smile.
The smile quickly vanished.
“Wait. Where’s Trevor?”
Hermione tapped Neville’s arm and pointed above him.
Apparently, Trevor was unusually fond of sitting on Neville’s head.
Hagrid occupied a boat by himself and led the flotilla across the calm surface of the Black Lake.
Hermione looked around curiously. Inevitably, another question followed.
“No one is rowing. How are the boats moving?”
“The answer is magic, Miss Too-Many-Questions.” Suer patted her small head. “Can’t you see everyone else is being quiet?”
Hermione puffed out her cheeks, slapped his hand away, and glared at him from the corner of her eye.
Everyone watched the castle soaring into the clouds. As their boats cut through the glittering water and approached the foot of the cliff, the castle seemed to float directly above them.
“Heads down!” Hagrid called from the front.
The boats carried the ducking first-years through a curtain of ivy draped across the cliff face and stopped at what appeared to be an underground harbor.
Hagrid conscientiously counted everyone, then led them up a tunnel through the rock. At last, they emerged onto a patch of damp grass in the castle’s shadow.
They finally stopped before a pair of enormous oak doors. Faint light shone through the seam between them.
They had arrived at Hogwarts Castle.