───
They arrived at King’s Cross Station. Walking close beside Moody as he pulled his luggage trolley, Ivan asked cautiously,
"You can get into the platform by running at a wall?"
"That’s right."
Moody answered gruffly. Then he glanced at his watch and continued.
"Given the time, you’ll have to get onto the platform by yourself."
Gripping his trolley, Ivan walked up to the wall between Platforms Nine and Ten. Before him stood nothing but an ordinary brick wall. He paused in front of it and steadied his breathing.
Moody came up behind him and stood beside his shoulder.
"One last thing."
His voice remained brusque, but it carried a certain solemn weight.
"The past three years of training have made you grow. You’re not some snot-nosed brat who can’t even read anymore."
Ivan looked up at him silently.
"But don’t get cocky. Always control your emotions. That is how you control your power."
He looked down at Ivan for a moment, then gave a short nod.
"Go."
Ivan took one deep breath, shoved his trolley forward with all his strength, and charged at the wall.
For an instant, his vision went completely dark. When he squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, he stopped short at the sight before him.
A red steam locomotive filled the platform, belching white steam. The Hogwarts Express. The platform was already crowded with students and their families. Greetings, the rattling of luggage, and owls hooting all blended together into a bustling uproar.
There were just over ten minutes until departure. Ivan hurried toward the train with his trolley. As he looked around, unsure how to load his things, a passing station attendant came over and helped him carry his luggage aboard.
Then he heard a woman’s voice nearby.
"Fred, George. Let one more notice about you causing trouble arrive at our house!"
Ivan unconsciously turned to look in that direction, then turned away and boarded the train.
He roughly put away his things and walked down the train corridor, looking for an empty compartment. But every compartment he passed was already full of students who had claimed their seats. A few merely glanced at him, without saying anything.
He reached the end of the corridor without finding a suitable place. Just then, the whistle sounded long and loud.
The platform slowly began to slide away. Unable to find an empty compartment after all, Ivan set off standing awkwardly at one side of the corridor.
...Can’t be helped.
He looked down at the birdcage tucked under his arm. Inside, Buddy was blinking calmly. Ivan opened the window and unlatched the cage door.
"You’ve been in that cage all day. Go fly around for a while."
Buddy stared at him for a moment, then spread his wings and flew out through the open window. Ivan leaned an arm on the window frame, following the receding brown wings with his eyes.
The train gradually left the city behind and entered a broad plain spread with open fields. Ivan’s gaze was captured for a while by the green landscape rushing past the window. He had never seen such a vast expanse of fields in his life.
After standing there for quite some time, he suddenly came to his senses. He had no idea how long it would take to reach the school, but he at least wanted somewhere to sit. Ivan began making his way back through the corridor in search of an empty compartment. If he found none, he intended to ask to share one.
Then he heard a familiar voice.
"You lost your toad?"
"Yeah..."
The answer was mixed with sniffling.
Wondering what was going on, Ivan headed toward the voices. In the middle of the corridor stood the girl he had met in Diagon Alley. Before her was a plump boy whose eyes were red from crying.
"What are you doing?"
As Ivan approached and asked, the girl turned toward him with a delighted expression.
"Oh, perfect timing! This boy says he lost his toad. Can you help us look for it?"
Ivan looked at the sniffling boy beside her. His round face was swollen and red around the eyes.
"How did you lose it?"
Ivan asked.
"He was tucked safely inside my robe until before I got on the train..."
Neville answered, sniffling.
"After I loaded my luggage, he was just gone..."
"Then let’s split up and look, the three of us."
The girl immediately took charge of the situation.
"I never said I’d help—"
Before Ivan could finish, the girl was already gesturing to Neville.
"You search the compartments on the right with him. I’ll take the left!"
With that, she vanished down the left-hand corridor like an arrow without even looking back.
Ivan wore a dumbfounded expression for a moment. She had dumped everything on him and disappeared without a backward glance.
...Well, finding one toad won’t hurt.
He revised his thoughts. If he was lucky while looking for the toad, he might come across an empty compartment.
Ivan lightly tugged Neville by the sleeve.
"Follow me."
Taking Neville with him, Ivan began going back and forth through the corridor, checking each compartment one by one.
"Unless the toad’s lost its mind, it probably didn’t jump off the train."
Ivan casually said as he glanced out the window, and Neville’s face immediately turned pale.
"...Can’t you take a joke?"
Ivan hurriedly mumbled.
At that moment, a low croaking sound and snickering laughter came from a compartment at the end of the corridor. They were the voices of three girls.
When Ivan pulled Neville over to them, a pale girl with platinum-blonde hair stopped laughing and turned her gaze on the two of them.
"What? Need something?"
Ignoring her stare, Ivan turned to Neville.
"Neville. Is that thing she’s holding your toad?"
Neville’s eyes widened.
"Trevor!"
He reached out eagerly, but the large girl standing beside the blonde stretched out an arm to block him.
"Give him back..."
Neville pleaded with tears welling in his eyes, and a mocking smile spread across the blonde girl’s lips.
"Oh, now this is entertaining."
She crossed her arms.
"You’re Neville Longbottom, aren’t you? My father says it’s proof that standards have really fallen these days when Hogwarts accepts idiots like you, practically no different from Squibs—"
Before she could finish, Ivan had already raised his wand.
"Stupefy!"
A red flash struck the girl squarely. Her eyes rolled back, and she fell backward on the spot.
"The kid asked for it, and look at that nasty attitude..."
Ivan muttered under his breath.
"Some people only listen after they get hit."
The toad slipped from her loosened grip. Ivan swiftly bent down, snatched it up, and held it out to Neville.
Neville, the large girl who had just blocked him, and the other girl standing beside her—all three stared at Ivan with frightened eyes. No one dared open their mouth.
"My arm’s going to fall off."
Ivan waggled the hand holding the toad. "You’re not taking it? Want me to throw it out the train?"
Only then did Neville snap out of it. He hurriedly took the toad and hugged it to his chest. Then, without looking back, he scurried out of the compartment.
After confirming Neville had gone, Ivan jerked his chin at the two remaining girls.
"Take that away."
The two girls exchanged glances, then grabbed the unconscious girl by both arms with frightened faces and dragged her out of the compartment as though fleeing.
Left alone, Ivan looked around the empty compartment with a satisfied expression.
I didn’t have a seat, and now I’ve got a whole compartment.
He dropped into a window seat, thinking to himself.
It pays to be kind. All I did was find one toad, and I got a compartment for free.
Ivan had dozed off when the compartment door flew open, startling him awake.
"Oh! Uh... who is it?"
Neville and the girl entered together. The girl immediately took the seat across from Ivan and crossed her arms.
"Neville told me everything. Even so, how could you use an attack spell on someone?"
"She should’ve understood when I used words."
Ivan answered as if it were no big deal, and the girl shot him an unhappy look.
"Don’t blame me if you get punished the moment we arrive at school."
Ivan found the girl irritating anew. She had come over out of nowhere to lecture him, then simply claimed a seat for herself. But something occurred to him, and he asked,
"I didn’t get your name when we met in Diagon Alley last time. What’s your name?"
The girl’s expression brightened a little.
"Oh, right. We didn’t properly introduce ourselves last time."
She adjusted her posture and held out her hand.
"I’m Hermione Granger. You’re Ivan, right?"
Ivan shook her hand, then let go and held his hand out to Neville as well.
"I’m Ivan. I don’t have a surname, so just call me Ivan."
Neville cautiously took his hand.
"I’m... Neville Longbottom."
He glanced down at the toad still held in his arms, then continued.
"Thanks... for finding my toad earlier."
───
By the time the sun had completely set and deep darkness had fallen, the train gradually slowed to a stop at a small station.
"First-years, this way! First-years, come this way!"
A huge man was calling out in a booming voice, holding a lantern. Ivan followed the voice with Hermione and Neville. Several small rowboats stood lined up at the water’s edge in the darkness, and the first-years climbed aboard in groups of three or four.
As the boats glided across the calm lake, the silhouette of a colossal castle slowly emerged from the darkness in the distance. Light spilling from hundreds of windows glittered beneath the night sky.
From the moment he got off the train until he arrived at the Entrance Hall, Ivan could not help noticing the eyes on him. Whispers brushed past him from all directions. It seemed the rumour that someone had been knocked unconscious by a Stunning Spell on the train had already spread.
Ivan maintained a calm expression, as though those looks were none of his concern.
Before long, a stern-looking witch—Professor McGonagall—appeared and gave the new students several instructions. Once her explanation ended, the great doors swung open, and the light and chatter of the Great Hall poured out all at once.
The first-years walked inside.
Inside the Great Hall, every student’s gaze gathered on an old, tattered black hat. Resting on a stool, the hat would fall silent for a moment whenever it was placed on a new student’s head, before loudly declaring their House.
"Granger, Hermione!"
Hermione stepped forward with a tense face and sat in the chair. A few seconds after the hat was placed on her head—
"Gryffindor!"
With a relieved smile, she headed for the Gryffindor table. Applause and cheers erupted.
"Longbottom, Neville!"
Neville walked forward stiffly. Even after the hat was placed on his head, silence continued for a long while. It was deliberating far longer than it had for the other students. Then—
"Gryffindor!"
Neville got to his feet with a startled look and, almost absentmindedly, walked over to sit beside Hermione.
"Malfoy, Selina!"
When the familiar platinum-blonde girl was called, she strode forward confidently and sat in the chair. Before the hat even touched her head—
"Slytherin!"
Selina rose at once with an arrogant smile and headed for the Slytherin table. Watching her retreating figure, Ivan quietly drew a breath. His turn was coming soon.
"Ivan!"
Professor McGonagall’s voice rang through the Great Hall.
At that moment, murmuring began to swell among the first-years.
"He doesn’t have a surname."
"That’s him. The one who knocked Malfoy unconscious on the train."
"He really has no surname? Are there people like that?"
The whispers spread like waves, filling the entire Great Hall. Curious gazes from the older students’ tables turned toward Ivan as well.
"Quiet, please."
At Professor McGonagall’s firm voice, the murmuring died down in an instant. Silence once more fell over the Great Hall.
Ivan walked forward with an impassive face and sat in the chair before the stool. The moment the hat was placed over his head, a low, cracked voice echoed by his ear.
Hmm... how very interesting.
Ivan listened to the voice without moving.
In one sense, I don’t know where to put you. You certainly have courage. But it isn’t the usual kind. You aren’t the sort to act only once a threat is right in front of you; the moment you see a sign of one, your hand moves first. Without hesitation or warning. You have Slytherin calculation too... You’re good at coolly weighing a situation and choosing the fastest, surest method. Yet you have no ambition. Rather, there is a desire to protect, lodged firmly in the deepest part of you. Though the way you go about it is... very fierce.
The hat muttered to itself like that for quite some time.
Gryffindor or... Slytherin.
"Put me in Slytherin."
Ivan murmured quietly.
Hah, I would like to, but...
The hat answered as if troubled.
You have no idea how adamantly Salazar insisted that he would not accept anyone who wasn’t pure-blood. This is rather difficult—
"Slytherin."
No, listen to me. There are rules—
"Slytherin."
At least give me a reason—
"Slytherin."
The hat fell silent for some time. Ivan looked prepared to repeat the same word without even blinking.
In the end, the hat let out a deep sigh.
...Slytherin.
Ivan smiled with satisfaction and walked to the Slytherin table. The moment Selina spotted him, she looked so appalled that she nearly sprang to her feet.
"How did a half-blood with no surname get in here?"
"I asked the hat to let me in, and it did?"
Ivan answered calmly and dropped straight into the seat beside her.
Selina’s face immediately twisted in disgust.
"Who said you could sit next to me? Get lost!"
Ivan did not react in the slightest. He merely crossed his arms and watched the remaining new students get sorted one after another.
At last, every new student had been assigned to a House. A lavish feast appeared in the Great Hall, and students’ laughter and conversation filled the chamber. Ivan quietly filled his plate, letting the commotion wash over him.
After the feast ended, the Slytherin first-years headed toward their dormitory through a secret passage leading underground. All the way there, Selina stuck close to Ivan’s side and constantly snapped at him.
"You’re seriously disgusting. What gave a half-blood like you the nerve to follow us all the way here?"
"..."
"Aren’t you going to apologize for firing a Stunning Spell at me? How dare you do that to me and still act so shameless—"
Ivan gave no reply. Her words did not stop as they descended the stairs, nor even when they were assigned their bedrooms.
Eventually, just as he was about to put his luggage down by his bed, Selina followed him over and blocked his path with her arms crossed.
"Can’t you hear me? I said apologize—"
Without a word, Ivan raised his wand.
That was all. No spell, no words. He simply aimed the tip of his wand at her and stared at her with blank eyes.
Selina’s words caught in her throat. She took several steps backward, then hurried to her own bed without saying another word.
───
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