After Kyle boarded the train, the first few carriages were basically full of people. There was nothing he could do; after all, it was the train at the designated stop, and finding an empty seat at this time was not easy. Kyle used the Levitation Charm to carry his luggage and walked all the way to the end, finally finding a relatively spacious carriage at the back of the train.

In this carriage, there was only one boy around his age. As for his looks… although he wasn't as handsome as Kyle, he was definitely better looking than the two Weasley twins.

“Knock, knock...”

Kyle tapped on the carriage door and politely asked, “Hello, may I sit here? Everywhere else is full?”

“Of course, go ahead,” the boy quickly replied.

“Thank you.”

After entering the carriage, Kyle first placed his luggage on the overhead rack, then extended his hand to the boy. “Hello, I’m Kyle Joba, a new student this year.”

The boy seemed to be lost in thought and didn’t respond right away. When he finally reacted, he hurriedly shook Kyle's hand and said, “Oh… sorry, I’m Cedric Diggory, a second-year at Hogwarts.”

Cedric?

Kyle was a bit surprised; he didn’t expect to run into a “familiar” face just as he got on the train—Hogwarts' future champion—no wonder he looked so handsome. Kyle remembered that Cedric lived near the village of St. Cacklebury as well, but for various reasons, they had never met before. Not once.

Kyle had tried to find him a few times, but the Diggory house was always tightly shut, and over time, he had given up. He never expected their first meeting would be on the train...

However, noticing that Cedric seemed to have something on his mind, Kyle didn’t say much more. After a simple greeting, he took out the book “Ordinary Spells and Their Counter-Spells” that he had bought from the Leaky Cauldron and began to read.

Cedric continued to stare blankly.

Outside the window, it started to drizzle at some point. It was always like this here; the rain would come without any warning. Kyle glanced out the window but didn’t pay much attention; he was used to it and actually enjoyed reading in such an environment.

Under Kyle's influence, Cedric also stopped daydreaming and took out a book to read as well. From the cover, it looked like “Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection.”

Studying Defense Against the Dark Arts on the train to school was perfectly normal for Hogwarts students. After all, no one knew how long this year’s professor would last—what if they dropped out after just a couple of classes? So, it was always good to prepare in advance.

For a while, the only sounds in the carriage were the rustling of parchment, creating a stark contrast to the noise in the corridor outside.

However, this situation didn’t last long.

Before Cedric had finished reading two pages, the carriage door was opened again.

“Finally found you, Kyle.”

“We saved you a seat, but you stood us up, leaving us waiting like fools until now.”

“I think you owe us an apology.”

Fred and George leaned against the door, each taking turns to interrogate Kyle. Their expressions were quite angry, as if Kyle had done something heinous.

“I can apologize,” Kyle calmly closed his book and said, “but only if you swear by the big poop that what you just said is true.”

In an instant, Fred’s anger turned into confusion. “Um, can I swear in the name of the headmaster?”

George chimed in as well, “Or Professor McGonagall works too.”

“No way!” Kyle shook his head. “It has to be the big poop.”

“Ah, George, I think Kyle must be sitting on the Hogwarts Express for the first time and isn’t familiar with this place, which is why he didn’t find us.”

“Yeah, Fred, we can’t blame him; we should have paid more attention to the outside.”

The twins exchanged a knowing glance, tacitly ignoring what had just been said, and squeezed into the carriage as if nothing had happened.

Inevitably, they also spotted Cedric.

Fred flashed a mischievous smile and said, “Look who it is; I can’t quite remember.”

George raised an eyebrow and said, “Of course, it’s our good kid from Hogwarts, the pride of Hufflepuff, Mr. Cedric Diggory.”

As soon as the words left their mouths, Cedric's face turned bright red, and the embarrassment nearly made him want to sink through the floor of the train.

But he couldn’t retort.

Because the titles of “good kid” and “the pride of Hufflepuff” had spread from his father, and by the end of the summer, it had become common knowledge throughout the Ministry of Magic.

Of course, this included their families.

Therefore, nearly half of the letters Cedric received that summer were signed “the pride of Hufflepuff.” The other half came from classmates from Muggle families who were unaware of the situation.

Because of this, he had specifically chosen this corner carriage, not expecting to be discovered, especially by the two most troublesome people.

“Please, let me be!” Cedric clasped his hands together in a pleading gesture. “I can lend you my homework.”

As he spoke, a stack of parchment was placed on the table.

The twins had originally intended to tease him a bit more, but the price he offered was simply too high.

That was the homework of the top student in the year!

George straightened his expression, quickly cradled the parchment in his arms, and said seriously, “What are you talking about, Cedric? We know that’s not what you meant. We were just joking.”

“Exactly.” Fred nodded in agreement. “Don’t worry; we won’t make fun of you because of this.”

Fred and George left with broad smiles, looking as if they had just found a Galleon.

Once they were gone, Cedric let out a sigh of relief and awkwardly looked at Kyle. “Sorry, I…”

“I should be the one apologizing,” Kyle interrupted him, saying, “after all, they came looking for me; otherwise, you wouldn’t have been discovered.”

Cedric shook his head with a bitter smile. “It was only a matter of time.”

He could hide on the train, but not at Hogwarts; he would have to face it eventually—just a matter of when.

Additionally, the sudden appearance of the Weasley brothers wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because they provided Cedric with a solution to the problem.

That solution was homework.

As the top student, his summer homework was highly sought after, as evident from the Weasley brothers' reactions. So, using his homework to silence Hufflepuff and Gryffindor should be manageable.

As long as he could control them, this would resolve about 80% of the problem.

As for Ravenclaw and Slytherin… Given the nature of those two houses, they probably wouldn’t want to join in on this kind of excitement—at least not the majority. Even if a few did, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

As long as the people from his own house didn’t cause a scene and without the energetic lions from Gryffindor getting involved, this would blow over in no more than three days.

Just three days—quickly done.

Thinking about it this way, Cedric suddenly felt that things might not be so bad after all.