As Harry trudged through the crowded throngs with his heavy suitcase, Wade had already found an empty compartment and settled down. Seizing the opportunity while no one was around, he changed into his robe and took out "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" to read.

Over the past month, Wade had skimmed through all the books he had bought, and in terms of content, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" was his favorite (also known as "Fantastic Beasts: Where to Find Them"). Of course, part of this fondness might stem from the author—Newt Scamander, the writer of this book, is the main character of another series of Harry Potter films. He has a deep love for various magical creatures and possesses a magical suitcase that Wade envied greatly.

After a short while, the compartment door suddenly swung open, and a brown-haired girl stood at the entrance, looking inside and asking with her chin raised, "Excuse me, is anyone else coming in here?"

Wade's gaze swept over her prominent buck teeth as he replied, "No."

"Oh."

The girl dragged her suitcase inside, and after sitting down, she looked up and said, "Hello, I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger."

Wade put down his book and extended his hand, saying, "Wade Gray."

"You're reading 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'? So you're a freshman this year? I am too! By the way, I've memorized the entire content of this book, as well as the other textbooks," Hermione said rapidly, with a hint of pride. "I've also practiced a few simple spells, and they all worked. Like this—[Lumos]!"

The tip of her wand lit up with a soft glow.

"Although I haven't memorized the textbooks, well—" Wade also took out his wand and said, "Lumos!"

The two small lights gleamed brightly against each other, as if proving they were of the same kind. Hermione smiled broadly, softly saying with a hint of yearning, "It's so magical, isn't it?"

Wade silently nodded.

Suddenly, Hermione remembered something and quickly explained, "Oh, I'm a Muggle… My family doesn't understand magic at all. This kind of small trick should be quite common for you, right?"

Wade replied, "No, my parents don't know magic either."

"Then we can help each other at school," Hermione said happily. "I mean—children from wizarding families must have learned a lot of magic from their parents since they were little, right? I don’t want to be the worst student."

"There's no need to worry about that," Wade couldn't help but laugh and said, "I'm sure not many people can memorize the textbooks; you might be the only one. That's really impressive, Miss Granger."

"Well, actually, it's not… um… I mean, some of the content is quite difficult, and there are some spells I didn't dare to try at home because the book says that mispronouncing spells can have terrible consequences," Hermione said, blushing and stammering.

Just then, the compartment door was pushed open again, and Hermione sighed in relief, immediately looking towards the entrance.

A round-faced boy stood hesitantly at the door and asked stammeringly, "Excuse me, can I sit here?"

"Of course, come in!" Hermione said enthusiastically.

The boy clumsily placed his suitcase down and, once seated, nervously fidgeted with his fingers, looking as if he rarely interacted with others.

Hermione took the initiative to say, "Hello. I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Wade Gray. We're both freshmen this year—what's your name?"

"Neville," he said. "My name is Neville Longbottom. Uh, I'm also a freshman."

"Oh, are you from a non-magical family too?" Hermione asked curiously.

Neville lowered his head. "No… my parents are both wizards."

"Then you must know a lot of magic?" Hermione said. "I've only mastered a few simple spells like [Lumos] and [Reparo], but I'm still unsure about the Petrification Spell; it should be Petrificus Totalus, or is it Petrifi-cus Tota-lus?"

Neville looked bewildered. "Pe—Petri what?"

Hermione blinked, as if she didn't understand what he was asking.

Neville said with a sad face, "I… actually, I haven't even mastered Lumos yet!"

"…Oh." Hermione felt a bit disappointed but also a little pleased. She straightened her chest slightly and said, "Well, that's okay, I can teach you—I mean—we can learn from each other..."

Neville looked like he was about to cry.

"Neville," Wade suddenly said, "what's moving in your pocket?"

Neville looked down. "Ah, it's my pet; it always likes to run around."

He pulled out a black-gray toad from his pocket, happily introducing it to the two, "Look, his name is Trevor."

Wade and Hermione instinctively leaned back, trying to distance themselves from the ugly creature without Neville noticing.

The squat, fat toad stretched its legs and suddenly leaped out of Neville's hands. Just as Neville had left the compartment door open when he came in, Mr. Trevor dashed toward freedom without hesitation and hopped away.

Neville stared at his empty palms, stunned for two seconds, then let out a cry of despair: "Trevor!"

He chased after it, and Wade heard the sound of the boy accidentally bumping into the carriage.

The two people in the compartment exchanged glances.

Hermione whispered, "Although it was written in the letter… I originally thought no one would keep a toad as a pet!"

Wade nodded in agreement. He knew that some golden, pink, or emerald green toads were indeed quite pretty, but how could anyone truly like a gray, bumpy-looking one?

Neville genuinely liked his toad.

After a while, the boy returned, wiping his tears, sobbing, "I couldn't find him—everyone said they didn't see him—"

Wade encouraged him, "The train is enclosed. Wait until we get off to look; you'll definitely find him." Surely no one would steal a toad.

Neville was not comforted; tears continued to fall down his cheeks.

Seeing that he was really sad, Hermione sighed helplessly and stood up, saying, "I'll go look for him with you."

She looked at Wade with her eyes, and Wade shook his head.

Hermione and Neville left, and the once noisy compartment immediately fell silent. Wade looked out the window, watching the rolling hills slowly move behind him.

He knew that if he went to look for the toad with Hermione and the others, he would run into Harry and Ron. Eleven-year-olds could easily become friends, and thus, the trio would become a quartet.

However, after thinking for a long time, Wade still felt that he didn’t need to cling to the protagonist because what attracted him was not this year's trivial adventure story of primary school students fighting a dark lord; magic itself was interesting enough.