"Speaking of which, everyone's grown a bit taller, even though it's only been less than three months."
Passing through Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, Roger surveyed his surroundings. As always, it was just like the last time he was here: children lined up to board, and parents reluctantly lingering around the Hogwarts Express.
Compared to Muggles, Wizards merely possessed an additional ability to connect with magic. In terms of emotions, they were no different from Muggles. When parting with their children, they too would feel sad... at least, most of them did.
Sighing at the passage of time and the growth of the children, Roger casually adjusted his own body structure, growing a few centimeters taller.
...Roger's current physique was no longer very human-like. If he didn't manually adjust it, he would remain looking like an 11-year-old child for millions of years to come.
But Roger wouldn't do that; he had no interest in becoming a Tianshan Tonglao.
He adjusted his 'age and physique' little by little, experiencing the changes as time flowed. In Roger's eyes, this was a form of experiential cultivation.
Roger's adjustments were very subtle, only affecting his height. His appearance remained unchanged, making it difficult for anyone but the most familiar people to notice.
Roger and Hermione waited quietly in line.
During this time, Roger was contemplating matters, while Hermione hadn't quite recovered from the effects of the Apparition spell and didn't feel much like talking.
Distance was also a factor affecting the sensory experience of using Apparition. When the distance was too great, the uncomfortable feeling would intensify.
Thanks to the 'Cognitive Cloak of Invisibility' Roger had made, he and Hermione boarded the train smoothly without any unnecessary complications.
"Roger." A familiar voice called out.
Just like the last time he rode the train, the compartments of the Hogwarts Express were always full.
Unless you were a prefect with a reserved seat, you couldn't have a compartment to yourself. There were always some students without seats who had to share with you.
Roger had arrived a bit earlier, which only saved him the trouble of knocking on each compartment door, but he still had to share.
"It's been a few months, Neville."
"How have you been recently?" Roger asked with a smile, pulling open the compartment door.
Because it was the same situation every year, there was an unwritten understanding among Hogwarts students.
After boarding, they would find familiar faces to share compartments with, to avoid chaos.
"Pretty good. Thanks to the Christmas gift you sent me, I didn't lose Trevor over the summer." Neville held up the transparent box containing his toad, speaking in a rare, humorous tone.
It was evident he was genuinely happy.
Last Christmas, Roger had given some of his failed Alchemy experiments and byproducts as Christmas gifts to some of his acquaintances.
What Roger had given Neville was a bracelet.
It was similar to a Remembrall; when Neville forgot something recently, it would vibrate and emit a slight electric current as a reminder.
However, it had a new function compared to traditional wizarding Remembralls: it would automatically project what Neville had forgotten into his mind in the form of images and text.
This prevented him from knowing he had forgotten something but being unable to recall it, thus getting zapped repeatedly.
...This thing was a detection tool Roger had developed while testing the absolute memory capabilities of his 'Second Brain' to see if there were any loopholes.
Once the Second Brain was completed, this detection tool was no longer needed. Since Neville might find it useful given his childhood experiences, Roger gave it to him.
"It seems you like it. Its expected lifespan isn't very long. When we get to school, I'll help you give it a little upgrade," Roger said as he ushered Neville into the compartment.
Neville was a forgetful person; he might forget something he had just learned in the blink of an eye.
Roger had many ways to solve his forgetfulness, but none were entirely suitable.
Neville's root problem stemmed from being frequently hit with Memory Charms as a child. If Roger cured him, the memories of witnessing his parents being tortured into madness by Death Eaters would also resurface.
It wasn't wrong to help someone recall memories, but altering or deleting someone's memories was something Roger was hesitant to do.
That would only create more trouble.
It was better to maintain the status quo.
In Roger's opinion, once the Three-Dimensional Law became widespread in the future, and Wizards significantly strengthened, Neville's mentally unstable parents might have a chance of being saved.
At that time, it might be the best opportunity for Neville to confront everything from his past and achieve inner peace.
After entering the compartment, Neville politely greeted Hermione as well.
Not long after, another familiar figure appeared at the compartment door, but unfortunately, it wasn't Harry.
"Is there any space here?" A little girl with ethereal eyes, dragging luggage half her height, knocked on the compartment door.
Luna had no other acquaintances within Hogwarts, so she naturally came to find Roger.
Roger certainly wouldn't turn a child away.
Harry?
He still had Ron. He could squeeze in with the Weasley family.
After that, nothing else significant happened, but the frown on Roger's brow didn't relax.
After boarding the train, he released his sensing magic but still couldn't sense Harry getting on board.
...Could something have really happened? For the safety of his Time Magic research, Roger had, with Harry's consent, placed something akin to a Trace on him. From the feedback he received, Harry's life was not in danger.
The Diary Horcrux had already been retrieved by Voldemort, and the chain of causality had been severed.
Logically, Dobby, the Malfoy family's house-elf, should no longer have any connection with Harry.
Even if something had happened, Harry, who had been learning magic for over half a year, shouldn't have been unable to handle even a house-elf.
What exactly was it...
With billowing black smoke, a shrill whistle, and the clanging of the train tracks, the express train to Hogwarts began to move.
After thinking, Roger, who hadn't seen Harry arrive, decided to try divination.
Although he was a Seer, Roger's divination skills weren't particularly outstanding; all his skill points were focused on crisis perception.
But it didn't matter if it wasn't accurate, at least there would be a result, giving him some direction and enlightenment.
With that thought, Roger bought a drink when the snack cart passed by, unscrewed it, and casually poured some onto the small cart board on the train.
Then he began to observe the trajectory of the water stain.
"Hmm, for those truly gifted with prophecy, divination is this casual."
Those messy rituals, incense, and spell formations were for people with insufficient abilities to amplify their power; for a Seer, they were completely unnecessary.
"...So that's how it is." After observing for a while, Roger felt relieved.
This matter might not be a bad thing for Harry.
The overall trend was 'auspicious.'
But his arrival at school was definitely going to be delayed.
However, it wasn't a big deal.
For ordinary people, such a violation of school rules would certainly be severely punished.
But Harry was different.
Even setting aside the fact that he was now an important figure at Hogwarts, he was also the 'The Boy Who Lived' in the British wizarding world.
Those who knew the inside story understood that defeating Voldemort was the work of his mother, Lily, but sentimentally, it wasn't calculated that way.
Too many people had their homes destroyed because of Voldemort; all of them remembered this debt. While they might not speak up often, they absolutely wouldn't let Harry be expelled for such a reason.
...Let alone others, Snape certainly wouldn't agree.
"However, I still overlooked something; I didn't notice such an obvious loophole before."
Seeing what happened to Harry, Roger's determination to develop the 'multi-threaded thinking' function of his Second Brain became even stronger.
Multi-threaded thinking might not eliminate all loopholes in his reasoning, but being stronger was always good.
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