"I never imagined I'd one day be riding a train to a wizarding school. I mean, I was supposed to attend a private girls' academy," Hermione said, watching the countryside scenery rush past the window.
The Hogwarts Express was actually somewhat misnamed regarding the 'Express' portion. Sterling could still clearly observe the landscape beside the train tracks. Its speed felt more like a leisurely sightseeing train than true express transportation.
"I completely understand that feeling. Who could have possibly imagined such a day would come?"
This wasn't entirely truthful. Since Sterling could remember, he had been traveling between the dream world and the waking world, though his earliest clear memories began around age six.
However, to comfort the obviously nervous girl, he decided a small white lie was appropriate.
"Oh, Neville, what magical spells do you already know?"
Hermione remembered her earlier questions that had received no response, but thankfully Sterling's recent conversation had helped ease her tension considerably. Her tone softened dramatically, and she stopped firing questions like rapid gunfire.
Neville visibly relaxed at her gentler approach. He scratched the back of his head bashfully and said, "I haven't really learned much magic yet..."
Hermione frowned, clearly unable to comprehend this situation.
Seeing Hermione's confused expression, Neville blushed deeply and pulled down a somewhat comical knitted hat over his head.
"Hermione... wizarding families generally don't teach their children magic until after they receive their Hogwarts acceptance letters..."
"Is that really how it works? But..."
"Oh, someone's knocking at our door. We should probably see what's available on her snack cart."
Sterling quickly interrupted Hermione, correctly guessing she was about to ask something like, "Why didn't you study more magic during the holidays?"
Andrew really should meet Miss Granger someday. Then he wouldn't keep calling Sterling emotionally clueless anymore.
Sterling felt he was the only reliable person in this particular compartment. Neville remained painfully shy, while Hermione was talkative but perhaps somewhat anxious about her upcoming magical education, which made her alternate between nervousness and overconfidence.
Sterling was familiar with this psychological pattern. The little mermaid princess he knew displayed similar behavior.
But that princess possessed far more natural confidence than this girl currently showed. Honestly, when she had once told him she'd always struggled with insecurity, he'd thought it was the most ridiculous joke imaginable.
"Hello, children! Would you like some delicious snacks for your journey?"
A cheerful adult witch pushed her small cart into their compartment, clearly possessing a wonderfully kind disposition.
Her cart displayed an impressive variety of treats. Not only chocolate frogs that Sterling had observed in Diagon Alley, but also towering piles of cakes and colorful candies.
Her friendly offer successfully captured both young wizards' complete attention.
Indeed, snacks held tremendous appeal for children, Sterling thought to himself, completely unaware that his own eyes were eagerly scanning those tempting piled treats.
Neville glanced at the offerings, then retrieved a clean lunch container from his bag and withdrew a delicious-looking sandwich.
"My grandmother prepared this specially for me... so I don't need to purchase any snacks..."
Hermione bought several cauldron cakes. Her gaze lingered thoughtfully on some peculiarly shaped candies for quite some time, but she finally turned away with obvious difficulty.
Sterling had no such restraints. He purchased every snack that appeared appetizing, creating a small mountain of treats on their compartment table.
He even specifically bought a package of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, intending to discover what kind of lasting impression those particular candies had left on Andrew.
Sterling opened the colorful package, selected a pink bean, and popped it into his mouth. His entire face immediately contorted in disgust.
Lemon flavor... an absolutely ultra-concentrated version.
He felt as if his very soul was being corroded by that intensely sour candy.
Neville, who had been watching Sterling experiment with the beans, couldn't help but laugh aloud. Hermione, who had been quietly eating her cake, looked up at Sterling's tortured expression and began laughing as well.
"Not a pleasant flavor, was it? I rarely taste anything good from those either. My uncle mentioned they include very few actually enjoyable flavors when manufacturing them."
Discussing something he understood well, Neville's social anxiety diminished considerably. At least he no longer stammered over his words.
Compared to him, Hermione appeared genuinely curious. She seemed to have never heard of Bertie Bott's Beans before and stared at them with complete bewilderment.
"Extremely strong lemon flavor..."
Sterling nodded in agreement with Neville, then offered a blue bean to Hermione, who accepted it decisively and ate it immediately.
"Oh, that's blueberry flavor!"
She nodded with satisfaction. Both Sterling and Neville turned their attention to her with obvious skepticism. Sterling remained unconvinced and grabbed a brown bean, tossing it into his mouth before his eyes widened in horror.
"Absolutely terrible! Completely indescribable flavor... so utterly disgusting!"
"Probably vomit or earwax flavor..."
Upon hearing that diagnosis, both Hermione and Neville gave Sterling deeply sympathetic looks. Sterling felt furious, quickly pulling out his water bottle and drinking continuously, desperately trying to eliminate the revolting taste.
"This is completely insane! How can there possibly be candy with such horrible flavors? Most importantly, how do the manufacturers even know what vomit tastes like?"
Sterling demanded angrily. Hermione and Neville exchanged meaningful glances, both developing some deeply unfavorable suspicions about the Bertie Bott's development team.
After drinking considerable water, Sterling grew even angrier while staring at the offending candy package. There's an old saying: "Those who don't heed their elders' wisdom will learn through painful experience." Sterling now completely agreed. If he had simply listened to Andrew's warning earlier, he wouldn't be suffering like this.
Sterling withdrew his wand and, amid Hermione's and Neville's amazed stares, transformed the entire packet of candy into a detailed three-dimensional figurine.
"Wow, your transfiguration skills are absolutely incredible!"
"Blue hair and a black vest... you're an Andersen fan too?"
The two companions focused on completely different aspects. Neville marveled at Sterling's impressively advanced first-year transfiguration ability, while Hermione carefully examined the palm-sized figurine.
"This was a limited promotional gift included with the release of Andersen's third fairy tale collection! I was competing in a mathematics contest at the time and couldn't get to the bookstore to purchase one!"
Her eyes sparkled with genuine excitement. Sterling felt somewhat embarrassed and turned his head away awkwardly.
When Andrew published Sterling's fairy tales, he had chosen a pen name to avoid influencing Sterling's normal childhood too early... actually, most professional authors used pen names, didn't they?
Sterling had immediately suggested the name "Andersen," as if it was a name he was destined to possess.
Just moments ago, in his anger, Sterling had casually transformed the candy into something incredibly familiar... the image of "Andersen" that he had personally designed.
Blue hair, wearing square glasses, a black vest, and a checkered shirt. A young boy who looked remarkably studious.
Neville stopped discussing transfiguration techniques and became curious about the light blue covered book Hermione had just retrieved.
Written across it in beautiful calligraphy were the words "The Helpful Sea Witch and the Unruly Little Mermaid."
That was Sterling's most recently published fairy tale, currently topping every children's bestseller list in London.
"This is the special edition... a classic collector's version! The illustrations were supposedly all painted by Andersen himself. I saved my allowance for two entire months to buy it from a classmate whose family owns a bookstore."
Hermione held her head high with obvious pride. That particular book hadn't been easy to acquire. She'd paid a month's worth of homework help fees just to earn the opportunity to purchase it from her classmate's family bookstore.
"Sterling, what's your favorite work by Andersen?"
Looking into Hermione's expectant eyes, Sterling didn't know exactly how to respond appropriately.
He genuinely cherished all his works equally, but if he admitted that, it might dampen Hermione's obvious enthusiasm. He had noticed her nervous tension completely disappeared whenever Andersen's name was mentioned.
Perhaps because she had found someone familiar and influential who seemed similar to herself in some ways.
"Fairy Godmother," Sterling answered, which clearly surprised Hermione.
"Andersen's very first fairy tale? I don't think his early works were quite as brilliant as his recent ones... Oh, Neville!"
Hermione stopped speaking mid-sentence and jumped to her feet. Neville looked over in confusion, then hurriedly stood as well.
"Trevor! Where do you think you're going?!"
It turned out that a rather ugly toad had crawled out of Neville's pocket and hopped over toward Hermione. Now it was turning around and preparing to escape from their compartment entirely.