Lupin hurriedly got out of the car with his bag, his eyes widening at the sight of a large patch of red hair.
"Arthur?"
Arthur seemed to look at Lupin in disbelief, hesitating for a moment, "Lupin?"
He looked the person before him up and down.
A slicked-back hairstyle so perfect not a single strand was out of place, a fair face (the scars on his face had been repaired), a neatly trimmed mustache, an extremely well-fitting three-piece suit and a trench coat that looked to be of fine material, and he was even holding a cane with a golden lion's head.
There was also a faint scent of cologne wafting from him.
Of course, the attire wasn't the biggest change, the biggest change was the person.
He looked so full of vigor, high-spirited, and radiant!
If this weren't King's Cross Station, but somewhere else, he would hardly believe this was Lupin.
In his memory, this man could almost be described as haggard, scruffy, and world-weary, but now, oh, to say something he himself found strange—he felt that Lupin now looked more like Lucius than Lucius himself.
"Mo... Molly, did you see that? Lupin?" Arthur had an expression like 'Wife, come quick and look at God'.
Lupin laughed heartily and pulled Arthur into a tight hug.
"It's so good to see you!"
The two let go, and Arthur stared at Lupin, looking him up and down, hardly able to believe his eyes.
"I haven't seen you in twelve years, I've been worried about you." Arthur's eyes welled with tears as he punched Lupin's shoulder forcefully, "You just left like that, without even staying in touch!"
As he spoke, he hugged Lupin tightly again.
Lupin's expression was complicated, he smiled but didn't explain anything.
"Are you all doing well?"
Molly held Ron with one hand and Ginny with the other.
"Look, little Ron has grown up, he's going to Hogwarts this year."
"We have a new member, Ginny."
It was still early, so Lupin enthusiastically pulled Arthur and Molly to a nearby coffee shop, as if they had too much to talk about.
This gentle, older man, accustomed to managing a company, was always able to take care of every detail, having the waiter bring desserts and drinks for the children.
"Hey, should I call you... cousin?" Fred asked, leaning curiously over the table to look at Anton.
"You can just call me Anton."
"Can we take a look at your watch? I think that thing is really cool." George said, with one hand on Fred's shoulder.
"Of course."
Anton smiled and unfastened it, handing it to them.
These two would become extremely skilled masters of magical items in the future, creating the full set of Shield Charm gear, Decoy Detonators, and a whole bunch of other things that looked fun but were actually very powerful, even the Ministry of Magic itself was one of their customers, clearly something no ordinary wizard could create.
"This is a goblin mechanical device, apart from their unique spells, the mechanical principles are actually not that complicated..." Anton was happy to share his knowledge.
"Wow, maybe we could make a watch too, one that makes your whole hand look huge when you wear it, like it's swollen from poison," Fred said with great interest.
"Good idea," George chimed in, "Or we could make the hand look extra small?"
Anton looked at them with amusement, "If you can make it bigger and smaller, why not add some special effects, like making it covered in wolf hair, or look like it's broken?"
"A genius idea!" Fred exclaimed.
George was thoughtful, "In that case, we'd have a reason to skip class?"
"No skipping class!" From a distance, as if she had ears everywhere, Molly ran over angrily, twisting each of their ears with one hand, "No skipping class, do you hear me?"
"Of course, esteemed Mrs. Weasley," the twins said in a peculiar tone.
Molly pointed a finger at them, "I'll be watching you."
After their mother left, the twins sidled up again, "That was a good suggestion just now, but we don't have enough funds." George sounded a bit helpless saying this, "And not enough space."
Fred sighed, "Yeah, the space under the beds in the dormitory is filled with tools, it's almost full."
Anton looked thoughtful, smiled, and said nothing.
Ginny rested her hands on the edge of the table, curiously poking her head over to look at the watch.
Only Ron.
He stood stubbornly at the entrance of the coffee shop, waiting for someone to invite him in.
But only the September breeze brought him a fallen leaf.
Whoosh.
...
...
The twin brothers were a lot of fun, and in their eyes, the open-minded Anton was also a lot of fun.
But there was one big difference between them.
The twin brothers were too active, they couldn't stand Anton's calm nature, and after entering the station, they jumped onto the train to call out to their friends.
Ron felt very hurt, he was the twins' younger brother, but they only said goodbye to Anton before they left.
"Little cousin," Anton put an arm around his shoulder, "we'll be brothers at school from now on."
Ron's eyes widened as he looked at him.
"I heard there are vendors selling snacks on the train, maybe we can buy some to see, my uncle said there's a kind of magical moving picture." Anton shrugged, "We've always lived in the Muggle world, I've never seen it."
Oh, if you're going to talk about that, he was wide awake.
"I know, those are magical photographs." Ron was clearly more interested in the snacks, "I know they sell Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans on the train, and Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands..."
"My favorite is Chocolate Frogs, they have cards inside, I've collected almost five hundred, I'm just missing Agrippa and Ptolemy."
"That's really interesting." Anton's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but think of his own childhood, when he was also crazy about collecting cards from inside instant noodle packets, and Ultraman cards from inside seaweed snacks.
He smiled and waved his wand, and both his and Ron's trunks floated up, automatically following behind them.
"Little cousin, tell me more, I'm very interested."
"You can call me Ron."
"Haha, nice name, I'm Anton."
With just a few words, the two cousins who looked very similar went from strangers to best friends, walking towards the train talking and laughing.
Arthur and Molly had somewhat strange expressions.
"He's really a peculiar child," Arthur couldn't help but mutter.
Lupin didn't know how to describe it, he couldn't just say the kid was very smart, could he? So smart that he had already used the Cruciatus Curse to conduct many experiments on him?
And called it something like a 'soul scalpel'? Hmm, that should be the name.
"Would you like to come over to my place? Arthur, Molly, we haven't seen each other in twelve years."
Molly held Ginny's hand and sighed, "You must have had a hard time all these years."
"It was like that for the first few years, then I met Anton." Lupin smiled, clearly no longer dwelling on past hardships, "I have my own company, car, and house. I also have a girlfriend, I can't wait to introduce her to you, come to my place."
Arthur's eyes lit up, "In your blue car?"
Lupin pulled open the car door, "I just bought it, want to give it a try? It handles well."