"My wand is in poor condition, that's why the magic failed!"
"Is that so, Ron? Then you should go to Ollivander's for a refund."
Faced with Hermione's mockery, Ron's face and ears turned as red as his hair. He had just wanted to show off some magic, claiming he could turn his pet rat Scabbers yellow.
Of course it failed... the spell Ron's brother Fred had taught him was just to mess with him.
Scabbers was a small rat that was losing fur all over and was missing a toe. It was currently burying its head in a snack wrapper, eating heartily. Scabbers didn't notice at all that someone was watching it with great interest.
Leo squinted his dark green eyes, looking down to observe the balding rat. This rat's true identity was an Animagus... Peter Pettigrew.
He had been hiding in the Weasley family for over ten years and had once been the pet rat of Ron's other brother, Percy. Tsk tsk, how did the Weasleys never wonder how a rat could live so many years?
Leo's thoughts drifted in another direction. Animagus... the highest achievement of current Transfiguration. Wizards could transform themselves into certain animals while retaining their magical power.
He needed to master knowledge in this area and successfully practise it within a year. If he had an experimental subject to observe, it should speed up progress, right?
There were still too few Animagi today; at least those registered with the Ministry of Magic were very few. As for Peter Pettigrew and Harry's father's group, they were all unregistered illegal Animagi.
Professor McGonagall was indeed a highly skilled Animagus, and Leo could ask her for guidance in practice, but he couldn't observe at will to analyse this type of transfiguration.
But Peter Pettigrew was perfect. An illegal Animagus who'd betrayed Harry's parents and framed an innocent man. Who would believe a rat's complaints about a few harmless experiments?
Thinking of this, Leo unconsciously smiled. He manipulated a pumpkin pasty to fly in front of Scabbers.
Scabbers looked at the pumpkin pasty before him, then looked up at Leo. For some reason, though it was clearly a kind-looking smile, it made Scabbers suddenly feel cold all over.
He inexplicably didn't want to eat food given by Leo but felt it would seem strange for a rat to refuse food. Scabbers still bit the bullet and started gnawing on the pumpkin pasty.
Harry, who was watching Hermione and Ron argue, suddenly noticed Leo's spellcasting behaviour of feeding, and envy appeared in his eyes again.
Although people called him the Boy Who Lived, Harry had never formally been exposed to magic before. He didn't know even the simplest spell!
Harry had lived with his Aunt Petunia's family since childhood. Those relatives were all Muggles, and they were all Muggles who hated wizards and feared magic. No one had taught him magic at all.
As for self-study through books? Harry got dizzy just looking at magic books. The books Hagrid had bought with him at Flourish and Blotts were still brand new, stuffed in his trunk.
So Harry envied them. He envied Hermione's ability to learn magic through reading and self-study and envied Ron being born into a wizard family and being exposed to magic from childhood.
Harry envied Leo even more... envied his skilled use of magic. Harry didn't understand magic, but seeing Neville and the others' amazement at Leo's spellcasting skills, he could tell how high Leo's magical level was among his peers.
They were all about the same age, but Leo could already use magic so easily.
"Leonardo?"
Harry pushed his glasses and leaned toward Leo, asking softly: "You seem really good at casting spells. Do you have wizard elders at home who taught you?"
Leo was thinking about how to borrow Scabbers from Ron later, and only answered Harry's question casually: "Oh, no, I'm from a Muggle family. I learnt all that magic from books."
Leo's casual answer stunned Harry. It also made Hermione and Ron, who were still arguing, stop.
"You're Muggle-born too?!"
Hermione looked at Leo with shock. Leo's effortless spellcasting had made Hermione think he was a descendant of a pure-blood family, or at least mixed-blood, with at least one elder who understood magic providing guidance.
But Leo said he was also from a Muggle family and had learnt all that magic through self-study from books. This meant Leo's situation was very similar to her own, but with the same practice from magic books, how could the difference be so great?
When Hermione used the Mending Charm to fix Harry's glasses, she actually wasn't completely confident either. She was just provoked by Ron, and her pride made her attempt it.
However, beyond her shock, Hermione also felt additional closeness toward Leo. After all, among the four young wizards present, Ron was a pure-blood descendant of the Sacred Twenty-Eight families, Harry's parents were both wizards, and Hermione had originally thought she was the only pure Muggle-born.
When reading wizarding world books, she had learnt about some pure-blood wizards' discrimination against Muggle-born wizards. But her strong and proud nature wouldn't allow Hermione to feel inferior, so she had practised spells from magic books for a long time and barely mastered the Mending Charm.
Now with Leo also being from a Muggle family like herself, both learning magic through self-study from books... The little witch looked at Leo with slightly brighter eyes, the friendliness and closeness within them more obvious.
Ron was dumbfounded, staring at Leo with some disbelief. "Self-taught? Magic? This level of proficiency in magic was self-taught?"
Ron, a child of the Weasley family, had pure-blood wizard parents and five older brothers above him. It could be said he had grown up in an environment full of magic from childhood. So he knew even more clearly what level Leo's Summoning Charm was at.
For completely unfamiliar objects and distant and invisible items, he had successfully used the Summoning Charm. If Leo had wizard elders teaching him, Ron could understand, but he said he learnt it from books?
Among Ron's brothers were dragon tamers, those working at Gringotts, and Hogwarts prefects. He had seen what "having talent" meant. But Leo's kind of...
Compared to Ron's complex expression, Harry was much simpler, just looking at Leo with pure admiration. After all, Harry didn't understand wizards or magic, but he just felt Leo being able to master magic through self-study was amazing!
Harry even had the impulse to ask Leo to teach him magic. But thinking that they had only just met a few hours ago and would soon enter Hogwarts to formally study magic anyway, Harry temporarily suppressed this idea.
Facing the trio's reactions, Leo was quite satisfied. Not only did he need to build good relationships with them, but he also needed to create a reliable image in front of them.
This way, when the trio encountered news about the Philosopher's Stone later and finally went searching for it, they would think to come to him for help. Making plans to contact the Philosopher's Stone early was one aspect; ensuring he could definitely find the Philosopher's Stone in the end and use it to brew potions was also crucial.
"Woo woo..."
The sharp, loud steam whistle sounded.
"Children, please change into your wizard robes as quickly as possible. You have all arrived at Hogwarts!"