"What skilled use of the Patronus Charm," a somewhat hoarse voice entered Malfoy's ears. Malfoy looked up and saw a man with a weary face standing in the middle of the aisle, looking at him with admiration.
This man was wearing an extremely worn-out wizard's robe, patched in several places, with a sickly look on his face and light brown hair streaked with white. Even though the exhaustion on his face could not be concealed, the light in his eyes was piercingly bright.
"I think we'll have a chance to talk later," the man said kindly. In his opinion, the stability of this carriage was due to the young man in front of him. Even an incomplete Patronus Charm could provide some resistance. Even he himself had only summoned a silver light just now, and the Dementor had left with some fear.
"But now I have to find the driver, the rain is too heavy, we have to restore the lighting as soon as possible," the man said with some worry, and glanced at the car window. Bean-sized raindrops kept hitting the window, as if a layer of gray mud had been smeared on the window glass. Not long ago, the train jolted violently and all the lights went out. The only thing that could be relied on was the dim light outside the window. When the sky was completely dark, perhaps only the flickering glow would be able to provide illumination.
"I hope the journey ahead will be safe," the man said, and then slowly moved towards the front of the train, preparing to negotiate with the driver.
"Remus John Lupin," Malfoy murmured in his heart.
This was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher he would encounter in his third year at Hogwarts.
A short while after Lupin left, the lights in the aisle of the train suddenly came on, and the entire carriage lit up again. It seemed that the lighting supply had been restored. The rain outside the window gradually lessened, and after the thick, heavy dark clouds receded, the sky suddenly brightened. The rolling fields were full of flowers and plants of various colors, and the strong wind blew, like waves rolling and surging in a sea of flowers.
However, these beautiful scenes were only fleeting, and soon the sky truly darkened, which also meant that the journey on the train was coming to an end.
"Chh " The long hiss of releasing air and the slight shaking when the train finally stopped announced that the students had reached their destination.
"Wake up, sleepyhead," Malfoy gently shook Pansy.
"Have we arrived?" Pansy rubbed her sleepy eyes. She felt like she hadn't slept so soundly in a long time, but when she saw the position she was currently in, hanging on Malfoy, her face couldn't help but turn slightly red.
"Get yourself together, get ready to get off the train," Malfoy slowly broke free from Pansy's embrace, placed her on the seat, and then reminded her.
Pansy blushed, looked down at her somewhat wrinkled robes and hurriedly reached out to smooth them out, but felt her head suddenly being tapped.
"Are you so confused that you've forgotten you're a wizard?" Seeing Pansy return to her original state, Malfoy didn't stand on ceremony, and gently tapped her head with his wand, then recited to her robe: "Reparo!"
The robe, which had been covered in wrinkles, was now as good as new.
Pansy's face turned even redder. Before getting on the train, she had been thinking about making a splash on the first day of school and making Malfoy look at her with new eyes, but now she had made a fool of herself, even forgetting to use such a simple spell.
"Alas,
I really don't know how you're going to pass your exams later," Malfoy could only sigh helplessly, obviously having no solution for the girl in front of him.
"Can you even stand up?" Malfoy couldn't help but ask again. After maintaining that difficult posture for several hours, her legs must be almost numb. As expected, Pansy only tried to stand up, but immediately fell back into the seat. Her weak and powerless body and sore, numb legs made it difficult for her to walk.
Malfoy could only helplessly hold his forehead.
Soon, the doors of the train opened, and several gusts of piercingly cold wind poured in. The temperature outside was still very low. Malfoy leaned half his body out of the window. Cold rain was pouring down, and all he could see was that the platform was covered in frost. Occasionally, a few students slipped and fell to the ground, getting covered in mud.
Malfoy certainly couldn't leave Pansy alone here, so he took her fair, tender hand and said, "Let's go."
Pansy nodded. She felt that no matter how much she told herself to stay away from him appropriately, it was useless, because she would inevitably indulge in his thoughtfulness, care, and accommodation.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, but it was drowned out by the louder, chaotic sounds.
"What did you say?" Malfoy asked, he didn't hear Pansy's words clearly.
"It's nothing," Pansy shook her head gently.
After getting off the train, a rough voice rang in their ears. "First years, this way!" Hagrid's burly figure stood out among the crowd of students. The new students were to participate in the traditional boat ride, commemorating the four founders of Hogwarts.
Malfoy helped Pansy forward, following the surging crowd.
"I can walk by myself," Pansy was still a little embarrassed, gently broke free from Malfoy's hand, and then walked step by step, indicating that she was fine.
Malfoy naturally wouldn't force her.
They followed the other students onto a rough, muddy path. Looking around, hundreds of carriages were waiting for the remaining students.
What was surprising was that there were no horses in front of these carriages.
Malfoy, on the other hand, was well aware of this. Only those who had seen death could see Thestrals. According to records, they had huge, black, horse-like bodies with no flesh at all. Black fur clung tightly to their bones, and each bone was clearly visible. Their heads resembled dragon heads, with white eyes and no pupils, and a black, long tail. Wings grew from the raised area between the shoulder blades.
He and Pansy were about to get into the carriage when a glance revealed a girl squatting in front of the side of another carriage, staring straight ahead, as if she had discovered something new.
Light golden hair mixed with some brown revealed her identity.
This should be Luna's first time seeing Thestrals. Last year, she was a first year and needed to follow the tradition of reaching the castle by boat, so she didn't see them. In fact, Thestrals were rare. Apart from a few wild Thestrals, most of the Thestrals in Britain were being tamed by Hagrid. The original male Thestral and five female Thestrals had almost developed into a population under his breeding.
Even when Dumbledore traveled long distances and it was inconvenient to use Apparition, he would use them as transportation.
Hagrid should have a talent for animal training, right? Malfoy thought to himself as he was about to step into the carriage, but saw Luna's body suddenly tremble, as if she felt his gaze. She stood up and walked straight towards him. The journey was short, and in the blink of an eye, Luna walked in front of Malfoy.
"Thank you," Luna looked at Malfoy with her somewhat dreamy eyes, bowed slightly, and sincerely expressed her gratitude.
"Huh?" Malfoy raised his eyebrows in confusion, feeling a little confused. He remembered that he hadn't helped her with anything.
Luna didn't explain, because she sensed a strange hostility from the girl behind Malfoy. She turned around, took small steps towards another carriage nearby, but her eyes still occasionally swept towards the Thestrals in front of the carriage. Luna didn't know why the other students couldn't see them, which made her even more curious about the creatures in front of her. She decided to go and look at some past issues of The Quibbler, perhaps she would gain something.
But perhaps when she knew the real reason, she would wish she could never see these creatures.
"Did I help her?" After getting into the carriage, Malfoy was still pondering Luna's thanks.
"Of course, it's just that you didn't notice it yourself," Pansy suddenly took over his murmur and began to explain.
He then learned that when Lockhart gave a speech on stage that day and Luna came to find him, their few words of conversation were noticed by others. As a result, those students from the same house who had bullied Luna quickly returned the things they had stolen from Luna, which led to the fact that the notice that Luna had originally prepared to write to get her things back was not posted.
If Malfoy and Luna had a good relationship, wouldn't he be the one who would be retaliated against if there was a next time?
If they didn't have a good relationship? Then he shouldn't get involved with this crazy girl at all, wouldn't it be even more unacceptable to be innocently implicated?
This incident made Luna even less popular in her house.
But she didn't resent Malfoy, but expressed her gratitude to him. If it were someone else, they might have been angry with him, but in Luna's eyes, even if there were more people who alienated her just because of rumors, they shouldn't be worth a sincere friend.
She was so frank and maverick that even if the surrounding students laughed at her, she still lived freely and did not change her original intention for the sake of other people's opinions.
For Luna, she could always keenly feel the true emotions of the people around her when facing her. Was this intuition lucky or unfortunate?
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