"Hello, my name is Hermione Granger." Hermione looked at Roger, who had only just woken up in the evening, and immediately began scolding him. "You've taken up half the compartment by yourself, which may make it difficult for other first-years to find a seat."
"Ah… Hermione?" Roger had just woken and failed to react for a moment. Looking at the girl in front of him, he could not help marvelling at the coincidence. Honestly, he had chosen this compartment at random, and he had even arrived first.
"Could it be that I accidentally drank Felix Felicis?" Roger suddenly slapped his thigh, startling Hermione badly enough that she nearly jumped.
"Excuse me. I suddenly remembered something about potions." Roger gave an apologetic smile, then introduced himself properly. "Roger. Roger Williams."
"A potion?" Hermione looked at him and asked bluntly, "Is it the potion that turns you into Sleeping Beauty?"
"Sleeping Beauty?" Roger looked confused. He wondered when he had somehow earned himself a nickname.
"You were sleeping so soundly, just like Sleeping Beauty in a fairy tale," Neville nodded, then turned to Roger for confirmation with a serious expression. "Roger, in fairy tales, the princess wakes the prince with a kiss, right?"
"Huh?" Roger's eyes widened. What kind of fairy tale was that? He had never heard that version in his life. "Do you have a copy? Let me see it sometime."
"Who knows? Fairy tales are all lies anyway." Roger noticed Hermione's slightly unnatural expression and wondered what strange thing she had been thinking while he slept.
"Don't change the subject." Hermione sat on the sofa and looked at him with a hint of judgment in her eyes. "You just mentioned potions, didn't you? Why don't you tell us about that?"
Hermione had boarded the Hogwarts Express alone, and in an unfamiliar world, she instinctively tried to prove herself through intelligence and diligence. Unfortunately, her sharp tongue often made other young wizards uncomfortable. She was lucky to have ended up in a compartment with Roger and Neville, because otherwise, she might have been disliked before she even reached the castle.
"Felix Felicis, also known as Liquid Luck." Roger leaned back lazily and answered in a calm voice. "It's a magical potion that brings the drinker good luck."
Hermione thought for a moment, but she had not seen that potion in any of the books she had read. She had to admit that she knew very little about advanced potions.
However, Hermione would not give up so easily. "Just because you know its name doesn't mean you know how to make it."
"You're right, but I know it appears in N.E.W.T.-level Potions." Roger nodded as though he fully agreed with her criticism. "Wizards who drink that golden potion experience an extraordinary feeling, as if everything around them suddenly becomes smooth and easy."
"Its formula is extremely complex and takes a full six months to brew." Seeing Hermione's expression grow more and more deflated, Roger slowly added, "Miss Know-It-All, perhaps you should consult a few advanced potion books."
"You!" Hermione glared at Roger, and tears immediately welled in her eyes.
"Don't be angry. I'll treat you to snacks." Roger patted his stomach, because his appetite had grown larger and larger after the Blue Moon Essence. The hunger had not completely vanished even after sleep, and now the food trolley sounded more tempting than any textbook.
He found the witch pushing the trolley and swept the shelves clean of Pumpkin Pasties, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Cauldron Cakes, and several other sweets. The little mountain of snacks looked almost absurd once piled into his arms.
"Dear me, you're the second person to empty the trolley today." The trolley witch exclaimed softly as she accepted the Galleons from Roger. Her tone held amusement, but there was also a touch of professional respect for such a generous customer.
"But you still won't give me a discount." Roger sighed with such visible regret that the trolley witch actually felt a little embarrassed.
"All right, child. I can give you an extra Chocolate Frog." The trolley witch handed him one more package with a smile. "In all my years of collecting cards, the wizard inside this one has been quite rare."
Roger opened the packaging, and the Chocolate Frog immediately sprang out. Before it could even hit the floor, he caught it in one hand and bit off its head.
"It's only chocolate. Don't be shy." Under Hermione's horrified gaze, Roger licked his lips. He had to admit that Chocolate Frogs in the wizarding world were genuinely unique.
"Roger, Neville's Trevor is missing, and you're…" Hermione stared at the frog in his hand, clearly torn between disgust and curiosity.
"Trevor? Neville doesn't mind." Roger opened the package and looked at the card, where a stern-looking dark wizard stood motionless in the frame. It was none other than Gellert Grindelwald, the Dark Lord imprisoned in the highest cell of Nurmengard.
Instead of continuing to criticise Roger for tearing apart the Chocolate Frog, Hermione and Neville were quickly drawn to the person on the card. They gathered around it, studying Grindelwald's portrait and discussing the description beneath.
Hermione glanced up casually and noticed that Roger had already eaten half the snacks. Judging from his expression, the remaining half would not be enough to fill him either.
"Ugh…" Roger suddenly gagged, his expression twisting in disgust. What kind of sick mind made a Bertie Bott's bean taste like bogeys? He swore then and there that he would never eat another Every Flavour Bean in his life.
He was not some philosopher waiting to discover what flavour came next. If the manufacturer could not manage the production line properly, then it should not blame him for wanting to manage its money instead.
"No way!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed in surprise. Grindelwald's card biography said that he had once duelled with Dumbledore.
"It must be true. Look at this." Neville took out the cards he had collected and found one for Headmaster Dumbledore.
He read from the card with careful concentration. "In 1945, he defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald, discovered the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and achieved remarkable things in alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel."
"It really is him!" Hermione exclaimed several times, while Neville remained fascinated by the rare Dark Lord card.
"Nicolas Flamel? For a while, I kept mixing him up with Manstein." Roger nodded, remembering that he had indeed made that mistake in the past.
"Manstein was a Nazi officer, you know." Hermione looked up at Roger with immediate criticism. "Your European history is really bad."
"Maybe, but I still think Manstein sounds better than Nicolas Flamel." Roger finished the last Cauldron Cake and touched his stomach, which felt only about three-tenths full.
"Roger, can I trade all my cards for your Grindelwald?" Neville asked cautiously. His eyes remained fixed on the card, and it was clear he wanted it very badly.
"Ahem, Neville, don't say Grindelwald is mine. He belongs to Headmaster Dumbledore." Roger glanced at the cards Neville pushed over. They were all common figures in the British wizarding world.
Grindelwald's status as the Dark Lord of Europe, along with his special connection to Dumbledore, probably explained why his card was so rare and valuable in Britain. Roger had no particular attachment to the card, but he still felt the need to remind Neville properly.
"This is a good deal, and I have no reason to refuse. But you should think it over carefully, because you must have collected these for a long time." Roger pushed the Grindelwald card forward but did not immediately take Neville's pile.
"It's all right. I have duplicates of all these cards." Neville pushed them to Roger without hesitation, then carefully put Grindelwald away as if he were handling treasure. "I already have eight Dumbledore cards."
Roger nodded and immediately thought of limited skins from games in his previous life. The rare thing one person desperately wanted might be common, unwanted, or even given away for free somewhere else.
"What a bargain." Roger flipped through the Chocolate Frog packages he had just opened and found three Dumbledore cards inside. Perhaps in the German wizarding world, Dumbledore was the rarest one of all.
"Neville, you must keep that card safe. Whatever you do, don't let the headmaster see it." Roger spoke meaningfully, and Hermione beside him immediately lit up with the fiery curiosity of someone smelling gossip.
"Roger, could there be some story between the greatest white wizard and Grindelwald?" Hermione instinctively connected the two names, her imagination already drifting toward a strange pairing.
"Perhaps it isn't a story, but an accident." Roger marvelled at Hermione's sharp intuition, because some people really did seem born to be detectives. "But I can tell you this much. They had a blood pact."
"A blood pact? What's that?" Hermione's eyes lit up the moment she heard those two words. "There's a secret between Dumbledore and Grindelwald!"
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