King's Cross Station, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.
Sean said goodbye to Aldrich, pushing his luggage and the still-sleeping Kulkan through the wall to enter the platform.
After a brief search, Sean spotted Blaise and Andy standing to one side. They just needed to wait for Jansen to arrive before they could board the train.
"Andy, you'll be taking your O.W.L. exams this year, right?"
Nodding, Andy was clearly feeling pressure about the O.W.L. exams. Hearing Sean's question, he replied: "That's right. I'll probably be quite busy this year. I still have to handle my usual business, plus the O.W.L. exams. It's definitely troublesome."
"My new mental recovery potion has already been partnered with the Bulstrode family. I've also secured agency rights for you. You can get the potions at cost price, but the selling price must match the Bulstrode family stores. Is that alright with you?"
"No problem. Thank you, Sean."
"Don't mention it. We don't need to say thanks between us."
The three chatted casually while Jansen arrived fashionably late.
Jansen was starting his fourth year, making him a year older than Sean and Blaise. So after the four found an empty compartment and sat down, Blaise asked Jansen: "Jansen, is third year very busy? I heard you have to choose electives. Do you have any suggestions?"
"There are five elective courses total, and you need to choose at least two. If you just want to pick two to get by, I suggest you choose Professor Charity Burbage's Muggle Studies and Professor Sybill Trelawney's Divination.
The former is very easy, both homework and exams. The latter is also easy. As long as you predict dark futures or foresee death during divination, you'll get high marks.
At the same time, I don't recommend choosing Ancient Runes. That course is really difficult, with high difficulty for both homework and exams."
Blaise blinked. He was almost certain he would choose Divination and Muggle Studies.
Sean looked at Blaise, easily seeing through his thoughts.
Actually, as school approached, Sean had also considered what courses he should choose, especially whether he should take all five electives to obtain a Time-Turner.
With a Time-Turner, Sean's research time could increase considerably. However, this would probably increase his need for mental recovery potions to an exaggerated degree. Even if he didn't drink them like water, it would be close.
After much consideration, Sean still decided to choose all five courses.
Sean really wanted to study the Time-Turner properly, and his research on Wolfsbane Potion also required a lot of time. With the Time-Turner's help, he could extend his research time at school.
At worst, he'd just drink mental recovery potions like water.
Thinking about the Time-Turner, Sean suddenly felt like he had forgotten something important.
Recently, Sean had been busy researching the new Wolfsbane Potion formula. As school approached, he kept feeling like he'd forgotten something but couldn't remember what. Just now, thinking about the Time-Turner, Sean again had that feeling of forgetting something important.
While Sean was pondering these things, the sky outside suddenly darkened. Light rain began falling from above, quickly turning into a downpour that struck the train windows with a pattering sound.
Looking at the terrible weather outside, that feeling of having forgotten something, something he could almost remember but couldn't quite recall, became even stronger.
Just as Sean was about to drink something and close his eyes to rest, accompanied by a tremor, the Hogwarts Express suddenly stopped. The lights in the car went out one by one, and Sean clearly saw frost gradually spreading across the windows while water in glasses quickly froze.
At this point, if Sean still couldn't remember what he'd forgotten, his memory would be truly terrible.
Turning toward the compartment door, Sean stood up and locked it directly. At the same time, he could clearly see a humanoid spirit entity seemingly wearing a tattered black cloak slowly approaching outside their car, looking at Sean through the glass door of the compartment.
"Dementors!"
Dementors bold enough to steal a snack were ultimately rare.
At least the one in front of Sean wasn't absorbing his happy emotions.
This Dementor merely checked the compartment, confirmed that Sirius Black wasn't inside, then immediately turned and left.
It was only then that Sean suddenly realized he had overlooked this year's Dementors.
Since he could obtain various abilities from trolls, basilisks, and house-elves, what about Dementors?
This year offered many opportunities to face large numbers of Dementors, and Sean didn't want to miss these chances.
So before facing those Dementors, the Patronus Charm was magic Sean absolutely had to master.
The Patronus Charm was very high-level magic. Mastering it required not only constant practice and study but also sufficient positive feedback. In other words, if a wizard had done too many evil deeds, they couldn't learn the Patronus Charm, because it required the positive energy from the wizard's heart to drive this magic.
Sean felt that he should, maybe, probably, possibly, seemingly...
be able to use the Patronus Charm...
right?
Rumble...
The Hogwarts Express's lights came back on, and the train resumed operation.
Just then, Sean and the others saw a somewhat disheveled and down-on-his-luck adult wizard walking from the back of the train, passing by their compartment toward the front.
"Who's that? There's actually an adult wizard on the train?"
"Could he be from the Ministry? Since Dementors just came, having Ministry officials on the train should be normal, right?"
Hearing Blaise and Andy's conversation, Sean sat back in his seat and said: "That person definitely isn't a Ministry official. If you looked carefully, you should have noticed his clothes are very worn and he looks quite disheveled. Ministry officials wouldn't be so down and out."
"Then who do you think he is?"
Turning to look at Blaise, Sean asked with a half-smile: "If I guess correctly, you give me one Galleon. How about it?"
"Fine, one Galleon. I'll bet! If you're wrong, you give me one Galleon too."
Nodding, Sean looked at Blaise and said: "Taking the Hogwarts Express to Hogwarts, clearly not a Ministry official or Auror. There's only one possibility. He's our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year."