Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is not meant to infringe upon copyrights.
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After Kyle boarded the train, the first few carriages were practically full.
It couldn't be helped, since he'd arrived at a delayed stop, finding an empty seat wasn't easy.
Using a levitation spell, Kyle carried his luggage until he finally found a relatively spacious carriage at the end of the train.
This carriage contained only one boy, about his own age. His looks... though not as impressive as his own, he was much better looking than the Weasley twins.
"Knock, knock…"
Kyle knocked on the carriage door and politely asked, "Hello, can I sit here? The rest are full."
"Of course, feel free to," the man said quickly.
"Thank you."
After entering the carriage, Kyle placed his luggage on the storage rack and extended his hand.
"Hello, I'm Kyle Chopper, a first-year."
The man seemed lost in thought and didn't respond immediately. Once he realized what was happening, he quickly extended his hand. "Oh... Sorry, Cedric Diggory, a second-year student at Hogwarts."
Cedric?
Kyle was a bit surprised. He'd barely boarded the train to run into someone he knew. A future Hogwarts champion, no wonder he was so handsome.
Kyle remembered that his family also lived near St. Catchpole's, but for various reasons, they'd never met.
Not once.
Kyle had initially tried to find him, but Diggory's door was always closed, and eventually, Kyle gave up.
He hadn't expected their first meeting to happen on a train…
Seeing that Diggory seemed preoccupied, Kyle said nothing more. After a brief greeting, he pulled out the book "Common Spells and Their Solutions" he'd bought from Flourish and Blotts and began reading.
He remained lost
in thought. A light drizzle had begun outside the train window. It was always like that here; the rain would come suddenly, without warning.
Kyle glanced out the window, unconcerned. He was used to it, and he quite enjoyed reading in such conditions.
Influenced by Kyle, Cedric also stopped slouching and began reading a book. Judging by the cover, it looked like "The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Defense." Preparing for Defense Against the Dark Arts on the train before the start of term was perfectly normal for Hogwarts students.
After all, no one knew how long the professor would be around for the year; what if he quit after just two classes? So it was always a good idea to prepare in advance.
For a while, the only sound in the carriage was the rustling of parchment, a stark contrast to the clamor outside.
But this didn't last long.
Cedric hadn't even finished two pages when the door opened again.
"Finally, we found you, Kyle."
We saved a seat for you, but you stood us up, leaving us waiting like idiots."
"I think you owe us an apology,"
Fred and George leaned against the door, each questioning Kyle.
Their expressions were visibly furious, as if Kyle had done something truly infuriating.
"I can apologize,"
Kyle calmly closed the book in his hand and said, "But the prerequisite is that you must swear to Dumbledore that what you just said is true."
In an instant, the anger on Fred's face turned into confusion: "Well, can I swear in the name of the headmaster?"
George did the same: "Or Professor McGonagall will do."
"No!" Kyle shook his head: "It can only be Dumbledore."
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"Oh, George, I think Kyle must have been on the Hogwarts Express for the first time and wasn't familiar with the area, so he didn't find us."
"Yes, Fred, it's not his fault. We should have been more careful outside."
The twins exchanged glances, tacitly ignoring the previous conversation, and squeezed into the carriage as if nothing had happened.
Inevitably, they spotted Cedric.
Fred gave a sly grin and said, "Look who it is! I can't remember."
George raised an eyebrow and said, "Of course, it's our Hogwarts good boy, Mr. Cedric Diggory, the Light of Hufflepuff."
As soon as the two finished speaking, Cedric's face flushed. The embarrassing prefix was so embarrassing that he almost punched a hole in the train.
But he couldn't argue.
Because the titles of good boy and the Light of Hufflepuff were both passed down from his father. In just one summer, they had become known to almost everyone in the Ministry of Magic.
Of course, that included their families.
As a result, nearly half of the letters Cedric received this summer were signed by Hufflepuff's Light.
The remaining half were from Muggle families, unaware of this.
It was precisely because of this that he had deliberately chosen this corner compartment, yet he was still discovered, and by the two most troublesome people.
"Please, let me go!" Cedric clasped his hands together, begging for mercy. "I can lend you my homework."
As he spoke, a sheaf of parchment was placed on the table.
The twins were about to tease him further, but the price was too high.
That was the top-ranked homework in the grade!
George's expression straightened, and he quickly hugged the parchment in his arms. He said seriously, "What are you talking about, Cedric? Of course we know that wasn't your intention. It was just a joke."
"That's right," Fred nodded. "Don't worry, we won't laugh at you for this."
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Fred and George left with smiles on their faces, looking as if they had found Galleons.
Once they left, Cedric breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at Kyle sheepishly and said, "Sorry, I..."
"I should be the one apologizing," Kyle interrupted. "After all, they came looking for me. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been discovered."
Cedric smiled wryly and shook his head. "It was only a matter of time."
He could hide on the train, but not at Hogwarts. He had to face it; it was just a matter of time.
Furthermore, the Weasley twins' sudden appearance wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as they showed Cedric a solution to this problem.
Homework.
As the top student in his grade, his summer homework was in high demand, as evidenced by the Weasley twins' reactions just now. Therefore, using homework to silence Hufflepuff and Gryffindor shouldn't be a problem.
As long as they could be controlled, the problem was essentially 80% solved.
As for Ravenclaw and Slytherin... given the personalities of those two houses, they probably wouldn't join in on such a commotion, at least not for the most part. Even if a few of them showed up occasionally, it wouldn't be a big deal.
As long as the people in his own house didn't make a fuss, and Gryffindor's energetic lions didn't get involved, this thing would be over in three days at most.
Just three days, it would be quick.
Thinking about it this way, Cedric suddenly felt that things didn't seem so bad after all.
[End of the chapter]