Neville was overjoyed, clutching his toad so tightly it looked like he might burst into tears.
Harry stared at Charlie, eyes full of admiration.
To him, Charlie was the very picture of a perfect wizard, funny, powerful, and kind.
Ron was stunned. As someone from a wizarding family, he knew exactly how impressive it was for a first-year to pull off that spell.
"Merlin's beard, Charlie, you can already do the Summoning Charm?!"
Hermione's eyes went wide.
"What spell was that? I didn't see it in any of the books."
"Accio," Charlie answered, casually spinning his wand between his fingers.
"It's a higher-year spell. We won't get to it in our first-year textbooks."
Hermione fell into deep thought. So he's already learned advanced magic… must be a pure-blood.
She hadn't expected her pure-blood peers to be this far ahead already.
Her heart began to race, clearly, just pre-studying the first-year material wasn't going to be enough.
If she wanted to catch up, she'd have to work even harder.
She started to sweat.
Little did Charlie know, his casual flex had just planted the seeds of an academic trauma in a certain bushy-haired overachiever.
[Congratulations, Your Majesty, on completing the Tyrant Action: Skill Flaunting. +1 Tyrant Point]
With Trevor safely recovered, Hermione and Neville left the compartment.
They had swapped moods, one had come in gloomy and left smiling, the other vice versa.
Neville walked off beaming, cradling Trevor like treasure.
Hermione stormed out, muttering about "accelerating study plans" and "pure-bloods being too powerful."
Peace returned to the compartment.
Ron was still gawking at Charlie in admiration.
"You're seriously amazing, Charlie! I've seen my older brothers use Accio, but they didn't learn it till third or fourth year!"
Harry nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah, you must be some kind of genius."
Charlie gave them a wicked grin.
"Genius? Nah, genius is just the price of admission to my level."
Harry & Ron: "..."
Wait.
Did this guy really just say that with a straight face?
[Your Majesty is growing arrogant from talent. +1 Tyrant Point]
[Also, Your Majesty's flex was painfully unsubtle.]
Soon, the Hogwarts Express neared its destination.
A voice echoed from the magical speaker system:
"We'll be arriving at Hogwarts in ten minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be delivered to the school."
The boys quickly changed into their robes.
Dressed in black wizard uniforms, Ron and Harry fussed with their collars, clearly excited.
Then came a sharp knock at the door.
Knock knock knock.
Charlie was fastening his cloak and didn't even look up.
"Come in."
The door opened, revealing three boys.
The one in front had a pale face, platinum-blond hair slicked down with so much gel it gleamed, and carried himself with an aristocratic sneer.
Behind him stood two hulking boys with dull expressions, clearly henchmen.
The blond boy glanced around the compartment, then zeroed in on Harry.
"I heard Harry Potter was in this car," he said, his voice dripping with posh entitlement.
"I'm Draco Malfoy."
He gestured to the other two.
"This is Crabbe, and that's Goyle."
Harry nodded politely.
"Nice to meet you."
Malfoy's eyes slid past Harry and landed on Ron and Charlie.
The moment he saw Ron's hand-me-down robes and red hair, his lip curled.
"Red hair, second-hand robes," Malfoy scoffed.
"No introduction needed, you must be a Weasley. My father says the Weasleys are all red-headed and dirt-poor, popping out more kids than they can feed."
Ron's face flushed crimson. Steam practically shot from his ears.
Malfoy then looked Charlie up and down. Though Charlie's robes were new, the collar of his Muggle-style shirt peeked out.
"As for you," Malfoy wrinkled his nose like he'd caught a whiff of something rotten.
"Nice face, shame about the stench. Another Mudblood, I assume?"
Ron visibly flinched at the word, his expression turning grave.
"Mudblood" was one of the most vile slurs in the wizarding world.
He worried Charlie would take it to heart.
But Charlie just looked… confused.
Mud blood? Sounds kind of cool. Like Earthblood lineage or something?
Malfoy turned back to Harry, softening his tone, though his arrogance still lingered.
"Potter, you should choose your friends carefully. Not all wizarding families are created equal."
He extended a pale hand.
The message was clear: I'm the kind of person you should befriend.
Harry's expression turned frosty.
He hadn't known Ron and Charlie long, but already he saw them as friends.
No way was he going to let some smug brat insult them.
Even if Malfoy was being friendly to him, Harry found the arrogance nauseating.
He stared Malfoy down.
"I know who my real friends are," he said firmly.
"Back off, or you'll regret it."
The words rang with clarity, but inside, Harry was panicking.
Crabbe and Goyle looked like two oversized Dudleys. If it came to a fight, the odds weren't great.
Malfoy looked startled, then narrowed his eyes.
"So, our little savior likes to mingle with filth."
Ron jumped to his feet.
"Say that again if you've got the guts!"
Malfoy sneered.
"Am I wrong? The Weasleys breed like pigs and can't afford the litter."
He turned to Charlie.
"And this one's just another Mudblood."
Charlie, listening to all this, raised an eyebrow.
Yeah, he could tell that "Mudblood" wasn't a compliment.
But come on, that's it?
No multi-generational family curses? No creative anatomical insults? These kids are amateurs.
Still, if someone brought the fight to him, he wasn't about to back down.
Charlie calmly pulled out his wand with smooth precision.
"Levicorpus."
The spell rolled off his tongue like a breeze, but carried undeniable force.
Before Malfoy's gang could blink, all three were pulled off the ground, dangling upside-down by their ankles.
"PUT ME DOWN!"
"You dare curse us?!"
They thrashed like fish out of water, but it was no use.
Charlie sauntered up to Malfoy, who was flailing in midair, face red with rage and fear.
Malfoy sputtered.
"Y-you know who my father is?! He's on the Hogwarts Board of Governors!"
Charlie scoffed, unimpressed.
"No idea who your dad is, but I know one thing, you're an idiot."
"Picking fights with power levels that outclass you. What, did a dog chew on your brain? Or did your mom hook up with a magical boar and you were the result?"
"Oh wait, maybe the boar wasn't magical. Explains why your brain's worse than a wild pig's."
The compartment fell dead silent.
Harry and Ron were both slack-jawed.
That… wasn't just an insult. That was a nuclear-level flame war.
Most wizards cursed with "Merlin's pants" or "You bloody prat."
Charlie? Charlie went full hellspawn roastmaster.
Malfoy's face turned white, then blue, then nearly purple.
He trembled with rage but couldn't do a thing while dangling upside-down.
"M-my mom… didn't, didn't sleep with a pig…"
"You'll regret this! My father, !"
Charlie leaned in, voice icy.
"Before your daddy finds me, I'll shove your head in a toilet and flush it to see if any brain matter washes out."
With a flick of his wand, he released the spell.
The trio crashed to the floor in a heap, groaning in pain.
"Get lost," Charlie said coldly.
Malfoy staggered up, tears welling in his eyes.
"You'll pay for this!"
He and his minions fled the compartment like frightened rats.
The door slammed shut.
Harry and Ron were still frozen, faces blank with shock.
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapters