The holidays passed quickly.
King's Cross Station.
Dylan's parents had personally driven him there.
"Be careful, and once you get there, remember…" Maeve started to remind him.
"Did you bring everything?" Hubert asked.
"Don't worry, I've got all my carry-on things with me, and the rest has already been sent ahead to the school. I'll be careful too." Dylan nodded.
Then he turned to his parents. "You don't have to work so hard and do so much overtime. Once I become a wizard and can make a lot of money, you two won't have to tire yourselves out."
"Good boy, it's not your turn to worry about us yet." Maeve ruffled his hair.
"All right, don't be late. Get going," Hubert said.
Dylan nodded lightly. "I'll write you from school. Keep an eye out for my owl."
"Mommy will."
After saying goodbye to his parents,
Dylan headed into the station with just a travel backpack on his shoulders.
This was not his first time here. When his parents had days off, they would sometimes take him on trips.
So he quickly found the third pillar between Platforms Nine and Ten.
Once there, he noticed that the surrounding Muggles did not pay any attention to it at all.
Even if they happened to look over, their eyes would slide away at once, as though they had seen nothing.
Dylan watched a young wizard run straight into the pillar without anyone around reacting.
He could not help taking a deep breath.
Hurling yourself at a solid column did take a bit of psychological courage.
"Go!"
Dylan shut his eyes and dove headfirst toward the pillar.
For an instant, he felt as though he had stepped into a void.
Then, after a few more steps forward, the emptiness vanished, and the scene before his eyes suddenly brightened.
Rumble…
A red steam engine pulled into the platform.
Steam billowed in clouds.
Dylan blinked and, for a moment, thought of the nearly silent bullet trains and even maglev trains.
"The technology here isn't quite at that level yet, but the wizards must have enchanted the train somehow to make it faster, right?"
Once he walked in, he noticed that the number of kids and parents around him increased dramatically.
He had no family with him.
So there was no reason to wait. Once the train stopped, he headed straight to the nearest carriage door.
You could sit anywhere in these carriages. The tickets had no assigned seats.
So after boarding, he simply picked the nearest compartment and went in.
Taking off his backpack and setting it beside him, Dylan sat down on the left-hand seat.
Glancing at the scenery outside,
he pulled a book from his items tab.
Most of his belongings were in the system inventory, which also saved a bit on shipping fees.
After this period of studying spells,
Dylan had realized that when it came to learning magic, just skimming the surface was far from enough.
You had to dive deep and fully grasp the underlying meaning of a spell
if you wanted to max it out.
He opened the book in his hand.
It was one he had not finished before leaving home.
It was also one Professor McGonagall had recommended to him at the bookstore—"A Concise Refinement of Transfiguration."
Flipping to his bookmarked page, Dylan continued reading.
The book explained in detail the principles behind Transfiguration, and the things to watch out for when using it in different situations.
Some sections, however, dealt with advanced Transfiguration.
Since Dylan had not yet taken any formal classes, he could not fully understand the key points of high-level Transfiguration just from reading.
But even its coverage of basic Transfiguration was extremely thorough.
It started from the basics and built up step by step, even including explanations of how to use Transfiguration in various combat scenarios.
It was definitely an outstanding book.
If he could truly digest all of it,
his Transfiguration skills might well reach an advanced level.
"Never thought using Transfiguration in an ambush could be this effective."
He had flipped to the practical combat section.
It illustrated many different situations and how best to apply Transfiguration in each.
Thinking of the wand customization function his system had given him,
a number of dirty tricks flashed through Dylan's mind.
Some of them were much nastier than the ambush tactics described in the book…
"It feels like, even though the examples in this book are vivid, something is missing. Or rather, when it comes to ambushes, they don't really push the method far enough."
With six max-level spells already in his repertoire, even when he studied new spells,
he could always draw analogies and see connections.
Not to mention his thinking was not confined to this century. Two lifetimes of experience had fused into something new,
letting him come up with all kinds of underhanded ways to use Transfiguration to screw people over.
Swish.
The compartment door slid open.
Two redheads poked their heads in.
"Hey there, is it just you in here?" one of them asked.
"Mind if we sit with you?" the other added.
"I'm alone; come on in." Dylan gave them a quick once-over.
In that instant, two names popped into his mind.
Once the twins sat down, they could not wait to introduce themselves.
"Thanks. I'm Fred."
"No, I'm Fred. He's George."
"Says who? George, I'm Fred!"
The two of them bickered for a bit.
When they saw Dylan only watching them quietly, they both turned back to him.
"So what's your name?"
"Dylan."
He answered casually.
Once he had placed them, he realized they were the Weasley twins.
If they were here, that meant…
"Are you upper-year students?" he asked.
"Oh, absolutely."
"You're a first-year, then? You'll be in the same year as our little brother."
"Though it doesn't look like you'll end up in the same House."
"Yeah, you're reading a book. Ron would never be caught dead doing that."
Ron?
So he and Harry Potter actually were in the same year?
He had seen the Harry Potter films but did not remember the exact timeline, only the rough order of events.
He did recall that one of these twins died in the final battle later on,
but he could not for the life of him remember which one.
"You look like you're destined for Ravenclaw."
"I think so too!"
"I just don't get it. How can anyone read on the train ride in?"
"And it's not even a textbook. It's a specialty reference book."
"Merlin, I can already see which House the Sorting Hat is going to send this one to!"
"I literally just said that!"
"And I already agreed with you."