The moment Magnus broke through to the other end of Ptform Nine and Three-Quarters, he was hit by a wave of murmurs, cheerful goodbyes, and ughter.

  "There he is."

  His attention was immediately drawn to a small group, primarily made up of people with red hair.

  "Magnus, over here!" Fred called, motioning for him to join them.

  Magnus pushed his trunk forward, his eyes sing the crowd—a swirling mix of emotions. The Hogwarts Express stood proudly in the middle of the ptform, surrounded by students and families sharing their st moments before departure. Excited first-years grinned as they hugged their g siblings, while others received st-minute instrus from overprotective parents.

  At that moment, Magnus had never felt the absence of family as deeply as he did now. A knot formed in his stomach, but he forced himself to appear indifferent.

  He mumbled greetings to several people as he weaved his way through the crowd toward the Weasleys. That was just the effect of staying at the Leaky Cauldron long enough—he had bee a familiar face.

  "We were starting to think you'd ged your mind," Gee said as Magnus reached them, greeting the family.

  "Yeah, thought you decided to i the Leaky Cauldron instead," Fred added.

  "Not that it would be a bad idea," Gee smirked. "You could charge ary fee."

  "Yeah, you'd be stinking ri weeks," Fred agreed—until he caught his mother’s stern gaze and immediately ged his tune. "But it's great to see money hasn’t corrupted you, mate. Education is the key." He patted Magnus’s shoulder with monity.

  "Yeah, just be sure to create the lock while you're at it," Gee added with a grin.

  Even Mrs. Weasley seemed to give up to disciplihe twins.

  "It's wonderful to see you, Magnus. And I really think you boys should board now—it’s almost eleven." She turo her daughter. "Enough, Ginny, you ’t go."

  Magnus waited as the twins soled their little sister and said their goodbyes before the four of them made their way toward the train. None of them had their trunks with them, so Magnus assumed they must have loaded them earlier.

  They stopped briefly at one of the partments to help a first-year lift his trunk ihe boy mumbled a quick "thank you" before disappearing into the partment.

  "Blimey, do you knoe just helped?" Fred asked, looking fbbergasted.

  "Harry Potter," Magnus replied, uned. "Yeah, I served him and Hagrid st week."

  "Yeah, but do you—do you really know who he is?" Gee pressed, clearly expeg a differeion.

  "If you mean his e to Voldemort, then yes. I’ve read about it."

  The twins stared at him as if he were missing the obvious.

  "Dude, it's not just stories—it’s all bloody true," Fred said in disbelief. "You saw the scar. The lightning scar."

  Magnus nodded. It wasn’t that he was downpying Harry’s signifi this world—he had thought about it a lot, including Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. But none of that was his immediate . This was a world seemingly desigo give him an edge, and he just hoped this version of Harry Potter had eliminated certain threats.

  In any case, they were headed fwarts, which meant he’d soon find out. If he heard anything about the Sorcerer’s Stone or Professor Quirrell teag Defense Against the Dark Arts, then he’d start to worry. Right now, everyone believed Voldemort was destroyed. Hopefully, it stayed that way.

  "I bet he’ll be a Gryffindee said fidently.

  "Of course he will. you imagine him in Slytherin?" Fred scoffed. "No ce."

  Magnus, however, had something else on his mind.

  "By the way, why didn’t you guys tell me you have Pokémon?"

  Even as he looked around at students b the Hogwarts Express, he could already see people carrying animals in small but well-secured baskets. He couldn’t tell if all of them were Pokémon, but he had spotted several fox-like and cat-like creatures that he was willing to bet were. Exactly which types, he couldn’t say. He’d have to take a closer look to identify them, but even then, he wasn’t a walking Pokédex. There were limits.

  "Oh, you mean our starter Pokémon?" Fred asked, looking utterly ued. "Mate, there’s not much to say. Dumbledore won’t allow us det Pokémon. We’re stuck with tiny, useless dogs, cats, and bats that we’re supposed to train."

  "Yeah, and teach them ‘battling,’" Gee added with a scoff as they climbed into the train.

  "Wait—students are allowed to battle?" Magnus asked, suddenly intrigued.

  "Hey, hey, slow down, mate." Gee raised a hand as if to calm him down. "First of all, battling isn’t mandatory. It’s only for those who want to pete ier-House Pokémon petition." He noticed Magnus’s eager expression and quickly added, "Hate to kill your excitement, but only sed-years and up participate."

  "Pssh." Fred snorted. "Mate, you ’t even call that battling. All they do is bark, snarl, stun, and grapple." He looked genuinely offended by the idea.

  "You two make it sound like it’s Dumbledore’s fault we ’t train our Pokémon well enough to beat the Slytherins," Lee, who had been quiet up until now, finally spoke up.

  The twins shot him a sful look.

  "Snape cheated, and you know it, Lee," Gee said ftly.

  "No, he didn’t," Lee argued adamantly. "I’m not defending that git, but you ’t call inviting a former Pokémon League Champion to train his team ‘cheating.’ If Magall wanted, she could’ve dohe same."

  On that point, Magnus could see the twins begrudgingly agree.

  "Good luck gettio copy Sactics," Fred muttered gloomily.

  "It’s not even that," Lee tinued, clearly frustrated. "I don’t think she takes Pokémon battling seriously the way she does Quidditch. If you ask me, if she had any say, she’d scrap it entirely."

  All the while, they squeezed through the crowded corridors, searg for their partment. Magnus split his attentioween listening to the ongoing pints and sing the various Pokémon students carried in their baskets.

  "Too bad she lost both trophies," Fred suddenly said, stopping in front of a partment door and pushing it open.

  "Worse, she had to watape lift both," Gee added. "I still remember the look on her face. Maybe this time, she’ll take things seriously."

  And with that, they eheir partment just as the train’s bring horn sigheir departure. No one else was in the partment, but it wasy either. The luggage partments above the seats were already stuffed with luggage.

  "Let me," Fred said as he took his trunk and tucked it in the space beh the seats.

  "Thanks," Magnus mumbled absently.

  His attention was ohree creatures ihe baskets that sat on top of the seats. Each of the three friends took one of the baskets a on their respective seat. Magnus sat adjat to the door.

  "Well, I guess introdus are in order," Lee said. "Magnus, meet Ruffy." He indicated the small brown puppy in his basket. "He is..."

  "A Rockruff," Magnus finished for him. "And those two... those must be Eevees," he said, indig the twins' brown fox-like Pokémon.

  "’Course they are... but we call them Fweg and Goj. you guess which is which?" Fred asked gleefully.

  Magnus had no iion of getting a headache.

  "I would rather not," he said, his eyes still fixated ohree Pokémon. "But if you guys are third-years... how e your Pokémoill in their base form? I mean, why have they not evolved?"

  He might as well have been blubbering bloody Mandarin because the look they gave him was one of total fusion.

  "They have not what?" Gee repeated stupidly.

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