The Gradually Changing World
"This is the place. Neville, hurry."
In the swaying train corridor, Hermione Granger held up the hem of her robe with one hand as she ran. Behind her was a cute round-faced boy, his eyes slightly red and swollen from crying.
Hermione's face was fraught with concern, and her white front teeth bit down on her lower lip. Occasionally, she would think about how that silver-haired girl had stood in front of her, the turmoil she had heard as she left the compartment, and the sound of what seemed like a resounding slap.
She hoped that she was still in time and that the golden-haired boy was not an unreasonable person. Given how little time had passed, they should haven't actually begun fighting, right?
Whoosh~
"We've come back. Don't fight..."
The brown-haired girl pulled open the compartment door and gasped out, but when she nervously looked in sound, she was struck dumb, "....eh?"
Different from the tense mood she had imagined, there was a serene and friendly atmosphere in the compartment.
On the floor were Ron and those two plump boys—she recalled that they were called Goyle and Crabbe—who were all quietly reading books with miserable looks on their faces.
On the left, on the seat by the window, Harry and the golden-haired boy who called himself Malfoy were sitting together and softly discussing the contents of a textbook.
Across from them, Alina was leaning against the window, a hand under her chin. The sunlight coming in through the window made her silver hair flash. The open book of spells on her knees clearly indicated that she was reading.
What what was going on here?
A look of confusion appeared on Hermione's face, and she even stepped back and glanced at the number of the compartment to see if she had come to the wrong place.
"Excuse me," a red-eyed and round-faced boy appeared behind Hermione and timidly said. "My name is Neville, Neville Longbottom. Granger said that you found my toad?"
When the compartment door opened, everyone had raised their heads to look, with the most excited being none other than Goyle and Crabbe.
"That's right. We've been waiting for ages. Come here and look."
"Even if it's not, it's fine. We can look for it together."
Goyle and Crabbe almost immediately cast aside their books, their expressions like people who had been relieved of a great burden. Standing up, they spoke in exceptionally enthusiastic tones.
"What in the world happened? I'm talking about here..."
Hermione pointed at Goyle's swollen forehead, and suspiciously asked.
"Haha, that's because..."
Goyle awkwardly chuckled as he rubbed his forehead. He was just about to honestly answer when someone patted him on the back of his neck.
Hermione saw the plump boy's face freeze, and his body began to unnaturally shiver.
"He just accidentally tripped, right?"
Alina lightly harrumphed and patted Goyle on the shoulder. Smiling, she gently explained to Hermione, "And now, as you can see, after some discussion, we decided to study the textbooks until you came back."
Before the girl could ask a thousand questions, Alina turned around and waved a hand.
"Hey, Malfoy, that toad was with you, right?"
"Mm, yes, here!"
Draco Malfoy hurriedly nodded, grabbed the toad on his knees, and walked over.
"Neville, is this your toad?" Alina tilted her head and asked.
"Trevor! Thank God! Neville ecstatically reached out with both hands and took his pet toad.
"Thank you! Really, thank you so much! I was about to give up."
Neville hugged the toad and repeatedly bowed to Malfoy while voicing his thanks over and over.
Although he seemed rather silly repeating 'thank you' over and over, everyone could sense that Neville was trying his best to express his joy and gratitude, particularly toward Malfoy.
What should he do now...Draco Malfoy had never experienced such a scene, and his father had never taught him about this, so he really didn't know how he should react. The boy unconsciously glanced at Alina, but he discovered that Alina was whispering something to Hermione and simply wasn't paying attention.
"Really, it was mostly Goyle and Crabbe that found him."
Draco's pale cheeks slightly reddened as he looked away and unnaturally said, "I didn't want to look at the start, and I only decided to when I heard that I could get information on a secret passage. You should just thank Big Sister Alina."
"No, no, Draco, you were actually the most enthusiastic."
"That's right. He even said that we should take care not to injure the toad while capturing it."
Goyle and Crabbe had even thinner skins than Malfoy, and before Neville could even look over, they hastily waved their hands and denied their contributions.
Alina smiled happily at the proud Malfoy and his two companions. Really, they weren't bad at heart.
In her view, even without the toad, if things had gone as described in the novel, then Malfoy had still needed to travel through many train carriages to come and extend a hand of friendship to Harry. If not for his haughty tone, he would have had a good chance of making friends with Harry.
Pa, pa, pa.
"Alright, enough with being humble. We're all fellow classmates, so there's no need to act like strangers."
Alina lightly clapped her hands, interrupting Neville's conversation with Malfoy's group. She happily proposed, "Instead of everyone going back to their compartments, why don't we use this chance to chat with each other?"
Alina paused as she looked around and saw that all the snacks in the compartment had basically been eaten. Frowning her brow in frustration, she added, "But it seems like we'll need to buy more snacks."
Although Harry had bought a lot of snacks, it was only a lot for three people. Now that there were eight people in the carriage, the amount was clearly lacking.
"That's fine. Just leave it to me. Goyle, come with me to buy snacks. Crabbe, go to our compartment and bring back all the snacks we have."
Upon hearing Alina's words, Malfoy bravely volunteered himself.
"Big Sister Alina, relax. No matter what you want to eat, we can get it."
After experiencing the joy that came from helping out someone for the first time, Draco Malfoy was particularly proactive. Straightening his back, he thumped his chest. This sort of problem that could be resolved with just money was nothing to the wealthy Malfoy family.
Seeing Malfoy's proud display in front of Alina, Ron couldn't help but softly cough as he tried to stop himself from laughing.
"What, Weasley, do you have any objections?" Draco turned to Ron and raised an eyebrow.
These two were definitely of opposite natures. They were all in the same team, but they could still oppose each other?
Alina helplessly rolled her eyes. Perhaps even when the wealthy and poor of the Magic World were in the same camp, they still couldn't avoid fighting each other. But this was fine, as watching people getting along too well wasn't that exciting.
"No, I just wanted to say that there's one miraculous drink that you won't be able to buy."
Ron shrugged and pointed at the bottle of Coke in the corner of the room. "You haven't seen it before, right? I'm guessing you've never even heard about the hydroxic acid that's everywhere around us and the terrifying CO2, right?"
"Hydroxic acid? Miraculous drink?" Hermione curiously looked in the direction that Ron was pointing and shrugged in confusion, "Isn't that just an ordinary bottle of Coke?"
Cough, cough, cough! "Well then, Ron..."
Suddenly, Alina fiercely coughed.
She was confident in her ability to fool Ron and Harry, but not with the straight-A student Hermione present. The silver-haired girl hastily attempted to awkwardly end the conversation.
"Ordinary coke?"
Ron scoffed and wagged a finger at Hermione as he slowly explained, "That's just the way Muggles drink it. Any mature wizard would never defile this kind of magical beverage like Muggles would, right, Harry?"
Now that Ron finally had a chance to show off, he naturally wouldn't just let it go.
"That's right. I also just learned that the correct way of drinking it in the Magic World is to shake it first. Big Sister Alina said that a proper wizard should learn how to use their own magic to restrain the Coke from exploding."
Harry Potter hurriedly nodded and earnestly added.
Ever since Alina had displayed her monstrous strength, little Harry had been concerned that the silver-haired girl would choose to settle accounts with him over his offense of running into the compartment while she was changing. Thus, his support was even more enthusiastic than Ron's.
Shake it before drinking? An explosion of Coke? Alina said it?
Hermione strangely blinked, and then she glanced at the dour-faced Alina while beginning to cough, clearly trying her best to not laugh.
These two...what were they doing?!
Alina glared at Ron and Harry, a hint of killing intent on her face.
Eh? Why did Big Sister Alina seem angry...
Unlike Harry, Ron was particularly sensitive to a woman's emotions, as he had both his mother and his little sister to learn from. He immediately sensed that there was something strange about the silver-haired girl's expression.
Glancing at Hermione, who was trying hard not to laugh, Ron felt as if he understood the reason. Each time Ginny and his mother argued, they would get like this, and at that time, one only needed to stand on the side of the certain victor.
The redheaded boy took the bottle of Coke, fiercely shook it, and offered it to Alina. He shot a challenging glance at Hermione as he fawningly spoke.
"Big Sister Alina, I've helped you shake. Let her experience the way a wizard drinks it."
"..."
Alina had a constipated look on her face as she took the Coke from Ron and looked around.
Harry was whispering to Malfoy about something, and from the awe in their eyes, Alina could immediately tell that it was about hydroxic acid. As for the archcriminal Ron, as well as Goyle and Crabbe, they had no doubts and were all looking expectantly at her.
"Ka! Ka! Ka!...Hahahaha...hurry, hurry, Alina, let me see how a wizard drinks it..."
Hermione's shoulders trembled as she finally broke out in laughter.
Had something gone wrong with the plan?
The silver-haired girl took in a deep breath as she glanced at the fizzing Coke bottle. Even if she was crying, she still needed to jump into the hole she had dug, or else she would lose all her dignity as a big sister. She glared at the confused Ron and Harry—she would remember this.
Of course, she also wasn't going to let the little girl almost bent over in laughter go scot-free.
Alina turned her head, and while Hermione wasn't paying attention, she grabbed her arm and spoke in a sickly sweet tone.
"Student Granger, let's try and suppress it together, yes?"
With a look of grim determination, Alina unscrewed the cap, and white bubbles gushed into the air.
"Ah...no!"
Hermione shrieked as she tried to dodge, and the compartment overflowed with a joyous mood.
...
At the same time, Hogwarts.
"Goodness, Dumbledore, this is insane."
Minerva McGonagall weakly groaned.
In front of her was a golden mountain of unprecedented size. Just now, Dumbledore had told her of that massive plan that would make both the Magic and Non-Magic Worlds tremble.
"But all of it is worth it, no?"
Dumbledore smiled as he carefully folded up the papers covered in numbers and diagrams and put them away.
"Fine, you've convinced me. What can I do for you?"
McGonagall closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and sternly said.
Dumbledore shook his head, and warmly replied, "You don't need to do anything except welcome the new students as you always do. Time will slowly lead us to the result we desire."
The old man paused and blinked, then he suddenly added, "Oh, right. I almost forgot. I have an interesting and willful little request regarding the ordering of the student list..."