The look on Hermione and Neville's faces could be summed up in four words: dumbfounded.
Hermione's hand had been calmly gripping her wand, and although the few spells she had learned weren't very lethal, she didn't want to sit around waiting for things to happen, she didn't want to show her panties to some boys. Unexpectedly, Tom settled the fight in a very special way.
Tom wasn't one of those people who would just talk and do nothing once they had the upper hand, he retrieved his wand first and aimed it at the three boys lying huddled on the ground.
Crabbe and Goyle had recovered from the blows, but had lost all courage to fight, and they rolled and picked up Malfoy and ran out of the compartment, Tom put his wand away after they disappeared from his sight.
"Sometimes this thing is better than a wand." Tom looked towards Neville and Hermione, raising his fist.
"Ah, this..." Neville was stunned and didn't know what to say, but Hermione covered her mouth and laughed. After this experience, Hermione and Tom got to know Neville better, and with nothing else to do in the compartment, they chatted about everything.
"Which house do you want to go to?" Hermione seemed very interested in the subject, she was like a candidate who had filled out her exams after she had graded them, as she had agreed with her best friend to join the same house, and she was eager to know what the others had chosen.
"Gryffindor," Neville said, a little frustrated again, "Most of my family are Hogwarts, but I don't know if Gryffindor will accept me, I'm more likely to be sorted into Hufflepuff... but you guys don't have to worry, Grandma said if you get an acceptance letter then you'll get a place, anything is fine by me as long as it's not Slytherin..."
"How about a chocolate frog?" Tom tried to divert Neville's attention from the subject of the House, "Did you pick up the letters from inside?"
"Oh, sure!" said Neville.
Speaking of which, Neville was much happier, and began to ramble on about the wizards in the Chocolate Frog photos, Neville had collected a whole set of photos, and had gifted several of them to Tom and Hermione.
Outside, the sky was darkening and the train seemed to slow down.
"Looks to me like we're almost there, so let's get our robes on." Hermione pulled her robes out of her luggage and put them on. Tom and Neville also put on their plain robes and stuffed the rest of the sandwiches into their pockets.
Hermione tried to grab the luggage, but was stopped by Neville, who told Hermione that someone would help them carry it.
The train slowed down and finally stopped. The young wizards pushed their way to the doors and onto a small, dark platform. The moment he reached the platform, the message came to his mind that the mission was complete.
By the time he reached Hogsmeade, the second stage of his mission to explore the magical world was complete.
[Mission: Travel the World]
[Objective: explore the magical world]
[Stage 2]
[Progress 2/2]
[Hogsmeade Village - Map of the train station unlocked]
[Description: There are countless places in the magical world waiting to be explored, so keep your curiosity alive, traveler!]
[Stage 3]
[Progress 0/4]
[Stage 2 mission reward: Double experience card (8 hours) x 1 - We're good at studying together!]
He took a little look at the card, and discovered that its effect was extremely impressive: it allows you to gain the study efficiency of the selected person directly, and if you study with the selected person, you can even double your efficiency!
8 hours are enough for a university student to study an elective from scratch.
Conducting this quest also provided him with two pieces of information: first, that there could be multiple unlockable anchor points in one location, and second, that the quest would double the number of anchor points to unlock per quest.
The sun was sinking and the chill of the Scottish Highlands made Tom shiver,
But his body was cold and his heart was warm.
He glanced at Hermione beside him, who looked smaller than ever in the cold wind.
"Are you cold?" asked Tom.
"I'm fine," said Hermione, pulling her wool sweater from around her neck, "This is cashmere, it's warm, but you, are you cold?".
"I'm not cold, I'm fine," Tom said.
At that moment, a lamp swung above the students' heads; this was not a paranormal occurrence, but an extraordinarily tall man carrying a lamp. A loud voice shouted, "First years! First years over here! Harry, come here, how are you?"
It was the big man they had seen in Diagon Alley earlier that day.
In the crowded station, the man stood out, and Tom knew him as Hagrid. At that moment, Hagrid rubbed Harry's hair with his huge palms and continued shouting, "Any other first years? Watch your step, all you first years!"
He and Hermione pushed through with Neville in tow.
The first years were not going the same way as the seniors, but followed Hagrid down a steep, narrow path that descended. It was probably because of the rain, and the only light was the lamp in Hagrid's hand, so the path was not easy to follow, and everyone slipped and tripped. Every time Tom walked downhill, he couldn't help but think of a British play.
"Hermione, what's your favorite TV show?" asked Tom.
"Well, there are a lot of them...," said Hermione.
"Whenever I'm down, I always think of a British show." He sketched a wicked smile and recited the classic line, "When a country goes downhill, it needs..."
"It needs someone to sit in the driver's seat and put their foot on the gas?" Hermione smiled and replied.
They both smiled at each other. Then Hermione went into a small pothole and nearly fell over, but Tom was quick enough to catch her.
He pulled out his wand, "Lumos!"
From the tip of his wand came a small glow, which would have been completely insignificant if the path had been dark enough.
But it was better than nothing, and at least Tom and a few others near him wouldn't have fallen.
"Good thing it didn't rain today, if it did, I don't know how we'd walk in this environment." muttered Ron and groaned from a distance.
After rounding a corner, a black lake suddenly unfolded at the end of the narrow path, a collection of boats anchored by the lake and a towering castle looming high on a hill across the lake, its spires fringed with towers and its windows glittering under the stars.
"This is Hogwarts!" Hagrid called out to the young wizards.
As they gazed at the magnificent castle with its glowing lights, Tom felt something in his mind swell, and a thousand words coalesced into one: 'Hello, Hogwarts.