He had done it. Harry watched as the smoke from the locomotive rose above the heads of the noisy crowd, while cats of all colors darted between people's legs.
The owls hooted at each other in a grumpy tone, competing with the buzz of conversations and the movement of heavy trunks.
All of this excited Harry, who yearned even more for life in this new magical world. That's why he hadn't slept all night, his mind filled with images of spells and fantastic creatures.
Upon entering the train, he realized that the first cars were packed with students of all years.
Some were leaning out of the windows to say goodbye to their families, others were arguing about seats, and many were greeting each other after a long time apart. Harry made his way through the crowd until he found a compartment with extra space near the end of the train.
"Excuse me, do you mind if I sit?" he asked, feeling a bit shy.
Inside the compartment was a boy with wavy black hair. If he remembered correctly, it was the same boy he had crossed paths with at the station.
He had a slender appearance, a calm face, and his eyes looked somewhat sleepy.
He was dressed in clothes that seemed more suited for camping in the woods than for a train journey, and unlike the others, he only had a backpack.
"No problem, there's plenty of room," the boy replied, turning his face towards him.
Harry nodded and first settled Hedwig, his owl, in a seat. Then he began to push his trunk towards the door of the car, but he could only lift it a little before it fell again.
"Do you want me to give you a hand?" the boy offered, surprising Harry.
He jumped and, looking back, realized it was the same boy.
A little embarrassed, he replied, "Yes, please."
To his astonishment, he watched how the boy easily lifted the trunk as if it were a feather.
After shaking the palms of his hands, he returned to his seat.
"Thanks," said Harry.
"Don't mention it, it's no trouble... um..."
"Ah, right, I'm Harry Potter. Nice to meet you."
He extended his slightly sweaty hand and pronounced his name.
The boy was stunned for a few seconds and looked at him oddly.
Harry glanced at his hand, quickly wiped it, and extended it again.
"Leo, Leo Jackson. Nice to meet you, Harry," he said, shaking his hand.
Harry felt a mix of surprise and relief; since he had arrived in this world, every time he met someone, the reaction was always a combination of admiration and astonishment.
But Leo seemed so calm that Harry couldn't help but ask, "Don't you feel weird or uncomfortable meeting me?"
"Why should I?" Leo replied sincerely.
"Well, it's not that I want to brag, but I'm somewhat well-known around here," Harry said, lifting his hair slightly to show the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.
"Sorry, I don't know you. Am I supposed to?" Leo replied, frowning.
Harry felt he had misread the situation and quickly shook his head. "No, that's fine... In fact, it's great. I was just curious about…"
Before he could finish his sentence, a shout interrupted the conversation.
"Is that...?"
Outside the compartment, two red-haired twins appeared. If he remembered correctly, they were named Fred and George.
"Wow, that's amazing," one of them said.
"Are you...?" asked the other in disbelief.
"It's definitely him, George," the first one affirmed with a broad smile.
They quickly approached Harry, staring at his forehead.
"Who?" Harry asked, confused. But following their gaze, he quickly understood.
"Harry Potter," they replied in unison.
"Oh, him," said Harry, feeling a bit amused. "I mean, yes, it's me."
The two twins looked at him wide-eyed, and Harry felt a little embarrassed.
Then he turned his head towards Leo and with a glance said, "See? This is a normal reaction."
Leo shrugged and sat back down, making it clear that he had no intention of getting involved in that situation.
"Fred? George? Are you there?"
"Coming, mum!" With an apologetic look, the twins quickly exited the carriage.
Harry, who had finally been freed, sat by the window, directly across from Leo.
From there, half-hidden, he could hear everything the red-haired family outside the cabin was saying.
From time to time, exclamations of surprise echoed and subtle glances scanned him.
The truth was, he felt like an animal in a zoo, which made him a bit uncomfortable.
"I see you weren't exaggerating earlier," Leo remarked, having pulled out a book without Harry realizing.
At his words, Harry could only smile ironically.
The train began to move slowly after an announcement over the speakers.
Harry glanced outside as the train moved forward and saw the boys' mother waving, while the little sister cried and ran after the train.
However, once it started to speed up, they could only stand there waving from that spot.
Watching the mother and the little girl, Harry couldn't help but think that maybe, if he had parents, they might be just as excited for him.
For a moment, he felt quite sad, but that feeling didn't last long.
As he watched the houses rushing by outside the window and the wind blowing in his face, he felt a wave of excitement.
Maybe he didn't know what was going to happen in the future... but it could never be worse than what he was leaving behind.
The compartment door opened and the youngest of the redheads entered.
"Is anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing to the seat next to Harry.
Leo and Harry turned to look at him.
Honestly, his question seemed a bit silly; couldn't he see that no one was there? And besides, why did he want to sit next to Harry and not Leo?
Harry looked at Leo, who was watching the boy who entered as if he were slow, without even trying to hide it.
Well… that explained why he didn't want to sit there.
Harry forced a smile, shook his head, and the boy sat down.
He threw a glance at Harry and then quickly turned his gaze back to the window, as if he hadn't been watching him.
But after a few seconds, apparently he couldn't help it anymore and asked:
"Are you really Harry Potter?"
Harry simply nodded.
"Seriously... I mean, are you that 'Harry Potter'?"
"No way. His name is Harry Stark, a famous philanthropist known for his ability to spend money," Leo replied with a cynical tone.
The boy blushed a bit and scratched his head.
"I'm sorry... You are..."
"Before asking someone's name, you should first say yours," Harry interrupted him.
"Oh... okay, sorry. My bad. I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes. I got a little nervous."
"I didn't even notice you. Well, nice to meet you. My name is Ronald. Ronald Weasley. My friends usually call me Ron; you can call me that."
Said the boy named Ron, evidently a bit embarrassed by his previous behavior.
Leo was silent for a moment and then extended his hand.
"Leo... Leo Jackson. Just call me Leo."
Seeing how quickly they became friends, Harry also said:
"I... I am Harry..."
"We know," Ron and Leo replied in unison.
"A... Right."
For a second, we all had fun and started laughing.
Then we spent some time getting to know each other, talking about different things, and quickly hit it off.
Ron was a bit clumsy but was not a bad person; he came from a wizarding family that, unlike others, was relatively poor.
He had many brothers and, according to him, he was the sixth to enter Hogwarts.
In fact, his robe and wand were inherited from his older brothers.
As for Leo, although he was a bit odd and sometimes tended to get distracted, he was a very lively person once you got to know him.
According to his own words, like me, he was an orphan; only unlike me, he was abandoned at the doors of an orphanage.
And like me, he didn't know much about the magical world, which made me feel closer to him.
---
At half past twelve, a middle-aged lady passed by pushing a cart.
Seeing the embarrassed looks on my friends' faces, who only had hamburgers with them, and how drool was trickling from Leo's mouth, I decided to act.
I paid for all the sweets and shared them with them.
We had a great time enjoying the jelly beans of all flavors.
I found flavors like toast, coconut, baked beans, strawberry, curry, herbs, coffee, sardines, and more.
Leo and Ron, on the other hand, had pretty bad luck; the flavors they tried were spit, pepper, chili, and onion.
Leo could swear he got a jelly bean that tasted like boogers.
Since then, he stopped playing with us and nearly vomited on himself.
Fortunately, the train windows were sliding.
As we chatted, the landscape seen through the window became increasingly rugged.
Cultivated fields had disappeared, giving way to forests, winding rivers, and dark green hills. Leo continued talking about strange things, something about centaurs or something like that, but Ron and I didn't see anything.
A few hours passed, and it was already quite late. Leo began reading the book he had mentioned earlier.
I was a little curious, and when I asked him what it was about, he said it was about mythological monsters and gods.
I felt a bit bored and soon found myself drawn to what Ron was saying.
"You know, yesterday I tried to make Scabbers, my rat, turn yellow to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work," he commented as he placed Scabbers on his lap.
"Pay attention, I'm going to show you. Look..." said Ron as he reached into a trunk.
After a while, he pulled out a very worn wand that had some chipped parts.
Honestly, it didn't look very reliable. Leo, who had stopped reading for a moment, and I doubted its effectiveness.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the compartment door.
Ron, who was about to wave the wand, stopped and looked.
Leo and I were also intrigued.
The girl who entered was already wearing her Hogwarts robe.
She had brown, rather fluffy hair. "Has anyone seen a toad? Neville lost one," said the girl in a somewhat bossy voice.
"We haven't seen any toad," Ron replied rudely, but the girl either didn't hear him or pretended not to.
She simply looked at the wand he had in his hand and said, "Oh, are you doing magic? Then let's see it."
She sat down in the free armchair next to Leo. Ron and I thought she would protest, but we were surprised to see Leo staring at her in awe.
I was a bit surprised; even after knowing her identity, he showed no sign of surprise.
"Uh... okay," Ron said, clearing his throat. "Sunbeam, daisies, turn this silly little rat yellow." He waved the wand, but nothing happened; Scabbers continued sleeping, as gray as ever.
"Are you sure that's the right spell?" the girl asked.
"Well, it's not very effective, is it? I tried a few simple ones just to practice and they worked. No one in my family is a wizard; it was a huge surprise when I got my letter. But I was also very happy because this is the best magic school I know. I've memorized all the books; I hope that's enough..."
To prove she wasn't lying, she stood up, pulled a wand from her sleeve, and with a simple spell repaired Harry's somewhat broken glasses.
"I'm Hermione Granger. And who are you?" she asked as she sat down again.
We were all stunned. Do you want to hear everything you say? Do you even speak human words?.
Harry looked at Ron and Leo; he calmed down when he saw the dazed expressions on their faces, realizing they hadn't memorized all the books either. In fact, Leo's face was the strangest; he looked like he had just met a Martian.
"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron mumbled, still angry.
"Leo Jackson."
"Harry Potter."
"Is it really you...?" Hermione asked.
"I know all about you. Of course, I got some extra books to prepare better, and you appear in 'History of Modern Magic,' 'Defense Against the Dark Arts,' and 'Great Magical Events of the 20th Century.'"
"Me?" Harry felt strange to discover that his life was documented in history books, and that practically anyone could know more about him than he did.
"My God, you don't know. If I were you, I would have looked up everything I could," Hermione exclaimed excitedly.
"Not everyone has that opportunity..." Leo murmured, visibly upset for some reason.
Meanwhile, Hermione kept on talking, ignoring him. "Do you know what house you're going to? I've been asking, and I hope to be in Gryffindor; it seems like the best one. I heard Dumbledore was there, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be so bad... Anyway, I better keep looking for Neville's toad. And you two should change already; we're going to be arriving soon!"
Just as she was about to leave, she turned to Leo and said, "By the way, you're holding the book upside down and you should stop reading fiction. Just because magic exists doesn't mean gods do too." Then she turned and left.
I looked at Leo and noticed he was frowning, clearly angry.
He straightened the book and replied sarcastically, "Ha, you live in a magical world and tell me not to believe in gods?"
"Whoever house I get, I hope she isn't there. Don't you think the same, Leo?" Ron commented as he tossed his wand back into the trunk.
"You're right," Leo replied.