"Live!"
Neville's shout startled Hermione. She turned to him and asked, "What?"
"My toad, Live, is missing!" Neville exclaimed, panic in his eyes.
Hermione looked at Neville, confused about what "Live" was.
"Live is the toad I raised," Neville explained.
The thought of someone keeping a toad as a pet made Hermione shiver, but she didn't question it. After all, wizards often had strange pets, and that aligned with the Muggles' stereotypes about them.
"Don't worry, Neville. Think carefully about when you last saw it," Hermione said, trying to comfort him.
Being helpful by nature, Hermione immediately set out to help her friend find his pet. Seeing the shy boy on the verge of tears, Ivan decided to help too.
However, after searching the carriage for a while, they still couldn't find Live.
"Ivan, don't you know the Flying Spell?" Hermione suddenly remembered that Ivan had learned a spell that was usually taught to older students, which she had seen him use a few times.
But Ivan knew that the spell wouldn't help them in this situation.
"Sorry, Hermione, but that spell can't summon living creatures," he replied.
The Flying Spell, also called the Summoning Spell, is designed to make things fly to the caster. Although it often looks like items zoom toward the wizard in movies, the spell actually brings objects right in front of the caster in an instant. However, it doesn't work for large buildings or most living beings.
Even if it could summon something, using it on a living creature could harm it because the speed would be dangerously fast.
Ivan thought that if he used the spell, Live might not die, but the poor toad would definitely have a rough experience.
As he practiced the spell more, Ivan realized why it had two names: if the object is out of sight, it's called a summoning spell; if it's visible, it's a flying spell. The summoning spell cannot call living creatures, but the flying spell doesn't have that restriction, similar to some spells in Fantastic Beasts.
Clearly, this wasn't the right time to use that spell.
"Is that so?" Hermione said, confused. "I've never seen the senior spell textbook that includes the flying spell. What should we do now?"
Neville felt increasingly hopeless. "Riff..." he mumbled, feeling lost without his toad.
Ivan understood that Neville was just a scared eleven-year-old boy, so he didn't blame him.
Finally, seeing Neville start to tear up, Hermione couldn't bear it any longer. She decided to go outside and ask other students if they had seen his toad.
Ivan stayed behind to comfort Neville. He sent his pet, Yumi, along with Hermione and her cat, Crookshanks.
"I remember that in the original story, Neville's toad appears again at the end of the semester and later joins other toads in the Black Lake," Ivan thought. He shook his head, feeling that Neville's toad had moved on from him. Sometimes, it was better to part ways peacefully rather than interfere.
Of course, if this were like the movie, Riff would return to Neville before the sorting ceremony.
"Ivan!"
Before long, Hermione burst back into the carriage, excitement lighting up her face.
"Guess who I just saw? Harry Potter! The boy who lived!" she exclaimed.
Just like in the original story, Hermione had run into a couple of familiar characters.
Ivan had some respect for Harry Potter. A young boy who had the courage to face a killer and deal with terrible creatures like three-headed dogs, basilisks, and dark wizards was impressive.
If any other child were in Harry's position, who could claim to be braver or stronger? Ivan certainly couldn't.
He admired Harry for being kind, brave, and genuine. If they were to be friends, Harry seemed like a good choice.
However, Ivan recalled some conspiracy theories he had read about Harry, such as him being a pawn of Dumbledore.
"Hmm, I should be cautious about that," he thought. Ivan didn't want to get entangled in Dumbledore's plans. If possible, he wanted to pull Hermione away from the original story and turn it into something else, something like "The Two Useless Men."
"Do you want to go see him?" Hermione asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement. She had forgotten all about helping Neville find his toad.
Ivan glanced at Neville, who was busy eating and didn't seem to notice their conversation.
"Poor Riff," Ivan thought, feeling sorry for Neville's toad. He decided to follow Hermione to where Harry was.
They walked down the aisle and soon reached the compartment where Harry was sitting. However, three other students stood outside the door.
The leader was a pale blonde boy, and the other two were bigger and looked a bit intimidating.
"I recognize this scene," Ivan thought, realizing who they were. The blonde boy was Draco Malfoy, and the two beside him were Crabbe and Goyle, his companions.
In the movie, the first meeting between Harry and Malfoy happened before the sorting ceremony, but in the book, Harry met Malfoy on the train in a much different way.
"Wait," Hermione said, eager to approach, but Ivan gently pulled her back.
"Let's not interrupt. They seem to be in the middle of something," he advised.
"Okay," Hermione agreed, trusting Ivan completely. She leaned against the window, giving them space.
Other students noticed the commotion and peeked out of their compartments to see what was happening.
"Is it true?" Malfoy called out, enjoying the attention. "Everyone on the train is talking about Harry Potter in here."
"Is that you?" he continued, directing the question at Harry.
"Yeah," Harry replied, feeling used to this sort of attention by now.
Malfoy's arrogant attitude annoyed Harry, who thought he was pretentious. He didn't want to associate with someone like Malfoy.
But looking at the two big boys next to him, Harry decided it was better to keep his distance.
"Oh, this is Crabbe, and this is Goyle," Malfoy said, casually introducing his friends. Then he added seriously, "And I'm Draco Malfoy."
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