London, King's Cross Station, Platform 9¾.
Beside the bustling platform docked a gleaming red steam engine. A sign hanging overhead read: Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock.
Today was the first day of term. The station was exceptionally lively, packed with young wizards preparing for the journey to school. Owls hooted from their cages over the din of the crowd, and cats darted between the legs of frantic parents.
Damian felt a wave of nostalgia. He had taken trains in his past life, too. He remembered his first long-distance train ride vividly—he hadn't been able to buy a seat, making those dozen hours utterly miserable.
The front carriages were already packed with students. Holding Nox, Damian pushed his way toward the back and found an empty compartment.
He sat down by the window, and the Kneazle immediately leaped from his arms.
"The train will be leaving soon," Damian called out. "Don't wander off, Nox!"
"Meow," Nox replied, casually strolling out of the compartment anyway.
Damian watched the crowd outside the window. Spotting no familiar faces, he reached into his magically expanded pocket and pulled out a copy of The Quibbler. Luna had mentioned publishing an article in this issue.
He found her piece in the bottom right corner of the second page. It featured an eye-catching magical photograph: a moving loop of someone feeding a baby Thunderbird. The article itself was a straightforward log documenting the chick's diet of earthworms.
Damian frowned slightly. Publishing photos of a highly restricted magical beast like a Thunderbird might attract unwanted attention from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Still, since Luna was in contact with Newt Scamander, she could probably ask him to smooth things over if the Ministry came knocking.
Before Damian could dwell on it, two red-haired twins poked their heads into the compartment.
"Hey, Fred, look who it is!"
Damian turned to see George doing a bizarre, twisting jig in the corridor, pointing both hands at his brother.
Fred clutched his head with one hand and his stomach with the other, hunching over dramatically. "Who is it?"
George continued his ridiculous dance, swinging his arms wildly. "It's the new King of Slytherin!"
Fred threw his arms up, pointed double finger-guns at Damian, and hopped backward. "Damian Black!"
Damian felt enough secondhand embarrassment to instantly dig a hole through the floorboards. "What are you two doing now?" he sighed helplessly. "Stop giving me these weird titles!"
Fred blinked in surprise. "You haven't heard? We didn't come up with it."
"Got it straight from Percy," George added, leaning against the doorframe. "He says you're getting quite famous among the upper-years."
Damian frowned, a sense of unease creeping in. This "King of Slytherin" title felt like a target being painted on his back. If it was circulating among the older students, someone was deliberately fanning the flames. It lined up perfectly with Old Tom's warning at the Leaky Cauldron about someone keeping an eye on him.
But Damian wasn't afraid. He had hidden his true capabilities exceptionally well. While he had built up a dangerous underworld reputation under the alias 'Gelman', his public identity was simply that of a top-scoring, talented student. Anyone trying to plot against him based on that incomplete profile was going to end up with a bloody nose.
Changing the subject, Damian pulled the wooden music box from his pocket. "This artifact slightly interferes with a wizard's magical flow, but it's damaged. See if you can fix it."
Fred and George had a natural genius for enchanting and inventing prank items. Damian wasn't sure if the music box would retain its cursed properties once repaired, but the twins were his best bet.
Fred cranked the handle, immediately feeling the subtle disruption in his magic. "Oh, I like this challenge!" he said excitedly, pocketing the box.
"By the way, the Daily Prophet says Harry Potter is starting this year," George noted. "We're going to go hunt down the Savior. Want to come?"
Damian shook his head. "I'll pass. We'll all see him at the Welcoming Feast anyway."
Once the twins left, Damian pulled a folded copy of the Daily Prophet from his robes.
LATEST REPORT ON THE ILLEGAL BREAK-IN AT GRINGOTTS, the headline blared. The July vault burglary was still dominating the news, though the article was just the goblins and the Auror Office pointing fingers at each other.
The rest of the front page was dominated by a massive feature: THE BOY WHO LIVED ENROLLS AT HOGWARTS! The author vividly detailed Harry's legendary 'battle' with You-Know-Who. It would have been a thrilling read if one ignored the fact that Harry had literally been a one-year-old baby at the time.
Damian recalled the plot from his past life. Voldemort was currently possessing Professor Quirrell. The Gringotts break-in had to be their doing; the Dark Lord was hunting for the Philosopher's Stone to resurrect himself. Quirrell would soon try to sneak the Stone out of Hogwarts.
Damian had absolutely no intention of getting involved. The 'Savior' and Dumbledore could handle that mess themselves.
Right now, Damian could sense the crystal on his metal disc was almost completely recharged. It wouldn't be long before he could cross dimensions again. Exploring the magic of that alternate world was his true priority.
"So this is where you're hiding, Damian."
A brown-haired boy with bright eyes stood in the compartment doorway. He stepped inside and slumped into the seat opposite Damian.
"Hey, Jerry."
Jerry Abbott was a fellow third-year Slytherin and one of Damian's roommates.
Damian lowered his newspaper, looking surprised. "Just you? Aren't you and Geralt both from Godric's Hollow? Didn't you travel together?"
"Geralt?" Jerry rolled his eyes dramatically. "He came to the platform with me, but then he ran off to find his new girlfriend and told me to find you myself."
Geralt Bohan was Damian's other roommate. Much like a certain monster-hunting Witcher from Damian's past life with the same name, he was an incorrigible womanizer. Geralt's list of ex-girlfriends probably outnumbered the total spells known by the entire first-year class.
"A new girlfriend? Is it Emma, the girl he met right before the holidays?" Damian rummaged through his extended pocket, pulled out two bottles of chilled soda, and tossed one to Jerry.
Jerry cracked the soda open, took a deep gulp, and sighed. "Your information is woefully outdated. He switched girls again over the summer. Poor Amanda... she spent the whole break flying across the country delivering his love letters. I'm genuinely afraid she's going to die of exhaustion."
Amanda was Geralt's owl.
"Classic," Damian said, unscrewing his own cap. He took a sip, completely unfazed by his roommate's romantic exploits. He was used to it by now.
Jerry, however, wasn't done complaining. "At the rate he changes girlfriends," he grumbled, "by the time we graduate, we'll bump into at least nine of his exes just taking a stroll through the Ministry of Magic!"
Leaning forward, Jerry suddenly changed the subject, his voice dropping to a mysterious whisper. "Guess who I saw when I was boarding?"
"Who?" Damian asked, amused enough to play along.
"The Savior himself—Harry Potter!" Jerry announced with exaggerated flair.
[75 STONES] - Unlock1 Bonus Chapter
[150 STONES] - Unlock 2 Bonus Chapters
[300 STONES] - Unlock 3 Bonus Chapters