"I hope they don't mess with my manuscript this month."
Andrew carefully tied the manuscript to the owl's leg, as if bidding farewell to a ticking time bomb. (This owl had once pecked a blooming rose bush to pieces trying to catch a mouse. After a long scolding from Andrew, it somehow came to recognize "Rose" as its name.)
But Andrew knew he had no choice.
He steadfastly refused to accept forwarded reader letters from the editorial department and insisted on keeping the protagonist's name unchanged. After all, the character in his submitted manuscript was clearly Gryffindor. If anything went wrong, it would be best to let the second author take the blame—idealistic as that may be. At this point, all he could do was cling to this sliver of independence.
Fortunately, the Magic Legend magazine staff were remarkably skilled at toeing the line without crossing it. From the issues Andrew had secretly bought, the localization and grammar edits were done quite well.
That gave him peace of mind—yeah, right.
The manuscript he had just submitted was for the September issue. And the significance of the number nine? It meant Hogwarts was about to start.
Assuming the usual release on the 7th, that meant he would already be at Hogwarts.
Reading the self-written headmaster's autobiography while at Hogwarts... what a delightful surprise.
With that in mind, even going to Hogwarts didn't seem quite as exciting anymore.
At least he submitted the manuscript before the deadline—he certainly didn't want an editor showing up with a wand and Apparating in to demand a draft. That would render all his precautionary measures useless.
He packed his luggage, said goodbye to the people in the courtyard, and August 31st arrived in no time.
Though theoretically he could've taken a train transfer the same day, Andrew boarded the train to London in the afternoon—because in this day and age, only a fool believed trains wouldn't be delayed…
As he had predicted, the train arrived in London in the morning, and Platform Nine and Three-Quarters was already open.
Yawning as he entered the platform after an overnight journey, Andrew found the train just beginning its cleaning process.
After a polite greeting, he found a compartment that was neither good nor bad, pulled out a blanket from his suitcase, wrapped himself up, and promptly fell into a deep sleep.
He had studied the ticket when he first got it: no assigned seating. With a special train like this, if you didn't rush to grab a good spot, you were doing yourself a disservice. Besides, he didn't need anyone to escort him.
He was only woken up by noise outside the compartment. A glance at his watch told him it was already 9:30, and a look out the window confirmed that students and parents were beginning to trickle onto the platform.
He placed his suitcase by the berth and left the blanket draped to mark the spot, then went searching through the train for the trolley.
Even if he was going to be exposed at Hogwarts, he had to try the food first. He'd already failed in his brave attempts to sample wizarding snacks both at the orphanage and the Leaky Cauldron.
Luckily, the trolley had a wide variety of snacks, giving him ample room for trial and error. Operating under the belief that it would be a great regret to miss out on these before being outed, he decisively bought a bit of everything and asked about the trolley's route to plan future refills.
To his surprise, when he returned to the compartment, someone was already there—a senior student, no less.
Technically, the compartment he'd picked wasn't the best, so there should still have been plenty of better seats available.
"Hi, I'm a first-year." Setting the food down, Andrew extended his hand. Judging by the decorations on the robes, the other boy was from Hufflepuff—shouldn't be too unfriendly. "I'm Andrew, Andrew Taylor."
"Nice to meet you, Andrew," the other boy shook his hand. "I'm Cisse, Cisse Weir, third-year, Hufflepuff."
"Want some snacks?"
Andrew pushed the pile of snacks to the center of the table. "I'm from the Muggle world—it's my first time seeing these kinds of treats."
"Then you're in luck." Cisse, seeing that Andrew wasn't just being polite, reached out and grabbed a Chocolate Frog. "No doubt, Chocolate Frogs are the most recommended snack."
"Watch carefully—you open it like this so you don't damage the card inside. That's serious currency among students."
"Oh no," Cisse said, showing Andrew the card. "It's Dumbledore."
The pentagon-shaped card gave Andrew quite a scare. He tore open a pack himself, and immediately felt a chill—he'd just seen this image.
"This card is basically worthless…"
Cisse handed it to him. "You've got to start collecting them. A slightly rare card can earn you a homework trade. One of the rarest ones could get you half a month of homework done."
Sounded no different than elementary kids trading Water Margin cards.
"Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans are worth a challenge, but don't mix them with other food. If you get an earwax one, it'll ruin everything."
"Licorice wands aren't great either. Honestly, they should restock from Honeydukes instead."
"Cauldron Cakes are good for filling up, Pumpkin Pasties too—but don't eat too much. Dinner at Hogwarts is way better than you think, though not quite as good as our house's meals."
Cisse casually popped a bean in his mouth and continued sharing tips.
"After third year, you can visit Hogsmeade. The snacks there are way better. Even before that, you can order by owl—stockpiling is an essential skill."
"If you miss a meal, try visiting the kitchens. The house-elves can usually whip up delicious food at any time."
"Just be careful around the paintings…"
"Speaking of paintings, that knight portrait is ridiculous. Every time I walk past it, it…"
It seemed like once he got going, Cisse couldn't stop. He shared a ton of information until someone came calling for him.
"Don't share a compartment with first-years! The prefects said they should mingle with each other, especially for the Sorting!"
The boy who came in also wore Hufflepuff robes and had a cheerful smile. Upon hearing the reminder, Cisse paused, smacked his forehead, and hastily bid farewell without even accepting the two packs of Chocolate Frogs Andrew tried to offer.
"There's even a rule about that?"
But it didn't matter much—soon enough, the compartment filled up with clueless first-years.
Andrew could spot them even before introductions began—it was easy. No matter how hard he tried to act like a first-year himself, he simply couldn't match that wide-eyed curiosity that made them want to poke everything with a wand.