First-year students are endlessly curious—what's more troublesome is that their actions keep up with that curiosity.
Which is to say, Andrew was starting to regret going to the bathroom—because the corridor was even more crowded than the compartments.
Judging by the height of some of the people, there were clearly upper-year students mixed into the corridor, trying to sneak peeks at Harry Potter through compartment windows before walking away satisfied, having "checked in" their moment.
It really was boring in this age without smartphones...
If they had phones...
Andrew imagined it: probably a swarm of people taking TikTok videos outside Harry's compartment door…
Eh, wouldn't be much different, really.
Not knowing that Hogwarts interfered with Muggle electronics, Andrew muttered to himself and pushed through the crowd to return to his compartment—after all, Harry Potter would be around, and if people asked about him later, he could just make something up…
It's not like anyone else bothered drafting scripts before they started bragging. Making up a story about seeing Harry wouldn't be that excessive.
Just as Andrew was brainstorming how to make up a "believable but stylish" encounter, someone knocked on the door again. A round-faced boy stepped in, on the verge of tears. "Sorry, have you seen my toad?"
"A toad? Your pet?" Andrew, who had been preparing to join the exaggeration fest, asked.
"We haven't seen one in here, but with how messy it is outside, I'm afraid you might have a hard time finding it."
The round-faced boy's eyes immediately reddened at those words.
Andrew, caught off guard, hurried to add, "But you could try asking a prefect for help. I heard from an upperclassman that the Hufflepuff prefect is the most warm-hearted—you might want to try him."
Right now, with everyone so focused on seeing Harry, trying to gather a group to help find a missing toad wasn't going to be easy. If someone was about to finally catch a glimpse of Harry Potter, they wouldn't be stopping just to check for a toad—how many kids that age would care about someone else's pet?
Only a prefect might be able to keep things orderly and check properly—and even that came with inter-house friction.
"But the prefect…"
Seeing how the boy was nearly in tears, Andrew thought to himself: it had probably already taken a lot of courage just to go ask strangers about a lost toad. Asking him to find a prefect might be asking too much.
"There's another way. If you really want to find your toad, try asking Harry Potter for help. He's right here on the train, and I heard he's very kind... Plus, he's also a first-year, so it might be easier to talk to him. You were probably going to check his compartment anyway, right?"
The new suggestion made the boy hesitate, but there was a flicker of hope in his eyes.
"Go on. We're all first-years. Some compartments won't even open for us—but no one will say no to Harry Potter."
As if finally making up his mind, the round-faced boy hurriedly said thank you, then gathered his courage and rushed off in the direction of Harry's compartment.
"You're something else, Andrew!"A second-year who had squeezed into the compartment praised him. "Now everyone gets to see Harry Potter."
"That kid must really love his toad…" someone else commented. "If my parents got me one, I'd probably lose it on purpose so I could get an owl instead."
"Seriously, I never got why anyone would choose a toad."
"I heard that decades ago, toads were used as potion and Transfiguration ingredients—especially if they were hatched from magically bred eggs…"
The topic quickly veered off course. But the room full of restless students seemed much calmer now—they didn't need to go see Harry. They'd just wait for Harry to come to them.
Which, as it turned out, is exactly what happened—just as Andrew had expected. Harry Potter was kind and softhearted.
Moved by the round-faced boy's plea, Harry not only helped but even gathered a group of people to assist. One compartment after another was searched. By the time Harry showed up at Andrew's compartment with the round-faced boy and about seven or eight helpers, the boy was even smiling when he turned to thank Andrew.
After they double-checked and still didn't find the toad, Harry—now aware that the boy's name was Neville—thanked everyone in the compartment and moved on with his search team to the next one.
"He's exactly how I imagined the Savior would be!"A Hufflepuff student who had slipped in quietly marveled, "He's just the kind of person who'd help others out like that. Sorry—I need to go help too."
"No need," Kevin cut in, "If there are too many people in a compartment, it actually makes it harder to search."
"Still, it feels better to at least try—maybe I can help with something," the Hufflepuff replied with a smile, following after them. But most others, after Kevin's comment, thought it through and chose to stay behind, continuing their previous conversation.
Andrew, of course, stayed as well. After all, he was already starting to regret his earlier suggestion.
At first, he'd just been wondering how people would react if he told the new students that helping find a toad was part of Hogwarts' secret entrance exam.
That funny idea amused him, until he suddenly realized how dangerous it might be—what if the school noticed him right away because of this kind of stunt?
Given the stuff he'd already done so far… if he attracted that kind of attention from the school…
Yikes.
He took a sharp breath at the thought, unwanted scenes flashing through his mind.
"Three-stage Levitation Charm, huh?""Breaking off an engagement, huh?"
…
Better to let someone else grab the spotlight. It's not like he wasn't helping—he just helped in his own way. He wasn't the attention-loving type.
So, after an hour of calmly chatting and joking with the others in the compartment, the whole carriage suddenly erupted into cheers. Everyone instinctively rushed into the corridor to celebrate the big news.
And just like that, the message spread from their carriage to the next, then throughout the entire train like it had wings.
Thanks to Harry Potter and more than twenty volunteer helpers, the missing toad—Trevor—was finally returned to its owner, Neville.
Sure, there were a few grumbles from people in compartments Harry hadn't visited ("We waited forever and didn't even see the stupid toad!"), but at least 80% of the new and returning Hogwarts students had seen Harry Potter—and even talked to him.
Everyone was pretty satisfied.
Even if that toad did try to escape again, it didn't matter.
This is exactly what a Savior should be like.