Chapter 91: The Witch and the Gnomes (Subscribe, Monthly Tickets)

At King's Cross Station, a young wizard once again recalled the terror of being dominated by the Knight Bus, and nearly fainted on the spot.

But apart from him, everyone else had grown much calmer because of Silven's words.

Fortunately, as long as there was a way to get back to Hogwarts on time, it would be fine.

"The Knight Bus, what's that?" Harry asked in confusion from the very front of the crowd.

"It's a triple-decker bus," Ron said, his face going slightly pale as though some unpleasant memory had surfaced. "Trust me, you definitely don't want to ride that thing."

"It's just a bus," Harry said, not taking Ron's words to heart.

"Hurry up, you clumsy lot." Just then, the nagging voice of Lady Longbottom drifted over from not far away.

She was striding quickly toward them, the stuffed vulture on her hat bobbing with each movement as though it had come alive. Mr. Weasley followed behind, deep in conversation with two cloaked men.

"Did you lot get the time wrong? Molly and Percy had only just stepped onto the platform when the entrance was sealed off, and there were still a full twenty minutes before departure!"

"We couldn't have got the time wrong, Arthur. The platform only closes after the Hogwarts Express has left," a wizard said with a grave expression. "Surely you didn't go to the wrong platform?"

"Wilson, do you think I wouldn't know where platform nine is?" Mr. Weasley couldn't help raising his voice. "I could find the right wall with my eyes shut!"

If anyone else said that it might sound like bragging, but Mr. Weasley was different — never mind his own school days at Hogwarts, just ten years ago he had already started seeing Bill Weasley off to Hogwarts.

After that came Charlie, Percy, Fred, George… year after year, without a single break.

If anyone in the Wizarding World had been to King's Cross Station the most times, Mr. Weasley and Lady Weasley would surely be right at the top of the list.

How could he possibly have mistaken the platform entrance!

The group quickly walked over, and after a preliminary check, the young Hit Wizard's face instantly turned ugly.

The platform entrance really had been sealed. It felt hard to the touch, a genuine solid wall, and they hadn't even noticed.

If the people stuck outside all missed the train and arrived late en masse, they were going to be in trouble.

By contrast, the other Hit Wizard, a man of about fifty-odd, was far more composed. He simply tapped his wand lightly against the wall a few times, then turned to the crowd and said, "Move quickly, the train leaves in three minutes — there's still time."

Having been knocked about just now, Harry instinctively hesitated when he looked at the wall again and didn't charge straight through.

The first one through was Seamus, and only after he vanished on the other side of the wall did the rest breathe easy.

Silven was the second through the wall, followed by Jin Ni.

Two minutes left. The Hogwarts Express's loud whistle reached the outside the instant Jin Ni stepped onto the platform. Mr. Weasley, no longer in the mood to argue with the Hit Wizards, waved his hand vigorously. "Harry, Ron, keep up — and the rest of you, move!"

……

By then Silven had already boarded the train. He found an empty compartment near the rear, and just as he finished stowing his trunk, he could hear Lady Weasley's voice drifting in from outside.

"Arthur, thank goodness. What happened out there? You never came, and when I tried to go out and find you, the entrance was already shut."

"I don't know, we were shut out too," Mr. Weasley said hurriedly. "Now's not the time. Get the children on board."

"Right, right — Jin Ni, Ron, hurry up."

Amid a great deal of chaos and commotion, everyone finally got onto the train.

Another whistle sounded, and the great red train slowly pulled out of the platform, gathering speed as it went.

Silven looked out the window, feeling a little relieved. At least he didn't have to take the Knight Bus to school — compared with that, sitting on the Hogwarts Express was positively comfortable.

But what on earth had happened? Had the Weasleys set off early?

It seemed that was the only explanation that made sense.

Because they'd arrived early, there was no frantic rush, and with the other students catching up, even if they were shut out, the adults had plenty of time to sort things out.

"Why did the platform suddenly get sealed?"

"No idea. That's never happened before."

Harry pushed open the compartment door.

"Silven?" he said, delighted. "Can we sit here? Everywhere else is full."

"Of course," Silven said. "But didn't Hermione save you seats? I remember the three of you being inseparable before the holidays."

"She did," Ron said, shoving his trunk into the rack. "Jin Ni's in a compartment with her right now, along with Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown — all girls. It'd feel a bit weird if we squeezed in there too."

"Fair enough," Silven said. "But you lot really did arrive early."

"We could've been even earlier — we were up the moment the rooster crowed," Ron said, curling his lip and yawning.

"But the departure was a mess. George forgot his Filibuster fireworks, Fred didn't bring his broom, and we had to turn back twice."

"Lucky we were only just setting off," Harry said. "If we'd only noticed something was missing once the car was on the motorway, we'd have had a real struggle getting to the station on time."

"Yeah," Ron muttered. "Cheers to them not being any more forgetful."

Just then, the compartment door was pushed open again, and Fred and George walked in from outside.

"Oi, I heard someone in here mentioning us."

"Dearest Ronald, have you got a complaint about us?"

Arm in arm, the two of them closed in on Ron like a pair of Acromantulas on the hunt.

Ron said nothing, lips pressed tight, his face flushed scarlet.

"I think Ron's right — you two really are too slow," Hermione said, stepping in behind them with Jin Ni.

The compartment, which had been spacious a moment ago, was now positively cramped.

The moment Jin Ni came in, her eyes swept the compartment like radar, landing on Harry first before darting away again just as quickly.

"Actually, I did forget something — on that road thing…" she said in a voice utterly unlike the one from before, embarrassed. "I suddenly remembered on the way that I hadn't brought my diary."

At the word "diary," Silven instinctively looked up.

"Since when do you keep a diary?" Ron and his two brothers all looked at Jin Ni at once.

"I'm not writing one — Hermione gave it to me," Jin Ni said. "I've never seen such a pretty notebook. There's a witch and seven gnomes drawn on the cover — really lovely — only I don't know why, none of them move."

"And I don't like writing a diary anyway, so I didn't bother going back for it."

"A witch… and seven gnomes?" A picture immediately sprang into Harry's mind — Lady Weasley standing in the garden chasing the gnomes away.

He racked his brains and still couldn't see what gnomes had to do with being pretty. The creatures looked like potatoes with two twigs stuck in them.

Only when Hermione whispered beside him, "It's Snow White," did Harry suddenly realize.

Well, although he thought it looked more like a fairy, a goblin seemed fine too.

"You bought her a Muggle notebook?"

"Yes, I saw it in the shop and thought Jin Ni would probably like it. After all, Mr. Weasley is very interested in Muggle things." Hermione shifted closer to Harry and said in a voice only the two of them could hear: "But it was really expensive — a diary cost eight whole Galleons."

Harry said nothing. Before being accepted into Hogwarts, the largest denomination of money he had ever owned was a five-Knut coin; Galleons and such were simply too far beyond his reach.

Meanwhile, after hearing Jin Ni's words, Silven also immediately lost interest in the topic.

It wasn't just Jin Ni — he had also received a diary from Hermione. It was black, thick, and sturdy.

Earlier, Mr. Granger had misunderstood that Silven had lost a black diary in Flourish and Blotts, so he had helped buy a new one and had Hermione deliver it to the wand shop.

……

(End of chapter)