Chapter 526: Nineteen Years Later

Benjamin Tennyson dragged his suitcase, walking down the aisle of the Hogwarts Express. He passed one full compartment after another, and finally, an empty seat caught his eye—but when he reached the door, he realized that two girls were already sitting in the compartment.

On the inner side of the compartment, a petite girl leaned against the window. She looked like she was not in high spirits, her eyelids drooping slightly. Her long, pale-gold hair was draped messily over the window ledge, half-covering her face, but one could still see that it was an exquisite and beautiful face.

The other girl did not seem to know her; she sat proudly on the outer side of the seat, the tips of her hair revealing a hint of black-tea-like luster under the September sun. She held a book in her hands, but it seemed her attention was not on the book either.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" The girl with tea-colored hair pulled the compartment door open with a jerk. "Are you a first-year too?"

"Uh, yes, I haven't found a place to sit yet." Ben stammered in response. This was his first time talking to a girl, so he was inevitably a bit nervous.

"Great, please sit. Let me introduce myself, I'm Gwen... Cooper." The girl hesitated briefly when saying her surname, but she quickly covered up the anomaly with a curious smile. "What's your name?"

Before Ben could answer, the girl who had been leaning against the window sat up straight. She adjusted her hair somewhat unnaturally, as if someone were forcing her to answer the question, but in fact, Gwen hadn't looked at her at all while speaking.

"Hello, Gwen, I'm Benjamin Tennyson." Ben said, "Uh, is she, uh, this friend..."

"Don't mind her." Gwen said poutily. "She seems very unwilling to talk, so let's just let her rest!"

"Ben, I see a violet pin on your bag. Are you also a citizen of Dalaran?" Gwen quickly changed the subject. "When are you planning to unlock your Super-Wizard power?"

"I, I usually live in the Muggle World." Ben couldn't help but look at the blonde girl again; she was leaning against the window with a listless expression once more.

"The Muggle World, I know almost nothing about it. I think you could introduce it to me." Gwen said very seriously, as if she really hoped the boy would focus all his attention on her. "I heard the Prime Minister is also a wizard."

"Yes, Prime Minister Granger is considered the most influential Prime Minister in recent years, but I don't know much about her." Ben agreed reluctantly. "Uh, regarding Super-Wizard power, my dad told me it's usually related to a Patronus. I plan to consider it after learning the Patronus in my third year."

"How cute, you should be more confident." Gwen laughed. "Not everyone has the chance to board Dalaran. Your dad must have mastered some kind of Super-Wizard power of the Transfiguration school."

"I don't know much about him; he always leaves early and returns late." Ben said somewhat unnaturally.

"No wonder you got on the train so late; you must have had a lot to say to him on the platform."

"Not at all, I came by myself." When the conversation reached this point, Ben finally had something to say. "I got on the train late because I saw General Potter on the platform. He was with his wife and two children, and I couldn't help but take a few extra looks. It was very interesting! His youngest child looks exactly like him."

"Albus, huh? I've heard enough of that—" Gwen shrugged indifferently. "I mean, everyone in Dalaran knows about it; they discuss it every day."

"Is that so?" Ben believed what she said; after all, he only boarded the floating city very occasionally.

"But do you know?" Gwen said mysteriously. "They are all discussing that the Potter family doesn't just have two children; there is also an eldest son—but all traces of him have been erased. No one knows what happened. Some say it's because he committed an unforgivable crime, and others say he was erased from reality by Vladimir's terrible curse. Do you believe such a curse exists?"

"Uh, perhaps, perhaps such a curse doesn't exist." Ben thought seriously. "Otherwise, Vladimir could directly attack General Potter or other people occupying important positions; there's no need to target the General's eldest son."

"Ha! That's the importance of Super-Wizard power. Have you noticed? Every one of our big shots possesses this power, which determines that they won't suffer such despicable attacks!" Gwen said, digging some Galleons out of her pocket. "Speaking of big shots, I remember I'm still missing one Newt card to complete my collection. Look, the food trolley just arrived."

As the sound of wheels approached, a saleswoman of about twenty-four or twenty-five with pale skin stopped the trolley and asked them in a calm and slightly lazy tone if they needed anything.

"I said I want a Chocolate Frog." Gwen stood up and grabbed the trolley. "Friend by the window, do you want to eat some chocolate? Chocolate will make you feel better!"

"Thank you, I..." The blonde girl seemed to want to take out money, but was stopped by Gwen.

"My treat, of course, because I want to draw a card." She said, reaching out to grab a box. "I only need to glance at the side like this to see a rough idea. Look, this red hair is clearly Weasley-line; I don't want this one."

The saleswoman seemed to want to say something, but she didn't; she just placed the box back on the inner side of the trolley.

"Black hair, Potter or Snape; they are the most common." Gwen flipped through one box after another. "Stars, it should be the Old Wizard line, and I have all the Old Wizards... haven't seen this one, but it should be a girl... Krum, I laugh every time I see this big dummy..."

The snack trolley had stayed in this compartment for too long. The saleswoman had clearly added an Undetectable Extension Charm to the small compartments, and Gwen was still rummaging through the boxes one by one. She misjudged once in the middle and unpacked a Dumbledore—they rarely printed this former legend nowadays; young wizards were starting not to recognize him.

Ben sat in the middle of the seat, looking left and then right. The blonde girl was holding the Chocolate Frog she had just unpacked, licking it in small bites, while Gwen was still leaning over the edge of the snack trolley, peeking at the boxes one by one. The saleswoman didn't stop her, just silently putting the boxes she had peeked at into another compartment.

"Hey, how long are you going to hog the trolley?" The door of the neighboring compartment opened, and the boy who had poked his head in several times walked straight out. What was curious was that he had short white hair and a very handsome appearance.

"Sorry, I'm not looking anymore." Gwen said stiffly. "Just buy one more box of Chocolate Frogs, then buy a licorice wand."

"That's more like it." The boy on the other side muttered in the hallway. He had no intention of returning to his compartment, instead staring at the saleswoman—of course, the saleswoman was very beautiful, which was also an indisputable fact.

After Gwen finished picking her snacks, she closed the door tightly, then unwrapped the licorice wand, held it in her mouth, and said nonchalantly: "Listening to his accent, he sounds like a hick from the Rust Belt. Do you know why he's here? They declared war on the New York Federation again, so the wizards of the Great Lakes can't go to Ilvermorny anymore. It's hilarious!"

"Oh, can you distinguish the accents of people from there?" Ben looked at her curiously. Gwen's eyes were sparkling; she seemed to know everything.

"Not entirely, but this Northern dialect with vowel shifts, and the Texan dialect with exaggerated vowels, oh, and that flat code-tone from Silicon Valley—these are all very obvious." Gwen introduced confidently. "I often see representatives from various countries in Dalaran; they go to the ETO headquarters for meetings... I mean, they often argue on the street after coming out of meetings."

Ben listened curiously. In his limited few trips to the floating city, he had never seen anyone arguing on the street; everyone there was leisurely.

"... You know, there used to be an old lady selling apples at the bank entrance, she always said, oh!" Gwen was surprised by the Chocolate Frog card, to the point of interrupting her own train of thought. "Caslana, very rare. The card says she is a friend of the Prime Minister, but I have never seen her in the news."

"She works for Silicon Valley now." The girl leaning against the window finally gathered the courage to join the conversation. "I've seen her a few times in the news over there."

"Eh, according to that, you are also American, wait, which country are you from?" Gwen accepted her happily and began asking questions.

"My dad and I live in Nevada." She said in a low voice. "We have a pretty good relationship with Silicon Valley."

"The Pacific Federation, huh? I heard that before the disintegration, you guys were building a super-huge decisive weapon. Have you seen it?" Gwen gestured. "It should be visible from very far away, right?"

"Yes, that big robot, they call it 'Heavenly Father'." The blonde girl narrated in a low voice. "Now they say they want to remove the magical part, and the name will also be changed to 'Gipsy Danger'."

"Ah! This must be related to that accident. I've heard of it, the Herrscher went out of control, right?" Gwen held up a finger. "This is also an old tradition of the Fenwolf Consortium; no matter what the problem is, as long as you change the name, everything will be fine!"

"Maybe." The blonde girl's face was red. "I usually live in the countryside and don't know anything."

Ben nodded in deep agreement and exclaimed: "Gwen is truly worthy of being someone who lives in the sky; how well-informed she is."

During the second half of the journey, Gwen kept enthusiastically introducing them to various wonders and anecdotes of the Wizarding World, from every aspect of the floating city to the Celestial refugees and Lady Moon even higher up, then back to the Far East and the various secret rumors of Yanayev's power transition, talking about the disintegration turmoil starting from the independence of Texas, and then mentioning the great achievements of Prime Minister Granger in making Great Britain return to a state where the sun never sets, as well as the gossip about which white moonlight she is still missing since she is still unmarried.

Benjamin clearly remembered his father telling him that the people he met on the Hogwarts Express were very likely to be his best friends for the next seven years. However, the bright, enthusiastic, and confident Miss Gwen ultimately went to Slytherin House, while the blonde girl who had been listening silently and occasionally echoing a word or two was the friend who sat with him at the Hufflepuff table.

It was also at that moment that Benjamin heard her full name for the first time: Scotia Greengrass, a poetic name from the constellations—he began to have different expectations for these seven years at Hogwarts. ===== CHAPTER 527 =====