Harry Potter: The Gryffindor Warrior - HP / Hogwarts

[Chapter Size: 1800 Words.]

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"Are you really a boy?" The red-haired boy, Ron, asked this question for the third time in five minutes.

"How about we go to the bathroom and check?" Harry asked with a mischievous smile.

"N-no… that's not necessary…" Ron shook his head quickly. He was feeling conflicted. Just now, when Harry Potter, the boy he, his brothers, and his sister had talked about countless times, sat beside him, Ron's heartbeat sped up uncontrollably.

But is he really a boy?

Ron felt a bit troubled.

But after thinking about it, he couldn't help but laugh again. "Fred and George searched the entire carriage for Harry. No wonder they couldn't find him. It would've been strange if they had! Haha."

Harry smiled knowingly, but Hermione looked disgusted, thinking the two boys had terrible taste. As for Neville, he was so lost in his despair over his missing toad that he didn't react.

Once Ron realized that Harry was, in fact, Harry, he immediately agreed to go to Harry's compartment after being invited.

Ron was intrigued by Harry, not because of his face, but because of the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. As for Harry and Hermione, their interest was in Wizard's Chess. They were at an age where everything about the magical world fascinated them.

Back in the previous carriage, Neville was still frustrated, he had yet to find his toad, Trevor.

Harry didn't particularly care about the toad, but seeing the distressed expression on his new friend's face, he thought for a moment and decided to try a little trick.

While Ron and Hermione played chess, Harry pulled a silver coin from his pocket.

This silver coin wasn't a Sickle, the wizarding currency, but a small piece from Harry's personal collection, an old Victorian one-shilling coin. He casually played with it in his hand, but in his mind, he silently thought: "Neville's toad is lost… Neville's toad is lost…"

Then, with a flick of his thumb, the coin soared into the air, spinning evenly before landing on the back of his hand.

He looked down, but didn't see Her Majesty the Queen's face.

"So it's not lost?"

Harry raised an eyebrow, placed the coin in his hand again, thought for a moment, and silently repeated in his mind: "Neville's toad is in this cabin… Neville's toad is in this cabin…"

Once again, the silver coin flipped through the air, this time, when it landed, the Queen's smiling face stared back at him.

"So, the toad is here after all…" Harry thought, finding the situation rather interesting.

He bent down to check the spot where he had a hunch Trevor might be. It was dim under the table, but even in the shadows, he saw no sign of the toad.

Then, he reached out and felt around the area in his memory. His fingers brushed against something soft and slippery. A dark shape flickered, and suddenly, the shadow transformed into a deep green toad.

Harry: "…"

Raising a hand, Harry pulled the toad out from beneath the table.

"Trevor?" Neville, who had been sulking, suddenly brightened, grabbing the toad from Harry's hands. "Harry, where did you find him?"

Harry frowned slightly. "Neville, is your toad a magical creature?" According to Hogwarts' admission letter, first-years could bring pets, but magical creatures were not allowed.

"A magical creature? No." Neville shook his head quickly. "My Uncle Algie bought him for me. The shopkeeper, Madam Zinnia, said he was just an ordinary toad when we got him. We even made sure he was allowed at school…"

"Why do you ask?" Hermione, now paying full attention to Harry and Neville, seemed eager for an explanation. Harry suspected part of her interest came from wanting to abandon the chess match, where she was clearly losing.

Unlike Muggle chess, Wizard's Chess pieces had personalities of their own. Ron had two sets, one inherited from his grandfather, which he had used for years and followed his commands obediently, and another passed down from his second eldest brother, Charlie Weasley, which he had given to Hermione.

That particular chess set was rebellious. Hermione's chess skills also weren't as sharp as Ron's, and her pieces kept arguing and disobeying her.

"Just now, Trevor was under the table, but he was invisible," Harry explained.

"Trevor can turn invisible?" Neville asked in disbelief. Ron and Hermione were just as intrigued.

Harry suspected Hermione's curiosity was, at least partially, an excuse to avoid her inevitable loss. Ron, on the other hand, didn't seem to care much about winning, he was more interested in the toad that could apparently vanish.

The four of them placed Trevor on the table and continued their game, but now it was Harry's turn to play.

Well, five or six moves in, and Harry was already feeling numb.

It wasn't just because Ron was ridiculously good at chess, Harry simply couldn't keep up. But that wasn't the worst part.

No, the worst part was how obnoxious his chess pieces were.

"Are you an idiot? If you move me there, I'll be taken by his tower immediately!"

"Let the pawns go first! Ugh, useless! I'm a knight, this isn't my job!"

"You're a coward! A complete coward! Keep playing like that, and you'll lose in no time!"

At the moment Harry was debating whether it would be more appropriate to admit defeat or simply flip the chessboard, Hermione suddenly let out a quiet gasp.

Harry and Ron quickly turned their heads and noticed that Trevor's body seemed to become slightly transparent. It was only a faint change, but since they had all been paying close attention, they caught the difference immediately.

However, as if startled by Hermione's gasp, or perhaps realizing that too many people were watching, Trevor opened his mouth slightly. The moment he did, the transparency vanished, and he returned to his usual deep green color.

"Did you see that? Did it change just now?" Hermione asked anxiously, worried that her eyes might have been playing tricks on her.

"Yes, I saw it too. He looked a bit more transparent for a moment," Harry nodded quickly, absentmindedly rearranging the chess pieces as he spoke.

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Neither Harry nor Hermione had any interest in continuing their game against Ron. As for Neville, he hadn't wanted to play in the first place, so they all switched to chatting instead.

Since they were all new students about to start school, the conversation inevitably turned to their arrival at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

From the books he had read, Harry already knew that Hogwarts had four houses and seven years.

Judging by their earlier experience searching for Trevor, unless there were a large number of students arriving at the school by other means, which seemed unlikely based on what they knew, the total number of students at Hogwarts should be around three hundred.

That was roughly the same size as a small community primary school. Harry and Hermione had similar thoughts.

"By the way, have you thought about the Sorting?" Hermione suddenly asked.

"None of the books I bought mentioned how the houses are assigned. Even Hogwarts: A History only says that the Sorting Ceremony places students in different houses based on their characteristics."

Harry and Neville both shook their heads.

Harry had already given up trying to compare his knowledge to Hermione's. If they ignored video game consoles and Neil's science lessons, Harry felt like Hermione completely outmatched him in every academic aspect.

As for Neville, well, it felt a bit rude to think this about a new friend, but Harry had to admit Neville wasn't the most exciting person. Right now, for example, he was just staring at Trevor in a daze.

"Fred and George mentioned it," Ron, who came from a long line of wizards and wasn't exactly stupid, tilted his head in thought.

"They said it's really dangerous and difficult. Ugh, I have a bad feeling I'll end up in Hufflepuff."

At this, Ron looked a bit downcast. "My whole family has been in Gryffindor. If I got sorted into Hufflepuff, they'd probably laugh themselves to death."

"I… I want to be in Hufflepuff." Neville muttered softly.

From what little he had read and from Ron's comments, Harry vaguely felt that Hufflepuff was full of good people.

Gryffindor valued bravery.

Slytherin prized pure-blood lineage.

Ravenclaw sought intelligence and wisdom.

And Hufflepuff took whoever was left.

But if that were the case, Harry was a little confused about where he would belong.

Slytherin was the easiest to rule out.

According to Ron's explanation of pure-blood ideology, Harry technically counted as a pure-blood wizard since both his parents had been magical. But in a stricter sense, he wasn't a true pure-blood, since his mother came from a Muggle family.

Ravenclaw seemed unlikely too. Compared to Hermione, Harry didn't think he could be considered knowledgeable at all.

As for Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, Harry didn't think of himself as particularly brave either.

"Looks like I'll be in Hufflepuff too…" Harry thought, then patted Neville's shoulder. "Don't worry, Neville. If I'm with you, we'll face together."

"What a joke!" Hermione looked at him in disbelief.

"Harry, considering your situation, you're almost certainly going to be in Gryffindor. Your parents were both Gryffindors, and they were heroes! How could you not be a Gryffindor?"

At this point, Hermione straightened up proudly. "I also want to be in Gryffindor. I want to become a great witch, like Dumbledore."

"I thought you'd want to be in Ravenclaw," Harry smirked.

"Ravenclaw does sound good… but I really admire Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, and both of them were in Gryffindor," Hermione admitted, looking slightly hesitant. Clearly, the appeal of being 'the smartest' was very tempting for her.

"We still don't know how the Sorting works, so there's no point worrying about it now," Ron sighed, shaking his head. But he still turned to Harry and added,

"But I think Hermione's right. You'll probably be in Gryffindor. After all…"

"Harry? Did I just hear someone say Harry?"

A voice suddenly called out from outside their compartment.

The train had been noisy ever since lunch, wizards clearly didn't have a tradition of keeping quiet while traveling. Harry and the others hadn't paid much attention to the commotion outside, but they hadn't expected that their conversation would be overheard.

"Where? Where?" A chorus of voices responded.

A moment later, the compartment door was pulled open from the outside, and a group of young wizards crowded around the entrance.

Standing at the front was the platinum-haired boy who had mocked Hermione earlier.

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