9 Chapter 9: King's Cross Station

After returning from Diagon Alley, Alaric locked himself in his room and began to study the magic of this world.

Through experiments and research, he roughly understood the principles of magic in this world.

It was a kind of spell that used magic to influence the rules. The generation of magic comes from living beings themselves, so only wizards and magical creatures with magic can cast spells.

Using magic in this world requires strong will, proper pronunciation, and gestures. The strong will determines the target and effect of the magic, while pronunciation and gestures are essential catalysts. Through these, magic can directly achieve results by influencing the rules.

Compared to directly using magic to forcefully impact the reality of the world, magic in this world is like completing tasks directly through a console in an RPG game. 

It is not only more effective but also allows for spells like the Disillusionment Charm, the Levitation Charm, and others that completely violate the basic rules of energy conservation and entropy increase.

As for wands, it is well-known that magical creatures in this world possess stronger magic than wizards. Wands are made from materials on these magical creatures and some special woods, serving as organizers and converters of magic.

When a wizard becomes familiar enough with a spell and is proficient in casting it, they can omit the incantation and wand movements, casting spells silently, with their bare hands, a wandless magic.

This is known as non-verbal and wandless casting, making the casting process faster and less predictable.

However, due to the lower catalytic effect of silent casting and the lower efficiency of handling and converting magic without a wand, the spell's effect is much weaker and less efficient.

With Alaric's talent, he quickly learned relatively simple and commonly used magic such as the Wand-Lighting Charm, Levitation Charm, and Disillusionment Charm, but he couldn't learn more complex spells in his room. 

On the one hand, knowledge like spellcasting and potion-making requires suitable facilities and materials, and on the other hand, more complex spells are not only prone to irreparable accidents but may also attract the attention of Mrs. Cole and his other friends in the orphanage.

Unable to quell his curiosity about magic, Alaric could only endure it and look forward to the day when school started.

The wait was always long, but finally, the time came for September 1st.

Alaric arrived at King's Cross Station at nine o'clock, hoping to enter the train early and have the freedom to choose a compartment without having to stay with people he wasn't interested in.

Except for the main characters, only George and Fred Weasley, Cedric Diggory, and attractive girls could catch his attention at Hogwarts.

At this time, the crowd at the train station was not small, there were quite a lot of people coming and going at the train station.

Standing between platforms nine and ten, Alaric carefully looked around, hoping to find an opportunity to enter platform 9¾ without anyone noticing.

Soon, several wizards in strange robes walked in front of him, foolishly bumping into the wall with a silly expression on their faces, and then one by one, they disappeared.

Alaric gritted his teeth, suppressing the desire to complain about their lack of manners, and followed these people into the wall leading to Platform 9¾. 

In the blink of an eye, he felt like he had passed through a "door," and then the scenery changed dramatically.

In front of him was an old-fashioned red steam locomotive with a sign reading "Hogwarts Express."

With Alaric's talent, he could clearly feel that he was in a special space, a space that coincided with the original location of King's Cross Station.

"It's really unscientific, reaching such a level with magic." He exclaimed, following the crowd onto the train.

At this time, there were not many people in the train compartments, but Alaric still sat in a slightly later compartment with an empty space.

He noticed that the older wizards tended to sit towards the front, while the new students were concentrated in the last few compartments.

After putting away his luggage, Alaric opened his backpack, released Himari, who had been confined inside for a long time, and then took out a book, "Hogwarts: A School History," to start reading. Perhaps same-age young wizards would be bored with this kind of reading material, but for him, it was a decent pastime.

Himari meowed, rubbing against Alaric's legs, showing signs of wanting to play with her master. However, Alaric was enjoying himself at the moment.

He casually took out a fragrant grilled fish jerky from his bag, gave it to Himari, and then casually petted her head. That should be enough to pass the time for her.

Himari had no choice but to hold the dried fish in her mouth and walk out of the compartment to roam around.

Alaric was quite at ease about this. After all, Himari was a cat demon, although still young, her intelligence was enough to take care of herself.

After a while, she ran back to the compartment in a hurry and pounced into Alaric's arms, as if someone was chasing her.

No, someone was indeed chasing her.

It was a girl who looked about the same age as Alaric, with thick brown hair and a pair of large front teeth. 

She was already wearing the Hogwarts uniform, and Alaric immediately recognized her because she looked very similar to Emma Watson.

Hermione Granger, the female protagonist of the Harry Potter series, the clever "know-it-all" girl, who consistently held the top spot in her grade.

However, J.K. Rowling arranged for her to end up with Ron, which was quite regrettable.