11 Chapter 11: The Toad of Longbottom

The train swayed as it moved along, and the view outside the window had transitioned from the cityscape of London to vast fields and meadows.

Around noon, accompanied by a loud commotion, a cheerful elderly woman pushed open the door to their compartment and asked, "Dearies, would you like to buy some snacks?"

Breakfast felt like a distant memory, and Tom perked up, quickly making his way to the aisle.

"My mum prepared lunch—" Hermione's words couldn't catch up to Tom's speed.

Tom bought two bags of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, a few Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Treacle Tart, and various other snacks, all for less than three silver sickles.

Tom brought the purchased snacks back into the compartment and dumped them all onto an empty seat, while Hermione watched.

"Are you hungry?"

"Mm-hmm." Tom grabbed a Pumpkin Pastie and took a big bite.

"I have lunch too." Hermione retrieved two lunchboxes and a thermos from her backpack, revealing ham and egg sandwiches, salad, and a steaming cup of hot tea inside the thermos.

Tom also handed over some of the snacks he'd bought to Hermione, and they both began to munch away.

Hermione picked up a Chocolate Frog. "What's this? Is there chocolate in the shape of a frog inside?" She opened the box, revealing a lifelike chocolate frog. As soon as the box was opened, it wriggled and then leaped onto her face, startling her with a yelp. However, Tom, quick on his feet, snatched the mischievous Chocolate Frog and popped it into his mouth, chewing calmly.

"It tastes decent, like milk chocolate, but the texture is mediocre. It moves in your mouth, though," Tom gave an affirmative review of the Chocolate Frog.

Hermione had regained her composure, and upon hearing Tom's comment, she twitched her lips and pretended not to have heard it. Instead, she focused on examining the collectible card that came with the box. It featured Dumbledore's face and listed his accomplishments.

"He's truly amazing," Hermione exclaimed after reading about Dumbledore's life achievements.

"Yeah, he was," Tom replied nonchalantly, then opened another bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. "Want to try some of these beans? They come in all sorts of flavors."

These magical beans provided them with a delightful experience, offering flavors such as chocolate, peppermint, marmalade, toast, coconut, pepper, strawberry, curry, grass, sardine, and many more. Each bean they tried seemed to provide a completely new taste sensation.

The sliding door to their compartment was opened once again. This time, a round-faced boy with puffy red eyes entered.

"Sorry," he said, "Have you seen my toad?"

Both Tom and Hermione shook their heads, and tears welled up in his eyes.

"I've lost it again! It keeps trying to run away from me!"

"It will come back," Tom offered a half-hearted reassurance.

"Yeah, so, if you see—" the boy began.

"We'll help you find it," Hermione interrupted. "What does your toad look like? When did you last see it? By the way, I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Tom Riddle. What's your name?" Hermione fired off a rapid succession of questions.

The round-faced boy looked a bit bewildered but managed to stammer out his name: Neville Longbottom.

"Alright, Neville, we'll help you find your toad." Hermione suddenly appeared quite enthusiastic, dragging Tom along with her.

"Here's the plan," Hermione quickly made up her mind. "We'll search separately. I read in a book that toads usually prefer damp, dark places, so we should keep an eye out for such areas."

"Neville, there's another option, but it requires you to spend a bit of money," Tom suddenly spoke up, capturing the attention of the other two. "We can go find the elderly lady with the snack trolley and ask her to inform the other compartments. Anyone who finds your toad can get three Wizarding Wheezes snacks from her as a reward. If they don't want snacks, they can come to our compartment, and I'll tell them a hidden location at Hogwarts."

"That sounds great!" Neville quickly accepted the proposal, and he ran off to find the elderly woman pushing the snack trolley.

"What's the hidden location?" Hermione's eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"I happen to know where the school's kitchen is," Tom raised an eyebrow and winked. "The lucky ones who get the information will have a treat."

"So, should we still help Neville find his toad?" Hermione inquired.

"If you feel like it, why not?" Tom responded.

And so, the two of them set off together, going from one compartment to another, inquiring about Neville's missing toad.

"Daisy, cream, and sunshine, make this silly fat rat turn yellow!" When Tom opened one compartment's door, he found a red-haired boy holding his wand and trying to cast a spell on a gray, plump rat.

However, nothing happened; the rat remained gray, twitching slightly in its sleep.

Hermione, who had observed the entire process, had a "what are you doing" expression on her face.

"Are you sure that was a real spell?" she asked. "It doesn't seem to be very effective, does it?"

With a triumphant grin, she added, "I've tried a few simple spells at home. They all worked quite well."

Hermione walked to the opposite side of the compartment, drew her wand, and pointed it at the boy's glasses. "For example, Oculus Reparo."

In the next moment, all the dust on the boy's glasses disappeared.

"Much better, isn't it?"

The two people in the compartment were both wearing expressions of surprise.

"I come from a family where no one knows magic, so when I received my acceptance letter to Hogwarts, I was shocked but also delighted. Hogwarts is the finest wizarding school, after all. I've even studied all the textbooks in advance—oh, by the way, I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Tom Riddle. What are your names? By the way, have you seen Neville's toad?"

Hermione proudly showcased her knowledge of the spell she had learned, then remembered her purpose and quickly asked the two boys.

"I'm Ron Weasley, and we haven't seen any toads..." The redhead boy grumbled.

"Harry Potter." The boy with glasses introduced himself.

Hermione's eyes lit up. "Is it really you? Oh my goodness, I know everything about you—I bought extra books, 'A Modern History of Magic,' 'Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts,' 'Important Magical Events of the Twentieth Century.' They all mention you."

Harry and Ron exchanged glances, with Ron even pulling a funny face.

"Alright, shall we go help Neville find his toad?" Hermione had a brief chat with them but realized they didn't quite hit it off. She then grabbed Tom's hand and left.

"Oh, by the way, there's some dirt on your nose. Did you know?"She said this to Ron before leaving, while pointing to the tip of her own nose. Ron shot her a disgruntled look.

"Merlin, I hope she's not in our House!" Once the two had left, Ron complained to Harry.

Should I write a chapter at 9 a.m. and another at 5 p.m...?

P.S. Pfizer side effects are quite intense...

(End of chapter)