23: Bickering

"Pfft!—Cough"

Ron coughed lightly to avoid laughing out loud.

Draco Malfoy's face darkened. He looked at Ron and said, dissatisfied, "Is my name funny?"

Draco means 'dragon' in English. It's like taking names from novels and using them in the real world, which seems particularly cringeworthy.

Especially with his last name 'Malfoy' (meaning evil or bad faith), Ivan wondered how Draco's father dared to use something like 'evil dragon' to name his child.

Ivan really didn't know how big Lucius Malfoy's ego must be.

'Well, I don't know who to blame.. Yeah, JK's naming sense was terrible'

"No need to ask who you are."

While Ivan was lost in thought, Malfoy had already started his verbal attack: "My father told me that the Weasleys all have red hair, freckles all over their faces, and they have too many children to afford."

"You'll soon find that some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter."

Malfoy turned to Harry and said, "You don't want to make friends with the wrong sort, do you?"

Ivan thought that old Lucius Malfoy was probably just jealous.

Although the Weasleys are considered blood traitors, they are really fertile.

One family, nearly 10 wizards—how can anyone compete with that?

Maybe the Weasleys are poor, but their ability to have many children must make the pure-blood families in the wizarding world envious.

"I can help you with this."

Ignoring the bystanders around him, Malfoy reached out to Harry, but Harry didn't take his hand: "I think I can tell who the wrong sort is myself, thanks."

Draco Malfoy's pale cheeks didn't turn red, but there was a faint blush—of anger of course.

Watching this scene, Ivan could roughly guess what Malfoy was thinking.

This kid had probably come to make friends with Harry.

But because he didn't know how to interact with others, he came across as aggressive.

In Ivan's words, it was a classic case of tsundere.

He clearly wanted to make friends with Harry, but he had to act superior, as if befriending him was a favor.

So, angry and embarrassed, Malfoy threw his father's advice out the window.

"If I were you, Potter, I'd be especially careful."

Malfoy said slowly, "You should be polite, or you'll end up like your parents."

"If you hang out with people like the Weasleys or Hagrid, you'll be dragged down with them."

"You!" Harry and Ron stood up, and Ron's face was as red as his hair.

"Say that again!"

Ron couldn't stand being insulted like this, especially when it involved curses about his parents, family, and bloodline.

He clenched his fist tightly, wishing he could smash it into Malfoy's smug face.

"Oh, you want to fight, don't you?"

Malfoy sneered; he didn't care about the anger of the two at all. His father was one of the school governors of Hogwarts, and he was the heir of the Malfoy family.

Even if it was the famous Harry Potter, so what?

Others regarded him as the savior and were grateful to him, but the Malfoy family had sided with the Dark Lord.

To be honest, Harry not only didn't bring any benefits to the Malfoy family, but also ruined their investment in Voldemort.

At this time, Malfoy had no idea how terrifying Voldemort truly was, nor how desperate the Malfoy family would become.

He only knew that the Death Eaters looked impressive, and his father, who had been one of the Dark Lord's closest followers, seemed even greater.

"Get out right now, you're not welcome here!"

Though Harry was a little scared—after all, he had never been in a fight in his life and had always been bullied since childhood—he stood his ground.

To be honest, Harry's heart was not as brave as it appeared, especially with Crabbe and Goyle standing next to Malfoy.

These two were much bigger than him and Ron.

"Are you ordering me?"

"Why?"

"We're not afraid of the so-called savior."

Malfoy was determined to teach Harry a lesson, and he noticed the snacks in the carriage: "We've finished all the food, but you seem to have some left here."

As soon as he finished speaking, Goyle quickly reached out to grab the chocolate frog next to Ron.

Seeing this, Hermione could no longer suppress her frustration and immediately prepared to step forward to defend Harry.

Hermione saw the whole situation unfold, and it was clearly Malfoy who was at fault, picking a fight for no reason.

Harry did nothing wrong, and neither did Ron.

No one can stand being humiliated for no reason.

"Oh? Are you going to fight them?"

Ivan asked Hermione curiously. The little witch looked back at him in surprise and said in disbelief, "How can we fight? That's wrong!"

Well, Hermione is a good kid. She just wanted to stop the fight and remind them that fighting isn't the answer.

However, before Hermione could act, Ron suddenly lunged forward from the carriage.

"Ah!!"

The next moment, Goyle screamed.

This confused Ron, who thought he hadn't even touched the guy.

When they looked up, they saw a fat rat hanging from Goyle's finger—it was Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.

Scabbers' sharp little teeth were buried deep in Goyle's flesh.

Goyle screamed and waved his hand frantically to shake off Scabbers.

Crabbe and Malfoy backed away in fear at the sight.

'Peter Pettigrew…'

Ivan's eyes narrowed slightly, but he quickly composed himself: 'Forget it, this has nothing to do with me. No need to cause trouble for now.'

However, just because Ivan didn't intend to get involved didn't mean that others wouldn't notice him.

"Is something funny?"

Malfoy suddenly turned his head and glared at Hermione, who was standing next to Ivan.

The little witch was startled and quickly realized that laughing secretly had been impolite.

But the thing was, Malfoy and his two friends had provoked Harry first, and now they were scared by a rat. It surprised Hermione, who had higher expectations for these pure-blooded wizards.

"Sorry, we didn't mean to laugh at you."

Ivan stepped forward and stood in front of Hermione. He glanced at Harry and Ron in the carriage and introduced himself, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Harry Potter. I'm Ivan Ambrosius."

Compared to Malfoy's arrogance, Harry's impression of Ivan was much better.

"Hello."

Harry extended his hand and shook hands with Ivan, which made Malfoy visibly annoyed.

Both had come to make friends, but Harry's attitude toward Ivan was completely different from how he had treated Malfoy.

What annoyed Malfoy even more was that, despite still standing there, Ivan seemed to ignore him and continued talking to Harry.