Richie took his walking stick with him as he left the compartment—the very one he had taken from Kiddle during their trip to Diagon Alley to buy school robes. It had since been swiftly upgraded by the magical engineers at the Grosvenor Workshop.
Walking with dignified poise, he set off through the train. As he made his way through the second carriage, Richard ran into all of his classmates from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor. He greeted each of them, exchanged a few words, complimented the girls, politely asked the boys how they had spent their summer, and treated everyone to sweets produced from the bottomless pocket of his brand-new robes. He spent the longest talking with Hermione Granger, the Patil twins, and Justin Finch-Fletchley.
Hermione spoke about the trip to France she had taken with her parents. Padma and Parvati thanked Richard for inviting them to the industrialists' reception hosted by the Queen. They enthusiastically shared their impressions and passed along an invitation from their father to visit them. Justin, meanwhile, proudly recounted the wonderful holiday he had enjoyed with his parents in Majorca.
In the end, after a long and valiant struggle against tea and sweets in the company of friends and acquaintances, Richard did not reach the last carriage until four hours later.
Older students had little interest in talking to the first-years traveling in the last carriage. The newcomers didn't know anyone yet; they were on their way to Hogwarts for the very first time. To an outside observer, it might have seemed odd that Richie had gone to visit the "little ones," but Grosvenor Jr. had a perfectly good reason for taking a closer look at the first-years. Among them, he might find useful acquaintances—and promising future talent.
Richard calmly looked into every compartment, greeted everyone with a charming smile, introduced himself, handed out sweets to his new acquaintances, and exchanged a few words with each of them. The children welcomed the visit from an older student with enthusiasm, peppering Richard with questions about the school, all of which he answered thoroughly.
After another hour, Richie reached the fifth compartment. There, he was surprised to find one of the boys staring at him intently. It was a brown-eyed boy with mouse-blonde hair. He sat there gaping at Richie as though spellbound, clutching an ordinary-looking camera in one hand. The moment he met Richard's eyes, he turned scarlet.
"Sir!" A fair-haired boy leapt to his feet and stepped in front of the other passengers. "I'm so glad to see you! You're Mr. Grosvenor, aren't you?"
Something about the boy's appearance struck Richard as unexpectedly familiar. Blessed with an excellent memory in this life, he immediately realized whom the boy resembled.
"Mr. Creevey, I presume?" he asked good-naturedly. "Call me Richie. We'll be attending the same school soon enough."
"Yes, sir! I'm Colin Creevey," the boy replied, positively beaming. "Dad told me how brilliantly you dealt with that brownie, sir. It was amazing!"
"Just Richie, Colin," Grosvenor corrected with a smile. "It wasn't anything special. I simply took the brownie away from you."
"It was still amazing!" Colin declared happily. "Richie, I saw your interview on television—it was incredible! Is your company really going to launch the first private spacecraft soon?"
"Without a doubt, Colin," Richie replied.
For a brief moment, Richard caught sight of the compartment behind Creevey. Colin's three traveling companions sat silently with identical expressions of astonishment, trying to catch a glimpse over their friend's shoulder of the person he was praising so enthusiastically.
"Richie, could I have a photograph with you?" Colin asked, looking at Richard pleadingly. "I'll show it to my dad. If I tell him I'm going to the same school as the great Grosvenor, he'll never believe me otherwise!"
"No problem, Colin," Richard agreed. "Though I think we'd better take it together. We can ask one of your friends to take the picture. Just give us a moment—we should take off our robes first so you can display the photograph somewhere prominent without violating the Statute of Secrecy."
"The Hogwarts crest?" Colin guessed.
"Exactly." Richard nodded. "The Hogwarts badges."
A stocky dark-haired boy rose from one of the seats.
"Jack Dawson," he introduced himself. "My dad's not a wizard, and I grew up in Manchester, so I know how to use a camera."
"Excellent, Jack," Richard replied. "Pleased to meet you."
Dawson gazed at Richard with unconcealed admiration.
"Are you really the Richard Grosvenor who invented Skrepyshi?"
"Yes, Jack," Grosvenor replied with an indulgent nod.
"Cool!" Jack's eyes shone with delight, as though he had just met a superstar.
The other two boys in the compartment watched the exchange in bewilderment, unable to understand who Richie was. One of them, a lanky boy with chestnut hair hanging to his shoulders, finally asked,
"What are Skrepyshi?"
"Edward, you've got to be kidding!" Jack stared at him wide-eyed. "Skrepyshi! Everyone knows what they are!"
"Er..." a fourth boy spoke up—a tall, thin redhead. "I don't know what they are either..."
"You too, Sean?" Jack turned to him in surprise.
"Yeah." Sean shrugged. "I grew up with my mum, who's a witch, in the wizarding world..."
"Jack, you can explain it to the lads later," Richard said. "Let's take the picture first."
Richie stood in the corridor with an arm around Colin's shoulders while Jack took their photograph. Colin reverently accepted his camera back and hugged it to his chest as though it were the greatest treasure in the world. A moment later, he came to his senses and snapped several more pictures of Jack and Richard together.
"Dad's going to be thrilled when he finds out we're going to the same school," Creevey said.
(End of Chapter)
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