The three of them continued to chat, feast on their magical snacks, and fiercely compete over the Mahjong tiles. Swept up in the camaraderie, the hours flew by entirely unnoticed.
"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes," a magically amplified voice suddenly echoed through the train compartments. "Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be delivered to the school separately."
"Thank Merlin we're finally here. My back is completely numb from sitting for so long," Charles groaned, standing up and stretching his stiff limbs.
Alan, ever disciplined, methodically packed away his belongings, efficiently clearing the Mahjong tiles and the discarded snack wrappers from the extended table.
With a final, heavy hiss of steam, the locomotive ground to a halt. The three students pushed their way out of the carriage and stepped into the crisp, biting night air. Up ahead on the dark platform, a towering silhouette stood holding a massive oil lamp high above the sea of heads.
"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over 'ere!" Hagrid's booming voice cut through the chatter. The crowd of nervous eleven-year-olds naturally gravitated toward the giant, and Alan's small group followed suit.
"Mr. Hagrid. It's good to see you again," Alan greeted the gamekeeper calmly as they approached the front of the pack.
"Oh, Alan! It's right good to see you, lad," Hagrid replied, looking down. His beetle-black eyes suddenly filled with profound guilt. "I heard all about that terrible business. It's all my bloody fault, it is. I never should've let you..."
Having been fully briefed by the Order of the Phoenix about the brutal skirmish in Knockturn Alley, Hagrid began apologizing profusely and incoherently. He felt entirely responsible for the fact that an underage wizard had been caught in a lethal crossfire on his watch.
"It wasn't your fault, Hagrid. I made a tactical error in my navigation. Besides, I'm perfectly fine now, aren't I?" Alan smoothly interrupted, cutting off the giant's rambling. He had absolutely no tactical desire to broadcast his combat history right in the middle of a crowded platform. The tense confrontation at King's Cross had already proved that the children of active Death Eaters were attending Hogwarts alongside them. Alan possessed no intelligence on whether the masked men he had brutalized that night had relatives or children currently standing in this very crowd. While his soldier's spirit certainly didn't fear a confrontation, he was pragmatic enough not to actively invite unnecessary crosshairs onto his back.
"Well, that's a blessing, Alan. Thank goodness you made it out alright. Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall both caught wind of that night, and let me tell you, I got a proper, severe scoldin' for it. I haven't even been allowed back down to Diagon Alley since! Oh, my, you just don't know how incredibly guilty I've felt," Hagrid continued, completely failing to pick up on Alan's subtle cue to drop the subject.
"You can put it out of your mind now, Hagrid. I'm officially starting my first year today. Aren't you going to congratulate me?" Alan prompted, helplessly attempting to steer the conversation into safer, more mundane waters.
*That night?* Charles and Vivian exchanged highly curious, questioning glances upon overhearing the exchange. However, with the dense crowd of first-years rapidly pressing in around them, it wasn't tactically sound to interrogate him right there. They silently agreed to corner Alan later and extract exactly what kind of thrilling, dangerous event had managed to shake this massive giant so thoroughly.
"Hey! You! The massive oaf over there! What exactly are you standing around for?" a sharp, incredibly arrogant voice suddenly rang out, cutting through the chatter. "Hurry up and lead the way already. I am practically dead on my feet from that miserable train ride. You're a giant, hulking brute; don't tell me you're also a complete imbecile, just leaving us standing out here in the freezing cold."
A boy within the tightly packed crowd had completely ignored the ongoing conversation and was rudely barking orders directly at Hagrid.
Alan felt a sharp, icy surge of displeasure at the blatant disrespect. He shifted his stance and shot a cold, calculating glare back at the speaker. The young wizard was relatively short, possessing a lean, well-proportioned build and impeccably groomed, dark hair. Despite his youth, his pale face was twisted into a sneer of pure aristocratic arrogance, and his deep-set eyes harbored a distinctly dark, gloomy intensity.
"What are you staring at, mudblood?" the boy snapped, catching Alan's gaze. "You and this oversized idiot are wasting everyone's time gossiping, and you dare to glare at me?"
"Back off, Sampel Travers! This is absolutely none of your business. If you're actively looking to get your teeth knocked in, I'd be more than happy to oblige," Charles snarled. He aggressively shoved his way past Alan, stepping directly into Travers' personal space to shield his new friend.
"Ah, I was wondering who was barking. So it's merely a whelp from the cowardly McKinnon clan," Travers drawled, his lips curling into an exaggerated, mocking sneer. "Tell me, McKinnon, why aren't you cowering obediently behind your parents' robes, sobbing like you were back at the station?"
Charles's face flushed a violent, furious red. Just as he coiled his muscles to lunge forward and physically beat the arrogance out of the boy, Alan's hand shot out, locking onto Charles's shoulder with an iron, unyielding grip.
"Do not let yourself be so easily provoked by cheap verbal bait, Charles. He is doing this deliberately to force you into a mistake," Alan ordered, his voice dangerously soft and level. He cast a freezing, peripheral glare at the boy named Sampel. "Do not stoop to his pathetic tactical level."
Alan's tactical instincts had recognized the setup from the start. This Travers kid hadn't just inexplicably decided to hurl insults at Hagrid and a random student; he had specifically targeted them because he saw Alan standing alongside Charles. It was a calculated, deliberate provocation aimed entirely at dragging the McKinnon boy into a punishable offense.
Before the situation could escalate into a physical brawl, a colossal figure stepped seamlessly between the hostile students.
"There will be absolutely no brawlin' on school grounds, or I have the full authority to pack the lot of you onto the next train home tonight! If that happens, you won't be settin' foot inside Hogwarts until next year," Hagrid boomed. The giant was incredibly blunt, his massive physical presence instantly intimidating the combatants into submission. His dark, beetle eyes were locked sternly onto Sampel Travers.
*Hmph. The McKinnon family are all such predictable, single-minded brutes,* Sampel Travers thought bitterly. *Just a tiny shred of provocation and they leap right into the trap. If he had dared to strike me first in front of all these witnesses, I could have immediately had him expelled and publicly humiliated his family. It's a real pity that stoic nobody and this giant oaf got in the way.* Extremely annoyed that his tactical trap had failed, Travers shot one last venomous, glaring look at Charles and Alan before haughtily stepping back into the crowd.
"That piece of filth is Sampel Travers, from the main branch of the Travers family," Charles hissed, whispering furiously into Alan's ear while glaring at the retreating boy. "If you ask me, Hogwarts shouldn't even allow his kind to enroll. His entire bloodline actively supports the Dark Lord, and I guarantee you they harbor active Death Eaters under their roof. This morning at King's Cross, our two families crossed paths on the platform, and they actually had the nerve to openly mock my uncle's crippling injuries right to our faces! It's absolutely despicable."
Alan inwardly cursed his miserable operational luck. Sampel Travers clearly possessed the dark, malicious temperament of a radicalized insurgent, and Alan had already managed to attract his hostile attention before even crossing the castle threshold. However, Alan quickly cleared his mind, refusing to overthink the tactical variables. If the Travers boy kept his distance and didn't actively seek further conflict, Alan would let it go. But if the arrogant aristocrat dared to aggressively cross his line, Alan would absolutely ensure the boy learned a brutal, unforgettable lesson in close-quarters reality.
Simultaneously, the grim encounter cemented a harsh reality in Alan's mind. Even locked away within the supposed safe haven of Hogwarts, the vicious, ideological undercurrents of the raging magical war were actively surging through the student body. His previous, pragmatic hope of simply keeping his head down and staying entirely out of the crossfire had been incredibly, dangerously naive.
"Do not let that target occupy your mind," Alan advised quietly, offering Charles a steadying look. "If you had rushed forward and physically assaulted him just now, you would have provided him with the exact public spectacle he wanted. Even if the Headmaster didn't expel you outright, you would have been severely disciplined before classes even started. He was deliberately manipulating your grief to provoke a hostile reaction. You must maintain better tactical discipline and be more careful in the future."
"You're right. I was entirely too impulsive. Thank you for stepping in, Alan," Charles muttered, secretly breathing a heavy sigh of relief as his adrenaline faded. Aided by the grounding presence of Alan and Vivian's quiet support, Charles gradually managed to wrestle his temper back under control.
The three of them fell into step behind Hagrid, following the giant's swinging lantern down a steep, narrow, and incredibly dark dirt path. Gradually, the dense trees parted, and the group spilled out onto the edge of a massive, black lake. Perched high atop a towering mountain on the opposite shore, its myriad of windows sparkling brilliantly against the starry night sky, stood the breathtaking, magnificent stone fortress of Hogwarts Castle.