Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures
Chapter 1279: Unexpected Disappearance

They focused their patrol on students with Death Eater family connections, especially Malfoy.

Maybe it was because Hermione had checked on them so frequently, or maybe they were being cautious, not wanting to cause unnecessary trouble at school — this year, these students were surprisingly well-behaved. There was not even much communication between them, and Malfoy stayed holed up in the compartment with Goyle, Crabbe, and Pansy, not going anywhere.

This was indeed very unusual for Malfoy.

In previous years, he would have been leading Goyle and Crabbe through each compartment by now…

The four of them finally returned to their original compartment, and Ron went to find Lavender again.

In the afternoon, Colin and his brother Dennis came over and told everyone about their experiences traveling to the United States during the summer.

“The wizards there call Muggles “No-Majs”, and there are many things that are different from us,” said Colin. “But Dennis and I didn’t have the opportunity to visit everywhere, which was a pity. My father didn’t allow us to do so. We traveled there as Muggles. The day after we entered the country, an American Auror came to us and asked us to register.”

He told Evan and the others that the current situation in New York, at least in the United States, was relatively calm.

There had been no large-scale attacks and no reports of any incidents.

However, the Wizarding community had tightened its control discreetly, requiring all European wizards to register as soon as they arrived.

As for how they even knew that the Creevey brothers were wizards, that was a mystery.

Perhaps there was some cooperation between the Magical Congress of the United States of America and the Ministry of Magic, or maybe they had their own ways of detecting wizards.

The train continued to move forward, and Hermione began to study the new term’s classes with Evan. Both of them had earned enough O.W.L.s to enroll in all the N.E.W.T.-level classes, but they decided not to overdo it.

“N.E.W.T.s are far more challenging than any previous coursework. There’s no need to study them all,” said Hermione, flipping through her notes.

“Anyway, I’m not going to learn Divination anymore,” said Evan.

“I’d like to continue Arithmancy, but I won’t take Care of Magical Creatures,” said Hermione. “It’s not that Hagrid isn’t a good teacher, it’s just… well, let’s say I don’t feel the need to face the high-risk animals he tends to bring in.”

Evan nodded in agreement with Hermione’s reasoning.

When discussing it during the summer vacation, the four of them unanimously decided to give up Care of Magical Creatures.

It felt a bit cruel, though, knowing how disappointed Hagrid would be when he realized that his four favorite students were no longer taking his class.

Evan shook his head. He also persuaded Hermione not to take Alchemy.

Hogwarts only taught the basics of Alchemy to senior students, but if she wanted to learn, he could definitely teach her, it was much more in-depth than the basics.

The afternoon passed quickly, and when they could see Hogwarts, they began to change into their robes.

“Why haven’t Harry and the others come back yet?”

“Maybe Professor Slughorn’s gathering has just ended and they’re on their way back,” said Evan.

Harry had his Invisibility Cloak with him, so it was possible he’d gone off to do something risky again.

Evan vaguely remembered that in the original story, Harry seemed to have done something similar and was severely punished by Malfoy.

But that wasn’t a bad thing; if it helped Harry learn a lesson, then all the better.

Besides, Neville’s trunk was still here, and there was no reason for him not to come back and change his clothes, so it should be fine.

“They’d better hurry, or they’ll end up changing into their school robes in the carriages.”

Finally, the train slowed down and they heard the chaos and noise all around again.

Hermione hurried out to maintain order as everyone was busy gathering their luggage and pets and preparing to get off the train.

“Don’t crowd, please make way and let the first-years go first,” she shouted.

She asked the seniors to make way for the first-years, and Elaine followed her closely.  

Many students who didn’t know Elaine thought she was also a first-year.

Evan checked each compartment, making sure no one had carelessly left anything behind and also looking for the missing Harry and Neville.

In one of the compartments near the front of the train, he found Neville.

This guy didn’t go back to change into his school robes. He had his head stuck under a seat, apparently looking for something, with his bottom sticking out.

“Neville, what are you doing?” Evan asked.

“I’m looking for — ow!” Neville exclaimed. He bumped his head hard as he scrambled out from under the seat, quickly clutching the spot he’d hit. “I’m looking for Trevor. He keeps hiding from me, always trying to escape, and I’ve been chasing him for over ten minutes now and still haven’t caught him.”

He said dejectedly, sweating profusely, with fluff and dust in his hair.

“That’s why we need the Summoning Charm,” said Evan, pulling out his wand. Trevor flew out from under the seat and landed in his hand.

The toad stretched his legs in a futile attempt to resist, then settled down compliantly.

“That’s great, you should teach us that spell in D.A,” said Neville.

“This is a fourth-year course. If you’d like, we can practice it again later,” said Evan, handing Trevor back to him. “You’d better get off the train now. Oh, by the way, when did Professor Slughorn’s gathering end?”

“About fifteen minutes ago.”

“But I don’t see Harry either? Where is he?”

“He…” Neville hesitated for a moment before continuing, “He didn’t come back with Ginny and me. Harry put on his Invisibility Cloak and went somewhere alone. We two promised to keep it a secret for him, but I guess telling you is fine.”

Evan blinked. Well, Harry had probably gone to look for Malfoy again.

It was really not surprising at all. No matter how much changes happened, this kind of thing should be inevitable.

Could this be the rule event that Ramses II had mentioned, something that would inevitably appear in all timelines?!

“He’ll be all right, won’t he?” Neville asked.

“He’ll be fine, I’ll go find him. You should hurry and change into your uniform on the carriage,” said Evan, turning to leave and then stopped. “Oh, if you see Hermione and Elaine on the platform, tell them to go on ahead — I’ll catch up soon.”

With that, he quickly headed toward the compartment where Malfoy had been.

By this time, there was no one else on the train.

Outside, the sounds from the platform were growing faint as students began boarding the Thestral-drawn carriages.

The lights inside the train dimmed and finally merged with the dark platform.

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

Under one of the compartment seats, Harry was wedged like a piece of luggage.

He could not move a muscle. He lay there beneath the Invisibility Cloak feeling the blood from his nose flow, hot and wet, over his face where Malfoy had kicked him hard.

Although he’d been wearing an Invisibility Cloak, the noise he’d made when he came in was really too loud.

Think about it — the compartment door wouldn’t have pushed open by itself, would it?

And then there was Goyle, who had clumsily made a racket while grabbing his luggage…

Malfoy wasn’t stupid; in fact, he was sharp enough to immediately notice Harry’s presence.

Harry listened to the footsteps and voices in the corridor beyond, his head buzzing.

One moment he was trying to piece together Malfoy’s mutterings — what was he planning at Hogwarts?

The next, he was thinking that someone, surely, would check the compartments before the train departed again.

The Head Boy and prefects would usually do that, and Evan would likely notice something unusual here. But instead, it was the Head Girl — a Slytherin seventh-year — who had only glanced inside before turning and leaving, entirely unaware that Harry was hidden beneath the seat.

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