[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
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"Of course, famous savior, if you don't want to be stared at like a monkey, then keep quiet," Draco said sarcastically. He then glanced at Amanda, who was sitting across from him and Harry.
"Amanda, can you do something about that scar on his forehead?"
"...I once read about a spell in a book that can temporarily confuse others."
"It's just that I've never used a wand before." Amanda weighed the wand in her hand as if searching for a proper grip. "How about I try now?"
"No, no, no! Forget it..."
Harry quickly covered his forehead in fear and shrank into the corner of his seat.
"I don't want to be the test subject of an experiment. Oh, it's not that I don't trust you... but after all, you've never actually used magic, have you?"
"Fine, but I think we can at least start practicing on the train."
Amanda stood up, reached across the small table in the compartment, and picked up Harry's glasses.
"Reparo."
The broken lenses, once held together with tape, instantly mended themselves and returned to their original state.
Harry stared at the perfectly restored round glasses, so new they hardly felt like his.
"Amanda! You're so... so amazing!" Harry exclaimed.
Draco, who had been watching silently, finally said, "You managed it on your first try... You really do have a talent for magic."
"That just shows you both still have a lot of work to do. Come on, it's time to test what we've studied this month."
At Amanda's signal, Harry and Draco pulled out their wands and began practicing simple spells on the small objects around them.
Harry raised his wand nervously and spoke to his gloves.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
Draco lifted his wand and pointed toward the corner above his head.
"Tergeo…"
It was a cleaning spell, and Amanda noticed how displeased Draco seemed with the train's hygiene.
After Harry repeated his spell more than ten times, a thin layer of sweat appeared on his forehead, but at last, the gloves responded.
They rolled lazily across the table.
Better than nothing.
"Not bad, try again," Amanda encouraged.
"Ah, dear, sorry to interrupt your studies. Would you like to buy something to eat?"
A smiling witch knocked on their compartment door. Amanda suddenly realized it was already midday.
She had been craving the train's snacks for a long time and had even skipped breakfast that morning.
"No, my parents brought me flamed cheese." Draco frowned and declined, clearly uninterested.
But Harry and Amanda had already opened the door.
"What are those?" Harry asked curiously.
"How about a bit of both?" Amanda suggested.
"..." Draco rubbed his temples, feeling a small headache.
"I want them all."
Harry and Amanda collapsed into their seats with a mountain of food, Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, cauldron cakes, licorice wands, and a host of other bizarre treats, stacked into a small hill.
"Draco, are you sure you don't want any?"
Amanda bit into a pumpkin pasty and offered some to him.
She didn't voice the question tugging at her heart: Is there really anyone who doesn't care about these things?
Draco glanced at her puffed-up cheeks.
God knows how tempting that was for an eleven-year-old boy.
He steadied himself and silently recited the Malfoy code of conduct.
"...No."
Harry opened a Chocolate Frog package, and suddenly a card slipped out.
He bent down in a panic to pick it up, and the pile of snacks toppled toward him, nearly burying him.
After struggling free, Harry lifted the card and showed it to Amanda.
"Amanda! Look who it is!"
The card showed an old man with long white hair and a beard, pouting unhappily at her.
At the bottom, it read Merlin. The back described his life and greatest achievements.
But what caught Amanda's attention most was the "Sage's Ring" he wore on his arm, the same ring she wore on her left wrist.
She lifted the card, eyes gleaming. "Could you give this to me?"
"Of course!" Harry replied cheerfully.
Bang, bang, bang.
Suddenly, loud knocks sounded at the door.
Amanda turned to see a round-faced boy gloomily tapping at the compartment.
"Excuse me, have you seen my toad?"
Amanda was almost certain the round-faced boy searching for a toad was Neville Longbottom.
Perhaps distracted by the snacks, Draco snapped impatiently, "We don't have any toad here."
Neville's face went pale, his eyes filling with tears.
"S-sorry... I lost him again, my toad..."
He shuffled away, mumbling miserably.
Harry shook his head. "Draco, that was mean. Still, I'll never understand why anyone would keep a toad as a pet."
Amanda glanced up at the luggage rack above them.
Three large birdcages rested there. In the middle one, her owl, Bertha, was curled up fast asleep, a little ball of brown fluff.
Bang, bang, bang.
The door slid open again.
"Have you seen a toad? Neville lost one," came a sharp, confident-sounding girl's voice.
Amanda looked up and saw a girl with bushy brown hair standing there. Her front teeth were slightly large. Behind her was Neville.
She had to be Hermione Granger.
"No, how many times do I have to say that?" Draco retorted flatly.
Hermione ignored him, her eyes locking on Amanda's arm.
"My goodness, is that the Sage's Ring? The one Merlin wore? I've read about it in books, but I thought it only existed in legends... I never imagined I'd see it in real life!"
Hermione covered her mouth in astonishment, while Neville peeked curiously from behind her.
"Are you Merlin's descendant?" Hermione asked eagerly, then sat down beside Amanda.
Amanda exchanged a glance with Harry. It seemed they wouldn't remain unnoticed until they reached school.
"Yes, I'm Amanda Merlin. Pleased to meet you," she said politely.
After a month of practice, she had grown much better at controlling her expressions.
"My name is Hermione Granger. What are your names?"
Hermione smiled brightly as she spoke.
She glanced around the carriage, evaluating the two others sitting across from her.
"I'm Harry Potter, and this is Draco Malfoy," Harry said, glancing at Draco, whose expression was dark.
Hermione, apparently ignoring the latter, let out a small gasp.
"Oh! Harry Potter! I've read about you in so many books, it's unbelievable... By the way, which house do you want to be in? The books all say Gryffindor is the best, but I think Ravenclaw sounds great too..."
She rattled off a long list.
"I think we'll all be sorted into Slytherin, unless the Sorting Hat makes a mistake," Amanda said.
"Slytherin?" Hermione seemed surprised by that answer.
"Oh, sorry, I mean... Slytherin doesn't seem to have the best reputation outside the wizarding world..."
She hesitated and fell silent.
Amanda replied calmly, "I think we should follow our own choices instead of listening to outside opinions."
Hermione looked enlightened. Suddenly, she said, "Amanda, your words have inspired me."
Amanda smiled faintly. "Not all Slytherins are bad."
"I think you're a very clever person. I'm looking forward to being your friend at Hogwarts."
Checking the time, Hermione quickly stood up and pulled Neville to his feet.
"We need to go, Neville. Let's look for your toad elsewhere."
She had only taken a few steps out when her bushy head popped back in.
"Oh, I almost forgot—you need to change into your uniforms. I asked the conductor earlier, and we'll be arriving at the station soon."
Harry jumped up suddenly.
"Merlin's beard, I haven't even put on my robes yet..."
He looked toward Amanda and Draco, clearly hoping someone else was in the same situation.
Unfortunately, Draco was already dressed in his school robes, and Amanda had prepared hers in advance. At that moment, she had just finished buttoning the silver clasps at her collar.
Harry had no choice but to grab his trunk from the luggage rack and hurriedly pull out his robes.
But as he was closing the case, something clearly went wrong.
"Amanda, what should I do... We bought so many snacks, and now my trunk won't fit them all."
He was trying to cram sweets and school supplies into his overstuffed trunk, which could barely close.
Draco sneered. "Your food problem isn't my responsibility."
He turned to the window, ignoring them, while absentmindedly stroking the ring on his right thumb.
Amanda opened her own trunk, which didn't have much space either.
"Harry, why don't you try stuffing as much as you can into your pockets?" she suggested.
As she grabbed a handful of sweets and moved toward Harry's pocket, the candies suddenly became weightless, dissolving into a current of air.
"Whoosh!" The Sage's Ring on her hand pulled them in.
Amanda raised her left arm in shock, staring at the now-empty hand.
"What's going on? Where did that bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans go?"
She had read many books recently, but none had mentioned such a phenomenon.
Even Draco looked startled. He stared fixedly at Amanda's wrist.
"Could it be... the Sage's Ring is a storage ring?"
He lifted his right hand and showed her the ring on his thumb.
"The Malfoy family heir's ring is a storage ring. It can probably hold something the size of a room."
It was a simple, elegant silver ring engraved with the Malfoy family crest, decorated with dark green patterns.
"This is made from special goblin-crafted material. The larger the ring, the greater the space inside. If the Sage's Ring is that massive... it would be like Merlin's trousers! I can't even imagine it. Maybe Merlin left something inside."
Amanda examined her bracelet carefully and tried touching the emerald, but nothing happened.
"How do I use it?"
"Putting things inside is easy. You just silently think about placing them in," Draco explained.
He demonstrated with a Chocolate Frog box. For a moment, it seemed to liquefy and vanish into his ring.
"Amazing!" Harry exclaimed.
Draco opened his palm helplessly. "But to take something out... you need a password."
"The noble Malfoy is always loyal to his interests."
He whispered the words, and a cloud of mist poured from the ring. The Chocolate Frog box reappeared in his hand.
「...」
So what about her bracelet?
Amanda raised it. In the center, faint letters in ancient Merlin script glowed upon the dark green stone.
Could that be the password?
If so, who would dare to inscribe it openly there? That person must have been mad.
"Merlin," Amanda tried, deciding she had nothing to lose.
Suddenly, a new space appeared before her eyes.
She blinked, making sure she wasn't hallucinating.
Her body remained in the Hogwarts Express, yet her consciousness had entered another world.
The feeling was extraordinary.
It was a vast chamber, covered with aged dark carpets. A massive crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling.
If Draco's storage ring was the size of a room, then the Sage's Ring was the size of an entire villa.
But to her disappointment, the room was empty, except for the bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans she had just placed inside.
Wait, there was something else: an extremely old parchment map lying on the floor.
Unfortunately, the handwriting was so blurred and faded that it was nearly impossible to decipher.
With mild disappointment, Amanda picked up the beans and the map and brought them out, showing them to Draco.
"I managed it! But... there's nothing inside except this map."
Draco and Harry leaned in and shook their heads regretfully.
"I can't make out a single word," Draco admitted.
Harry encouraged her, "Don't worry. You've got your own massive storage now, that's super cool, isn't it?"
He could hardly wait to hand over the pile of sweets and sandwiches to Amanda.
「...」
Amanda had no choice but to store all the snacks and begin practicing with the ring as her personal storage.
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