CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

For a minute, Magnus had almost forgotten his three friends were there. He sat staring at the three Pokémon with a blank expression, his thoughts racing as he tried to make sense of everything.

Having watched the League battle, Magnus had noted several glaring issues.

First, these people knew nothing about type advantages, which meant they also missed out on using type-based moves.

 Instead, they relied solely on physical attributes to carry out attacks.

Not that it didn't make the battles interesting—but really, if they had understood the potential these creatures possessed, the fusion of wizard magic and Pokémon abilities would have taken the fights to a whole new level.

As it was, the battles—while entertaining—were nothing more than glorified bullfights. Pretty mundane.

Another thing Magnus noticed was that both teams seemed to favor gigantic Pokémon.

He had come to learn that they equated power with size, which was actually entirely wrong.

In the anime, size—while intimidating—hardly made that much of a difference. He had seen Pikachu take down opponents ten times its size. It all came down to skill and strategy.

But he couldn't really blame them.

With no knowledge of type matchups or moves, their next best advantage became strategy, and yes… brute physical dominance.

And then there was the last thing—the part that confused him the most.

Pokémon Evolution.

Magnus had combed through the beginner's guide, and not once had he come across any mention of it.

At first, he hadn't found it strange. Even in both the anime and the games, Pokémon evolved under special circumstances, often triggered by a mix of physical and emotional conditions.

But judging by the fact that these Pokémon hadn't even awakened their innate abilities yet, evolution should have been almost impossible.

Almost.

The funny thing was… they had to be evolving. He had seen it with his own eyes. He had watched a battle between a Charizard and a Gyarados.

That wasn't their base form.

Charizard hatched as a Charmander, later evolved into Charmeleon, and finally became Charizard.

Similarly, while he didn't fully remember Gyarados's evolution line, he could swear it didn't just grow straight into its final form.

Unless… unless that's how it worked in this world.

Maybe in this version of Pokémon, they simply grew up like any other magical creature. That was the only reasonable explanation he could think of. It would also explain why he hadn't encountered any students with Pokémon that could naturally grow to massive sizes.

'It's a pity' , Magnus thought.

If evolution worked here, Lee's Rockruff might have already evolved into a Lycanroc or one of its other forms.

In any case, it would have been far more formidable than the helpless puppy currently staring at him.

The same went for the twins' Eevees.

In fact, Eevee had one of the most dynamic evolution lines in the anime. By now, these two might have evolved into something—maybe Flareon… or perhaps Umbreon, given the twins' playful nature and night mischief.

'Was there hope?' Magnus wondered. Could there be a chance that all these aspects of the original Pokémon world were still there, just waiting to be awakened? Waiting for someone to trigger them?

Better yet—could he be the one to do it?

He had done it for Gyarados… he was sure of it. He could swear he was the one who had forced the serpent to use Ice Beam.

And if Gyarados had that ability within it… why not the rest?

Magnus's heart pounded wildly at the thought of all the untapped potential in this world.

'If fate is kind, I will make a name for myself here' , he thought.

Then, after a moment, he reconsidered.

Screw fate.

With or without it, he was going to make something out of this world he had stumbled—no, blown—himself into.

"That must be the snack trolley," Lee said, breaking into his thoughts.

Sure enough, the compartment door creaked open, revealing a lady standing behind a cart overflowing with wizard snacks.

"Anything for you, dear?" the lady asked with an easy smile.

"Well, we've got no Galleons, but tell you what—I'll trade one of Molly's cookies for some of those chocolate frogs," Fred said so earnestly that someone might have thought he was serious.

"Yeah… make it two," George added.

The lady didn't even bother responding. She must have had enough run-ins with the twins over the past two years at Hogwarts.

"You two never change, do you?" she said, clearly unfazed by their antics.

Turning to Lee and Magnus, she asked, "Anything for you two?"

"I'll have some Every Flavor Beans," Lee said, handing her a few Sickles.

Magnus had expected this. Most of his money was tucked away in his trunk, but he had set aside two Galleons specifically for this.

"We'll have a bit of everything you've got," he said, handing her the gold coins.

He was the closest to the trolley, but even after all the time he had spent in Diagon Alley, he was still unfamiliar with wizarding snacks.

"You guys should help me pick—I swear, I still know nothing about this stuff."

The twins exchanged a look, hesitant—like they wanted to say something but decided against it in front of the lady.

Within seconds, their seats were piled high with an assortment of treats.

When the lady finally wheeled away, the three of them turned to Magnus.

"You shouldn't have, mate," George said, eyes wide as he surveyed the ridiculous amount of snacks .

"This is overkill, Magnus. We'll hit Hogwarts before we're even halfway through this lot," Fred added.

Magnus just smiled. "That's exactly the plan. I hear you two can sneak almost anything into Hogwarts."

The twins looked surprised for a second before breaking into identical, almost childlike grins.

"Say no more—our sneaky skills are at your service," Fred said, tipping an imaginary hat and giving a mock bow.

"Looks like our reputation precedes us," George added. "You won't regret your Galleons, Mr. Magnus Magnus." He did a mock curtsy, grinning.

The four of them dove into the snacks.

"Speaking of Galleons," Lee said through a mouthful of Chocolate Frog, "I don't know about you guys, but I saved my three and added four more. The league will start next month, you know."

Magnus, who had been unraveling a Morgana sticker, looked up excitedly, but then a second later, that excitement watered down.

"Too bad we will be in school. We might have forced those lucky brothers to change their name."

He had no doubt that had he been able to attend these battles, he would have made a good fortune.

He was still homeless, and now that he had some possessions, the streets were no longer an option. He would need to be prepared by the time the term ended.

"Well, we still can do it... they have an owl service, don't they?" George said, equally between mouthfuls.

Magnus felt his hopes skyrocket.

"They do?"

This topic seemed to set aside their hunger for snacks.

"Well, all betting merchants have an owl service," Fred answered. "George and I have ten Galleons too."

Both Lee and Magnus looked surprised. It was not like the twins worked, and Magnus highly doubted their parents could spare them such kind of money.

But then again, the twins were hardly helpless—they had their own means.

"But how does that even work?" Magnus wondered.

"It works just like it did when you placed your bet in the Griffin match," Lee explained. "The only difference is that you place your first-round bet a day before."

"Yeah, so that means you have to write a request letter to them two days before that to be on the safe side," George interjected.

"In the letter, you tell them the total amount you wish to stake. After they get your request letter, they send you a blank ticket like the one they gave you when you played on the Griffins."

"It's not entirely blank, though, is it?" Fred pointed out. "It always has a 'won' total of the amount you mentioned earlier."

"How... but you haven't given them any Galleons yet?" Magnus queried.

"But you will—you pay it to the owl that brings your ticket." George smiled knowingly.

"But what if you refuse to pay the owl and still retain the ticket? Can you still cash it in?"

The twins' evil grins widened.

"Trust me, you don't want to do that. Those owls aren't exactly a bunch of pushovers," Lee answered.

"Yeah, they aren't. Mundungu would know. Heard he had to be admitted at St. Mungo's after they were done with his face," Fred's mischievous grin grew even bigger.

"Can you imagine? The idiot requested a thousand Galleon stake, but when he got the ticket, he tried to jinx the owl with a Confundus Charm."

The four friends burst out laughing at the absurdity of that.

Magnus could not recall the last time he had laughed this hard... he was really trying to stop, if only to ask why it didn't work.

But he couldn't.

The laughter just kept hitting in waves. He tried to press his lips shut, but the burst just seemed to break through that too, and it only made the other three laugh even more.

Eventually, he couldn't help it and slipped off his seat onto the floor of the compartment, still rolling with laughter.

Even worse was the fact that in his mind, he had already formed the picture of this altercation between Mundungu and the owl.

Somehow, it was exactly the kind of thing he would expect Mundungu to do.

"Why... why did it not work? I mean, it can work, can't it?"

George, who appeared to have mastered himself, looked at him on the floor and couldn't help bursting into more laughter.

"I bet those owls have protective charms... plus Dungs isn't exactly a Dumbledore, is he?"

"And even if it worked, I don't think you could claim it without staking at least the first round, and the only way to do that is to get the quill to work," Lee affirmed.

Magnus knew it was true. He recalled what the clerk had said to him:

"Don't bother writing what you haven't won."

"Mate, I think you should change into your school robes while we put our sneaky skill into play. We are almost there," Fred said as he, George, and Lee began to gather the remaining snacks.

***

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