Chapter 15 : Vivian Bulstrode

Time passed day by day, and soon the time came to start school. Anduin was very pleased with what he had accomplished during that period.

After packing his luggage and bidding farewell to Tom, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, he set off for King's Cross Station. After living with Anduin for over a month, Tom had grown quite fond of him—so much so that he gifted him a small cask of butterbeer. In return, Anduin left him several simple recipes, like fried chicken, which were easy to prepare. For a while, Tom's gaze toward Anduin became even warmer.

Anduin arrived early at King's Cross Station, alone with his luggage. He carefully loaded everything onto a trolley, piece by piece, and after making sure he hadn't forgotten anything, he pulled out his ticket from the acceptance letter. Professor McGonagall had explained in detail all the precautions for boarding the train before saying goodbye.

Pushing his trolley, he reached the pillar between Platforms 9 and 10. Anduin noticed that many aurors were stationed nearby to keep things in order. "Must be to stop Muggles from accidentally walking in and causing trouble."

He glanced around, and once he confirmed no one was paying attention, he pushed the trolley straight toward the wall.

On the other side, a scarlet, old-fashioned steam engine was parked next to the platform. There still weren't many passengers around. The train was scheduled to leave at eleven sharp, and it was just past nine—Anduin had arrived quite early.

Rolling his luggage down the platform, he picked a carriage at random. With a small flick of his hand, all the luggage floated up and followed him inside the train.

Finding an empty compartment, Anduin opened the door, motioned with his hand, and the luggage settled itself neatly onto the rack above.

"Gale, wake up," Anduin called to his owl, only to find her still half-asleep with her eyes barely open. He shook his head, placed the cage on the table, and shut the compartment door.

Since there were still few people around, he took the chance to put on his wizard robes. Then he sat in the corner of the compartment and pulled out a copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. In truth, he had read it many times and had already practiced a few transformation spells.

His real strengths were in Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts, where he had already learned a number of spells. But Transfiguration, which required hands-on guidance from a teacher, was still in its early stages for him.

About an hour later, the crowd outside on the platform gradually grew. Just then, someone knocked on the compartment door.

"Is anyone sitting here?" a girl asked, pointing to the seat across from Anduin.

She looked young, with long chestnut hair and a pair of light green eyes that gave her a somewhat innocent air.

"No one's sitting there. Please, have a seat," Anduin replied with a smile.

"I'm Anduin Wilson. Let me help you," he offered kindly, noticing the girl struggling to lift her suitcase onto the luggage rack.

He raised his hand again, and the suitcase floated up smoothly into place.

"That's so cool. I'm Vivian Bulstrode. Are you an upperclassman? You can cast spells without a wand . . . I'm a first-year. I'm starting school this year," she said admiringly, clearly impressed by what she assumed was an advanced skill.

It was normal to think that. Anduin was already stronger than most kids his age, and he stood over five feet tall, with a solid build.

"No, I'm a first-year too. I'm just really good at this one spell," Anduin lied. In truth, just days ago, his Impediment Jinx had reached non-verbal, wandless casting level—but he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself.

"You're amazing. Are you from a pure-blood family? I don't remember hearing the name Wilson," Vivian said, tilting her head, clearly thinking hard. But after a moment, she still came up blank. "My dad and grandpa are squibs. My mom's a Muggle. My grandfather was expelled from the Bulstrode family. You should've seen how happy he was when my Hogwarts letter arrived. Thanks to me, we were brought back into the family."

"I'm an orphan, and I have no ties to any pure-blood family. I'm a wizard born to Muggles," Anduin answered indifferently. "Your family kicked your grandfather out and you're still happy about it? Don't you resent them?"

"You really don't look like a Muggle-born wizard," Vivian replied, unable to believe it just from seeing how naturally he used the Levitation Charm.

"My grandfather hates being a squib. He always says I'm his pride. Isn't it a good thing to be accepted back into the family? The Bulstrodes are one of the twenty-eight sacred pure-blood families in the wizarding world."

Anduin couldn't quite follow the logic of Vivian's family. To him, the whole bloodline idea was nonsense. If his old family had disowned him, he wouldn't have anything to do with them again. But this girl named Vivian seemed quite proud of her heritage—and was clearly comfortable sharing all of it with a complete stranger on the train.

Just then, a commotion broke out on the platform outside the window, with people gathering quickly. From afar, it looked like an argument.

"Do you know what's going on out there, Vivian?"

"Let me take a look," she said, opening the window and sticking her head out to see.

"Looks like the Travers family on one side, and the McKinnon family on the other. I've seen them at parties my family's hosted," Vivian explained as she pulled her wind-tousled head back inside and shut the window again.

"I heard someone from the Travers family is a Death Eater, and an auror from the McKinnon side got badly hurt by them. The McKinnons believe all the Travers are loyal to Vol . . . I mean, the Dark Lord. But the Travers completely deny it. They claim it was the Death Eater acting on his own—and say it was a case of mistaken identity. They insist no one in their family is a Death Eater or anything like that," Vivian said in a low voice, her expression exaggerated.

"No way . . . How do you know so much? Didn't your family just rejoin the Bulstrodes?" Anduin asked, surprised. Not only had she recognized who was involved, she knew all the details of the drama between them.

"Since we returned to the family, the head of the Bulstrodes has taken me to visit all kinds of families. I've heard loads of stories at dinner. Let me tell you, pure-blood families are full of secrets!" Vivian looked at Anduin with an expression that seemed to say the world is more complicated than you think, her face full of mystery.

'You could just admit you love gossip', Anduin thought, trying not to smirk.

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