"Harry? Harry Potter—you mean, that Harry Potter???"
Ron looked at Dudley in shock.
"Uh…" Dudley looked at Harry; he thought Harry had already introduced himself to Ron.
"He just came in," Harry said helplessly.
Dudley shrugged, casually picked up the sleeping cat next to him, placed it on his lap, and started petting it.
The startled cat looked at Dudley with a bewildered expression, even seeming to question its feline existence.
"You… you are Harry Potter, aren't you?" Ron finally realized who the bespectacled little boy sitting in front of him was.
"Yes, I am Harry Potter," Harry said with a smile and a nod.
"Then you really… I mean…"
Ron pointed to his own forehead.
"Oh, yes."
Harry generously lifted his hair, allowing Ron to see the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.
"You're from a Wizard family, right? I saw your family when I entered the station earlier," Harry said.
The Weasley family was really easy to recognize; they all had red hair. Harry had only glanced at them earlier but had remembered them instantly.
"Yes, our whole family are Wizards. Our Weasley family is considered an ancient Wizard family. Oh, by the way, one of my mom's distant cousins seems to be an accountant; we don't really keep in touch with him," Ron said.
The friendship between boys often sparks strong interest in each other with just a few words.
"Then you must know a lot of Magic, right?" Harry asked, a little excited.
"I heard you later lived with Muggles. How are they?" Ron also asked at the same time.
"Uh… not bad," Harry glanced at Dudley beside him.
If it had been the old Dudley, he would definitely have said it was awful and even complained bitterly.
But now, there was no need for that.
"Oh, I forgot, he's your cousin," Ron looked at Dudley awkwardly.
"Could you tell us about Hogwarts? We're not very familiar with the school yet," Dudley said with a smile.
"No problem."
Ron immediately said.
"Hogwarts is the best Magic school in the world, I think so. The school is divided into four Houses: Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and Slytherin."
"Each House has its own criteria for selecting students, but I don't know exactly how they do it. My brother told me there's some kind of test, and it's said to be quite hard on the students," Ron introduced.
Upon hearing this, a hint of worry appeared on Harry's face.
If the test was difficult, what if he couldn't pass? He had never been exposed to Magic since childhood, and only started reading books this past month. He hadn't even tried many spells. What if no House wanted him then? That would be too embarrassing.
"Those two twins are your brothers, right?" Dudley suddenly asked.
"Ah, yes, you've seen them?" Ron asked, a little surprised.
"Mm, I saw them joking with your sister earlier. I think you shouldn't believe everything they tell you," Dudley said.
Those two twins obviously liked to play pranks, so it was perfectly normal for them to fool their younger brother.
"Alright, I don't believe what they say either," Ron nodded.
Ron continued their previous conversation, moving from the Houses of Hogwarts to Quidditch, the most popular sport in the Black Magic World, and various strange and wondrous things from the Black Magic World.
These were all things that couldn't be found in books, all stemming from Ron's life.
Dudley and Harry listened with great interest.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and a round-faced boy walked in, his eyes filled with tears.
"Excuse me for interrupting, have you seen my toad?"
The boy asked.
"No, we haven't," Ron shook his head.
"Alright, thank you."
The boy turned and left the compartment, closing the carriage door.
"Toads as pets went out of fashion years ago. If I had a toad pet, I'd wish it would run away as fast as possible."
After Ron finished speaking, he pulled a sleeping rat out of his pocket.
"This is Scabbers. He's my brother's old pet rat; now he's mine."
Ron's ears were a little red.
"He just eats and sleeps all day. Sometimes I don't even know if he's dead or alive."
Dudley glanced at the shedding rat, his brow furrowing slightly.
He felt there was something different about this rat; there seemed to be a faint, almost imperceptible evil aura.
"Can I see your rat?" Dudley said.
He wanted to observe the rat up close.
For him to sense a hint of evil aura, it meant this rat might not be simple. Although it might just be his imagination, Dudley wasn't willing to let go of such a feeling.
"Oh, okay."
Without much thought, Ron was about to hand Scabbers to Dudley.
Squeak, squeak, squeak…
Suddenly, the sleeping rat began to struggle violently, simultaneously letting out frantic squeaks.
"Scabbers, what are you doing?"
Ron was startled and quickly tightened his grip on the rat.
"He's probably afraid of cats," Harry said.
Dudley was petting his pet cat at the moment, so the rat probably noticed the cat and started struggling violently.
"Alright, alright, I'm not going to feed you to the cat, stop squeaking."
Ron soothed Scabbers and put him back into his pocket.
"Sorry," Ron said to Dudley.
"It's fine, I forgot I had a cat here," Dudley said.
But at the same time, his gaze went to Ron's pocket.
He always felt that this rat was unusual.
Dudley blinked slightly, activating his spiritual vision.
"Oh? Extraordinary creature?"
Under Dudley's spiritual vision, he saw a faint glow emanating from Ron's pocket, which meant there was something spiritual present there.
"A magical species?" Dudley speculated.
He wasn't sure if such a pet had problems beyond the normal scope, as he wasn't very familiar with the animals of the Magic World yet.
Perhaps it was just a rat with some kind of magical species bloodline.
The evil aura didn't explain much; it might just be that it had picked up the aura of something else, or it itself possessed the bloodline of an evil magical species. All of these would require Dudley to have a certain understanding of the species in the entire Black Magic World before he could make a judgment.
"I'll find an opportunity to take a closer look later," Dudley thought to himself, making a mental note of the matter.
At the same time.
In Ron's pocket, the rat Scabbers trembled slightly.
There was a hint of terror in his bright black eyes.