The altercation on the platform instantly attracted the attention of many people nearby.
Newt hurriedly stepped forward and pressed down his wife's arm.
"Don't do this, Tina. A lot of Muggles are watching us."
Tina glanced at their surroundings and unwillingly lowered the hand holding her wand.
However, the very next second, a single name spoken softly by Grindelwald instantly made Tina bristle with rage.
"Queenie Goldstein."
Queenie was Tina's younger sister, and they were incredibly close.
But because of Grindelwald, Queenie had ended up standing on the opposite side to Tina.
That name was an absolute taboo in Tina's heart—a surefire trigger that would make her explode—let alone the fact that the person lighting the fuse was Grindelwald himself, the very man who abducted Queenie.
Old man Newt managed to wrap his arms around Tina right before she could cast a hex at Grindelwald, barely preventing a murder from taking place.
Even though Grindelwald didn't have a wand in his hand right now, if a fight actually broke out, the ones dying would absolutely be them.
"Leta Lestrange."
The next second, the person being held back became Newt Scamander.
His reaction was far more agitated than Tina's had just been.
Leta Lestrange could easily be called Newt's first love; even after all these years, his affection for her remained profound.
However, in 1927, during Grindelwald's rally at the Père Lachaise Cemetery, she died under Grindelwald's Fiendfyre curse.
And she died without an intact corpse—the kind of dead where not even a pinch of ashes was left behind.
"Calm down, Newt!"
Tina desperately clamped down on Newt's hand as he prepared to draw his wand, and her son and daughter-in-law rushed forward to help hold down their old man's arm.
Rolf Scamander stood off to the side, at a complete loss for what to do.
Watching the Scamander family scrambling in chaos, the arch-villain Grindelwald smiled joyously.
As for Kyle, he couldn't bear to look at it any longer.
After giving Grindelwald a brief heads-up, he turned, walked toward the brick partition between platforms nine and ten, and quickly disappeared into the wall.
Soon after, the farce on the other side of the platform also came to an end.
After all, they were still in Muggle territory; it wouldn't be very convenient for Grindelwald to cause too massive of a scene.
He could only drop a few words of trash talk to draw some more aggro from the Scamanders.
Rolf, Kyle's future junior schoolmate, also arrived on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.
Kyle had actually waited on the other side of the platform for him for a little while.
Unexpectedly, the moment the younger boy saw him, he reacted as if he'd seen a ghost, shoving his trolley and scurrying off without a trace.
Kyle shrugged helplessly.
Because Grindelwald had wanted to wait for the Scamander family, they had lingered on the platform for quite a while.
Now, most of the compartments on the Hogwarts Express were already occupied.
Kyle had originally planned to go find Cedric.
But when Kyle found him, he discovered that Cedric and Cho Chang had occupied a compartment all to themselves and were currently being thoroughly lovey-dovey.
Never mind, he wouldn't go play the third wheel.
Five minutes before the train was set to depart, Kyle finally found an empty compartment near the rear of the train.
After sitting down on the cushioned seat, Kyle closed his eyes and leaned back to rest.
He had simply spent way too much time "cultivating immortality" late into the previous night. [Translator's Note: Chinese internet slang for staying up excessively late or pulling an all-nighter.]
Ever since mastering Shadow Magic, Kyle had discovered that any Fire Release ninjutsu cast using Shadow Magic produced black flames, remarkably similar to the Mangekyō dōjutsu, Amaterasu.
At the same time, these shadow flames carried an eroding effect, sticking to their targets like a necrotic disease.
This could be considered a common trait among the vast majority of the Dark Arts.
If he could cast the Fiendfyre curse using Shadow Magic, the resulting flames genuinely would be almost identical to Amaterasu.
Though honestly, it wasn't too far off as it was right now.
Therefore, having a bit of free time lately, Kyle had begun researching a method to unleash a "budget version of Amaterasu" using only his line of sight.
Currently, when casting fire magic, he either had to form hand seals and expel the flames from his mouth, or use his wand.
He absolutely did not want to find himself dramatically shouting "Amaterasu!" only to end up awkwardly raising a wand to cast it.
That would be way too lame.
Wizards in the magical world possessed many methods for casting magic.
European and American wizards were accustomed to using wands. Eastern wizards used magical treasures full of Xianxia flair, such as fly whisks and peach wood swords. African wizards cast spells through hand gestures, and Russian wizards used AKs...
It felt like something strange had snuck into that list.
In short, wizards had a myriad of ways to cast magic, but something like a dōjutsu—visual prowess—had yet to appear in the magical world.
Kyle had rummaged through his family's library for a long time before finally coming across a record in a book concerning magical body modification.
It stated that there were once wizards who carved magical runes into their own skin, solidifying specific spells onto them, allowing them to cast magic through their tattoos.
In addition to leaving magical tattoos on the skin, it was also possible to solidify specific spells into other body parts.
For example, the eyes.
Of course, because the eyes were one of the most fragile parts of the human body, Kyle wasn't reckless enough to just jump right in and try to modify his own eyes from the get-go.
Originally, Dumbledore had repeatedly and strictly forbidden Kyle from coming into contact with any knowledge regarding Dark Arts modifications.
Kyle also had zero intention of turning himself into a monstrosity that looked like the Two-Hole Socket Man. [Translator's Note: A mocking nickname in the Chinese fandom for Voldemort due to his flat, snake-like nose.]
However, this particular method did not fall under the category of Dark Arts modifications.
If it truly had to be categorized, it was more like a branch of alchemy.
Its essence involved treating a human being like an alchemical item: carving magical runes onto the human body to solidify magic. It wouldn't result in any side effects typically caused by Dark magic, like corrupting one's mind or lowering one's physical attractiveness.
Besides humans, it could also be applied to magical creatures, or even ordinary animals.
Although, even if magical runes were successfully carved onto ordinary animals, they wouldn't be able to activate them since they lacked the magical power within their bodies to serve as a power source.
Upon reading about such magic, Kyle was instantly and fiercely tempted.
However, human alchemy was considered a highly difficult branch of alchemy.
With Kyle's current level of proficiency in alchemy, he still had a very long way to go before he could attempt to modify his own eyes.
Therefore, Kyle shifted his primary learning focus back toward alchemy.
Naturally, his studies in Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, and other courses couldn't fall behind either.
Which was exactly why he had been pulling all-nighters grinding away recently.
On the smoothly moving Hogwarts Express, Kyle slept soundly.
He didn't even notice when Hermione and Hannah quietly entered his compartment.
Amidst Hermione and Hannah's hushed conversation, the Hogwarts Express traveled steadily toward the north.
As the train pulled further and further away from the city, the scenery outside the window became more and more interesting.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, the trolley witch pushed her cart, clattering up to the door of their compartment.
"Should we wake him up?" Hannah looked at Kyle, who was dead to the world on the opposite seat. "Kyle probably hasn't had lunch yet."
Hermione nodded. She was just about to step forward and wake Kyle when, unexpectedly, Kyle opened his eyes on his own.
In truth, he had woken up quite a while ago, but his eyelids just felt too heavy, so he had remained leaning back against the seat.
Now awake, Kyle bought a massive pile of food, and the three of them happily enjoyed their lunch.
What the three of them failed to notice as they enjoyed their meal was that in the clouds not too far from the Hogwarts Express, a familiar Ford Anglia had appeared.
And our renowned savior, Harry Potter, along with his best buddy Ron Weasley, were currently sitting right inside that car.
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