Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 18 King's Cross Railway Station

His plan is simple.

Find an opportunity to get close to Hagrid and switch the Philosopher's Stone with his.

The months of homelessness that followed her leaving the orphanage honed Tiera's skills in thievery and lock picking.

Tierra was confident that if she could put her hand inside Hagrid's leather jacket pocket, he could switch the Philosopher's Stone without anyone noticing.

Hagrid is a kind, righteous, and trusting half-giant.

This gave him an opportunity to exploit.

Tierra will inoculate herself with the plague worms, and the kind-hearted Hagrid will certainly not stand idly by while Tierra suffers. With his half-giant height, even if Tierra doesn't mention it, he will definitely carry Tierra to a doctor.

And that was indeed the case. Hagrid picked him up without hesitation and headed straight for St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Injuries.

Tierra's hands and feet were cold, so he instinctively sought warmth, which gave him an excuse to put his hands inside Hagrid's coat.

It took Hagrid twenty minutes to get from Diagon Alley to St. Mungo's Hospital for the Magical Injuries.

Twenty minutes is enough time for Tiera to switch the magic stone ten times over.

When they arrived at St. Mungo's Hospital for the Injuries of Magic and Wounds, the real Philosopher's Stone had already been placed in the inner pocket that Tiera had sewn herself, but the only problem was that he couldn't perfectly restore the package containing the Philosopher's Stone.

So when Hagrid covered him with his coat, Tiera deliberately pushed out the fake Philosopher's Stone package hidden inside Hagrid's clothes, in order to use the falling of the Philosopher's Stone to cover up the fact that the package was slightly different from the original packaging.

After all, the magic stone wasn't originally wrapped very securely. It's reasonable and logical that the paper wrapping it and the rope binding it shifted slightly after it fell to the ground and rolled a few times.

To cover up her fingerprints, Tierra had applied solid glue to all nine of her fingers this morning.

This is a technique he learned from Detective Conan.

At the time, I just thought the method was interesting, so I memorized it.

I never imagined I'd actually use it in another world.

Then he deliberately slowed down the pet selection process, just to keep Hagrid in the noisy, dimly lit owl house a little longer.

In this way, even if Dumbledore did discover that the Philosopher's Stone had been switched, his first suspicion would definitely be that another wizard had used the environment of the Owl House to commit the theft, rather than a first-year wizard who was suffering from the plague and was about to die.

The plan was perfect, but the only uncertainty was the unusual situation of his choice of the wand.

Tierra wasn't sure how important this anomaly was to Dumbledore, or whether it would lead him to connect it to the theft of the Philosopher's Stone.

Now Tiera can only wait and see. After placing the Philosopher's Stone in the library, Tiera doesn't plan to come back before the start of the semester.

For the next month, he had to try his best to appear like a normal incoming first-year student, so as not to give himself away if Dumbledore actually came knocking on his door.

Tiera felt no remorse whatsoever for stealing the Philosopher's Stone, except towards Hagrid.

Since this Philosopher's Stone will be destroyed after a year of being shelved at Hogwarts anyway, I might as well intercept it and keep it for my own use.

It is unlikely to have any impact on the later plot.

If it really causes any negative impact...

Natyera immediately packed his bags and left. He still had relatives in his homeland, so even if he went bankrupt to buy a plane ticket, it wouldn't be a loss. He had some money to spare anyway, and he could earn it back quickly.

Tiera was very clear about his own position. In the magical world, he was just a powerless nobody whose only advantage was his knowledge of the future and that library.

If the future takes a major, unpredictable turn, he will definitely turn around and leave.

Learning magic may be appealing, but it's far less important than my own life.

Voldemort and his Death Eaters are a bunch of lunatics; they might turn on you at any time.

Tiera hid the Philosopher's Stone in an obsidian box inside a drawer of the library's wooden table.

This was originally the box used to hold Merlin's unfinished product.

Then Tiera didn't linger for a second longer, chanted the spell, and went back to her bed.

Raven was placed on the first floor, so nothing that happened there disturbed any life.

The next morning, after washing up and having breakfast, Tiera, like a child just entering the magical world for the first time, began to read her spellbook, herbalist book, and potion book.

Although he was confident that he was better than other young wizards of the same age, he was, after all, an untrained amateur who had not received proper education and training. He could use this month to preview the courses and prepare for his future basic studies.

A month passed quickly. In contrast to the unpleasantness on Harry's side, Tyella had a very fulfilling time.

He would occasionally perform magic tricks on the street to earn some extra money. Given his young appearance, Londoners were generally very generous with his money, enough to cover his food for a month.

Tiera spent the rest of her time training Raven and studying first-year magic.

The thing Tyella feared did not happen. He had a very peaceful month. It was unclear whether Dumbledore had failed to notice that the Philosopher's Stone had been switched or had noticed but chose not to elaborate.

A month later, Tyrell and Harry met at the entrance of King's Cross Station at 10:10, as previously agreed.

Harry arrived a little early, since he was traveling to London with the Dursleys and couldn't control his own time.

“Tierra, do you know... where Platform Nine and Three-Quarters is?” Harry looked at the pass in his hand repeatedly. He and Tierra had searched the entire train station platform, but still couldn’t find Platform Nine and Three-Quarters written on the pass.

"I don't know," Tierra replied indifferently, glancing at the time and then at the surrounding crowd, seemingly trying to find the group of red-haired Weasleys in the crowd.

“But we can wait here,” Tierra said. “It’s the first day of school, and there will definitely be other wizarding children going to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. We can just follow them.”

No sooner had Tiera finished speaking than a group of people hurried past them.

“...Of course there are a lot of Muggles here…” A high-pitched and urgent voice reached Tyella and Harry’s ears at the same time.

Muggle!

Tierra and Harry were delighted and turned around at the same time. They saw that the speaker was a short, plump woman with curly blonde hair. She looked very strong and spoke in a loud voice. She strode forward and talked to a red-haired boy behind her.

The four boys with fiery red hair, except for one who looked about the same age as Harry and Tyrell and had a round, chubby face, the other three were pushing suitcases like Harry's—with a birdcage on top of their suitcases, and an owl inside the cage.

Harry and Tyrell exchanged a glance and quickly pushed their own carts toward the family that appeared to be wizards.

“Okay, which platform is it?” the children’s mother asked.

"Nine!" A little girl with fiery red hair held her mother's hand and shouted in a high-pitched voice, "Mommy, Mommy, I want to go too."

“You’re too young, Ginny. Now, don’t talk. Percy, you go first.”

The boy who looked the oldest walked towards the area between platforms nine and ten.

Harry stared intently at him, not daring to blink, for fear of missing something. But just as the boy reached the junction of Platforms 9 and 10, a large group of passengers suddenly surged in front of Harry. When the last large canvas backpack was moved aside, the boy had vanished.

“Fred, it’s your turn,” the fat woman said.

“I’m not Fred, I’m George,” the boy said. “Honestly, you say you’re our mother, so why don’t you recognize me as George?”

"I'm sorry, George, darling."

“Just kidding, I am Fred.” The boy said and walked away, while his twin brother urged him on from behind. He must have listened, because he disappeared in the blink of an eye—but how did he do that?
At that moment, the third brother, the youngest-looking round-faced wizard, also started walking towards the ticket gate...

“Excuse me, madam,” Tierra said, stepping forward to the plump lady. “Are you going to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters? It’s Harry and I’m going to Hogwarts for the first time, and we don’t know how to get there.”

“Oh, my little darling,” said the plump lady. “Don’t worry, my little Ron is a newborn too.”

She pointed to her last and youngest son.

The child was thin and tall, but had a chubby round face that made him look clumsy. He had freckles all over his face, big hands, big feet, and a long nose.

“But, how…” Harry asked.

"How do we get there?" Mrs. Weasley asked understandingly, and Harry and Tyrell quickly nodded.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “Just keep walking straight toward the ticket gate between platforms nine and ten. Don’t stop, don’t be afraid, just keep going toward the pillars, that’s important. If you’re nervous, just jog, um… Come on, Ron, you go first, set a good example for the two little ones.”

After saying that, Mrs. Weasley patted Ron on the back.

"Oh, okay, okay." Ron said, pushing his bike and jogging along, staring intently at the ticket gate ahead. He quickened his pace, running faster and faster, while Tyella and Harry kept their eyes glued to the back of Ron's head.

Ron suddenly disappeared in front of the pillar, followed by Harry and Tyella who rushed in.

Through a brief darkness, Tiera arrived at a noisy, chaotic platform.

A deep red steam locomotive was parked beside the crowded platform, and a sign on the train read:

The Hogwarts Express, 11:00

Tierra looked back and saw that the place where the ticket gate used to be had now become a wrought iron archway with the words "Platform 9 3/4" written on it.

(End of this chapter)