148: Chapter 148 Station View

"Someone is watching you."

As the train came to a stop, Nott's voice came from behind Allen.

The steam at King's Cross Station had yet to dissipate, and students were pushing their way out, dragging their trunks. Owl cages bumped against the aisle, parents waved from afar, and the Weasley Family's red hair was particularly conspicuous in the crowd.

Allen picked up his empty trunk. "Two Wizard gazes."

Draco stood at the carriage door, his expression even stiffer than it had been on the train. "Where?"

"To the left of the newsstand, by the Muggle warning sign." Nott blocked half his face with a book. "The other is behind the glass door at the exit; the color of their cloak is too ordinary, which makes it stand out."

Zabini squeezed out from behind, his trunk bumped by Crabbe. "Ministry of Magic?"

"One looks like it." Allen got off the train. "The other doesn't."

Pansy followed beside him, lowering her voice. "Dumbledore's people?"

Allen didn't answer.

On the platform, Lucius Malfoy was already waiting in the distance. He was wearing formal robes, his cane gripped in his palm, and Narcissa was not by his side. His silver hair was combed neatly, but his face was stiffer than the snake head on his cane.

Draco saw his father and paused for a moment.

Lucius's gaze passed over Draco, lingered near Allen for half a second, then shifted away as if he hadn't seen anything. He didn't greet him, nor did he nod, just extended a hand to signal Draco to come over.

Draco gripped the handle of his trunk tightly.

Zabini said softly: "He didn't look at you."

Draco gritted his teeth. "I saw it."

Pansy wanted to speak, but was nudged by the corner of Nott's book.

Draco walked two steps, then turned back to look at Allen. "Letters over the summer break."

"Ordinary owls."

"I remember." Draco lifted his chin, putting back on the shell of the young master of the Malfoy Family. He walked up to Lucius and called him Father.

Lucius didn't respond, turned around, and walked away.

Draco followed, his back straight. But the silver button on his cuff was clenched in his palm, its edge pressing into his skin.

Zabini watched the father and son disappear behind the crowd. "The Malfoy Family dinner will be very unpleasant this year."

Pansy replied in a low voice: "At least they have silver tableware."

Nott turned a page, pretending to read. "Silver tableware can't block interrogations."

Allen withdrew his gaze from Lucius's back.

The first surveillance gaze followed the father and son for a moment, then returned to him. The person by the newsstand was buying a Muggle newspaper, their hat brim pulled low, their gloves too clean.

The second gaze came from behind the glass door. That person was standing in the Muggle crowd, holding a train ticket, but the corner of the ticket was pressed too flat by magic.

"They aren't getting closer." Zabini said.

"Observers." Allen walked out, carrying his trunk. "Not operatives."

"How do you tell?"

"Operatives would look at the exit first."

Nott nodded and noted this sentence on the edge of the page.

Pansy frowned when she saw it. "You're writing this down too?"

"It's useful."

"Will you take notes when you get married in the future?"

Zabini looked at her immediately. "Don't ask about the Nott Family wedding procedures; it sounds like an interrogation."

Nott closed the book. "The Zabini Family is even more complicated."

"That's called social resources." Zabini corrected.

While they were talking, Harry walked out from the Gryffindor side. Mrs. Weasley hugged Ginny, and Ron dragged his trunk, complaining that Scabbers had bitten his sweater again. The fake rat poked its head out of his pocket, gnawing on a treacle tart, completely unaware of the great fate it carried.

Harry stood next to the Weasley Family and suddenly turned back to look at Allen.

His lips moved.

Allen paused for a step.

Harry seemed to want to ask about the silver light in the Chamber of Secrets, wanted to ask about the night of the Philosopher's Stone, wanted to ask about the erased memories. But Mrs. Weasley was calling him to get into the car, Ginny's face was still a bit pale, and Ron was urging him to hurry.

In the end, Harry just raised his hand and waved.

Allen didn't wave back, just nodded.

Before Harry was taken away by the Weasley Family, he looked at him again. That look hid many questions, and also a bit of unspoken stubbornness.

Pansy frowned watching this. "Potter will come to ask sooner or later."

"He already has." Nott said.

"Then why does he keep asking?"

"A Gryffindor specialty." Zabini put his trunk down by his feet. "Hit a wall, back up, and hit it again."

Hermione stood on the other side. The Granger parents had come to pick her up; they looked quite normal, holding Muggle car keys. Hermione clutched her school bag, her parents were asking about school meals, but she didn't look back at her parents.

She was looking at Allen.

That gaze moved from his empty trunk to his cuffs, then stopped at the old scar near his left knuckles. She didn't walk over, but half a piece of parchment was sticking out of her school bag's outer pocket, as if ready to be pulled out for questioning at any moment.

Allen looked at her across the crowd.

Hermione looked away first and turned to say something to her parents. The Granger parents nodded with a smile, completely unaware that their daughter had just completed a silent interrogation at the station.

Nott said in a low voice: "Her level of suspicion has increased."

"She suspected him before." Pansy retorted.

"Before she suspected the silver light; now she suspects Allen."

Zabini sighed. "Granger is much more useful after waking up than Lockhart was before he fell unconscious."

Pansy looked at him. "That's really mean."

"Facts are sometimes impolite."

Allen continued walking toward the exit. Inside the Portable Space, the void silver eyes flickered, the tip of the tail pressing on the four words "Hermione's investigation," then moving toward "Order of the Phoenix possibility." Peter shrank in his cage, and after hearing the noisy sounds of the station, he tried to burrow into the corner.

The second gaze behind the glass door moved.

That person didn't follow closely, just changed their standing posture, looking down at the ticket like a Muggle waiting for a train. But Allen clearly felt a wisp of magic skirting around the luggage carts along the Muggle crowd, trying to confirm his whereabouts.

"Don't look back." Allen said.

Zabini was already about to turn his head, but was stopped by this sentence. "I'm not that stupid."

Pansy snorted coldly. "Your neck already moved just now."

Nott stuffed his book into a gap in his trunk. "I will exit from the other side to confirm if there is a third person."

"Don't confirm." Allen crossed the exit line. "Let them think we didn't notice."

Nott stopped his movement. "Understood."

Outside the station, Muggle cars honked, and the air was full of the scent of summer vacation. But the Wizard gazes were still stuck to his back, like an uncut thread.

Zabini's mother sent a car to pick him up, and people from the Pansy family also arrived. Nott was the last to leave, and he handed an old book to Allen.

"There are public clippings of the old Black case in the interlayer." Nott said. "Keep it even if it's useless."

"You can find loopholes even in public information." Allen took it.

Nott tapped the book cover with his fingertips. "See you in the third year."

Allen carried his empty trunk through the Muggle crowd.

No one knew that there was nothing in the trunk. His real luggage, the Basilisk fangs, the diary fragments, Peter, the cracked pocket watch, and a whole year's worth of secrets were all in the invisible space beside him.

The two gazes behind him did not follow past the street corner.

Allen walked deep into the crowd, his figure swallowed by the flow of Muggle traffic.

Inside the Portable Space, the void looked up.

The gold patterns on the north side were quiet, but the cracked pocket watch chimed softly.