"He didn't catch the Snitch! He nearly swallowed it!"
Even after most of the students had already started leaving the stadium, Marcus Flint was still roaring furiously across the pitch.
Nobody cared.
Even if Harry had caught the Snitch with his backside, Gryffindor still received the extra hundred and fifty points.
"He looks like a baboon that lost its bananas," Ethan commented casually while walking with the others toward Hagrid's hut.
Ron immediately launched into an excited explanation for Harry.
"Snape did it! We all saw him cursing your broom. If Ethan hadn't been counter-cursing it, and Hermione hadn't set Snape on fire, you probably would've died!"
"That's nonsense," Hagrid said stubbornly. "Why would Professor Snape try ter kill Harry?"
"Maybe he had problems with Harry's father back at school," Ethan suggested helpfully, very pleased that absolutely nobody suspected him.
He did not even want to imagine Harry's expression if Quirrell ever casually revealed:
"By the way, Ethan helped me try to murder you."
"I think Dad mentioned something like that once—"
Harry suddenly froze.
"Wait. Your father knew my dad?"
The possibility of learning something about his parents instantly became more important than the attempted murder.
"Of course they knew each other," Ethan said with a shrug. "There's only one magical school in Britain. Each House has maybe ten students per year. After seven years together, it'd be stranger if they weren't friends."
Harry leaned forward eagerly.
"Did my dad ever talk about Snape?"
Unfortunately, before Ethan could invent anything entertaining, Hagrid interrupted by accidentally revealing several highly important secrets in rapid succession.
First, the three-headed dog belonged to him.
Second, the mysterious object hidden inside Hogwarts was somehow connected to a man named Nicolas Flamel.
By the time he realised what he had revealed, Hagrid looked ready to strangle himself.
The atmosphere during tea became noticeably awkward after that.
"We need to search the library," Hermione declared immediately while they walked back toward the castle later that afternoon. "If we can figure out who Nicolas Flamel is, we might learn what the dog is guarding."
"Nicolas Flamel was an alchemist," Ethan said casually.
Hermione stopped walking.
"You know who he is?"
"You didn't ask."
Ethan spread his hands innocently.
"He created the Philosopher's Stone. It's an alchemical object capable of turning metal into gold. More importantly, it can produce the Elixir of Life."
Harry blinked.
"The Elixir of Life?"
"It grants immortality," Ethan explained. "The Philosopher's Stone is basically the ultimate goal of ancient alchemy. Every alchemist wanted to create wealth and eternal life. I read about it in Alchemy Explained."
Ron stared at him in disbelief.
"You read books about alchemy for fun?"
"That's not the important part," Hermione interrupted anxiously. "The Philosopher's Stone must be unbelievably valuable. Of course someone would try to steal it."
"We have to stop them," Harry said immediately with all the confidence of someone who had already accepted his role as the protagonist of reality itself.
"Agreed," Ethan nodded seriously.
He absolutely needed to stop anyone else from stealing the Stone.
Because he intended to obtain it himself.
In fact, Ethan had already developed a fairly reasonable plan involving swallowing the Philosopher's Stone whole.
Assuming Dumbledore cooperated, of course.
After learning about the Stone, the group stopped pressuring Hagrid for more information. As a result, Hagrid gradually relaxed and convinced himself they had lost interest entirely.
Until December arrived, Harry and Ethan behaved with suspiciously perfect obedience.
Meanwhile, Ethan continued exterminating the Acromantula population inside the Forbidden Forest.
By now, only a handful of younger spiders remained alive.
Aragog had retreated deep underground with the surviving colony, hiding in ancient tunnels beneath the forest floor. Whenever Ethan approached the area, he could hear the enormous spider shrieking furiously from below.
"Kill them! Kill them all! If something must die, why not the humans?!"
Inside the Room of Requirement, the Count lay lazily beside the fireplace, barely moving.
Winter had arrived, and the ghostly owl seemed increasingly unwilling to leave warm places.
"Killing spiders isn't even entertaining anymore," Ethan said thoughtfully while staring into the flames.
"Oh?" the Count replied brightly. "Are you finally planning to hunt students and centaurs instead? Excellent. Dumbledore will definitely duel you then."
He sounded genuinely excited.
"Don't worry. You and Dumbledore are practically evenly matched."
Ethan gave him a flat stare.
"In my dreams, maybe."
"No," the Count corrected. "In your dreams, he kills you five times in five seconds."
The owl stretched comfortably before continuing.
"Speaking of promises, when are you getting me that wand? Hedwig has become increasingly difficult lately. Yesterday I saw her flirting with an ugly yellow barn owl near the sheds."
"You really have to use the word 'flirting' in front of a child?" Ethan complained.
"Fine. Cheating."
"That's worse."
Ethan rubbed his forehead.
"Wait until Christmas. I'll order one from Ollivander first. Then you can come with me to explore the old manor ruins."
The Count tilted his head curiously.
"Can an orphan technically call that 'visiting relatives'? You don't even know what you were originally created from—"
"I think your feathers need plucking," Ethan said coldly.
By mid-December, Hogwarts had become consumed by excitement for the upcoming Christmas holidays. Students spent most evenings packing trunks and discussing travel plans.
Interestingly, Draco Malfoy had almost completely stopped provoking Harry whenever Ethan was nearby.
Ethan strongly suspected Lucius Malfoy had written his son a very serious warning.
Quite a few influential people clearly knew about Ethan's existence.
What fascinated him, however, was the complete absence of records regarding himself anywhere in magical Britain.
Cornelius Fudge was apparently terrified that newspapers might publish headlines such as:
IMMORTAL DARK MAGIC EXPERIMENT DISCOVERED IN BRITAIN
Outside the castle, winter had fully arrived.
Snow several feet deep covered the grounds. The Black Lake had frozen solid beneath layers of ice, though enormous shadows still drifted beneath the surface. Occasionally the giant squid's tentacles moved under the ice like something from a nightmare.
Walking near the lake at night genuinely felt like stepping into a horror film.
After surviving the final Potions lesson before the holidays, the Gryffindor students practically blew the classroom ceiling off with cheers the moment Snape swept out of the dungeon.
Christmas had officially begun.
Naturally, Ethan's own "family visit" plan began as well.
The Count delivered Ethan's wand order to Ollivander with unprecedented efficiency. Within a single day, he had returned carrying a beautifully crafted new wand for himself.
His enthusiasm was painfully obvious.
"I've never seen you work this hard delivering my other letters," Ethan complained.
"Delivering your mail is labour," the Count replied wisely. "Buying myself a wand is self-care."
"I hate how reasonable that sounds."
Ethan allowed the Count to spend the entire night experimenting with the wand inside the Room of Requirement. Beforehand, however, he carefully removed every important object from the room to avoid accidental destruction.
The Count's spellcasting accuracy was deeply concerning.
Early the next morning, Ethan quietly joined the crowd of students departing Hogwarts for Christmas break, carrying the half-asleep owl with him.
The forms deciding whether students stayed at school or returned home were completed entirely by the students themselves. Since Ethan wanted enough time to explore the abandoned Northumberland estate properly, he had deliberately not signed up to remain at Hogwarts.
Halfway down the snowy road leading toward the train platform, Ethan slipped quietly into a small forest beside an old stone bridge.
A few moments later, he completely disappeared from the group heading toward the Hogwarts Express.
The Northumberland estate…
Could traces from ten years ago really still remain there?
....
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