’ Morrin drew a deep breath and stepped through the archway.
If the Leaky Cauldron had merely been the reception desk at the entrance, then this place was the real treasure vault.
There was no simple admiration in his gaze now.
His eyes gleamed with the greed and excitement of a predator entering untouched hunting grounds.
Traits were everywhere.
Even a goblin passing by might possess ‘Metal Sense.’ Even an owl sitting in a shop window might have ‘Night Vision.’ “Mr Hagrid.” Morrin suddenly stopped.
One hand slipped into his trouser pocket, his fingers brushing against the pouch of Galleons he had just received.
“I think we ought to visit Gringotts and sort out our money first.
But before that…” He pointed towards Madame Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions not far away, then turned towards Harry, who was still worrying whether the pounds in his battered old wallet would be enough.
A distinctly capitalist smile appeared on Morrin’s face.
“If we’re starting school, we ought to look the part.
I certainly don’t intend to meet the goblins in a suit full of broken glass.
Harry, consider this a welcome gift for my new classmate.” Harry blinked.
“But I can’t—” “Don’t refuse, Mr Potter.” Morrin casually scooped several gleaming Galleons from his pocket and tossed them into the air.
They struck one another with a crisp, pleasant chime beneath the sunlight.
“In my world, we call this an angel investment.” Madame Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions was a squat little shop with robes of every sort filling its windows.
“Listen, Harry, Mr White.” Hagrid pointed somewhat sheepishly back towards the Leaky Cauldron.
“I need a little pick-me-up.
All that…
er…
business earlier took a bit out of me.
You two go in and get measured.
I’ll be back in a minute.” Apparently Morrin’s magical outburst, followed by the approaching wail of Muggle police sirens, had shaken Hagrid badly enough that he urgently needed a Firewhisky to steady his nerves.
“Of course, Mr Hagrid.” Morrin smiled.
“We can look after ourselves.” Once Hagrid had disappeared, Morrin pushed open the shop door.
A bell gave a bright ting overhead.
“Hogwarts, dears?
Come in, come in.” Madame Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed in mauve robes.
“I’ve got several young people being fitted at the moment.” In the back of the shop, a pale boy with a pointed chin stood upon a footstool while a witch pinned up the hem of his black robes.
Morrin’s gaze swept over him.
Pale blond hair.
An immaculate posture.
And an arrogance that seemed to seep from his very bones.
Draco Malfoy.
Morrin made no move to introduce himself.
Instead, he quietly led Harry to the neighbouring footstool.
Madame Malkin slipped a robe over Harry and began taking his measurements.
“Hullo,” Malfoy drawled, turning his head.
His grey blue eyes travelled lazily over Harry and Morrin.
“Hogwarts too?” “Yes,” Harry answered somewhat awkwardly.
“My father’s next door buying my books and Mother’s up the street looking at wands,” Malfoy said in a bored voice.
“Then I’m going to drag them off to look at racing brooms.
I don’t see why first-years aren’t allowed their own.
I think I’ll make Father buy me one and smuggle it in somehow.” Harry listened with a blank expression, his discomfort becoming increasingly obvious.
Morrin, meanwhile, quietly adjusted his cufflinks.
His dark eyes were watching Malfoy’s reflection in the mirror as the system interface silently unfolded before him.
━━━━━ 🔍 SCAN ━━━━━ Scanning target: Draco Malfoy [Traits detected] 🟣 Purple | Flying Talent The boy genuinely has a gift for broomsticks.
He was born to be a Seeker.
━━━ 🔵 Blue | Pure Blood Magic Circuit Generations of wizarding blood have made his magic more stable than that of a half-blood.
That is about all it does.
━━━ ⚪ White | Arrogance A common affliction among spoilt young masters.
No extraction value whatsoever.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Purple Flying Talent?
Morrin’s interest stirred.
He had little enthusiasm for the high risk sport of flying through the sky astride a length of wood, but in a world where transportation seemed largely dependent upon flying, this was obviously an extremely useful ability.
Just then, Malfoy turned his attention towards Morrin.
Compared with Harry in his ill fitting second hand clothes, Morrin, with his slightly dirty Savile Row suit and Patek Philippe on his wrist, was clearly far more interesting to him.
“What about you?” Malfoy lifted his chin towards Morrin.
“You don’t look like someone that great oaf picked up.
What family are you from?” In Malfoy’s world, any child who could afford clothes that refined was almost certainly the young heir of some pure blood family.
Morrin smiled faintly and turned towards him, extending a hand.
“White.
Morrin White.” His voice was calm and polished, carrying the effortless presence of someone who had spent years across negotiating tables from powerful adults.
“My family runs a few modest businesses.
Mostly energy, property, and international finance.” “White?” Malfoy frowned and made no move to take his hand.
“Never heard of them.
Are you pure blood?” Harry watched the exchange nervously from beside them.
Morrin withdrew his hand as naturally as though nothing had happened.
There was no trace of embarrassment on his face.
Instead, he regarded Malfoy with the tolerant look one might give a child who simply hadn’t learnt better yet.
“Blood?” Morrin gave a soft laugh, as though Malfoy had just said something amusing.
“Where I come from, we’re more accustomed to judging a person’s standing by their balance sheet and influence.” He paused.
“But when in Rome…” Morrin abruptly stepped forwards, moving too quickly for Malfoy to react.
He reached up and straightened an entirely nonexistent crease in the collar of Malfoy’s robe.
“Your collar was crooked, Mr Malfoy.
Hardly proper for a gentleman.” The instant his fingertips brushed the skin of Malfoy’s neck— ━━━━━ EXTRACT ━━━━━ [Contact successful] Extracting Trait: 🟣 Purple | Flying Talent Base Probability: 15% Random Number Roll: 14 ━━━ [Extraction successful] 🟣 Purple | Fying Talent acquired!
You could ride a vacuum cleaner and still pull off a Cobra manoeuvre in mid air.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Morrin’s smile deepened.
Not bad.
The RNG gods were certainly smiling on him today.
Malfoy recoiled as though he had been burned.
A flush appeared on his pale face, born entirely of offended anger.
“What are you doing?
Who said you could touch me?” “Merely offering a friendly reminder.” Morrin calmly returned to his footstool.
By then, Madame Malkin had finished measuring Harry.
“Who’s that?
That enormous fellow?” Apparently eager to recover some ground, Malfoy suddenly pointed through the window at Hagrid, who was approaching with two ice creams in his hands.
A mocking expression spread across his face.
“I’ve seen him before.
He’s some sort of servant at Hogwarts.” “He’s the gamekeeper,” Harry shot back.
He had already grown quite fond of Hagrid.
“Whatever you like.
I heard he’s a complete savage.
Lives in a hut on the school grounds, gets drunk every so often, tries doing magic, and ends up setting fire to his own bed.” Malfoy gave a disdainful sniff.
“No idea why Hogwarts keeps people like that around.” His lip curled.
“And then there are all those Muggle borns getting in.
It’s practically an invasion.
Don’t you think, White?” He was clearly trying to enlist Morrin, the other boy who looked ‘rich’, as one of his own kind.
By then Morrin had stepped down from his footstool.
He walked over to Harry and gave the trembling boy a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
Then he turned towards Malfoy.
His gaze was utterly cold, as though he were evaluating a piece of merchandise that had been sitting unsold for far too long.
“Mr Malfoy, allow me to offer you a piece of business advice.” Morrin slowly reached inside his jacket, pulled out the heavy pouch of golden Galleons, and dropped it onto the counter.
THUD.
The weighty impact made Malfoy’s eyelid twitch.
“I may not understand this pride you place in so called pure blood, but in the adult world, speaking carelessly about someone else’s friends is considered exceptionally poor breeding.” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Hidden_Quill Thank you so much for reading!