Night lay black as ink over the lake, its surface gleaming with cold silver ripples beneath the moonlight.
“No more than four to a boat!” Hagrid stood on the shore, his enormous figure like a lighthouse as he directed the chattering first-years.
Morrin stepped into one of the little boats first, moving with a lightness completely at odds with his strength.
Harry and Ron followed him, and the last to climb aboard was Neville, the round-faced boy who had been searching for his toad.
“Everyone in?” Hagrid shouted from a boat he occupied entirely by himself.
“Right then…
forward!” The flotilla of little boats moved as though alive, cutting silently across the still water towards the towering cliffs ahead.
When they rounded the headland, the iconic sight finally revealed itself.
A vast castle rose from the summit of the mountain, countless towers and turrets reaching into the night sky.
Warm amber light shone from its windows, making the ancient fortress seem both mysterious and magnificent beneath the stars.
Hogwarts.
“Wow…” Harry and Ron breathed the word almost in unison.
Morrin sat at the bow, the reflection of the castle shimmering in his deep black eyes.
At that very instant, the system inside his mind erupted with a cheer unlike anything before, like a starving beggar suddenly confronted with a royal banquet.
[World Class Core High Magic Nexus detected: Hogwarts Castle!] [This is a Magical Nexus of the wizarding world, the Legacy of the Four Founders!] [Perform Daily Check-In?] Check in.
Morrin answered silently, his fingers tightening unconsciously around the side of the boat.
━━━━━ REWARDS ━━━━━ [Daily Check-In successful!] [Epic Critical triggered!] ━━━━ [Trait Acquired] 🟡 Gold | Ancient Magical Languages You can directly read runes, Old Celtic, and even portions of the draconic tongue.
To you, those obscure tomes of ancient magic will now read as easily as the morning paper.
━━━━ [Passive Skill Acquired] 🟣 Purple | Hogwarts’ Favor (Special) The castle likes you.
While inside Hogwarts, magical recovery speed increases by 50%, chance of becoming lost decreases by 90%, and chance of discovering the Room of Requirement increases by 100%.
━━━━ [Asset Acquired] 🎁 Hogwarts Board of Governors | Hidden Seat (Pending Activation) A fragment of an ancient contract.
Gather the remaining pieces and inject sufficient capital, and you will become one of the true owners of this school.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Morrin’s smile threatened to become positively outrageous.
Ancient magical languages?
That was the foundation for researching advanced magic.
Hogwarts’ Favor?
A home field advantage.
And that seat on the Board of Governors…
Now this is what I wanted to see.
Morrin gazed at the castle drawing steadily closer, making no attempt to conceal the ambition in his eyes.
In this world, there’s nothing more interesting than becoming one of the people who make the rules.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ They passed through a tunnel draped in ivy, climbed a flight of stone steps, and finally came to a halt before the castle’s enormous oak doors.
Hagrid raised one massive fist and knocked three times.
The doors swung open at once.
Professor McGonagall stood waiting behind them in emerald green robes, her expression severe.
Her hair was drawn into a tight bun, and the eyes behind her spectacles were sharp as a hawk’s.
“First-years, Professor McGonagall,” Hagrid reported.
“Thank you, Hagrid.
I’ll take them from here.” Professor McGonagall led the students across the vast entrance hall.
Flaming torches lined the stone walls, while the ceiling rose so high above them it almost disappeared into darkness.
Morrin walked near the front of the group.
As he passed Professor McGonagall, he habitually allowed his [Logical Mind Palace] to analyse her.
━━━━━ 🔍 SCAN ━━━━━ Scanning target: Minerva McGonagall [Traits detected] 🟡 Gold | Transfiguration Mastery She can turn furniture into an army and you into a teapot.
In the field of Transfiguration, she is an authority.
━━━ 🟣 Purple | Animagus (Cat) Agile, perceptive, and apparently blessed with nine lives.
━━━ 🔵 Blue | Strict Educator (Apex) Fair, but terrifying.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ An exceptionally respectable candidate for vice president.
Morrin gave her an extremely high assessment.
Professor McGonagall led them into a small empty chamber and began explaining the Sorting.
“There are four Houses at Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin…” When she mentioned Slytherin, Morrin noticed Ron pull a face beside him, while Draco Malfoy farther away puffed out his chest with obvious pride.
“While you are here, your House will be something like your family…” After the brief introduction, Professor McGonagall left.
“How do they sort us?” Harry whispered nervously to Ron.
“Is there some sort of test?
Fred said we’d have to fight a troll.” “Don’t listen to your brother’s rubbish,” Morrin cut in while straightening his cufflinks.
“If Hogwarts made eleven year olds fight trolls, its annual intake would be zero.” He paused.
“It’s merely a personality assessment.
Or, more accurately, a process of mutual selection.” At that moment, more than twenty ghosts suddenly drifted through the wall.
Their pearly, translucent bodies floated through the air.
The Fat Friar.
Nearly Headless Nick…
Several of the first-years screamed.
Morrin merely narrowed his eyes.
━━━━━ 🔍 SCAN ━━━━━ Scanning target: Group of Ghosts Analysis: Residual Soul Field ━━━ [Traits detected] 🟣 Physical Immunity 🔵 Phasing ⚪ Chilling Aura ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Assuming one didn’t mind the cold, they would make perfect surveillance cameras and an excellent intelligence network.
Morrin looked thoughtful.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ “Now, form a single line and follow me.” Professor McGonagall had returned.
The doors opened.
The magnificent Great Hall spread out before them.
Thousands of candles floated in mid air above four long tables, illuminating gleaming golden plates and goblets.
The enchanted ceiling reflected the star filled night sky outside.
“It’s bewitched to look like the sky outdoors.
I read about it in Hogwarts: A History.” Hermione whispered behind Harry, reciting from memory.
Morrin walked with the others, feeling hundreds of gazes settle upon the incoming first-years.
Unlike the children around him, he did not stare about in wonder.
His gaze remained straight ahead, his expression cool and composed.
His expensive bespoke suit and the Black Ironwood cane in his hand made him stand out sharply among a crowd of children in school robes.
At the centre of the staff table sat Albus Dumbledore, smiling as he watched the new students enter.
Morrin’s gaze briefly met the white bearded old wizard’s.
At that instant, both [Logical Mind Palace] and [Half Giant Bloodline] trembled violently within him.
Morrin felt an invisible mental force attempt to slip into his mind.
But almost immediately, it was repelled by the savage will carried within his bloodline and the higher order principles of [Origin of Alchemy].
Something flickered in Dumbledore’s eyes.
Surprise.
Then his smile deepened slightly.
Legilimency?
Morrin looked away, his heartbeat accelerating just a fraction.
As expected.
In front of the most powerful light wizard alive, no secret is entirely safe.
I’ll have to be careful around him.
The Sorting began.
A battered, patched, pointed wizard’s hat was placed upon a four legged stool.
It twitched.
A rip near its brim opened like a mouth, and it launched into the same ridiculous song it apparently sang year after year.
When it finally finished, Professor McGonagall began calling names.
“Hannah Abbott!” “Hufflepuff!” “Susan Bones!” “Hufflepuff!” “Hermione Granger!” Hermione hurried forwards nervously.
The hat had barely touched her head before it shouted, “GRYFFINDOR!” The line steadily shortened.
Morrin watched Draco Malfoy walk forwards.
The Sorting Hat had scarcely brushed his pale blond hair before it cried, “SLYTHERIN!” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Hidden_Quill Thank you so much for reading!