"Harry Potter."
Quirrell approached, looking both excited and nervous. His words came out in a stammer.
"I c-can’t begin to express what an honour this is."
"Hello, Professor. Nearly didn’t see you there," Hagrid said before making the introduction. "Harry, this is Professor Quirrell. He teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts."
"Pleased to meet you."
Harry held out his right hand.
Quirrell looked overwhelmed by the gesture. He clasped his hands together, too uneasy to shake Harry’s hand.
"A fascinating and frightening subject," Quirrell mumbled, deliberately ignoring Harry’s outstretched hand. "Not that you need to learn it, eh, Potter?"
"Well, we’d better be going. Lots to buy," Hagrid said with a laugh.
"Goodbye."
Hagrid led Harry past the bar and toward the small courtyard that opened into Diagon Alley.
"Master," Quirrell whispered under his breath, "I, I think the person you sensed earlier may have been Harry Potter."
This time, Voldemort did not dismiss the possibility.
Ten years ago, he had failed to kill the boy. Instead, his body had been destroyed, leaving him to cling to life like a wandering spirit.
Now that they had met again after ten years, it would not be surprising if he had sensed something unusual in advance.
"Master, I don’t understand. Why did you stop me just now?"
"He is still protected by that ancient magic. I cannot touch him, and since I am attached to you, neither can you.
But once I obtain that object, I will be able to rebuild my body and return to life."
Quirrell nodded without fully understanding and returned to his usual timid manner.
Meanwhile, Vade returned to his room and changed into dry clothes.
A faint sense of urgency had taken hold of him.
Keeping a low profile and quietly building his strength was important, but having the power to protect himself was just as essential.
A single glance from Quirrell had made his skin crawl and nearly caused him to reveal himself. Had Vade been strong enough, he would not have been reduced to such a sorry state.
He might even have dared to glare back.
But at present, he was still insignificant.
He had a long way to go before he could truly call himself powerful.
"Besides studying magic, I need to begin acting as a Clown and digesting the potion ahead of schedule," Vade thought as he focused his attention on the Card of Blasphemy.
Although his performance moments ago had been rather undignified, it had still helped him digest a small portion of the Clown potion.
There was something else that concerned him.
When he shook hands with Harry Potter, the Card of Blasphemy had also reacted.
Harry Potter’s blood could apparently substitute for one of the supplementary ingredients of the Sequence 5 potion.
The protagonist truly lived up to his reputation.
A Sequence 5 supplementary ingredient was worth one thousand Galleons, more than twice Vade’s entire fortune.
He felt slightly guilty about it, but he had already made up his mind.
In the future, he would have to find some way to make the Boy Who Lived shed a little more blood.
As the days passed, Vade began preparing for the start of term.
In addition to packing everything on the Hogwarts list into his trunk, he bought a deck of tarot cards. Finally, he checked out of the Leaky Cauldron with Tom.
Of the fifty Galleons he had paid in advance, only three Galleons and fourteen Sickles remained by the day before term began.
Combined with the money he already had on hand, he possessed fewer than seventy Galleons in total.
Vade felt an urge to visit Gringotts and withdraw more money, but after considering it carefully, he suppressed the thought.
The Sequence 8 potion could not be fully digested in a short period of time. Until then, there was no point in carrying more money because he had nowhere useful to spend it.
Besides, Hogwarts had holidays.
He could always return to Gringotts during a school break without wasting much time.
September 1st.
After breakfast, Vade took his trunk and travelled to King’s Cross Station.
After getting out of the taxi, he followed the crowds through the station, passing one platform after another until he reached the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten.
Just then, he saw a couple and a young girl walk straight through the dividing wall.
The people around them appeared not to notice anything at all.
"Found it."
Vade murmured with faint excitement and walked directly toward the barrier.
The solid wall seemed not to exist.
Vade passed through a moment of darkness, then emerged on the other side.
A deep scarlet steam engine stood beside the platform. A sign on it read:
Hogwarts Express, Eleven O’Clock.
The place where the barrier had been was now a wrought-iron archway, with a sign above it displaying Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.
Thick smoke drifted over the crowd. Conversations mingled with the rumble of trunks being dragged across the platform, creating a tremendous din.
Vade looked at the older students and his future classmates without the slightest ripple of emotion.
He boarded the train directly and found an empty compartment.
After putting away his trunk, he sat down, stretched, and quietly admired the view outside.
At that moment, a sudden impulse struck him.
He took out his tarot cards.
Since it was his first day of school, it seemed appropriate to perform a divination for himself.
After shuffling and cutting the deck, he drew three cards according to his intuition and placed them in a row.
The result was thought-provoking.
A hopeful beginning, but with the possibility of an unexpected event that could cause matters to slip beyond his control.
"Divination isn’t infallible," Vade said casually.
As a qualified fortune-teller, he had every right to believe only the part he wished to believe.
A hopeful beginning, with no unexpected events.
"Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?"
A familiar voice came from the doorway.
Vade instinctively turned his head and suddenly felt the Clown potion digest a little further.
Oversized clothes, broken spectacles, and a conspicuous scar on his forehead.
Who else could it be but Harry Potter?
"You’re..."
Harry thought for several seconds before a smile suddenly appeared on his face.
"Moria."
No, I’m not.
Don’t come in here. Turn around and leave!
Vade screamed inwardly.
Before he could think of an excuse to send Harry away, however, the boy carried his trunk into the compartment and casually sat opposite him.
Now Vade could hardly say anything.
"I didn’t expect to see you here," Harry said happily.
Finding someone familiar aboard the train made him feel remarkably fortunate.
Although he was the famous saviour of the wizarding world, Harry himself felt that he hardly deserved the reputation.
His unfamiliarity with both magic and the wizarding world left him with an unconscious sense of inferiority.
Being with someone he already knew allowed him to relax.
"I, I didn’t expect it either."
A smile appeared on Vade’s face, though inwardly he wanted to weep.
He had overdone his performance at the Leaky Cauldron.
He had brought this entirely upon himself.
Divination might not be infallible, but it was still disturbingly accurate.
What had he done to deserve sharing a compartment with Harry Potter?
Now he could only hope that nothing went wrong during the Sorting Ceremony.
Above all else, he must not be placed in Gryffindor.
"Tarot cards. Were you performing a divination?"
"Yes."
Vade did not deny it. He merely gathered the tarot cards and put them away.
"I have some talent for divination."
(To be continued.)