Hogwarts Raven (Harry Potter)

You can read ahead up to 110 chapters on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395

The Sorting Hat's voice was as loud and booming as ever. Apart from Albus Dumbledore, whose body slightly leaned forward in response… Professor McGonagall and the other professors didn't show much change in expression.

They simply gave Harry Potter a few more glances but made no comment about him being sorted into Slytherin House.

Even Professor Lockhart merely looked at Harry with mild curiosity before turning back to enthusiastically chat with Professor Newt Scamander, seated beside him.

Yes, this year, not only did the great Nicholas Flamel continue serving as Professor of Alchemy, but Newt Scamander, the world-renowned expert in magical creatures, also joined Hogwarts.

He would be teaching Care of Magical Creatures as a third-year elective. As for the previous professor… Well, they had ended up in St. Mungo's intensive care ward for the most classic reason that befalls Care of Magical Creatures professors.

According to school gossip—

During last term's craze about a rumored Dragon sighting in the Forbidden Forest, the previous professor went in alone out of curiosity… and there wasn't much to say after that.

For the final weeks of last term, third years had no magical creatures class at all.

Ian had only found out when he bumped into Newt in the corridor some time ago.

"Professor Scamander, I've admired you for such a long time… I've been hearing your legendary stories since I was little!" Let's just say Professor "Lockhart" was laying it on thick.

He seemed more like he was teasing the mildly socially anxious new professor than sincerely complimenting him. Compared to the famous Boy Who Lived, this fraudulent author was clearly more interested in the new hire.

He called it admiration, but Ian suspected it was more like fixation.

Meanwhile, inside Harry Potter's mind, the Sorting Hat spoke again before he removed it, its tone firm: "Perhaps something else is influencing my judgment. But without a doubt, you also possess the qualities required. Slytherin will help you succeed, child."

Harry, holding the Sorting Hat with an excited expression, placed it back down. "I didn't get expelled! That's all I could hope for!"

Because he had never heard Ron's usual Slytherin-bashing, and the only threat from Slytherin had been neutralized by a few small first-years…

This version of The Boy Who Lived didn't have much bias against Slytherin. He even glanced at Ian, seated at the Slytherin table, and thought, maybe joining this House wasn't so bad after all.

Maybe he had heard wrong earlier… was Ian not a Ravenclaw?

In any case, having a calm and reliable friend in the same House was clearly a plus for Harry.

"Welcome!"

The Slytherin prefect gave Harry a warm hug. But Harry still chose to sit right beside Ian, completely unaware that Ian was just a guest visiting the table.

"Potter! We got a Potter!"

"Harry Potter is one of us Slytherins! I've always known it!"

"Yeah! Ever since my dad used that Potter-brand hair shampoo and his hair started falling out faster, we've all firmly believed Harry Potter belongs to us, Slytherin!"

...

The Slytherin table erupted in cheers.

Meanwhile, the Gryffindor students, who thought Harry should have been theirs, weren't so happy. Even though no one booed, their expressions showed plenty of discontent.

"They cheated! Someone cheated! Used underhanded tricks to steal Harry Potter, just like they once tried to steal Ian Prince using dirty tactics!" The Weasley twins immediately tried to pin the blame on Slytherin's Head of House, Professor Snape.

However—

Snape didn't even bother responding. His gaze was focused on Ian, and on Harry, who sat beside him looking awkward and slightly intimidated.

His expression was… complicated.

Especially when he looked over at the Gryffindor table and noticed a certain little girl asking around about Ian, his expression grew even more unreadable.

"Get back to your own House." He sent a silent transmission spell directly to Ian.

"Huh?" Ian felt that his "good uncle's" tone had lost some of its affection and carried more irritation now. He wasn't sure what he'd done to annoy him, maybe not writing enough letters over the holidays?

"Time to slip away."

Under Harry's hopeful gaze, Ian stood up and brushed imaginary dust off his robes.

There were plenty of new students in Slytherin this year.

Other than the Malfoy trio, Ian only recognized one more person, Pansy Parkinson.

This little girl, like the others, didn't dare make eye contact with Ian for even a second.

It was obvious that Miss Daphne had worked hard over the holidays to spread the "Gospel of the Dark Lord", to the point that she might have worn herself out and ended up skipping this year's Sorting ceremony entirely.

She used the same old trick.

At ten or eleven years old, a little witch might not know this yet—

But even if you dodge the first blow, you'll probably still get hit by the second.

"Where are you going?"

Harry seemed quite invested in Ian. That likely came from the natural insecurity children feel in unfamiliar environments, a desire to stay close to someone familiar.

"Back to my own House, of course… I've been sitting here too long, and certain petty people are getting annoyed." Ian glanced subtly toward the staff table, specifically at Snape.

"What!?" Harry froze.

Only then did he realize he might not have misremembered Ian's House after all.

A chill crept into his heart.

"Relax, Slytherin's got a great atmosphere. My best friend can vouch for that." Ian clapped Aurora, who clearly had zero interest in the Sorting, hard on the shoulder.

"I'll look after you, for Ian's sake." Aurora's words were brief and to the point. She returned her gaze to Ian, who was preparing to head back to the Ravenclaw table.

"Like I said earlier, your [Corpse Plague Outbreak Curse] has serious flaws. There's no way it could spread across an entire city as you envisioned."

Her serious tone made Harry Potter shudder.

The Boy-Who-Lived couldn't imagine what kind of terrifying topics the two of them had been discussing before he arrived.

Studying corpse plagues?

Suddenly, he wasn't so sure he needed to be "looked after" after all.

"If the plague virus mutates enough, reaching national-level spread is possible."

Ian remained confident; they had just been debating the magical version of nuclear deterrence.

Aurora, or rather the ideology of her Acolyte education, believed that the wizarding world needed its own kind of magical nuclear deterrent. So Ian had offered a few of his own insights.

The conversation between the two…

Made Harry's spine feel even colder.

This wasn't quite what he had imagined magic school would be like.

"It's just academic exchange," Ian said, noticing Harry's discomfort. "Just like pharmaceutical companies, researching viruses doesn't mean they want to harm people."

It sounded plausible on the surface, and Harry couldn't quite argue against it, even though something about it still felt… off.

"I've heard of a virus called Ebola… But I still think studying that kind of magic is way too dangerous. Couldn't we study magic that makes people happy instead?" Then, after racking his brain, Harry added cautiously, "If we really need test subjects… I remember Ron has a rat he doesn't want. That's gotta be safer than using people, right?"

You could tell Harry was really trying to fit in, but his nature made it hard for him to accept something like the Corpse Plague Outbreak Curse.

And …Another round of debate followed—

Which drew repeated interruptions from Snape, who kept urging them to quiet down.

With some reluctance, Ian finally returned to the Ravenclaw table.

"Ding Ding Ding~"

After everyone was seated, Albus Dumbledore tapped his goblet, as per tradition.

The previously rowdy Great Hall immediately fell as quiet as a classroom.

"I know everyone must be starving, but before we begin the feast, I have a few announcements." Dumbledore used a magically amplified voice to ensure every young witch and wizard could hear him.

"First, I'd like to remind all the students out there: your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is keeping a few… things in the underground classroom. Unless absolutely necessary, do not sneak over there."

"Even though he's assured both us and the Ministry that his 'pets' won't kill anyone,

I don't quite believe him."

Right off the bat, Dumbledore laid into Grindelwald with a sharp public jab.

(To Be Continued…)