The Return to Hogwarts

Chapter 11: A Restrained Sharpness (Signed, please add to your collection and invest)

According to Severus Snape and Hagrid, Amosta Blaine was a low-key and reclusive person during his school days, and even he himself did not deny that this was an apt assessment.

However, this is not because Amosta himself is a wizard who keeps people at arm's length.

You see, Blaine is an 'outsider'. Before coming to Hogwarts, he always thought he had just traveled to a parallel world, Earth.

In the previous eleven years of his life, he spent a great deal of time adapting to a country with lifestyles and customs completely different from his previous life, and devoted considerable energy to picking up the cultural knowledge he had acquired during his student days, actively preparing for the future.

However, the Hogwarts acceptance letter disrupted all his plans, rendering almost all his previous efforts futile.

Why did he seem out of place in his environment during his first few years at Hogwarts?

This problem is very easy to explain.

First, the existence of magic directly overturned the worldview and values ​​that Amosta had accumulated over nearly thirty years of his two lifetimes. During those years, he was in a state of confusion. On one hand, he had to admit that magic was real and tried to learn about magic. On the other hand, he always wanted to explain the rationality of magic's existence in a 'scientific way,' which almost drove him to a split personality.

Secondly, the ambiguous memories of the plot that remained in his mind also caused him pain.

Amostella knew she was in a truly real magical world, not a children's book. Here, there were dangerous and ferocious magical creatures, evil curses that were impossible to guard against, cruel and bloodthirsty dark wizards, unscrupulous schemers, and despicable hypocrites.

Although Amosta remembers some names, he can no longer recall the plot points that stem from the characters, and therefore cannot directly judge whether they are 'good people' or not.

Especially after entering the magical world and realizing his own weakness and powerlessness, being wary of everyone is his way of ensuring his own safety.

In Hagrid's words, the indifference and isolation of the Slytherin students were the least of his concerns.

After all, his young body contained a mature soul.

Severus Snape was the only wizard he recognized at the school, and the reason for that was closely related to Amos Tower's impoverished background.

At that time, Amosta was destitute. The small amount of financial aid he received from the school was barely enough to support his advanced learning progress, except for enough to buy second-hand books and teaching materials.

In order to salvage his dire financial situation, Amosta had to find a way to make some money on his own. Starting in his second year, he secretly began brewing and selling potions.

At first, he could only use the cheap ingredients in the students' lockers to brew some simple potions and earn a meager profit, which gradually accumulated.

Until the second semester of his third year, he received a big order worth eighty Galleons—to brew a long-lasting invisibility potion.

To ensure everything went smoothly, he used the Disillusionment Charm to sneak into the forbidden library multiple times in the middle of the night to look up information, and also subtly inquired with Snape about the secrets of brewing this potion.

Amosta couldn't afford to be careless. The person who bought the potion didn't provide the raw materials, and the most valuable ingredient in the invisibility potion, the tail feather of the invisible beast, was worth six Galleons. Brewing this potion required a full five tail feathers, which would almost wipe out Amosta's savings.

Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned, and as expected, an unexpected event still occurred.

Due to his lack of experience, Amosta made a mistake in the dosage of Abyssinian wrinkled fig juice, and the potion brewing failed.

Because of this, Amosta was depressed for several days.

But just a week later, before Potions class, Amosta went to get the ingredients for the class and found a bundle of ten invisible beast tail feathers tied up in his usual storage cabinet. These were precious materials that would never normally be found in a young wizard's storage cabinet!

Furthermore, during the subsequent class on the Confusion Potion, Professor Snape, as if nothing had happened, started talking about the Invisibility Potion, which seemed completely unrelated to the topic!

This made Amosta realize that the headmaster, who always had a cold face, had probably been watching him secretly brewing and selling potions.

Similar situations occurred several times afterward, but both sides maintained a high degree of tacit understanding and neither side dared to expose the truth.

Because of this, Amos Tower gradually began to trust Severus Snape. Previously, he had always been wary of Snape, because he had learned from conversations among his fellow students that Snape seemed to have been a follower of the great Dark Lord, and that he had escaped the trial of Wizengamor because he was protected by Headmaster Dumbledore when the Dark Lord fell.

However, his close relationship with the dean did not change Amosta's philosophy of keeping a low profile. He remained silent at school, trying his best not to have conflicts with others or to perform too well and arouse jealousy. This situation continued until he was in the fifth grade, when it was broken by an accident.

That happened at the end of November 1986.

That winter was particularly cold, and Grandma Ferrena, who was already 84 years old, did not make it to Christmas.

Amosta was deeply saddened by the passing of her grandmother, who had cared for her throughout her life and dedicated herself to charity.

However, because that year was OWLS year, the schoolwork was quite demanding, and there was not much time left for Amosta to grieve. So, after attending the old man's funeral in a hurry, Amosta had to return to school immediately to continue his studies.

Let's go back to the early night of December 1986.

The pitch-black night, like a giant curtain, completely covered the earth. A fierce, cold wind swept across the black lake, which had begun to freeze, and the ice shards that collided with each other made a cracking sound, like a corpse chewing on bones.

After confirming that his roommates were all asleep, Amosta sat up expressionlessly. He quietly got dressed and took out a framed black and white photograph from a hidden compartment beside the bed.

The common room was quiet, with its pale green lighting, rough stone walls, and many empty carved armchairs making the long, low-ceilinged room look more like a tomb.

The Slytherin students weren't as keen on exploring the castle at night as the Gryffindors, so Amostra didn't encounter a single student as he wandered through the maze-like, dazzling passageways.

However, there's nothing to worry about even if you encounter it.

Amostah was very confident in his mastery of the Disillusionment Charm; he could completely conceal himself while moving, so much so that even Filch's malnourished cat wouldn't notice anything amiss as it walked past him.

"Hey little guy, I think you must be lost!"

As he passed through the foyer, the voices coming from above the marble staircase caught Amosta's attention. He took a few steps closer and looked up to find that it was Bill of Weasley, the Gryffindor prefect, talking to a Hufflepuff boy.

"Go back to sleep now, little one, or I'll send you to see Professor Sprout."

"Okay, okay, Prefect Weasley, I'll head back to my dorm now!"

Upon hearing that he wouldn't be penalized or sent to the professor for solitary confinement, the young wizard who had been caught by Bill was overjoyed. He hurriedly bowed to Bill in apology and then ran away as fast as he could.

Having dealt with the unruly little wizard, Bill touched his long hair that was hanging loosely behind his head, hummed a song as he walked up the marble stairs to continue his duties as prefect.

Amosta stood at the bottom of the stairs watching Bill's figure disappear from sight. Bill Weasley, the eldest son of the Weasley family, who was trusted by Dumbledore and was the center of attention, was highly praised by teachers and students at this school not only for his outstanding academic performance, but also for his extraordinary personal charm.

But Bill Weasley had a very bad reputation among the older Slytherin students.

They believed that Bill Weasley, who spent his days hanging out with a bunch of Muggle-born wizards, had betrayed the honor of the ancient wizarding family, and secretly they had been planning to teach Bill a lesson.

But every time, they were brutally beaten by Bill Weasley and his strong Chaser brother, no matter how many of them they sent.

Therefore, Bill Weasley became almost the public enemy of Slytherin students in their fifth year and above. In particular, this targeting became even more obvious after rumors circulated that Headmaster Dumbledore intended to hand over the position of student council president to Bill in his seventh year.

Amosta smiled silently, turned and walked towards the foyer toward the Forbidden Forest.

All this trouble was irrelevant to him; after all, no one would be foolish enough to expect a virtually invisible Slytherin student to defeat Gryffindor's shining, sun-like prodigy.

Chapter 12 Anger

At the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Amosta paused and peered at Hagrid's house. The simple wooden hut was dark and devoid of any magical aura, so it seemed that Hagrid was not inside.

As is well known, the gamekeeper at Hogwarts was one of Albus Dumbledore's most trusted confidants. On many occasions, Dumbledore would entrust some extremely important and private matters to this seemingly rough but always reliable big man.

Amosta wasn't sure if Hagrid was out on business or patrolling the Forbidden Forest, so to make sure he wouldn't be disturbed, Amosta walked quite a distance south before striding into the woods.

The dense forbidden forest was pitch black and completely silent. Apart from the crunching sound of footsteps on the dead leaves, even the biting winter wind seemed to be silenced by the oppressive atmosphere here.

Amosta continued deeper into the forest, deviating from the winding path and bypassing a logging area that had been cleared of trees and was now covered with moss-covered stumps. He stopped when he turned around and could no longer see any lights from the castle, and stepped onto a huge, flat bluestone.

"This is it, Grandma Ferrena."

Amosta spoke to the old man whose kind smile was forever frozen in the photograph, then he placed the photograph on the ground and propped it up with a broken tree branch.

"According to the customs of the world I once lived in, on the seventh day after a person dies, at midnight, the soul has a chance to return to this world to visit their family members who were alive."

Amostah flicked his sleeve, and a twelve-inch-long, ebony wand, its core made of the dragon's heart nerve, slid into his palm.

He pointed his wand at the ground, and a fist-sized pebble at his feet immediately floated up, spinning rapidly in a blur before transforming into an orange-yellow copper basin.

"At this time, surviving family members will commemorate their deceased loved ones in a certain way—"

Amosta sat down cross-legged, feeling no discomfort whatsoever from the slippery and icy bluestone that the stone brought to his buttocks.

He pulled a cloth bag from his pocket. It was a bag that Amosta had bought from Davies Bans Magical Supplies in Hogsmeade for two Galleons. It had been expanded with the Unseen Stretch Charm, and because it was inexpensive, its initial space was very limited.

However, after two improvements, it is now large enough to fit a small car, and it also has the function of sorting and packing items in batches.

"I wonder if you would like this approach?"

A large stack of yellow paper and a mountain of gold ingots were poured out and scattered on the ground.

"Pong!"

The brilliant golden flames that suddenly appeared quickly devoured the yellow paper and hand-folded gold ingots in the copper basin. The scorching heat soon charred the edges of the bright yellow copper basin, while also drying out the moisture in the cold, damp air.

The light and shadow of the flames shone on the glass shield, reflecting a slightly pale face.

"I am so sorry that I could not be by your side in your final days. This will probably be the biggest regret of my life."

Amosta moved his chapped lips, adding paper to the basin as he spoke to the old man smiling in the flames.

The flames flickered, and the golden light swayed, making the old man in the photograph seem to come alive, like a magical painting, as he gently comforted the sorrowful boy.

"—If it weren't for you, I would probably have died at the hands of that woman sixteen years ago, and I would never have had the chance to know this wonderful world."

The biting north wind, after entering the area shrouded in firelight, became gentle, softly ruffling Amosta's hair like an invisible hand stroking his head.

Amosta gazed at the photograph and whispered the secrets hidden deep in his heart—absurd things that he could never tell anyone, not even his closest friends. Only when facing his deceased loved ones could Amosta speak without restraint.

The gentle moon gradually slanted towards the horizon. In the latter half of the night, the fog sweeping in from the depths of the forbidden forest shrouded everything in a hazy mist. Tiny ice crystals hung from the dense leaves, drooping listlessly on the branches.

"What do you think he's doing, Prian?"

Because his mind was elsewhere, Amosta lost his usual alertness and failed to notice that two guys carrying flying brooms and wearing Gryffindor red jerseys had been quietly observing him for a while, about fifty feet behind him.

“I can’t say for sure, Philoia, but it seems he’s performing some kind of evil ritual… summoning the spirit of that old man in the photo with dark magic, something like that, you know, those Slytherin bastards love to study this.”

Prien, the fourth-year Gryffindor batsman with a round face and small eyes, lowered his voice and spoke to the girl beside him who was both his teammate and his girlfriend.