Walking back to his dorm, Loren suddenly remembered something: Harry and the others hadn't gone to the library to research. Naturally, they wouldn't discover that Hagrid was raising a dragon. That could lead to Harry not knowing how to get past the three-headed dog and ultimately affect his retrieval of the Philosopher's Stone. That was a real problem.
With that, Loren closed his eyes and began sensing the trunk he had given Hagrid. As everyone knows, Loren is a master alchemist; leaving backdoors in his own tools is perfectly normal. Sure enough—he had a plan within moments, then continued toward the dorm.
Pushing open the door, he found the trio seated on the floor in the middle of the side room. Harry and Ron were deep in thought, so focused they didn't notice him come in. Neville, facing the door, spotted Loren at once and was about to greet him, but Loren waved him silent.
An instant later, Loren ghosted to Neville's side without a sound. If Neville hadn't been watching him the whole time, he would never have noticed.
"Since Snape wants to steal the Philosopher's Stone, he'll have to get past the three-headed dog. The dog should be Hagrid's. We could go warn him," Loren said—deliberately mimicking Neville's voice. Then he slipped away as fast as he'd come and returned to the doorway.
"You're right, Neville. Let's go warn Hagrid—tell him what we've figured out," Harry said, springing to his feet.
"Yeah. If we can't catch Snape red-handed, we'll go to Hagrid and pass along Harry's suspicions," Ron agreed at once.
Neville wanted to say that Loren had just imitated him, but the words wouldn't come. He realized Loren had restrained him and kept him from speaking. Remembering Gran's words—that Loren could be trusted—and thinking of all the help Loren had given him, Neville decided not to argue and to shoulder the credit.
Satisfied with Neville's performance, Loren turned and left to wash up for bed.
The next afternoon after Transfiguration, Harry grabbed Ron and Neville. With a light touch on his permissions, Loren sensed the trio running toward the front gates—off to visit Hagrid, surely. He nodded in satisfaction and took Hermione to find Professor McGonagall to continue discussing Transfiguration.
At dinner, Loren watched the three. They wore bright smiles and whispered to each other—clearly they had learned about Hagrid's dragon. He let himself relax.
Days slipped by; before anyone realized it, finals loomed.
Harry wasn't quite the same as in the original timeline—he was focused on exam prep. The main reason was Loren. Because of Loren's meddling, Quirrell was still at home "reflecting" and likely wouldn't return this term. No one would report Hagrid for keeping a dragon. With the trunk Loren had gifted him, Hagrid had ample space to house it and thus no reason to send "Norbert" away. That meant there'd be no midnight dragon-escort, no getting caught, and no detention in the Forbidden Forest. Harry would not meet "Senior Tom" there, and without his encouragement Harry would not act the way he had in the original.
Another reason was Hermione's tutoring sessions growing larger and larger. They began with Harry, Ron, and Neville, then expanded to Hermione's dorm-mates, then to the entire first year, and finally even third-years joined. Faced with upper-year questions, Hermione kept everything tidy and precise. Over time, the nickname "Everything Squad" gradually replaced "Lion King and Queen."
That wasn't because Hermione's knowledge stopped at third-year; it was because upper-years were embarrassed to ask her and turned to Loren instead. Later, even upper-years from other Houses came to consult Loren. In the end, pestered beyond patience, Loren drew on memories from his previous life and had Rona help compile and store knowledge, modeling upper-year workbooks after "Three Years of Practice, Five Years of Simulated Exams," one volume for each subject and year, to hand to the older students.
Watching the "delighted" groans when students received those hefty workbooks, Loren felt very satisfied. No wonder he'd felt the professors' curriculum reform lacked something. After realizing this, Loren summoned George and Fred and told them to pause manufacturing the magical notebooks and free up capacity to print the workbooks first. He also specifically told Rona to update the workbooks every year with new problems professors introduced in class. For the castle's spirit, this was easy.
To give Hogwarts students a complete school experience, Loren even had exercise books compiled for first through third years.
When George and Fred received the stacks of thick workbooks from Loren, the expressions on their faces were priceless: the pleasure of pranking others mixed with something hard to name. Loren ignored their face-changing theatrics.
"Distribute them properly. Make sure every student at Hogwarts gets a copy. Once we have enough printed, resume the old production plan," Loren said.
The twins' eyes lit up again. They figured these were a stopgap born of Loren's irritation with the upper-years and wouldn't last. Seeing the sparks in their eyes, Loren struck while their spirits were highest: "This year's rush interrupted the magical notebook schedule, so I'm having you prioritize workbooks. I'll speak with Mr. Arthur. Starting next year, the workbooks will be rolled into the magical notebook line—so it won't be such a hassle."
That doused their fire completely. Satisfied by their mournful looks, Loren turned to leave.
Watching him go, George whispered to Fred, "Did we fool him?"
"We should have. We didn't use ginger this time—he won't catch on," Fred muttered, eyeing Loren's retreating back.
"Right, right. Loren's already annoyed by those thick-skinned upper-years. I hope he stops here; otherwise everyone's life will get worse," George said, sighing.
Just then, Loren, who had already left, doubled back and strode past them. A voice drifted by: "Summer break is nearly three months. Students will forget a lot if they don't study. I recall giving Hermione plenty of test papers—let's pass those to the professors too, to make everyone's holiday richer."
He'd only looped around to spook them. He'd never actually given Hermione any test papers; he had simply overheard something with his overly sharp ears.
Their final expressions went straight into Loren's mental scrapbook. Humming, he took another corridor toward Professor Snape's office. His first target for persuasion was his Potions master—convince him, and the others would be easy. As for why not go to Professor Quirrell—consumables have no human rights. Just prod a few Heads of House to go to Dumbledore.
At Snape's door, Loren knocked politely. No answer. He wasn't surprised; the wards on Snape's door didn't work on him. They'd argued about it before. Loren stepped inside anyway. "Knocking first is how I ask. Since no refusal came from inside, that's tacit permission."
Snape knew his biting sarcasm didn't faze Loren; in a straight fight he couldn't beat him either. Silence was his protest.
"My dear Professor Snape, your favorite student brings you a new tool—to help you teach those trolls to brew by copy-and-practice."
"Your professor has spent years without getting any real potion knowledge into those troll heads. Maybe I should take Filch's advice and bring back punishments; perhaps a little blood would imprint at least a few facts," Snape hissed without looking up. He had no interest in Loren's chatter. He'd long seen through this pupil's disguise—a model student's mask over a mischief-loving demon.
"Professor, troll heads are all muscle. Teaching them brewing the proper way is hard. But train muscle long enough and you get muscle memory." As Loren spoke, he set Potions workbooks on Snape's desk. He had separated each subject's workbooks by year and spiral-bound them into a neat teacher's pack.
Leafing through them, Snape's expression improved. "These are mostly basic-knowledge questions. Will they really help with brewing? And unlike you, your teachers don't have time to review trolls' scribbles."
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810