A hidden place in Hogwarts.
The Room of Requirement.
And there is one person currently occupying the Room of Requirement indefinitely, and that is me.
With the end of the flying lesson, I had now attended all the first-year classes at Hogwarts at least once.
And I was finally able to come to a perfect conclusion.
With the exception of the special classes with Professor McGonagall and Snape, there was, no matter how I thought about it, no need to attend!
Attendance points? Of course, my points would be steadily deducted if I didn't attend every class, but what could I do?
What are they going to do if I don't attend class? Albus will make sure I avoid expulsion.
Of course, if these absences continue, I won't be able to avoid detention, and if I avoid even that, house points will be deducted, and I'll get the evil eye from the Gryffindor kids.
So, that is why I am currently doing this in the Room of Requirement.
Bubble, bubble.
In the potions station set up in a corner of the Room of Requirement, a cauldron was boiling, letting off steam.
Deek, who was watching me brew the potion from the side, said anxiously.
"M-Master. Deek has his doubts as to whether this is really a good idea!"
The reason for Deek's anxiety was simple. It was because Deek himself was the one who would be drinking that potion.
I asked in a deliberately exaggerated voice.
"Deek, are you perhaps doubting my plan?"
"Oh, Master! Deek doesn't have a shred of doubt in Master's plan. But Deek doesn't trust Deek's acting skills!"
"Don't worry, Deek. From what I can see, you have more than enough acting talent."
The reason Deek was making such a fuss was because of the identity of the potion I was making.
"Once you drink this, no one will recognize you."
It was, of course, Polyjuice Potion. The very same potion I had first made when I fell into the 20th century.
The plan was simple.
When I have to attend a class I don't want to listen to, Deek will go and attend the class for me!
Deek seemed to be fidgeting at the thought of having to imitate me, but I could guarantee that Deek would be a better student than I.
It was a fact I was well aware of myself, but I was far from a model student.
This was because during my school days, that is, my school days in the 19th century, I had preferred to learn magic through practical experience by beating up Dark Wizards rather than studying.
Of course, the fact that my O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. report cards were still covered in Outstandings was solely due to my exceptional talent.
Deek, who had somehow realized that I was praising myself in my mind, looked at me with pitying eyes and said.
"Master, but Polyjuice Potion only works on human wizards. Is it okay for Deek, a house-elf, to drink it?"
As he said, Polyjuice Potion was not originally for house-elves.
This is because Polyjuice Potion was created with the assumption that a wizard would be transforming into another wizard.
That's why the Polyjuice Potion I'm making now is one whose recipe I have arbitrarily adjusted.
Hearing my explanation, Deek's eyes started to spin.
"Deek, don't worry. Would I really make you drink a problematic potion?"
I'm not as good as Snape, but I'm a rather skilled potion-maker. An adjustment of this level is more than enough...
POP!
Just as a loud firecracker-like sound was heard from inside the cauldron, the potion within turned into a very dark, thick, sticky something.
"...Deek, want to try it?"
"Master, is that perhaps an order?"
"No."
"Then Deek will decline."
Kee-roo-rook! Kee-rook!
Ardeura, who found the sight quite amusing, flew around the ceiling, crying out.
Hmm. It seems that inter-species polymorphing is a rather difficult problem. I might have to get Snape's help for this.
This could cause a hitch in my grand plan for absenteeism.
As I was cleaning up the horrific result with a sigh, the door to the Room of Requirement burst open.
There was only one person in this Hogwarts who could enter the Room of Requirement I was in by specifying it.
"Master! Master!"
Harry ran in with a bright smile.
"What is it?"
"I've been selected as a Quidditch player!"
Ah, of course. It seems the Quidditch-crazed Professor McGonagall has finally appointed Harry as a Quidditch player on her own authority.
She's a professor with many respectable qualities in other areas, but it seems she has a tendency to go all out when Quidditch is involved.
In any case, for Harry, who is good on a broom, it was a good thing. I smiled and congratulated him.
"Congratulations, that's great, Harry."
"And, they say I'm the first first-year player in a hundred years!"
"...They don't let first-years play Quidditch these days?"
That's strange. Latte, there were definitely a few first-year players. Why don't they pick first-years as players these days?
[T/N: Latte (라떼): A humorous pun on "na ttaeneun..." (나 때는...), which means "Back in my day...".]
My question was answered by Harry's next words.
"And, Professor McGonagall said that Quidditch players are allowed to bring their own brooms! She even said that if I didn't have a broom, she would buy me a Nimbus 2000."
Goodness. The Nimbus 2000 is not cheap, Professor McGonagall must have been truly possessed by Quidditch.
...But, wait a minute.
"Harry, so you're going to play in the match with a Nimbus 2000? Not a school-issued broom?"
"Of course! I just sent a letter to Sirius with Hedwig asking him to send the broom!"
A moment of silence for the Black family manor, which is about to receive a letter delivered by a dragon.
That aside, I'm pretty sure I heard from Hermione that the speed of a Nimbus 2000 is almost 200 kilometers per hour. Is this right?
It's understandable why they would ban first-years from Quidditch. It was because the average speed of brooms had skyrocketed over the last hundred years.
No, at this point, shouldn't they just ban students from Quidditch altogether?
Why on earth would they ban Unforgivable Curses but not something like this? The incompetence of the Ministry of Magic was deplorable.
A thought of concern came to me, and I said to Harry.
"Harry, don't forget to cast a protection spell when you go out for a match. It would be a big problem if you crashed."
"Of course, Master."
Ah, come to think of it.
Harry fumbled in his pocket and said.
"I called Hedwig to send a letter to Sirius, and Hedwig happened to bring me a letter."
"A letter? For you?"
"Yes. It was a letter from someone named Hagrid."
As I was fumbling to get the dried squid to give to Ardeura, who had landed on my shoulder, I remembered.
Hagrid, Hagrid. Where have I heard that name before? Ah, that half-giant.
Since he had such a magnificent appearance, I was able to remember him after only a moment's thought.
The letter Harry handed me contained a simple greeting and an invitation to have tea at his hut.
"He said he was friends with my parents. So I'm thinking of going! Do you want to come with me?"
"When is it?"
"This Friday."
After thinking for a moment, I didn't have anything else to do. In the first place, the only thing I had to do in this Hogwarts right now was the development of the modified Polyjuice Potion.
And even if I had something else to do, giant-bloods, or half-giants, were an extremely rare existence.
It was worth taking the trouble.
"Alright, let's do that."
I readily accepted.
Kee-roo-rook!
Ardeura, who had deliciously eaten the Kraken jerky, cried out happily.
Friday afternoon. After the Dark Professor's Defence Against the Dark Arts class was over, we walked towards Hagrid's hut.
I pointed in that direction and said.
"Harry, that's the Forbidden Forest over there. All sorts of magical creatures live there, so if you need any ingredients, you can just go and pick them."
"Aha, I see."
"But there are a lot of spiders, so you need to be careful."
But well, even if there were spiders, they weren't that big.
I'm sure that until my fifth year, the forest was teeming with all sorts of spiders, including Acromantulas, but after I started going into the forest frequently to get ingredients, I stopped seeing them at some point.
I think I killed all of them except for one Acromantula that was smart enough to avoid me, which I let live around the time I graduated.
By now, thanks to the hard work of this senior, the Forbidden Forest should be a clean forest with not many dangerous creatures.
As we were talking, we knocked on the door of Hagrid's hut.
"Um, Mr. Hagrid? Are you there?"
At Harry's polite question, we heard a crashing sound and a dog barking from inside the hut.
A moment later, the door burst open and a large figure appeared.
Wearing what looked like rags, he was holding an uncharacteristically pink umbrella in one hand.
For a moment, the intimidating impression from his large build was that of a brute.
But he soon smiled and welcomed us.
"Harry! It's been a long time! What's with 'Mr. Hagrid'? 'Hagrid' is enough."
"Uh, um... have you seen me before?"
"Of course! Ah, though you were just a baby then. I can't believe that little squirming baby has grown so much!"
Hagrid, who had been welcoming Harry, then turned to me and said.
"Harry, but who is this?"
"Ah, this is Aisen Potter, my family."
At those words, Hagrid frowned and asked.
"What? That can't be! I'm sure James and Lily only had you, Harry!"
I said.
"To be precise, a relative. In terms of generation, I'm about an uncle."
"No... that still doesn't make sense..."
"Hagrid, Professor Dumbledore also vouched for Aisen's identity."
"Ah, if that's the case. I guess there must be some circumstances."
Despite my words, Hagrid still had a dubious look on his face, but upon hearing that Albus had vouched for me, he seemed to accept it immediately.
Meanwhile, I used my 'Eyes' to look over Hagrid and couldn't help but be impressed.
I had only glanced at his body, but the inherent resistance to magic that his body emitted was scattering various types of magic.
So this is what a half-giant is.
It was clear that unless I hit him with a Stupefy at full power, he wouldn't even flinch from a stunning spell.
Of course, there were many ways to subdue him even so, but it was a marvelous body nonetheless.
As I was looking over Hagrid, Hagrid slapped his forehead and said.
"Oh, dear. Look at me. What was I doing, leaving my guests standing at the door! Come on in!"
Hagrid took out a piece of smoked ham that was hanging on a wall, and with a slice-slice, he prepared it and served it with tea.
"I hunted this meat myself. Eat up!"
Hagrid told us many stories.
Mostly about Harry's parents. He talked for a long time about how charming James and Lily Potter were during their school days.
"And it was the same on the day that happened. Hmm, I shouldn't have brought this up. I'm sorry, Harry."
"Um, no, it's okay. It's all in the past."
Hagrid had a rather sad expression on his face as he reminisced about James and Lily.
Then, to lighten the mood, he made a playful expression and said.
"Ah, right. You asked if I had met you before? I was the one who, under Professor Dumbledore's orders, took you from that house and brought you to your cousin's house. Of course, you wouldn't remember!"
Harry let out an awkward laugh at the chuckling Hagrid.
If Hagrid knew how Harry had been treated at his cousin's house, he would not have been able to bring up the topic so cheerfully.
Since I had taken Harry in and raised him, he had been well-nourished under Deek's care, so it was understandable that he wouldn't know.
As they were talking, Harry suddenly became curious and asked.
"Hagrid, if you were close with my parents, do you know Sirius well?"
"Wh-what did you say? Who?"
"Sirius. Sirius Black."
At the sound of that name, Hagrid's face turned pale, and then red.
He clenched his fist, which was clearly larger than a small child's head, and said in a growling voice.
"Harry, where on earth did you see that cursed name?"
Harry, who was wondering why Hagrid was acting like that, then remembered that Sirius Black, who was a 'kind father's friend and next-door-neighbor' to him, was officially a 'dead criminal.'
It was the downside of having visited the Black House in London too often.
Harry hurriedly continued.
"Uh, I think I saw it on the news!"
"Oh, Harry. He was a traitor who deserved to be chewed up and spat out. Just erase that filthy, vile person's name from your memory!"
I let out a silent laugh at the sight. I was very much looking forward to the awkward confrontation between Hagrid and Sirius in the future.
Considering the little rat that was currently being held in the Room of Requirement, it was an event that would happen soon.
To change the awkward atmosphere after Sirius's name had been mentioned, I said.
"Hagrid, it seems Al... I mean, Headmaster Dumbledore trusts you a lot, to have given you the task of bringing Harry."
At those words, Hagrid's face lit up with a bright smile as he puffed out his chest.
"Oh, of course! Headmaster Dumbledore trusts me a lot. He even gave me a secret mission recently!"
"A secret mission?"
My sharp eyes were able to see that Hagrid's gaze, as he said 'secret mission,' momentarily fell on a piece of newspaper lying in a corner of the room.
That newspaper was, without a doubt, covering the Gringotts robbery that had occurred on July 31st, Harry's birthday.
Harry, who saw my gaze fall on the newspaper, also looked at it.
Seeing the article, Harry looked at me for a moment and then his mouth fell open.
Harry said in shock.
"Hagrid, don't tell me that Gringotts intrusion was you, under Headmaster Dumbledore's orders...?"
Hagrid waved his hands in a panic.
"No, how could that be! You can't even imagine how sharp the goblins' security is, Harry!"
No, it's not. The security wasn't that great.
Hagrid, who didn't even notice that Harry and I were momentarily thinking the same thing, continued to make excuses.
"I was just, on that day, doing something between Professor Dumbledore and Mr. Nicolas Flamel..."
Hagrid, who was continuing to speak, suddenly realized that he had said something he shouldn't have and clamped his mouth shut like a clam.
"Aha, so it was related to Mr. Nicolas Flamel?"
As Harry spoke beside him, Hagrid was very discouraged by his own careless words.
Harry asked me.
"Aisen, who is Nicolas Flamel?"
"H-Harry! There's no way a first-year could know that..."
Hagrid scoffed as he saw Harry ask me, but,
"Mr. Nicolas? He's a famous alchemist, and his most famous achievement is creating the Philosopher's Stone. He's been living for over 600 years with it."
"Aha, I see. The Philosopher's Stone?"
Unfortunately for him, I knew Mr. Nicolas well. Not only did I know him well, but we were actually pen pals back in the day. I should send him a letter soon.
Hagrid's mouth fell open at my unhesitating answer.