The Sorting Hat pressed down and went silent longer than expected.
"You seek knowledge without moral borders… ambition without banner… dangerous curiosity…"
"Ravenclaw," Vikram thought firmly.
The Hat agreed — but warned him: "You will be judged for what you study, not what you do."
He quickly mapped the social landscape. Gryffindor housed the loud talents — James Potter and Sirius Black already famous for rule-breaking brilliance. Lily Evans stood out for precision and discipline. Severus Snape, from Slytherin, drew Vikram's attention immediately — not socially, but intellectually.Snape asked sharp questions in class and ignored approval.
Their first real interaction happened in the library when both reached for the same advanced spell theory text.
"You read beyond assigned levels," Snape observed.
"Assignments are minimums," Vikram replied.
From then on, they debated quietly — spell structures, intent anchoring, curse mathematics. They disagreed often but respected logic. Vikram noticed Snape leaned toward creation through modification. Not destruction — invention.
Professors praised Vikram's results but grew uneasy with his reading choices: pre-modern rituals, core theory, bloodline magic models. He wasn't practicing them — yet — but he studied deeply.
Meanwhile, outside the castle, tension rose. News whispered through owls and papers: disappearances, attacks, Dark Mark sightings.
Students treated it like rumor.
Vikram recognized a pre-war pattern.
Hogwarts was becoming a training ground — not a school.
He studied harder.
Because wars punish the unprepared first.