The Power of Choice

Lions, eagles, and badgers were all warm-blooded animals; only snakes were cold-blooded. Yet snakes were not merely symbols of evil, as people narrowly believed. The Ouroboros was an alchemical symbol. The staff with two snakes and wings represented Hermes, the divine messenger of Greek mythology and a symbol of commerce, while the staff with a single snake belonged to Asclepius, the Greek god of healing and a symbol of medicine. There were even Slytherin graduates at St Mungo's.

Even though their attitudes were unpleasant and their tempers poor, many Slytherins did excel academically. A snake shedding its skin was seen as a process of recovery and rebirth. In some ways, a snake really was quite a good mascot.

Pomona had a strong feeling that the sharp-tongued boy would most likely be sorted into Slytherin, while the red-haired girl who had appeared with him would be placed in Gryffindor. She was Muggle-born, and this was her first day in Diagon Alley. Her Muggle parents were accompanying her, and everything about wizards seemed new to them. They appeared to regard Diagon Alley as some sort of tourist attraction.

Recklessness was an important Gryffindor trait. Among this group, the only person capable of acting as a guardian was the boy's mother, a pale, exhausted-looking witch who seemed worn down by life. Just now, Pomona had met Black, who wanted to be a Gryffindor, at Madam Malkin's shop. Now she had run into a Slytherin who could be friends with a Gryffindor, while "Mrs Snape" dressed almost exactly like a Muggle. In Grindelwald's time, he had advocated that wizards were born to rule Muggles, yet this witch seemed desperate to forget that she was a witch. Other than strange, Pomona could find no word to describe the people she had met today.

"Why are you following us?" Severus Snape hissed like a snake, intimidating the two little badgers who knew nothing of the world's dangers.

"To buy wands!" Pomona declared righteously. "Everyone knows Ollivander's wands are the best."

The moment Pomona saw Lily Evans's overflowing trolley, she knew their next stop had to be Ollivander's. It was not a rule anyone had set down; people simply believed that the wand chosen when one was in a good mood would suit them best, and shopping usually put people in a good mood. Although Lily Evans's parents could not do magic, they had dressed themselves as wizards. With three adult "wizards" protecting her, no foolish thief would dare set their sights on them.

"Aren't you buying the textbooks you'll need this year, Pomona?" Lily asked warmly.

If you carried a lot of money, then unless you were exceptionally capable, you should keep a low profile and avoid drawing attention to yourself. Otherwise, bring along a bodyguard who looked difficult to provoke—preferably a half-giant. That way, no one would dare target you in the street.

Lily Evans was as eye-catching as fire. She wore a Hogwarts uniform, and every inch of her radiated innocence and kindness. People like that were usually easy targets for deception. Fortunately, she had a good bodyguard, so she could remain completely unaware of the dangers around her.

She was a lucky girl, protected wherever she went. Pomona felt that she was almost as lucky. She had Pete and Madam Sprout as her bodyguards too. The only difference was that, unlike Lily, she did not have a complete family.

"I haven't decided where I'll study yet," Pomona answered honestly. "Maybe I won't study in Britain."

Lily looked stunned. "Are there other magical schools besides Hogwarts?"

"Yes, there are many. But Europe has three particularly famous ones. My father is French, so perhaps I'll eventually go to Beauxbatons."

"Then you can buy your wand in France."

Pomona could not put Snape's strange behavior into words. He seemed to hate anyone intruding between him and Lily.

"You said there were three schools. Other than Beauxbatons, what's the other one?" Lily asked, unable to conceal her curiosity.

"The other is Durmstrang. It only accepts pure-blood students and tolerates Dark magic. Grindelwald graduated from there." There was something Pomona did not say aloud: among those three schools, Hogwarts produced the worst graduates. Durmstrang lay in northern Scandinavia, where it was cold for most of the year, shaping its students into tough characters. Beauxbatons stood in the Pyrenees and had been funded by Nicolas Flamel, the alchemist said to have first created the Philosopher's Stone of immortality. It had breathtaking castles and lawns. By comparison, Hogwarts was only internationally known for its three founders and for Dumbledore, the wizard who later defeated Grindelwald. A shortage of talent was a problem faced by the entire magical world. That was why the emergence of that extraordinarily powerful Dark Lord had driven all of Britain's aristocrats mad, making them believe it heralded the rise of the British Isles once more.

"Who is Grindelwald?" Lily asked, staring at Pomona with her beautiful eyes. Pomona glanced back at Snape. He frowned deeply; clearly, he had not told Lily about the dark side of the wizarding world.

A half-blood and a Mudblood—at a school crawling with Death Eaters, their future would be even harder than Pomona's.

Every Hufflepuff had to remember this: do what was right because it was right. Choice was more important than effort.

Pomona believed Lily Evans had the right to choose. Living as an ordinary person might be mundane, but she could still be happy, joyful, and even long-lived. Snape's refusal to tell her about the hidden dangers of the magical world, allowing her to blunder into a world she knew nothing about, was deeply irresponsible. It could even be called selfish.

With such a strange temper, he certainly did not have many friends. If Lily left too, he would have to study at Hogwarts alone, lonely wherever he went. But making an ordinary girl who did not belong to this world struggle to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings and become a witch was terribly unfair to her. She might even lose her life over some unintentional minor mistake, especially now, when Death Eaters were everywhere in the castle.

"He is a Dark wizard," Pomona said. "He ruled the wizarding world for twenty years and was active all over the world. He hated Muggles and believed that every Muggle should be exterminated."

Lily was clearly stunned by what she had heard.

"Why would he think that? I mean, why?"

"Because he believed that if magic returned to the light of day, wizards would inevitably be persecuted by Muggles. So we have to live in the shadows. Do you remember the witch hunts of the Middle Ages? You and I are the kind of witches the Church would have hunted."

Lily covered her mouth in shock.

"Enough!" Snape roared, pulling Lily behind him protectively.

Pomona turned her gaze to Lily's parents. "I think you need to know these things. The wizarding world is novel, but Lily isn't here to play. She will study here, live here, perhaps even marry and have children here. Her connection with you will only grow weaker with time, and the help you can offer her is limited. There is years of resentment between Muggles and wizards; enthusiasm and kindness alone cannot resolve it. Many witches were tied to stakes by ordinary people like you and burned alive. Many of them were innocent people who had never used Dark magic to harm anyone. Apart from Lily, do you have any other children?"

"We do," Lily's mother said after a long silence. "She has an older sister."

"Then why didn't she come today?"

Mrs Evans fell silent.

"Parents always leave before their children. In the end, her sister will be the family she has left. If even she won't support Lily, then who will help her?"

By then, Pomona could already see the sign for Ollivander's wand shop. She waved at this strange group of people, grabbed Pete's arm, and ran toward the shabby little shop.

"Did you know? Every House has its own ghost." Pete smiled. "Guess who Hufflepuff's ghost is?"

"The Fat Friar," Pomona said irritably. "Madam Sprout said he was the only one who saw Peeves's hidden virtues. What virtues could that nuisance possibly have?"

"Oh, I'm afraid you'll have to ask him yourself after you get to Hogwarts." Pete patted Pomona on the head. "I'm looking forward to your arrival, junior."