The Boy Who Lived's Diverging Path of Fate

Today's Quidditch match unfolded exactly as Roger had expected.

Not long after the match began, Harry caught the Golden Snitch and ended it.

The spectators had barely warmed their seats before they had to leave. Compared to the usual matches that could drag on for hours, this was simply absurd! Looking at Harry, surrounded by excited Gryffindor players, the utterly bewildered Slytherin team, and the Gryffindor students who stood frozen for nearly ten seconds before remembering to celebrate, Roger knew he had made the right decision in coming.

In the end, Roger had come to watch the Quidditch match, but not because he cared whether Harry would be disappointed.

Roger was not that sentimental a person.

He had suddenly remembered that, after modifying Harry's nervous system, there was still some "after-sales service" he had yet to explain to him.

As the saying went, people could teach people without success, but one lesson from experience could strike straight to the heart. A month ago, it had not been the right time to bring this up.

But now... perhaps the time was right.

Some time had passed since the Quidditch match ended before the enthusiastic crowd surrounding Harry, the "great hero," slowly dispersed.

This match held commemorative significance for Gryffindor. Not only had they won, but they had also set the record for the fastest match conclusion in Hogwarts Quidditch history.

A moment worthy of going down in school history naturally called for a grand celebration.

Only after the excitement had faded and the crowds had departed did Roger quietly approach Harry.

But he found that Harry's expression was somewhat off. He did not look like a spirited young man enjoying the high point of his life.

Instead, he seemed rather lonely.

"...Roger, why are you here?" Seeing Roger arrive, Harry rubbed his face, composed his expression, and asked with a smile.

After being classmates with Roger for more than two months, Harry could not say that he understood him well, but he had a general grasp of Roger's way of doing things.

Roger rarely did anything unnecessary.

If someone asked him for help, he would help. If someone asked him a question, he would answer. If he encountered something he disliked, he would intervene. But he would never seek someone out for idle chatter or games without reason.

He practically wished he could spend every moment buried in books.

If Roger took the initiative to approach someone, there was no need to doubt it—he definitely had something to discuss, and it was probably not some trivial matter.

"Nothing much. I originally wanted to offer you some advice, but..." Roger had noticed Harry's earlier abnormality.

Had fate changed again somehow?

"What advice?" Harry asked eagerly, as though trying to cover something up.

Since Harry wanted to discuss this first, Roger had no objections.

Roger crooked a finger and pulled a small pebble over from a corner of the ground.

"Harry, you should know that I can cast the Levitation Charm silently and wandlessly."

Harry nodded.

Roger was exceptionally skilled at the Levitation Charm and Transfiguration. Among those who paid attention to him, that was common knowledge.

"Then are you interested in competing with me to see whose Levitation Charm is more refined?" Roger asked.

Harry immediately waved his hands. "Wouldn't I be guaranteed to lose?"

"Then if we really competed, do you think anyone would be interested in watching?"

"...Probably." Though it would be a match he was certain to lose, with the titles of Seer and The Boy Who Lived, there should be people who wanted to watch for the novelty.

"But if we held one match every day, how many people would still be interested after a few months? Would you feel that every completely one-sided match was torture for you?"

Harry fell silent. He was a clever child, and by this point, he had more or less understood what Roger was trying to say.

"Harry, there's an enormous gap between your ability and that of the other players, and Quidditch is a sport where a Seeker can end the match quickly." Roger did not speak in riddles. He laid it out plainly.

"If you keep playing matches the way you did today..."

There was no need to say more.

"Still, your life is yours to live. I'm only explaining the situation so you don't fail to realize it. If you like it this way, that's your freedom." Roger's tone was relaxed.

In the end, Quidditch was merely a wizarding sport. Roger did not care that much what it would become within Hogwarts, or whether Harry's presence would make Hogwarts students lose interest in Quidditch.

What Roger truly worried about was whether, if Harry changed from a rising Quidditch star into someone whom Quidditch enthusiasts across the school avoided, the public pressure generated during that process might hurt him... After all, Roger himself had modified Harry's nervous system.

Roger did not want his own actions to leave Harry with a major shadow over his life.

That was why he had come to provide this "after-sales service." If Harry insisted on continuing this way, then whatever happened in the future, good or bad, would be a path Harry had chosen for himself. Roger would not interfere.

...Roger helped others, but he did not help with everything. If someone brought disaster upon themselves, Roger had no interest in cleaning up their mess.

"All right, that's enough about the advice. Let's talk about something else." He called it talking, but Roger did not ask anything. He merely stared into Harry's eyes.

He was simply curious about where fate had branched off again.

If Harry clearly refused, Roger would not forcibly meddle in someone else's private affairs.

Feeling Roger's gaze, Harry pressed his lips together and hesitated for several seconds.

In the end, he spoke. "...I kind of miss my family."

The family Harry meant naturally wasn't the Dursley family. He missed his parents.

Although Dumbledore had moved away the magic mirror, and Harry had resolved to give up its illusory reflections in favor of reality—

The illusion of being loved that the mirror had given him had stirred up his longing for his parents. Whenever his friends left and he was alone in the silence, he couldn't help feeling melancholy.

"So that's what it was." Roger had thought some other twist of fate had occurred.

Having gotten his answer, Roger looked at Harry's lonely expression, thought for a moment, then said, "Harry."

"Death is not the end of everything."

Harry Potter stared at Roger, unable to understand what he meant.

"The power of magic can be strong enough to turn back time itself!" Roger thought of how Harry and the others had "tricked time" in Prisoner of Azkaban to save the Hippogriff that was about to be executed.

"The dead may not truly be gone. If you become strong enough, perhaps you'll gain the power to change everything."

"Of course, this is an extremely dangerous and forbidden matter. If you truly intend to do it, you must be prepared to stake everything on it—not only your life, but even every trace of your past existence could be erased completely."

"If you have that resolve, I can briefly explain the mysteries of this path to you..."

"If not, then pretend I never said any of this."

Under Roger's gaze, Harry's eyes widened. "I..."

Deprived of his parents' love, raised under another's roof since childhood, and living amid his aunt and uncle's hatred—

The magic mirror had reflected the deepest desire of his life: to be with his family.

Naturally, there was only one answer!