Persona Evolution!

The Headmaster's Office.

By then, the welcoming feast was well and truly over, and all the students had returned to their common rooms under the guidance of their respective Prefects.

Dumbledore and Snape were in the Headmaster's Office, standing around the Sorting Hat.

"I see. So that's why you shouted 'Azkaban,'" Dumbledore said with a nod.

According to the Hat, it had sensed exceptionally pure magic in Tom—a kind of magic perfectly suited to Dark Magic. On top of that, Tom himself was brimming with ambition.

That was why the Sorting Hat had briefly mistaken him for an old acquaintance who had put it on, and hurriedly shouted "Azkaban," hoping someone would arrest Tom.

"Magic suited to Dark Magic?" Snape could hardly keep his composure.

The pieces fit almost too perfectly.

Same name, ambitious, good at making friends, respectful toward his teachers, a born Dark wizard... With all those traits in one person, who would believe Tom wasn't Voldemort?

"Snape, don't be so tense. Have you forgotten who screens the new students?" Dumbledore said slowly.

"You mean... the Quill of Acceptance and the Book of Admittance?" Snape realized.

Hogwarts had an Augurey-feather quill that could sense the moment a child in Great Britain or Ireland first displayed a talent for magic. No matter how faint the magic, it would record it.

The black Dragon Hide book was responsible for reviewing and overseeing the entries, ensuring that the children listed had sufficient magical talent and preventing Squibs or Muggles from being recorded by mistake.

After all, the Quill of Acceptance and the Book of Admittance had been created by the Four Founders of Hogwarts, and operated through all manner of wondrous, long-lost magic.

For a thousand years, not a single wizard had even touched the quill and book, let alone put magic into them... In other words, the Quill of Acceptance and the Book of Admittance had been running automatically all this time.

Dumbledore had once taken great pleasure in sitting quietly in the tower for hours, just so he could witness the miracle of the Quill of Acceptance flying out of an empty ink bottle and writing a new student's name in the Book of Admittance.

"Though Voldemort's magical skill is exceptionally advanced, that doesn't mean he can fool the methods left behind by the Four Founders. The quill and book won't record the same person twice."

"All right."

Snape acknowledged the authority of the evidence.

"Come to think of it, that boy is now in your house." Seeing that he'd finally persuaded Snape, Dumbledore patted him on the shoulder. At last, he could talk about something else.

"Though I have nothing against Slytherin, there are simply too many Pure-bloods there..."

Tom had received enthusiastic applause when he joined the Slytherin table, but that only represented some of the students. There were bound to be others who were pretending. After all, Pure-blood families were best at acting one way to someone's face and another behind their back.

"Harry Potter gets along well with him, too. Even if you won't do it for Tom, please look after them for Harry's sake."

At the mention of Harry, Snape's body wavered. But when he recalled a face almost identical to James's, his expression turned cold again. "Hmph! Slytherin is the house of the strong. Survival of the fittest has always been the rule. As Head of House, I can't go around breaking it, or people will accuse me of being unfair."

With that, Snape turned and left.

He still had plenty to do.

Tom's situation had taken up so much of his time lately that he hadn't been able to keep an eye on Professor Quirrell, who had suddenly begun acting rather suspiciously.

"Snape..." Dumbledore called after him, but Snape had already disappeared. Dumbledore could only shake his head regretfully.

As Headmaster, he couldn't show too much favoritism, either.

Meanwhile.

The Slytherin Common Room.

The rooms had been assigned. There were eight Slytherin boys in this year's class, and with four to a dormitory, they were easy to sort out.

Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, and Zabini shared one room.

Tom, Harry, Ron, and Malfoy shared the other.

"Tell me this is a nightmare..." Draco Malfoy sat on his bed, staring at the hellish scene before him.

All three of the people in the whole school who had a grudge against him had been assigned to his room.

Merlin!

Who had been in charge of assigning the dormitories?

Whoever it was must have had a grudge against the Malfoy family. Otherwise, they wouldn't have arranged the rooms in such an obviously targeted way.

The Malfoy family had always been loyal. Who was trying to ruin him?

Crash!

A sudden, deafening bang made Draco leap out of bed and cower in the corner.

He cracked open one eye and saw that a dumbbell had fallen out of Tom's luggage and hit the floor.

"Ron, we ate a lot at the welcoming feast, and it's late now, so we'll start training tomorrow."

"Yes!"

Having arranged everything, Tom turned his attention to the panel.

Ever since the fight on the train, his [Robust] Persona had been steadily progressing. After dinner, it had made several more large leaps. The other professors at the school must have heard about him from Dumbledore.

After the progress he'd accumulated before the start of term, along with everything that had happened today, [Robust] had long since surpassed Lv.9 and reached Lv.10, on its way to the next level.

["Robust" +20 progress; impression level reached Lv.MAX (max level); achievement points +1]

[Persona: Innate Divine Strength (New)]

[Impression Level: Lv.1 (Progress: 0/200)]

[Description: Your flesh and bones are denser than a human's. Your resistance to drugs and magic far exceeds that of ordinary creatures. Once you reach adulthood, even a fully grown dragon won't be able to match you in a contest of strength.]

Personas can evolve?! Tom was stunned.

[Robust] had already been strong enough, and now it could become even stronger.

At that moment, he felt a warm current pass through his entire body, and immediately sensed that he was stronger than before. But without anything to compare himself against, he had no idea exactly how much stronger he'd become.

Still, according to the Persona's description, he should now be able to overpower dragons his own age with brute strength.

Although Tom was much stronger, his appearance hadn't changed at all. His muscles hadn't bulged; if anything, they'd shrunk a little. In wizard robes, no one could tell that he'd done any kind of physical training.

After all, his flesh and bones had become denser. What had been compressed was pure strength.

He was now very curious: if he took the same kind of steroids he'd seen those beautiful athletes use online in his previous life, what would happen? Would he become even stronger?

No, with that concentration of steroids, it would probably just dilute the steroids already in his body, weakening him instead.

"Interesting." Tom continued studying the new trait.

He noticed that the new Persona trait was green. Going by the conventions of ordinary online games, that meant there was still room for it to level up.

If he raised [Born Dark Lord] to Lv.MAX, what would it become?

[Dark Lord Incarnate]?