Hogwarts: I Obtained the Paternal System — Section 3

Even though the boy named Kenli had threatened him just now and nearly knocked him flying, he was still so kind... He really was so much like Lily...

"He's fine."

Darren Potter

Snape answered quietly.

Darren seemed relieved. He nodded innocently, then finally turned to look at Kenli.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. It really was karma.

The original owner had been turned into this state by him, and then the wheel of fortune turned, and now he had become like this too.

If Kenli were the protagonist of a novel, he should have been able to transmigrate by now.

Darren shook his head smugly.

As he stepped past Kenli, taking advantage of Snape being lost in thought, he viciously stomped on Kenli's face. He used too much force and nearly fell over himself, frightening Darren so badly that his little face went pale.

Snape was startled by the commotion. When he turned around, he saw Darren's foot on Kenli's face.

Then he saw the boy's pale face.

Though he knew that stomp had probably hurt Kenli, Snape no longer had the heart to blame him.

The boy had not done it on purpose. He was simply too frightened.

He was kind by nature, and the sight before him had scared him.

After all, this man named Kenli would soon be sent to St. Mungo's. A blow to the head was probably less harmful than a single Obliviate from the Ministry of Magic.

"If your brain is not that of a Troll, then you should know that you need to rest now, rather than waste your time here with a Baboon!"

Snape glanced at Darren and seemed to have calmed down. His tone was polished, but thick with sarcasm.

Darren secretly curled his lip. Just as expected of someone with a sharp tongue. Though Snape meant for him to rest, his words still made people want to roll their eyes.

Darren forced out a smile, swallowing the words "Old Bat" before they could escape.

The boy's smile was extremely strained, as if Snape's words had hurt him. Even his watery green eyes seemed to have lost their shine.

He looked so much like Lily.

If Lily were still alive, she would have been overjoyed to know this child had been found, wouldn't she?

Lily...

Your child is so much like you that I cannot even bear to reproach him for trusting people so easily and risking himself to protect others.

Snape pressed his thin lips together. As if remembering something, he pulled a letter from his pocket and stuffed it into Darren's hands.

He spoke as gently as he could.

"Read it. Dumbledore wrote you a letter. Use your... You are a new student at Hogwarts. Hogwarts is a school of magic. Your mother was Lily, Lily Potter. You also have an older brother. His name is Harry Potter..."

Darren did not pay attention to anything Snape said after that. His mind had gone completely blank.

What the hell?

His mother was Lily Potter?

His brother was Harry Potter?

Did that mean he also had a father named James Potter?

Still reeling in shock, Darren heard Snape spit out the name James Potter in a tone like he had tasted rancid dog shit.

Fuck!

How could he be Harry Potter's younger brother?

Harry Potter did not have a younger brother in the original story!

Darren suddenly remembered the letter Snape had shoved into his hands. Snape had said Dumbledore wrote one too.

He had to read it carefully. What if Snape had discovered he was pretending to be a good person and was deliberately messing with him?

Or perhaps this Snape was Fred or George disguised with Polyjuice Potion?

Darren urgently tore open the letter and immediately saw the looping handwriting.

That was right. It should be Dumbledore's handwriting.

It had been described in the original story.

Only after carefully reading the entire letter did he finally understand what exactly was going on with this identity.

When Lily had been pregnant, she had been captured by Death Eaters. To torture her, they force-fed her countless experimental drugs.

They tortured Lily until she was barely alive. To save her, Snape had tried countless methods, including spells and potions.

In the end, no one knew which spell had worked, but Lily survived. However, the child in her womb had somehow become Twins.

At the time, no one knew whether there would be any adverse effects. They wanted Lily to abort the two children, but she could not bear to do so and insisted on giving birth to him and Harry.

Harry came out one minute before him and became the older brother.

He came one step later and became the younger one.

Even more tragically, the moment he was born, he was captured by Death Eaters who had been lying in wait inside St. Mungo's.

Sirius and the others were one step too late, and Darren was taken away.

They knew the Death Eaters had taken Darren for no reason other than to use him to force loyalty to their master, Voldemort.

So they publicly claimed that the Death Eaters had not taken their child at all, that they had only ever had one child: Harry.

The Death Eaters believed they had been tricked, so they abandoned Darren.

But they still kept a backup plan. Though they abandoned Darren, they did not truly let him go. Instead, they threw him into the center of a battlefield where both sides were fighting.

By the time Sirius and James secretly went looking for him, Darren had already vanished.

Then James and Lily were killed by Voldemort, Sirius was sent to Azkaban, and Darren's chances of surviving became even slimmer.

Snape and Dumbledore had continued to watch for news of Darren over the years, but so much time had passed that they truly believed he was dead. That was why they had never explained publicly that Harry Potter had a brother.

Until half an hour ago, when Darren Potter's name appeared in the Book of Admissions at Hogwarts, Dumbledore urgently wrote a letter and had the impatient Snape deliver it.

Half an hour ago?

That was exactly when he had received the system's beginner gift pack.

Perhaps there really had been such a child in the world of the original story, but unfortunately, the original owner had been a Squib.

After Kenli pushed him down, he might truly have died.

Also enclosed with the letter was an Acceptance Letter from Hogwarts.

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Chairman of the International Confederation of Wizards, Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot)

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed is a list of required books and equipment.

The term begins on September 1. We await your Owl's reply by July 31.

Deputy Headmistress

Minerva McGonagall

Legilimency

Darren had finished reading the letter.

But whether he should go to Hogwarts had become a huge problem.

Before, he had thought he was just an ordinary student, at most a transmigrator with a system, so he had been quite excited about attending Hogwarts.

But the moment he learned his identity, he panicked.

He was actually the protagonist's brother.

The kind of brother who had suffered one disaster after another since birth.

According to novel logic, a brother like him should be killed in front of the protagonist, inspiring the protagonist to strive to become stronger.

Especially with this kind of plot, he would probably have to die in one of the installments to complete his character setup.

Should he just not go?

[Ding. The system has detected the host's thoughts and believes it is necessary for the host to understand the system's power.]

[Ding. At the current stage, the system can withstand Merlin's full-force attack and then take the host out of this plane. As the host's Paternal Points increase later on, it can become even stronger.]

[Ding. To the system, Hogwarts is merely the starting point.]

Uh...

Darren gave the system an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

That was fucking awesome.