Hogwarts: I Obtained the Paternal System

But a nod was enough.

Dumbledore did not expect him to understand right away.

He smiled, resting a hand on Darren's shoulder as he said warmly, "Come, dear little Darren. Perhaps we should go to your Head of House's office and have a proper talk with her about you."

The headmistress was named Mrs. Linda, and she was the fiercest teacher in the entire Orphanage.

The memories Darren had fabricated did not slander her. She truly had starved the original owner of this body many times, usually for two or three days at a time.

She had also beaten him over trivial matters, making him kneel before the Lord and repent for his mistakes.

After inheriting the original owner's memories, Darren could not help marveling at Mrs. Linda's cruelty.

Of course, what impressed him even more was her talent for making money.

Mrs. Linda often took the children from the Orphanage to various charity events.

She had them ingratiate themselves with kind-hearted, naïve young ladies and wealthy wives, bringing in donation after donation.

Mrs. Linda did not put all those donations into the Orphanage.

Instead, she used one thousandth of the money to add libraries the orphans were forbidden from entering, using them to promote Mrs. Linda's educational philosophy.

The remaining funds were sent to her son, who was studying in France, in the hopes that he would return after completing his studies and live among the upper class.

The idea she often instilled in the children was that they should not eat too much, because there was no money left.

The original owner had been malnourished every day. At eleven years old, he might have been even skinnier than Harry.

At the very least, Petunia gave Harry Potter three meals a day. She would not starve Harry for two or three days at a time.

If Darren had not won over several newly arrived teachers with an adult's sweet talk after transmigrating here and received an extra piece or two of bread as snacks every day, he might have had to fight wits with Kenli on an empty stomach.

Dumbledore followed Darren to Mrs. Linda's room.

The woman had smooth golden hair and wore an expensive long dress. At that moment, she was applying nail polish in her office.

Hearing someone knock, she hurriedly put the nail polish away and pretended to be reading.

After Dumbledore had been inside for a while, she acted as though she had only just noticed him and stood up with exaggerated affectation.

"Oh my, I was so absorbed in my reading that I did not see you. May I ask who you are, sir? What brings you here?"

"Dumbledore," Dumbledore said sternly.

He took Darren's hand and pulled him to his side, saying coolly, "Darren is the child of a friend of mine. I finally found him today, and I need to take him away."

"Ah! You want to take Darren away? Oh my, are you serious? Our little Darren is so clever and well-behaved. He is simply an indispensable part of our Orphanage. If you want to take him away, you need to give us a proper explanation, don't you?"

In other words, if he wanted to take Darren away, he had to pay more!

Whenever an orphan was adopted, Mrs. Linda always squeezed some money out of the adoptive parents.

She claimed that people did not cherish what they got for free, and only after they paid would she feel at ease sending the "little treasures" of her Orphanage away.

Dumbledore frowned, his expression growing even sterner.

However, he did not lose his temper. Instead, he turned to Darren and forced out an unattractive smile.

"Child, go pack your things first. I may need to discuss some matters."

Clearly, Old Deng was preparing to teach Mrs. Linda a small lesson.

Trying to play tricks in front of this White Wizard—Mrs. Linda clearly had not yet suffered a wizard's beating.

No, perhaps she had, and then been Obliviated?

Darren blinked. He had intended to leave immediately and wait for the woman to get beaten up.

But when he remembered his paternal radiance, he hurriedly said, "Professor Dumbledore, you do not need to pay for me. I cannot let you spend money on my behalf..."

[ Ding, Paternal Points +50 ]

Chapter 6: They Were Twins

The Paternal Points he earned through his own improvisation were clearly not as plentiful as those awarded for system-issued missions, but Darren still smiled in satisfaction.

His smile was utterly free of gloom, and simply seeing it made people feel brighter.

Dumbledore was unsurprisingly infected by his smile.

"Oh, dear child, you do not think I will use my own money, do you?

Your parents left behind many Galleons... Well, I may not have told you what Galleons are yet, but you can ask Snape—your future Potions Professor. He is here!"

Dumbledore pointed outside the window.

Darren turned around and saw that a gloomy, black-bat-like man was pressing his face against the window, his nose seemingly flattened somewhat.

He had never expected Snape to do something like that.

Darren nearly burst out laughing.

But he immediately remembered his paternal radiance and hurriedly stopped himself from making such an uncouth gesture.

As though embarrassed, he scratched his hair, lowered his head to suppress the smile at the corner of his lips, then hurried outside.

"Professor Snape, is Kenli doing better?"

[ Ding, Paternal Points +50 ]

Darren accepted the Paternal Points and looked at Snape with a face full of concern.

He had only remembered this because Dumbledore mentioned that Lily and James had left behind Galleons.

Kenli had been injured. Mrs. Linda would very likely make him pay compensation.

What if Dumbledore thought he was kind-hearted and actually used his money to compensate Kenli?

Although Snape had beaten Kenli badly enough that all the little brats he had brought with him ran off in fright.

They probably thought a murderer had come to the Orphanage.

But that fear would not last long. They would probably return soon to complain to Mrs. Linda.

Then Mrs. Linda would stop them and demand compensation in the name of harm done to children.

Good heavens, Kenli was so huge that Darren doubted he was much smaller than Hagrid. How could he still count as a child?

And if Mrs. Linda really brought up compensation later, would he actually have to pay?

That was his private property!

Should he pretend to faint instead?

Darren wrestled with the thought.

The boy's face was filled with hesitation and sorrow, as though he had lost something important.

But how could Kenli be that important?

Did the child not know that Kenli had hurt him terribly?

Or was he simply too kind?

Kind to the point of stupidity?

Lily, what should I do with him?

If you were here, would you praise him, or gently scold him and tell him to take care of himself first?

Snape silently watched Darren for a long while before finally saying in a somewhat hoarse voice, "Use your... brain. If something had happened to him, I could not possibly still be standing here!"

Wizards who harmed Muggles would also be sent to Azkaban!

Though he had used some methods to cover it up.

Those damned idiots at the Ministry of Magic had actually believed that Kenli was a mentally ill man in his twenties with giant blood who had tried to attack him.

"In about ten minutes, he should show up!"

Huh?

Darren's eyes lit up.

From Snape's tone, Kenli should already be fine?

And Snape was fine too?

Tsk, he truly was the Wizarding World's most famous double agent. He sounded very practiced at handling this sort of thing!

He just did not know how Snape had gotten himself off the hook.

Should he not have been detained by the Ministry of Magic for a while?

From the time Dumbledore appeared until now, Snape had only been gone for a little over an hour. Since when had the Ministry of Magic become so efficient?

Darren was curious, but as a child who "did not understand anything," he could not ask such questions aloud.

He only needed to know one thing: Kenli was fine and would show up soon.

No need to pay compensation.

Hehe!