Hogwarts: I Obtained the Paternal System

The exact bloodline was a secret never passed beyond the Potter family, but he seemed to recall hearing that the first Mrs. Potter had possessed Phoenix bloodline.

Could this child have inherited it?

Chapter 10: Paternal System

Should he study Darren's bloodline more closely?

Dumbledore wondered curiously.

But he still suppressed the thought. Every family's bloodline was not something outsiders could investigate.

Even though Darren was still a child and very kind, and surely would not refuse if asked, Dumbledore still did not wish to do such a thing.

What he needed to investigate now was something else: whether Lily's blood curse had fallen upon Darren.

Lily's spell could protect every family member she acknowledged.

Logically, Darren should have had it.

But back then, Dumbledore had followed the traces of that spell to investigate and found no sign of Darren whatsoever. That was why he had believed Darren was dead.

Now that Darren was clearly alive, he wanted to know what exactly had happened to him.

Could it be that Lily had believed Darren was dead at the time, so the blood curse had not fallen upon him?

That was possible, but unlikely.

Dumbledore cast several spells on Darren, and his expression gradually darkened. Yet, afraid of frightening Darren, he forced a smile onto his face.

Obscurus!

Darren was an Obscurial!

How could this be?

No wonder Lily's blood curse had not fallen upon Darren. Perhaps it had been offset by the Obscurus.

Both counted as dark curses, so it was normal for them to cancel each other out.

Although Dumbledore had not seen the scene himself, he believed that was the only possibility.

Everyone knew that an Obscurial could not live past the age of ten.

That was why Dumbledore had never considered that Darren might be an Obscurial.

But the truth was right before him. Dumbledore had no choice but to accept it.

But he had never seen a scene in Darren's memories where the Obscurus appeared!

"Darren, have you ever noticed an extra force within your body? Something powerful and evil..."

Dumbledore asked gravely.

Darren paused before realizing that he was probably referring to the Obscurus.

Fine.

Another layer added to his miserable childhood.

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore. When I was little, I always felt there was some strange power inside me. I was afraid to use it, and later it disappeared.

"Oh, and it might still be hidden in my body... but I haven't seen it come out in all these years. Still, I feel like it's kind. It has never hurt anyone, so I was never worried about it."

Darren spoke in an innocent, childlike tone.

Leaving Dumbledore completely stunned.

He understood magic turning into an Obscurus.

But he truly could not understand an Obscurus being kind.

Still, he roughly understood what Darren meant.

"You mean that the Obscurus—the power lurking within your body—has never appeared, and you instinctively feel that it poses no danger to you?"

Dumbledore summarized.

Darren nodded vigorously.

He knew it sounded a little far-fetched, but he could hardly say that his Obscurus had been given to him by the system and cost one thousand Paternal Points per minute.

He could only make something up like this.

But the wizarding world leaned heavily toward idealism. Dumbledore should be able to understand, right?

Dumbledore fell silent.

Wizards used magic through idealism as well. With a powerful enough intent guiding their magic, they could cast spells.

But he truly could not force himself to believe that an Obscurus could be kind and controllable.

Yet it did not seem quite right to insist that Darren's Obscurus was dark power.

After all, Darren had lived until now without using the Obscurus, and he had never harmed anyone with it. He was completely unlike other Obscurials.

Everyone knew that Obscurials first appeared before Muggles began hunting wizards.

Wizards tried to suppress their magic to hide their identities and avoid persecution, and in doing so, created a powerful force.

But over time, they could no longer control it and were instead controlled by the Obscurus.

An Obscurus was an unstable, uncontrollable dark force. It would suddenly attack, then disappear.

Nowadays, it usually appeared because young wizards did not understand their magic and came to hate it intensely.

If an Obscurial did not use magic, they would suffer backlash.

But if they used magic, they could not control it, causing tremendous harm to their bodies.

That was why Obscurials died young.

So Darren's Obscurus was utterly unmagical!

And its appearance was very strange as well.

Logically, a young wizard had to deeply hate their own magic for one to appear.

But Darren had merely been somewhat afraid of his magic, and then the Obscurus had appeared.

After that, it had not forced Darren to use magic. It was as though it had absorbed all the magic within his body.

It hid in the deepest part of Darren's body, allowing him to spend eleven quiet years like a Squib.

Wait.

Like a Squib?

No wonder Darren's name had not appeared in the Book of Admissions.

Could it have been because of this Obscurus?

Then what had triggered Darren's name to appear in the Book of Admissions?

"Professor Dumbledore, before you came to pick me up today, I think I used this power."

Following Dumbledore's train of thought, Darren hurried to clear himself of suspicion.

Well, he definitely could not mention the system granting him magic, so he would just blame everything on the Obscurus!

"Oh? Tell me in detail."

"It was like this. Kenli brought people to cause trouble for me, so I..."

Dumbledore perked up.

Could this child have wanted to fight back against Kenli?

It seemed the child was not completely foolish.

Darren did not know what he was thinking and continued, "So I planned to run farther away. I used a little of it, and then I really did run a little faster."

Dumbledore: "..."

His excitement had been for nothing.

This foolish child had used the Obscurus just to run a little faster.

And the Obscurus had obediently made him run a little faster.

Hm?

A little?

Was it really just a little, not an enormous amount?

Could an Obscurus really be this controllable?

"I'll teach you a very simple spell: Wingardium Leviosa. It can make objects float."

Dumbledore taught Darren twice, then handed his wand to him.

Darren carefully took it, immediately feeling powerful energy surge within him.

The Elder Wand!

Darren's first reaction upon receiving the Elder Wand was not that he had become stronger, but that Dumbledore, that old schemer, was testing him.