Harry, the Determined Little Slytherin

"What if I don't have any particular House I want to join?"

Harry suddenly interjected, not quite daring to meet Lyon's eyes.

Lyon looked at Harry, and a thought rose in his mind.

As the protagonist of the original story, if he could talk Harry into going to Slytherin, would old Dumbledore choke to death on the spot?

Snape was ecstatic at the thought!

He could build a relationship with Harry, and Harry could become a member of the Razor Gang...

This had potential.

"It's best to have an idea in your heart. You need to know what you want most. Comfort? Wisdom? Hard work? Or do you want to rise above others?"

Harry fell silent. Ever since he was little, Dudley had bullied him. All he had ever wanted was to live peacefully on his own.

No Uncle Vernon, no Dudley, no damned aunt, no pressure—just an ordinary life.

But was that really what he wanted?

Didn't he want to be like those Slytherins, standing above others in every profession and field?

Without a doubt, he did.

Did he have ambition?

He did.

Was he the kind of Hufflepuff who could only live an ordinary life through hard work?

No.

Did he want to become someone like Lyon, a powerful figure who had risen through his own effort and means?

He dreamed of it.

Whenever he saw Lyon in a suit, followed by more than a dozen Razor Gang members, he felt envious. It was as though Lyon belonged to an entirely different world from him.

In Lyon's eyes, Harry's expression changed again and again before suddenly becoming as firm as if he had settled on a goal.

"I want to go to Slytherin!"

Lyon glanced at Harry in surprise. I don't even need to brainwash you?

He was so receptive that all the arguments Lyon had prepared suddenly seemed useless.

"I want to go to Slytherin. I'm not mediocre."

Good, good, good.

If old Dumbledore found out, he would definitely beat Harry to death.

Dumbledore had always been using various means to guide Harry toward Gryffindor, making him braver and giving him the strength to defeat Voldemort.

From sending Hagrid to fetch Harry to arranging the Weasley family, it had all been part of Dumbledore's plan.

The plan to defeat Voldemort.

But Lyon had disrupted it.

Although Lyon had no intention of becoming Dumbledore's enemy, he would not leave the task of defeating Voldemort to Harry either.

Who said he wanted to defeat Voldemort? What if Voldemort's interests did not conflict with his?

Besides, if Harry did it, who knew whether some Butterfly Effect might create unforeseen variables?

Since coming to this world, he had realized that he had already caused many Butterfly Effects.

Lyon thought for a while, sorting through his recent thoughts. When he looked at Harry again, he found Harry's gaze resolute, with none of the weakness and inferiority from the past few days...

Had he completely turned into a little Slytherin already?!

"Sunflower seeds, peanuts... ah, no, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, pumpkin pasties, Chocolate Frogs..."

Suddenly, the compartment door opened. A witch stood outside. "Would you like some snacks?"

Lyon swept his gaze over everyone and saw that they were all eager to try something. Smiling, he nodded. "Leave the whole trolley here. How much is it altogether?"

The witch froze. "You said... what?"

Lyon frowned. "Didn't you understand, or was I unclear?"

The witch hurriedly nodded, even beginning to address him as "sir."

"It comes to forty-two Galleons and six Sickles... what do you think?"

"Here are fifty Galleons. Keep the rest as a tip."

Lyon accepted politely, and amid the stunned stares of everyone in the compartment, he successfully bought the entire trolley.

Lyon had recently exchanged a full three hundred thousand Galleons through the Malfoy Family, practically squeezing Birmingham dry.

Prices in Birmingham had clearly fallen quite a bit.

Just after the compartment door closed, Lyon turned around and saw the Weasley Twins wearing sly expressions.

"Hehe, sir, would you like to see the inventions we made?"

"Things you definitely can't find on the market."

"Specialized prank items, and even Jinx-Proof Armor!"

The two chimed in one after the other. Lyon lightly waved his hand downward. "Sit down first."

The Weasley Twins were clearly a little disappointed, but Lyon's next words immediately excited them.

"I'm somewhat interested in your products. Actually, I want to invest in you."

As Lyon spoke, he picked up a Chocolate Frog and handed it to Hermione beside him, then piled a large heap of snacks onto the table.

"Neville, Harry, help yourselves."

In everyone's eyes, this did not make him seem like a nouveau riche. Instead, he remained calm and composed, as though he had long ceased to care about such things.

When a person's wealth or status reached a certain level, they would find that such things no longer meant much.

And Lyon was exactly like that.

He still had three hundred thousand Galleons, and Lucius Malfoy had once mentioned in casual conversation with him that

as long as one held a certain status in Wizarding Society, one could use internal channels to exchange large sums of pounds for money at Gringotts.

Lyon had previously wondered how Lucius Malfoy could purchase Galleons in such large quantities. He had not expected the Wizarding Society system to be so loose.

"Alright, show me your Jinx-Proof Armor."

After eating a Chocolate Frog, Lyon clapped his hands. The truth was, he had already been tempted the moment he heard that the Weasley Twins had Jinx-Proof Armor.

If every Razor Gang member could be equipped with one, it might seem like just a piece of Jinx-Proof Armor, but if more than a thousand people each had one, it would be a qualitative improvement.

The Weasley Twins had not yet realized the value of their inventions. Without Lyon, they might not have understood how powerful their creations were until their fifth year.

In their previous lives, they had rented a shop in Diagon Alley and developed the Ironclad Wizard Robe, which even the Ministry of Magic would order from them.

In truth, Lyon wanted even more to bring the two directly under his command, but it was still too early. He needed to wait until he had established himself at Hogwarts for a while.

"Come on, Fred. Let our customer see the armor we developed ourselves."

George excitedly pulled a robe-like garment from his bag. Harry and Neville also looked at it curiously.

"It doesn't look like anything special." Neville scratched his head.

Fred looked inscrutably at Neville as though he were staring at a fool.

"No, no, no. Think bigger. We went all in with every Galleon we had to research this. There's an old saying in the East: going all in is an art."

Lyon found that rather amusing. For some reason, it suddenly sounded like something a motivational guru would say.

"Come on, let our esteemed customer have a look..." Fred said, pulling out his wand. "Stupefy!"

A blue beam suddenly shot from the tip of his wand and struck the robe in his hand at incredible speed.

George stood behind the robe, but the moment the spell struck it, the robe seemed to come alive. A thin layer of magic suddenly appeared across its fabric.

The magic instantly gathered where George had just fired, and a moment later, a purple glow blossomed from the robe as it slowly absorbed the spell Fred had cast!

"See? What do you think?" Fred eagerly awaited Lyon's praise. Lyon nodded; he was already quite satisfied with the effect.

"Are there any spells it can't block?" Lyon asked. At this point in time, Fred and George should not yet possess the brilliance they would have a few years later. He remembered that they seemed to still be researching pranks at this stage.

The Jinx-Proof Armor had indeed been impressive just now, but he could not yet determine the quality of the garment.

"Oh, to be honest, esteemed customer, our armor can currently only defend against the most basic jinxes, at most something like Stupefy. If you want it to defend against Dark Magic, it really can't do that."

George honestly explained the nature of the Jinx-Proof Armor, and Lyon nodded.

"How about this? Would you be interested in helping me research more advanced magical items? I see the aura of genius in you."

"I can give you one hundred Galleons a month. No, one hundred Galleons is a little too little. Make it two hundred Galleons."