Severus, That Man Had Returned

Lyon returned to his dormitory. It was a private single room, around a dozen square meters. The bed and blankets had already been made, and there was a desk for work beside it. The warm yellow lighting made the place feel especially cozy.

This would be the little home where he lived for the next few years.

After sorting out his thoughts, Lyon opened the system panel.

[Host Panel]

[Name: Lyon Shelby]

[Magic Power: Level 7]

[Talents:

1. Surging Magic: The host's magic power is doubled.

2. Dark Magic Prodigy: You can easily learn and master any Dark Magic through study and practice.

3. Spellcasting Genius: You can easily learn and master any ordinary spell.]

[Mastered Spells: Occlumency (Master), Fiendfyre Curse (Master), Stunning Spell (Nonverbal), Levitation Charm (Master)...]

After giving his panel a cursory look, he discovered that his magic power had actually increased.

"System, why did my magic power increase by two levels?"

[Ding, I don't know.]

Lyon: ...

Still, he had a rough guess. His magic power should grow as he continued using magic.

After practicing spells for a month, he had gained two levels of magic power. As long as he kept studying spells regularly, he could continue increasing his magical strength.

He was now at Level 7. An ordinary adult wizard had magic power at Level 10. Before long—perhaps even within this year—his magic power would surpass that of his peers and reach the level of an ordinary adult wizard!

As he was thinking, he suddenly noticed a red dot in the upper-right corner of his panel.

Lyon frowned and tapped it.

[Because the host turned off system notifications, triggered system events were not announced.]

Only then did Lyon remember that, because he had spent the entire summer practicing spells, he had asked the system to turn off its notifications.

He had not expected it to stop notifying him about achievements too.

[Ding! The host has arrived at Hogwarts and triggered the achievement: Hogwarts Newcomer]

[System reward talent: Magical Creature Affinity!]

[Ding, the host has entered Slytherin House and become a prefect, triggering the achievement: Oh, My Little Razor Gang Members]

[System reward talent: Transfiguration Genius!]

As those two notifications sounded, the two new talents appeared under the Talents section of Lyon's system panel.

Lyon was somewhat speechless. This system seemed specifically designed to annoy him.

Still, those two talents were rather good. Without dwelling on it, Lyon took the Dragon egg out of the pocket that had been enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm.

The Dragon egg was gleaming gold. Lyon picked it up and placed it on the desk, where golden patterns flowed across its surface.

He had previously looked through books on Dragon egg classifications in Diagon Alley, only to find that none of them contained any record of this particular egg.

When he touched it, he found that it was still warm. That meant the heat was being emitted by whatever was inside the egg.

He remembered that Hagrid seemed to have already obtained the Dragon egg named Norbert around this time. Hagrid probably knew something about this.

He had studied the thing for an entire summer and still had no way of hatching it.

Yet the little fellow inside seemed to have remained alive. From time to time, he could hear faint cracking sounds.

By the time he had sorted through his thoughts, it was already midnight, so Lyon went to sleep.

Meanwhile, in a tower within Hogwarts, in a room at the very top.

"Dumbledore, has there been any news from the Austrian Ministry of Magic?"

Snape's gaze was anxious, and his hands clenched tightly beneath his robes. His conversation with Lyon tonight had set his thoughts in motion.

Behind the desk, Dumbledore nodded slightly and let out a breath.

"Severus, I understand how you feel, but Harry's plan is foolproof. Isn't Voldemort right under your nose now?"

"No, not Voldemort. I have a powerful feeling that the force emerging in London will disrupt all our plans."

The two fell silent for a long while. Dumbledore did not answer.

After a long time, Snape stared directly into Dumbledore's eyes.

"Tell me. Do you know something?"

Silence.

Dumbledore stroked the feathers of the Phoenix before him and sighed.

"The Saints have begun gathering. If Grindelwald's power had not recovered, the Saints could never have gathered."

"I cannot stop it. I stopped him once before. This time..."

He paused. Snape's mouth fell open as he stared at Dumbledore in disbelief.

At last, he processed what he had just heard.

"When did you find out?"

"A few days ago."

"Why?"

Snape suddenly stood up, his furious voice echoing throughout the Headmaster's Office.

"Must you always keep all your schemes and calculations locked inside your own head? Why didn't you tell me about something like this?!"

"You know it, Harry Potter is Lily's child. He..."

Suddenly, Snape's voice was cut off. Dumbledore looked at him calmly. "This has nothing to do with Harry."

After hearing that, Snape inexplicably let out a breath of relief, though his eyes remained fixed on Dumbledore.

"He isn't Voldemort. He is Grindelwald."

"I am old, Severus. I am old."

"Do you remember that little fellow in your House? I believe he is more capable than I am of handling those matters."

Snape frowned. "You mean Shelby? How could he be? He is only... only..."

"Yes, Severus, yes. But you cannot keep placing all your hopes on these old bones of mine."

Dumbledore fell silent and closed his eyes, as though he had fallen asleep.

Snape sat motionless in his seat, his brows tightly furrowed.

The night passed like that.

The next morning, among the long tables of the four Houses, only the Slytherin first-years sat quietly, not daring to make a sound.

From time to time, several first-years glanced toward Lyon before quickly lowering their heads to eat obediently, not daring to make any unnecessary movements.

In contrast, the long tables of the other Houses were buzzing with discussion.

"Oh, Lyon, there you are—the new king of Slytherin!"

"Lyon, I heard you used the Fiendfyre Curse last night and burned Malfoy and the other two until they were left with nothing but their underwear?"

Lyon sat at the table, forcefully cutting into an exquisite steak in front of him when the voices of the Weasley Twins reached him.

After speaking, the twins swept their eyes around the long table and found that Malfoy and the other two truly were absent, confirming their suspicions.

Their voices were not loud, but virtually everyone at the Slytherin table could hear them.

However, those words sounded particularly harsh to several prefects from other years farther away.

"And that Fire Shield—how did you learn it?"

Fred spoke with an amazed expression, unable to hide his excitement. Upon hearing him, the little Slytherin snakes around them curiously pricked up their ears, wanting to hear how Lyon had done it.

But Lyon merely shook his head.

"What do you mean?" George frowned.

"If you practice the Fiendfyre Curse to the master level, you can cast Fire Shield too."

The smiles instantly vanished from the Weasley Twins' faces, replaced by expressions that said, Are you kidding us?

"If we could learn it, would we even be asking you?"

Lyon did not answer. He stuffed the steak into his mouth, wiped his hands with a napkin, then rummaged through his pocket again.

A moment later, he actually pulled out a bag.

The bag was bulging. It was not large, but the Weasley Twins suddenly seemed to realize something.

"Lyon... you aren't planning to..."

Bang.

The bag landed on the table, producing a series of crisp metallic clinks.

"I was a little busy yesterday. We promised each other on the train—there are a thousand Galleons in this bag. This is your research funding. Take it and use it first."

Everyone at the long table had their attention drawn to Lyon's bulging bag of gold Galleons. They all stared at him in disbelief.

A thousand Galleons? Lyon had brought a thousand Galleons with him to school?

No, probably more than a thousand Galleons. Didn't he casually hand this thousand Galleons over to the Weasley Twins without a second thought?

The question was, why give it to them? Had the Weasley Twins sold their asses or something?

Only when they heard the words "research funding" did everyone understand, but they still stared at the Weasley Twins in disbelief.

A full thousand Galleons would have been enough even to invest in a professional magical item development team!

Why would Lyon invest in the Weasley Twins? Did he really have so much money that it was burning a hole in his pocket?

But Lyon paid no attention to the looks around him.

"Alright, this period is Charms. Slytherin students, follow me."

Lyon stood up. Seeing this, the other Slytherin first-years swiftly rose in unison and followed behind him.

No one wanted to provoke Lyon just after he had taken up the position of prefect.

The orderly movement of the first-years quickly drew the attention of the older students seated at the Slytherin table.

At the table, several other Slytherin prefects sat together, their eyes cold as they watched Lyon.

But after glancing toward the professors in the distance, they turned away and stopped paying attention to him.

The group of first-years soon arrived at the tower where Charms was held.