Portal Aftermath

"Good evening, Mr. Hagrid." His clear voice carried across the somewhat noisy platform, drawing even more attention.

"Thank you, as always, for taking responsibility for guiding the new students. However..." His tone shifted, remaining polite yet taking on an unquestionable edge.

"I have carefully reviewed Hogwarts' rules, and there does not seem to be any explicit rule stating that all first-year students must follow your guidance and cross the Black Lake by boat in order to reach the castle for the Sorting Ceremony. That arrangement is more for the students' safety, as well as... well... a long-standing and charming tradition, isn't it?"

Hagrid was taken aback. He scratched his shaggy beard and said in a rumbling voice, "Er... well... tradition's part of it, but it's mainly for safety! The Black Lake isn't peaceful at night, and there's the giant squid..."

"Precisely because of safety concerns," Elliot Norton calmly took over from Hagrid, the smile on his face deepening slightly though there was no warmth in his eyes.

"As a current Hogwarts student, and an apprentice Auror who has just received official recognition as capable of handling unexpected magical incidents, I believe that personally escorting Lord Madara to the castle will fully ensure his safety—perhaps even more reliably than the traditional method. After all..."

He paused lightly, his gaze meaningfully sweeping over Madara's calm, unreadable face. "We need not worry about the boat capsizing, or... the unnecessary 'curiosity' of certain creatures in the lake."

The air fell silent for a moment. Many young wizards held their breath as they watched Hagrid's face flush red and Elliot Norton remain perfectly composed.

Hagrid seemed to want to argue. His huge body leaned forward slightly with agitation, but after looking at Elliot Norton's prefect badge, the obviously valuable staff in his hand pulsing with magic, and then Madara's eyes, which seemed deeper than the darkness itself in the night, Hagrid finally only snorted heavily. "Suit yourselves! But if anything happens..."

"Then I and the Norton family will naturally bear all responsibility," Elliot Norton immediately replied. His tone was relaxed, yet resolute. Turning back to Madara, his posture became respectful and slightly ingratiating once more. "Then, Lord Madara, please allow me to spare you this pointless travel fatigue."

Under countless watching eyes, Elliot Norton gripped the ebony staff with both hands and firmly, solemnly planted its base—not its tip—into the hard stone floor of the platform.

"Portal, open—straight to the other shore!"

He clearly recited an incantation, its syllables ancient and rhythmic.

As he chanted, the enormous cat's-eye gem at the top of the staff suddenly burst forth with brilliant yet non-dazzling silver light!

The light did not scatter. Instead, like living water, it seeped down along the point where the staff touched the ground, tracing out a shape!

In the blink of an eye, a circular portal roughly two meters in diameter slowly spun into being in the open space before Madara. Stable silver runes flowed around its edges, while its interior rippled like water!

The portal was astonishingly stable. It had none of the spatial distortion or unpleasant tearing sensation common to ordinary Portkeys. Instead, it radiated an air of solidity, efficiency, and expense.

Through the rippling "surface" of the portal, the scene on the other side could vaguely be seen—not the Black Lake dock, but a stretch of shore closer to the castle's main entrance, clearly beyond the bounds of the "traditional first-year route."

"This is a directional short-range Portkey reinforced by master Goblins of Gringotts. Its stability and comfort are far beyond those of ordinary products." Elliot Norton explained with a hint of pride, then made a welcoming gesture, his tone carrying a touch of regret.

"Unfortunately, the first-year enrollment procedure requires students to 'cross' the Black Lake, so we cannot teleport directly to the castle gates. Otherwise, we could have spared you this final insignificant walk. Please forgive the inconvenience."

Madara's gaze rested on the steadily rotating portal for a moment. Then he turned and glanced at Norton. "Very good. I'll remember you."

He then stepped forward. As though passing through an ordinary doorway, he entered the silver halo without pausing, and vanished in an instant.

Having received praise, Elliot Norton smiled knowingly. Before entering the portal, he turned back once more and gave the grim-faced Hagrid and the other stunned new students a standard, courteous smile laden with the superiority of a pure-blood family. Then he stepped through as well.

After they vanished, the portal's silver light rapidly contracted and dimmed. At last, together with the runes, it disappeared into the air above the platform like an illusion, leaving behind only the faintest trace where the staff had been planted into the ground.

The entire process had flowed as smoothly as clouds and water. From Elliot's arrival to the pair's disappearance, no more than two minutes had passed. Yet it was like a silent declaration, clearly drawing a line.

An eerie silence fell over the platform. The cold wind seemed even colder.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville stood among the crowd, taking it all in.

Hermione's lips had gone pale from being pressed together. Her fingers tightly gripped her robes, and her eyes were filled with anger at this blatant "privilege" and "rule-breaking," at least in her view, along with a deeper unease—

That upper-year student from the Norton family had clearly not acted on a whim. He had prepared for this long ago. How many pure-blood families did that represent, all favoring and investing in Uchiha Madara?

Ron cursed under his breath. "What's he showing off for... It's just good ancestors and a few filthy coins..."

But beneath his dissatisfaction was a trace of barely noticeable envy and bitterness. The Weasley Family did not have anything so advanced that could casually open a stable portal.

As the ripples of the silver portal completely faded into the night air, the tense and delicate atmosphere on the platform seemed to loosen as well, though it left behind an empty, complicated aftertaste.

Most of the new students still stared blankly at the spot where the portal had vanished, their faces a mixture of lingering shock, confusion, and faint envy or unease.

"All... right! Stop standing around like idiots!" Hagrid's booming voice, still carrying some lingering resentment, shattered the silence like a broken gong.

He vigorously waved the head-sized magical lantern in his hand. Its dim yellow but unusually bright and steady light drove back the deepening night, as though it were also dispelling some invisible pressure. "First-years! Follow me! One after another! Watch your step! This path isn't easy!"

Under his repeated urging, the procession of new students finally began to slowly move again.

They followed behind that swaying, enormous halo of light, stumbling down a steep, damp dirt path that Hagrid had forcibly trampled out toward the shore of the Black Lake below.

With Uchiha Madara's suffocating presence gone, whispers gradually rose among the group like insects awakening.

Ron Weasley walked close beside Harry, carefully avoiding the slippery moss and protruding roots beneath his feet. "What kind of place is this? It's so cold at night... These school robes look fine, but why don't they even have a basic warming charm on them? Cheap mass-produced rubbish, that's what!"

After saying that, he could not help shivering. He tugged at his slightly oversized new black robes, then proudly patted his chest. "Good thing I was smart enough to wear the wool sweater my mum knitted underneath. It's reversible! One side has a normal pattern, and the other uses a Color-Changing Charm that changes color with the temperature! Warm and... uh, at least it's really warm!"

He bumped Harry's shoulder and lowered his voice further, carrying a little indignation and deliberate disdain. "I'm telling you, that red-eye freak—he obviously meant Madara's Sharingan—putting on such a big show with a private carriage and a portal... What's he so proud of?"

"What good is arriving early? He still has to wait obediently at the castle gates! It's not like he can go in alone and get the Sorting Ceremony over with first!" Ron curled his lip, trying to regain some sense of balance with that thought.

[Hahaha, Ron can only be jealous and envious. Our Flower of the Battlefield, Scabbers, absolutely has to make an entrance! Esteemed wizards, could you give this little mouse some support out of love?]