First Encounter

Ryan stood in the crowd, but couldn't help but laugh. The person he wanted to be as a child had appeared in front of him in such a dramatic way.

Although I've read the original books, I feel like I'm seeing an old friend when I see Harry Potter, who accompanied me through my childhood. In fact, I've been forcing myself not to go to 4 Privet Drive to observe this boy who shares my fate for almost four years now. Under these circumstances, I shouldn't be laughing.

But with Ryan's physique, even on a high-speed train, Ryan could see clearly. Harry Potter was pressed tightly against the glass, his nose flat and big, looking very comical, which, combined with his green eyes, was absolutely hilarious.

Ryan suppressed the urge to smile, his entire being hovering in mid-air like an invisible ghost, pressed tightly against Harry's carriage, completely absorbed in observing Harry Potter.

Harry as a whole, no, as a wizard, is very strange.

Unlike ordinary wizards, he had traces of three kinds of magic on his body.

One is love, selfless maternal love, which tightly binds every inch of his skin and even his soul.

The second kind of magic gives people a cold and ominous feeling. It is cold, lifeless, and deeply intertwined with Harry Potter's own magic. If Ryan's Detection skills had not reached level 5 in the past three years, he probably would not have been able to detect this.

The third, of course, is Harry Potter's own magic, which is incredibly pure and full of life, like morning dew. It's hard to imagine that a child who grew up in a cold and abusive environment could possess such magic.

"I'm really stuck in a cognitive bias. The magic of love—isn't Harry Potter the best example of it?"

"Truly rare, the first living Horcrux in history." Ryan couldn't help but think, while blurring his body into the dimension where Smith Castle was located, thus avoiding the suddenly appearing tunnel.

Horcrux are the exact opposite of a person's soul.

When the human body serves as a vessel for the soul, damage to the body will not harm the soul.

Whether the soul fragments in Horcrux can survive depends entirely on whether its container is intact.

Once the container is damaged beyond repair, the soul fragments inside will also disappear.

Harry Potter is the vessel, which gives Ryan a sense of déjà vu, like seeing a magical version of a Jinchūriki from Naruto.

Voldemort was defeated on October 31, 1981, by the Avada Kedavra, which was a direct hit from Lily Evans's protective charm, and was reduced to a form even lower than the lowest ghost.

At that very moment, Voldemort marked Harry Potter and created a Horcrux that he himself was unaware of.

The Horcrux's protection of their own bodies, Lily Evans's love spell that sacrificed herself, and Harry Potter's own suppressed magic—these three elements had long since merged into one over a decade.

Whenever Harry Potter is threatened or emotionally charged, Voldemort's side, along with Lily Evans's love, will appear to protect Harry.

Just like Quirrell, who was perfectly fine holding Harry's hand in the Leaky Cauldron, but when Harry's life was threatened, Quirrell slapped Harry's protective hands in the face and fell to the ground.

Even if Quirrell has Voldemort in him, Harry also has one-seventh of Voldemort. It's hard to say who's the older brother and who's the younger brother.

As the train rattled along, the portion of Harry's magic belonging to Lily Evans gradually became active, with invisible magical threads constantly emanating from 4 Privet Drive, Harry's only maternal relative.

From Ryan's perspective, Harry's negative emotions—having just been separated from Dursley and about to see the Hagrid again—were diluted by an inexplicable love, and the Voldemort part of him was once again digested.

That one-seventh of Voldemort had long since become pure magic. The fragments of his soul remained, but his consciousness had become chaotic, serving only as a part of Harry Potter, his weapon against the outside world.

Yes, every Horcrux possesses self-awareness, can think and manipulate others, and even revive others by sacrificing their lives, but the one in Harry Potter's body is merely power.

"Is this why Dumbledore insisted on leaving Harry Potter with the Dursleys?"

"To better digest Voldemort's consciousness?" Ryan stroked his chin, remaining ethereal in mid-air, lying on his side.

Ryan finally made his decision. His thinking skills were working at lightning speed, and from the real Smith Castle, a tiny, unobservable candle flame rose from the air and clung to Harry's scar.

"Harry, you have two magical powers in your body now, I'll join in the fun too," Ryan said with a wicked grin.

However, Harry Potter is clearly different from Daniel in the movie version of Harry. The real Harry is more delicate, with more refined features, and his hairstyle is the Potter family's ancestral "bird's nest" hairstyle, neither too long nor too short.

"I'm so envious," Ryan exclaimed. The Potter family's messy hair, though it looked chaotic at first glance, was still quite handsome overall. In fact, each Potter didn't need to get a haircut; their hair would always stay at the same length.

Harry's aunt Petunia once wanted to ruin his terrible haircut, which was just as bad as James's, because every time Harry came back from a haircut, it looked like he hadn't had one at all.

One time, Petunia couldn't hold back any longer and took a pair of scissors from the kitchen and almost shaved Harry's head off, leaving only a tuft of hair in front to "cover his terrible scar."

But when he woke up the next morning, Harry's hair had returned to how it was before Petunia cut it.

This kind of hair and hairstyle that doesn't require any management is truly a blessing for lazy people.

Ryan's hair doesn't have that kind of magic; he can only maintain his clean and neat hair by controlling his body's growth through the Body Modification skills he gains.

Thinking of this, and having just arrived at 4 Privet Drive with Harry, Ryan specially converted another stream of magic—a stream from a Dark Wizard he had encountered while aimlessly wandering Knockturn Alley— in order to divert Dumbledore's Ryan. The magic then vanished from the spot.

The next day, sunlight streamed into Smith Castle's study, where Ryan was reading the latest the Daily Prophet while having breakfast.

Sure enough, besides the unexpected photo and text of Ron holding the gold card, a news article caught Ryan's eye.

The Ministry of Magic raided Knockturn Alley, arresting several Dark Wizards. According to an unnamed source, this was related to Ludo Bagman's illegal gambling scheme.

However, the news of the Dark Wizard's attempt to break into Gringotts has not yet been published. As far as Ryan knows, Quirrell broke into Gringotts right after Hagrid took the Gringotts's Philosopher's Stone hidden there.

"Oh? What a pity. If Ludo Bagman gets arrested, what will happen to the VIP tickets for the Arthur Weasley family's fourth-year Quidditch World Cup? Will Harry Potter still go to the Quidditch World Cup?"

"Is there any chance that Little Crouch. could escape and be discovered by Voldemort?"

"No, Voldemort went to the Crouch family on his own. He learned about Little Crouch. from Bertha Jorkins." Ryan breathed a sigh of relief.

At the same time, a vague skill begins to emerge: Love lv1 (1%).