NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2: The First Half of My Life
Chapter 2: The First Half of My Life
He had been waiting for this day for three years.
Three years, truly a long time.
Felix Harp sat back in his chair, lost in thought, accompanied by the scent of tea, as if his memories were transported back to ten years ago.
Back then, he was still an ignorant 11-year-old, carrying dreams and aspirations, much like a newcomer striving to make a living in the city.
Felix admitted to having great ambition. Anyone with mature thoughts and foreknowledge of certain events wouldn't lack the desire to achieve something meaningful. Consequently, he found himself sorted into Slytherin House as a matter of course.
However, this house, whose keywords were ambition, lineage, and honor, wasn't particularly friendly to him. It had been less than a year since the fall of the enigmatic figure, and remnants of the "pure-blood" ideology still held sway. Slytherin House, as the stronghold of pure-blood families, was undergoing intense internal turbulence.
And precisely during this time, a student from a Muggle orphanage was sorted into Slytherin (though one of his parents might have been a wizard, which wasn't entirely impossible given the circumstances of that era). The magnitude of the impact on them could easily be imagined—indeed, cases like Felix were rare, though not entirely unheard of.
If Felix were just an ordinary person, or even a regular time traveler, his seven years at school might have been filled with terms like "school violence," "bullying," and "indifference," which could have influenced him deeply.
But, unfortunately, Felix wasn't an ordinary person. He was a man (or boy) with a golden finger—a metaphorical ability to improve certain practical magic spells through repeated practice, surpassing his current level of magical theory.
Of course, it wasn't without limits.
For instance, if his magical theory level was at grade 1, he could use extensive, repeated, and ultra-intensive practice to elevate a specific magical spell to grade 2 or even grade 3, although it became progressively more difficult as he went higher.
Although the golden finger wasn't overwhelmingly powerful, it helped him get through the initial awkward period. Reflecting on his first three years at school, one could say it was a masterpiece of "face-slapping" in this magical world:
Before starting school, driven by his curiosity about magic and certain fantasies exclusive to adults, apart from trying out some simple spells, he spent most of his time on mastering two spells: "Petrificus Totalus" and "Protego."
One offensive and one defensive, reflecting his moderate approach to character development in his previous life's games.
Relatively speaking, "Petrificus Totalus" was simpler. After experiencing thousands of dull casting exercises, Felix forcibly advanced it to grade 2. "Protego," on the other hand, was only cast at a barely acceptable grade 1 level.
For someone with near-zero theoretical levels, this was nothing short of a miracle! The magical world should have awarded him a Merlin Badge.
And armed with grade 2 "Petrificus Totalus," in the first week of school, Felix triumphed over the entire Slytherin first-year class, even taking down a second-year boy who had cursed him, leaving him shivering in the restroom for a whole night.
This action had far-reaching consequences, causing even Severus Snape, who had recently become the youngest Slytherin House Head in history, a considerable headache.
Snape had to balance external pressure from other Slytherin parents while dealing with the extremely complex internal conflicts within the house. Fairly speaking, this put the newly appointed Professor Snape's management skills to an extreme test.
But what caused even more headaches for Snape was yet to come. At the end of his first year, Felix defeated the entire second-year class in a magical duel, leaving a considerable number of seats empty at the House Cup celebration.
As a result, during the entire holiday period, Felix was subjected to mandatory school labor—a situation that oddly suited his desires.
Otherwise, he suspected some parents might have paid him a visit with curses in mind! In the circumstances of that time, this wasn't just baseless imagination.
By his second year, under Snape's pressure, Felix had become more restrained, refraining from sending Slytherin students to the infirmary on a large scale. Instead, he did it one by one.
At the end of his third year, Felix Harp had become the de facto strongest student of Slytherin House, a crowned king without a crown. The effects were significant—no one dared to disrespect him within the whole school. Of course, there were still those outside the school who boasted arrogantly, vowing to show him a lesson while he remained within the school's confines.
Yes, Felix had spent a full three years at the school, never going anywhere beyond Diagon Alley to buy his textbooks.
A pitiable school life...
However, as in any story, there are twists, and Felix's came in his fourth year.
During the fourth-year holiday, Felix finally stepped out of the school and, over the course of the break, defeated seven adult wizards who had attempted to attack him, sending them all to Azkaban.
This was quite the sensation at the time, but an even bigger story followed. During Felix's fifth-year entrance feast, he challenged one of the sacred 28 pure-blood families, the Shafiqs, to a pure-blood family duel.
Felix can still recall the moment when the usually composed Professor Snape's jaw dropped and Dumbledore's eyes widened at that audacious request. Quite amusing, really! Felix displayed a childlike smile as he delved into the memories.
The so-called pure-blood family duel was an ancient form of combat, where family members would duel until one side was completely defeated or wiped out!
Even in the most chaotic and disorderly times, this kind of duel was exceedingly rare. However, it had to be admitted that this form of duel existed and hadn't been abolished.
When Felix stood before the sole representative of the Shafiq family, in front of everyone, and systematically followed the ancient duel etiquette to humiliate the Shafiq family (one of the necessary steps in a family duel), the sixth-year Shafiq collapsed on the ground, his body twitching.
Even when Headmaster Dumbledore tried to dissuade him after the feast, Felix held firm to his decision. He remembers what he said to Dumbledore, "Headmaster, the Shafiqs attacked me twice during the summer! Four of them in total! The first time it was one person, and the second time it was three. Do you know what spells they used?"
Dumbledore, his hair graying, had eyes deep with wisdom, but he remained silent.
Felix calmly continued, "They used the Unforgivable Curses, apart from the Killing Curse, the other two. Of course, they didn't succeed. It's hard to believe that even after four years since the fall of the enigmatic figure, people would still do such things."
Dumbledore, sounding somewhat weary, said, "The Shafiqs aren't Death Eaters—at least not all of them. They hold onto pure-blood ideology... a stubborn family."
"But that doesn't make much of a difference to me, does it? They sent four people after me in the summer. As far as I know, the Shafiq family doesn't have a lot of members. Including the elderly and the underage, there are only ten of them, right?"
...
The Shafiq family was far from a match. Felix's combat abilities had been recognized during the summer, and with the four Shafiqs sent to Azkaban, their remaining forces were fewer than four!
They could only resort to using their influence to attempt countermeasures, but the effect was minimal. Before pure-blood families, family honor was of the utmost importance.
This unfinished duel caused quite a stir in the entire British magical world. After nearly half a year of twists and turns, it concluded with the Shafiq family permanently leaving the British magical world. The age-old tradition of pure-blood family duels was also formally abolished through legal means, influenced by a few individuals.
This event came to be known as the 87 Duel Event, with far-reaching consequences. For some staunch families, its impact wasn't lesser than the downfall of Voldemort!
During his fifth-year holiday, Felix visited several pure-blood families. In summary, he had friendly meetings and reached amicable understandings on certain matters.
Felix felt content; pure-blood families were reasonable after all!
During his final two years at Hogwarts, Felix lived peacefully, innocuously delving into the mysteries of magic. When graduation approached, he requested to stay at the school as a teacher. Dumbledore refused on the grounds of his young age. Nevertheless, other than that, he spent his time contentedly, and the little snakes behaved well.
Summing up his seven years of school life, he had a rather enjoyable time.
Of course, Professor Snape might not necessarily think the same way. According to the latest gossip around Hogwarts, a certain professor's unpleasant personality had a connection with a troublesome student from his early years of teaching!