[ Chapter III (3): "SO... I'M ACTUALLY INSIDE OF BLOODY HOGWARTS OF ALL THINGS!?!" ]
[ "God, I can't believe this. I'm actually... beautiful." ] Torrin touches his face, mumbling to himself; his expression of shock, akin to that of a man in a trance— or Narcissus seeing his reflection on the water and falling in love with himself.
Like Narcissus, he stares at the mirror, ignoring the cracks on the corner and the fact that the mirror is dirty. No, instead he stares at his newly acquired features. And what states back at him was not his usual average looking face, but is instead something wildly unfamiliar, non-identical, and is strange to the body Torrin used to remember. To the Torrin Thorpe that he remembers very clearly.
Aside from hus hair color, which is still black and tinge with a little bit of grease— everything else is totally strange and different, his features being the most clearly defined aspect in that manner.
At the mirror stares back a pair of green orbs, which moves whenever he wants to. In amazement, he kept glancing around, watching each and every single time the pair moved. And after some time, he felt satisfied enough, knowing that yes, these beautiful pair of green eyes are now his.
Though he quite liked his eyes, the hair on the other hand, he hates. Not because it's the same color as his original body, or that it's greasy— he had already accepted that last part. No, what he hates is that, his hair is messy and unkempt, and uncut for what seems like months.
He could guess that the original owner of this body had never really known a barber, or how to properly cut his own hair. Luckily, Torrin does; given a scissor, then he would have already cut the length of his hair to his liking.
The hair alone is a problem in its own right, but he guess there's always time to cut it later. Even in this exact same lavatory if he likes, it's a quick fix, but what's not a quick fix is his body which is sunken, and underweight, totally skinny.
[ "Famished." ]
To be precise, he was referring to his lanky hands, lanky legs, and lanky overall limbs with veins visible in his forearms. His cheeks hollow-like due to lack of fats, or/and proper nutrition.
[ "Apparently eating is not the norm for this body, or is this perhaps the norm of this world?" ] He paused, his hand stopped poking his cheeks as he remembers the features of the nurse lady that he met when he first woke up.
Then at the features of the lady in the magical portrait, which was friendly to him. And in remembering that they weren't skinny, or totally unhealthy like this body, he felt annoyed.
[ "This guy...!" ] Realization hit, and the conclusion is that, the original owner of the body apparently doesn't take care of his well-being into consideration. Which results into his now underweight look.
[ "Pity, this guy's handsome." ] Technically he is talking about himself, so in some way, he could be called a narcissist. But he views the body as not belonging to him, and the caretaking of the body for who knows how long, which has been poor.
And in that, he felt a little annoyed— greatly annoyed actually. As an orphan, someone who doesn't have parents, or guardians, he had no choice but to eat anything that was served to him. Every time it was served to him, and in all of those cases, he worked for what he would eat. Either that, or die starving.
You see, food is hard to come by in a strict, lawless-like orphanage. One wherein personal interest is more focused on than the well-being of the children inside, so he wasn't nitpicky. He didn't have the choice to be. In doing so, that habit made him tip on the healthier side of things.
And in occupying a new body, which is opposite of his original, health wise. Torrin finally realized the great importance of a proper meal, especially because he was already panting, out of breath.
In great displeasure he shook his head, already missing his body which wasn't that handsome— plain looking actually. But perhaps looking plain is better than having a heavily underweight body, that's his stance; period.
But he can't go back, he doesn't know how to go back. Should he what? Drown himself in the toilet to try and go back? No, he knows within himself that the chance of that working is slim to none, he reads books with similar premises for christ sake; in Wattpad!
And in those books, the protagonist, or the person in question who woke up in another body, usually they don't go back. Because them occupying another body is either taboo, or an accident, and if they killed themselves. Then they'll die, for real.
Already regretting having gone back to the orphanage, and then getting burnt in an attempt to stop the fire from further spreading. Torrin, he doesn't want to do anything drastic— anything dumb. So he wouldn't drown himself.
Instead forcing himself to accept the fact that he now occupies a new body, in a new timeline, in a new world that seems to have magic.
And funnily enough, a world in which he has a System embedded inside his head. The thing being visible only to him, the thing looking like a vivid hallucination which he can interact with, and at the moment, that said System is still busy downloading. Necessary files.
[ "Hello, internet? Please do tell why you are so, so, so slow?" ] In fairness, it is the 1980s or whatever year the lady spoke earlier— he had already forgotten. The internet isn't the same with the speedy internet that the 21st century knows.
[ 95% DOWNLOADING SHOP'S CREDITS SYSTEM ]
[ 96% DOWNLOADING INVENTORY'S INTER-DIMENSIONAL STORAGE ]
[ 97% DOWNLOADING MAP GUIDE ]
[ 98% DOWNLOADING PLAYER'S LEARNING MECHANISM ON ALCHEMY ]
[ 99% DOWNLOADING EXTRA CURRICULAR-BASED REWARDS ]
For what felt like eternity, Torrin watches the System count up, single digit each time. And each time, another game-like term accompanying it. So in boredom, he kept dragging the text from right-to-left, then from left-to-right.
[ ALCHEMY SYSTEM FULLY DOWNLOADED ]
And before he could even know it, the said System was finally finished downloading. Which made Torrin relieved, as he then finally stopped playing with the floating digitalized text. [ "Finally!" ]
Seconds later, as expected by him, the System's text did in fact change. But unexpectedly, it instead completely disappeared. [ "Huh?" ] Which left behind a confused, previously stoked Torrin; who could only stare in the mirror in shock.
[ "What... just happened?" ] In shock, he couldn't help but chuckle at himself, as he tried to search for the missing System— or any trace at all of the System. To no avail of course. [ "..." ]
For a moment he paused, feeling scammed, angered, bamboozled and backstabbed by the System. Tricked by the entities that control the universe. Lied and not given what was supposedly promised to him— a golden finger.
[ "Bloody luck...!" ] About to curse at the entity above, or whoever controls the world, he wasn't able too, as something else caught his attention. Voices coming outside the lavatory.
He listened closely, even to the point of not breathing, and clearly he could hear high pitched voices; even more high pitched compared to his new body, likely belonging to that of- [ "Children?" ]
Then he remembered what the lady in the painting said, the eccentric rose lady said something about Charms and Classroom earlier— so that might be related to the children outside, I mean, why not?
So to satisfy his curiosity, he changed his attention from the unresponsive System, to instead what is going on outside, as he then slowly peek out his head while trying his best to not act like he doesn't belong in the place. [ "Ehm... wait...? What?!" ]
[ CALEB PENDELTON LVL. 3 ]
[ ELIZA MARY FENNELWICK LVL. 2 ]
[ FELIX ADRIAN GALLOWMIRE LVL. 4 ]
[ "No, wait... wh-what the hell?" ] He in fear of being discovered, hid back inside the lavatory. His pale right hand clutching his already rapidly beating heart, which threatens to leap out of his chest. [ "It-it works...!!" ] The System, it wasn't fraud, it actually worked as promised.
To further test his newfound System-power thing, he then slowly peeked out outside and glanced at the top of the students heads— at the students wearing either a blue or yellow tie, which caught his eye. [ "Oh God, oh God, o-oh God, it actually works!" ]
The System functions, and the students here are confirmed to wear black cloaks, colored neckties— either blue, yellow, or green like Torrin's, which made him piece together something. [ "Wait?" ] That, plus the conversation he "accidentally" keeps picking up outside the lavatory.
[ "I can't believe it, our House was actually able to beat Slytherin in Quidditch! I hope we are able to defeat those Gryffindors." ]
[ "Yeah, I hope so too, but I mean. Our House only won because the Slytherin Players kept getting themselves fouled, to the point that Madam Hooch was annoyed; they deserved it." ]
[ "Ugh, I wasn't able to levitate my quill in the end. Anna, your amazing, you easily levitated yours. Professor Flitwick even gave us 3 points thanks to you." ]
"Slytherin", "Quidditch", "Gryffindor", "Madam Hooch", "Levitate", "Professor Flitwick." [ "Holy fuc-" ] For a moment he paused, mouth agape, the students voices outside slowly disappearing leaving only Torrin; who realized something keenly important.
Those words uttered by the students, plus everything else he had witnessed and heard minutes ago, all of them connected to form a single answer which he himself couldn't believe to be the truth. [ "Hogwarts!!" ] The infamous school.
[ "I'm in bloody Hogwarts, holy- I'm inside Harry Potter. I-I'm a Brit! I'm living inside the Wizarding World. I can actually do magic!" ] As an avid lover of stories, he read about Harry Potter, the series written by one J.K. Rowling— one of the most infamous writer out there still alive. Or, is yet to write in this timeline at the least.
Funnily enough, in this universe, she might not he able to write anything about Harry Potter at all, the orphan boy turned wizarding world golden child. But still, he is inside that world, and he is now occupying a body that studies there, a wizard, and now... as proxy could he be called as a wizard.
[ "Explains everything!" ] He exclaimed.
[ "Explains the painting!" ]
[ "Explains the castle!" ]
[ "Explains the bloody tie!!" ] He fiddled with the green tie tied around his neck, earlier it felt both suffocating and interesting to him. I mean, why does he have to wear green specifically?
Why not blue, or red, or even yellow. No, apparently in this world, or inside this institution at the least, the tie color means something. And that the color of green, blue, red, and yellow means something.
That being, each of the color symbolizes a House of learning— a group, a family, a bloody HOUSE. For green means you belong to Slytherin, red means Gryffindor, blue means Ravenclaw, and finally yellow for Hufflepuff.
Earlier he easily noticed the students wearing either the eye catching blue tie or yellow tier, thus easily making him know that they shared a class, in Charms— house Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.
And funnily enough, the tie around Torrin's neck felt even more suffocating than earlier. As he then adjusted it, loosening it around his neck. Especially because Slytherin is the most hated of them four Houses.
You see, in the First and Second Wizarding War— the renowned murderers, psychopaths, and arsonists all came from the same said house— the Death Eaters of the Dark Lord Voldemort.
For Torrin who knows the inside and out of the Wizarding World through a viewer's perspective, he knows enough that the Slytherin House was created by J.K. to plainly be villains; plain and simple, to oppose the hero's group— Gryffindor, which has Harry Potter, the titular protagonist of the story inside.
In thinking about it, on the bright side, there's a likely chance hat he is of Pureblood, or Half-blood at the least, which gives an advantage in his future endeavors outside of Hogwarts. Because you see, in Magical Britain, those who aren't First-Gen Wizards or Witches are more likely to climb the hierarchy of bigotry. That's a positive.
But the negative is that, he is still a Slytherin, a snake, thus mixed with bad eggs for however long he needs to study inside Hogwarts. And he has a bad feeling about spawning as a Slytherin. Especially with the representation they have, which he read about in his previous life. [ "Out of all the Houses out there!" ] Still, he has no choice in the matter, this the hand he was dealth with, and he needs to play no matter how much he loathes all the high blood, pureblood nonsense.
[ "Argh! Curse it all!" ]
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[ FUN FACT: Hogwarts was founded in the 10th century by four of the greatest witches ad wizards of that time: Godrick Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin. To how they met, we have no idea, and to how they all have such cartoon-like names we've no idea. But what we do know, is that, each of the founders established a House where students are most fit in; courage and bravery for Gryffindor, wisdom and intellect for Ravenclaw, loyalty and hard work for Hufflepuff, and lastly ambition and cunning for Slytherin. ]
[ 10/22/2025 ]
[ 10/23/2025 ]