"That's right, it's just a stone."
After Dumbledore appeared, he didn't immediately speak to Harry or take the Philosopher's Stone from Hermione. Instead, he happily agreed with Ethan's words and praised Ethan for saving Harry earlier.
"The spell you cast just now was very accurate and timely. I noticed you didn't use an incantation or a staff."
Silent and wandless casting were advanced techniques that many adult wizards still couldn't perform. Even minor spells couldn't be cast without a staff or chant by ordinary wizards.
Ethan was still so young and had only studied magic at Hogwarts for one year...
The others didn't fully understand what Dumbledore meant, but Harry was the first to react.
"It was you who pulled me back just now?"
"No need to thank me. We're all classmates at Hogwarts."
"That's right, you are all Hogwarts students, classmates, partners, and should help one another."
Dumbledore appreciated this kind of camaraderie and laughed so hard his beard trembled.
Only then did he take the Philosopher's Stone from Hermione. As Headmaster of Hogwarts and the most powerful wizard in the current magical world, the Philosopher's Stone was absolutely safe in his hands.
When Hermione handed the Philosopher's Stone to Dumbledore, Harry and Ron both let out a sigh of relief, as if they had just completed an important task. Their faces even showed a sense of pride.
They were proud that they had thwarted Voldemort's plot to steal the Philosopher's Stone.
After receiving the Philosopher's Stone, Dumbledore praised them, even offering detailed feedback on how they handled each of the earlier defensive traps.
Listening to this, Ethan felt more and more like everything that had happened today had been part of Dumbledore's plan. He was clearly grooming Harry.
"And Ethan Arendelle! You made the right decision at the right time, helping your classmate Harry Potter escape the enemy's grasp."
If the setting hadn't been inappropriate, Ethan would have thought Dumbledore was about to follow that up with a, "Fifty points to Slytherin!"
But if that had really happened, Slytherin might have firmly surpassed Gryffindor, even though Gryffindor had been receiving a ridiculous number of points from Dumbledore.
As it turned out, Ethan still underestimated Dumbledore's shamelessness.
At the House Cup ceremony shortly after—which tallied the performances of all four houses throughout the year and awarded the cup to the highest scorer—Ethan's contribution did give Slytherin a score higher than in the original timeline. But Dumbledore shamelessly gave even more points to the Gryffindor trio. Even Rin, who had only tagged along for the fun and watched the entire thing from the sidelines, was awarded points and she didn't even know why.
As a result, Gryffindor unsurprisingly overtook Slytherin and won the House Cup. News of Harry foiling Professor Quirrell's plan and protecting the Philosopher's Stone quickly spread throughout the school.
As for Ethan's timely intervention to save Harry and the fact that the Philosopher's Stone had been in Ethan's hands the entire time, not a word of that was mentioned.
"Tsk~"
Ethan had long expected this. After all, there could only be one 'protagonist', and it had to be Harry Potter. No one else could outshine him. Everyone else existed only to support him or help him shine.
Even Malfoy, who had inexplicably become one of Harry's helpers during the event, looked particularly bitter. At this point, he didn't even care about his one-sided 'conflict' with Ethan. It was as if the two of them were now united comrades.
"That's not fair. If you hadn't helped, that guy would've been in big trouble, and the Philosopher's Stone would've been... you know who's."
"Being in the spotlight... isn't necessarily a good thing."
Harry was a walking target. Dumbledore might not yet understand why Voldemort was so fixated on him, but Harry's existence gave Voldemort a clear goal, making it easier to bait and trap him.
After all, this wasn't a children's book where logic could be discarded for the sake of the story.
In the real world, most things happened with purpose. If that weren't the case, Ethan couldn't understand why Dumbledore would arrange things the way he had. Surely Harry wasn't born with some strange protagonist aura that influenced those around him? At least Ethan hadn't sensed any powerful law-based forces acting on him.
"Why isn't it a good thing?"
Completely ignoring the strange looks from those around him, Malfoy leaned in and asked directly.
Ethan glanced at the curious Malfoy beside him, unsure how to respond. Draco hadn't truly sided with Voldemort yet—in fact, he didn't even know his family were Death Eaters. Judging from his future actions, Draco wasn't completely irredeemable. His conflict with Harry was more like childish squabbling.
Later on, he even became friends with Harry and took a very different path from his father, eventually rejecting the pure-blood ideology.
But just because Draco could be saved didn't mean he was a trustworthy insider now. If Ethan told him the truth, these kids would probably spread it across the entire magical world. Whether his guess was right or wrong, the idea that Dumbledore was using Harry as bait to attract Voldemort would become a certainty.
"You'll understand in time."
"Tsk."
Malfoy, thinking Ethan was brushing him off, returned to his usual demeanor. He sullenly distanced himself and 'returned' to his own circle of friends, continuing to complain about Harry Potter, that lucky brat, and Dumbledore's blatant bias against Slytherin.
Due to Dumbledore's immense prestige, even these proud pure-blood kids didn't dare to speak ill of him openly. Claiming he was biased against Slytherin was about the most they could say.
Listening to these kids chatter, the first school year at Hogwarts came to a quiet end.
Next, all students would return to their dorms to pack up, then take the train to leave Hogwarts, disbanding at the station and returning home for the summer.
Hogwarts did have other breaks during the year. For example, students could leave or stay at school over Christmas. But during summer vacation, no students were allowed to remain at school.
If he had the option, Ethan would've definitely chosen to stay behind and make full use of the time. If possible, he even wanted to copy all the books from the library into his Book of Inheritance.
The magic book Merlin had given him back then was still the only item Ethan used regularly. But its main function was no longer for casting spells, it had truly become a 'book'.
He still hadn't fully digested all the magical knowledge Merlin had passed on. Over the years, he had recorded all kinds of information whenever he had the chance. If this knowledge were printed into actual books, it would be enough to fill a library.
Even so, Ethan wasn't satisfied. He wanted to copy and record everything useful—or even useless. After all, the Hogwarts library was filled with obscure and mysterious knowledge, and that was one of the main reasons he had come here to study.
"What a pity."
Now all he could do was pack up and prepare to take the train back for summer break. The real headache was figuring out how to spend that vacation.
The companions who had come here with Ethan gathered together once again.
Even though they were all in the same school, due to the house system and differing class schedules, combined with each person's personality and preferences, the group had hardly assembled together throughout the year.
Sometimes they were all in the same space, like the Great Hall, but each sat with their respective houses. Sometimes they bumped into each other in the common areas, but always with other classmates around.
Even when they met privately, it was usually only two or three of them at a time, never the full group.
Especially Logan, who had practically disappeared this year. Even the Gryffindor students rarely knew what he was up to.
"How was your year?"
"Not bad!"
Logan had gotten used to replacing his cigarette cravings with snacks. On top of that, he excelled in Herbology because he had been searching for magical plants that could replace tobacco. When that failed, he started cultivating new varieties himself. While the results didn't meet expectations, Professor Sprout had taken a special interest in him.
Logan was probably the most average in terms of performance. The others—Leah, Scáthach, Illya, even Rin—were all top students in their respective houses. Ethan had even become Snape's favorite student, receiving extra one-on-one instruction. The tutoring wasn't limited to Potions either, allowing Ethan to get through parts of the second- and third-year curriculum in advance.
As for more advanced knowledge, it wasn't that Ethan couldn't learn it. It was that Snape refused to teach him any further. He told Ethan very seriously that he needed to properly digest what he'd already learned. Rushing to master advanced magic wasn't wise.
Given that, Ethan didn't push too hard to 'squeeze' more out of Snape… In fact, because of Snape's care for him, Ethan had made a decision: Snape must not die.
But that wasn't urgent yet. For now, Ethan's real headache was still...
"How should I spend this summer?"
"Find another world to pass the time?"
(To be continued.)