Chapter 31
Albert stepped out of the forest and glanced at his pocket watch. To his surprise, it was already past midnight. He quickened his pace toward the castle.
Passing by Hagrid's hut, he noticed the lights inside were off. It seemed Hagrid had somewhat recovered from the pain of losing Norbert the dragon and was now asleep.
As Albert reached the castle gates, he cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself. Quietly, he made his way up several large staircases, slowly returning to the Gryffindor Tower through a series of small detours.
Yet, until he reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, he did not see any teachers patrolling.
Albert marveled at his luck. Once back in the common room, he simply washed up and went to bed, falling asleep in complete darkness.
The next morning, during breakfast in the Great Hall, Albert sat at the Gryffindor table with dark circles under his eyes. Even with the mental maturity of someone in their twenties—his mind a blend of fourteen years from his previous life and eleven years in this one, totaling twenty-five—he knew that staying up late like last night was beyond what an eleven-year-old body could handle. Next time, he resolved, he would return earlier after a night out.
That morning, the hall was noisier than usual. Albert overheard several students mentioning Harry Potter repeatedly.
"What's going on?" Albert asked Percy, who sat beside him.
"You don't look well, no wonder you don't know. Last night, my brother Ron and Harry lost a hundred points all at once. It's really disappointing," Percy said, shaking his head helplessly.
Clearly, there was no Malfoy snitch this time. So why had so many points been deducted from Harry and the others? Albert was puzzled.
He couldn't guess the reason on his own, so he wanted to ask Harry and the others. However, Harry and Ron had been hiding from others during class.
Albert only found Harry and the group in an empty classroom after the afternoon session ended. Hermione was already there, scolding Harry and Ron as usual.
Albert sat on the edge, listening to Hermione's reprimand, finally understanding how Harry and the others had been caught.
After they parted ways in the hallway, Harry and the two went straight to Hagrid to receive the dragon in a wooden crate, then smoothly transported it to the Astronomy Tower.
Judging by the timing, when news arrived that the dragon had entered the castle, Albert was still wandering in circles with Peeves.
No wonder Albert hadn't seen Harry and the others rushing to the hallway earlier—they were already upstairs by then.
However, after seeing the dragon, Harry and Ron were so excited that they forgot to wear their Invisibility Cloaks. As a result, they were easily caught wandering the castle by Filch.
No wonder Albert didn't encounter the caretaker when he returned the night before. By that time, Filch had already taken Harry and the others to find Professor McGonagall, and no one was patrolling the corridor.
After Hermione finished scolding Harry and the others, she turned to Albert and said, "You're lucky. Don't be reckless next time. If Peeves had appointed another professor for the night patrol yesterday, not just 100 points but 150 points would have been deducted."
Albert had initially thought the turmoil from the point deductions would die down soon, but he hadn't expected things to get worse.
Harry, once one of the most popular students, suddenly became a target. Even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students avoided him, since everyone wanted to see Slytherin lose the House Cup.
Wherever Harry went, people pointed at him and insulted him openly. Yet, when he passed by Slytherins, they clapped, whistled, and cheered, "Thanks, Potter! You've really helped us!"
Ron was suffering too; no one wanted to talk to him except his brother.
Albert saw this as blatant school bullying—an awful situation—but he couldn't change the academy's ill will toward Harry and the others.
In Albert's view, it stemmed from jealousy over Harry's past fame, and Gryffindor's hotheaded nature only worsened the atmosphere.
But for Albert, whose mind neared twenty-five years of maturity, seeing a group of kids bullying another made him want to intervene. Moreover, this kind of bullying went directly against Ryan's moral values. (Though Albert's mental age was twenty-five, he had never experienced marriage, love, or such matters, since he died young in his previous life. So don't misunderstand—he's not a pedophile or anything like that.)
During evening homework discussions, Albert suggested to his classmates that Harry deserved a chance to fix things. After all, point deductions were common in Gryffindor, and with Harry suffering so many, who else would face penalties tomorrow?
Besides, Gryffindor students shouldn't fight among themselves while other houses laughed.
His words had some effect. Although no one had spoken directly to Harry yet, at least they stopped insulting him in front of him.
Furthermore, Albert and Hermione worked hard to answer questions in class, trying to recover some of the lost points.
Yet Harry remained moody. Now in Albert's study group, he sat quietly in a corner with Ron, silently reviewing until late every night—diligently memorizing complicated potion recipes, spells, and the dates of great magical inventions and goblin rebellions.
One day, Albert and Hermione quizzed each other in the library while Ron quietly held a celestial map beside them—there was only a week left until exams.
Suddenly, Harry came in from outside, telling them he'd heard that Quirrell might have surrendered to Snape, and that Quirrell had sounded a note of defeat to the forces of evil.
Hearing this, Ron said, "That means the path to the Philosopher's Stone is clear for Snape. After all, he's a professor who's applied for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position several times. That means he should get it. But do we have enough means to deal with that three-headed dog?"
"Tell Headmaster Dumbledore," Albert rubbed his forehead. "After all, Dumbledore placed the Philosopher's Stone in the school. He's a White Wizard with the power to fight all the evil forces watching over the Stone."
In truth, Albert could defeat the big dog himself. But he knew that despite his power, fighting the big dog would cause a huge commotion throughout the school. So he thought carefully and agreed to let Dumbledore handle it.
Hermione added, "If you act alone this time, Harry, you could get expelled."
But Harry still resisted. He said Dumbledore thought Quirrell, the coward, wouldn't stand with them as a witness.
Everyone knew they all had a grudge against Snape, and there was no way to act without solid proof of Snape's guilt.
More importantly, Harry felt students theoretically shouldn't know anything about the Philosopher's Stone or the trap, and it would be hard to explain all this to Dumbledore.
This was the thinking of a child who couldn't yet grasp the importance of things. Dumbledore should have known what everyone did that night outside. Yet, to avoid disrupting Dumbledore's warrior training plan, Albert didn't point this out and allowed Harry
to do as he wished.
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