Chapter 11: First Steps on the Hogwarts Express
Rather than running headfirst at a brick wall like so many other idiots, Tom simply eased his way through the bricks casually like he always belonged there.
After he got over the novelty of a giant red train appearing out of nowhere just as Diagon Alley had he realized that this had about zero difference from any other train platform, aside from the people it serviced.
(Did these wizards not realize the implications, the power and potential, that they had, bending time and space like that? For all their ingenuity, Muggles were still working their arses off trying to figure out subatomic physics and astronomy and all that, and then these wizards who don't even have the concept of the scientific method down create volumetric anomalies like Americans shot guns!)
Yeah, I don't really get space-expansion charms, either.
I don't get the concept of "poor wizards." They shouldn't need gold to buy anything except food. Theoretically they could all live in mansions the size of closets.
Probably because not everyone is a genius like you, Mr. I-learned-how-to-conjure-furniture-before-Hogwarts.
I still have to learn these space-expansion charms, though. I still can't wrap my head around the concept of something being bigger on the inside than the outside. And I still can't understand why a simple incantation makes things that much easier.
Well, it doesn't, does it? At least, not for you. Those charms are actually pretty advanced – most wizards take a long time to master it, if they can at all, even with the incantation. You've only had your wand for a little over a month.
I guess you're right.
For now, let's just get on the train, find a bathroom or an empty compartment, and fix your robes. Can't have you making allies in rags.
They're not…rags, Tom protested indignantly. They might not be top-of-the-line designer robes, but I made sure that they didn't come from the bottom of the bin.
Whatever. It shouldn't take you long to make them look new, even if you didn't have magic.
Why do you say that?
Really? You're an orphan living in Great Britain. You should have gotten all of your fingers chopped off in a textile factory at the age of five.
For your information, the Victorian era ended a few decades ago, you old man.
Old man? YOU'RE the one who was born in nineteen-freaking-twenty-six.
Now, now, respect your elders.
Damn it. You're learning.
Sucker.
But Tom did end up fixing up the frayed edges and reapplying some of the faded dye on the uniform that he had brought along in his carry-on bag.
Really, compared to some of the things that he had been attempting in the past few weeks, it was a walk in the park.
He wasn't changing the chemical composition of anything, nor was he stretching his mind to visualize a situation that wasn't common knowledge. Fixing clothes was something all the orphans had experience with.
The only tricky part was making him look good enough so that people wouldn't turn up their noses at him right away, without making him look too snobbish that it became obvious.
Seeing as Dumbledore had shopped with him and everything. Besides, pulling the "poor little orphan" card could be helpful at times.
Now what?
Now, we look for potential allies. If there's an established group, leave them alone and don't try to take them on until you have an established group of your own.
Now, if they're a group of newly formed friends, as in, they look like they still don't know each other that well, then by all means, worm your way in and subtly establish yourself as a leader.
Understood. As mentioned before, while Jerry was the idea man, Tom was best at practical applications.
He had done this all the time in the orphanage and at school, easy. In all seriousness the orphanage probably had prepared Tom better for life than two loving parents – there were certain skills useful to future politicians that could be picked up in childhood, especially when one was constantly surrounded by large numbers of other children.
There was no escape for Tom. If a regular kid got bullied at school, he could at least come crying home to his parents.
But orphans were surrounded by the unsympathetic public day in and day out. It may not have been the most nurturing environment, but the few who thrived (read: Tom) could become especially used to the same group behavior in adults.
They were sheep, the lot of them.
If, in another life, Tom was reborn as a wolf, he'd be ready.
And also, don't surround yourself with cronies. Having useless friends is helpful simply because it makes your support base look bigger than it is, but you also need relatively smart people to cancel it out.
So, in short: look for loners who seem relatively smart, gather them all up into a group, and then start assimilating the other stragglers like the Soviets annex territory, until your group is large enough to cannibalize the pre-formed cliques?
…Yes. Yes, exactly like that.
Maybe we should just abandon Hogwarts and make a living as a sociologist.
We'd probably get into trouble for expressing fascist ideas or something.
Damn the status quo!
The first person Tom happened to run into was an abnormally short boy (even for an eleven-year-old) named Filius that just absolutely had to be part-goblin given the shape of his ears and limb-torso proportions.
Now, how his parents thought cross-species interbreeding would be possible was a mystery to both of them, although Jerry seemed more bothered by it than he did.
Tom was more concerned about the implications of this genetic mixing and wondered if any new diseases could be introduced to humans in this manner. On the other hand, Jerry seemed rather confused as to how a child could even be produced in the first place.
Well, goblins are relatively humanoid, Tom suggested, so maybe they have a functional but sterile child. Kind of like how mules come from horses and donkeys.
I mean position-wise. How would that even work? There has got to be at least a 1-meter height difference between the parents…and don't even get me started on Hagrid; that guy's half-giant. How would his father have even reached…?
What position? I don't understand.
Never mind.
Half-giant?
He's a bit younger than you. I think you'll meet him in your third or fourth year?
This is SO weird.
------
Want to jump 30+ chapters ahead right now?
You can read the advanced chapters and support me directly on p 4 treon.
Link in the synopsis & profile: p 4 treon > ForgottenDaoist