"If you insist on going to that so-called Hogwarts, then you can pay your own fees! The orphanage won't give you a single penny!"
"I understand, Miss Anna."
…
Sean watched as Matron Anna stepped into the common room and gently shut the door behind her.
If the sound was too loud, she'd think you had an attitude. And when Anna thought you had an attitude, dinner would instantly downgrade from cheap pork sausages to baked beans on bread.
And without clean drinking water, baked beans could choke a person to death.
Not that the tap water here was much better, it was unclean, often making kids sick. And once you got sick in this impoverished orphanage on the southern edge of London, death was usually next in line.
How did Sean know that so well?Because the boy who lived in this body before him had died exactly that way.
Disease, cold, and malnutrition had killed him. Ever since Sean "crossed over" last winter, he had kept that lesson carved into his heart.
So he stuck to cheap tea whenever possible, and sometimes even fought older kids for a scoop of instant coffee even though it meant lying awake for two nights straight.
Over the past six months, Sean had pieced together the truth of his situation:
It was late August, 1991.
This was the Harry Potter world.
Specifically, Croydon, one of London's poorest districts.
And the Hollis Orphanage, his "home," was the poorest place in Croydon.
Why? Simple. Because it was the only orphanage here. Founded more for political show than for the children's welfare.
Just like in his old world's Britain, Thatcher had stepped down at the end of 1990.
Her policies had transformed the economy but also deepened the gulf between rich and poor.
The bankers of the City had grown richer than ever, while the industrial areas and inner-city neighborhoods like Croydon were left rotting, factories shut down, jobs gone, public services slashed.
In Hollis Orphanage, that meant five years without proper funding. No safe water. Just one thin blanket to last the winter.
If he didn't get into Hogwarts, Sean wasn't even sure he'd live long enough to see adulthood. His health was that fragile.
A cold or a fever might kill him. Not because London's hospitals were bad, but because the matrons here "somehow failed" to notice sick kids until it was too late.
"Hogwarts doesn't charge tuition," Sean muttered to himself. "And Professor McGonagall already applied for a scholarship to cover the supplies."
From the back of his iron bunk, he pulled out a bag: inside were 143 Galleons, a wand, some robes, and other essentials.
He had shopped strictly by the admission list's cheapest standards, yet it had still cost him 157 Galleons. Half his savings gone in one trip.
And tomorrow, Hogwarts began.
"I've got to hurry. If I don't do well enough to win that scholarship, I'm screwed. There's no way this gold will last."
McGonagall had mentioned the scholarship casually when he got his letter, but it was clearly meant for "outstanding" students.
Would Sean count as outstanding?Hard to say. After all, it had taken him five hundred tries just to master the Levitation Charm.
Thankfully, he had one cheat.
[Name: Sean Green][Identity: Wizard][Title: None]
[Proficiency]
Levitation Charm: Apprentice (1/300)
Lumos: Apprentice (1/300)
Cleaning Charm: Locked (27/30)
[Unlocks]
Three Apprentice-level spells unlock the Apprentice title in Charms.
Three Beginner-level spells unlock the Beginner title in Charms.
Yes. Sean had a proficiency panel. A cheat, but a very practical one. Every time he practiced correctly, it tracked progress. Apprentice spells only needed 30 successful casts, and once he had three, he'd unlock an Apprentice title in Charms.
On paper, it sounded easy.
In reality, it had taken him two whole months to barely scrape by. He averaged about one and a half correct casts per day.
His magical talent? Utterly miserable. Maybe even crippled by the very act of crossing into this world.
Sometimes he wondered if the wizarding world itself had it out for him.
Not that the wizarding world cared about one random orphan.
"Tonight, I have to unlock that title."
Sean gripped his wand tightly, tiptoed across the warped floorboards, and poked his head out the drafty single-pane window.
The Victorian semi-detached houses of the southern slums lay silent.
"Good. They're all asleep. If I'm careful, no one will notice."
One thing his predecessor had left him was this small, isolated room. It was meant to keep sick kids quarantined, but for Sean, it meant precious privacy to practice magic.
"Scourgify!"
He pointed his wand at a filthy poster and traced an S-shaped motion.
Nothing. The panel didn't tick up.
Unfazed, he tried again.
And again.
It was only by learning firsthand that Sean realized just how picky magic could be.
With Scourgify, was the stress on Scour or -gify? How heavy should the emphasis be? How big should the S-shaped wand movement? Fast here, slow there?
He knew scour meant "to scrub" and -ify meant "to make," so together it should mean "to make clean."
That meant the pause should go between "Scour" and "ify." As for the wand movement… well, that was luck.
At least the panel told him when he got it right. That way, he could learn from actual progress instead of blind trial.
"Scour—g—ify!"
For the fifth time, he cast, this time adjusting his pace just as he'd figured: quick at first, slower near the end, with a bigger curve at the finish.
Light flared. The grime vanished from the poster.
[You practiced Scouring Charm at Beginner standard. Proficiency +3][Scouring Charm unlocked][New Charms Title unlocked. Please check.][Wizard Talent unlocked. Please check.]
"It worked!"
Sean picked up the now-clean poster, marveling at how new it looked.
Apparently, there were even standards for "correct" practice. Apprentice-level gave +1 proficiency, Beginner gave +3. Beyond that? Who knew. With his talent, even reaching Beginner felt like Merlin's blessing.
"Let's see this new title."
The panel updated:
[Title: Charms Novice]Minor boost to spell perception. Slightly increases Charms talent.
Sean scrolled down.
[Wizard Sean. Charms Talent: Green (boosted by Novice Title, originally White). Note: Most wizards are Green.]
He sucked in a sharp breath.
White trash talent?!
No wonder learning spells felt impossible. With talent like that, he was lucky to cast anything.
Good thing he had the panel. Without it, his magical career would already be a dead end.
But after a moment of shock, his eyes hardened with determination.
No talent? Then grind it out.
Come on, panel—let's see just how far we can push this.
Add. More. Proficiency.