The students waited with a restless, collective anticipation, their earlier gloom entirely lifted by the promise of a novelty teacher. When the door opened, a familiar face stepped in, eliciting a sharp, internal jolt from Allen. It was his older brother, Albert Harris.
Allen instantly processed the situation. Dumbledore had famously positioned multiple guardians around the young Harry Potter, one of whom was the Squib neighbor, Arabella Figg. Although lacking magic, Mrs. Figg had somehow managed to maintain the trust of the relentlessly annoying Petunia Dursley, often acting as Harry's reluctant babysitter during extended Dursley family trips.
The Ministry of Magic, Allen surmised, must have assigned Albert—a wizard of sufficient power and trustworthiness—to perform surveillance under the guise of an ordinary Muggle teacher. But teaching science? Can a pure-blood wizard, whose education focuses on the arcane, possibly handle basic Muggle physics and chemistry?
"Hello, students. I am your new teacher, Albert Harris," Albert announced smoothly, picking up a piece of chalk and writing his name on the chalkboard with professional flair, his posture perfect.
"Perhaps some of you think science is entirely unrelated to your daily lives—a particularly serious, boring, and utterly ignorable subject. I am here to tell you that you are fundamentally mistaken!" Albert declared, dramatically waving his left index finger. In his right hand, an empty glass suddenly materialized. Then, before the students' very eyes, the glass instantly filled from thin air with sparkling, pristine water.
Albert snapped his fingers, and another, identical glass of water appeared beside the first.
"Alright, now we have two identical glasses of purified water. Are we all following clearly?" The students, wide-eyed with astonishment, managed only startled shakes of their heads.
"Now, I intend to alter the contents of just one of these glasses. Which one should I modify?"
Albert winked conspiratorially. The students roared with delight, pointing and cheering wildly at the two glasses. With an unnecessarily elaborate, sweeping gesture, the clear, pure water in the right glass transformed, in a visible, startling surge of color, into a thick, bright yellow liquid.
"The new teacher is a genuine magician! That is so cool! What is in that glass now?" "It must be some kind of energy drink!" "No way, I think it's definitely oil!" "It looks like—I mean, I once accidentally peed in the pool, and it was that yellow, so maybe it's—"
Their concentration shattered, the students dissolved into excited chatter, speculating wildly about the teacher's 'tricks.'
"Shh… this is merely the setup," Albert commanded, his voice holding an edge of control. He waved his right hand, and a seemingly ordinary credit card appeared between his thumb and forefinger. He used the card to cover the container of yellow liquid, then expertly inverted it over the glass of water. Then, with a dramatic flourish, he pretended to tap the card with a pointer, slowly easing it away to create a minute gap between the two glasses.
A fascinating phenomenon began: tiny bubbles streamed upward through the gap, and the denser water at the bottom slowly began to rise and replace the lighter, less dense yellow liquid above. The transformation was agonizingly slow and yet utterly miraculous—until the yellow liquid had completely displaced the water below, reversing the liquids entirely.
"That is totally impossible scientifically!" "This is amazing! How does he do it?" "I genuinely want to learn that trick!"
Applause erupted, mingled with urgent whispers. Even students from the neighboring classroom crept out to witness the unprecedented spectacle.
"Alright, everyone, please settle down." Mr. Albert pressed his hands down gently, silencing the room instantly. His incredible, effortless abilities had utterly captivated them. "Now, setting aside my dramatic displays, can anyone tell me the underlying, scientific principle that governs that fluid exchange?"
The class fell silent, but this time it was the silence of intimidation and intellectual uncertainty. Everyone felt the strange pressure of the question, instinctively dropping their gazes to avoid eye contact with the impossibly talented teacher.
"Nobody knows?" Mr. Albert feigned mild disappointment. He clapped his hands again for attention. "Well, don't worry. As long as I am teaching here, I guarantee that you will understand this phenomenon sooner or later."
I don't trust you for a second, you complete hypocrite of a brother, Allen muttered under his breath, leaning toward Fogg. What 'magic trick'? That was a perfectly executed, Silent Charm cast with a wand disguised as a pointer. Did Albert seriously just violate the International Statute of Secrecy—and the ban on underage magic—just because he's a Ministry official? And what good is this for my Muggle classmates? By the time Harry gets to Hogwarts, you'll be long gone, and they'll be left with nothing but confused memories!
After the class bell rang, a few brave older girls instantly flocked around Albert, peppering him with questions about his 'experiments.' Nearby, a boy began excitedly explaining to his deskmate how marvelous the new science teacher's practical demonstrations were. His deskmate simply stared at him with the vacant eyes of an idiot. "You dolt, I was in that class too. I saw the lesson."
"Harris... is that new teacher's last name Harris, too?" Harry Potter asked Allen tentatively after class, his brow furrowed in curiosity.
Allen nodded, then found himself contemplating his own name again. "He's actually my older brother. Honestly, I don't know why Dad didn't flip a few more pages in the baby name dictionary when he named us. Besides my older sister and second brother, whose names Mom chose, Albert and I both have names that start with 'A' because he only looked at the first few pages… Mom complained about him for ages, and apparently, when my little sister was born, she forced him to skip the entire first section of the alphabet, or she would have been named Alice."
"Don't just stand here chatting, let's go play some ball!" Fogg enthusiastically interrupted, the promise of basketball clearly paramount in his mind.
As the trio reached the playground, however, they found the basketball court dominated by a group of large boys.
"Well, look what we have here! A collection of punchable losers gathered together!" Dudley Dursley sneered, snatching the basketball right out of Fogg's hand with unexpected speed.
It was Dudley and his gang again, relentless as an unwelcome specter.
Seeing his new basketball confiscated, Fogg exploded in fury, shouting at Dudley, "Dudley, I am not afraid of you!"
"Hah! Harry was my primary punching bag, and now look! I have numbers two and three dropping right onto my doorstep!" Dudley narrowed his small, mischievous eyes and banged his large fists together in anticipation.
For the first time in either of his two lives, Allen found himself on the receiving end of schoolyard bullying. His past life as a teacher imposed a bizarre sense of detachment, preventing the normal, instinctive urge to retaliate with a sharp verbal reprimand.
However, Allen was functionally defenseless. He had no wand, and his equipment offered only passive defenses (the Cleansing Charm) and a short-burst Disillusionment Charm, which would be instantly useless in a brawl. He was also strictly bound by the anti-magic law.
DING!
The System chime echoed in his mind, delivering an urgent, internal notification.
[Immediate Quest: Avoid being caught by Dudley Dursley and his gang. Failure to evade will result in a penalty. Successful evasion will reward the Host with a copy of the skill book: 'McLean Body Conditioning Technique' (Helps wizards enhance physical strength and muscle control).]
Harry Potter, hardened by years of abuse, was a master strategist in retreat. He exchanged a knowing glance with Fogg and violently tugged Allen, who was momentarily frozen by the System's sudden demand. "RUN!" Harry bellowed.
Fleeing was second nature to Harry. Fogg, though skinny, darted away like a frightened rabbit. Allen, recently nourished and possessing a developing adolescent strength, followed suit. During their escape, Allen abruptly checked his forward momentum, pivoted sharply, and delivered a solid, retaliatory punch to the nose of his closest pursuer—a boy named Gordon—knocking him off balance and leaving him stunned. Allen then sprinted toward the only sanctuary he could think of: the staff room.
Dudley and his friends, physically strong but agonizingly slow and clumsy, were enraged, stumbling over their temporarily defeated comrade. They chased after Allen, their angry shouts echoing across the grounds, drawing complaints from other teachers.
"If I'm not mistaken, were you engaged in physical altercations just now?"
The voice was deep, authoritative, and terrifyingly close. Albert.
Allen stumbled, breathless, and gratefully ducked behind his older brother.
Malcolm's aggressive laughter died in his throat. All four bullies—Dudley, Piers, Malcolm, and Gordon—collided with each other, frozen in place, unable to advance or retreat under the gaze of the new Science teacher.
"Professor Albert, as you can clearly see, Dudley Dursley and his associates used their physical size to bully me, Harry, and Fogg, attempting to use us as punching bags. We were forced to flee to avoid physical injury," Allen explained quickly, framing the narrative to establish his group as the victims.
Albert suppressed his barely controlled wizarding fury—a true offense had been committed against a member of his bloodline—and asked in a deep voice, "Is Mr. Harris's account accurate?"
Harry and Fogg nodded their heads so vigorously they looked like cartoon characters, desperate to corroborate Allen's story.
The four bullies shuffled their feet, unable to produce a coherent denial. Dudley attempted to hide his hands behind his back, concealing the damning evidence of his new boxing gloves.
"Mr. Dursley, what exactly are you attempting to conceal behind your person?" Albert asked, his eyes narrowing.
"It's nothing, sir," Dudley mumbled, trying to make himself smaller.
Albert pursed his lips. Without a word, he flicked his left index finger behind him. Dudley looked as though he'd been hit by an invisible battering ram; he stumbled several steps before slamming into the brick wall to maintain his balance.
"Who pushed me?!" Dudley roared, spinning around. Behind him, Malcolm and Piers stared at him in wide-eyed horror. To their Muggle eyes, Dudley had simply stumbled backward as if drunk.
"Ah, boxing gloves. Clearly, Mr. Dursley has taken up a new hobby, which is commendable. However, your form is clearly lacking. It is highly inappropriate to take out your frustrations on your classmates because you can't hit the heavy bag. I shall give you a brief lesson." Without even asking Dudley's permission, Albert grabbed Dudley's large hands, stripped off the gloves, and pulled them onto his own hands, rubbing his palms inside the sweaty leather with a look of extreme distaste.
"Pay attention and observe!" Albert lunged forward, not giving Dudley a second to react.
Dudley was petrified with fear. Using the trembling boy as a terrifying reference point, Albert executed a blinding, rapid-fire series of punches. His left fist whipped past Dudley's left ear, and his right fist whistled past the right. Dudley couldn't follow the speed; all he saw was a terrifying, blurry cascade of violence just millimeters from his face.
The onslaught lasted an eternity—and yet no time at all. When Albert finally ceased his attack, Dudley's legs buckled, and he collapsed onto the ground, sobbing with residual terror.
"I will not tolerate you bullying your classmates again. If you choose to involve your parents in this matter, please feel free to do so."
Albert peeled off the boxing gloves, disgustedly stuffing them back into Dudley's arms, and rubbed his hands together as if attempting to rid them of the Muggle boy's sweat, before turning to leave.
Amidst the hushed laughter of their classmates, Dudley and his three associates silently slunk away, not daring to utter a single threat or curse.
"Wow, Allen, your brother is amazing! He is so cool!" Fogg exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Harry… Allen, I really wish I had your brother's ability. If I did, I could finally give Dudley a proper beating whenever he tried to use me as a punching bag," Harry muttered with a flash of genuine, envious resentment.
DING!
The System confirmed the success of the mission.
[The parameters of the Quest have been successfully met. Congratulations, Host. You have been rewarded with a copy of the skill book: 'McLean Body Conditioning Technique.' Good luck with your studies.]