Chapter 2: Legend of the Academy
Ivan was about to ask more, but cheerful applause had already erupted from below the stage. Ivan had to suppress his bellyful of questions, placed the Sorting Hat on the four-legged stool, and walked down the steps.
Seeing Ivan come down, a few older students at the Gryffindor table scooted over to make room for him.
A pair of identical twins with flaming red hair familiarly pressed Ivan into the empty seat between them. One of them spoke in an exaggerated tone.
"My god, I bet you're absolutely the first person who dared to not give Professor McGonagall face during the Sorting Ceremony. That was truly..."
"Truly what?" Ivan asked, puzzled.
"Truly too brave!" the other twin finished the sentence.
"You are destined to become a legend in the academy!" The two looked at each other and spoke in unison.
Hearing their response, Ivan almost choked on his breath. The thought process of these two brothers was truly peculiar; he couldn't quite understand it.
"Alright, thanks..." Ivan politely thanked the twins for their "blessing" and then asked.
"My name is Ivan Hals. And you are?"
"I'm George Weasley, and that over there is Fred," one of the twins said first, winking at Ivan. "You'd better remember it. Don't mistake us next time we meet. Fred hates it when people call him by the wrong name..."
"Okay, George. I don't think I'll mistake you." Ivan was well aware of the identity-swapping tricks these brothers played and naturally wouldn't be fooled. He turned to the other twin and said,
"Right, Fred?"
Fred, who had been planning to trick the new student along with his brother, was instantly dumbfounded. George, who had spoken to Ivan earlier, was also stunned for a moment before asking after a long pause,
"Wait, how did you know I was George?"
"It's easy to guess, isn't it? Which new student doesn't know you Weasley brothers like pranks?" Ivan certainly couldn't say he read it in a book, so he had to come up with a makeshift excuse to gloss over it.
"My god, are we already that famous? Even the new students know?" George and Fred exclaimed in surprise, lamenting that their years of dedication to fighting against Hogwarts' school rules had finally borne fruit.
"Pfft~" Ron, who was gorging himself on food nearby, almost sprayed the food out of his mouth. Since when were his two brothers so famous among Hogwarts freshmen? How come he didn't know?
George and Fred were somewhat curious about the whispers Ivan exchanged with the Sorting Hat on stage; it was the first time they had seen anyone chat with that hat for so long.
Ivan glossed over it with half-truths. After all, knowing Dark Magic wasn't something to brag about in Gryffindor House.
While he was at it, Ivan seized the opportunity to steer the topic toward George and Fred's adventures at Hogwarts, subtly fishing for information about the locations of various secret passages within the castle.
Having read the original work, Ivan naturally knew that George and Fred possessed a magical map that could display most of the secret passages in Hogwarts and mark the location of people inside.
With it, one could travel freely through this magical castle without worrying about being discovered by professors or caretakers.
Although Ivan had read the original work in his past life and knew many of Hogwarts' secrets, he didn't have a photographic memory, so that map would still be very useful.
Facing Ivan, who acted like a little fanboy, the Weasley brothers naturally revealed a large amount of information without any guard, even wanting to recruit Ivan to join their great cause of pranking.
However, they didn't reveal a single thing about the magical map.
Ivan wasn't surprised. After all, it was their first meeting. No matter how well they got along, they wouldn't reveal such an important secret. Ivan just wanted to build some goodwill to pave the way for the future.
However, just then, an inexplicable voice suddenly sounded in Ivan's mind.
**[Ding, Host acquired hidden information. Mission generating...**
**Mission Objective: Explore Hogwarts**
**Current Progress: 2/100**
**Mission Description: Curiosity to explore the unknown is something every young wizard should possess. The thousand-year-old castle contains countless secrets. Please explore and understand them. When the exploration progress reaches a certain level, rewards will be given based on performance.]**
Ivan, suddenly receiving the message, couldn't help but freeze, and his conversation with the Weasley brothers was interrupted.
*A Golden Finger?*
Ivan reacted quickly, followed by a surge of ecstasy.
Having been inexplicably transported to Hogwarts, Ivan was certainly happy and fortunate to have a second chance at life, but he also felt a sense of unease arriving suddenly in a strange environment. He had only forcibly suppressed it because he needed to maintain a disguise.
Now, he felt much more reassured.
Ivan casually dismissed the Weasley brothers, who were still prepared to chat about their adventure experiences, and calmed his mind to focus on exploring this newly appeared Golden Finger. After trying various methods from novels to call out the system, a string of information finally appeared before Ivan's eyes.
**[Ivan Hals**
**Profession: Wizard**
**Magic Slot: Fear Curse Level 1 (3/200)**
**Theoretical Knowledge: Magic Item Crafting Level 0 (435/500)**
**Magic Items:**
**Wand (Yew, Unicorn hair, Eleven and three-quarter inches long)**
**Magic Power: Medium**
**Compatibility: 72.5%**
**Academic Points: None**
**....]**
The information panel that appeared in front of him was within Ivan's expectations, but some of the content in the panel was beyond what he had anticipated.
"Fear Curse? Magic Item Crafting?" Ivan muttered slowly to himself. As a young wizard who had just transmigrated and hadn't even fully figured out the situation, these two abilities naturally weren't brought over by him.
Recalling the memories that had surfaced in his mind while on stage earlier, Ivan immediately understood that these must have been learned by the young wizard whose body he occupied, Ivan Hals, before entering school.
This situation wasn't uncommon among young wizards. Even Hermione Granger, who was born into a Muggle family, was able to master some simple magic through self-study before enrollment, let alone those young wizards born into wizarding families.
However, Ivan thought for a long time about the magic "Fear Curse" but had no impression of it. It didn't seem to be a spell that appeared in the original work.
Ivan didn't find this strange. After all, *Harry Potter* was just a novel, showing only a corner of the wizarding world. It couldn't possibly cover everything or display every spell. The Dark Magic that appeared in the original text was very scarce; a real Dark Wizard couldn't possibly only know those few Dark spells.
After all, just in the Restricted Section of Hogwarts, who knew how many books on Dark Magic there were?
Of course, what Ivan was more curious or worried about was the family situation of the original owner. A family that would teach their child Dark Magic before school started was obviously not a benevolent one.
Ivan was very worried about his own safety. If someone discovered that the young wizard Ivan Hals had been occupied by a soul from another world, heaven knew what kind of Dark Magic would be waiting for him...