NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: Harry Black
Neville couldn't help but question his life at that moment.
Since childhood, without showing signs of magic until the age of seven, his family never hid their concern.
Was he truly a wizard, or could he be a Squib?
It was only at the age of eight, when his great-uncle Algie threw him out of a window and he emerged unscathed, bouncing off the ground, that his grandmother finally sighed in relief.
Meanwhile, there was no doubt that Harry was a wizard, but why had his magic awakened so early? Could he really Apparate using magic? Isn't that an exaggeration?
Neville wasn't the only one wondering this.
Other wizards also reflected on when their own magic had manifested, frowning in discomfort. Comparisons were always unsettling.
However, not everyone was caught in these thoughts.
In the Realm of Souls, a certain mother watched everything from a very different perspective.
Lily Potter: "Oh, Harry, what a tragic life you've had! Petunia! He is my son, how could you treat him that way?"
Petunia Dursley: "Hmpf, my dear sister, you know what our relationship was like. How could you expect me to treat your son as if he were mine? That's impossible!"
Lily Potter: "All this because of magic? You know that I..."
Petunia Dursley: "Shut up! You have no idea how I feel. Don't say another word!"
With that, the argument between the sisters was momentarily interrupted.
Shortly after, an even more shocking conversation occurred.
Lucius Malfoy: "Impossible! Harry Potter speaks the language of snakes! He's a Parselmouth! How is this possible?"
Hermione Granger: "Parselmouth? Isn't that Salazar Slytherin's ability? I read about it in the old History of Magic books."
Bellatrix Lestrange: "That's the Dark Lord's talent! How could this brat possess it?"
Dolores Umbridge: "It was never said that the Potters had ties to Slytherin. Furthermore, the Potters were removed from the 28 Sacred Families after Harry was born, which makes this even more unlikely, unless..."
James Potter: "Dolores, don't go too far!"
Though Umbridge didn't finish her sentence, all the adults present understood the insinuation.
She was suggesting that Harry wasn't James' son, an accusation James found intolerable.
If I were alive, I'd have turned you into a pig.
In the Great Hall of Hogwarts, students began murmuring, casting curious glances at Harry, whose face was red with embarrassment.
"Harry, so you can talk to snakes? That's amazing! Can you understand rats too? Maybe you can figure out what Scabbers is saying?"
To Ron, talking to snakes was simply cool, and the issue of Harry being connected to Slytherin didn't seem to bother him, since Harry was in Gryffindor.
"Ron, stop! I'll faint if you keep going."
Harry waved his hands nervously, trying to avoid the stares.
At the head table, Dumbledore kept his eyes hidden behind his half-moon glasses, revealing nothing.
As conversations continued, the curtain of light began to move.
The white curtain receded, making way for a curtain enveloped in growing darkness, as if it would swallow everything around it.
It was then that everyone remembered: this was a comparison room.
Now, Harry would be compared to the Harry from the parallel world.
Anticipation grew. What would be different in this other world? Would Harry still live a life of suffering, or had something changed?
As everyone pondered, the dark curtain revealed the first images.
[Night on Privet Drive
The street was quiet and deserted under the night sky, with only a few streetlights casting a faint glow…]
Wait… why did it look the same? No! It was exactly the same scene, from Dumbledore's arrival to Harry's departure.
Nothing seemed to have changed.
Lee Jordan: "Why do you think nothing has changed so far?"
Fred Weasley: "As expected from Hogwarts' best Quidditch commentator. Your vision is truly sharp, hahaha."
Rita Skeeter: "Two fools. What kind of change could there be if he's still just a baby?"
At the Daily Prophet's headquarters, Rita Skeeter frowned.
Her Quick-Quotes Quill, always ready to document events, scribbled on the parchment:
"Find scandalous material to deal with the Weasleys."
After the note, she turned her attention back to the curtain of light.
For her, success came from finding and twisting news, something at which she excelled.
[Just like in the original world, Harry was left on the Dursleys' doorstep, and they reluctantly decided to raise him. The only difference was that this Harry seemed more advanced. At one year old, he was already running around the house and speaking a few simple words.
This left the Dursleys surprised and suspicious, but as nothing abnormal had happened, they assumed he was just a prodigy.
At two years old, little Harry found a comic book while walking around the house, which had been bought for Dudley. Curious, he opened it, and though he couldn't yet read, he asked Aunt Petunia:
"Aunt Petunia, can you read this to me?" Harry asked in a sweet voice, capable of melting anyone's heart.
Perhaps due to his young age and the absence of magical incidents up until that point, Petunia agreed to read the comic to him. And so, Harry read his first "book" and met his first hero: Spider-Man.]