"So as his Head of House, you must keep a close eye on him. He's different from Harry. I can't sense any trace of dark magic on him. How he survived the Unforgivable Curse is something worth investigating."
Dumbledore never acted without purpose.
He was a man who planned far ahead.
What drew his attention to Sean was not only the boy's exceptional talent, but also the mysterious power that had allowed him to survive the Killing Curse.
Harry carried the aura of dark magic because Voldemort had left a mark on him.
The scar on Harry's forehead contained a fragment of Voldemort's power.
Sean, however, had no such scar—no mark at all. His skin was smooth and clear.
Harry had survived the Killing Curse because of his mother Lily's protection.
According to Sean's own speculation, Lily had cast an ancient blood magic on Harry.
The caster and the protected person had to be blood relatives.
And the protected person had to be a minor, because the magic would cease to work once they reached adulthood.
These were the prerequisites of the spell.
Some scholars even believed this powerful magic functioned as a kind of magical protection for minors.
Then came the three fundamental elements of magic: magical framework, incantation, and mental power.
The magical framework of that ancient spell must have consisted of dozens of combined structures.
Such a complex and high-level spell was beyond the ability of ordinary wizards.
Sean also remembered Dumbledore saying many times that Lily's protection came from love.
There was no doubt that the caster had to possess sincere and selfless love for the person they were protecting.
The conditions of this magic were extremely restrictive.
Even someone who knew the spell might not be able to use it.
Dumbledore possessed immense magical power, and constructing dozens of magical frameworks would not be difficult for him.
But he did not meet the other conditions required for the spell.
Lily, on the other hand, had remarkable magical talent and an overwhelming love for her young son.
That allowed her to cast the ancient protection charm successfully.
Because the conditions were so demanding, the spell had never become widespread.
Sean even suspected it might involve some form of life magic.
And because the magic was so difficult to replicate, Dumbledore had begun searching for other ways to resist the Unforgivable Curses.
Sean's existence had therefore caught his attention.
Fortunately, Dumbledore was a man of principle.
He had not used Legilimency, the mind-reading spell, to investigate Sean's memories.
Invading someone's mind could cause harm to the subject, and Dumbledore would not willingly harm a child.
At that moment, Sean was sitting in the Great Hall eating lunch, completely unaware that he had been marked as someone worthy of special observation by the headmaster.
Cedric walked over from the Hufflepuff table.
"Are you alright? Professor Binns seemed pretty angry."
Sean crunched on some fries, looking completely unconcerned.
"I'm fine. I'm happy I don't have to copy the textbook."
"What did Professor Snape say to you?" Chris asked curiously, leaning closer.
"Snape didn't say much. But Professor Dumbledore heard about my excellent classroom performance and praised me a bit," Sean said with a smile.
"As expected of you, Sean!" Cassius exclaimed exaggeratedly. "Even Professor Dumbledore praised you!"
Sean only smiled.
On the surface he looked relaxed, casually eating fries and drinking juice.
Inside, however—
he was panicking.
I was way too careless.
Sean felt a chill run down his spine.
When he left the headmaster's office earlier, he had finally relaxed.
While standing near the bookshelves in the office, he had seen a magical artifact.
Dumbledore's Pensieve.
It was an extraordinary object.
A person could extract their own memories and place them into the basin, allowing the memories to be replayed.
Others could also enter the basin and experience those memories.
However, a person could only extract their own memories.
They could not extract someone else's.
As a transmigrator carrying countless secrets, Sean knew Dumbledore could not directly pull memories from him.
But there was another spell with a similar effect.
Legilimency.
It was a forbidden spell capable of invading someone's mind without their consent.
And Hogwarts happened to have a professor who was extremely skilled in using it.
Severus Snape.
Dumbledore and Snape summoned me to the headmaster's office on the very first day of school.
That can't be good.
I need to find a way into the Restricted Section of the library as soon as possible and learn Occlumency.
The spell that countered Legilimency was Occlumency.
It allowed the caster to clear their mind of emotions and thoughts.
It could even suppress certain memories or feelings, making them impossible to detect.
A skilled practitioner could fabricate false memories to deceive anyone attempting to probe their mind.
Put simply—
what you didn't want others to see, they would never see.
What they did see would only be what you allowed them to see.
Coincidentally, there was a professor at Hogwarts who was highly skilled in Occlumency.
Snape again.
After all, he had spent years acting as a spy under Voldemort's watchful eyes.
Without mastery of Occlumency, he would have died long ago.
"I hate this… why don't I have an Invisibility Cloak?" Sean muttered.
That afternoon's Herbology class was shared with Gryffindor.
The Weasley twins immediately threw their arms over Sean's shoulders the moment they saw him.
"Genius, we heard you nearly angered Professor Binns to death this morning," Fred said.
"To death?" George corrected. "Professor Binns is already dead."
"What do you two want? Planning to bet again?" Sean said. "Pay me what you owe from yesterday first."
During the sorting ceremony the night before, the twins had lost four Sickles to him and still hadn't paid.
"Genius, how about joining us?" Fred ignored the comment and proposed excitedly. "Let's form the Hogwarts Prank Trio."
Sean removed their arms from his shoulders.
"I don't have any talent for pranks."
"No, you do," George insisted seriously. "Look how you angered Professor Binns. You handle the 'evil', and we'll handle the 'pranks'."
Sean looked at them helplessly.
What kind of ridiculous idea was that?
He returned to the Slytherin group.
Cassius leaned closer and whispered,
"You shouldn't get too close to the Weasleys. They're the oddballs among pure-blood families. Poor, and always associating with Muggles."
"Cassius is right," Chris agreed.
Sean shook his head.
These pure-blood Slytherins were still far too extreme in their views.
The Herbology professor was Pomona Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff House.
She was a short, slightly plump woman with flowing gray hair.
Sean paid close attention during this class.
Herbology wasn't just about learning the properties of magical plants.
It was also about learning how to cultivate them.
Some rare potion ingredients were difficult to obtain, which meant potion masters often had to grow the plants themselves.
Professor Sprout maintained several greenhouses at Hogwarts.
Many of the plants grown there were used to supply ingredients for Snape's Potions classes.
Sean had already memorized One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.
Now all that remained was to encounter these magical plants firsthand.