From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 584 The Extra Eighth Grade

The night, as wild as the hair of a Gorgon, was finally over. After a long August of rain, London was finally blessed with bright sunshine.

"You received your Hogwarts acceptance letter?" Ivy sat at the dining table flipping through the Daily Prophet, gesturing to Cassandra, who was wearing pink and white pajamas, to start eating breakfast.

Although Mr. Worley was a Muggle, he didn't seem to mind his wife's witch status. As a result, Ivy even received the Daily Prophet at the Worley family manor.

Besides the magical portraits that filled the corridors, Mrs. Worley brought much more magic to this Muggle family estate.

For example, if Professor Sprout were to see the neatly arranged bubble pods in the manor's green space, he would surely consider Cassandra's mother a kindred spirit.

Of course, Cassandra's acceptance letter was found in her father's study, the wax seal had just been removed, and the letter inside had not yet been taken out.

Ivy felt that there was at least one very strange thing about this matter. Hogwarts' admission notice usually contained a lot of things. In addition to the greeting from Headmaster Dumbledore that every first-year student would receive, there was also a list of supplies that the young wizards needed to prepare themselves, signed and noted by Vice-Headmaster Professor McGonagall.

The above information typically includes the design of the school uniform, the textbooks required for each subject in the academic year, and the tools necessary for some practical courses. Professor McGonagall usually adds any additional information for the year in the notes. For example, when the Triwizard Tournament was held at Hogwarts, she required students to bring their own dresses for the ball.

Cassandra pulled out a chair and sat down, taking the opportunity to lean over and see the envelope in front of Ivy, and the shield on the envelope divided into four equal parts.

“Mom and Dad haven’t decided whether or not I should go to school…” Little Cassandra picked up her knife and fork. In front of her was an omelet, a bowl of cereal with milk, and a plate of croissants and fruit sprinkled with icing sugar.

The Bobbies hired by Ivy are skilled in the specialties of various Western European countries, and they even know how to make a decent imitation of modern French cuisine.

However, Ivy has never been one to stick to a single form of food. As long as he thinks something tastes good, regardless of its style or tradition, he will put it all on the table according to his own balanced diet theory.

For example, in front of Ivy were modified German sausages, shrimp dumplings and siu mai from Cantonese dim sum, a bowl of fish porridge, and soft white bread for dipping in fairy vegetable puree.

His journey to Baldur's Gate greatly expanded the recipes of his personal cooks. In addition to the Lower Plane cuisine known to the Typhoon refugees, there were also many specialty dishes from other common races in Faerûn, including the vegetable puree favored by the Wood Elves.

Using autumn-harvested pumpkin as a base, supplemented with a large amount of seasonal vegetables and spices, seasoned with salt, black pepper, garlic and onions, and finally roasted in an oven, the vegetable puree has a very rich flavor, but the sweet aroma of seasonal vegetables and thyme can awaken the dormant vitality in the body.

After just one try, Ivy couldn't forget it.

"Should we go to school? Are there any other magic schools in England?" Ivy put the Daily Prophet aside. There wasn't any major news in this issue. Although a dark wizard who openly used the Killing Curse to kill a Muggle was just killed yesterday, the world seemed to have long since lost the excitement it had when Harry Potter was still in school.

“Only Hogwarts… but Mom says it’s not the Hogwarts it used to be.” Cassandra, with impeccable table manners, ate quickly, already having two-thirds of her extra-large omelet in her stomach. “They’ve written a letter of refusal to Headmaster Potter and are planning to send me to Ephamonny across the sea.”

Ivy knew about Ivermorny School, founded by Salazar Slytherin's blood relatives, and even his wand had been taken to the New World, where it grew into a towering tree. After actually receiving his Hogwarts diploma, Ivy had even considered taking Fleur there on a trip. However, he underestimated the wizarding world's fervor for the seemingly miraculous power of resurrection.

“Ilfamori also has the tradition of Sorting Houses, and it’s said to be more open-minded, which isn’t a bad thing…” Ivy suddenly realized that there was a name he recognized yet was unfamiliar with hidden in Cassandra’s words. “Wait… who is the headmaster? Potter? Harry Potter? The headmaster of Hogwarts?”

Cassandra seemed surprised by the strong reaction from her uncle, whom she had only met twice, when he had been as cold as ice when he killed the dark wizard.

“Yes, the headmaster of Hogwarts, Harry Potter, the savior from Gryffindor, the boy who survived.” Cassandra finished the last of her cereal. “The greatest wizard of the 20th century, as recognized by both the Ministry of Magic and Wizengamor. Don’t you know, Uncle?”

Aside from witnessing the dark wizard Peter firsthand, Ivy never imagined that Harry Potter's own fate would take such a dramatic turn.

After all, it's a parallel world, so it's normal for strange things to happen. In any case, compared to the female-oriented world where Harry becomes Harley and falls in love with Snape, or the female-oriented world where he doesn't become Harley but still falls in love with Snape, Harry becoming the headmaster of Hogwarts isn't particularly hard to accept.

“I just didn’t expect… I thought he’d become some kind of Auror office manager or something…” Ivy used telekinesis to make the Daily Prophet on the table float up, pointing to an advertisement tucked away in the crevice for Cassandra. “The Weasleys Magical Tricks Company, that’s pretty famous, isn’t it? What are Harry Potter’s good friends, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, doing?”

“Oh, they’re dead.” Cassandra glanced at the cook, Bobby, who was using magic to clear the empty plates in front of her, and answered casually. “Officially, they were sacrificed. And the Weasley Wizarding Arts isn’t exactly famous, Mum said. The International Department of Magical Cooperation and the Auror Office’s strikers are always causing them trouble. You see, they can only advertise in the cracks of the Daily Prophet.”

Ivy remained silent. People who should have died were alive, while people who should have lived were dead. It seemed the battle between Harry and Voldemort was extremely intense. He wanted to ask Ron and Hermione how they died, but then he remembered that the girl sitting opposite him was only eleven years old. How could she possibly know anything about someone who had died shortly after his birth?
However, it's hard to say about the dead, but the living should have heard some news. Since Harry Potter in this world has become the headmaster of Hogwarts, he should be praised by the entire wizarding world, or at least by the British wizarding world, just like Dumbledore who defeated Grindelwald.

"How much do you know about Harry Potter? How did he become the headmaster of Hogwarts?" Ivy instructed the butler, Bobby, to make a pot of tea for the two of them, and then moved with little Cassandra to the drawing room with its soft sofas.

"Besides being the youngest headmaster at Hogwarts, Harry Potter is also the only headmaster at Hogwarts who didn't complete his studies." As a half-blood witch, Cassandra's early education was undoubtedly excellent. She not only knew the four houses of Hogwarts quite well, but she could even recount the headmaster's various exploits in detail. "Since he dropped out in his eighth year, he never returned to Hogwarts to finish his studies until after defeating the three Dark Lords. Although the Ministry of Magic still awarded him his diploma..."

Ivy didn't expect that in just two sentences, he would hear something strange again.

When did Hogwarts have an eighth year? He originally thought that things like the underlying code wouldn't change. Even in the late 19th century when he was in school, Hogwarts only had seven years. How come there's an extra eighth year in this 2008 timeline? And what's with the strange title of "three generations of Dark Lords"? Besides Grindelwald and Voldemort, could the Ministry of Magic in this world have included Dumbledore, who was jokingly called the White Lord, in their statistics?

"Eighth year? Doesn't Hogwarts only have seven years?" Ivy added milk and sugar to her hot black tea, successfully turning it into a cup of milk tea.

“It really is only seven school years.” Cassandra confirmed Ivy’s statement, and the confusion on her face didn’t seem like a joke at all.

"Then why... um—which grade is missing?" Ivy realized halfway through her question. If graduating in eighth grade and having seven academic years in total were both true, then the truth of the matter should be like the elevator buttons in a developed coastal city of a certain major Eastern country, where some cases and floors were omitted because of bad luck.

The question seemed to startle little Cassandra. She turned to check if the doors and windows were closed properly, and answered in an extremely soft voice, "Fifth grade..."

"Fifth grade... When did this rule start? And what event or person caused it?" Ivy sensed something was wrong and asked again.

“After the Ministry of Magic’s investigation ended at the end of the 19th century, Hogwarts announced this decision in the first year of the 20th century. My mother said it was Headmaster Armando Dippet’s first executive order after taking office.” After answering Ivy’s first question, Cassandra lowered her voice and looked at Ivy seriously, “Uncle, can you deal with Harry Potter or the Dark Lord?”

"If nothing unexpected happens, even if the two of them are tied together, they are no match for me." Ivy was certainly confident in dealing with Voldemort and his Horcruxes, and this would be true in any other timeline.

"That's great!" Little Cassandra breathed a sigh of relief. "The reason Hogwarts doesn't have a fifth year is because of the unspeakable murderous devil! He was in his fifth year at Hogwarts back then!"

“At the time, the Wizarding World was in the midst of the Goblin Wars. The Goblin King Lanlock went mad in his desire to obtain the secret hidden beneath Hogwarts, but was ultimately defeated by the first Dark Lord, who was still a fifth-year student, using ancient magic.” Cassandra raised both hands. “The Ministry of Magic spent ten years investigating before determining that those who died during that turbulent period were not only goblins, but also a large number of wizards.”

"It's said that the 'fifth-year student' wiped out an entire generation of wizards, numbering over a thousand. The Forbidden Forest is filled with corpses turned into thin air by the Vanishing Charm, not to mention the unknown number of various dangerous magical creatures he captured for research..."

"Although the 'fifth-year student' should be on Hogwarts' side from a standpoint, he killed so many people that the British Ministry of Magic faced enormous pressure from magical societies in other countries for a long time, which caused that person's name to become a complete taboo. Even the year he attended was completely erased from all records. Now no one knows whether he was male or female, or whether he is dead or alive."

“When I was little, my mother often used the story of the ‘Fifth-Year Student’ to scare me. According to her, it was all a huge conspiracy, starting from when he became a transfer student at Hogwarts, until he defeated the goblin Lanlock, and ended by stealing the secret that had been hidden beneath Hogwarts for a thousand years…” Little Cassandra’s features danced vividly, as if she longed for this ancient legend. “But no one knows whether the ‘Fifth-Year Student’ is alive or dead, not even his close friends in Slytherin.”

"Slytherin." Ivy rubbed her temples; this was indeed a lot of information. "Could it be another instance of some transmigrator's save file..."

The era he now lives in is not only ten years after Harry Potter's final battle with Voldemort, but also more than a hundred years after the end of the Hogwarts Legacy game.

It's hard to say which butterfly flapped its wings to kill those who should have lived and bring back those who should have died. But one thing is certain: this world is anything but normal.

The description of Cassandra felt incredibly familiar to Ivy, because the unspeakable Dark Lord was practically identical to him, even sharing the same characteristic of using a vanishing spell to hide traces after killing.

However, he crystallized to protect himself because he absorbed an excessive amount of contaminated ancient magic, while the "fifth-year student" in this timeline completely disappeared.

Ivy left behind almost no legends. Apart from a portrait of Headmaster Black, there seems to be virtually nothing or no one in the wizarding world that can prove his existence.

No.

Ivy drew the wand that had been custom-made a hundred years ago, a fine wand crafted from silver linden wood with phoenix sparks in the tail, handmade by Garrick Ollivander's grandfather and preserved by him for over a century.

This wand can prove Ivy's past.

Ivy put away her wand and fell into deep thought. Even so, the reason why the two worlds were so different was still very puzzling.

Judging from the various legends about "fifth-grade students" in this world, Ivy's influence on the magical world of her own world should not be so small. Surely the power to correct the course of history cannot be determined by her mood?

Therefore, Ivy believes that someone must be working behind the scenes, either eliminating Ivy's influence in their own world or excessively spreading the reputation of "fifth-grade student" here.

In short, given that the last inheritors of ancient magic in both worlds acted in similar ways, Ivy couldn't understand why the timelines had diverged so drastically.

The butterfly effect and chaos theory are indeed reasonable explanations.

But Ivy also believed that studying the similarities and differences in starting conditions and practices could bring him a lot of magical inspiration. He had just completed the magic of peeping into parallel universes at Baldur's Gate, although it ultimately led to his expulsion from the world of Toril. However, it was not impossible for him to go further and turn that magic into a powerful magic that could arbitrarily alter timelines or replace reality with parallel universes.

(End of this chapter)