The Last Slytherin

It's been a month since Neal's vacation started. He missed the Hogwarts more than so ever. He missed the Castle, with its secret passageways and ghosts, his classes. Especially the Potions class which he loved the most.

He kept missing the dark forbidden forest, those centaurs, Acromantulas. Every time he saw soccer or basketball on television, he would miss watching Quidditch strangely as he never really liked the sport.

The only thing which didn't bore him was his magical suitcase. The Newt's Notes on habitats were too complex for him. So, he put it aside for now and just enjoyed the ones which it offered currently.

In the previous summer, he was able to learn various spells by taking advantage of the Ministry's rules who exempts the kids who haven't admitted into Hogwarts yet.

But now that he had already registered his both wands in Hogwarts and completed his first year, there's no way he can use magic outside the school. That's why to escape their monitoring, Neal practiced spells daily with Edward inside the suitcase in one of the habitats.

With Edward's help, they changed the small room in the suitcase to something grander and made it into a luxury living room. It's the only thing Neal managed to succeed while reading Newt's notes and giving up after failing to create additional habitat.

Since Edward wasn't a Potion Master like Snape or have better abilities than Prof. McGonagall in terms of Transfiguration, he didn't dare to practice those subjects and left them for the academy year.

Meanwhile, his results finally came home even though it's been evaluated on every exam dates itself. Edward was stumped to see his results who scored 120% in all the subjects. Only then Neal remembered why Dumbledore gave him an additional 50 points.

Neal knew that Hogwarts gives bonus marks to a student if he does better than perfect but he was surprised himself that he didn't he had done too well. At the same time, Hermione too was happy with her scores as she got perfect scores in all the subjects. Especially charms where she got 112%".

Neal felt a bit unfair as he only got 50 points for it despite getting such scores and not to mention breaking the record which hasn't been broken for the past seven decades. Then he thought that "maybe because it's only the first year which is too easy. I guess I'll get more points if I break the records of upper classes".

At the end of July, he got letters from Malfoy, Tracey, and Daphne that they were going to Diagon Alley this Sunday to get supplies for the 2nd year. He looked at the Hogwarts letter once again to see the contents which he ignored back then.

SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk;

Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart;

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart;

Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart;

Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart;

Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart;

Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart;

The year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart;

He said, "uh, Edward. Who is this Gilderoy Lockhart? The second-year supplies that we would buy only contained his books". Upon hearing the name, Edward frowned, "did you say, Gilderoy Lockhart?".

Neal asked, "is there any problem?". Edward replied, "no, he is a famous author and did receive many prestigious awards for performing many heroic acts. He also had a huge fan base, especially among the witches. I heard from Dumbledore that he's going to be your new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor.

But I heard bad rumors about him about being a fraud and he's a plagiarist who has stolen many things from others. Nothing is conclusive yet and it might just a rumor spread by one of his haters. After all, Hogwarts would appoint no mediocre for such an important subject. Neal mumbled, "yeah, right. The past Professor was an excellent wizard who turned out to be just a thief".

A few ago, the Ministry has denied the existence of Voldemort's shared soul with Quirell and the Daily Prophet released it as just a theft attempt which was stopped by Harry Potter and his two friends. But it still made him famous as he's just a first-year student and the culprit is a Hogwarts Professor.

On the morning of the weekend, both of them traveled to Diagon Alley with Floo powder again and met his friends' families. After everyone arrived, all of them went to buy their 2nd-year supplies. Everything was okay aside from the fact that Lucius Malfoy kept trying to have a conversation with him.

Neal thought maybe it's because of his heritage. After all, in the 1990s it is very rare for a pureblood from Slytherin family to exist when considering most of the families are on the verge of extinction. But he found it strange when Malfoy asked to see his pet snake. As he rolled up his sleeves of the robe, he saw Isle was coiled around his arm and slept. Malfoy looked at it intently until Neal spoke in a parseltongue, "wake up, Isle".

Suddenly as Isle woke up and looked at Malfoy and hissed, the rest of the parents moved back a step but as for Lucius, he looked at it even more curiously and straightened himself up after commenting, "that was one good magical creature of a pet you have".

Neal's heart skipped a beat for a second as no one knew Isle was a snake with magic powers, even Dumbledore yet. After calming down in a second, he replied, "No, Mr. Malfoy. You are mistaken. Other than being venomous, it doesn't have any magic powers".

Malfoy looked at it once again and frowned, "strange. I guess I was mistaken". Neal nodded, "well, it is illegal to have a magical creature as a pet inside the school. So, there's no way they would have allowed it. Dumbledore already did a favor for me to allow a venomous snake inside the school".

As Lucius Malfoy's suspicions cleared, they continued their way until in the midway, Lucius and Samuel Greengrass, Daphne's father separated from the group and went towards a dark alley alone. Draco asked, "Mom, where's Father and Mr. Samuel going?".

Narcissa, his mother replied, "They have some business at Borgin and Burkes. I guess they went to buy some antique stuff. Let us not wait for them and go to buy your books". Edward, Narcissa, and Dulcie Davis, and The Slytherin Quartet went their way to Gringotts bank to withdraw money first.

Then, Neal changed his vault and transferred all the money to a new vault in the upper levels upon Narcissa and Dulcie's insistence as they too like Edward feared the thing on the ground level which made Neal curious about it.

Neal and the rest were particularly shocked including even Draco when they saw the Malfoy's vault which has heaps of mountains and has dozens of times more than even Neal's who has more than 10,000 galleons in his bank.

After seeing Daphne's too which had more or less the same amount as Neal's, Tracey felt very embarrassed to see her Mother's vault only has five to six hundred galleons at most and decided she would never come with them especially to Gringotts in the future.

After that, as they headed to Flourish and Blotts, they saw to their surprise, a huge crowd jostling outside the doors, trying to get in. The reason is because of a large banner stretched across the upper windows.

GILDEROY LOCKHART will be signing copies of his autobiography, MAGICAL ME. Today 12:30 p.m to 4:30 p.m. The kids and Edward suddenly heard a squeal from these two witches, Narcissa, Dulcie and Tracey who were huge fans of him and members of his fan club, "I can't believe we can actually meet him".

Just then, they heard a voice from behind with coldness in it, "what are you doing?" and Narcissa became stiff while turning around. Lucius was standing there with Samuel looking coldly at her, "don't disgrace Malfoy's name like your son and behave yourself. Understand?".

While Narcissa became silent and a sudden tension spread in the group, Dulcie whispered, "don't worry. I'll bring back his autographs for you".

While Dulcie and Tracey went and squeezed themselves in line to take autographs, Malfoy spoke, "we'll return after the event of that fraud is over. Until then, we can go and buy other essential things Let's go". Just when they turn back, they found Weasley's family standing around and waiting for Molly who too went and stands in line.