Dear Madam Malkin,
I hope business at the Alley has been going well and that Hogwarts students haven't completely ruined your patience. I know they often test mine.
School has been…eventful.
I ended up sorted into Slytherin House, which I suspect might surprise both you and Tom as much as it did me, which is to say not at all.
After a couple weeks here I am beginning to suspect the Hat knew exactly what it was doing, I have made myself home here as they say and feel like I might come to enjoy my time here. Well mostly.
You were also correct about the robes.
Hogwarts apparently believes students should be fed like baby dragons before winter, and combined with regular exercise I seem to be growing like a weed. My sleeves already feel slightly shorter than they used to be, and it's been just two weeks so if this continues I may indeed require some adjustments during the Christmas holidays if not sooner.
The food here is honestly a bit terrifying in quantity as well as quality. which is to say both are excellent.
Classes have been interesting so far, a bit basic but I have found ways to amuse myself when needed. Some professors are significantly easier to understand and get along with than others.
I have also discovered that I am afraid of heights, and to my detriment discovered this in the middle of my flying lesson.. I think I have to work on this a bit more. I would hate to have such a weakness.
Also I think I would sleep in the library if I could. There's so much to discover on every shelf and at times I have to pry myself off from the books and return to my common room to socialize, and yes I do that too.
Please also give my regards to Tom when you see him next. I will send him a personal letter of course but it's just good manners to include him too.
Sincerely, Alexander Hawthorn
I stared at the letter for several long moments after finishing it watching the ink dry. Then I frowned slightly and added another line beneath my signature.
PS. Please tell Tom I have not blown myself,anyone or anything else as of yet. Although I might reconsider it if I'm pushed too far.
I considered that addition for a moment longer. Then nodded once to myself,amused. I might have exaggerated a bit with the sleeves but I was certain that with my exercise, magic usage and proper food I would indeed grow like pre mentioned weed.
I waited again to ink to properly dry then I folded the parchment with care into the shape of a letter. The room around me remained quiet save for the rustling of the parchment and my clothes.
Tweak had fallen asleep on top of the bookshelf at some point during the writing process. Her fedora was on her face and soft snoring was sounding underneath it. Or at least I assumed she was asleep. With her it was difficult to tell sometimes, it might be some form of spy training she came up with on her own.
The strange thing was not the letter itself,it was the realization that I should have written one much earlier.
Nearly two weeks into Hogwarts and it had only now occurred to me that perhaps the people who had helped me before school might reasonably wish to know whether I was still alive.
That felt… oddly irresponsible in hindsight. Not to mention I had promised to write..
I leaned back slightly in my chair, turning the folded parchment between my fingers as well as the name and address I have written there.
Madam Malkin's Robes for all occasions.
London
Diagon Alley.
Above me there was a tiny snort from the bookshelf.
"You have been staring at the same letter for seven minutes," Tweak muttered sleepily underneath her hat.
"I was thinking." I answered
"A dangerous hobby for those who do not possess the proper muscles for the exercise." Came the amused answer.
I glanced upward.
"You were awake?"
"I am a master spy." she said nonchalantly. "I merely appeared to be sleeping."
"…You were drooling."
"That was deception saliva. Very real looking, definitely fake" She said with a solemn voice as she discreetly wiped her cheek.
I pinched the bridge of my nose briefly and lowered the letter on the desk.
"Of course it was." I sighed and leaned back on my chair and closed my eyes for a moment. Once I opened them again I noticed Tweak sitting now, still on top of the bookshelf, eyes closed.
Tweak cracked one eye open and peered down at me beneath the brim of her fedora.
"Master Alexander forgot that people tend to miss their favorite people, hmm?."
I stared at her for a second uncomprehendingly.
"Well in my defence that's never happened before. By the way, how did you think of something like that?" I asked, half amused, half curious.
"I am growing." she said proudly closing her eyes again leaning back against the wall with a self-satisfied smile on her face.
I looked back toward the letter again.
Favorite people, huh. I don't think I ever even had a friend.
Favorite people..That felt like an excessively strong description for a relationship built mostly on measured robes, quiet meals, and practical life lessons.
And yet…I had written the letter.
Carefully, twice actually the first version sounded too stiff to my liking. Well this was the third since the second had somehow sounded like a Ministry report so I scrapped that one too.
This one at least sounded mostly like a person.
Hopefully it might be that I'm not the best judge of what letters should sound like.
I reached for another sheet of parchment.
Tweak immediately perked up from her position.
"Another correspondence? Do you have another agent? Some sneaky sneaky informant,hmm?"
"Yes."I said without a thought"he's keeping a spy network operating in the middle of London right underneath the Ministry's nose." I invented on the spot as I dipped quill to ink and started to write again.
"oooh really whats his name?" Tweak gasped eyes wide and eager
"Tom although that's more like his codename though you've probably heard about Tom haven't you?" I said distractedly
She looked to be pondering about all the Tom's she's ever heard about" well there's the Tom in the Leaky Cauldron but that can't be him.." She muttered
I nodded immediately " thats the one"
She gasped dramatically.
"REALLY!! how devious he's so famous too" She gasped star struck.
I just nodded distractedly and started to read what I wrote to Tom.
Dear Tom,
Before Madam Malkin tells the story her own way, I feel obligated to warn you personally that I was sorted into a Slytherin house.
You may now act dramatically shocked if you wish. Save some to Madam Malkin I'm sure she would appreciate the entertainment.
Hogwarts has been… strange.
Interesting, sure but definitely strange.
I suspect the whole of Hogwarts is one big social experiment to see how to make the most eccentric people in existence. I have most likely climbed on top of the list once I graduate or will soon after if I don't stay careful.
I think I am adjusting reasonably well regardless. Other students in my house are pretty confused on what to do with me, well not all..just the more easily confused sort.
On another note the library here is excellent, and I pat my own back every other day, on not spending all my money on books. Especially since I have no idea what kind of books are worth owning.
Classes themselves vary considerably depending on the professor involved. Some are fascinating. Others feel more like surviving natural disasters.
Potions in particular is a deeply stressful experience disguised as education. Well not so much for us Slytherins but Gryffindors are getting yelled for pretty much breathing. I'm not exaggerating, it happened just yesterday and it was both sad and funny at the same time.
I have successfully avoided exploding anything important by accident or by design, which I consider a personal achievement worthy of recognition, hence so should you.
I have also apparently started growing properly now that I am eating regularly and not surviving primarily on gruel and bad decisions, so Madam Malkin was unfortunately correct about the robes possibly needing adjustments by Christmas.
I hope things at the Leaky Cauldron have been well. Did the scatterbrained older Alchemist visit once more? His last visit was more than memorable as he tried to eat the center piece you had gotten from the lovely Miss Betty as a birthday gift, was it begonia? Never mind that your birthday was in January.
Sincerely, Alexander Hawthorn
PS. I might be in the business of needing some mischievous and sneaky kind of magic. If memory serves one barkeep bragged about being a fair hand at such magics.
I stared at the parchment for a few moments after finishing Tom's letter. It felt much more casual than the letter to Madam Malkin.
Good Tom was always a more casual person, well most everyone is compared to Madam Malkin.
I folded Tom's letter similar to Madam Malkins and wrote his address on the front too.
I glanced back up at Tweak.
She smiled back down at me "The correspondence operation proceeds successfully," she asked happily, committed to her role.
I smiled back, deciding not to be bothered by her eccentricities as long as she kept doing such good work helping me out.
"I wrote two letters, so I would say so." I nodded" could you see them sent when you have the time"
"Certainly master and what an efficient and emotionally devastating amount of letters those two are." She approved.
I snorted quietly and set the quill aside.
Then my attention drifted toward the shelves lining the wall.
Books on Charms,Dueling,Potions and many more. Some spell books about concealment and invisibility.
The same subjects kept repeating lately no matter what I tried to focus on, the ambush earlier had settled something unpleasantly concrete in my head.
I wasn't nearly as hidden or as safe as I thought I was.
Strong enough to survive a fight against older students with preparation,element of surprise and a bit of luck perhaps. Certainly not strong enough to survive being noticed by the wrong people. This was probably just an off hand mean gesture, not truly personal, that would last if and when I resisted.
I leaned back slightly in the chair.
"Tweak."
"Yes Master?"
"What do wizards actually use for hiding themselves?"
"Hiding from what?"She tilted her head.
"People mostly." I said honestly.
Tweak considered this gravely then she pointed at me.
"Master already does that."
"…What?" I asked puzzled
"The sneaky thing." she clarified. "Master gets quieter when he wants things. Smaller."
I frowned slightly.
"That's just the Predatory Stalking Charm." I said,thinking she meant my aura.
Tweak shook her head immediately hard enough that her fedora nearly flew off and she had to push it down with her hand to keep it.
"No no. Not just magic." she insisted. "The master walks differently even when not sneaking."
I paused.
She hopped down from the cabinet and began pacing dramatically around the room with her hands clasped behind her back like a lecturer.
"Most humans are like moths,attracted to noise," she declared. "Or where strange things are happening and most of all bright light..or really loud hair."
"…Loud hair?" I repeated in disbelief
"Yes."
"That explains surprisingly many Gryffindors actually." I said with a chuckle.
Tweak nodded seriously as if confirming advanced theory.
"Master does the opposite. He becomes boring, grey and small. One of the pack and not an individual who stands out."
I stared at her.
Do I do that?
I'm not invisible but forgettable, isn't that a sort of invisibility in itself?
Most magical concealment I had found in books focused on spells. Disillusionment Charms. Concealing enchantments. Obscuring fogs. Advanced illusion magic.
Most of them were difficult, mana intensive or outright unrealistic for a first-year.
Physical concealment? Different posture, a whole different way of moving when I'm trying to stay hidden..
"You think I should focus less on magical invisibility," I asked slowly, "and more on simply not attracting attention."
It would be much easier too, trying to force magic too advanced to work on me isn't wise no matter how I think about it.
Tweak pointed at me excitedly.
"Yes!"
Then she froze dramatically.
"…Except when the Master wants attention." I looked at her silently for a long while with narrowed eyes.
"Explain" I said simply.
"It is all about eccentric fashion." She exclaimed.
Tweak suddenly vanished with a pop.
Then reappeared wearing an absurdly wide-brimmed dark wizard hat nearly twice her size.
She struck a pose atop the desk.
"Observe!"
"…What exactly am I observing?" I asked uncomprehendingly
"Distraction concealment." She said proudly.
I blinked once.
"That is not a real term." I shot back immediately
"It is now."
She spun the hat around proudly.
"No one wears proper hats anymore," she declared. "So if the Master wears a mysterious hat everyone looks only at the hat." She exclaimed accompanied with frustrated hand waving for me being so slow.
"That sounds counterproductive." I hedged
"But!" she interrupted while raising one finger dramatically. "Then you need to sneak about leaving the hat home."
I stared at her for several seconds.
"…And people remember the hat instead of the face." I muttered finally getting what she's trying to tell me.
"Yes!" she squeaked triumphantly.
I hated how much sense that made.
Tweak scrambled onto the desk properly now, increasingly animated.
"Different robes too!" she continued eagerly. "Different walking styles. Different books carried openly."
"You want me to create personas." I asked, narrowing my eyes again, sure this was her scheme to get me involved in her spy fiction.
"I want Master to be noticeable and easy to spot when needed, and impossible when he wishes, and perhaps to be a bit more sneaky with me." She admitted shyly at the end.
I sighed, she was right. I knew this would work.
People expected consistency,especially children. So if I went ahead with her plan. I would need to consistently for a while from now appear in a weirdly out of place outfit and have a reason for it to Slytherins they would accept.
I needed to become someone memorable for the wrong reasons.
it would give me the time to come up with a persona of someone forgettable,someone impossible to pin down cleanly.
My fingers tapped lightly against the armrest. Not a draining magical concealment. Simple skill and social concealment.
Perceptual concealment would also make me sharpen my skills to survive all seven years in Slytherin and even further on.
This felt like something even experienced wizards might overlook because they were too busy searching for spells and hidden people.
Slowly, despite myself, I smiled at my spy master.
"Tweak."
"Yes Master?"
"You are becoming alarmingly competent. Truly worthy of the title master spy"
She gasped happily.
"Or," I continued, "we are both becoming sleep deprived enough that this only sounds intelligent."
Tweak considered this carefully.
"…Could be both." She admitted grudgingly
"That is concerning." I chuckled
She nodded proudly.
"The best spy plans usually are."
Breakfast the next morning was loud as usual.
Loud by Hogwarts standards, which meant it sounded approximately like a small riot taking place under strict educational supervision.
Owls swept overhead. Cutlery clinked against plates. Somewhere near the Gryffindor table, something had either caught fire or been encouraged philosophically.
I sat near the middle of the Slytherin table with a book open beside my plate while most of my attention remained elsewhere.
Observation had become a habit lately.
A few seats down, Mr. Malfoy appeared to be attempting to set Potter and his redheaded friend on fire through sheer force of irritation alone. He had been so certain the previous night that his trap would work and Potter would end up expelled.
Instead, Potter was still here.
Personally, I still failed to understand how anyone thought a midnight duel between first-years armed primarily with Lumos was a viable criminal enterprise.
Which to me was such an absurd notion I had to sneak peeks at the blond..or in this particular moment more like a pale lion in snake's skin and his furious mutterings about revenge.
Revenge? For what? that they didn't fall for his obvious trap?
I scoffed internally while keeping my face politely neutral.
The Weasley twins moved through the Great Hall like naturally occurring disasters.
Not really loud but visible to all who had eyes.
Come to think about it, Potter's friend is most likely their younger brother, perhaps a connection to get to know the two trouble makers?
I pondered as I eyed the two and I sipped my tea quietly.
Twins hair alone guaranteed that even in the crowd they would be spotted easily.
People noticed them before they even spoke and somehow they weaponized that.
I watched one of them vault onto a bench to steal toast from another Gryffindor while the second distracted half the table with some exaggerated story involving exploding ink.
No subtlety whatsoever, yet it was pretty effective nonetheless.
Somehow no one ever seemed completely certain which twin had done what afterward, and they were also mostly well liked so that people didn't seem to much mind their antics.
Interesting, very interesting.
My gaze drifted downward toward my empty cup of tea.
Then slowly toward the wizard hat sitting beside me on the bench.
I had worn it since morning.
The reactions had been exactly what I expected. Long looks and mild confusion, from my fellow Slytherins but none had asked about it as of yet.
Tweak's "distraction concealment." At the time it had sounded ridiculous yet made sense.
Now I was beginning to suspect it was genius..
I leaned back slightly in thought.
The problem with hiding completely was that people noticed absences eventually.
Especially in a school but controlled visibility?
That was different. If people expected to see something specific, they often stopped looking beyond it.
The twins understood that instinctively.
Or so I assumed until proved otherwise.
Everyone remembered the hair, the laughter and the chaos.
Which meant finer details blurred together afterward.
My fingers tapped once against the table.
The hat could indeed work. Not as concealment of any kind but as a marker. Red herring to all and everyone that would scream "here I am look."
Something memorable enough that people unconsciously attached identity to it.
A strange Slytherin first-year with a dramatic wizard hat.
Easy to notice.
Easy to remember.
Which meant—Easy to misdirect.
Slowly, ideas began aligning inside my head.
Suddenly several owls swept into the Great Hall carrying a long package toward the Gryffindor table.
A broomstick? really?
Potter opened the attached letter and immediately left the hall with his friend.
Malfoy practically launched himself after them with Crabbe and Goyle in tow.
I watched them go while calmly starting on what I privately considered my second breakfast.
The reference to Tolkien almost made me smile.
I might become more of a hobbit than a wizard at this point.
I quickly filled my plate and ate with gusto, the broomstick made me think that this is perhaps the perfect place to start this.
For the next several weeks Flint and the older Quidditch idiots would be busy preparing for the Gryffindor match.
Their attention would narrow naturally.
There would be Tryouts, practices and rivalries.
They would be in too much of a hurry to focus on some first year, this was a perfect window.
If I wore the hat consistently, people would begin associating it with me automatically.
The hat would become me and the easiest way to reach me is to look for it in the crowd.
Then later—when I wished to sneak off to practice in the Room of Requirement. No hat, different posture and perhaps a different colour.
Perhaps I should also project my aura more when wearing the hat, and when not suppress my aura as much as possible.
two different people altogether.
My attention shifted toward my robes thoughtfully.
Not the ones Madam Malkin made for me. absolutely not.
Those were expensive, expertly tailored and possibly the nicest things I had ever owned.
Tampering with them felt borderline criminal.
But the practice robes I had altered myself…They were made from scrap materials, sure they were the same fabrics but my skills aren't even a fraction of hers.
Those were another matter entirely. I would have to carry another set of robes in my bag.. ah and I would need another bag too.
I finished the food, stood up and planted the hat on my head as I started to move out of the hall.
Hmm, it's surprisingly comfortable.
Then I had a brilliant thought about a charm I had learned in my first charms class.
Color-changing charms.
Which meant theoretically— It could affect all colors, not just my robes.
Not just robes. My hair,skin tone, even the color of my eyes. In principle at least it should work but it needs some testing.
Merlin!
I stared blankly at the open doors of the great hall for several long moments while the Great Hall noise faded into meaningless background static. My legs kept taking me further luckily, so I didn't just freeze in the middle of the room.
Nothing enough to fool close inspection perhaps. Combined with posture changes?Movement?Aura suppression?
That would make me so much harder to track.
Especially in a castle already filled with students.
if "Alexander Hawthorn" remained highly visible elsewhere at the same time.
That will need some more thought to achieve but a good goal to have.
The more I thought about it, the more elegant it became.
When acting as myself—The hat. Straight posture and visibly confident. My aura flaring outward slightly instead of muted.
Noticeable, easy to identify even in a crowd and definitely easy to remember.
A peacock.
I walked around the corner just in time to see Professor Flitwick chastising Mr. Malfoy and forcing him to return the broomstick he had apparently tried to confiscate from Potter by informing a teacher that a first-year possessed a forbidden item.
Unfortunately for Malfoy, Potter is who he is and there was apparently a special circumstance.
Or so Professor Flitwick explained while mentioning that Professor McGonagall had already informed the staff beforehand.
Malfoy looked horrified.
I shook my head at the sight and went back to my plans.
When acting under another role—I would mute my aura even more than the charm does naturally.
Different house robe accents,if possible change hair color and eye color too. Perhaps get a few pairs of glasses to use.
Different body language entirely. No hat at all, or a very different one. Quiet and Forgettable.
Multiple identities built around expectation instead of true disguise magic.
Cheap and practical. Difficult to find someone who doesn't even look like the one you're looking for.
I glanced around the hall and not seeing anyone stepped into an empty room.
"Tweak," I murmured quietly.
she appeared immediately.
"Yes Master?"
"I may have just had a terrible idea." I said and sat on a table edge after a quick "Scourgify"
A tiny gasp of delight came from Tweak.
"The best kind!"
I ignored that.
"If Color changing charm works the way I think it does…" I said slowly, "then I don't need invisibility."
Tweak gave me an enormous and encouraging grin.
"You need some theater if you plan to go this route master."
I remembered just few minutes ago when
One twin was being loudly reprimanded by a prefect while the other calmly continued eating breakfast despite being almost certainly just as guilty.
Neither of them appeared particularly concerned, and somehow neither received more than a lecture.
"…Yes," I admitted quietly.
And suddenly Hogwarts looked far less like a school and far more like a stage.
"All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players" I muttered with a small smirk.
Tweak gave a theatrical clap with a wide impressed smile "ohhoh hoo master is quoting the Bard now! What's next, some Plato? perhaps Aristotle." She teased
I sighed, slightly embarrassed.
"Well, Mary and Josephine were both highly educated and firmly believed us boys should learn as much as our heads could hold, even if they had to pour the knowledge directly through our ears," I admitted.
"Mary was almost definitely some kind of noble,"I added as an afterthought.
Tweak tilted her head thoughtfully at that.
"Nobles always know strange things," she declared with complete confidence. "Probably because they have towers."
"…Towers?" I repeated, confused by the strange new direction the conversation took.
"Yes." She nodded seriously. "And dramatic staircases. Intelligence gathers better in high places."
I stared at her for a moment before deciding not to ask where exactly she had acquired that theory.
Probably cinema again.
Tweak hopped up onto the table beside me and adjusted the hat still sitting crookedly on her head.
"So," she said eagerly, "what kind of mysterious person will Master Alexander become?"
I rubbed at my temple slightly.
"That is exactly the sort of sentence that worries me." I muttered
"It should," she agreed proudly.
I ignored that and leaned forward slightly instead, thoughts beginning to arrange themselves properly now that the initial excitement had settled.
The idea itself was simple.
A visible Alexander Hawthorn. and a forgettable student.
Not through difficult illusion magic or complicated transformations, but expectation and presentation and first year magic.
The strange Slytherin with the wizard hat always on his head.
The boy who walked confidently, carried too many books, and occasionally quoted old philosophers for no practical reason. one that always knew things.
That version of me would need to be consistent and memorable.
Meanwhile the other…
My fingers tapped lightly against the table again.
Quieter,posture smaller movements and muted aura. Different house colors whenever possible.
Just enough that people's eyes slid past instead of stopping.
Tweak watched me think with increasingly excited eyes.
"Oh this is exciting. Master's going to be so sneaky, they will wonder if you exist at all" She whispered reverently.
"I feel more like a paranoid kid, that isn't really sure if existing at all is a good idea." I corrected it automatically, thoughts still firmly in the picture I was painting in my head.
"Same family of hobbies." she said flippantly and pulled out from her inner pocket,a cinnamon stick with what seemed like a stick of vanilla stuck in it and lit it up with a finger.
"mm, now thats the stuff" she muttered as the pleasant smell filled the room, she didn't produce any smoke this time I noticed.
I exhaled slowly and slid off the edge of the table.
"There are problems," I admitted. bringing myself back in to the matter at hand, "The color-changing charm is temporary and I don't actually know whether it works properly on hair,eyes or my skin"
"Only one way to find out," Tweak said immediately with an eager smile as she kept smoking.
I looked at her resentfully
"That sentence has historically led to terrible outcomes."
She pointed accusingly at me.
"Only in Germany, besides this might be one of the interesting ones."
I narrowed my eyes " no more cinema for you" then I turned my back to her sputtering.
I drew my wand slowly looking around the room for a target.
The color-changing charm itself was simple enough in theory. First-year Charms. Basic alteration magic. Harmless.
my gaze stopped at a dusty old curtain hanging near the back wall of the room
Perfect.
"Colovaria." I intoned with a flick.
The spell struck the curtain cleanly in the middle and faded brown cloth immediately shifted into deep emerald green.
exactly as I pictured the color.
Stable and without any fluctuations.
I flicked the wand again experimentally. repeating the spell with different colors in mind.
Blue,then silver,yellow with pink spots,
Tweak gasped in delight.
"Master has weaponized decoration!"
I ignored her and stepped closer to inspect the fabric properly.
No distortion or bleeding of colors. I didn't feel much of anything while casting it either.
Which means the charm itself is cheap to cast,very cheap.
My thoughts immediately jumped three steps ahead.
Robe accents its sleeves and the trim.
Perhaps even shoes to be thorough.
Enough to change impressions quickly without needing entirely different clothing.
I frowned slightly. The next part wasn't my favorite, but it is a must to test it thoroughly.
"My hair."
Tweak immediately froze. Then very slowly reached up and grabbed the brim of her fedora and pulled it down to her eyes.
"Master," she whispered dramatically.
"Yes?"
"If your hair turns green permanently I may not survive the experience." she said sorrowfully although the cinnamon stick in the corner of her mouth kind of ruined the image.
"That is reassuring." I said deadpan.
she continued" I might just laugh myself to grave" She said with a morose voice.
"Shut it Tweak" I said with a huff and raised the wand anyway carefully this time.
"Colovaria."
For one horrifying second my vision tinted blue as the spell passed too close to my face.
Then a lock of hair fell across my vision.
White,not blond anymore. pure snow white.
Tweak made a strangled noise somewhere between terror and admiration.
"Oh no," she whispered theatrically"Master has paled to a Malfoy, soon he's spouting about the dad he never knew and his hearing like the other one does" she shook her head sadly at the corner of my eye.
Ignored her antics and grabbed the lock immediately and stared at it.
The charm held,no discomfort either.
I released the strand slowly.
Then the color abruptly flickered twice and snapped back to my blond.
Temporary.
Unstable perhaps on living things,but irrefutably possible.
A slow smile spread across my face despite myself and despite the ton of new things to learn fast once more.
Tweak saw it and pointed dramatically.
"That is the face of someone about to commit advanced nonsense to a whole school" She said with the look of an expert on the matter.
"…Probably," I admitted quietly.
And somehow that answer only made her happier.
The following weeks settled into a rhythm.
Classes I coasted throughand did only the bare minimum without standing out in any of them.
Homework was immediately done after class in the Library. Then I sneaked to practice in the Room of requirement, for a few hours. Days usually ended with me leaving the room and plopping the hat back on and returning to Slytherin house to play the game and to scheme as the rest of Slytheris did.
In roughly that order.
The hat became normal disturbingly quickly.
At first people stared. Then they smirked behind my back. Few did even boldly to my face, I strangely respected the latter group more.
Then eventually they simply accepted that Alexander Hawthorn apparently dressed like a mildly suspicious stage magician for reasons known only to himself.
Stage magician who apparently didn't know the difference between the top hat and wizard's hat.
People stopped questioning consistent absurdity far faster than seemed reasonable.
I have told a few Slytherins who had asked about the hat, that I wished to deepen my connection to my wizarding side, and as silly as wearing a hat might be, it helped me to think more like a wizard.
They all stared at me uncomfortably long after my explanation, either to see if I were serious or to ascertain if I was as mad as I sounded.
Tweak, naturally, treated the entire operation with the seriousness of an international espionage campaign.
She had somehow produced fabric patches for every Hogwarts house.
Not crude ones either. Almost identical as the crest above my heart.
Carefully stitched lions, badgers, ravens and snakes made from colored thread and backed with a simple sticking charm so they could be attached directly over my Slytherin crest whenever needed.
"How did you even make these?" I asked one evening while examining the set laid neatly across my desk.
Tweak looked deeply offended."I am quartermaster of the operation. Not to mention a senior operative" She said with a finger waggle.
"That does not answer the question." I insisted
She ignored me entirely.
The Ravenclaw patch was actually impressive. Fine stitching. Proper colors. Even the little bronze details looked convincing from a distance.
Close inspection would reveal the deception eventually.
But close inspection was exactly what I intended to avoid.
The sticking charm helped enormously with that.
A simple spell overall.
Useful though,very useful.
The charm allowed objects to cling firmly to surfaces until removed manually with more force than the charm is producing or countered properly with a counter spell. Apparently intended for hanging decorations and securing parchment.
The patches attached cleanly over my robes without damaging the fabric underneath and could be removed in seconds.
I had even discovered that I didn't need a wand to take them off. Since the magic of the sticking charm is mine,all I needed was a similar technique to entering a Slytherin house, coating my fingers with mana and wanting to take the patch off and it would easily detach.
Sadly I cant put attach them similarly..perhaps if I stitch a rune that would work as sticking charm..mm
Simple magic truly was terrifying when used creatively.
The glasses were worse. Not because they looked bad.
Because they worked far too well and she solved one huge problem with them. Since I didn't dare to point my own wand to my eye to test the charm, I was stuck with my natural blue eyes until she brought the glasses to me.
Tweak had acquired several old pairs from somewhere in the castle, removed the damaged lenses and replaced them with plain clear glass.
"No one recognizes people in glasses properly," she informed me confidently.
"That cannot possibly be true." I refused to believe her nonsense outright
"It is a documented phenomenon." she insisted.
"Documented where?" I demanded to know.
"Cinema of course. There was this flying man who slipped the glasses on and nobody recognised him afterwards," she said hands on her hips self-satisfied"Although it might also be he hid the huge red cloak he was wearing and put proper clothes on but I suspect the glasses did most of the work" she kept nodding
I stared dumbfounded. "Of course" was all I got out.
She was annoyingly correct again.
I got the idea of charming the glasses to make my eye color look different through them. It turned out to be quite simple to do actually.
Granted he thought the process to hold when I cast the color changing charm was somewhat complex and completely experimental, I was right in the end even if it took a week to get it to work along with two runes.
A pair of glasses combined with slightly altered posture and muted behavior changed far more than it logically should have. changing my hair color and giving myself a tan at times apparently made me a completely new boy.
Especially in a castle already overflowing with students.
The true difficulty turned out not to be the disguise itself.
It was acting when talking to other students.
I discovered very quickly that pretending to be someone else for extended periods was exhausting in ways spellcasting wasn't anymore.
Mentally. Every movement had to become deliberate and thought out. I was terrible at improvising but there were few moments I had to wing hasty lies to escape.
Funny enough Hufflepuffs were catching me most often if I wore their colors and met them in the halls. It took me embarrassingly long to realise their house was really united and most of them knew everyone else in their house. Luckily most often they also thought I was someone named Tonks. Whoever that is. The weird part was it happened twice already with completely different looks.
weird indeed.
Alexander Hawthorn walked confidently. Back straight and with a smooth walk with a presence that the charm and the hat guaranteed was always noticed.
The other versions needed to move differently.
We decided it would be better for now, if I decide a house to impersonate every day and make different kind of hair and skin tones everyday making it, harder to catch me even if someone were to be more observant
Hogwarts continued not noticing.
Which honestly felt vaguely insulting.
One evening I sat in the Room of Requirement staring at my reflection in a small standing mirror the room had provided.
Blond hair temporarily dyed dark brown through color charm applications. I had gotten better at holding the hair color too longer periods of time.
Ravenclaw accents covering my robes.
Thin glasses perched on my nose showing chocolate brown eyes.
Aura suppressed as tightly as I could manage.
Forgettable.
Painfully so.
Tweak circled me critically from atop the desk.
"Needs more exhaustion," she declared.
"…What?" I asked confused.
"You still look like someone who sleeps regularly."
I stared at her puzzled
"That is because I do sleep regularly." I said in my defence,
"Then we must simulate academic suffering."
Before I could stop her she reached over and smudged ink beneath one of my eyes.
I recoiled slightly.
"Tweak."
"Now the Master looks like an authentic third-year Ravenclaw during exam season."
I turned slowly toward the mirror again and froze.
Merlin.
It actually helped. The boy in the mirror looked tired. Slightly stressed. Overworked.
Ordinary too, there was no trace of Alexander Hawthorn.
Just another student. A stranger in a sea of students.