Altair had no idea who Professor McGonagall was referring to. The original story hadn't mentioned anything like this, but he didn't particularly care.
"All right, Professor McGonagall. What time exactly?"
"Tomorrow at noon. We'll meet on Charing Cross Road."
She had clearly thought it through. Birmingham to London took time, and there was still shopping to do before the return trip. Noon made sense.
"I'll be there."
Professor McGonagall set down her teacup. A smile crossed her face.
"A very good afternoon tea."
"I'm glad you like it."
Michael's smile widened — the practiced kind, worn by a man with something to ask. He was still working up to the question about his son when McGonagall lifted her wand. A sharp crackling filled the room, and she was gone.
"This..."
Michael stood there a moment, then let out a short, rueful laugh.
"Jimmy, tomorrow you drive Altair to London. I'm going to see my elder brother tonight." He straightened. "The Shelby family has produced a wizard. Birmingham can't hold us back anymore."
"The Shelby family will reclaim its glory and rise to the peak once more!"
Altair watched his two uncles spiral into fantasy with the enthusiasm of men who had just won a war. He shook his head, said his goodbyes, and went back to his room.
He needed to think.
If he'd heard correctly, his system had just said divine artifact.
...
"System?"
He lay back on the bed and called out in his mind. A moment later, a light screen appeared — visible only to him, divided into three sections.
The first held a silver sword thrust into a square block of stone. It radiated something vast and settled, and above it ran a single line: Only the true king can draw this sword from the stone.
The second was darker. An abyss of a panel, with a cluster of crimson flame burning at its center. Within that flame floated a dark golden ring, rising and sinking as though it breathed, the aura coming off it quiet and deeply wrong.
The third was sea-blue, lit from within like sunlight through deep water. A trident blazed at its center.
The moment he saw them, the System fed him the knowledge directly. The Sword in the Stone. The One Ring. Poseidon's Trident. Arthur's sword, Sauron's ring, a sea god's weapon — drawn not from myth, but from their own fictional worlds.
He had to choose one.
The answer wasn't difficult. This was the world of Harry Potter. Power here ran through bloodlines, through politics, through the subtle architecture of fear and loyalty. A king's sword meant nothing. A trident meant less.
"I choose the One Ring."
The middle panel shook. Dark aura burst outward, and beneath it — faint, furious — came a voice that didn't belong to any system.
"No!!!"
The hatred in it was total. But something warm moved through Altair's chest almost immediately, steady and quiet, and the darkness dissolved against it.
The screen vanished.
A ring appeared before him — old, plain, without ornament. Then it faded.
He could still feel it. Sitting somewhere inside him, patient. One thought and it would come.
...
Divine Artifact: The One Ring (Sealed) Soul-bound.
The One Ring, into which the Dark Lord Sauron poured his painstaking effort and the greater part of his power, possesses incomparable strength. Note: Sauron's evil will has been removed, and the One Ring has already been soul-bound to the host.
Unsealing Progress: 5%
Abilities:
Enter the Wraith Realm: Wearing the ring allows the bearer to step into a spectral dimension, becoming invisible in the physical world.
Necromancer: The bearer inherits Sauron's extraordinary talent for magic, particularly dark magic and necromancy, with comprehension far beyond the ordinary. (Locked)
Dominion Over All: Greatly enhances leadership ability; grants an innate authority over others, making trust and allegiance easier to earn. The One Ring rules all rings and can draw freely from their abilities, including control over Ringwraiths. (Locked)
The Undying One: The bearer's lifespan increases enormously under the Ring's influence. The soul does not perish. After bodily death, a new body may be forged through other means. (Locked)
Dark Supreme: Magic increases tremendously. All dark magic becomes available for masterful use, and any creature with a dark attribute falls under the bearer's control. (Locked)
...
Altair closed the panel.
"So the One Ring is still sealed, and only the invisibility ability is unlocked. How do I unseal it?"
The System answered in his mind.
"The host has chosen the One Ring and has unlocked summoning privileges for the world of the Ring. The host may perform one free character summon and one free item summon each month. Summoning characters and items related to the One Ring will greatly increase the unsealing progress. Completing corresponding missions will earn World Story Points, which may be used to purchase related characters or items from the System."
Straightforward enough. And, from the look of it, reasonably safe.
He checked his missions. One main quest had already activated.
...
Main Quest: The Path of the Supreme One
Current Objective: Enter Slytherin House.
Slytherin is the breeding ground of Dark Lords, yet its reputation hardly matches what people imagine it to be. So let Slytherin give birth to the greatest Dark Lord in its history.
Reward: 100 Story Points
...
Altair exhaled.
Simple. Almost insultingly so. Given who he was, Slytherin was already a certainty. And even if something unexpected threw the Sorting Hat off course, the Ring's influence would handle it quietly. If future missions stayed at this level, accumulating Story Points would cost him nothing.
The One Ring was, at its core, a symbol — of power, of hunger, of the kind of ambition that reshapes the world around it. The moment he'd chosen it, he'd already known what kind of path he was walking.
The Path of the Supreme One wasn't an assignment. It was a description.
He was satisfied with that. More than satisfied.