In the opinion of Severus Snape and Hagrid, Bryan Watson was a low-key and unsociable person during his school days, and even he himself did not deny that this was an appropriate assessment.
However, this was not because Bryan himself was a wizard who kept people at arm's length.
You know Bryan is an 'outsider'. Before coming to Hogwarts, he had always thought he had just time-travelled and reborn into a parallel world's Earth.
In the eleven years of his life before that, he spent a lot of time adapting to a country with completely different living habits and cultural customs from his previous life. He also expended no small effort to relearn the knowledge he had mastered in his student days, actively preparing for the future.
However, the admission letter from Hogwarts disrupted all his plans, making his previous efforts almost in vain.
Why did he appear incompatible with his surroundings in the first few years after entering Hogwarts?
This question is very easy to explain.
Firstly, the existence of magic directly overturned Bryan's worldview and values accumulated over nearly thirty years in his two lifetimes. During those years, he was always in a state of confusion. On the one hand, he had to admit that magic really existed and work hard to learn magical knowledge; on the other hand, he always wanted to use a 'scientific way' to explain the rationality of the existence of magic, which simply made him schizophrenic.
Secondly, the seemingly real but unreal plot memories remaining in his mind also made him feel painful.
Bryan knew that he was in an incredibly real magical world, not in a book for teenagers or a fiction. Here, there were dangerous and ferocious magical creatures, evil curses almost impossible to guard against, cruel and bloody dark wizards, unscrupulous conspirators, and despicable hypocrites.
Although Bryan remembered some names, he could no longer recall the plots derived from the characters, so he could not directly judge whether they were really 'good people'. Especially after entering the Wizarding world and knowing his own weakness and powerlessness, being vigilant towards anyone and almost everyone was his way of ensuring his own safety.
In Hagrid's words, the indifference and isolation of the Slytherin students were the least significant to him. After all, his young body contained a mature soul.
Severus Snape was the only wizard he recognized at the school back then. As for the reason, it was also inseparable from Bryan's humble background.
At that time, Bryan was penniless. The meager scholarship from the school could only guarantee that he could afford second-hand books and teaching supplies, and could not support his advanced learning progress at all.
In order to save his miserable financial situation, Bryan had to find ways to make some money on his own. Starting from his second year, he began brewing potions in private for sale.
At first, he could only use cheap ingredients in the student cabinet to brew some simple potions and earn meager profits, accumulating little by little. Until the second half of his third year, he received a big order worth eighty Galleons – to brew a long-lasting invisibility potion.
In order to ensure foolproof success, he used the Disillusionment Charm to sneak into the Restricted Section many times in the middle of the night to look for information, and indirectly asked Snape about the tricks of brewing this kind of potion.
Bryan could not afford to be careless as the person buying the potion did not provide the ingredients, and the most precious Demiguise hair in the invisibility potion was worth six Galleons per piece. Brewing this potion required as many as five hairs, which would almost consume all of Bryan's savings.
Unfortunately, things often do not go as one wishes. No matter how well-laid plans may be, Murphy's Law always prevails.
Due to lack of experience, Bryan got the dosage of Abyssinian shrivelfig juice wrong, and the potion brewing failed. Because of this, Bryan was depressed for several days at that time.
However, just a week later, before the Potions class, when Bryan went to get the ingredients for the class, he actually found ten Demiguise hairs tied together in his commonly used cabinet. This was a precious material that would not normally appear in a young wizard's cabinet at all!
Moreover, in the subsequent class explaining the Confusing Concoction, the nonchalant Professor Snape unexpectedly started talking about the invisibility potion out of nowhere!
This made Bryan realize that his private potion brewing and selling had probably been watched by the often-stern-faced Head of House all along. Similar situations occurred several more times later, but both sides maintained a high level of tacit understanding and neither poked through it.
Because of this, Bryan gradually began to trust Severus Snape. Before that, he had always been wary of Snape, because he had learned from chatting with his housemates that Snape seemed to have been a follower of that 'great Dark Lord before'(as they said). When the Dark Lord fell, he had escaped the judgment of the Wizengamot because he had gained the protection of Headmaster Dumbledore.
However, the close relationship with the Head of House did not change Bryan's low-key approach. He still remained silent in school, trying not to cause conflicts with others, or perform too outstandingly to arouse others' jealousy. This situation continued until his fifth year, when it was broken by an accident.
It happened at the end of November '86. That winter was particularly cold, and 84-year-old Grandma Ferena finally did not make it to the arrival of the New Year's Christmas.
For Grandma Ferena who had taken good care of him throughout his life and devoted her life to charity, she had always been the person Bryan respected the most. Her passing was a heavy blow to Bryan.
But because that year was the O.W.L.S year and the schoolwork was quite intense, there was not much time left for Bryan to grieve. So, after hurriedly attending the old lady's funeral, Bryan had to rush back to school to continue his studies.
Time went back to a late night in early December 1986. The dark night curtain covered the earth tightly like a huge canopy. The strong cold wind swept over the Black Lake that had already begun to freeze, and the colliding ice debris made crackling sounds like zombies chewing on bones.
After confirming that his roommates had all fallen asleep, Bryan sat up expressionlessly. He quietly got dressed and took out a mirror frame with a black and white photo from a hidden compartment next to the bed.
The common room was quiet. The ghastly green lamplight, rough stone walls, and many empty carved soft chairs made this narrow, low room look more like a tomb.
Unlike Gryffindor students, Slytherin students were not keen on midnight adventures in the castle. So, as he passed through the maze-like, dizzying passages, Bryan did not encounter a single student. However, even if he did, there was nothing to worry about.
Bryan was very confident in his Disillusionment Charm. He could completely conceal his figure while moving, and even Filch's malnourished cat walking by would not notice anything unusual.
"Hey, little guy, I think you must be lost!" When passing through the Entrance Hall, a voice from above the marble staircase caught Bryan's attention. He took a few steps closer and looked up, only to find that it was the Gryffindor prefect, Bill Weasley of the Weasley family, talking to a young Hufflepuff wizard.
"Hurry back to bed, little guy, or I'll send you to see Professor Sprout."
"O-okay, Prefect Weasley, I'll go back to the dormitory now!" Hearing that he would not be deducted points or sent to the professor for detention, the young wizard caught by Bill was grateful. He hastily bowed to Bill to apologize, and then scurried away.
Having dealt with this unruly young wizard, Bill touched his long hair hanging behind his head, and hummed a tune as he walked up the marble stairs to continue his prefect duties.
Bryan stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching Bill's back disappear from sight. The eldest son of the Weasley family, trusted by Dumbledore, and the and the focus of everyone's attention, Bill Weasley, was well-received by teachers and students at the school not only because of his outstanding grades, but also because he indeed had extraordinary personal charisma.
However, among the senior Slytherin students, Bill Weasley had a very bad reputation. They believed that Bill Weasley, who hung out with a group of Muggle-born wizards all day, had betrayed the glory of the ancient Pure-Blood family.
In private, they had planned many times to teach Bill a lesson. But every time, no matter how many people they mobilized, they were badly beaten by Bill Weasley and his burly Chaser brother.
Therefore, this also led to Bill Weasley almost becoming the public enemy of Slytherin students in their fifth year and above. Especially when there were rumors that Headmaster Dumbledore seemed to intend to give him the position of Head Boy when Bill reached his seventh year, this targeting became even more obvious.
Bryan laughed silently, turned and headed towards the Forbidden Forest through the Entrance Hall. All these troubles had nothing to do with him. After all, no one would be foolish enough to expect a transparent figure from Slytherin with little presence to defeat the proud son of Gryffindor.