Professor McGonagall's eyes were full of astonishment; she was now convinced that Ivan possessed the gift of prophecy.
Just moments ago, she had reacted almost instinctively, and it had turned out exactly as Ivan had predicted.
Ivan asked, "I think my talent must be what you refer to as magic, Professor."
Seeing Ivan's nonchalant attitude, as if this ability were commonplace in the wizarding world, Professor McGonagall said seriously, "Your gift is extremely rare, even in the magical world. To my knowledge, only one person has had a similar ability."
"Oh? Who is it?"
"Sorry, but I cannot reveal their name."
Professor McGonagall apologized, "That person brought unimaginable changes to the wizarding world."
"Of course, believe me, Mr. Ambrosius, this has nothing to do with your talent. You are a good child."
To this day, whenever Professor McGonagall thought of Grindelwald, she still felt a chill down her spine.
(McGonagall, in this fic, was in the timeline of Fantastic Beasts here, so she is decades older than in Harry Potter.)
Ivan knew that the person Professor McGonagall was referring to must be Gellert Grindelwald.
However, Professor McGonagall clearly wouldn't associate Ivan with Grindelwald just because of a similar prophetic ability.
"Your gift is known as a Seer in the wizarding world, a rare magical talent."
Professor McGonagall had thought that guiding new students would be a routine task, but she never expected to find such a gem as Ivan.
A Seer, a natural-born prophet!
"Believe me, Mr. Ambrosius," McGonagall said earnestly, "you will achieve great things in the future."
"Thank you, and please just call me Ivan."
Professor McGonagall had a very good impression of Ivan, not only because of his special talent but also because he was as well-behaved and sensible as Mrs. Mena had said.
Thinking about Ivan's background, Professor McGonagall couldn't help but feel sorry for the child.
At Hogwarts, Muggle-born wizards were not uncommon.
But an orphan, a Muggle-born orphan...
In Slytherin, he would undoubtedly be at the bottom of the food chain.
Pureblood family > Pureblood > Half-blood > Muggle-born > Muggle-born orphan
Yes, Ivan belonged to the last category, essentially the lowest of the low. Better than Muggles, but not by much.
'This child, he shouldn't be sorted into Slytherin, right?'
Professor McGonagall knew the Sorting Hat's criteria well. Slytherin generally only accepted purebloods.
While there were occasionally ambitious half-blood and Muggle-born wizards, those were rare exceptions.
Ivan being a Muggle-born, eliminated any chance of him being sorted into Slytherin.
As for the other three houses, Professor McGonagall thought he would fit in any of them.
Of course, she hoped he would be sorted into Gryffindor.
As the head of Gryffindor House, Professor McGonagall felt she could take the best care of Ivan.
At this thought, Professor McGonagall suddenly paused: 'Is this child really Muggle-born?'
A natural Seer, such a talent, was almost unheard of in the wizarding world.
Yet, it had manifested in a Muggle-born.
Professor McGonagall found it hard to understand.
She wasn't a blood purist or a supporter of bloodline theories and was herself a half-blood witch.
However, from a purely academic perspective, the likelihood of Ivan's parents being wizards was much higher than being Muggles.
Professor McGonagall couldn't recall any wizarding family with the surname Ambrosius.
With this in mind, Professor McGonagall inquired about Ivan's background.
Ivan had no identifying items other than a piece of paper with his name when he crossed over.
He handed his ring to Professor McGonagall.
After examining it, she found nothing special about it.
Returning the ring with an apologetic look, Professor McGonagall said, "I have never seen the crest on this ring before."
"It's alright, I'm not very interested in my background."
Ivan said calmly, "I'm more curious about the magical world."
"By the way, Professor, where can I buy the items listed here?"
Ivan smiled slightly and pulled out the list from his acceptance letter. "I once 'saw' a magical alley reflected in the lake. Is it there?"
"Is that another prophecy?"
Professor McGonagall was increasingly amazed by Ivan's prophetic abilities. "What an incredible gift."
"Yes, we call that alley Diagon Alley. It's the largest wizarding market in Britain."
"And don't worry about tuition fees."
Professor McGonagall indicated for Ivan to prepare, "Attending Hogwarts is free, with food and accommodation provided by the school. Additionally, we offer a certain amount of Galleons as a scholarship for young wizards like you."
To help Ivan understand the concept of Galleons, Professor McGonagall explained the wizarding currency.
1 Galleon equals 17 Sickles, which equals 493 Knuts.
"So, shall we head to Diagon Alley now?"
"I understand your curiosity about the wizarding world, but I need to guide another new student first."
Professor McGonagall's current task wasn't just to guide Ivan.
Compared to Ivan, she still had to speak with another student's parents and convince them of the existence of magic.
Professor McGonagall arranged to return in the afternoon to take Ivan and the other new student to Diagon Alley to purchase the required items.
Once Professor McGonagall left, Ivan was alone in his room.
Ivan had already considered revealing his prophetic abilities.
Having transmigrated over, he didn't want to live in constant fear.
Ivan had read many Harry Potter fanfictions where the protagonists often saw Dumbledore as an adversary, constantly thinking about how to defend against his Legilimency and fearing their identity as a transmigrator would be exposed.
It's not that one shouldn't be wary of Dumbledore.
Indeed, Dumbledore was honorable and had a moral code, and wouldn't invade others' privacy lightly.
However, a little caution never hurts.
What puzzled Ivan was that these transmigrators would often overlook Snape, even seeking him out.
Snape's Occlumency could deceive even Voldemort.
His skills in fabricating memories, hiding emotions, and probing secrets might not match Dumbledore's, but to a first-year student, both were unbeatable.
Ivan didn't consider himself exceptionally intelligent.
He chose to reveal his Seer talent to Professor McGonagall because it could explain his foreknowledge.
Besides, Legilimency wasn't like mind reading in Marvel; it couldn't reveal all of someone's memories at once.
Essentially, Legilimency was a form of telepathy, only capable of reading surface thoughts.
To truly delve into someone's memories, a wizard would need to use their wand to extract the memories from the mind.
However, neither Dumbledore nor Snape would resort to such measures.
Using Legilimency on a student at Hogwarts would clearly violate the principles of the professors and invade the student's privacy.