…
"Today's actions were risky, but in hindsight, it was all worth it."
After Scrimgeour and Tonks, along with several other Aurors, finished handling the scene and left, George lay sprawled on the comfortable bed in the dark wizard's bedroom, unable to suppress a sigh of satisfaction.
Setting aside the considerable savings the old wizard had amassed over a lifetime at Gringotts, the potion shop and the herbs and potions it housed alone represented a substantial fortune.
Though this might not be much compared to the real wealthy in the wizarding world, for a young wizard, it was more than enough.
It's like a grown adult possessing a million in assets; it may not be something to flaunt, but for a middle-schooler to have a million in pocket money—it would definitely outshine most students nationwide.
With this sum of money, many things would become much easier.
He had considered, for safety's sake, selling off the potion shop after inheriting the estate and moving into the Leaky Cauldron.
But after some thought, he decided against it.
In the future, he would certainly need a private space to research magic that couldn't be openly practiced.
Plus, this potion shop might prove useful later on. Selling it would be easy; buying it back would be much harder.
"This kid's body really is quite frail. I'll need to eat well and nourish it."
George got up, walked around the bedroom for a while, and then moved to stand before the mirror, carefully examining the body he now inhabited in this world.
Since waking up, he had been preoccupied with figuring out how to reasonably kill the old wizard, and hadn't taken the time to properly look at this body.
Blonde hair, blue eyes, a high nose bridge—the features were decent enough. But due to long-term malnourishment and suffering, the body was thin and weak.
That wasn't too much of a problem, though; a little good care would help it recover.
"Fortunately, my inner strength isn't as frail."
George bent his knees, exerted strength, and jumped, easily leaping over three meters high and touching the ceiling.
This wasn't because he was a wizard and thus had some sort of incredible jumping power. Wizards' bodies were indeed different from ordinary people—they had greater resistance to injuries and a better recovery ability.
But in terms of strength, unless they had special blood like Hagrid, wizards were no stronger than ordinary Muggles.
George's physical prowess was unique because this body didn't only possess a mutant power from the Marvel world; it had also inherited the physical strength of his previous body.In other words, his strength was a combination of both the eleven-year-old Doran's strength and the eighteen-year-old artificial mutant No. 757's strength.
Although No. 757's abilities weren't like Beast's or Wolverine's in enhancing physical power, his was still a normal adult's physique.
And, for the past three months in the Marvel world, he had not only been honing his abilities but also undergoing physical and close-combat training. His physical fitness was significantly better than that of an average eighteen-year-old.
To put it roughly into numbers, if Doran's physical strength equaled a punch of 50 kilograms, No. 757's body could deliver a punch of 200 kilograms. Now, Dora and No. 757's combined power was about 250 kilograms.
Of course, this was just a rough estimation; exact figures would require proper measurement.
For No. 757, gaining an extra 50 kilograms of strength was barely noticeable. But for Dora, gaining an additional 200 kilograms of power made an enormous difference.
Especially since Dora now weighed only 50 kilograms. Suddenly having the full physical strength of No. 757 enhanced everything about his body, making his leaps incredibly high, almost three meters in a single bound.
His agility was now comparable to that of a feline.
"I guess I qualify as a super child among kids," George mused.
After roughly checking his physical condition, George began to search through the old wizard's bedroom.
He wanted to see if he could find any forbidden dark magic books or notes on researching dark spells. That would allow him to learn some powerful dark magic in advance.
The results, however, were disappointing—he found nothing particularly special, only a few standard magic books that could be bought in stores.
On second thought, it made sense. Shops in Knockturn Alley were inspected monthly, so even if he had such materials, the old wizard wouldn't dare hide them so openly at home.
"Forget it, let this body rest. It's been a hectic day."
Since he hadn't found anything useful, George simply washed up and lay down on the old wizard's luxurious bed, letting the body enter sleep mode.
At the same time, he directed his main focus back to his Marvel body.
In the Marvel world, it was already daytime, and it was time for his daily training.
"It should be soon. Looks like I need to hurry up and learn a few useful spells!"
After the morning training session, George ate his lunch without expression while secretly observing a group of mutant kids gathered together.
Earlier, while walking down the corridor, he had seen a nurse getting berated by the supervisor.
Apparently, the nurse had prepared a cake and wanted to throw a collective birthday party for those mutant kids who had never celebrated a birthday.
If he remembered correctly, not long after this incident, the nurse came to her senses and led the mutant children in a mass breakout.
The afternoon training proceeded as usual, and when his Marvel body fell asleep at night, George's consciousness switched back to the Harry Potter world.
It was morning there.
Getting up, George tidied up, made himself a hearty breakfast, and picked up the Daily Prophet, which an owl had delivered to the door. He enjoyed his meal while flipping through the newspaper that the old dark wizard had subscribed to.
The food in the experimental base was nutritious, but as far as taste went, it left much to be desired.
Back here, when the dark wizard was alive, Doran could barely fill his stomach, let alone care about taste.
"The internationally renowned figure and author, recipient of the Third Class of the Order of Merlin, Honorary Member of the Anti-Dark Magic League, and five-time winner of the 'Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award,' Gilderoy Lockhart, will be at Flourish and Blotts for a book signing of his autobiography 'Magical Me' on August 21st from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m."
Looking at the Daily Prophet and seeing the pompous wizard dressed in periwinkle blue robes, George couldn't help but sigh.
"If only I had come a year earlier. At least I could've been in the same year as the Golden Trio, and maybe even sorted into the same house and shared a dormitory."
Indeed, it wasn't 1991 but 1992, meaning Harry Potter had already completed his first year at Hogwarts. George would be starting a year later.
Being with the trio had its pros and cons. The downside was getting caught up in numerous incidents, potentially hindering his magical studies.
The benefit, however, was that he knew about these events in advance. If he handled things well, there wouldn't be much danger, and he could even gain some extra benefits from them.