Chapter 5: The Boy Who Lived and the World That Changed

The Hogwarts Express rolled north on September 1, 1991, and Evan, seventeen, sprawled across a compartment bench with his eyes on fields streaked with late-summer gold. His seventh year beckoned as a shield from a world gone quietly strange. A month post-Towers, quirks popped up when Muggles sparked lights from fingertips, pots floated in kitchens, and a London dog barked midair, but it held shy of mayhem. Wandless magic was brutal, even with Tower-implanted knowledge, and wands stayed wizard turf. Evan's move paid as his Galleon pulsed relentlessly with Leviosa, Aguamenti, and Protego, 250 spells spread worldwide and bought by billions. He was a billionaire with wealth stacking silently, a fortune he hadn't touched.

The train's rattle soothed him. Lila and Theo piled in with Lila juggling chocolate frogs and Theo clutching a rune sketch after shooing first-years hogging seats. Lila braided her hair and chattered about summer when her Muggle parents gaped at a levitating kettle while Theo grumbled about wandless limits and sketched a failed Lumos. Evan half-listened with his Galleon warm in his pocket as each glow marked a sale, six years of Hogwarts cashed in. Quidditch dives and late-night study all paid now.

Hogwarts gleamed, and the Great Hall's starry ceiling was a balm. First-years shuffled in when one, Harry Potter, eleven and skinny with a scar, sorted into Gryffindor amid cheers. Evan glanced at just a kid, then dug into roast potatoes. Lila and Theo flanked him at Ravenclaw with voices colliding.

"You sold everything?" Lila asked with her fork pausing and grin teasing.

"Had to," Evan said with a smirk. "World's odd now, Hogwarts is steady."

Theo snorted. "Steady? Muggles buying Incendio, my uncle's cat singed its tail."

"They can't cast wandless," Evan said, slicing chicken. "Tried it pre-Hogwarts, it was a flop. Towers teach, but without a wand there is no much use."

A week in, a Daily Prophet thudded down with the headline: "Ministry Dissolved by Queen's Order." Evan snatched it as coffee cooled and read fast. The Ministry lunged for the Towers by claiming control, but the Queen, steely, folded them into the government. "Magic's Britain's now," she'd said. Wizards swapped robes for suits with wands tucked under pinstripes. Evan whistled and folded the paper. Power tilted, and he rode it out here.