"And there's no... ", whispered Orochimaru to himself, scribbling another square on the map.
"This one was already the ninth. If things keep up at this rate, I'll be thinking that the patrols in this town don't go at all", Orochimaru sighed, leaning back in his wooden chair.
For the third day now, Orochimaru had been on the lookout for at least some kind of shinobi patrol. Carefully moving through the streets of London, Orochimaru randomly visited the places he had marked on the map, which he had carefully divided into squares, a hundred kilometers square, and standing in their center, literally for a few seconds turned on Sage mode, trying to feel the characteristic curvature of natural energy throughout the twenty kilometers radius available to him.
Sleeping in random empty apartments, of which there were quite a few in the city, Orochimaru was constantly thinking about his life in this world.
"If I want to live here in peace, and not be distracted by the constant raids, to do my research in peace, and to find my way back to my home world, I need to make some kind of arrangement with the local top people urgently," Orochimaru thought.
"But how? If my hunch is correct, it's going to be pretty hard for me to talk from a position of strength. Provide my services as a scientist?", the latter thought. "Quite possibly. Since, since Naruto-kun became Hokage recently, I've still somehow managed to establish contact with Konoha's Investigative Division, there shouldn't be a problem here either. Especially since no one here knows me, and there are still those in the Leaf who remember me well."
"If those two weren't playing good and bad shinobi, and really wanted to get such a promising me into their academy, thereby tying me to themselves, which I slightly doubt, then all is not lost yet," he thought firmly. "After all, even though they didn't know all my power, they must have assumed that one who can enter the Sage Mode - can't be detained by mere chunin. But that's if my entry into the Sage Mode, and the sudden intrusion, were not mere coincidences."
Glancing at the sun beginning to set, Orochimaru, after sitting in his chair for a while longer, concluded:
"We can guess ad infinitum - we need information," he thought. "Tomorrow morning we need to speed up the frequency of the search by half. It may be worth keeping a low profile for now anyway, but losing half a month to scour the whole of London is an inadmissible luxury. I'll only have to remind myself longer by constantly activating a senin mod here and there," Orochimaru decided, folding the map and picking it up from the table.
"Minerva, did you remember everything?", Asked Albus to his deputy, standing at the threshold of Hogwarts.
"Yes, Albus, I remembered: to be polite; to address him only by the name 'Orochimaru'; not to provoke him under any circumstances; not to reach for his wand unnecessarily; and if you do, ask the boy for permission, and under no circumstances, even accidentally, should you point your wand in his direction."
"And?", Dumbledore protruded.
"And after the apparatus, if possible, try to walk only in crowded places, and don't turn into back alleys," Minerva exhaled. "There's just one thing I don't understand: am I going to accompany a prospective freshman, or am I taking a crazy Death Eater for a walk? Why all these precautions?", McGonagall asked in amazement.
"You see," sighed Dumbledore, "after a year of living alone, the boy has become very, very nervous, so you must be careful not to provoke him into aggressive acts. "
"Albus, are you out of your mind?", Minerva raised her voice. "Do you have any idea what would happen if you let such an unstable boy in with the other children?" She asked. "I mean, he needs urgent treatment at Mungo's!"
"Absolutely not!" Albus objected. "Even though I have a suspicion that the boy has been learning foreign magic from someone for some time, he still needs urgent socialization. A lot of people would get feral living alone in a cave for a long time. And being in solitary confinement for just as long would not be conducive to his recovery!"
"Well, suit yourself," She pressed her lips together after a moment's reflection. "Even though I'm more interested in Harry's well-being than anyone else in this school, and even though I have an incredible amount of responsibilities, I will keep a close eye on him; but still, if anything happens, all responsibility rests with you!"
"That's good," Albus exhaled with relief, "and yes, by the way: before you go..."
Dumbledore rummaged in the inner pockets of his cloak for a while, pulled out a small, pea-sized glass ball, and solemnly, with open palm, handed it to McGonagall.
"What is it?" she asked, taking the ball in her hands and twirling it a little between her fingers.
"A delayed portkey," He answered briefly, "You need to swallow it. "It's transfigured out of thin air, so you can disperse it once you and Harry are in Spoked Lane. All you have to do is meet the allotted ten minutes of time."
"Albus!"
"I should have expected that...", He sighed, letting go of the chakra-suppressing seal and creating a shadow clone while going invisible.
Early in the morning, just as Orochimaru was about to leave his temporary dwelling, there was a sudden light knock on the door - Orochimaru wasn't too surprised.
"So it's not just senjutsu", He realized at once. "Maybe tracking seals?", He thought. "But okay Konoha - there's not a lot of territory there. But to cover such a huge city with a barrier?", Orochimaru wondered. "Then that explains the lack of patrols. If you combine the tracking barrier, and that Hiroyshin-like technique, no patrols would be needed to track a spy."
"I had no chance of hiding in this town to begin with", Orochimaru shuddered a little, looking in parallel as his shadowy clone opened the door.
"Hello, you're Orochimaru, right?", McGonagall asked, looking a little nervously at the snake eyes that suddenly met her on the other side of the door.
"Dumbledore... You certainly didn't warn me about this", Irritated, she thought, waiting for a response from the boy.
"He did", In a stingy, not particularly interested voice he replied. "And you are...?"
"Professor McGonagall, young man", Automatically she blurted out, but when she saw that no negative reaction was forthcoming, she continued:
"I take it, elders aren't home?"
Orochimaru didn't answer, just nodded his head affirmatively at the question.
Satisfied with at least some response, Minerva continued her standard speech:
"I am here to inform you that as a British-born wizard, you have been invited to the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - Hogwarts", Seeing none of the reaction that usually follows this announcement, McGonagall asked her question:
"From what I hear, you are already well aware of your magic. Is that so?", She asked again.
Orochimaru, answering nothing, simply raised his right hand in front of him, flicking his finger to create a small flare of fire.
Minerva, not expecting such a thing, jumped back nervously, staring at the boy's right hand. And such a reaction was not surprising, since she was usually the one to show magic to the freshmen, not them to her. And she usually did it with her wand, not her bare hands.
"Well," she thought, "what did Dumbledore say? 'Had a little training?' I practiced magic for twenty years before I could do a trick like that!", McGonagall thought a little offensively. "Lily was certainly a gifted witch. And James wasn't much inferior to her. But this...", She stretched out.
Coming out of her daze, McGonagall coughed a little and continued:
"Well, I can see that you've learned to wield your magic quite well for your age. You will definitely be one of the best students in the history of the school, if you put in the effort, of course..."
"You make it sound like I'm already a student at your academy", Said Orochimaru, looking at his nails on his right hand.
"What?", Stupidly blinking, McGonagall asked.
"Or do you really think I don't understand why you're doing all this?", He asked, smiling at the edge of his lips.
"Young man," Minerva said indignantly, "I don't know what you're thinking, but your parents enrolled you in Hogwarts before you were born.
"Interes-sting," Orochimaru hissed, licking his lips. "Weren't those the parents you were referring to, the fact that you were acquainted with the old man who decided to invade my sanctuary with the greasy-haired man?"
At first McGonagall wanted to make a harsh remark about such blatant disrespect to the headmistress, but after looking into those cold green eyes with snake pupils, she realized that she had already begun to walk on rather thin ice, and remembering Dumbledore's warnings, decided to swallow such an insult this time:
"Yes, this, as you put it, 'old man' did know your parents, and he is also your magical guardian."
"Curious," he said, this time in a genuinely interested tone. "Then let's do this," he began, clapping his hands loudly, "I demand a complete set of documents, which completely emancipates me from this so-called guardian; as well as all the inheritance left by my parents. And when I say everything, that's what I mean, because if the deception is uncovered, we'll have a pretty big fight with whoever is responsible for it." He smiled predatory. "Otherwise, I refuse admission to your school, and this time you really won't see me again, since if I refuse, I will immediately leave this country."
"But why?", McGonagall was sincerely surprised. "I understand inheritance. But why would you need complete emancipation at eleven? You may have grown accustomed over the past year to complete freedom and independence from adults, but by the laws of both magical and Muggle England, it is simply impossible!", She was indignant, casually switching to the more familiar mode of speech she usually uses with her closest students.
"Well, if that's not possible in this country, it's not impossible in another. This is where I say goodbye...", But before Orochimaru could do anything, McGonagall stopped him with words:
"All right!" She decisively declared. "I'll talk to the Headmaster, and find out what can be done. Just don't run away, okay?", Calmly she finished, looking at the boy pleadingly.
"Then I'll see you in a day on the same vacant lot", He declared uncompromisingly, disappearing into a sudden pile of smoke.
Looking stunned as well as a little annoyed at where the boy had been standing just a second ago, Minerva turned sharply on her heel, immediately apparating from the meeting point with a small visual vortex.
"Guardian, then", Orochimaru, who had been standing in invisibility this time, not far from his newly dispersed clone, brooded.
"Well, they really do care about me, and apparently not just because of my impressive strength for a child not yet enrolled in the academy", He thought. "The reason may lie in these so-called 'parents' as well. Either they are the only members of a rather rich, extinct clan, or one of them had a strong genkai kekkyoi. I won't be able to verify the latter assumption any time soon, though, since I haven't been able to find the proper equipment yet."
"If this kekkei genkai is present, it appears to be asleep, for in a year of examination I have not been able to find anything resembling it", He pondered.
"In any case, I need to get out of this town as soon as possible", He decided Orochimaru, picking up his few belongings. What wasn't already in his stomach, of course.
Hello, this is the author of this fanfic speaking to you're. The thing is, I'm looking for a beta for this work. You've probably noticed by now that my English is way off, and it's not because it's my second language. It's not even my third. It's that I don't even know it at a conversational level. This fanfic is written in russian, and I just run it through Deepl Translator. I think you've already realized how bad it is :)
That's why I'm looking for an editor for this fanfic. If you like this work and want to help me with it, then write me in PM, where we can connect on Telegram, or any other messenger you like.