A/N: Happy late New Year! I'm so close to finishing the jobs and skills section so I decided to post this chapter seeing as it was already done.

Anyways hope you enjoy!

Chapter 3

"Let's see, the total is 16 pounds and 34 pence," the cashier droned on with a bored expression as he scanned the last item on the conveyer belt.

Adam handed him a 20-pound note and patiently waited as the acne-ridden teen counted and handed him back his change.

"Have a pleasant day," they said halfheartedly without looking at him already moving on to the next person in line.

"Thanks, you too," he answered back with the same amount of enthusiasm as he pocketed the change and collected his grocery bags.

Walking out of the store he walked for a couple of blocks before going into an empty alleyway. He walked over to a metal trashcan and pretended to place the bags inside. In reality he was using it to hide the sight of him dumping it into his inventory in case someone was watching. The change in his pocket was easier as he merely had to touch it for it to appear in his inventory. Idle he noticed that he had close to 250 pounds in total. As it turns out, it was ridiculously easy to make money if you had magic.

With a thought he summoned a 20-pound note in his hand. The very same he had handed to the male cashier.

After the cooldown timer had reset on his mimicked phone, he had used it to copy a 20-pound note, which turns out counted as a valid choice for Mimic Item. He had then spent the majority of the week going into stores, buying something to get change, and then resummoning the note after he was a fair distance away.

Some might consider it dishonest, but he never claimed to be a saint. And if he was being completely honest, he couldn't find it in himself to care too much about the complete strangers that his little scam might affect.

It really shouldn't have come as a surprise. While his past memories had done an amazing job at correcting many of his initial flaws, it couldn't fix everything. There was no getting around the fact that he had been raised in complete isolation for almost all his life, brought up by two of the most amoral people around, and never shown an ounce of affection. It was already a miracle that he wasn't a raging psychopath hellbent on destroying the world. So, all things considering a little lack of empathy was completely acceptable in his opinion. Hopefully it would fix itself over time.

Looking over at his watch he noticed that it was about time he started headed toward the train station.

On the way he overheard a few whispered conversations.

"You hear about the string of robberies?" a man asked his friend as they sat beside each other on a bench reading the newspaper.

"A little, have they caught the culprit yet?" the other man replied without looking up.

"Not from what I've heard. I swear, just what are those officers doing."

A pair of housewives walked past him pushing strollers, talking in hushed whispers.

"The news thinks it's a group of people working together. Gave them the name Phantom Troupe."

"A bit gaudy, no? Must have been a slow news week."

"Well, it's due to the fact that they have yet to see what these thieves look like. Not even the cameras have been able to capture them in the act. Husband thinks it must be an inside job. Claims it's the only logical explanation, for how so much product can disappear without a trace without anyone noticing."

A small crowd was standing in front of a record store that had police officers talking to the owner.

"What's going on? Why are the police-"

"-stuck again-"

"-took one of everything-"

"Didn't take any of the money this time either."

Alright in his defense, he didn't initially plan on stealing too but it was hard to resist temptation when the opportunity was made so easy.

He might look a little older due to his larger physique, but he was still only eleven years old. No self-respecting adult would allow him to rent out a room. So rather than sleep in the park or under a bridge where anyone could find him, he snuck into stores bathrooms and then waited under his invisibility cloak until they closed. He'd then walk around for a bit and grab some stuff that he found interesting before holing up in the bathroom to sleep. He'd then wake up early and sneak out again when they opened for the day.

He took a bit of everything but never to the point where they couldn't financially recover. He also left the money and jewelry in order to confuse the authorities even more. Maybe he would repay them or maybe he wouldn't. Only time would tell.

Arriving at King's Crossing station he was immediately met with a System announcement.

Quest: Uphill Both Ways (Complete)

Objective: Get to King's Cross Station in London in time for the Hogwarts Express all by yourself.

Reward: 50 Gold, Unlock Shop

He dismissed the window after reading it.

Scanning the area, he searched for the 9 platform and noticed it just as a family of three entered through the hidden entrance.

"Must be some type of muggle repelling charm," he concluded figuring it was the only sensible explanation as to why no one seemed to notice people disappearing into the stone masonry.

He soon found himself standing in front of the pillar with a fake suitcase filled with random junk so as to not seem out of place, everything of value was already safely tucked in his inventory. Taking a deep breath, he walked forward. There was a brief moment of blind silence before the darkness gave way to light.

"Tickets! Have your tickets ready!"

"Make sure to write me a letter as soon as you can."

"Mom! Did you pack my-"

"Ribbit. Ribbit."

Adam was definitely unprepared for the chaotic scene in front of him. It would seem that his last-minute shopping had made him one of the last to arrive. The platform was full of students, parents, and well-wishers hoping to relive some of that old nostalgia.

He walked towards the admittingly impressive-looking train, having to shove a few people out of the way, until he reached a ticket collector standing near one of the entrances.

The man gave him a cheerful smile and held out his palm, "Ticket please."

"Here you go," Adam said handing him his ticket.

"Have a pleasant trip," the man told him before handing him back his ticket.

Stepping inside, he quickly found out that many of the compartments were already full. Luckily, he was able to find one that still had some room left.

The sound of excited chatter and giggling could be heard from outside. Opening the door slightly he stuck his head inside and saw three girls that turned to look at him. Two of them were twins that looked like they had Indian heritage. The third had blonde curly hair and a somewhat round face. He had a pretty good idea who they were. He hoped his past memories would be enough to offset his non-existent social skills.

"Hello. Can I join y'all?" he asked with a small smile.

The three looked at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation in that special that all girls could… at least according to his past self's memories.

Finally, they seemed to reach a conclusion as the blonde scooted closer to the window to make room and patted the seat next to her, "Here. I'm Lavender."

"I'm Parvati," one of the twins announced.

"And I'm Padma," the other said raising her hand in greetings.

"Nice to meet ya. Name's Adam Walker," he said as sat he down and put his suitcase under his seat.

Lavender looked him up and down, "What year are you in Adam?"

"First year," he answered.

"No way. But you're so tall," she replied sounding surprised. Then she got a curious look, "Just how tall are you?"

He shrugged, "I think 168 cm last I checked." It was from the last set of measurements his parents took before their trip.

"Eh?" she turned to face the one that introduced herself as Padma, "Padma your good with numbers. What's that in feet?"

"I believe that comes out to 5 feet and 6 inches," the girl said sounding a little proud of herself at being asked.

"Wow. Then that means you'll grow up to be super tall," Parvati chimed in.

"Where are you from?" Lavender suddenly asked.

"Not really sure. Somewhere in the northern part of Iceland I think." He just realized that he really had no idea how he was going to get back home. He was pretty sure he got turned around a couple of times while flying too.

"Oh, that's so cool. All three of us are from Wales. What's it like in Iceland?"

"It's nice. A little cold sometimes. Lots of animals like seals and puffins. The scenery is also really beautiful, especially when the Northern Lights appear in the sky," he told them, trying to recall more details of his flight, "We also got hot springs. I've never been to one, but I hear they're supposed to be really good for the skin."

That seemed to be the magic word as the three eleven-year-olds proved that no matter what universe or which side of the magical world they were in, a girl was still a girl.

The cabin quickly descended into talks about beauty tips, fashion and the latest gossip. Even Adam was sucked into their talks, using what limited knowledge he had from his past life to give his opinion on certain topics. Luckily, he had a couple of magazines stuffed in his suitcase which he took out to showcase what muggle fashion looked like.

"Oh! Look at this one!" Parvati shouted as she pointed to a picture of a woman wearing a white one-piece swimsuit with a large straw had and yellow beach wrap posing next to the sea.

Lavender hummed in approval, turning slightly in her seat from where she was painting Padma's nails to look at said picture, "That looks cute. I can't wait to learn how to transfigure my clothes. My mom always does it for me but she always choses the most boring designs on purpose, I swear."

Adam meanwhile had a music magazine open on his lap as he took a sip from an opened soda can, grape flavor.

"Aaaand done. Adam it's your turn," Lavender announced as she traded seats with Parvati again.

He didn't respond as he simply handed her his hand, and she got to work.

The door slid open causing all four of them to glance up.

A bushy haired girl stood at the entrance looking slightly confused by what she had walked into before seemingly regaining her wits, "Er. Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Nevile lost one."

"Nope," Adam answered not feeling the least bit embarrassed at being caught doing something so obviously girly. Part of which stemmed from his utter lack of shame and the other from the knowledge that he could just beat anyone up if they tried making fun of him.

She looked like she was going to say something more but then shook her head and simply left.

"Woah. Did you see her hair? She could really use some conditioner," Lavender whispered to the twins after she left, "Shame. She had such nice long hair."

"More like a bottle of Sleekeazy," one of the twins retorted which ended up raising another discussion about hair products.

'So that must have been Hermione Granger,' Adam thought to himself, 'She does look a little like Emma Watson.'

To be honest, he had no real opinion about the characters portrayed in the books or movies yet. It would be pretty stupid to have expectations of people he hadn't met yet after all. His past self might have liked the series, but it was never to the point of obsession like some fans. There was also the fact that the books were told from an unreliable narrator viewpoint and therefore prone to bias. So, he until he met them, he would reserve judgment… well all except Voldemort. That man needed to die one way or another so that the damn wizarding world wouldn't fall into chaos again.

"Other hand."

Taking back his hand, he found the he didn't care much for dark blue nail polish but seeing as one hand was already done he felt he might as well do the other too or else it would look weird.

Giving her his other hand he decided to check open his system while he waited for the paint to dry. The shop should have already been opened.

[Shop]

Gold: 2147

1) [Familiar Form: Sheep (F)] 10 Gold

2) [Familiar Form: Chameleon (F)] 10 Gold

3) [Familiar Form: Shark (F)] 20 Gold

4) [Familiar Form: Clownfish (F)] 10 Gold

5) [Spell: Shocking Grasp] 50 Gold

6) [Spell: Plane Shift] 25,000 Gold

7) [Material: Leeches X50] 1 Gold

8) [Material: Phoenix Feather X3] 50 Gold

9) [Material: Mooncalf Fur X3] 30 Gold

10) [Media: Magic School Bus Box Set] 20 Gold

(Resets in 160:23:19)

He had to hold back his surprise as he looked at the plane shift spell. It was way outside his price range, but if it did what he thought it did, then even ten times that amount would be considered cheap. Though he didn't have much time to lament the loss of opportunity as he received a new quest.

Quest: School Supplies (New)

Objective: Obtain 1 Familiar Form (0/1), 1 Spell (0/1), and 1 Magic Item (1/1).

Reward: Unlock Gear

'It must be counting the invisibility cloak in my inventory,' he concluded, 'either that or the flying broom.'

It was by far his easiest quest yet and he saw no reason not to complete it now.

With a mental command he bought the Shocking Grasp spell and the Shark Familiar from the list.

Shocking Grasp (Power Requirement: None)

Description: You coat your hands in lightning allowing you to electrify your targets with a touch. (Max Damage= 1 x Power)

That looked very promising. He wondered if it stacked well with (Elementalism) Mastery.

Quest: School Supplies (Complete)

Objective: Obtain 1 Familiar Form (1/1), 1 Spell (1/1), and 1 Magic Item (1/1).

Reward: Unlock Gear

At last, he could see what Gear did.

Without hesitation he opened the new tab.

[Gear]

Gems: 50

Lvl 1 Artifact: Invisibility Cloak

[Upgrade: 50 Gems]

Lvl 1 Familiar: Shark (F)

[Upgrade: 50 Gems]

Lvl 1 Grimoire: 1 Spell

[Upgrade: 50 Gems]

Looking around a bit he found the help box.

(Gear: Gear differs from normal equipment as they directly benefit from the System with each having unique magical features. Upgrading your Gear using Gems will give you additional magical feature which are selected at random.)

(Artifact: Artifacts are special magical objects that allow you to channel your magic through them as if they were a wand. You can turn any magical object into an Artifact but can only have one Artifact equipped at a time.)

(Familiar: A familiar is a special servant created from your magic and given sentients. They can change their forms at will and share some of your abilities. If the familiar dies, it respawns in an hour. New forms can be bought in the shop.)

(Grimoire: A Grimoire is a special spell book created from your magic that allows you to cast certain types of magic that you would otherwise be unable to cast. It removes the sex, race, bloodline, and world requirement of certain spells.)

It certainly wasn't what he had been expecting but he wasn't complaining. Artifact seemed to remove his need for a wand altogether though he doubted it would prevent the Trace from tracking him. From his understanding the Trace was applied to the child not the wand, probably during their first trip to Hogwarts, which was why the Ministry required all students to arrive at Hogwarts by train.

Having a familiar also sounded pretty good. He always wanted a pet.

Out of the three however, the Grimoire looked like the most powerful. Getting the ability to learn magic from different universes sounded like the type of thing some wizards would happily trade their souls for. Or at the very least subject their son to cruel inhuman experiments. And yes, he did mean to sound that bitter.

He was broken from his dark thoughts as he felt something poke his ribs.

Turning, Sam noticed that Lavender and the Patil twins were looking at him in concern. Guess he wasn't being as sneaky as he first thought.

"Are you okay? You suddenly went quiet and were staring off into space," Lavender gently asked.

"Yeah, I just learned I could do something pretty cool," he told them with a smile.

"Oh? What is it?" the blonde besides him asked.

Looking into his mind he quickly found the information he wanted.

Holding out his hand towards them, he made a show of snapping his fingers together a couple of times which produced a few sparks before seemingly getting the hang of it. On the next snap he maintained the spell at its maximum setting causing his entire hand to be coated in blue crackling arcs of electricity which resulted in the girls jumping back in surprise.

"How are you doing that?" Padma asked in awe apparently getting over her shock the fastest as she leaning in for a better look.

"Dunno. It just came to me. Isn't that the case for everyone?" he asked, trying to sound genuinely confused at their surprise.

"I don't think that's the case. At least not for me and my sister. What about you Lavender?" the Indian girl asked.

Lavender shook her head.

"Huh. That's weird, my parents are researchers, and they seemed to think it was pretty normal," he lied before dismissing the spell. It wasn't exactly draining but it felt awkward to keep it up any longer than necessary.

"Hmm, I guess I don't really know then," Padma said sounding stumped before gaining an excited expression, "What else can you do?"

"I can cast all the first-year spells alright, and some of the upper year spells too," he confessed.

The atmosphere in the compartment seemed to return to normal as he spent a significant amount of time demonstrating his magic, the previous incident seemingly forgotten in its wake.

"Oh, your gonna make a great Ravenclaw?" Padma declared as he finished making another paper butterfly fly around the room.

"Naw, I prefer using magic rather than reading about it. I think I'll choose Gryffindor, since that seems like the most fun one," he told her as he ripped another page from the magazine and tapped it with his wand and watched it transform into a small paper lion. It gave a silent roar before chasing after a paper goat around the floor.

"You can choose your house?" Lavender asked as she took pity on the poor goat and chose to rescue it up before the lion could pounce on it.

"Well sort of. It's kind of an open secret since anyone can just read about it in Hogwarts: A History. What basically happens is that they place this magical artifact on your head that gets a brief look at your mind and announce what House you're best suited for. However, if you're unsure or just don't really want to go to a certain house it will take your opinion into consideration," he explained before remembering something, "Oh and it's also tradition to not tell new students so they'll freak out during the sorting ceremony so don't tell anyone I told you."

"I always wondered how they did it. But every time we asked our parents, they always gave us a different answer. Glad it's something simple," Parvati said with a relieved sigh.

"My mom told me you got sorted by a magic mirror that showed you a future version of yourself," Lavender grumbled sounding particularly miffed at being tricked.

"Yeah, well sorry to break it to you. It just a cheap personality test using an old dusty hat," he teased, "hell it doesn't even sort you by personality. It basically measures what you think you want to be when you grow up and puts you in the house that will have the best chance of achieving that result. If you want to make a lot of friends, you go to Hufflepuff. If you want to spend your time learning magic? Ravenclaw. You want to succeed in something? Slytherin. If you like adventure and exploring, then you guessed it. Gryffindor."

He could practically see the gears turning in their head as they asked themselves what they actually wanted. He wasn't even sure if what he said was real or not, but it was a theory that he saw mentioned a few times in his past life.

Speaking of which. He System took this chance to give him a new Quest.

Quest: House Hunting (New)

Objective: Get sorted into one of the four Hogwarts Houses.

Reward: Unlock Jobs, 1 Job based on choice.

A/N: Behold! Adam has joined the evilest group since Voldemort and his Death Eater. Tween girls!

Hopefully yall got a better understanding of Adam this chapter. He's not an adult in a boy's body. He's a scarred boy with the memories of an adult. Sometimes it will be of help, other times it will be a hindrance. I think I might have made it a little confusing in the first chapter so I'll go back eventually and fix it a little.

Something else you might have noticed is that I am literally spoiling him with options. This has more to do with me wanting to give you guys more choices to choose from. I want use to walk this journey together after all.

By the way I was really happy with the choices for the spells that appeared in the Shop as it let me expand on the narrative. I'm using randomized tables for a lot of the features so it's surprise for me too.

Now it's time for your next set of choices. Not the House or the Job since I already decided those but…

1: What Gear should he upgrade first?

A) Artifact

B) Familiar

C) Grimoire

2: Should he buy anything else from the shop?

A) No. He should save his money.

B) Yes. And tell me what items?

Current Gold: 2077

Ay-y-y-y! Cyberpunk reference.

Thanks for reading. Also, I finally added a cover picture. That's 13-year-old Adam by the way. Iceland sure grows them big. I'm also gonna lean into the the whole wiccan-punk-goth whatever its called. He's a god damn wizard, so he should act like one too.