Roommates

"All right, before everyone goes to bed, let's sing the school song together!" Dumbledore raised his wand and gave it a light tap. A line of words formed from twisting golden ribbons floated before them.

Members of the Hogwarts Choir also came onstage. The prefect beside Albert was among them, and several choir members in the front row were even holding large toads.

At Dumbledore's wave of his wand, all the students and staff began singing the school song to their own rhythms.

Albert blended into the crowd, opening and closing his mouth as though he were singing too.

He couldn't help it. The song was unbearably cringey. No wonder the professors at the teachers' table looked a little stiff; they clearly weren't very willing to sing it.

It was one thing for children, but a whole group of adults singing a school song like this? The embarrassment level was off the charts.

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts..." Beside Albert, the mischievous Weasley twins sang to the tune of the Funeral March, completely out of sync with everyone else. Several first-years around them kept glancing over.

"...we will study until we turn to dust." Even after the song ended, the two of them continued singing slowly. Albert suddenly wanted to cover his face and pretend he didn't know them.

Once the final echoes of the song faded, Dumbledore told everyone to return to their dormitories.

The welcoming feast was finally over. Everyone surged forward at once, instantly causing a traffic jam.

Albert now understood why the newcomers had been arranged at the front.

If they followed students from other years, they might genuinely end up going to the wrong place. Just imagine a Gryffindor student accidentally following the wrong group into the Hufflepuff Common Room, only realizing at the end that they had gone the wrong way. What a sight that would be.

"First-years, follow me." The one leading the Gryffindor newcomers was the prefect who had just performed onstage.

He led them through the noisy crowd, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase, where they split off from the first-years of the other Houses.

The first-year group passed through the corridors and wound around the castle, rather than taking the legendary moving staircases.

Many portraits hung along the corridors. As the first-years passed, the people in them whispered among themselves, while some of the portraits greeted them.

The prefect led the newcomers through the castle. You could never guess where the entrances were.

There was clearly a closed wooden door ahead, yet they passed through the stone doorway opposite it. Some doors only opened if you touched exactly the right spot. Others were hidden behind tapestries or portraits. But that wasn't even the worst of it, because someone had already gotten caught in a trick stair. It looked no different from an ordinary staircase, but at a certain step, you had to jump over it. If you stepped on it, your foot would sink inside.

For newcomers who had just arrived, it was practically a disaster.

"You all right?" Albert reached out and pulled Lee Jordan free.

"No." Lee Jordan said irritably, "That gave me quite a scare. I really don't understand why the school has so many weird things."

"I think it's interesting, don't you, George?"

"I think so too."

"These were defensive installations left behind from the old days. Now they've become one of Hogwarts's defining features," Albert explained. "Come on, keep up. I don't want to get lost."

After who knew how long, just as Albert's legs began to ache, they finally reached the eighth floor. They passed through a long corridor and arrived at its end. A portrait hung there, depicting a very plump woman. Without a doubt, she was the legendary Fat Lady, the gatekeeper of Gryffindor Tower.

"Password?" she asked.

"Balderdash," said the prefect. After he spoke, the portrait swung open like a door, revealing a round hole behind it.

He did not hurry inside. Instead, he turned to the newcomers and said, "You must remember the password. You can only enter the Common Room by telling the Fat Lady the password. The current password is Balderdash."

After saying that, the prefect led everyone through the hole in the wall. Inside was Gryffindor's Common Room.

It was an old, round room filled with sofas. In one corner, a roaring fire burned in the fireplace, with a large pile of firewood beside it. A few people sat chatting on the sofas. When the newcomers entered, they looked over and waved at them.

"You're in luck. Tomorrow is Saturday, which means there are no classes. This is a rare opportunity. I suggest you spend the next two days getting familiar with the castle. The castle is more complicated than you imagine. If you don't want to get lost, you'd better find out where the classrooms are as soon as possible." After finishing, the prefect pointed at two doors. "Girls go that way. Boys, come with me."

After greeting another female prefect, he led Albert and the others through the other door and down a narrow spiral staircase. They passed many doors along the way, and the prefect introduced them to the first-years' rooms, washrooms, and bathrooms.

Of course, the washrooms and bathrooms were shared. Thankfully, the bathrooms had stalls. Thank goodness.

As for their own rooms, they had to find them themselves. Each door had a nameplate on it.

Albert, the twins, and Lee Jordan were assigned to the same room. There were only four of them.

The room was not large. It had four curtained beds, with their luggage placed beside them.

Albert easily found his suitcase, stifled a yawn, and pulled out his pajamas to change into.

"Please take care of me from now on," Albert said with a smile, greeting the other three.

"Likewise." The four of them looked at one another and couldn't help laughing.

"Tomorrow, I'm planning to explore the castle. Are you coming?" Albert took out a camera from his suitcase, stepped back to the door, and took a picture of their dormitory.

"Of course. Remember to wake me up in the morning." The twins exchanged a glance and spoke in unison.

"What about you?" The three of them turned to look at Lee Jordan.

"Of course I'm coming too." The Black boy clearly did not want to be left alone.

"Good night."

Lying in bed, Albert was clearly exhausted, yet he still couldn't fall asleep. Whenever he arrived somewhere unfamiliar, he was prone to insomnia.

The others clearly didn't have that problem. Full and content, they fell soundly asleep not long after lying down.

Albert turned over and opened his Quest Panel. The exploration progress had already reached 3%.

He wondered how much it would increase if he explored the entire castle tomorrow. Then he flipped through his skill list, which filled several pages.

Most of his magic was only Level 1, while a few spells had not yet been mastered.

Looking at the skills still at Level 0, Albert suddenly felt the urge to spend experience points and raise them all to Level 1.

It was a bad habit left over from playing games in the past. He always felt compelled to max out every skill.

Albert took a deep breath and closed the panel, lest he accidentally spend all the experience he had painstakingly accumulated. That experience was tied to his future in life.

Half-asleep, Albert drifted off. He dreamed of his past-life self, holding a book and reading it. He still remembered that it had been his first encounter with Harry Potter.

Was all of this just a dream?

No, this was not a dream. He had confirmed it again and again ever since the moment he opened his eyes after dying.

This was not a dream.

He felt more like the author of a fanfiction story, creating another Harry Potter fanfiction of his own. Only this time, he could not freely write whatever self-indulgent fantasies he wanted as an author could.

Ah, being a literary youth was a disease.