Muggle Wizard

On September 3rd, Hogwarts officially began its first day of term. The gloomy rainy weather suddenly cleared up.

Albert had just opened his eyes and awakened from his deep sleep. He slowly climbed out of bed, walked barefoot to the window, and opened it to let the cool morning breeze into the room.

His three roommates were still asleep. They had spent the whole previous night discussing Quidditch matches over the Daily Prophet and had gone to bed very late, so Albert had no intention of waking them now.

After all, classes did not start until nine. Getting up now was simply too cruel for people who had stayed up late.

After washing up, Albert glanced at his timetable and checked the books, quill, ink, and Parchment in his bag. Then he slung it over his shoulder and headed to the Gryffindor Common Room.

There were already people in the Common Room, and they were students from the same year.

"Good morning, Wilson." Albert greeted the girl from his year. She was flipping through Miranda Goshawk's Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1, probably preparing for the first Charms class of the morning.

"Good morning..." Shanna Wilson looked a little awkward because she did not know the name of the boy greeting her, even though she knew he was also a first-year student.

"Albert Anderson. You can call me Albert." Seeing Shanna Wilson's embarrassment, Albert casually introduced himself. Then he added, "Want to go to the Great Hall for breakfast together?"

"Oh, y-yes, Albert!" Shanna spoke a little hesitantly. Hugging her books, she hurried after Albert as he left the Common Room.

Along the way, Shanna said nothing. She simply followed closely behind Albert, glancing around as though she were trying hard to memorize the places they passed.

Noticing Shanna's actions, Albert could not help thinking, Could it be that she doesn't know the way?

That was entirely possible.

Back in university, he had nearly gone to the wrong place for his first class.

Hogwarts was undoubtedly much more complicated. It was perfectly normal for someone with no sense of direction to get lost.

Just as Albert had expected, Shanna really did not know how to get to the Great Hall, so she had waited in the Common Room to go with someone else.

To be honest, Gryffindor students were not particularly enthusiastic about showing people the way. Many older students even enjoyed watching first-years panic. This bad habit came from having gone through similar experiences themselves, and over time, it had turned into the nasty pleasure of watching others suffer.

Yesterday, when Albert returned from the kitchens, he had seen several older students watch a first-year fall into a staircase trap. They had simply laughed and walked away, with no intention of helping.

Of course, those were only a few exceptions.

Most students were willing to lend others a hand. At the very least, Hufflepuff students would do so.

After reaching the Great Hall without incident, Shanna Wilson looked as though she had let out a huge sigh of relief.

Albert sat at the Gryffindor table, poured himself a glass of milk, and tipped it back in one go. When he looked up, he found Shanna staring at him with her mouth slightly open, as if she wanted to say something.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing. Albert, do you like milk?" Shanna was trying to make conversation with the boy in front of her.

After all, nobody wanted to have no friends at all, and Albert seemed like the easygoing sort.

"Like it?" Albert shook his head. "I wouldn't say that. I'm just used to it. I've had a glass every morning since I was seven. After drinking it for so long, it became a habit."

Shanna opened her mouth, then suddenly did not know what to say. She actually admired Albert quite a bit. She definitely would not have been able to keep that up herself.

Albert spread jam over a slice of bread and took a huge bite. Across from him, Shanna was eating a fried egg—the kind where a boiled egg was peeled, coated in flour, and fried in oil until the outside turned golden brown. A very English... fried egg.

All right, Albert thought "golden fried egg" might have been a more fitting name. He himself had no interest at all in this peculiar English fried egg. Even an ordinary boiled egg tasted better.

After finishing the bread in his hand, Albert prepared two more slices. He added some vegetable salad, bacon, and sausage, making himself a sandwich.

There was also a small bowl of corn porridge. So-called corn porridge was actually corn chowder, made by boiling ground corn with water and a small amount of milk.

Compared to Daisy's corn chowder, the school's corn porridge was merely passable. That was not surprising, though. Daisy's corn chowder was one of her best dishes.

After breakfast, Shanna began talking to Albert about Charms.

"I heard Angelina say that you've already mastered many spells. Is that true? How did you learn all that magic in such a short time?" Shanna spoke slowly, as though carefully weighing her words.

"Well... first, you need to be interested in it, and then..." Albert thought for a moment before saying, "...you also need to spend time studying and practicing."

He felt that interest was very important. Only when someone was interested would they be willing to spend time and seriously learn a subject well.

"Interest?" Shanna seemed deep in thought.

In truth, students like Shanna, who came from Muggle families, had never imagined that they would be witches or wizards. They were still confused about many things, since Muggle Wizards had far too much to learn.

Without question, students from wizarding families were ahead of them.

"Actually, you don't need to worry too much. You're not that far behind. Spend a little more time on your classes, and you'll catch up with them soon enough." Albert suddenly felt that what he had said was a little ridiculous.

He was actually telling Gryffindor students to love studying?

Not every student was Hermione Granger, and she had nearly been sorted into Ravenclaw back then.

"You too?"

"Of course. What else did you think?" Albert replied matter-of-factly.

Yet for some reason, he felt a little guilty as he said it. After all, Albert was different from everyone else. He had a panel. Besides learning knowledge through his own efforts, he could also master it by leveling up skills through the panel.

If he maxed out Wizard Bloodline, Albert's speed at learning magic would leave everyone else far behind. Yet he had not done that, and he had not even accepted the quest for The Path of the Wizard.

Albert was still considering whether he should raise the level of Wizard Bloodline before claiming the quest reward later. That would undoubtedly be the most cost-effective approach.

But the problem was that Albert was still torn over his future career. He did not particularly want to remain in the magical world.

If he decided to develop in the Muggle world in the future, he would have to save a large amount of experience and skill points for leveling up various economics-related skills.

Forget it. Better not think about those things.

Albert shook off those distracting thoughts and slowly flipped through Nineteenth Century Charms Selection. He was fairly satisfied with his current situation. As for the experience and skill points he had saved up, he could use them whenever he needed them later.