I Think It's Gryffindor!

After settling things with Professor Dumbledore, Noah and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It couldn't be helped. The little snakes of Slytherin really were far too prideful.

And in Slytherin, pure-blood ideology was truly rather outrageous. Even students who disliked that sort of thing did not dare speak up, afraid they would suddenly become Slytherin's public enemy and spend all seven years in utter misery.

Hogwarts had no precedent for transferring Houses. No one dared take such a risk, which was why poor Kate's work had been exceptionally frustrating.

Fortunately, through what happened with Harry this time, they had managed to get through the danger.

At first, hearing about Voldemort's existence had made them reluctant to face it. But when they saw Noah effortlessly erase a fragment of Voldemort's soul as though he were dealing with an ordinary ghost, they suddenly gained a great deal of confidence!

Not just anyone would dare attack Voldemort!

But Noah had dared, and he had made it look so easy. It made them wonder whether Voldemort was really that weak.

"Don't joke around, guys. That way of thinking is dangerous." Once Noah learned what they were thinking, he immediately started complaining.

"But didn't you destroy him? And Professor Dumbledore was awful too. You did something so huge, yet he didn't intend to let anyone know!" Evan gave Noah a rather puzzled look.

Honestly, Noah had wiped out Voldemort's soul. That should have been widely publicized so everyone would know who the real hero was.

But unexpectedly, Professor Dumbledore had not done so, and Noah seemed more than happy for Dumbledore not to publicize it. As a result, almost no one knew about the great thing Noah had done.

"Come on, that was only a fragment of his soul, all right?" Noah rubbed his face helplessly. "You've heard of Horcruxes, haven't you?"

"Horcruxes? Those things from legend that split apart the soul and store the pieces?" Ernie asked doubtfully.

"You mean the Voldemort we saw wasn't complete at all?" Luns seemed to have realized something as well.

"Of course. What else did you think? If it had been a complete soul, he probably would have controlled Quirrell to steal the thing and begun preparing the resurrection ritual long ago!" Noah nodded.

"Besides, even if he is finished, don't forget that he still has so many Death Eaters under him! I don't want to spend the rest of my life hiding from Death Eaters trying to hunt me down because of this. That would be far too cruel to me."

"So that's how it is? But what if we encounter another fragment of You-Know-Who's soul? Could we deal with it the same way?" Hermione, who was sitting beside them, could no longer suppress her curiosity.

"In theory, yes." Noah stretched lazily. "An awakened soul fragment can actually be classified as a ghost under Monster Species: The Cursed. I assume you all know how to deal with ghosts, right?"

"Treat it like a ghost? That's the Dark Lord!" Luns asked in disbelief. Noah made it sound far too easy, didn't he?

"What else? Didn't you notice that last time, I used a Bright as Day to bring out the sunlight, and it turned directly into ash? What a shame. Spirit ash is quite a decent material, but Dumbledore took it away. Otherwise, I wanted to study it and see whether I could make something useful out of it."

"..."

Evan and the others were left speechless by Noah. Was that attitude really all right?

That was the infamous Dark Lord, Voldemort!

But then again, Noah had come from the Muggle world. He probably had never held any reverence for some Dark Lord in the first place, which was why he could handle it so calmly.

Once they thought of that, they suddenly became rather envious of Noah's background. Hermione was included in that envy as well.

They had grown up in magical environments, so they had been influenced by all the terrifying stories about Voldemort since childhood. Their fear was entirely a psychological issue.

"All right, guys, enough with this nonsense. Final exams are coming up soon. How's your preparation going?"

Noah casually picked up a book to pass the time and asked the question in passing.

It was true that final exams were drawing close. Although Noah was not worried about them, he still felt it was worth asking.

"Come on, could first-year exam material possibly stump us?" Kate immediately rolled his eyes at that.

Final exams? Come on, this was first-year exam material!

If it were the O.W.Ls and they were trying to get into the N.E.W.Ts advanced classes, then it might be a problem. After all, that was an important measure of whether upper-year students were outstanding.

Kate and the others had a broad grasp of knowledge, but they were not arrogant enough to think they could pass the O.W.Ls perfectly.

Though if it were Noah, Kate and the others felt that this guy might actually be able to pass them.

"All right, just a friendly reminder. After all, there are no retakes. Fail, and you'll have to repeat the year."

"Damn it, say that to Gryffindor—sorry, Hermione, I didn't mean you. I mean certain people in your House who don't like studying. Noah, it would be much better if you said that to them!"

"If I were in Gryffindor, I might consider whether it was worth saying. But sorry, I'm a Ravenclaw. I'm not stupid enough to do something like that."

Noah spread his hands. It was clear that his question had indeed been a little foolish; Kate and the others were obviously dissatisfied with it.

But Noah did not really care. Passing the exams was a certainty. The main question was what their rankings would be.

Noah himself had never expected that one day, he would become a true academic genius.

He even wondered whether he should tease Harry a little. For example, after the exams, he could put on a miserable expression and tell Harry that he had not performed very well.

Then, after the boy tried to comfort him, the papers could be handed back with a near-perfect score—or even a perfect score—so Harry could experience just how vast the gap was between an academic genius's "poor performance" and a poor student's "good performance."

But Noah quickly shook his head. That was far too wicked, wasn't it?

It would be fun, but after doing that, he would probably become the public enemy of all Gryffindor.

"By the way, who won Quidditch this time?" Luns, who was reading nearby, suddenly spoke up and interrupted Noah's train of thought.

"How would I know? Gryffindor, I think? Why are you asking?" Noah shot an annoyed look at the person who had interrupted his thoughts, then answered irritably.

"Nothing. I'm calculating the points for the Quidditch champions, then seeing who will probably get the House Cup this time." Luns gave Noah a baffled look before answering honestly.

"Ha, do we even need to calculate that? Of course it's Ravenclaw!" Evan said with a grin.

"Come on, Hermione and I are still here. Is it really okay for you to decide it among yourselves like that?" Ernie shook his head helplessly. Though that was what he said, Ravenclaw really did have a huge advantage with this group.

"All right, sorry, you two." Evan smiled, then turned to Noah. "Noah, what do you think?"

"What do I think?" Noah's face suddenly broke into a mysterious smile. "I think it's Gryffindor!"