Jon Knew When to Bend

The weather on Sunday was not very good. A light drizzle had actually begun to fall outside the castle.

At seven in the morning, the sky had only just begun to brighten.

Jon did not seem to be in a very good mood either. When he got up, he was somewhat irritable, because there had simply been too many things happening lately.

He tidied himself up, came out of the washroom, got dressed, and climbed up to the Common Room.

There really were not many people awake at this hour. Jon had come out at an unfortunate time and happened to run into Cedric and Hufflepuff's prefect, Gabriel Truman, talking on the sofa in the Common Room.

"Good morning, senior student. Good morning, Prefect."

Jon greeted them and wanted to leave, but Cedric stopped him.

"Today is Sunday. Where are you in such a hurry to go? Is something urgent? We might be able to help."

Held back by Cedric, Jon could hardly claim that he was in a terrible rush. He could only force a smile and shake his head.

"It's nothing urgent. I just wanted to go to the library and read. There's still a book from yesterday that I haven't finished."

It was not an entirely reasonable excuse. It was the persona Jon had established for himself from the beginning, but it was not inappropriate to use with these two people he did not know well.

"I wanted to talk to you yesterday. Senior student Bella said you haven't gone to see her much lately. She asked you to pay her a visit."

"Oh?" Jon had thought it was something serious. Hearing that, he merely nodded. "Then I'll go now, so she won't blame me later."

After saying that, he turned and left, not even giving the two behind him a chance to say another word.

"I told you, there's something a little strange about him."

Cedric turned to the prefect beside him and smiled helplessly.

Gabriel was surprised as well. After spending so many years in Hufflepuff, this was truly the first time he had encountered a student like this.

"But it's normal, I suppose." He shrugged. "He really seems more like a Slytherin student. He's a Pure-blood Wizard too. I don't know why he ended up in our house."

"The Sorting Hat must have had its reasons. In any case, he's a student of our house. If he performs well, it won't do our house any harm."

Jon did not care in the slightest whether Cedric and Gabriel were discussing him behind his back. Even if he did care, it was not as though he could stop them from talking.

Their mouths were their own. They could say whatever they wanted.

Jon had not explored the castle much, but he did know where the Ravenclaw Common Room was. After turning this way and that, he entered Ravenclaw Tower. On a Sunday with such unpleasant weather, Hogwarts students generally had little desire to get out of bed. Jon encountered very few students along the way.

After climbing the Stairs for a while, Jon appeared before the entrance to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

The eagle's head on the bronze knocker had its eyes closed as if it were sleeping. Jon waited for a while without seeing any Ravenclaw students come out, so he had no choice but to reach out and knock on the knocker himself.

The Ravenclaw Common Room's question should not be too difficult, right?

As Jon moved, the eagle's eyes slowly opened, and an ethereal female voice came from behind the door.

"What can you swallow that can also swallow you?"

(What can be swallowed by you, yet swallow you in turn?)

Jon rubbed his nose and thought for a moment before answering, "Water."

"Good answer."

The eagle closed its eyes again, and the door behind it slowly opened.

Jon slowly entered the round chamber. Several elegant arched windows lined the walls of the Ravenclaw Common Room, and blue and bronze silk hung throughout the room. Tall bookshelves stood all around, and students could see the beautiful scenery outside through the windows—if today's rain counted as beautiful scenery.

Stars adorned the ceiling, and stars were woven into the dark blue carpet below as well.

In a niche opposite the door stood a white marble bust of Rowena Ravenclaw.

Jon had no intention of passing the statue and barging into the girls' dormitory. He would probably be beaten into a pig's head if he did. He gave Rowena's statue a slight bow, then sat on a sofa to one side, pulled out a book, and began reading.

Ravenclaw's private collection was not small either. Although Jon had not yet visited that "place where things were hidden," the number of books there was probably about the same as here. The only difference was that it held more books forbidden to students.

The book Jon had taken was a set of notes left behind by a former Ravenclaw student. On the first page were several problems its original owner had encountered while practicing the "Armor Charm." Jon had recently begun focusing on defensive spells, so he happened to have some insights of his own.

He read with great interest until a girl came down from the dormitory.

"How did you get in?"

The girl was clearly wary of the Hufflepuff student who had suddenly appeared in her house's Common Room. When she saw the notes in Jon's hands, her expression became even less pleasant.

"Oh, hello. I came to find someone—Bella Yang. She's a third-year student."

Jon put down the notes and inclined his body slightly. After all, he had entered without permission.

The girl looked doubtful, but she still turned and knocked on the wall behind the statue. Then she turned back and asked again, "How did you get in?"

"Oh, I came in by myself. The question at the entrance wasn't very difficult."

The girl looked utterly incredulous and turned to walk toward the passage leading to the dormitories, making Jon wonder whether he had said something wrong.

Before long, Bella emerged from the dormitory, fully dressed and smiling brightly.

"Oh, isn't this my dear little cousin? Come over here and let your sister have a look at you."

The moment Jon saw Bella's beaming smile, he backed away several steps. Whenever something was out of the ordinary, there was usually trouble behind it. If Bella was smiling at him this happily, she was either up to no good or up to no good.

"Cut it out. If you have something to say, just say it. We're close enough that you don't need to be so polite."

Bella was not falling for that.

"Binding Spell."

Her hand, hidden behind her back, gripped her wand. The instant she reached out, she flicked it quickly. Before Jon could react, his hands and feet were already unable to move.

"This simplified version of the Petrification Charm is a spell unique to Ravenclaw. Don't even think about breaking free."

Bella grabbed the back of Jon's collar with one hand, then flicked her wand again to free his feet, though the Binding Spell on his hands remained.

"It's been so long since term started, and you never came to see me. You didn't even wait for your sister to return before delivering things. You little brat, you've gotten bolder, haven't you?!"

Jon rolled his eyes as Bella dragged him toward the dining hall, not wanting to speak.

Clearly, someone spent every day circling around handsome boys and had completely forgotten she even had a cousin. Had he ever said anything about it?

He had not complained about anything. He, Jon Smith, knew when to bend and when to stand tall!