Professor Sprout

The next day, when Jon appeared in the Great Hall yawning, Stephen and the other two were no longer surprised.

They had discovered that Jon went out at night one morning when they tried to wake him up.

After keeping watch a few times, they realized that Jon really did sneak out often at night. At first, Stephen and the others had been quite surprised. After all, Hufflepuff students had no tradition of roaming the castle at night, and they had initially wanted to go with Jon.

But they knew their own limits. Half a day after Jon told them to learn the Disillusionment Charm, they gave up on the idea.

Now, they had started setting aside breakfast for Jon when he had not returned the previous night, letting him sleep a little longer.

"Where did you go yesterday? This morning, I saw that the robes in your dirty laundry basket were all soaked."

The four of them habitually huddled in an unnoticed corner of the Great Hall, speaking in low voices.

"Would you believe me if I said I went off campus?"

"Really? We want to go too!"

The freckles on Fren's face practically danced as he said it. Clearly, he did not mean it sincerely, so Jon simply rolled his eyes. "As long as you learn the Disillusionment Charm soon, I'll take you to Hogsmeade village."

"You really went there?!"

Scaly had heard of Hogsmeade village long ago, but first-years were not allowed to go, so his dream had yet to come true.

"Why would I lie to you?"

Stephen thoughtfully stuffed a sandwich into Jon's hand, then said in a tone that suggested he had seen through everything, "Whether he went or not isn't important. What matters is that we can't go."

He usually spent a little more time around Jon, so he understood Jon's way of thinking. Besides, they had long since been left far behind by Jon on the path of learning.

Though he had no idea why Jon worked so hard.

They also knew that Jon had a cousin in Ravenclaw, but even the portion of Jon's studies that they knew about already went far beyond the first-year level.

At the very least, the few of them could not keep up.

"You're just not working hard enough."

Jon quickly demolished the sandwich, freeing his mouth to speak again. "Believe it or not, if I spread this knowledge among the students in our house, plenty of them would be able to finish learning all this early. Believe it or not?"

Scaly did not usually say much, but when he spoke, he got straight to the point. "That's assuming you can spread it without getting detention from the professors."

Jon seriously considered the question.

"If it's a student club, the professors probably won't restrict it too much."

Jon recalled the plot of the Original Work. That Dumbledore's Army thing had not truly been restricted by many professors. As long as he found two upper-year students and started a student club within the house that did not violate school rules and simply focused on academic research, it should not be too difficult.

After all, Hogwarts did not require any sort of application.

Jon kept the matter in mind and planned to find time to ask Professor Sprout about it.

If he could really establish an academic club, then all those spells of his that went far beyond the curriculum would have a legitimate source.

The moment Stephen and the other two saw Jon start thinking, they all fell silent and focused on eating. Whenever Jon started thinking, it meant something was about to happen. And whenever something started with Jon, his three roommates were usually the first to hear about it—though Jon's practical experiments inevitably followed as well.

"I feel like I just caused trouble."

Scaly said gloomily, "That expression means he's usually thinking about something big."

"What big thing could there be? Jon's big plans usually don't affect us."

Fren comforted him, though he himself did not sound very confident.

Stephen, on the other hand, was much calmer. They had already firmly clung to Jon's coattails when it came to studying. Around the house, the other students had long since grouped the four of them together. Since things had already reached this point, there was no other path to take. No matter what Jon did, they would be among the people affected.

Since they were always going to be affected anyway, what was there to worry about?

If Jon had known what Stephen was thinking, his opinion of him would certainly have risen to a whole new level. That ability to take things as they came was something many Adults might not even possess.

Breakfast ended, and classes began. Starting in October, the first-years' lessons also became more intense. Once they had passed the initial adjustment period, they were immediately thrown into Hogwarts' demanding study pace.

Jon naturally adapted well to that pace. With his help and influence, his three roommates also maintained learning abilities close to the course schedule—though they could not learn the Disillusionment Charm, they did quite well with some simpler spells revised by Helga.

So throughout October, the four of them had a rather enjoyable academic life.

The only problem was that Jon had never found a suitable chance to speak to Professor Sprout about the club.

Of course, the main reason was that his schedule was too packed, leaving him no free time.

Who knew why first-year classes assigned so much homework?

Before Halloween, the atmosphere in the house began to grow more cheerful. The teachers also stopped assigning so much homework, and Jon finally found an opportunity to visit Professor Sprout.

Fortunately, Professor Sprout happened to be in the greenhouse, tending to an herb that looked as though it was about to wither.

"Professor, may I come in?"

Jon looked at Professor Sprout bustling about inside the greenhouse and lightly knocked on the door.

Professor Sprout did not seem to hear him. Jon raised his voice slightly this time, though one could not speak loudly in the greenhouse, or it might provoke certain peculiar plants. After all, this place was quite dangerous.

Fortunately, this time he finally caught Professor Sprout's attention.

When she saw that it was Jon looking for her, a faint smile appeared on Professor Sprout's round face.

The Hufflepuff head of house spoke gently. From the pocket of her patch-covered clothes, she took out a pair of earplugs and handed them to Jon at the door. "Of course you may, but you need to put these on first."

Jon immediately did not want to go in anymore. The moment he took the earplugs, he had already guessed what the seedling being tended inside the greenhouse was—even a Mandrake that was about to wither was not something Jon could withstand right now.

That thing was far too dangerous.

But there was no turning back now. Since Professor Sprout had told him to enter, there should not be any danger inside... right?