A Peaceful Routine

The next day.

Luke yawned as he walked from his dormitory to the common room. Because he had stayed up late last night, he had gotten up rather late as well. Fortunately, there were no classes in the morning, sparing him the torment of getting up early.

The moment he reached the common room, he was a little stunned.

Malfoy was still telling stories... and they were getting more and more exaggerated.

Hiding himself on the stairs, Luke listened carefully.

"Of course, I wouldn't discriminate against him. Even though he wasn't particularly useful and came from a Muggle background, under my leadership, we still worked together to defeat a fire dragon! And that was only..."

Malfoy's voice was loud and impassioned. Luke's expression tightened and tightened, but when he heard the part about "defeating a fire dragon," he finally could not hold it in. The corner of his mouth twitched violently.

He had expected Malfoy to take the bait. But he had never imagined that, after biting, Malfoy would leap desperately into the fish basket all by himself before Luke even had the chance to reel him in.

Peeking out, Luke saw that Malfoy was speaking happily while the Young Wizards below listened with equal delight. Not wanting to interrupt Malfoy's moment in the spotlight, he cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and quietly walked toward the door.

Thanks to Malfoy's "speech" and the crowd's chatter, no one noticed Luke's faint movements. He easily slipped out through the doors.

Once outside, Luke did not hesitate and headed straight for the dining hall. Although breakfast time had already passed, lunch would be served soon. Getting there early to claim a seat was not a bad idea.

He had just found a seat near the middle of the Slytherin House table, a few places away from the exact center, when he heard an excited cry behind him.

"Luke!"

Turning around, Luke saw Harry waving at him. Behind Harry were a listless-looking Ron and an anxious Neville.

"Good afternoon, Harry."

Luke smiled and greeted them. There were not many people in the dining hall at the moment, but there were still some. A few people stared in surprise at Harry walking toward the Slytherin House table, unsure how to react.

Was a little Gryffindor lion heading into the Slytherin snake pit?

The instant Neville spotted Luke, he grew even more excited and hurried toward him.

Ron should have known some of the taboos. But he was sleepy now. On their first night at Hogwarts, they had all been excited, so they had gone to bed late and slept poorly. He had dreamed of becoming Gryffindor's Quidditch captain and prefect, thoroughly putting Percy and the Twins in their place. This was probably also influenced by Luke's speech last night.

As a result, Harry, who had originally planned to explore Hogwarts first thing in the morning, had no choice but to abandon his plan and sleep with Ron until late in the morning.

On top of that, without Mom's wake-up service in the morning, Ron had slept until now and was still half-awake. He had completely forgotten those taboos, let alone reminded Harry and Neville about them.

"Luke! Trevor is missing again!"

Neville beat Harry to the seat beside Luke and spoke anxiously.

The smile on Luke's face did not change as he comforted him. "Don't worry, Neville. Trevor is a clever toad. Just like last night, he'll appear by your side when he needs to."

After hearing Luke's words, Neville was still anxious, but he was visibly much better. He was not terribly afraid that something had happened to Trevor. More likely, he had simply forgotten where he had put him. He was just panicking out of habit. As long as someone sincerely comforted him, he would feel much better.

At home, that role might have been filled by his grandmother. Now, it might be Luke.

"Luke, where's Book?"

Harry sat on Luke's other side, glanced at Luke's feet, and asked in confusion.

"He went out to play early this morning, but there's no need to worry about him. Book is very smart."

Luke somewhat impolitely thought of Malfoy and Neville. Honestly, he felt that Book was sometimes smarter than those two... at least Book had a good memory and would not be hooked so easily.

Harry nodded. He did not know much about Book, but from Hagrid's reaction yesterday, Book was clearly not the kind of cat he usually saw. Being a little smarter was not surprising.

Ron yawned, then walked around and sat opposite them.

"Say, Luke, how many people are in your dorm? The five of us stayed up talking way too late last night..."

"There are five of you in one dorm?" Luke asked in surprise. When he had watched the movies, he had not paid attention to such details, and the films had cut many details from the original books.

"Yeah, how many are in yours?" Harry immediately asked.

Luke shook his head. "There aren't many Slytherins to begin with, and we have plenty of dorm rooms, so I have one to myself. At most, there are probably only two people per room in our house. Maybe you can apply to move into another dorm? I'm not sure about that."

He had never expected Gryffindor's living conditions to be like that. He had thought four people to a room was already the limit.

"How big are your rooms, then?"

Harry did not look shocked right away. Instead, he asked about something else.

"I haven't measured it, but it isn't small. It has an Undetectable Extension Charm on it."

"Then it definitely isn't small. Once you use an Undetectable Extension Charm, it can't possibly be useless. Your rooms might even be bigger than ours."

Ron chimed in immediately. As he gradually woke up, he seemed to realize that something about where he was sitting was not quite right.

Harry looked at Luke with envy. Living together really did feel nice. But having grown up in a cupboard, he would have been more than willing to accept a large bedroom all to himself.

"Hey! Luke!"

Just as the four were chatting enthusiastically, Hermione's voice came from nearby.

The four of them turned toward her voice.

Hermione held a thick book in one hand, while her other arm was wrapped around a black kitten against her chest.

The cat even had a greasy little dried fish clamped in its mouth.

"Aren't you afraid of getting your robes dirty?"

Luke spoke to Hermione helplessly, then called to Book. "Come here!"

Book immediately shifted from lying on his back in Hermione's arms to a leaping posture. With a push from his hind legs, he jumped onto the table in front of Luke.

Hermione looked at the kitten that had abandoned her with disgust.

Then she sat across from Luke, squeezing Ron half a seat aside so that she could sit directly opposite Luke.

Ron was dissatisfied, but he really did not want to behave rudely in front of Luke. Luke had always seemed courteous and refined, which made Ron feel a certain amount of pressure.

By then, more and more students were entering the dining hall. The older students looked toward the five of them with varying degrees of surprise.

They seemed to find the scene before them genuinely unbelievable.

At the same time, they seemed to feel that a door deep within their hearts had been pushed open by a crack.