Lynn's first day at Hogwarts passed in a busy yet fulfilling way.
As dusk approached, Lynn successfully finished the homework assigned by the professors of his three classes in the library.
While there, he also ran into Cedric, who enthusiastically explained the standards each professor used to evaluate student assignments, as well as how to effectively choose books in the library to help himself.
Lynn even found the familiar feeling of high school from his previous life in this sort of routine.
In truth, ordinary young wizards were nowhere near as busy as he was. Most of them left their weekly homework until the last minute, using their free time to play Wizard Chess, fool around in the castle corridors, or play adventure games around the castle.
Only when the weekend drew near did they remember their homework, frantically borrowing completed assignments to copy or hastily throwing something together, betting that the professors would not come after them over it.
Unfortunately, these young wizards were not particularly lucky gamblers. More often than not, they lost their bets.
After all, Lynn possessed an adult soul. Asking him to play carefree games with a pack of bratty children would have been asking too much.
After finishing lunch in the Great Hall, Lynn returned to the Slytherin common room.
In the dormitory, the other three boys besides him seemed to be getting along fairly well.
The other two boys were named Mark Oliva and Michel Camilleri. They were playing Wizard Chess, while Hubert stood beside them, apparently loudly directing the disadvantaged side on how to make its next move.
The moment Lynn entered, their cheerful atmosphere vanished as though a cat had suddenly crashed a gathering of mice.
Hubert still avoided Lynn's gaze, while the two boys playing Wizard Chess looked thoroughly uncomfortable. They lost all judgment regarding the board's next developments, causing the chess pieces to keep urging them on.
Lynn narrowed his eyes. His mind was quick, and the sight that greeted him upon returning to the dormitory, combined with ten years of boarding school experience from his previous life, told him that not long before he returned, Hubert and the other two had been speaking badly of him behind his back.
And clearly, the other three people in the dormitory had already isolated him.
It was not strange that they had formed a friendship so quickly and united against him.
To begin with, Lynn was not the same kind of person as them. More than half the first-years in this class came from pure-blood wizarding families, while the rest were half-bloods with at least one wizard parent. Their camp stood naturally opposed to Lynn's.
On top of that, after yesterday's conflict, no matter how it had started, Hubert had ended up as the weaker party, which made it easy for bystanders to sympathize with him.
Moreover, Lynn had barely interacted with them at all throughout the day, whereas Hubert had spent the entire day hanging around with them.
So everything before him was only natural.
However, Lynn did not care in the slightest. This development suited him perfectly.
He had never wanted anything to do with these bratty children in the first place. It would be better for everyone to draw clear boundaries in the future.
Of course, he was not naive enough to think that after last night's lesson, Hubert would submit and never cause trouble for him again. Based on Lynn's experience from two lifetimes, Hubert would need at least two more lessons on the same level as yesterday's before he truly settled down.
Life at Hogwarts moved at a relaxed pace. Lynn had plenty of time to discipline him.
"Good evening."
Lynn smiled and warmly greeted the roommates who had already begun drifting away from him.
The three stared at him nervously, their lips twitching, yet not a sound came out.
Lynn had not expected any response from them. He leisurely put away his things, then sat at his desk and opened his Transfiguration class textbook.
With isolation, as long as you did not feel awkward or constrained yourself, the ones who suffered were the isolators.
That was precisely the role Lynn played at the moment: the troublemaker who made Hubert and the others uncomfortable.
The night passed without incident.
During Transfiguration class the next morning, Lynn arrived early. The instant he crossed the classroom threshold, his body suddenly stiffened.
"P-Professor McGonagall." Looking at the tabby cat sitting primly on the lectern, Lynn immediately recalled that embarrassing incident from before and began to stammer.
Professor McGonagall gave a slight nod and looked at him without speaking.
Lynn immediately understood what she meant. He obediently found a seat in the classroom and quietly waited for class to begin.
Clearly, Professor McGonagall intended to give the new students a huge surprise.
This class was jointly attended by Slytherin and Hufflepuff. After yesterday's experience, none of the young wizards dared to be late. Every one of them arrived before class on time.
The cat on the lectern drew plenty of attention, but since Hogwarts also had a Mrs. Norris, no one showed much surprise.
That was until the cat suddenly transformed into Professor McGonagall, causing nearly every young wizard who saw it to cry out in astonishment.
Just as Cedric had said that morning, Professor McGonagall taught the same thing in every first class for new students each year.
Turning a matchstick into a needle.
Lynn's talent for Transfiguration was not much higher than that of the other young wizards. His initial value had only been 2, and after receiving one bonus point from the system, it was now 3. His efficiency in learning Transfiguration was not especially high.
But diligence could make up for insufficient talent. For something like basic Transfiguration, as long as one was not a Squib, they could certainly learn it with enough practice.
Besides, Lynn's talent was still slightly higher than that of ordinary people.
Without any surprises, he once again earned five points for Slytherin through his outstanding performance in this class, gaining both Transfiguration talent points.
The afternoon Herbology class was much the same.
Professor Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff, led the young wizards into the greenhouses behind the castle and taught them to identify their first magical plant: dittany.
This sort of knowledge only required looking and memorizing more. Because Lynn mentioned that aside from its medicinal uses, some wandmakers also used dittany as wand cores, Professor Sprout loudly praised him and awarded Slytherin another five points.
Having been at Hogwarts for only two days, Lynn's panel attributes had already undergone a considerable improvement:
Name: Lynn Belloc Title: Despicable Kidnapper, Newly Enrolled Rookie. Magic Power Index: 3 Free Points: 1 Magic Talents: Dark Magic 6 Transfiguration 4 General Spells 4 Herbology 4 Offensive and Defensive Spells 3 Potions 3 Alchemy 2 Ancient Runes 2 Divination 0 ... Main Quest: Receive praise from the professor of the corresponding course. Reward: Corresponding magical talent and effects +1.
Basically, his talents in mainstream magic had all reached level 4, while Dark Magic, the highest, had even reached 6 points.
Although he had not learned a single Dark Magic spell so far and did not know what a talent value of 6 represented.
Still, while practicing spells with Cedric that morning, Lynn had already noticed the benefits of having 4 points in General Spells. For some relatively basic spells, such as the Unlocking Charm that could be learned in first year, he only needed to watch Cedric demonstrate it three times before he could imitate both the incantation's pronunciation and wand movements almost perfectly. On his fifth attempt, he successfully cast this magic he had never encountered before.
Even Cedric could not help sighing that Lynn learned spells almost as quickly as he did.
Before you continue