The next day, Scott woke up early.
All three of his roommates were still asleep, and Scott could hear their slow, steady breathing.
They had gone to bed late the night before, because their mini-concert had ended in chaos after all.
Scott had to admit that Milton was an inspired composer and cellist. Most of the time, his music was remarkable.
But some of his ideas weren't easy to appreciate. Ever since he'd met members of the Weird Sisters, his inspiration had started to veer off in strange directions.
At last night's mini-concert, Milton had first played several of his new compositions. They were all beautiful pieces, and Scott and the others couldn't help being drawn into the music.
Afterward, Scott, Roger, and Eddie had sincerely praised Milton's astonishing musical talent.
Perhaps their encouragement had been too much, because Milton then played an experimental piece in a style he was exploring.
It was truly horrifying!
As the piece went on, the expressions on Scott and the other two boys' faces slowly froze. They weren't freed from the dreadful "devil's music" until someone knocked on the dormitory door.
Milton was terrifying when he let himself go. Students from nearby dormitories had come to complain: the awful noise had disturbed their rest.
Milton was deeply hurt.
The sensitive boy had received nothing but criticism for his experimental piece, and immediately felt that his musical talent didn't deserve his friends' praise.
He lost confidence and sat dejectedly on the dormitory windowsill, gazing at the moon through his tears.
As his roommates, Scott and the other two boys had to rack their brains to comfort him.
It wasn't until after midnight that Milton finally managed to pull himself together enough to go to bed.
Scott also secretly vowed never to encourage Milton to play in the dormitory again.
It had been a disaster.
Now, he took the Pocket Watch out from under his pillow and checked the time.
It was 7:03 a.m. Breakfast at the school ran from 8:00 to 8:30, and classes began at 9:00.
He climbed out of bed and left the dormitory as quietly as he could.
After washing up, he returned to the dormitory, changed out of his pajamas, and put on his clothes, shoes, and socks. Then he picked up his wand from beside his pillow and held it in his hand.
It was an entirely black wand, made of Ebony and Dragon Heartstring, twelve and a quarter inches long.
Scott still remembered how excited Mr. Ollivander had been when he sold him the wand, telling him all sorts of things about it.
He'd said that this dark, ink-black wood had an impressive appearance and reputation, and was especially well suited to combat magic and Transfiguration.
He'd also told Scott that Ebony wand owners tended to be unconventional, strong-willed, or comfortable as outsiders.
So the perfect match for an Ebony wand was someone who could stand by their beliefs and hold fast to their goals, no matter how much pressure they faced.
As for Dragon Heartstring, it usually produced the most powerful wands, capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands also tended to learn faster than other types.
If they won loyalty from their original owners, they could change allegiance, but they always remained closely bonded to their current owners.
Finally, he had "prophesied" that Scott would be a wizard who wouldn't easily waver from his goals, and that he would be particularly good at Transfiguration and combat magic.
Even now, thinking back to the day he'd bought his wand, Scott couldn't help smiling. He was very satisfied with it.
He turned his wand upside down and slid it into the wand holster fastened inside his robes. Then he took a copy of Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4 and a brand-new notebook from the bookshelf beside his bed, picked up a quill from the pen holder, and left the dormitory, quietly closing the door behind him.
They had Charms that morning. Scott decided to review the textbook in the Common Room before breakfast. The class was taught by Professor Filius Flitwick, the head of Ravenclaw House.
As it happened, when Scott had first performed much better in Transfiguration than in Charms, Professor Flitwick had been a little disappointed in him for a while.
Of course, Scott knew that the adorable little old man had only been sulking over Professor McGonagall.
It had stung his pride that a Ravenclaw student had stood out most in the class taught by the head of Gryffindor.
Once he understood that Scott's impressive performance in Transfiguration was simply due to talent, and didn't mean he was uninterested in other subjects or slacking off, he'd once again begun treating Scott with warm consideration.
After they got to know each other, he'd joked with Scott, "Mr. Trollope has the sort of personality Hufflepuff appreciates and the Transfiguration talent Gryffindor admires, yet he ended up in Ravenclaw. That proves that wit is your most outstanding quality."
Scott had replied sincerely, "...A good personality makes people more popular, and talent makes it easier to learn a subject. But only Wit Beyond Measure can help a wizard go further..."
In any case, after hearing his answer, Professor Flitwick had been so pleased that he'd almost given Scott a hundred points on the spot.
But he obviously couldn't do that, so in the end, he chose to reward Scott with a set of notes on Charms.
They were notes that Professor Flitwick had written himself while organizing the fundamentals of Charms some years earlier.
Although a copy of the notes was kept in the library in the Ravenclaw Common Room, the one Professor Flitwick had given Scott was the original, and therefore far more valuable.
Unlike a copy that was no different from a Muggle book, magical notes written by a powerful wizard often carried a little magic of their own.
The most basic function of that magic was to help readers understand the author's intended meaning more easily.
Professor Flitwick was clearly still a little dissatisfied about "losing" to Professor McGonagall. He hoped that by giving Scott the notes, he could spark Scott's interest in Charms and encourage him to catch up with his progress in Transfiguration.
The notes did indeed help Scott a lot.
After spending a great deal of his free time studying them carefully, he built a solid foundation in Charms.
That helped him make remarkable progress in the subject.
Although he still didn't perform quite as well as he did in Transfiguration, his progress had already satisfied Professor Flitwick.
So although Scott was most talented in Transfiguration, and Professor McGonagall had helped him a great deal, Professor Flitwick was still the professor he liked and respected most.
Scott walked through the empty corridors and down the stairs to the Common Room, only to find that it wasn't empty.
A short boy was curled up on a wide sofa by the fireplace, fast asleep.
He was a new student who had only just started that year.
Scott didn't know why the boy was sleeping there so early in the morning, so he walked closer.
Although the boy was still asleep, his pallid face, slightly swollen red eyes, and tear-streaked cheeks showed that he seemed to have been crying for a long time.
"Hey!"
Scott reached out and patted him on the shoulder. The boy drowsily opened his eyes.
"Freshman, why are you sleeping here? Were you so excited that you got up too early?" Scott teased.
"I..." Tears immediately welled up in the boy's eyes, and his voice came out choked with sobs. "I've been sleeping here since last night..."
Scott frowned and asked, "What happened?"
The boy said shakily, "Th-they won't let me into the dormitory!"
Scott's brow furrowed even more.
He couldn't understand why something like this would happen in Ravenclaw.
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