Having House points deducted might only have been a secondary reason. Li Mu spent all day hanging around with the Gryffindors while neglecting his Hufflepuff classmates. He had clearly hurt his two roommates.
Thinking of this, he actually felt relieved. Only now was he even more certain that none of this was a dream or a game. Everyone—whether protagonists from "history" like Harry, or people like Macmillan—was real.
Only now did Li Mu feel that, without realizing it, he had blended into this place, into this Western magical world.
He took a deep breath. "Listen!"
He knew his two roommates had not gone far. They could hear him.
"I called for you this morning!" Li Mu shouted, his gaze following their retreating backs. Sure enough, they stopped.
"I told you to get up, have breakfast, and go to class together, but you didn't get up. I could only go alone, and then I ran into my friends. What was wrong with that? When a classmate was unfairly reprimanded by a teacher, regardless of their House or whether I knew them, I stood up to argue for fairness and justice. What was wrong with that?"
Justin turned around, and Ernie shifted as though he wanted to turn back and retort. But Li Mu continued, "That's right, I caused our House to lose ten points, but I'll definitely earn them back! I promise!"
"...I hope you keep your word." Ernie's voice came from ahead, his tone somewhat gentler. Hufflepuffs were kind-hearted, after all. Still, the tension from their quarrel was not so easily put aside.
After that response, Ernie and Justin resumed walking and completely disappeared from sight.
Watching their backs, Li Mu sighed inwardly. He had crossed over into this world as a human, born able to speak. He had thought himself fairly capable, possessing more than eight years of Mysterious Sect Cultivation training and a general understanding of how future history would unfold.
But now it seemed that fantasizing about entering school and immediately unleashing an overbearing aura, winning hearts everywhere, and gathering underlings was indeed the result of reading too many wish-fulfillment novels... No matter how strong he was, he still could not control other people's moods or sway their feelings.
Besides... this first day of school had been absurdly unlucky. He really should have cast a divination before leaving.
After standing there blankly for a while, Li Mu finally began to move.
He followed the underground passage upward and arrived in the Great Hall. Many people had already gathered around the four long tables to eat, and Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley were seated at the Hufflepuff table.
Li Mu hesitated when he suddenly heard Hermione's voice. "Li Mu—over here!"
Drawn by that clear voice, he immediately spotted his friends. They were at one corner of the Gryffindor table, with food and drinks already set before them.
Hermione was practically standing on tiptoe, stretching out her arm to wave at him. Harry and Ron were there too, and even Hinata sat beside Hermione. They all looked over.
Li Mu immediately walked over. Giving up his old friends because of someone else's complaints would have been too foolish. At the same time, he wondered: Hinata was in Ravenclaw. Would she also draw resentment from her Housemates?
Hinata met his gaze and smiled calmly before turning away again. Harry and Ron also forced faint smiles onto their faces.
"Oh, what a terrible day. We lost ten points on the very first day of class. I think I must have broken a Hogwarts record." Li Mu dropped onto the Gryffindor bench.
A set of silverware immediately appeared on the table before him: bowls, plates, knives, forks, and even chopsticks. Every Hogwarts student had custom tableware. Wherever they sat, their personal utensils would appear there. Thanks to the House-elves in the kitchens, they never got mixed up.
"Don't mention it. I'm not much better off than you." Harry Potter had lost six points that afternoon, and he looked utterly dejected, as if he had remembered the disaster that had befallen him in Potions. "And I think Snape might have a grudge against me."
You got that right. He only hated your father so much that he took it out on you... Li Mu looked at Harry, shrugged, and changed the subject. "By the way, how's Neville?"
"Madam Pomfrey said he needs to recuperate for at least a day." Harry looked even more miserable. "I don't think anyone in Hogwarts history has had worse luck than us... Someone got hurt on the first day of school, and we lost seventeen points too."
Including the one point Hermione had lost, they had lost exactly seventeen points altogether.
"It's fine. At least that bastard Malfoy lost five points too." Ron interjected to comfort them, his gaze passing over the two long tables in the middle of the hall toward the Slytherin table on the far right. Malfoy was eating there with his lackeys.
"Malfoy's father is a school governor, but he still got points deducted, didn't he?" Ron could not help looking pleased as he said this. "Snape's a crazy old virgin. He'll deduct points from anyone he catches."
Ron had previously told Harry and the others that his father, Arthur Weasley, worked in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office at the British Ministry of Magic and had always disliked Malfoy's father, Lucius Malfoy, just as Lucius disliked him.
But Li Mu had no time to care about Ron's complaints now. He suddenly slapped his forehead. "Oh! Damn it!"
Harry and Ron looked at him strangely.
"Cleaning the Trophy Room!" Li Mu held his forehead. "Filch will be waiting for us in the Trophy Room at six o'clock—Professor McGonagall said so."
"Then..." Harry instinctively raised his wrist to look at the old-fashioned mechanical watch on it. "...isn't it five sixty already?"
All three of their faces instantly turned pale.
"This is..." Harry muttered. He had always wanted a watch like Dudley's, so when he received plenty of gold from Gringotts, he had eagerly bought one... He had never expected the first time it truly came in handy would be now.
"Then hurry up..." Ron looked at the huge pieces of fried chicken in front of him, inhaled their tempting aroma, and swallowed unwillingly.
"Let's go!" Li Mu concluded, springing to his feet first.
The three of them rushed out of the Great Hall in a flurry, leaving Hinata watching their backs with a faint smile.
Well, this evening was destined not to be peaceful either.
By the time Li Mu finally finished cleaning the enormous Trophy Room, ran from the fourth floor down to the first basement level, and found the right barrel to return to the Hufflepuff Common Room, everything was silent. Clearly, everyone had already returned to their dormitories to rest.
He tiptoed into his dormitory. His two roommates were already snoring softly. Li Mu sighed. His first day of school had left even him exhausted, so he skipped washing up entirely, relying on habit to climb onto his bed and barely arrange himself into a cross-legged meditation posture.
Even in this Western magical world, he did not dare neglect his meditation practice in the slightest. But perhaps today truly was not an auspicious day. Li Mu could not concentrate at all. His thoughts drifted and churned in confusion, all kinds of ideas flashing through his mind until, in the end, nothing remained but blankness.
He sat there cross-legged, and at some point, without knowing when, fell asleep.
(End of Chapter)
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