Flying Class

Seriously scrubbing the Trophy Room, I returned to the dormitory exhausted. Finally, another day had passed.

On the third morning of the school year, the first-year students had no classes, which meant Li Mu didn't have to rush to breakfast. He still got up early and stayed in the Hufflepuff common room, reading a book called The Rise and Fall of Dark Magic in the morning light—it was recommended and lent to him by Hermione.

The Hufflepuff common room was filled with the fragrance of flowers and plants. It wasn't as windy as the towers, nor as gloomy and dark as the Slytherin common room deeper inside. Reading in such an environment was a pleasure, as if being in a warm forest, embodying free thought and serene nature. Li Mu quickly immersed himself in it, flipping through most of the thick book in one breath, until the sudden sound of footsteps pulled his attention back.

He turned his head, looking in the direction of the sound. The round earthen door leading to the Boys' Dormitory opened, and two figures emerged, Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley.

Objectively speaking, these two roommates were among the earliest risers in Hufflepuff. Their laziness was only relative to Li Mu, or perhaps Hermione—Harry and Ron had been dragged out of their dormitory by a certain strong woman these past two days... Ron had even grumbled about Hogwarts' unreasonable regulations.

At the dinner table last night, without Hermione, he said, "Why are boys forbidden from entering the girls' dormitory, but girls can barge in as they please? And someone actually barged in so casually!"

Now, Li Mu looked at his two roommates, Ernie and Justin, who were also staring blankly at Li Mu. Three pairs of eyes met, Li Mu closed his book, maintaining a smile: "There are no classes this morning, so I didn't rush out early. Shall we go eat together?"

Ernie's expression wavered, and a feeling of shame even welled up in his heart. He was stunned for a long while, then Justin answered for him, smiling: "Li Mu, you get up so early every day. Let's go, let's go to the Great Hall."

A friendship crisis between roommates was thus resolved, at least on the surface. Pure and naive young students are like this, they can feel resentment for inexplicable reasons, and they can also become united by a word or a smile.

They arrived at the Great Hall and had just sat down at the Hufflepuff table when they were startled by a flock of birds swarming into the hall. Every day during breakfast, a large number of owls or other creatures would fly in to deliver newspapers, letters, and other items to the teachers and students. Li Mu and the others had rushed to class early the previous two days, so they hadn't witnessed the spectacular scene of this delivery rush.

After the various birds fluttered their wings and flew away, the three of them began to eat properly, when suddenly someone called him. It was Harry Potter, alone, who had taken the initiative to run to the Hufflepuff table, waving a letter in his hand.

He happily shouted to Li Mu, "It's Hagrid, Hagrid asked us to see him on Friday! Oh, right, we don't have classes on Friday afternoon either."

This news made Li Mu happy as well. He had also wanted to see Hagrid's hut for a long time.

Wednesday afternoon was Herbology class, taught by the head of Hufflepuff House, Professor Sprout. She was a gentle and kind, short and plump woman, with a typical Hufflepuff temperament, always with a warm smile on her face, making people feel good at first sight. The first-year students from all four houses attended the class together and were surprised to find that Neville Longbottom—the well-known unlucky guy in the entire grade, who was still covered in bandages—had a natural affinity with plants and possessed an amazing talent in Herbology. Professor Sprout praised him loudly in front of all the students in the class, making Harry and the others look at him with new eyes.

"He's really amazing at Herbology, he should be in our house," even Ernie Macmillan said to Li Mu with emotion.

In his own head of house's class, Li Mu was of course with the Hufflepuff students. In fact, he knew better that in the first week of school, all courses would only introduce some basic knowledge superficially, which was why students from all four houses would attend classes together. After this week, Hogwarts would return to the traditional British small class teaching system, with one house, or at most two houses, studying together.

For most of his class time in the future, he would still need to be with the Hufflepuff students.

By midnight on Wednesday, Li Mu welcomed his favorite course, Astronomy. After the students had dinner and rested for a while, they would climb all the way from the first floor hall to the ninth floor of the castle, arriving at the Astronomy Tower in the cold wind. Under the guidance of Aurora Sinistra, they would use the Telescope to observe the night sky, learning the names of different stars and the orbits of the planets.

This was something Li Mu particularly liked. When he was still in the remote mountains and forests of Shushan in the Celestial Dynasty, he especially liked to look at the stars, which were scenes that were difficult to capture in his previous life. Looking at the vast starry sky, he felt that his heart also became deep and broad.

Harry and Ron were also excited about this course. Because they had class at night, they didn't have to clean the Trophy Room tonight.

The bad luck of the first day of school was gradually fading away, and everything seemed to be getting better.

And on Thursday, the first-year students were even more excited, because in the afternoon was their first Flying Class—a whole afternoon!

All morning, Malfoy boasted everywhere about how amazing his Quidditch skills were. He told everyone how he rode his broom, dodging helicopters dangerously time and time again, as if helicopters all over the world were manufactured by his family.

Of course, there was no shortage of boasters within each house. Ernie Macmillan kept talking about how he rode his broom past a car when he was a child, telling the story no less than five times, making Li Mu and Justin's ears develop calluses. So during lunchtime, Li Mu winked at Justin and decisively chose to go to Gryffindor again to rely on his old friends.

Then, he found that Ron was also boasting: "I could ride Charlie—you know, our second son—riding his broken broom everywhere a long time ago, flying hundreds of kilometers at most!..."

Even halfway through lunch, Ron was arguing with Dean Thomas, who was of Muggle descent, about whether Quidditch or football was more fun.

In the argument, Ron complained to Li Mu, who had come to Gryffindor for a free meal again, with frustration: "What's so exciting about a football game? Twenty-odd people, one ball, and they're not allowed to fly, how boring!"

Unfortunately, he sadly discovered that Li Mu was also interested in football, and even liked the Liverpool team in the Premier League like Dean. The two of them happily discussed it and agreed to go to a game together if they had time during the holidays.

Next to them, Hermione was also talking non-stop, nervously holding a thick Quidditch Through the Ages, chattering to others, mainly to Neville Longbottom, about the Quidditch secrets she had "discovered" in the book. You could hear her talking almost the entire lunch time—but obviously, she had never flown, and she was scared to death herself.

In any case, Flying Class was clearly a highly anticipated class.

(End of chapter)

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