Potions Class (Part One)

Over the next few days, Vaughan's life at Hogwarts settled into a routine.

Every day, he attended classes, answered the professors' questions, received their feedback, and satisfied his thirst for knowledge.

On the first day of Charms, his masterful Levitation Charm earned high praise from Professor Flitwick. The Charms expert, who was suspected of having goblin blood, also inspected Vaughan's notes.

But he did not invite Vaughan to join his Charms Club.

"Your magic is still developing, Mr. Vaughan Weasley. Young wizards your age need to focus on thoroughly practicing the basic charms. Advanced research would not be suitable for you just yet," Professor Flitwick told Vaughan in his high-pitched voice. "But I promise that when you reach third year, I will invite you to join—as long as you have the time. After all, the Transfiguration Club will likely take up a large portion of your energy."

To show his appreciation for Vaughan's Charms ability, Flitwick awarded Slytherin twenty points in one go that very day.

That made Vaughan very happy.

He did not want to miss any opportunity to earn points, because the system had activated a new task after Main Quest ①!

[Main Quest ②: Help Slytherin win the House Cup by the end of this school year]

[Reward: 1 Talent Point, 50 Magic Units]

It looked as though it would not be difficult, but anyone familiar with the future knew that this was practically hell difficulty...

The greatest white wizard of the age was preparing to raise his savior, and for that, he would not hesitate to shamelessly hand out points at random.

Though this only happened once in the years to come, it happened to conflict with the system's quest.

Vaughan had not thought of a good solution yet, but he did not want to give up so easily. For now, he would just keep working hard.

Two days passed. He had experienced the dull History of Magic class—Professor Binns's skill at putting people to sleep astonished Vaughan. He only held out for half the class before falling asleep, yet even so, he received five points of commendation from Professor Binns.

Though Binns got his name wrong.

He had also experienced an unremarkable Astronomy class. It was said that Astronomy was compulsory because it formed the foundation of Divination.

Out of respect for his Divination talent of "2," Vaughan shamelessly copied the astronomy knowledge he had learned in his previous life. Professor Sinistra was stunned by his brilliance, though she found it strange that Vaughan kept getting hung up on whether the solar system had eight planets or nine.

Professor Sprout's Herbology class was also quite interesting.

Of course, during the first lesson, she did not have the first-years perform any hands-on work. She merely took them on a tour of Hogwarts's greenhouses and briefly introduced the various magical plants growing inside.

But compared to the plants, the students were actually more curious about the greenhouses themselves—they had been enhanced with an Undetectable Extension Charm and divided into areas such as forests, wetlands, plateaus, deserts, and more according to the different habitats required by the plants.

It was like entering a fantastical world.

In that class, Vaughan and Hermione each earned twenty points through rote-memorized textbook knowledge, while Gryffindor's Neville unexpectedly showed a great passion for Herbology.

He even earned ten points... Fortunately, that evening, Gryffindor lost twenty points because Fred and George had pulled a prank in the corridor.

Thank goodness!

Even more deserving of thanks was the following Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Professor Quirrell, with a huge turban wrapped around his head, was disliked by everyone because of the foul garlic smell radiating from him. His teaching ability was also seriously lacking; he only knew how to read from the textbook.

When Gryffindor's Seamus Finnigan pressed him for details on how to defeat Inferi, he even began babbling nonsense.

Vaughan rescued him from the awkward situation, and Professor Quirrell was extremely grateful, awarding Slytherin ten points.

Then, a little while later, as if he had forgotten, he awarded Slytherin another ten points.

(Note: The course arrangements in this book combine those of the films and the original novels.)

Ron bet Harry, "...A vampire must have sucked his brains dry!"

But Vaughan knew why.

Those later ten points had probably been ordered by the Plug-in Hero through Professor Quirrell. Come to think of it, Voldemort really loved Hogwarts and Slytherin deeply.

Back when he was at the height of his power, his greatest wish had been to become a professor at Hogwarts. When he failed to get the job, he simply cursed the Defense Against the Dark Arts position.

If I can't have it, no one can!

That was true love indeed!

Time rolled on until Friday. Today was the final class of the first week of school: Potions!

Early in the morning, Harry and Ron were already sighing miserably.

"I think Professor Snape doesn't like me. I mean, the way he looked at me during the welcoming feast... it was terrifying!"

"Don't be silly, Harry. I think he looks at everyone as if they owe him five hundred Galleons. I heard he's especially biased toward Slytherin too. Heh heh, Vaughan must be thrilled!"

Ron could not help glancing toward the Ravenclaw table, his expression sour.

That was right. Today, Vaughan was sitting with Ravenclaw.

Before the first week of school had even ended, the first-years had discovered the biggest oddity among them: Vaughan Weasley!

On the first day, when he sat at the Gryffindor table, everyone assumed he had gone there because his surname was Weasley.

But by the second day, they realized they had been far too naive.

He had actually gone to Hufflepuff as well, and he got along quite well with those simple-minded badgers. It was said that he had even visited the Hufflepuff common room that night.

That "it was said" came from Ron. Vaughan had told him that Hogwarts's kitchens were right beside the Hufflepuff common room.

Thus, before even a single week had passed, Vaughan Weasley, that terrifying boy, had already graced every House with his presence!

Now, every morning when students came to the Great Hall for breakfast, they would first look over at their own House table to see where that redhead was sitting today.

This strange new habit quickly spread to every year, becoming almost a spectacle.

Most baffling of all...

No matter which house Vaughn visited, there was always at least one person who could chat with him enthusiastically.

Slytherin had Malfoy (though Mr. Malfoy did not actually want to), Hufflepuff had Cedric, and Gryffindor had even more.

Hearing the female prefect Penelope's silver-bell laughter from the Ravenclaw table, Ron curled his lip.

"Hmph. He's loved playing with little girls since he was young. He hasn't changed at all."

As he spoke, Hermione suddenly lost her temper and slammed her book shut. "Then why don't you, as his younger brother, talk him out of it? All you do is spout nonsense here!"

Ron was utterly baffled. "Are you crazy? What does this have to do with me?"

But Hermione seemed as though she had swallowed gunpowder. Changing the subject, her thin lips rattled off a barrage of words: "What can the two of you do besides gossip behind people's backs and complain? If you're worried Professor Snape is playing favorites, why don't you prepare more in advance? It's already been a week since classes started..."

After that satisfying verbal onslaught, the girl hugged her books and left.

Dazed from being sprayed with words, Ron said angrily, "She's completely mad. Vaughn going around flirting with other girls wasn't my idea, so why's she yelling at me? Just watch. When class starts, she'll definitely be chatting and laughing with Vaughn again. Stupid little girl!"

And sure enough, he was right. In Potions class, Vaughn sat with Hermione again, and with just a few words, he had her smiling happily.

But Ron and Harry, despite correctly predicting the outcome, could not feel happy at all.

Because another one of their guesses had also come true—

"Ah, Harry—Potter!"

In the gloomy dungeon, Professor Snape stood with half his body hidden in shadow, his dark eyes fixed fiercely on Harry, his voice grim and icy.