Nott's Apology

"What is it?" Neville edged closer to Silan.

"I... I'm sorry."

Chris clenched his fists, his face flushed crimson, his voice seeming to squeeze through gritted teeth. Never in his life had he suffered such humiliation. Yet with Silan standing before him, he did not dare act up in the slightest.

Malfoy, who had been bored out of his mind and staring intently at Harry, noticed what was happening and immediately perked up.

"Nott apologized to Longbottom!"

"Merlin's beard, a Slytherin student actually apologized to a Gryffindor student?"

"Silan Prewett—it was all his doing!"

"What a disgrace to Slytherin!"

When the Slytherin students saw this, the first thing they felt was shame and indignation.

In their eyes, although Nott was the one apologizing, he had still disgraced Slytherin.

And the person he was apologizing to was actually a Gryffindor student!

That made them even angrier.

"I apologize, Mr. Longbottom. I should not have insulted you."

For a moment, Neville could not quite process it. He stared wide-eyed at the dejected Chris Nott, hardly daring to believe it.

After being bullied for so many years, when had anyone ever apologized to him?

But today, not only had someone apologized, it was a Slytherin student. It made him feel as though he were dreaming.

Neville blankly glanced at Silan, knowing full well that this was probably because of his friend.

"All right, I forgive you." Neville nodded, indicating that he accepted the apology.

The students nearby erupted into an uproar. A Slytherin apologizing to a Gryffindor was no small matter.

Many young witches and wizards who had no idea what was going on hurriedly asked their classmates what had happened.

How could those arrogant Slytherin students possibly be willing to apologize to Gryffindor?

And to apologize to Neville, that pitiful punching bag, no less. How could that be possible?

"I'm telling you, I saw it with my own eyes! Yesterday, Silan Prewett was in the common room..."

Several young witches and wizards who knew about the incident smugly recounted what had happened the night before to the students around them.

Of course, there was no avoiding a fair amount of embellishment.

For example, Silan Prewett had used powerful Dark magic and nearly killed Chris Nott; Chris Nott had been so frightened that he had nearly wet himself.

"Tch, what's so special about that?" one young wizard said in a lowered voice. "I heard even Prefect Rowle was terrified. Prewett had originally planned to kill him too!"

"What?" The crowd gasped. "Impossible! Prefect Rowle is a fifth-year!"

"How could a first-year possibly beat him?"

"I told you, he knows Dark magic!"

"What Dark magic? I clearly saw him using nothing but a simple Severing Charm."

All kinds of chatter blended together as everyone speculated about just how strong Silan was and whether he knew powerful Dark magic.

The entire classroom became noisy, so much so that even Professor McGonagall's imposing presence could not suppress it.

"Why is the desk shaking?" Harry looked at the desk strangely.

"It's not the desk shaking. It's me." Ron's voice trembled. "On the way here, we were talking about him behind his back. He's not going to fire some Dark spell at my head later, is he?"

"He doesn't look like that kind of person..."

Hearing the students' discussions, Hermione also looked at Silan in surprise.

However, she did not care about all that nonsense. Instead, she asked nervously, "You weren't hurt, were you? What happened?"

"I'm fine. Yesterday, everyone practiced some spells, then we all got into a bit of a brawl. Oh, it's Slytherin's special way of welcoming new students. It might be a little different from the other Houses. With everyone's enthusiastic help, Mr. Nott reflected on himself and decided to apologize to Mr. Longbottom."

[Silver Tongue: Proficiency +1]

That counted too? Everything I said was true!

Hermione gave Chris a somewhat strange look.

Who would have thought? This fellow could admit his mistakes and change.

At the front of the classroom, McGonagall quietly observed the situation.

Although the young witches and wizards had inevitably exaggerated when recounting what had happened the night before, Professor McGonagall had still gotten the general picture.

After hearing it, she believed that Silan had stood up for his friend.

Though he had used spells, Chris had merely lost some hair. That was hardly a serious problem, was it?

Silan truly was a good child.

How could that muddled Sorting Hat have put him in Slytherin?!

"Thank you, Silan. Thank you so much."

Neville's face glowed red with excitement as he leaned halfway out from behind his desk and reached out to pat Silan on the shoulder.

In his memory, he had almost always been bullied, but he had never once received an apology.

Yet this apology was not his greatest gain. What moved him and made him proud the most was learning that he had a friend like Silan at his side.

To him, that was far more precious than an apology.

"Silan, you need to be careful." Hermione turned to glance at the Slytherin students. "I feel like many of them mean you harm."

"I really don't know what the Sorting Hat was doing. Why did it put you in Slytherin? Could Professor Dumbledore have forgotten to clean it? Maybe there was too much dust, and it became easily muddled?"

Hermione looked furious.

She had always been bitter about Silan's sorting result.

"Don't worry. I've already gotten into it with all of them. Nothing will happen."

Silan was utterly unconcerned. Anyone could tell that the Slytherins would not let this rest.

But that was precisely what made it more interesting.

Even if those pure-blood families had power and influence, with Dumbledore around, they could not do much to him. At worst, everyone would get into another brawl.

Since that was the case, let the storm rage even harder.

After all, the rougher the waters, the pricier the fish.

He only hoped these people could afford his price.

Before that, however, Silan decided to study all kinds of spells properly and improve his strength.

The spells recorded in The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1 were far from enough for him.

"Hermione, do you want to go to the library with me later?"

"Of course! For the first exam, I'm definitely going to beat you."

"Then you'd better work hard."

"You have more confidence than Merlin has beard hairs."

The two exchanged a glance and chuckled.

They had been competing with each other ever since primary school, with first place constantly changing hands between them.

That was the result of Silan deliberately holding back. Otherwise, if she was always second, it would hurt the girl's confidence too much.

Letting her win a few times would motivate her to work harder while pushing him to improve as well.

That was a good thing for Silan.

Ron, beside them, could hardly believe that the two had actually arranged to go to the library.

"Does anyone actually like a place like the library? Is sleeping there somehow more comfortable?"

"Why don't you go try it and find out?"

"Forget it. I can experience that right here." Ron flopped onto the desk. "When the professor gets here, remember to wake me."