Two Months Later

That morning, Su Yu was still having breakfast with the Slytherin crowd.

Malfoy sat at the other end of the long table, his fork raised to his mouth but never going in. His gaze had been fixed on the two people over by Gryffindor—Harry and Ron were walking into the Great Hall, chatting and laughing. They looked a little tired, but they were in remarkably good spirits. Harry had his head lowered as he said something to Ron, and Ron laughed so hard he nearly doubled over, completely oblivious to Malfoy's stare.

Malfoy could hardly believe his eyes. After last night's midnight duel, he had thought Potter would at least be punished by Professor McGonagall and put in detention. Yet they were still walking freely around Hogwarts, completely unharmed, and smiling so happily?

Malfoy threw his fork onto his plate with a sharp clatter.

Su Yu sat at the other end of the long table with a sandwich in hand, taking it all in. He took a bite, chewed twice, and found it pretty good—tuna mayonnaise with beef. Malfoy had actually handled things well. He had exploited the rules, nearly gotten Harry into serious trouble, kept himself completely clean, and pinned the blame on Potter. His methods had just been a little underhanded.

But when had Slytherin ever used honorable methods? They were not a bunch of heroes.

Su Yu swallowed his sandwich and took a sip of pineapple juice, no longer bothering with the children's squabbles. Kurama lay beside him, a slice of cheesecake in front of her. She was breaking it apart bit by bit with her little paws and eating with deliberate elegance, utterly unlike the ravenous way she had eaten two months ago.

"Look at Malfoy's face," Kurama said without looking up. "Like he swallowed a fly."

"He brought it on himself," Su Yu said.

"Aren't you going to do anything?"

"Do what? He didn't lose."

In the blink of an eye, two months passed.

During those two months, the Slytherin students seemed like entirely different people. They used to huddle in the common room gossiping, comparing family fortunes, and mocking Gryffindor's poverty. Now, they huddled in the common room—practicing spells.

After Su Yu lowered the common room floor by two meters, the space became much more spacious, enough for dozens of people to practice at once. Every evening, the Slytherin students were either in the common room or the Forbidden Forest, practicing in small groups. Fa-jie led the upper-year students in practicing nonverbal spells, Ka-jie led the middle-years in practicing Dark Magic, while Su Yu sat on the sofa, letting Daphne massage his shoulders as he pointed out their shortcomings.

"Why do you get so excited every night these days?" Daphne stood behind the sofa, her fingers pressing and kneading Su Yu's shoulder blades with just the right amount of pressure. "Did you fall asleep on your desk again?"

"No," Su Yu said.

"Every time you say no, it means yes."

Su Yu fell silent. Daphne pressed his shoulders a few more times, sighed, and continued massaging him.

Su Yu also created several new spell combos for everyone.

Avada Kedavra Lightning Chain was the fiercest among them. First, spells capable of placing curses, such as Repel Three Feet, were used to mark the enemy. Then Avada Kedavra was cast—the Killing Curse would leap like lightning between marked targets. One bolt of green light struck, and an entire string of people fell.

During the first demonstration, Su Yu stood in the Forbidden Forest facing a group of Acromantulas. He first cast several Repel Three Feets, covering every Acromantula. Then he raised his wand and murmured a spell.

A flash of green shot from the tip of his wand and hit the first spider. It did not stop—the green light bounced from the first spider to the second, then from the second to the third, leaping among the spiders like lightning. In less than a second, all seven spiders collapsed.

The Forbidden Forest was silent for a full ten seconds.

"Chief," a sixth-year boy said in a trembling voice, "isn't that... an Unforgivable Curse?"

"So what? It's much better for the enemy to die than for us to die," Su Yu said.

No one asked any more questions. Fa-jie leaned against a tree trunk with her arms crossed, watching Su Yu's back with an ambiguous curve on her lips. Ka-jie stood beside her, her gray-green eyes gleaming and her lips slightly parted as though she wanted to say something. In the end, she merely licked her lips and said nothing.

Su Yu also used Wood Release chakra to grow plenty of East University Gluttonous Cabbages in the common room. The things grew incredibly fast. Gluttonous Cabbages had no legs, but they could bite. Toss one out, and it would automatically roll toward the nearest living creature, open its saw-toothed leaves, and bite down viciously. Its bite force was astonishing, enough to chew through armor.

Every Slytherin student could carry several on them and use them as grenades.

The results were surprisingly good, though their lifespan was a little short. They would wither and die around ten minutes after being thrown out. Still, ten minutes was more than enough.

Su Yu often took them into the Forbidden Forest to "grind monsters."

To Su Yu, the creatures in the Forbidden Forest were just minor mobs. Acromantulas, Red Caps, Grindylows—he led the Slytherin students through sweep after sweep. It gave them practical training while letting the little snakes, who spent all day cooped up in the common room, burn off their excess energy.

The first time they entered the Forbidden Forest, several younger students' legs were shaking. When the Acromantulas charged out of the bushes, one girl shrieked and ran backward, only for Fa-jie to grab her and yank her back.

"What are you running for?" Fa-jie's voice was cold, but her movements were swift—an Impediment Jinx froze the spider in place, and another Slytherin student immediately followed with a Blasting Curse. The spider fell to the ground, its legs curling inward as it stopped moving.

"See?" Fa-jie patted the girl's shoulder. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

The girl nodded. Her face was still pale, but her hands had stopped shaking.

After going often enough, everyone got used to it. The Slytherin students marched through the Forbidden Forest in formation. Whenever they encountered Acromantulas, they split into groups to surround and eliminate them, their coordination growing ever smoother. Su Yu walked at the very back of the group and occasionally made a move—one sweep of his sand could wipe out an entire nest of spiders.

For a time, Su Yu's series of actions made the Slytherin students feel that he was more Voldemort than Voldemort.

Were all Easterners this bloodthirsty?

The most shocking occasion came on a full-moon night. Su Yu led a small team patrolling the edge of the Forbidden Forest when they encountered several Werewolves. Before the Werewolves could even howl, Su Yu's sand swept toward them. The Werewolves reacted quickly and turned to run. Su Yu chased them for half a mile, his sand slithering rapidly across the ground like a yellow snake, nearly wrapping around the last Werewolf's leg several times.

In the end, they still got away.

"What a pity," Su Yu said beneath the moonlight, watching the Werewolves disappear. His tone was as calm as if he were commenting on the weather. "I was thinking of slicing them up for research."

The several Slytherin students behind him exchanged looks. Slice them up for research? Werewolves?

After that, Daphne tried every day to persuade Su Yu to act like a decent human being.

"Who did those Acromantulas ever offend?" Daphne sat beside Su Yu, straightening his collar as she nagged, "They get massacred by you lot every day. Professor Hagrid has already complained to Dumbledore, saying that you Slytherins have no respect for life."

Su Yu reclined on the sofa and let Daphne fuss with his collar. "We're maintaining the balance of the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid's Acromantulas have already become a serious threat to every ecosystem in the forest. We Slytherins are restoring peace to the entire Forbidden Forest."

Daphne's hands paused as she looked up at him.

"The Centaurs can testify for us," Su Yu continued, speaking with complete righteousness. "We Slytherins are in the right."

Daphne's mouth twitched.

"But," she said, "the other night, your Slytherin students dueled the Centaur chieftain and broke his leg. He can't come testify in person anymore."

Su Yu fell silent for a moment.

"That was an accident," he said.

"You sent five people to beat up one old man."

"Centaurs aren't old men. Centaurs can live two hundred years. Their chieftain is only sixty, right in his prime."

"That still isn't a reason to break his leg."

Su Yu said nothing. Kurama lay nearby with her ears perked, listening for a while before she could not help cutting in. "That Centaur threw the first kick."

Daphne glanced at Kurama.

Kurama buried her face in her paws and pretended she had said nothing.

They had actually just gone over to threaten them, hoping to make the Centaur tribe testify. But the two sides failed to see eye to eye and started fighting. There were five people on the Slytherin side and only the Centaur chieftain on the other. They had not held back and beaten him so badly that he could not get out of bed. The Centaur tribe had even stationed two of their own in the Hospital Wing ever since, afraid that the Slytherins would come cause more trouble.

Daphne sighed and continued tidying Su Yu's hair.

"Can you not fight next time?"

"Depends on the situation," Su Yu said.

Now, all the creatures in the Forbidden Forest avoided this group of Slytherins. They were a bunch of irritating people. The moment they saw you, they wanted to fight, and once the fight was over, they ran off. Who would not find that annoying? Acromantulas shrank back at the sight of green robes, Red Caps burrowed underground when they heard Slytherin footsteps, and even Unicorns gave Slytherin students a wide berth—despite the fact that Unicorns were usually so elusive that people rarely even caught a glimpse of one.

Dumbledore had no choice. He comforted Hagrid, saying that there truly were too many Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest. Though the Slytherin students' methods were a little brutal, they had objectively helped regulate the ecosystem. However, he also issued an order—Slytherin students were forbidden from harassing other animals any further.

"Especially Centaurs," Dumbledore added, his gaze sweeping from Professor McGonagall to Professor Snape. "I do not wish to receive any more reports concerning 'cross-species diplomatic disputes.'"

Snape said expressionlessly, "Slytherin students are merely developing practical skills."

"Breaking their chieftain's leg counts as practical skills?" Professor McGonagall snorted.

"That is called combat experience," Snape said.

Professor McGonagall nearly dropped her teacup.

Su Yu's assessment of the order was, "Annoying."

However, with fewer battles, the Slytherin students became bored again. Su Yu sat on the sofa flipping through a directory of magical schools around the world, his eyes stopping on the page about South America.

"I heard there's a school called Castelobruxo in Brazil," Su Yu said, spreading the book open in front of Daphne. "There are more magical creatures over there. We could take the Slytherin students there to kill some. I just don't know where it is."

Daphne looked down speechlessly at the map in the book, then looked back up at Su Yu. "How are you going to get there?"

"I'll ask my family when I have time. My father and mother probably know."

"You think they'll tell you?"

Su Yu thought about how hands-off his parents were. The last time his mother wrote, she said they were watching penguins in Antarctica and enclosed a photograph—his mother stood on the ice in a down jacket, while his father shivered beside her. There was also a note tucked inside the envelope that read, "Your dad didn't say he misses you, but I think he's just being tsundere."

Su Yu felt that this was unlikely to work.

"I'll give it a try," he said.

Over those two months, Su Yu's relationship with Fa-jie and Ka-jie had also been steadily warming up.

Hugging and cuddling had become routine.

Every time Fa-jie saw Su Yu, she practically wanted to hang from him. She was half a head taller than him, so whenever she hugged him, she had to bend down slightly and rest her chin on top of his head. Her hair carried a faint floral fragrance, and whenever Su Yu was held by her, he felt as though he had been wrapped in a huge flower.

"Fa-jie, you should lose some weight," Su Yu said once.

Then Fa-jie pinned him to the sofa and tickled him for three whole minutes. Kurama squatted nearby watching, her tail swaying behind her as she grinned wide enough to reveal two sharp fangs. Daphne sat on the other side, pretending not to see as she turned a page in her book.

Ka-jie was not as clingy, but she liked to loop her arms around Su Yu's neck from behind and press her face close to his ear while she spoke. Her breath was soft, and her lips nearly brushed his earlobe when she talked. Every time she did that, Su Yu could feel her heartbeat—far faster than he had expected.

"Your heart is beating really fast," Su Yu said once.

Ka-jie's hands tightened briefly before loosening. She took a step back, the faintly teasing smile returning to her face.

"Your imagination," she said, then turned and left.

Su Yu noticed that the tips of her ears had turned red.

If one overlooked Fa-jie occasionally barging into Su Yu's dormitory in the middle of the night, the two mature older sisters really were quite delightful.

Daphne was still the same as ever.

Like a gentle older sister next door, she indulged Su Yu in everything. If Su Yu did not want to do homework, she let him copy hers. If Su Yu did not want to attend class, she signed in for him. If Su Yu lay on the sofa and did not want to move, she sat beside him and let him rest his head on her lap, staying like that for an entire afternoon. Her legs were soft, and whenever Su Yu rested on them, they felt more comfortable than any pillow.

But now she had learned to nag.

"Su Yu, you didn't eat vegetables again today."

"Su Yu, your robes are dirty. Change into a clean set."

"Su Yu, don't put your feet on the coffee table."

"Su Yu, you forgot to wash your hands again."

One after another, unhurriedly, her tone as calm as though she were reading from a textbook.

Kurama lay on the sofa with her ears perked, listening as Daphne listed them one by one.

"A second butler Carson," Kurama said. "Exactly the same. Even the way she talks is the same."

Su Yu buried his face in Daphne's lap and muttered, "Can you say a little less?"

Daphne looked down at him.

"No," she said.

She reached out and brushed Su Yu's bangs aside, gently pressing a finger between his brows before returning to her book.

Kurama jumped down from the sofa, walked over to Daphne's feet, and looked up at her.

"Did he fall asleep?" Kurama asked quietly.

Daphne lowered her eyes and looked at Su Yu. His breathing was even, his shoulders completely relaxed, and his fingers hung motionlessly over the edge of the sofa.

"He fell asleep," Daphne said.

Kurama jumped onto the sofa and lay down by Su Yu's feet, spreading her nine tails over his legs. She yawned, then closed her eyes.

Daphne said nothing. She turned another page, her fingers gently stroking through Su Yu's hair.

The fire in the fireplace flickered over the logs with a soft crackle. Outside the window, the waters of the Black Lake flowed slowly, casting patches of green light across the stone walls. The common room was quiet, filled only with the sound of pages turning and Kurama's occasional indistinct mumbling.

Su Yu turned over on Daphne's lap and mumbled something incoherent. Daphne lowered her head to listen, but could not make it out. Still, she gave a soft "Mm," as though answering him. Su Yu quieted down.

Daphne looked down at him, then continued reading.