Strolling Through the Castle

Xiwen woke in the darkness. Everything around him was still pitch-black, with only the long-extinguished embers in the fireplace retaining a faint crimson glow. Looking up through the window toward the Black Lake, he could vaguely make out barely visible ripples on its surface.

He briefly sensed the state of his body—his soul, in the form of Strange, was chatting with Helena, while his body lay quietly in bed, thinking. Dividing his mind in two took no effort at all.

Just as he had at Kamar-Taj, Xiwen's powerful soul supported him, allowing him to freely control his body even while his soul was out of it. He did not merely let his body rest while his soul studied, like other mages did to improve their learning efficiency through that ancient method.

More than that, he could even sense a secondary soul, modeled after his current body, slowly growing within the empty shell.

In theory, every body should be born with its own exclusive soul. Yet for some reason, the soul that should have been born within Rozier's body had never appeared, allowing the hollow body to instinctively accept Xiwen's soul, which had wandered through the gaps between worlds.

Now, after being nourished for eleven years by Xiwen's powerful soul, this body had gained the conditions to produce a soul once more. But the body had long since been deeply branded by Xiwen, so the newly growing soul could only exist as his secondary soul...

Maybe one day I'll have a clone of my own! Xiwen thought, somewhat excited.

No longer dwelling on it, Xiwen decided to get up first.

Feeling around beside his pillow, he found his wand and softly recited, "Lumos."

A faint glow lit up at the tip of his wand, illuminating only his own bed.

He took out his pocket watch from beneath the pillow and saw that the hour hand pointed at the Roman numeral "VI."

The coursework for Hogwarts lower years was actually quite easy. The first class did not begin until nine in the morning, so many young wizards had developed the habit of sleeping until dawn.

Xiwen, however, had been forced to wake at dawn for morning training during his long stay at Kamar-Taj. Though he had relaxed a little after arriving in this new world, he still naturally woke at around six each morning.

After looking around and seeing that his roommates were still fast asleep, Xiwen changed clothes by himself and left the dormitory.

The common room was empty, but the fireplace had already been lit, its warm green flames driving away the chilly dampness caused by its location beneath the lake. A few round-headed lake dolphins in the large aquarium occasionally swayed about, stirring slightly murky currents and lending a little life to the quiet room.

After giving it some thought, Xiwen decided to head to the Black Lake for his usual morning training.

The spiral staircase leading to the surface was dark and long, making for an awful experience. He could not help letting his thoughts wander.

Slytherin's common room is probably the farthest from the ground. Why couldn't I have been sorted into Ravenclaw? I heard Ravenclaw's common room is in a tower, with great sunlight and a distant view of the Black Lake...

Of course, if he had known that Ravenclaw Tower was so high that students found going up and down just as inconvenient, he probably would not have felt so resentful.

At last, Xiwen finished climbing the long staircase and reached the surface. The distant sky had already begun to pale, faintly outlining layers upon layers of clouds overhead. The torches in the entrance courtyard still burned brightly, making the cloud cover seem even dimmer by comparison.

Looking out from the courtyard windows, he could see the long stone stairs they had walked down the previous night. When they had arrived at the boathouse by boat, the sun had long since set and the light had been dim, making it difficult to notice the surrounding landscape.

Now that dawn had broken, he could take in the castle's southeastern side from the corridor windows. The entire castle stood atop a cliff. Other than the narrow area around the boathouse, it was hard to find any flat lakeshore near the southeastern side of the entrance courtyard.

"Looks like my plan to train by the lake is ruined." Xiwen shrugged. "Maybe I should try my luck near the Quidditch Pitch on the north side of the castle."

Since it was still early, Xiwen was in no hurry. He leisurely climbed the stairs outside the Great Hall and entered the Main Tower. After passing through a broad corridor, he reached the corner tower on the eastern side of the castle, where a lofty stone bridge stretched across to the Astronomy Tower in the teaching area.

The stone bridge spanned a steep cliff. As Xiwen walked across it, the cool morning wind blew straight at him, billowing out his wizard's robes.

Facing the wind, Xiwen unfastened the buttons of his robes and flung them behind him, letting the hem flutter like a cape. Then he rested his elbows on the railing, narrowed his wind-swept eyes, and looked down at the swaying pines by the cliff, still feeling as though none of this was real.

I've lived in this world under a new identity for more than ten years, and now I'm even attending a magic school?

After all, his previous life had lasted just over twenty years in total, including a childhood he barely remembered clearly.

These vivid eleven years often left him confused. Sometimes, when he woke from dreams late at night, he would suddenly think he was still lying on a bamboo mat at Kamar-Taj. At other times, he wondered whether his experiences at Kamar-Taj had merely been a long dream, and whether he had always belonged in this universe...

Xiwen sank into thought, completely unaware that he was still standing in the cold wind.

Just then, a slender hand holding a thick spellbook blocked his view and shielded him from the cool wind brushing across his face. The owner of that hand used her other hand to pat his shoulder, interrupting his thoughts.

"Are you trying to catch a cold on the first day of school so you can skip class?" a magnetic female voice asked.

Xiwen lifted his head from his arm and saw an older witch with gray hair, blue eyes, and black-framed glasses staring at him in surprise.

"You're... Ravenclaw's prefect?" Xiwen vaguely remembered seeing her once on the train.

"Miranda Goshawk." She nodded calmly. "I'm so glad you still remember me."

You don't look glad at all, Xiwen grumbled inwardly.

Today, Miranda wore her long gray hair loose. Beneath her school uniform was a flowing light-blue dress. She did not seem as stern and rigid as she had on the train. Instead, with the breeze stirring her hair, she had a clean, pure air about her.

Xiwen could not help saying, "If you changed your glasses, you'd definitely be a beautiful, intellectual witch."

Miranda raised an eyebrow. "Is this how you Slytherin 'nobles' sweet-talk people? Flirting with an upperclassman on the first day of school?"

Xiwen gave an awkward laugh. "Ahem, you might have some misunderstandings about Slytherin 'nobles'..."

"I don't misunderstand anything," Miranda said. "I've been at Hogwarts for four years. I know exactly what Slytherin is like."

It seemed Slytherin's reputation really was not very good... Xiwen helplessly spread his hands.

"Come to think of it, you don't seem much like a Slytherin," Miranda suddenly said seriously. "I've never seen a Slytherin wake up this early."

"Really?" Xiwen asked with great interest. "Do I seem a little like a Ravenclaw, then? The Sorting Hat hesitated for a long time between putting me in Slytherin or Ravenclaw."

Miranda finally failed to keep a straight face. Her mouth twitched as she said, "Good thing you weren't sorted into Ravenclaw. Otherwise, you'd definitely lead the first-years astray..."

Xiwen quickly changed the subject. He forcibly dragged along Miranda, who had originally planned to practice spells, and asked her to show him around the castle while taking the chance to inquire about places suitable for morning training.

With no choice, Miranda led Xiwen away from the stone bridge and to the Astronomy Tower. The Astronomy Tower belonged to the teaching area, where a square looped corridor connected several tall towers.

There was a spacious plaza in the middle of the corridor, carpeted with fresh green grass. A fountain stood at the center of the lawn.

"You can do your morning training here." Miranda gestured toward the grass below with her chin.

Xiwen thought for a moment, then pulled a face and said he could not accept it. "Everyone going to class will pass through here, right? I don't think I'm thick-skinned enough to be watched like a monkey in public and act as if nothing happened..."

Miranda chuckled. "As long as you wake up early enough, there won't be many people here."

Xiwen looked at the scattered students below, each holding books and waving wands, and several black lines appeared across his face. "Those are students from your house, right?"

He pointed toward the western side of the castle and said, "Don't think I don't know. Your Ravenclaw Tower is over there. No matter how early I get up, I can't beat the bookworms in your house!"

That statement seemed to cover rather a lot of people.

"Watch your mouth!" Miranda replied with a dark expression. Then she seemed to realize something. "You seem pretty familiar with the castle. Are you really a new student?"

Xiwen inwardly thought things were bad. Last night, he had pretended to be a ghost while Nicholas and the Fat Friar showed him around for quite some time. And since ghosts were not restricted by terrain, they had roughly explored nearly the entire castle.

After waking up today, Xiwen had completely forgotten about that. While with Miranda, he had not shown any unfamiliarity with a place he had just arrived at, which naturally aroused her suspicions.