The Day After the Revelry

The next day, the young wizards, who had been partying all night, quickly learned their lesson—classes would be held as usual on Tuesday!

This news was like a bolt from the blue, striking the young wizards and leaving their little heads buzzing.

Those who had a sense of propriety and only played until the early hours of the morning could barely get up before class, but those troublemakers who stayed up all night were a different story.

Abraxas and Mobley were two key figures in the restless group of young wizards. They never considered attending class on time the next day and spent the night in the common room with other Slytherin spendthrifts organizing a Wizard's Chess tournament.

Some Half-blood from less affluent families wanted to make a quick buck, so they set up a shady gambling scheme to trick these "foolish and rich" Pure-blood individuals into placing bets. At first, they only bet on who would win the game, but later someone even created different odds for the final Champion, and it's unclear how they determined those odds.

Regardless of whether the odds were reasonable, Abu and Mobley were completely engrossed in the game. The competition didn't end until a sixth-year student emerged Champion and won the Wizard's Chess tournament, by which time the Hogwarts bells had already rung at six in the morning...

Only then did Abu and Mobley, still feeling unsatisfied, begin to feel tired. They didn't have the energy to check how many Galleon they had lost that night, and immediately collapsed into bed and fell asleep...

The Young Wizard Xiwen was different from them. The day before, he had experienced a thrilling battle and, in order to broaden his horizons, had endured his fatigue to accompany the deans to repair Magic Node. His body was already exhausted. As soon as he returned to his dormitory and sat down on his bed, he fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Xiwen was awakened by the noise of Abu and Mobley lying on the bed. He took out his pocket watch from under his pillow and glanced at it, realizing that he was already a little later than his usual wake-up time.

He sat up, preparing to do his routine morning exercise.

However, before he could fully sit up, Xiwen grimaced and fell back down.

"Hiss..." He gasped, feeling a sharp pain in his back, arms, and legs.

Even with Xiwen's physical condition, he couldn't fully withstand the excessive physical strain of the previous day. He felt like a long-time couch potato who had suddenly gone crazy and participated in a triathlon!

Now, the aches and pains all over his body have made him not only reluctant to go for his morning exercise, but also reluctant to eat breakfast because of the distance from the common room to the Great Hall.

Fortunately, breakfast was no problem for Xiwen. If his body didn't want to move, his Soul Body could do it for him!

Ghost Xiwen then floated toward the kitchen under Helena's strange gaze.

"So you went to the cafeteria because you were sore all over and didn't want to move?" Helena asked, but couldn't help laughing out loud.

"I misspoke, let me put it another way," Helena said, forcing a laugh. "So you went to the cafeteria because Xiwen Rozier was sore all over and didn't want to move?... That still doesn't quite fit, aren't you Xiwen Rozier? How strange!"

Ghost Xiwen looked at Helena with a helpless expression, feeling that this intelligent ghost lady seemed to be acting a bit off her mind these days...

Upon arriving in the kitchen, Xiwen summoned his most familiar House-Elf Budi, and ordered several dishes to be delivered to his dormitory. Later, under Helena's coercion and enticement, he memorized most of the dishes in the kitchen, intending to enrich the menu for the next ghost banquet.

In the Slytherin boys' dormitory, Xiwen, who hadn't gone out for his morning exercise, ate breakfast indoors and then began some rehabilitation stretching exercises, hoping to recover his body as soon as possible.

Around 8 o'clock, just before class, Gomez returned to the dorm. Together, the two of them woke up Abu and Mobley, who were still lazing in bed.

"Huh? Do we have class today?" Mobley asked in shock after being woken up.

"Professor Slughorn probably anticipated that there would be people like you. He made a special trip to the common room this morning and posted a notice on the bulletin board that classes would proceed as normal today," Xiwen told them.

"I haven't even slept for a few minutes!" Abu said indignantly, sounding a bit grumpy from being woken up. "Otherwise, I'm not going. You dared to skip an entire afternoon of classes on the second day of school, why can't I skip even one class!"

"How did this get involved with me again..." Xiwen's lips twitched.

"This morning is Defense Against the Dark Arts," Gomez interjected. "Professor Lore has been arrested, so another professor will likely be teaching today."

"Other professors are better; they might not even know how many first-year students there are, and it's not impossible that they'd miss our names." Mobley simply buried his head under the covers, and his muffled voice came from beneath them.

"What I mean is... Professor Merrythought will most likely be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts today!" Gomez had no choice but to pull out his trump card.

"What?!" Mobley and Abu jumped out of bed and exclaimed in shock.

Xiwen shrugged and silently explained to them, "The head of the Defense Against the Dark Arts is our vice principal, do you understand?"

"Damn it, if we dare to skip even the vice principal's class, who knows what kind of punishment we'll face!" Abu muttered to himself as he fought off his sleepiness and got dressed.

"Hurry up, class is about to start," Xiwen said, glancing at his pocket watch.

The four of them arrived at the classroom just three minutes before nine o'clock.

As expected, Professor Merrythought substituted for them.

She was now standing on the platform, looking kindly at the young wizards below.

Professor Merrythought held a roster in her hand, occasionally glancing down to compare the names on the list with the number of young wizards who had arrived at the classroom. This made Abu and Mobley, who had ultimately decided to come to class, very happy.

"Very good, everyone from Slytherin is here!" After Xiwen and his three companions arrived, Professor Merrythought checked the roster again and nodded in satisfaction. "Now only three Gryffindor boys are missing."

However, the three boys still hadn't come to the classroom by the time the bell rang for class, Xiwen secretly guessed that they had also been playing all night.

Professor Merrythought's expression was not good. Looking at the list, he said, "Mr. Alastor Moody!"

"I'm here!" Moody exclaimed in surprise, jumping up abruptly from his seat in the front row.

Because of Professor Lore's previous arrangement, Abu, who habitually sat next to Moody, was startled.

"Mr. Moody, as far as I know, are these three absent students your roommates?" Professor Merrythought asked.

Moody turned and looked around the classroom, then said to Professor Merrythought, "Yes, Professor."

Professor Merrythought stared at him and asked seriously, "Tell me what's going on with them."