Showing His Promise

According to the schedule, Slytherin had only one class on the first day: A History of Magic, held in the afternoon together with the Ravenclaw students.

The instructor was the ghost Professor Cuthbert Binns, and the classroom was on the second floor.

At noon the next day, after finishing lunch in the Great Hall on the first floor, Jerry followed the other Slytherin Little Wizards up the luxurious marble staircase to the A History of Magic classroom on the second floor.

During lunch, Jerry also ran into Hermione, who had been sorted into Gryffindor. Hermione expressed regret that Jerry had not been sorted into Gryffindor, but said that even in Slytherin, he was still her best friend.

In class, the exceedingly old-looking ghost Professor Binns was droning endlessly about the history of magic in his wheezy, drawn-out voice.

Most of the Slytherin and Ravenclaw Little Wizards in the classroom were already on the verge of collapsing under Professor Binns's hypnotic voice.

But one Little Wizard was completely different from the rest. He sat in the front row with his back straight and his eyes bright. Professor Binns's hypnotic voice seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever.

It was Jerry, who intermittently activated Refreshing Mind.

A History of Magic class lasted two or three hours, and Jerry could not keep Refreshing Mind active the entire time. The strain on his brain was too great.

So whenever the material was already in the textbook, he turned off Refreshing Mind. When Professor Binns expanded on extra material, he activated Refreshing Mind to memorize and comprehend it.

In fact, A History of Magic was not as useless as the other Little Wizards claimed. Although it did not teach magical knowledge or spells,

if one studied it seriously, one would discover that these histories revealed many secrets of the Wizarding World.

Jerry's understanding of the Wizarding World had been limited to the movies and a few short videos, all of which were extremely one-sided.

Professor Binns's A History of Magic class presented the entire Wizarding World before him in a far more vivid and detailed manner.

This would also be immensely helpful for his future study of magic.

It was like trying to learn the language, writing, and unique culture and knowledge of a completely unfamiliar country. That would be extremely difficult.

But once you understood the entirety of that country's history, the difficulty of such learning would be greatly reduced.

Perhaps that was why every Little Wizard considered A History of Magic the most useless subject, yet it ran through every year of their education at Hogwarts.

"All right, that's all for today. Now for questions. Does anyone know about Emeric the Evil, whom we just discussed?"

As the end of class approached, Professor Binns moved into the customary question-and-answer segment.

He generally had no expectations for this part, because most Little Wizards had only just woken up by then, and few knew the answers.

Still, he did not mind, because his classes had always been like this.

Sure enough, the bleary-eyed Little Wizards looked at one another upon hearing Professor Binns's question.

Just as Professor Binns was about to dismiss the class, Jerry in the front row raised his hand.

"What is your name?"

"Jerry Carmen!"

Jerry stood and answered.

"Then you may answer the question just asked!"

A trace of surprise appeared on Professor Binns's aged face.

Jerry cleared his throat. After drawing the attention of all the Little Wizards, he began:

"Emeric the Evil was a short-lived but extremely powerful Wizard. He once became the master of the Elder Wand and ruled southern England through terror during the early Middle Ages. He was slaughtered in a duel with Egburt the Egregious. He once..."

See? Professor Binns had mentioned the Elder Wand as early as the first-year A History of Magic class.

"Very good. Three points to Slytherin!"

Professor Binns had not expected the content from his lesson to be recited word for word by this student. Such a thing was very rare.

"Mr. Carmen, can you also tell us about Uric the Oddball?"

"Uric the Oddball was a medieval Wizard famous for his strange behavior, such as wearing a jellyfish as a hat and sleeping in a room with more than fifty pet Bowtruckles.

He was considered one of the strangest Wizards in history, and as such, he often became the punchline of wizard jokes."

Jerry continued reciting the material he had remembered from class, word for word.

"Jerry, you are one of the students with the best memories I have ever seen. Another three points to Slytherin!"

As Professor Binns's voice fell, the Slytherin Little Wizards, who had still been somewhat groggy, immediately began clapping happily.

McGonagall had made the importance of House points very clear yesterday when they entered Hogwarts Castle. The House Cup earned through those points was an even greater honor for Hogwarts Wizards.

So how could the proud Slytherins not be delighted when Jerry earned six points for Slytherin in their very first class?

Jerry had already left a deep impression on the first-year Slytherins yesterday at the opening feast, when he calmly and elegantly spoke with the terrifying Bloody Baron. Now, they felt even more favorably toward him.

Of course, Little Malfoy and his two companions were exceptions.

Being able to speak calmly and gracefully with the terrifying Bloody Baron demonstrated Jerry's courage. Earning six points for Slytherin in A History of Magic demonstrated his intelligence.

Slytherin might be proud, but as long as there was no issue with one's bloodline, the more outstanding one was, the more favorably they viewed them.

And as everyone knew, anyone sorted into Slytherin during the Sorting Ceremony certainly had no problems with their bloodline.

After A History of Magic ended, Jerry clearly felt that the previously arrogant Slytherin Little Wizards had begun taking the initiative to talk to him.

Among them, a blonde young witch named Daphne Greengrass was the most enthusiastic.

The first class on the following morning was Defense Against the Dark Arts. The teacher was Professor Quirrell, whose head was wrapped up like a rice dumpling and who reeked of garlic. He also stuttered constantly during class.

However, Jerry did not dare underestimate Professor Quirrell.

He knew that this Professor Quirrell, who had come from Ravenclaw, was definitely not weak. Otherwise, he could not have bypassed Gringotts's defenses and infiltrated it to steal the Sorcerer's Stone.

Moreover, hidden on the back of his head was the ultimate villain of this world—Voldemort!

In fact, setting aside the cowardly, timid appearance this professor had deliberately put on, the content of his lectures was not entirely useless.

At the very least, after one class, Jerry had indeed gained a deeper understanding of several spells from the textbook.