Aftermath

Bill smiled and held out his hand for a high-five with Roy.

As the Slytherin students slunk away, the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students erupted into thunderous cheers.

"Roy flattened Slytherin! Roy flattened Slytherin!"

Fred and George threw their arms around Roy from either side, raising their hands and loudly celebrating Slytherin getting taught a lesson.

Bill smiled and stopped his two younger brothers from performing their special ritual to summon Professor McGonagall. It seemed that all three Houses besides Slytherin were more than happy to see Slytherin suffer, and even the Ravenclaw students who did not want to make enemies of Slytherin were secretly delighted.

Justice lived in people's hearts. Everyone knew which House had produced the most Dark wizards, which House bullied others by throwing its weight around, and which House had the worst sportsmanship.

Bill gave Roy an encouraging pat on the shoulder and, before leaving, quietly told him,

"Watch out for that Blackwood from Slytherin. He's a complete bastard."

Roy responded to Bill with a gesture that said he understood, and then they went their separate ways to class.

On the way to the Transfiguration classroom, a large group of young Hufflepuff wizards surrounded Roy, endlessly asking about the two idiots who had been beaten into the Hospital Wing. Cedric had to make a considerable effort before he found a chance to quietly ask Roy,

"Were those two really beaten up by you last night?"

Faced with Cedric, Roy did not spin another tale about Peeves wreaking havoc. He merely gave Cedric a meaningful smile.

"What do you think?"

Seeing Roy's mischievous expression, Cedric roughly understood what had happened. This time, Cedric, the model student, said nothing. He simply reached out and patted Roy on the shoulder as well.

"Nicely done."

This Transfiguration Class was held together with Ravenclaw, and its main lesson was nothing more than turning matches into needles, then changing them back into matches.

However, Transfiguration truly deserved its reputation as the magical world's toughest science subject. Most students could only turn their matches into the shape of needles this lesson; they could not even change the material.

Aside from Roy, the ones who had it relatively easy were Cedric and Ravenclaw's Roger Davies. They were among the few students in the entire class who could genuinely keep up with the pace.

Roy did not draw much attention to himself this lesson. He simply completed the transformation and reversal as Professor McGonagall required. Still, Roy could feel that more people kept looking at him than when he had shown off over the past two days.

After class, Professor McGonagall stopped Roy. Her expression revealed none of her attitude and remained as stern as ever.

"Go to Dumbledore's office at eight tonight. The password is Butterbeer."

It seemed Professor McGonagall knew about what had happened in the corridor yesterday as well. However, she probably did not believe that Roy, a first-year student, could have beaten two fairly capable fifth-years. She merely asked in a rather stern tone whether Roy had been hurt.

Peeves really had seriously injured students with pranks before. Compared with someone as young as Roy, Professor McGonagall was more willing to believe that Peeves had pulled another prank.

During Herbology with Gryffindor that afternoon, Roy could feel even more eyes on him. During class, Fred and George reached out to touch Devil's Snare and were scolded by Professor Sprout.

Others might not have noticed, but Roy saw George secretly cut off a piece of Devil's Snare and slip it into his pocket.

From the malicious grins on the twins' faces, Roy knew Percy was about to be pranked by them again.

After class, Professor Sprout also kept Roy behind. It was obvious that she was quite protective of her own students. Knowing exactly what Slytherin was like, Professor Sprout understood what those two students had intended and merely asked whether Roy had been hurt.

"I heard about it from Elias. Those two students simply look down on Muggle-born students. Don't be afraid. I'll speak to Dumbledore about this."

Professor Sprout seemed to have quite a poor opinion of Slytherin. When she mentioned those two students, even her usually gentle face carried a hint of anger.

There were only two classes today. Before dinner, Roy took the authorization slip Elias had given him to the library and borrowed a large pile of books from the Restricted Section.

Madam Pince carefully inspected the slip Roy handed her several times. Only after confirming that it had been personally signed by a professor did she lift Roy's restriction from the Restricted Section.

This time, besides books on alchemy, Roy borrowed many books on magic related to building secret bases.

The stack of books was nearly as tall as Roy himself. He had to put in a great deal of effort to carry them back to the common room.

By the time he had briefly flipped through the books, it was already dinner. After a day of spreading, the rumors had reached the point where every student now knew about the conflict between Roy and Slytherin.

The atmosphere between Slytherin and the other Houses remained tense in the Great Hall, but Dumbledore and most of the professors had come to dinner tonight. Suppressed by the presence of so many professors, the Houses behaved themselves reasonably well.

While eating, Roy glanced toward Dumbledore every few minutes. Today, Professor Sprout and Snape sat on either side of Dumbledore, and it was clear that neither of them looked pleased.

Dumbledore, caught between them, always appeared as though nothing was wrong, occasionally saying something to liven the mood. Professor McGonagall was absent today, and neither Professor Sprout nor Snape seemed inclined to pay Dumbledore much attention.

The two people he had beaten up yesterday should have woken up long ago. He had not tried to kill them. They had looked miserable, but considering the magical world's medical capabilities, their injuries were not serious. He wondered what they had told Dumbledore about yesterday.

Dinner ended amid an awkward, tense atmosphere. After eating, Roy first went to his secret base in the Forbidden Forest.

The current Level One base did not have suitable insulation. Staying here in winter would absolutely mean freezing to death. The top priority for upgrading to a Level Two Special Operations Office was building a small house.

Materials for building a house were everywhere, and the house did not need to be large or particularly good. He only needed to build a framework and leave the rest to magic.

He had learned quite a few spells today that helped process wood. With Roy's learning ability, after a few more attempts, he would be able to cut wooden boards into any shape he wanted.

After more than an hour of various physical labor, the house's foundation was nearly complete. Seeing that it was getting late, Roy packed up his things and prepared to head for Dumbledore's office.

After running all the way from the Forbidden Forest to the Seventh Floor of Hogwarts, Roy stood slightly out of breath before the gargoyle outside the headmaster's office. He straightened his clothes and gave the office password.

"Butterbeer."