Early Rising

"Hoot! Hoot!"

The owl alarm clock on the bedside table hooted away. Half-asleep, Li Wei felt an itch on his neck.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that it was little troublemaker Nami, using her fluffy cat tail, curved like a question mark, to wake him up.

"Hey! You little rascal!"

Pretending to be angry, Li Wei scooped Nami up and held her high in the air!

"Pah-shoo~"

Nami could tell that Li Wei was playing with her, and she laughed and squealed in delight.

After playing around with Nami in bed for a while, Li Wei got up, turned off the alarm, and checked the time. It was already half past six in the morning.

He had gone to bed rather late last night. If he had been in Diagon Alley, he would already have been working at the Magical Menagerie by this hour.

He had set the alarm so early not only to familiarize himself with Hogwarts Castle's moving staircases, but also because he had planned to run a lap around the grassy fields outside the castle.

However, after claiming Hagrid's exclusive feature last night—Giant Physique—Li Wei could not be bothered to exercise anymore.

No matter how much he trained, the gains in physique and strength could never compare to the strength and constitution of a Half-Blood giant. He might as well spend that time reading a book and earning more credits!

He glanced around the dormitory. His two roommates, Michael Corner and Anthony Goldstein, were both sleeping soundly.

Thinking that class started at eight and worried that these two newly acquainted guys would be late, Li Wei walked over and patted Michael on the arm.

"Stop messing around~ Let me sleep a little longer~"

Michael mumbled incoherently, clearly unwilling to get out of bed.

Li Wei shook his head and went to push Anthony instead. This fellow, who looked so rigorous and serious, was sleeping even more deeply and did not react at all.

"Forget it." Li Wei shook his head, changed into his school uniform, waved his wand, cast Scourgify once, and went to wash up.

When he returned from washing up, the two still had not awakened. Li Wei checked the time, reset the alarm for seven twenty, then cast Sonorus on it.

He refused to believe that, when the time came, the alarm's booming hooting still would not wake the two of them.

Leaving the dormitory and entering the common room, Li Wei found the Ravenclaw Common Room elegant and bright beneath the gentle morning sunlight.

Li Wei noticed that several older students were already reading in the common room's private library.

He felt thoroughly ashamed. He had clearly sworn that as long as studying did not kill him, he would study himself to death, yet he was already falling behind on the very first day!

No, I need to start grinding!

Li Wei scanned the library, picked out a copy of Perfect Potions: From Herb to Potion, and sat down to read.

His talent for Potions was his weakest area, and even his cheat might not be able to make up for it. So he planned to start with herbs and use that knowledge to make Potions a little easier to handle.

Time passed bit by bit. When the alarm Li Wei had set went off, enormous owl hooting suddenly rang out from the dormitory upstairs.

Not long afterward, Anthony and Michael stumbled out of the dormitory looking disheveled.

"Lee Wickens, you bastard!"

The two roommates were half annoyed and half pretending to be angry, opening their mouths to shout Li Wei's name.

But when they saw Li Wei reading with great interest in the library, they immediately lowered their voices like ducks whose beaks had been pinched shut.

Li Wei put down his spellbook, returned it to the library while noting its location so he could continue reading after class, then looked at his roommates with a smile.

"You're awake? Do you even know what time it is?"

"Class starts at eight! If I hadn't woken you two up, you probably wouldn't even have gotten breakfast, and you'd have been late for class too!"

The two looked up at the blue bronze clock in the center of the common room, and their faces immediately flushed red.

Of course, Li Wei could not see Michael's change in complexion.

"Thank you, Li Wei. We really owe you!"

The two boys promptly admitted their mistake and thanked Li Wei profusely.

The Ravenclaw dormitory was simply too comfortable to sleep in. Neither of them had expected to sleep so well that they had nearly failed to wake up in the morning.

"Alright, let's go!"

Li Wei slung on his bag, and he and his two roommates left the common room together, heading for the Great Hall to eat breakfast.

On the way to the Great Hall, the two thanked Li Wei even more.

They had discovered that even though the prefect had led them through the route last night, they still nearly got lost.

The moving staircases in Hogwarts Castle were truly awful to deal with!

They seemed to be deliberately trying to make trouble for people, always doing their best to confuse them and force them to take needless detours.

Sometimes, even when they ran into the resident ghost of the Ravenclaw Common Room—Lady Helena—

They received no answer when they asked her for directions.

This ghost perfectly matched their stereotype of ghosts. Although she was exceptionally beautiful, she always looked troubled and self-absorbed, rarely speaking.

If not for Li Wei leading them and always finding the right path, they would have wanted to break school rules, jump down from upstairs, and ride Flying broomsticks to the Great Hall.

"Whew~ We finally made it!"

The moment Michael and Anthony saw the Great Hall's doors, they looked completely spent.

Early in the morning, they had been blown by cold winds and wandered through the castle on empty stomachs. They were certainly awake now, but it had truly taken a lot out of them!

So the moment they sat down at the table, the two began stuffing themselves again, just as they had at last night's feast.

Li Wei realized that he was starving too!

He had clearly eaten so much last night, yet this morning he felt as though he could eat an entire cow.

Perhaps Giant Physique needed an energy supply to fully manifest in his body, and eating a great deal was precisely the way to speed up this feature's growth.

Li Wei wolfed down his breakfast when the female prefect Penelope sat beside him and placed a timetable next to his plate.

"Eat slowly. But your first class this morning is Potions, so that really is pretty miserable."

"Professor Snape is a little... how should I put it? Anyway, junior, you should prepare yourself mentally!"

Penelope offered Li Wei a comforting smile, then went to hand out timetables to the others.

Li Wei looked at the timetable. Seeing the word Potions, he thought of Severus Snape's deadpan face and felt his appetite fade.

Actually, no matter how awful Professor Snape's attitude was, it had nothing to do with Li Wei.

He did not have the face of an enemy, nor was he some cobbled-together savior with the eyes of a dead first love.

But the problem remained: his talent for Potions was simply terrible!

So terrible that Li Wei could already predict that, the moment he attended class, Neville's treatment in the original story would descend upon him.

No, I need to think of something.

Li Wei's silver-gray eyes shifted as he considered how to deal with it.