Conflict

The feast was in full swing. At every table except Slytherin's, the young witches and wizards chatted eagerly and got to know one another.

At the Slytherin table, most introduced themselves by reciting their illustrious family backgrounds. It felt almost like a gathering of high society.

Will had barely exchanged names with the people beside him when a pest made himself known.

"Well, well, well. Behrens? I don't believe I've heard of that family. Am I simply ignorant?" A boy with a protruding belly spoke from nearby, his voice edged with mockery.

Will remembered the boy introducing himself as Ivan Selwyn. If Will recalled correctly, the Selwyn family ranked near the bottom of the Sacred Twenty-Eight.

So he wants to make himself look better by putting me down?

"I'm from the Muggle World," Will said lightly, as though he had no idea what Slytherin stood for.

"Then you should be honored to have landed in Slytherin. Perhaps you could find work polishing shoes in the Common Room. That might make your time at Hogwarts quite comfortable. Hahaha!" Ivan Selwyn laughed like a brainless villain from a web novel.

"Shut up, Selwyn," Sylvia said sharply.

"Oh? Since when did someone from the Lestrange family speak up for a Muggle boy? Did someone slip you a Amortentia?" another young Slytherin chimed in beside Ivan. He was Auburn Nott, a member of the Nott Family.

Will rubbed his forehead. This was exactly why he hadn't wanted to join Slytherin. He had no desire to waste time on its idiots.

"If wagging your useless tongues is all you can do, I wouldn't mind hitting you both with Langlock. If you have a problem with me, come find me after the feast instead of spitting into other people's bowls like two squawking ducks in heat." The young witches and wizards around the pair edged away.

"What did you say?"

"If your ears don't work, go to St. Mungo's. I can't be bothered to repeat myself." Will turned his full attention to the veal steak in front of him.

Ivan's fat face flushed so red he looked rather like an American redneck. He glanced toward the professors' table, snorted, and turned away from Will.

The other students also put some distance between themselves and Will. Evidently, they didn't want to offend Ivan Selwyn.

Only Sylvia leaned closer, her brow faintly furrowed. "Slytherin clearly wasn't the right choice for you," she whispered.

"I didn't want to come here either. That blasted hat decided for me. I wanted Hufflepuff."

"All right. If anything happens, you can come to me."

"Come to you?" Will was puzzled. This girl from the Lestrange family seemed a little too eager to help him. Something was off.

Sylvia seemed to read his doubts. She blinked and said, "You remind me of someone. I'll tell you more about it later."

Will was taken aback. Apparently, people who spoke in riddles were everywhere.

When the feast ended, the Prefects led the new students to their respective Common Rooms.

The Slytherin students followed their Prefect down a long spiral staircase. Will was already beginning to suspect that living in the Slytherin dormitories might give him rheumatism.

After the long descent, they finally reached a stone wall. The Prefect announced loudly, "The Password is 'Glory'! Remember it, or you'll spend the night outside. And if anyone forgets the glory of Slytherin, they'll be thrown out."

A serpentine pattern at their feet slid upward, forming an arched doorway of snake bodies, and the stone wall parted on its own. The young witches and wizards continued down a staircase flanked by carvings of giant snakes.

At last, the Slytherin Common Room appeared before them, hung with numerous lanterns. A roaring fire burned in a huge, intricately carved fireplace. The entire room was warm and dry rather than damp, which came as a relief to Will.

The walls were built from black Gothic marble, and the ceiling was a transparent crystal dome, beyond which all was dark. Green-glowing lamps hung from chains overhead, lending the Common Room a touch of wizardly gloom.

Standing in that dim room deep underground, Will felt helpless.

Damn Sorting Hat!

If there was one advantage, it was that Slytherin students shared rooms in pairs. Perhaps there was more space underground, or perhaps Slytherin simply had fewer students.

The Slytherin dormitories were spacious, and Will's trunk had already been delivered to his room.

The bed was excellent: a tall four-poster draped in emerald-green flannel curtains threaded with silver. It looked luxurious. Magic let wizards enjoy a standard of living that Muggles would struggle to match.

And although the room lay deep underground, the air was neither stale nor stuffy. On the contrary, it circulated well and felt much the same as the air elsewhere in the Castle.

But none of that cheered Will up. His roommate was Auburn Nott, who was glaring at him viciously. "You're finished, kid!"

The threat might as well have been a Summoning Charm for idiots and thugs. Two people Will considered idiots pushed open the bedroom door and came in. One was Ivan Selwyn; Will didn't know the other, but he was clearly one of Ivan's friends.

"Hey, Muggle boy, you'd better apologize to Ivan right now, or you may spend your first night at Hogwarts in the hospital wing." Obain drew his Wand. Evidently, he had learned a few spells and wanted to show them off.

When he saw the Wand already in Will's hand, he looked as if he had spotted something hilarious. "What, kid? Planning to use that Wand as a club? Or does a Mudblood like you imagine you've already learned Avada Kedavra?"

"Why waste words on this Mudblood, Obain? Teach him a lesson. Show him how he's supposed to treat his betters." Ivan hadn't even brought his Wand. He was cracking his knuckles, ready to charge Will and settle things with his fists. After all, fights between First Years usually came down to physical strength, and the nearly spherical Ivan clearly intended to win with his weight.

The other new student Ivan had brought cracked his knuckles too. "It's all right if a Mudblood doesn't know the rules. Perhaps I could have you work alongside my family's House-elves for a while. Then you'd learn how to serve your betters."

They looked like stock villains from a school drama, cornering a scrawny straight-A student to bully him. But this was the Wizarding World, where knowledge was power.

Despite all their threats, Will showed no fear. There was only cold mockery in his silver-gray eyes. Their faces tightened with embarrassment, and Ivan Selwyn lost his patience. He charged first.

A glint of malice flashed through Will's silver-gray eyes.

Light burst from the Wand already in his hand. "Stupefy!"

The spell struck Ivan square in the forehead. He dropped unconscious at once and, carried by his own momentum, sprawled at Will's feet like a dead pig.

"You actually used a spell?!" Obain blurted out this astonishingly stupid remark before remembering to point his Wand at Will.

"What else would wizards do? Settle it with their fists? Idiot! Expelliarmus! Petrificus Totalus!" Obain's Wand flew from his hand, and he froze where he stood in a ridiculous pose, his arm still outstretched.

At the sight, the last student decided to retreat and turned to flee. Will's Petrificus Totalus caught up with him at once, stopping his heroic escape short.

"I hate idiots." Will's silver-gray eyes swept over the three of them. "Especially idiots this stupid."

A few minutes later, Will's room was quiet. He was alone. He cast Colloportus on the door, then stretched out comfortably on the bed.

The air really is fresher without idiots in the room.

As Will drifted peacefully off to sleep, three rigid First Years hung from the wall lamps in the Slytherin Common Room. Such an unusual first night at school was sure to stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Will didn't care whether what he had done made enemies. What he needed was time and knowledge. In a world where one person's power could overwhelm everyone else, strength was the foundation of everything.

If Will became as powerful as Dumbledore, who would dare say a word against him?

For now, he needed to practice his skills and learn magic, not play childish games with those idiots.