"That's not how you become a leader." Tris sneered.
"What do you mean?" Blaise clearly didn't understand and asked with a frown.
"A leader should draw people to follow him willingly through personal charisma and leading by example. He shouldn't need tricks or anything else to demand their loyalty."
Neither Blaise nor Theodore seemed to understand what Tris meant. Both looked blank.
Looking at their vacant expressions, Tris felt a little disdainful. After a moment's thought, he said, "You know Voldemort, right?"
"You!" Theodore's expression changed dramatically. His mouth fell open, and his eyes filled with shock.
There wasn't much visible change in Blaise's complexion-his skin was dark, after all-but his eyes and mouth opened wide too.
Tris knew why they reacted that way.
Even though Voldemort had fallen ten years ago, the wizarding world still hardly dared speak his name. Even families like the Weasley family, who had firmly opposed Voldemort back then, were no exception.
Whenever he was around his parents, Tris avoided saying Voldemort's name directly, calling him the Dark Lord instead.
Blaise and Theodore both came from wizarding families and couldn't bear to hear Voldemort's name either.
Tris ignored their reactions and continued, "Even Voldemort attracted a whole crowd of followers by displaying extraordinary talent when he was at Hogwarts. He didn't start out using cruel methods to force people to obey."
"You... how could you, how dare you say that name?" Blaise recovered first, pointing at Tris and nearly jumping up in agitation.
"Ha! You don't even dare say the name of someone who fell ten years ago, and you think you can be a leader?" Tris made no attempt to hide his scorn. "With that kind of nerve, you'd better go home and raise pigs."
With that, he took his pajamas and went to the Washroom, ignoring their reactions.
Tris was fairly thorough when he bathed, but only by a boy's standards. Before long, he had finished washing and emerged from the Washroom.
Blaise and Theodore were each sitting on their beds, still looking bewildered and confused.
Tris figured his words had given them a little shock. He didn't bother with them and lay down to sleep. His life as a student would begin tomorrow.
There were also the exercise tasks required by the system.
Previously, he had spread his training tasks throughout the day, keeping the intensity fairly low. Now that he had to complete them outside class hours, things would be a little more demanding.
Seeing his two roommates still staring into space with no intention of turning off the lights, Tris shook his head helplessly. He picked up the wand beside his pillow and gave it a gentle flick. The eye mask he had prepared earlier flew over from the bedside table and settled over his eyes.
Perhaps spending the whole day on the train had truly tired him out, or perhaps those fifty push-ups had done the trick. Either way, Tris fell asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow.
He was completely unaware of the complicated expressions on Blaise's and Theodore's faces after they saw that bit of magic.
After a dreamless night, Tris rose bright and early the next morning.
Whether Blaise and Theodore had slept badly or their body clocks simply hadn't caught up yet, they were sleeping like dead pigs.
With a complete lack of consideration, Tris made no special effort to stay quiet. He got up and washed as noisily as usual-he had done the same at the Burrow, waking Ron every time. Deliberately.
But Blaise and Theodore showed no signs of waking.
Hope you two won't be late.
With that thought, Tris went out for a run.
He jogged a lap around Hogwarts Castle, excluding the grounds, keeping an eye on the system panel as he ran. About three-quarters of the way around, he had already met the system's requirement.
His current daily jogging task was 1.1 kilometers, so a circuit of the castle alone appeared to be about 1.5 kilometers. Including the grounds and the edge of the Black Lake would make it much longer.
Right, from now on, I'll jog one lap around the castle, then walk two more. That'll comfortably cover everything.
What? That's more than required?
Exactly! That's the whole point! Tris figured that if the system could push him to work harder, surely he could turn the tables and outdo it.
The system's response was a sarcastic little laugh.
While Tris was walking slowly around the castle, a tall boy caught up from behind and slowed beside him.
"Hi. Good morning." The boy greeted Tris.
He looked thirteen or fourteen and was already nearly six feet tall, with a well-proportioned, athletic build. He had short black hair, gray eyes, a high nose, and thin lips. He was a handsome boy with a sunny air.
"Good morning." Since the other boy was polite, Tris naturally responded in kind.
"You're a first-year, right? I saw you at the Sorting Ceremony yesterday. A Weasley in Slytherin-that's rare." The boy gave an apologetic smile.
"I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Diggory, Cedric Diggory."
"Cedric?" Tris raised his eyebrows.
Of course he remembered that name: Hogwarts's rightful Champion in the Triwizard Tournament in the fourth film. Cedric had excellent grades and was very popular at school, especially in Hufflepuff.
Judging by his behavior, he was also a kind, upright boy. Calling him an exemplary student in both character and academics wouldn't have been an exaggeration.
Unfortunately, despite not being part of the main cast, he had become entangled with the protagonist and died to Wormtail's Killing Curse.
Lucky you, kid. You've met me, so your fate is definitely going to change.
That was what Tris thought as he looked at Cedric.
He had already planned to find an opportunity to expose Wormtail during the first few Transfiguration classes. With Wormtail out of the picture, this handsome young fellow probably wouldn't die, would he?
Having finished introducing himself, Cedric noticed Tris looking at him strangely and felt a little bewildered.
Tris's gaze was odd, with several emotions mingled in it. Cedric wasn't good at reading people, but he could at least tell one thing: this first-year knew him.
"Do you know me?" Cedric asked.
"Yes, I do. Mr. Diggory works with my dad." Tris gathered his thoughts and answered with a smile.
"Oh, right. I almost forgot that Mr. Weasley works at the Ministry of Magic too." Understanding dawned on Cedric, and his face involuntarily reddened a little.
Our young Cedric had jumped to the wrong conclusion.
He thought Tris knew him because his father had been bragging about him again-something that had happened more times than he could count.
Mr. Diggory was immensely proud of his son. In fact, Cedric really was the sort of child other parents held up as an example: excellent in both character and academics, and good at sports-Quidditch-as well.
With such an exemplary child in his own family, Mr. Diggory's pride was only natural.
It followed just as naturally that he praised him to everyone he met.
Cedric assumed Tris had heard his father praising him, explaining that earlier look, and immediately felt embarrassed.
"Well, I still have some running to do, so I'll go ahead. See you later!" With that, he turned and picked up speed, quickly running on ahead.
He left Tris looking utterly baffled.
Calling Cedric a pale pretty boy was no exaggeration. His face was almost absurdly fair. It was quite strange: the boy looked sturdy and probably exercised regularly, so how did he stay so pale?
Tris, meanwhile, had trained for just one month over the holidays and had already become thoroughly tanned.
Precisely because Cedric was so fair, his blush was particularly obvious. Although he had immediately turned and run away, Tris had still seen it.
Tris had never even met Cedric's father, so of course he had no idea what Cedric was thinking.
From his perspective, they had exchanged a couple of looks and a few words, and then the other boy had blushed for no apparent reason.
What was that about?
What the fuck was that about?
Neville had already said something startling on the train here, and now Cedric had blushed just from looking at him. Did I somehow have a fucking knack for attracting guys?
I know Britain's full of gay subtext, and the British wizarding world even more so, but surely it can't be this bad?
Am I doomed to suffer like this just because I was born handsome?
The shameless Tris shuddered and hurriedly banished those terrifying thoughts from his mind. No. I absolutely can't let my life at Hogwarts turn into gay romance.
Seeing gay implications everywhere, Tris finished one walking lap, then returned to the castle and went to the Great Hall for breakfast.
In the Great Hall, he ran into Harry and Ron.
"Tris, did you go for another morning run?" Ron asked, looking at the sweat covering his head.
"Yeah." Tris plopped down beside Ron, grabbed a bread roll from the table, and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Um..." An older Gryffindor boy nearby frowned slightly and couldn't help speaking up. "This is the Gryffindor table."
"Oh." Tris remembered that he was in Slytherin.
Without arguing, he got up and headed back toward Slytherin, making sure to tell Ron, "Don't just sit there eating, you two. Didn't we agree you'd exercise with me once we got to Hogwarts?"
"Um..." Ron and Harry both avoided his eyes.
At the Burrow, Tris had invited them to exercise with him, and Harry had genuinely kept at it for a month. He had started with an aching back and cramping legs, but gradually adapted.
Although he hadn't trained as hard as Tris, he had consistently put in the work.
Because of that, Harry could clearly feel that his fitness had improved considerably. He had indeed said before that he wanted Tris to keep training him once they reached Hogwarts.
Ron had said something similar, but after running on the first day and waking the next morning with legs so sore he could barely lift them, he had given up. When Tris mocked him, he had simply claimed that summer was too hot and promised he would definitely train with him at Hogwarts.
Yet now that Tris was actually inviting them to exercise, both of them hesitated again.
They both liked the results of exercise-the pecs, the abs, and so on. But the hard work involved wasn't just something Ron disliked; Harry wasn't particularly fond of it either.
"Six tomorrow morning. I want to see you at the castle entrance." When neither answered immediately, Tris turned, saw them avoiding his gaze, and delivered a cutting remark.
"I hope you two can act like men and keep your word."
"Of course I'm a man!" Outside of chess, Ron rarely liked to use his brain. Unfortunately, he reacted quickly, blurting things out without thinking.
Harry glanced at Ron, then at Tris, and had no choice but to nod. "All right. We'll come tomorrow morning too."
Tris nodded in satisfaction. Plenty of people were watching, including quite a few girls. He was confident that, however difficult getting up proved, Harry and Ron would grit their teeth and run with him rather than lose face.
What's the fun in pushing myself alone?
Obviously, I have to drag other people into it too!
I can't be the only slave to the grind~
He reached the Slytherin table to take a seat. In those few steps, he had already finished his previous bread roll and picked up another from the table.
"Hey, keep your distance."
Just as Tris was looking for somewhere to sit, a thoroughly disgusted female voice came from beside him.
He turned his head to find Pansy Parkinson looking at him with undisguised distaste, one hand covering her nose while the other waved as though shooing away a fly.
"You stink. Stay away. You're ruining everyone's appetite."