Professor McGonagall had not returned before the end of class, which was perfectly normal.
Back then, Lucius and the others had used Galleons to keep the Ministry of Magic and the Wizengamot from using Veritaserum or Legilimency on them.
But Peter, who had turned into a rat and lurked among the students, certainly would not receive that treatment at Hogwarts.
With the methods at Dumbledore's disposal, they could make him spill everything in minutes.
And once Peter's identity was exposed, it would be earth-shattering news. Professor McGonagall's failure to return was entirely within Tris's expectations.
What he had not expected was that she would still assign homework under the circumstances.
So much homework!
Tris had no idea whether Professor McGonagall always liked assigning this much homework, or whether the questions he and Hermione had asked in class had convinced her that this year's students were particularly capable, prompting her to raise the difficulty a little. Either way, there was so much that even Hermione, who normally delighted at the mention of homework, looked a little shaken.
Tris had known that Transfiguration and Potions Class were bound to come with heavy workloads, and had prepared by finishing most of his homework for the other subjects ahead of time. Even so, he could not help drawing a sharp breath.
"Merlin's ragged underpants..." Ron looked as though the sky had fallen when he heard how much homework they had.
Draco's already pale little face drained of all color, as though his father had died.
"God, that much homework..." Seamus clutched his head. "We probably couldn't finish it even if we spent the whole weekend on it..."
"If you play chess and cards while doing your homework, then yes," Hermione said, having already recovered her composure. "But if you put all your effort into it, finishing this amount of homework would only be a little difficult."
Ron and Seamus both looked stunned.
They looked at Hermione, found no hint of joking or boasting on her face, and could not help turning to Harry beside them.
"Harry, are Muggle primary schools really that demanding?" Neville asked tentatively.
Harry shook his head. He looked at Hermione with scarcely less surprise than Ron and the others.
"Tris," Ron said, turning to him, "my dear little brother, you'll help your very, very kind brother, won't you?"
Ron's eyes were full of earnest hope.
Harry's eyes lit up as he caught on. Of course, they still had their good friend Tris.
Judging by the classes they had attended so far, Hermione was clearly an excellent student too. But they did not know her that well, whereas they were much closer to Tris.
Especially Ron. He felt that he and Tris had known each other since the womb and shared the bond of having wet their beds together. Surely it would be a bit much if Tris refused to help him.
Tris did not particularly mind.
He did not think homework was a big deal at all. Certainly, there might be people who absolutely refused to copy anyone else's work-Hermione, for instance, probably would not.
But to him, copying homework was simply one of the most ordinary parts of student life.
He was just about to agree when Hermione frowned beside him. "Tris, you're not going to let them look at your homework, are you? Homework only means something if you do it yourself!"
Hermione looked at him solemnly as she spoke, as though letting someone copy his homework were a heinous crime.
"Um... well..." For a moment, Tris did not know what to say.
"Weasley, aren't you getting a little too close to Gryffindor for a Slytherin?" a voice said behind him.
Tris turned and found his roommate Theodore.
"Nott? There's something seriously wrong with that argument." Tris pointed at Ron beside him. "This is my twin brother. Does being in different houses somehow sever our bond?"
"Exactly." Ron was immediately delighted. He threw an arm around Tris's shoulders, looking every inch the devoted brother.
"Nott, you-and you too, Hermione-none of you are going to come between us!"
"Who cares about you two?" Theodore snorted, turned, and walked away.
Tris's outstanding performance in class over the past few days had simply made him consider getting to know him a little better. Yet this was the attitude Tris had given him.
Of course he had no objection to Tris being close to Ron. They were brothers, after all.
What bothered him was Tris's attitude toward the others.
That Potter and Granger.
If it had only been Potter, then although he was not strictly a pure-blood, he still came from the ancient Potter Family, and both his parents had been magical. He barely fell within the range of what the Slytherin students considered acceptable.
But what was the deal with Granger?
How could a Slytherin converse so freely with someone of her background?
The Weasley family really had fallen.
He had always known that, but witnessing it firsthand still left Theodore deeply disappointed.
Still, although the Nott Family was also one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight Families and placed great importance on bloodlines, they were not as blatant about it as the Malfoy family.
At the very least, although he might think words like Mudblood, he would never say them aloud.
At lunch, Tris deliberately took a look.
Dumbledore, whom he had seen in the Great Hall at every meal over the past week, was absent today. Presumably, he was dealing with Peter.
No one besides him noticed.
After lunch, Tris returned to his dormitory for a nap and woke feeling thoroughly refreshed.
"Confucius said, 'Skip your midday sleep and crash all afternoon.' Mencius said, 'Confucius was right.'" Tris murmured to himself, then let out a string of silly chuckles at a joke only he understood.
"What are you laughing at?" Blaise asked with a frown as they left the common room together.
Neither Blaise nor Theodore had a habit of napping, so they had spent the time frantically doing homework in the common room.
Indeed, plenty of people had been like Harry and Ron: seeing that they had little homework earlier, they had assumed they could finish it over the weekend.
Then Professor McGonagall had unleashed her Transfiguration homework like an ultimate attack. Aside from Ravenclaw, which had fared a little better, the first-years had suffered a critical-hit rate of over ninety percent.
Almost everyone had therefore spent the lunch break frantically catching up on homework.
No one wanted to spend their very first weekend at Hogwarts battling homework in the common room and library. That was why the common room at midday had been full of first-years desperately working.
The older students watched with secret delight.
We all went through this back then. Seeing you suffer the same way makes us feel much better.
Outside Ravenclaw, Tris was one of the few exceptions among the other three houses. He had taken the initiative to finish his homework every day, so he had very little left.
He also worked far more efficiently than the average young wizard. With his Thought Maze, he could clearly recall everything in every book he had read.
While the other young wizards had to check their books, he could write straight through without pausing.
No one else, Hermione included, could match that speed.
After another Herbology lesson that afternoon, Tris took his books to the library to do his homework. Looking around, he found considerably more people than on previous days, all of them first-years.
Clearly, these were students who had had Transfiguration. The pressure was obvious.
Finding a relatively secluded spot, Tris set down his bag and began his homework.
He had barely sat down when a fragrant breeze reached his nose.
Looking up, he found a very pretty girl of Indian descent sitting opposite him, dressed in clothing with a distinctly traditional style.
"You're... Padma?" Tris asked, a little uncertain.
"Ha, you can tell me apart from my sister!" The girl gave him a radiant smile.
Padma Patil, one of the prettiest pair of sisters in their year.
Even though various experiences in his previous life had left Tris with a strong dislike of people of Indian descent, he had to admit that these sisters were beautiful.
What pleased Tris most was that, perhaps because they were Asian, neither sister had the body odor he associated with practically every European, so they did not need strange perfumes or other methods to cover it up. Perhaps because they were high-caste, they did not have that unpleasant curry smell either.
Instead, she gave off a faint floral fragrance. He had no idea whether it came from one thing or another.
"Did you need something?" Although he was admiring the girl's beauty inwardly, Tris showed none of it on his face.
"I heard from Parvati that you performed the Transfiguration Spell on your first try in class today?" Padma asked.
"No." Tris shook his head firmly. "I'd actually practiced it lots of times at home. I said so at the time."
"Parvati said you might have been being modest, because you have a deep understanding of Transfiguration and some interesting ideas. She told me about your questions and Professor McGonagall's answers.
"But her memory... well, it isn't very good, so she couldn't repeat everything. That's why I wanted to ask you. You must remember your own questions more clearly, right?"
Padma's explanation surprised Tris a little.
He had not expected that this was why she had sought him out.
Though, considering she was a Ravenclaw, perhaps it made sense after all?
Of course Tris remembered his questions, as well as Professor McGonagall's answers. That was how powerful the Thought Maze was! Anything he had ever remembered, even if only for an instant, could be converted into a permanent memory and stored in the maze, ready for him to retrieve at any time.
After a moment's thought, Tris decided there was no reason not to tell her.
On the contrary, showing a genuine interest in Transfiguration would reinforce the impression that he had only exposed Peter's identity by accident while trying to learn more about the subject.
At the same time, Tris realized that he would probably need to maintain this thirst for knowledge for a while.
Otherwise, he might still arouse suspicion in anyone paying close attention.
As he thought, Tris lowered his voice and repeated his questions from class and Professor McGonagall's answers to Padma.
Padma frequently frowned as she listened to his questions, seemingly pondering them without immediately finding an answer. But once she heard Professor McGonagall's explanations, her brow relaxed and her eyes lit up.
At that moment, Tris became certain that Ravenclaw really was the house of academic stars.
When he had asked those questions, practically everyone in the combined Gryffindor and Slytherin class except Hermione had looked utterly blank. They could barely understand what he was trying to say, as though he had not been speaking English.
Even while Professor McGonagall explained, everyone else had remained blank-faced. Only Hermione's expression had shifted from thoughtful consideration to the delight of learning something.
Practically a whole class of academic underachievers.
Yet here was a Ravenclaw girl who could readily absorb all that knowledge.
So perhaps the Sorting Hat was not as unreliable as he had imagined-ever since being sorted into Slytherin, Tris had firmly believed that battered old hat was completely useless.
As he reflected on this, two little heads poked out from behind a bookshelf.
They belonged to Ron and Harry.
Neither came over immediately. Instead, they winked and pulled faces at Tris.
Tris was amused. "If you want help, come over. If not, I'm getting on with my own work."
"Yes, yes, we do!" Ron immediately trotted over and looked at Tris hopefully. "My dear little brother, about that History of Magic essay, could you..."
"Don't copy the whole thing. Get the gist, then write your own." Without wasting words, Tris tossed over his completed History of Magic homework.
Ron's eyes immediately lit up. Even Harry abandoned his hesitation and hurried over.
"Oh, speaking of which..." Harry remarked casually as he pulled parchment and other supplies from his little schoolbag. "How come we've hardly seen Malfoy lately?"
Tris raised an eyebrow slightly.
What was going on? Was the legendary Drarry plot about to unfold?