"Professor Quirrell?" Tris was a little surprised to see him.
Shouldn't he have been preparing for his next class at this hour? What was he doing here?
Every professor at Hogwarts was a model worker, with a packed weekly schedule. Defense Against Dark Magic was a major subject on par with those taught by the four Heads of House, and each class had two lessons a week. Quirrell might not have been too busy to take a piss, but he couldn't have been far off.
"Hello, young Mr. Weasley." Quirrell regarded Tris with a smile, the strange, half-amused expression on his face growing more pronounced.
Tris narrowed his eyes slightly.
Something's wrong.
He had attended Defense Against Dark Magic and encountered Quirrell outside class, too. The man always stammered, yet now he was speaking perfectly fluently. And that expression...
"Professor, if there's nothing else, I'll go have lunch." Tris had no intention of getting into any sort of confrontation with the first-year boss here.
He didn't mind changing the plot, but only if he could guarantee his own safety.
"Yes, yes, of course. Eat plenty. It'll keep you healthy." Smiling, Quirrell patted Tris on the shoulder, then stepped aside to let him pass.
There's definitely something wrong with this guy.
Secretly on his guard, Tris thanked the professor and walked past him, keeping track of what was happening behind him as he went.
Quirrell didn't follow.
Am I overthinking it?
Uncertain, Tris glanced back, only to find Quirrell still standing at the junction, watching him with that same half-smile.
His otherwise fairly handsome face was half-lit, half-hidden in the shadows of the castle corner, looking indescribably eerie. Tris couldn't help shivering. He hurriedly turned back and quickened his pace.
No!
I can't be alone from now on.
Although he had no idea what Quirrell was planning, Tris had a very bad feeling. That look Quirrell had given him from the shadows had made him feel as though a venomous snake had fixed its eyes on him.
I'll have to be careful for a while. Ideally, I should always have someone with me.
But how can I avoid being alone?
Harry and Ron were both in Gryffindor. Their only shared classes were Transfiguration and Potions, both in the latter half of the week. He definitely couldn't count on them.
Or perhaps...
Tris thought of his two roommates.
Well, we haven't exactly been close these past two weeks, but going to and from class together shouldn't be a problem, right?
No time like the present!
Tris hurried to the Great Hall and, sure enough, spotted Blaise and Theodore from a distance. The two weren't sitting together, though.
The Slytherin boys in his year could practically be said to have no concept of solidarity.
Draco and the two chubby boys were more or less a group because of their parents' connections, but those two had no capacity for independent thought, so they didn't count.
Of the remaining three, apart from Tris, who was close to Gryffindor, the other two were both rather proud.
Theodore came from a pure-blood family and looked down on just about everyone, so it was only natural that he kept to himself. Blaise, meanwhile, had excellent grades and likewise thought little of the others.
The result was that Draco, the two chubby boys, and Pansy had their little group, while the other three boys were all loners within their own house.
Looking at his two roommates, Tris needed only a moment to think of a way to get them to accompany him from now on.
"Hey, Zabini. Do you know why my Lumos was so bright in class earlier?" Tris asked proudly.
Blaise's eyes immediately lit up. That was exactly what he desperately wanted to know.
Like Tris, his first thought at the time had been a magical surge. But judging by how relaxed Professor Flitwick had looked when he returned, that probably wasn't it.
So...
Seeing Blaise's expectant gaze, Tris chuckled. "It's because my magical power has been growing rapidly lately."
"Rapid magical growth? At eleven?" As Tris had expected, Blaise knew about the magical growth curve, too.
That makes things easy.
"That's right. Want to know why? And would you like your magic to grow as quickly as mine?" Tris tempted him.
"Well... can you really do that?" Blaise asked doubtfully.
"Haven't you noticed that everyone close to me is really good at spellwork?" Tris asked, laying his trap.
Blaise hesitated.
Who was close to Tris? Ron, Harry, and that Granger girl.
Apart from Potions, the only class Slytherin shared with Gryffindor was Transfiguration. But that one class was enough to reveal quite a lot.
Granger went without saying. Apart from Tris, she had been the most outstanding student in their year over the past two weeks. More than one professor had praised her-even more often than they praised Tris.
Tris excelled in practical lessons, but in subjects that didn't require a wand, such as Astronomy and Herbology, he was actually nothing special.
Harry and Ron weren't quite as good as those two, but they also performed very well in Transfiguration, especially Ron!
Watching Blaise's expression, Tris's lips curled slightly.
He's taken the bait.
Tris wasn't sure whether it was because Ron now had a wand that suited him, new robes, and belongings that weren't all eighth-hand castoffs, freeing him from his inferiority complex and boosting his confidence.
On top of that, he seemed to have a decent natural talent for Transfiguration. In any case, although he couldn't match Tris or Hermione, Ron was performing very well in those lessons.
He was firmly in the top tier.
Harry's magical talent had always been quite good, too. It was just that Professor McGonagall had probably frightened him during his original first lesson, leaving him with a lingering mental block and ordinary grades in the original plot.
With Tris here, that initial embarrassment hadn't happened, and his true ability had emerged. Like Ron, he ranked among the best in their year.
Blaise considered himself exceptionally talented, but at least in Transfiguration, his progress had never been as fast as theirs.
With Tris putting it that way, it was only natural for him to be tempted.
Tris struck while the iron was hot, chuckling. "You've noticed now, haven't you? Listen, we've got a special little trick for growing our magic. Since we're roommates and will be living together for seven years, I thought I'd give you a hand. What do you say?"
Blaise pressed his lips together and agonized for a moment. In the end, he couldn't resist the lure of greater magical power. He nodded. "If you're telling the truth, I'll do as you say."
Very pleased, Tris used the same tactic on Theodore, who fell for it as well.
"Starting today, you'll join us for our daily training," Tris said.
"Your daily training?" Theodore asked in confusion. "You mean your daily runs and those strange exercises you do?"
"Exactly!" Tris nodded earnestly.
"Does that stuff actually work?" Blaise was a little skeptical.
"Hmph." Tris sneered. "The Weasley family is one of the oldest families in all of Britain. Neither the Malfoys nor his lot, the Notts, can compare with us. Ask Theodore if he dares question the Weasley family."
Theodore pursed his lips, but still nodded.
The Weasley family had already been a flourishing magical family in King Arthur's time, and they had worked with Merlin himself.
In Britain, only a handful of families could rival the Weasley family's history: the Black family, the Lestrange family, the Potter Family, the Dumbledores, the Prince family, and a few others.
The Malfoys, Selwyns, Parkinsons, and other such families might have been prominent now, but their histories fell far short.
Why did the so-called Twenty-Eight Families generally look down on the Weasleys for associating with Muggle-born wizards, yet still include them among the Sacred Twenty-Eight?
Because without the Weasleys, that list would lose a great deal of its prestige.
Blaise actually knew about the Weasley family's long history, too. With Ron putting it that way, he found it hard not to believe him. He nodded hesitantly and said,
"It's not that I don't believe you. It's just... at the intensity you train, we... might not be able to handle it."
Theodore nodded repeatedly as well.
When no one was around, he had secretly tried the exercises Tris did every evening.
He couldn't handle them. Not even remotely.
"That's fine." Tris was very pleased to have dragged his two roommates into the deep end-no, brought them aboard. "Start small and build up gradually. As long as you exercise, you'll benefit. Nobody gets fat from a single bite, right? I've kept at it for years, and I've only recently started seeing results. Ron and Harry haven't been doing it as long, so the effects aren't as obvious.
"If you're willing to put in the effort, you might overtake them very soon."
After two weeks together, Tris had a pretty good grasp of their personalities.
Proud, and unwilling to fall behind anyone.
They were already unhappy about being outdone by Tris. Being outdone by Ron and Harry made them even unhappier. Now that Tris had told them they had a chance to pull ahead, both secretly resolved to work hard in private, then amaze everyone.
One look in their eyes told Tris what they were thinking, making him even more satisfied.
These two were born competitive overachievers. They just needed a little nudge!
Now, not only would these two roommates stay near him more often and make him feel safer, but he had also roped two foolish kids into pushing themselves alongside him.
Working himself to the bone alone was no fun. Even bringing Harry and Ron along wasn't quite enough.
Ideally, he would get the whole school competing to work harder.
But there was no rush. One step at a time.
That afternoon, as they hurried through the corridors to class, Harry and Ron were surprised to discover that Tris, who usually walked alone, had two Slytherins with him.
The two found it a little strange, but what puzzled them even more was the way Tris's roommates looked at them...
"Why do I feel like they want to steal my drumstick?" Ron whispered to Harry.
Harry gave Ron a disdainful look and moved a little farther away from him.
Nothing happened all afternoon. Lying in bed, Tris wasn't sure whether that was thanks to his two roommates or whether he had simply been overthinking things.
Either way, it was time to sleep now. Or rather, time to meditate.
The most likely explanation Tris could think of for the surge in magical power he had discovered that day was his meditation technique. Since it was so effective, he obviously had to keep at it.
Having gone to bed early, Tris prepared to meditate. But when he closed his eyes and let his consciousness sink, he didn't enter the familiar Sea of Meditative Consciousness.
Heh heh. Finally let your guard down, have you?
A sinister voice rang out in his mind. In the pitch-black darkness, a pair of scarlet eyes opened.