Fine Clothes Command Respect Before Their Wearer

All the Slytherins rose and followed the prefect around the enormous fountain and down the stairs. Compared with Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, whose students had to climb upstairs, Hufflepuff and Slytherin had it much easier.

Their common room was not far away. Before long, they reached a wall.

The crowd suddenly stopped. Zhang Xiao saw a little man floating cross-legged in midair, his black eyes darting about with cunning and malice. This was a ghost-and a ghost with color, at that. More impressively, his hands held a bundle of walking sticks firmly in their grasp.

That was virtually impossible for a ghost.

"Aha, you nasty little Slytherins! I've been waiting for you!" A triumphant, scheming grin spread across his face as he waved the walking sticks and shouted.

The female prefect, Gemma Farley, raised her head and called out:

"Get lost, Peeves! Hasn't the Bloody Baron taught you enough of a lesson?"

Peeves circled through the air, cackling as he sang in a peculiar tune:

"He's not here~ Too bad he's not here! The Baron's gone to the Ghost Council!

Nobody can stop the great Peeves~

First-year brats are the most fun! Hurry, hurry! I've got other places to go and other brats to torment!"

As he spoke, Peeves hurled walking sticks at the new students. One caught Zhang Xiao on the head without warning. Furious, he drew his wand, then wondered whether a Soul-Calming Talisman might be more effective.

Peeves suddenly stopped. His little eyes filled with alarm and uncertainty as he stared at Zhang Xiao's wand and slowly asked:

"Brat, what's that in your hand?"

Everyone's gaze immediately converged on Zhang Xiao. He froze with his wand raised, then suddenly caught on.

Of course! My wand is made of millennium lightning-struck jujube wood. It repels all evil-doesn't that make it Peeves's natural nemesis? He gave his wand an experimental wave and shot a crackling streak of electricity at Peeves. It was really just the wand sparks any young wizard could produce.

Yet this utterly harmless streak of electricity made Peeves let out a terrified shriek. As though he had seen something horrifying, he backed away again and again before darting through the wall and vanishing.

Only the bundle of walking sticks remained, scattered across the floor. Gemma gave the wand in Zhang Xiao's hand a long look, her expression unreadable, then drew her own wand and swept the sticks aside with a flick.

Malfoy stared at the unmistakably luxurious wand in Zhang Xiao's hand, his face almost twisting with envy. Aren't wands supposed to cost nine Galleons each? Why does this one look like it's worth nine thousand?

Gemma turned to the first-years and said:

"The Slytherin Common Room is right here. You only need to give the correct password, like this: Glory!"

A relief of a winding, enormous serpent suddenly appeared on the smooth stone wall. As though alive, it twisted its body into an "n" shape, and a door carved with exquisite patterns abruptly appeared before them.

Some of the young wizards murmured in admiration, while others remained perfectly composed. Clearly, this was the difference between half-bloods and pure-bloods.

"The password changes every two weeks and will be posted on the common room noticeboard. I hope Slytherin won't have students like those stupid lions, forgetting their own house password!"

Zhang Xiao followed the others through the door. The first thing he saw was a statue of a coiled giant serpent, beside which stood a spiral staircase leading down. Clearly, they had to descend farther to reach the Slytherin Common Room itself.

It was nothing like he had imagined. He had expected the Slytherin Common Room to be cramped and narrow, filled with sickly green candlelight, skulls, and strange specimens. It was a dungeon, after all.

Instead, it was surprisingly comfortable. Several sofas were tastefully arranged in an enormous circular hall that resembled an aquarium. Its cool color scheme and magnificent, finely crafted drapes somehow gave it an air of elegant, aloof grandeur.

Wizard's Chess boards rested on exquisite octagonal tables, and the glossy, smooth chess pieces were clearly anything but cheap. The walls were rough stone, but they were covered with portraits of outstanding graduates of Slytherin House.

There was even a delicate little fountain in one corner of the common room. A roaring fire in the fireplace added a touch of warmth to the cool-toned space.

Several brass telescopes stood before the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows. Beyond them lay the Black Lake, where aquatic plants swayed gently and all sorts of fish darted among them. White gravel covered the lakebed, along with various objects he could not tell were decorations or discarded belongings.

In modern terms, this was absolutely up to the standard of the underwater suites at the Atlantis hotel on Dubai's Palm Island!

That made sense. With the greatest concentration of pure-bloods and wealthy families, how could Slytherin possibly tolerate living in a cramped, shabby common room?

Yawning, Zhang Xiao waited for the prefect to lead them to their dormitories. He was already sleepy, but he noticed that some of the new students had stayed put and were stepping forward of their own accord. The older students also stepped back in unspoken coordination, lining up neatly by year and silently watching the first-years.

Why aren't we moving? Zhang Xiao would have liked to stay and watch the fun, but he was simply too sleepy. At eleven, he was at the age when he most needed sleep to grow.

He had also risen early that morning and eaten a pile of sweets that evening. The combined effect was like driving a long stretch of highway after staying up all night-he could fall asleep at any moment.

"Miss Prefect, could you tell me where our dormitory is?" Zhang Xiao forced his eyes wide open to keep himself from drifting off.

Malfoy was about to say something, but Gemma caught him and pointed toward a place resembling an enormous round sewer entrance, saying gently:

"Right over there. There are nameplates on the doors, and your name is at the foot of your bed. It should be the second room on the right."

Zhang Xiao waved his thanks and drifted toward the dormitory like a wandering spirit. At last, he found his bed: a four-poster hung with green curtains embroidered with silver serpents.

He did not even have time to unpack his luggage or see who his roommates were. Hastily stripping naked, he burrowed into the soft velvet bedding and fell asleep almost in the blink of an eye.

Watching Zhang Xiao's retreating figure, Malfoy asked indignantly in a low voice:

"Cousin Gemma, why did you stop me?"

Gemma shook her head. Rather than answer directly, she asked:

"Did you notice his wand?"

"That wand is a little unusual, but so what? It's only a wand!" Malfoy was even more puzzled, though he could not help wishing that luxurious-looking wand belonged to him.

"So what?" Gemma gave a derisive snort.

"I don't know what that wand is made of, but I recognize the handle.

"It's called chalcedony. The writing carved on it looks like pictures, and they say it's writing left by birds-bird script.

"That means it comes from the ancient Wizarding World of the East. My aunt happens to own a tiny ornament like it. Muggles brought it over from an imperial palace in China ninety years ago, and it's extremely rare. Research has also shown that it has all sorts of marvelous effects. For example, simply carrying it lets you sleep very peacefully."

Gemma paused, looked Malfoy in the eyes, and said evenly:

"How many Galleons do you think that handle is worth? And how much would a wand worthy of such a handle cost? Now use your head and think about what sort of family could afford a wand like that."

Malfoy stood there, deep in thought, as Gemma turned to leave.

"Oh, and my aunt paid ten thousand Galleons for that pendant."

Malfoy's entire body gave a sudden jerk, as though he had been electrocuted. Biting his lip without a word, he remained rooted to the spot like a stone statue.

Had Zhang Xiao heard this exchange, he would certainly have gained a deeper understanding of his father Zhang Chengdao's saying:

"Fine clothes command respect before their wearer."

That night, the Slytherin Common Room did not gradually settle back into silence until very late. Only the faint sound of sobbing suggested that the night was not as peaceful as it appeared.

But Zhang Xiao knew nothing of this. He rolled over in bed, found a more comfortable position, and sank into sweet dreams.