Professor Quirrell had probably lost his mind

The days that followed finally returned to their former peace and comfort.

Malfoy no longer seemed to be under pressure from his family to distance himself from Zhang Xiao. Feeling guilty, he wanted to say something to him.

But Zhang Xiao simply patted his shoulder. Nothing needed to be said. Malfoy's actions could hardly be called a betrayal.

Honestly, the fact that he had even shown any intention of defying his parents had already surprised Zhang Xiao. After all, he was the biggest "daddy's boy" in the entire series.

The biggest difference from before was that Zhang Xiao finally had real authority over Slytherin's first-years, along with a certain amount of influence among the other years.

He was no longer a "leader" whose symbolic importance outweighed his actual authority.

The uproar caused by the whole incident also died down quickly. Hogwarts' young witches and wizards were remarkably good at accepting things.

Every year, Hermione and her two sidekicks managed to make a huge splash, yet the young witches and wizards usually took it in stride soon enough. What Zhang Xiao had done hardly amounted to much.

Only the professors understood just how turbulent the undercurrents behind this incident were. Of course, most of them were optimistic and approving.

It was worth mentioning that their detention had been postponed again, this time to early December, because of the clash. The troll incident that should have happened had also failed to materialize. Everything was peaceful, as though it had always been meant to be that way.

Zhang Xiao kept feeling that Dumbledore was plotting something, but he had no evidence.

That day, the Slytherins gathered dejectedly in the Common Room.

During the Quidditch match that had just ended, Harry Potter had suffered the extremely rare mishap of his broom going out of control.

Yet he had still caught the Golden Snitch in dramatic fashion-by swallowing it.

Slytherin had lost the match outright.

Malfoy tossed aside his little flag embroidered with the Slytherin crest and complained:

"When Potter's broom went out of control, I thought we had it in the bag! Potter's so lucky. Our Seeker's an idiot, too. Such a perfect opportunity, and the match wasn't even stopped! Yet he still let Potter find the Golden Snitch first."

Then, half jealous and half envious, he added:

"It's a shame the professors won't let me join the house team. Otherwise, I'd definitely fly better than Potter!"

Zhang Xiao glanced at him. Getting a bit full of yourself, aren't you, Draco?

"Who do you think messed with Potter's broom this time? I bet it was someone who likes Slytherin! They scared Potter either because they couldn't stand him or because they wanted Slytherin to win."

Malfoy sprawled on the sofa, gazing at the flames in the fireplace as he quietly speculated.

Zhang Xiao moved a knight off the Wizard's Chess board. It kept kicking the neighboring pieces with its horse's hooves and clamoring to go "get acquainted" with the beautiful queen on the other side.

Hmm... whoever made this chess set probably wasn't very respectable. Compared with an ordinary chess piece, the opposing queen looked as though someone had bought her a pool-party skin in a game. She was quite... hot.

"Maybe Professor Quirrell did it? Maybe there's even a face stuck to the back of his head."

Zhang Xiao made the queen a little paper skirt and slipped it over her, only for every chess piece to protest. They bravely charged forward, jabbing his fingers with their toothpick-sized weapons-including the king beside the queen.

"You're joking, right? Professor Quirrell?" Malfoy acted as though he had just heard a hilarious joke. He laughed so hard that tears almost came to his eyes. "If Professor Quirrell had the courage to do that, I'd dare to kiss Ron Weasley's stupid face!"

See? I tell you the truth, and you still don't believe me. Zhang Xiao shrugged and used his still-unpracticed Transfiguration to turn the queen into an Abnormal Titan. He had actually meant to turn her into Professor Quirrell.

Every chess piece shrieked and fled far away from the queen. Hah-men.

Come to think of it, he really couldn't understand Quirrell's actions. What had he been trying to accomplish? Make Harry fall to his death? Impossible. Several professors had been present.

Racing brooms were nothing like the school's battered old ones. Carrying two people would have been easy.

Apart from exposing himself, what could he possibly gain by doing that?

Even Dumbledore might have been baffled by that spectacular maneuver. He was probably stroking Fawkes in the Headmaster's Office, racking his brains over what deeper meaning lay behind it.

You thought I was five moves ahead, but I was actually down in the basement? Was the whole strategy just to lower everyone's IQ? Was this why a top-ranked player couldn't predict a bronze player's moves?

Of course, Quirrell's actions hadn't been entirely without benefits.

Thanks to him, Harry and Ron had made up with Hermione again. Hermione had bravely set Snape's robes on fire, thereby "saving" Harry and allowing Gryffindor to win the match.

The two boys had been deeply impressed and touched. Added to that was Zhang Xiao's occasional, seemingly casual encouragement.

"Seriously? Ron, you're a member of the Weasley family! Everyone knows the Weasley family produces nothing but the best! You can't even handle a little homework?"

"Seriously? Harry, you're the son of Lily and Potter, our distinguished predecessors! Do you know what brilliant accomplishments your parents had? Prefects! Head Boy and Head Girl!

"Outstanding grades! They faced You-Know-Who three times! Good heavens! As their son, you're actually letting Quidditch keep you from finishing your homework?

"Do you think your dad was never a Quidditch Seeker?"

Zhang Xiao still remembered how, after he finished that speech, the two boys' faces had turned bright red, as though their entire heads were ablaze. They had charged toward the Library, yelling and swearing they would never disgrace the Weasley family or their parents.

Only Hermione had remained behind, giving him a thumbs-up. "I really ought to learn how to talk to people from you."

Zhang Xiao waved a hand lazily. "It's fine. We're the 'Mr. Why' and 'Miss Know-It-All' ship, after all. (Note 1)"

"What's a ship?" the young witch asked curiously.

"A couple pairing. Didn't you know?"

"Ah!" The young witch let out a shriek, her face turning so red it looked ready to bleed. She shyly lowered her head and ran off with her thick books in her arms.

"I was only joking! You..." Zhang Xiao scratched his head in confusion. He remembered Britain being pretty liberal. His community primary school alone had exposed him to plenty of things that shook his worldview. Hermione had grown up in Muggle society too. Surely she could recognize a joke?

All of that had happened before the Quidditch match, and Zhang Xiao still hadn't seen the Three Little Ones since. Before long, though, Davis came running over. Ever since Zhang Xiao had become the actual leader of Slytherin's first-years, these half-blood and Muggle-born children had finally been able to enjoy a proper school life.

Even the older students had found things considerably easier. Just as Zhang Xiao had said, they needed someone to rally around. There had always been people who disliked seeing the pure-bloods bully others; they had simply lacked someone to take the lead.

Davis said breathlessly:

"Zhang, I ran into Harry Potter. He asked me to tell you that Hagrid invited you to the Hut-on-the-Rock. They're already there."

Zhang Xiao nodded and said gently:

"Got it. Thank you, Davis."

Davis gave him a happy smile, waved, and left.

After handing Malfoy the latest issue of Dragon Ball, Zhang Xiao got up and left the Common Room. Were his vegetables finally ready to harvest?

Hehe, I traded chapter recommendations with a big-name author.

"Skill Extraction, Starting from Dragon Raja"

Its average paid subscriptions are very high, and it's pushing for the premium tier. If it sounds like your thing, go take a look!

Note 1: Actually, this story doesn't have a designated female lead, because I'm not very good at writing romance... I could add one, though. It wouldn't affect the outline anyway.

I'm rather partial to Cho. Not the way she was portrayed in the films, though. I think it would be more fitting for her to look like Vivian Chow or Liu Yifei...