"You actually thought he might turn into a little girl to sneak into Hogwarts?" Tom asked in disbelief.
"The chance is small, but still possible," Wade rubbed his nose, irritated from the potion fumes. "This is serious—better to be cautious. What if it really is that old man?"
Tom thought back to Anne's reaction when she blocked the potion.
"Even if she's not that old man, she doesn't seem like an ordinary first-year. Do you think she might be another member of Grindelwald's Party?"
Wade shook his head. "Probably not. In the moment an accident happens, people's instincts are hard to hide. Her reaction was fast, and she handled it well, but… her magical strength hasn't reached the level of an adult wizard. At most, it's about the same as yours right now."
"Besides, a battle-hardened Alliance member would be constantly alert to their surroundings. But just now, if I hadn't made a deliberate noise, she almost didn't react in time. And that flash of panic—completely unguarded… not the behavior of a competent Alliance member."
In truth, Wade admitted most of his points were speculation.
But when it came to magical strength, he was absolutely certain.
After mastering Nightmare Magic, he had become extremely sensitive to soul strength. If Anne had been deliberately suppressing her magical strength, Wade would've noticed immediately.
"So, she's clean?" Tom asked, still unsure.
"That's not necessarily true. Who says Alliance members can only be adults? Plenty of people join them from a young age. Didn't you almost go with him back then?" Wade said.
Tom flushed with embarrassment at being called out and muttered under his breath, "Well, back then, I really thought he made a lot of sense..."
Wade continued, "Anyway, as long as she's not that old guy, then it's much easier to deal with."
The two were whispering through their internal communication spell when suddenly, Tom was shoved hard from behind, nearly stumbling.
He turned to see the McLaggen girl glaring at them with disdain.
"Even messed up brewing a simple Boil-Cure Potion—people like you actually got Felix Felicis as a reward? Hmph... Slytherins!"
Wade and Tom exchanged a glance, then simultaneously took out their vials of Felix Felicis and waved them in front of McLaggen's face, wearing identical smug expressions.
Tom said, "What, jealous? Go ahead and bite me."
Wade added, "Got a problem with it? Report it to the Ministry, call an Auror."
"You two—don't be so arrogant!" McLaggen snapped. "Don't think just because the professor favors you, you can do whatever you want!"
Wade arrogantly tilted his head back. "Oh? Sorry, but yes—being the professor's favorite does mean we can do whatever we want."
McLaggen exploded in fury. "I've never met anyone as insufferably arrogant as you two!"
"Oh? Well, now you have. Anything else? If not, get out of the way—we're off to lunch. We've still got class this afternoon."
"..."
Wade and Tom swaggered off without a care, completely ignoring the fuming McLaggen, who stood frozen in place, utterly stunned.
…
The afternoon Herbology class was much calmer compared to Potions.
This time, Slytherin shared the class with Hufflepuff.
The professor was a young and beautiful witch named Ilia Garlick.
Professor Garlick was very approachable. Her great-aunt, Mirabel Garlick, had also once taught Herbology at Hogwarts, and it was said the two looked quite alike.
Though her family was Muggle-born, with only the occasional witch or wizard appearing every other generation, they all seemed to have a natural talent for Herbology.
"Ugh.."
Two hours later, they emerged from the greenhouse covered in mud.
Tom felt like he had barely survived.
"Haah.. Thank goodness… Herbology had so many hands-on activities. Otherwise, I think I would've fallen asleep standing up…" he said in relief.
Wade shook his head. "No, that's just your imagination. In fact, you did fall asleep during class—for quite a while."
"What the..?!" Tom was shocked. But after suffering under Wade for so long, he'd grown wary of Wade's antics and didn't believe him right away.
Anne, who had silently caught up to them at some point, suddenly said, "He's telling the truth. Professor Garlick even told us not to wake you up, saying that waking you suddenly might frighten you… Ah, Professor Garlick really is gentle! Of course, she still deducted points—after all, you did fall asleep during class. Yep, you lost five points…"
"I—I actually slept through class? And got points taken off? But… why didn't I notice?" Tom clutched his hair in frustration, messing up what had been fairly neat black hair until it resembled a bird's nest.
Wade laughed. "Don't pull so hard on your hair, Tom. What if you go bald early?"
"No! Wade, it was you, wasn't it?! You—" Tom glanced at Anne beside him and ultimately held back from exposing Wade's abilities. "You… you're a menace!"
"I was just worried you'd drop dead from exhaustion."
"I'd rather drop dead!"
"I don't think you would... You're too afraid of dying."
"...Damn it," Tom muttered, at a loss for words.
…
Tom was so frustrated he skipped dinner and went straight back to the dorm to sleep.
Mostly because he was exhausted...
Wade, on the other hand, went to the Great Hall to eat with Anne, Alphard, and Henry.
In fact, at this point, they were the only three Slytherins still willing to associate with Wade and Tom.
Thanks to Tom's little stunt on the Hogwarts Express, the two of them were now being thoroughly ostracized.
Wade hadn't expected things to turn out like this, but it didn't really bother him.
Just like Tom had said before—he didn't come to Hogwarts to make friends.
When their small group reached the Slytherin table, the other students immediately scooted a good two or three meters away, as if they were avoiding the plague.
Wade sat down casually, then said, "As you can see, maybe it's better if you all don't sit too close to me either. Otherwise, you might have trouble making friends—and worse, you might get targeted just for being around us."
"This... what's going on?" Alphard looked confused. With his rather simple mind, he still hadn't figured it out.
Henry shook his head. "Slytherin House shouldn't be like this... You really haven't realized? Wade and Tom are being ostracized. Didn't you notice? Today they earned forty points for Slytherin, and not a single person applauded."
"That... that's not right!" Alphard finally began to understand. "Why are they acting just like my sister!"
"I'm an outsider, and I've already clashed with a few of the purebloods. Being excluded is to be expected. You sticking too close to me won't do you any good either," Wade said casually, as he fished a chicken leg out from a pile of differently prepared potatoes.
"We're not that kind of people. If a friend is being shunned, and you stay away just to avoid trouble yourself—that kind of person doesn't deserve to have friends," Alphard said firmly.
Henry also scoffed. "I'm not afraid of them. If they try anything with me, our Avery family isn't made of clay. If they hurt me... ha, even better! I'll write straight to my father and grandfather, and we'll bleed them dry! My grandfather's been wanting a new carriage anyway..."
Anne simply smiled, saying nothing. But like Henry and Alphard, she ignored the looks from others and calmly sat down beside Wade.
"Thank you," Wade said with a smile.
Even if someone like Anne was most likely putting on a front, at least on the surface it was nice not to feel completely isolated.
Still, it was probably about time for another round of beatdowns for the rest of Slytherin.
After all, with Professor Slughorn around, a few more rounds of being outnumbered wouldn't result in much punishment—if anything, it would only make Slughorn appreciate him even more.
Slughorn wanted to turn Wade and Tom into part of his network.
And Wade? He had every intention of befriending Professor Slughorn too—so he could make full use of the network Slughorn had already built. Kekeke~
…
That night, Wade lay quietly in bed, only sitting up once it was deep into the night.
He glanced over at Tom's bed.
Tom really had been exhausted—he was still sound asleep even now.
Wade got up silently and quickly slipped out of the dormitory.
This time, he brought Nagini along.
But just as he entered the common room, he saw a small cloaked figure descending from the 1st floor—the girls' dormitory.
At first, Wade didn't pay much attention, thinking it was just some girl who had forgotten something in the common room and had come down to retrieve it.
But very soon, he sensed something was off.
That girl had vanished the moment she turned behind one of the stone pillars!
Wade was a little surprised and quickly cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself at the corner.
Just as he stood still, now completely invisible, the door leading out of the Slytherin common room suddenly opened on its own.
Then, it closed by itself — As if an entirely invisible person had just walked through!
Wade instantly became alert.
"Hiss hiss hiss…" Suddenly, Nagini spoke to Wade in Parseltongue.
After all this time studying, Wade had already mastered a significant portion of the snake language thanks to his exceptional memory.
So he could understand what Nagini was saying.
She had sensed something leaving the common room—based on the body temperature, it seemed to be a human girl.
"She has an Invisibility Cloak!" Wade immediately understood. Maybe the person he felt spying on him last night in the library… was that girl!
"Nagini, lead the way!" Wade said.
Snakes, besides using their eyes to see, could also detect prey through body heat. So even if the girl was wearing something like the Potters' Invisibility Cloak, she wouldn't be able to escape Nagini's deliberate search!
Nagini nodded, motioning for Wade to follow her.
__________
And here is today's scheduled chapter!
Now I'm going to sleep!
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