If there was one thing Tris was most dissatisfied with after transmigrating, it was that due to his genetics, he had body odor—and it was incredibly bad.
And not just him—his whole family had it.
In his previous life, although he had interacted with foreigners, he had never had any close contact with them.
He had only wondered why they, regardless of gender, wore perfume—and absolutely doused themselves in it, to the point of choking.
Once he became one of them himself, he finally understood: Caucasians basically all had body odor.
Even his cute little sister, Ginny, was no exception.
Fortunately, wizards had better ways to handle this than Muggles; they didn’t have to foolishly rely on perfume to cover it up.
There was a very cheap, low-grade potion that could alleviate it for a long time.
This stuff was common knowledge for anyone raised in a wizarding family; almost everyone had some.
The only problem was that it didn’t work if you sweated.
Once you sweated, you had to reapply it.
Tris hadn’t used it much back at the Burrow.
After all, he worked out and sweated every day.
Today was no different.
He had sweated buckets after finishing his run and hadn’t thought much of it, only to end up being mocked by Pansy.
Tris’s face instantly darkened.
He glanced at the pale Pansy, who was looking down her nose at him, and finally understood why Harry and Ron described her the way they did.
She was clearly quite a pretty little girl, yet in Harry and Ron’s mouths, she was described as looking like a pug.
It could only be said that this girl’s personality was simply too unpleasant; she always walked around looking down her nose at everyone.
If it were anyone else, being told off like that by a young girl might make them feel self-conscious.
But not Tris.
He never suffered from internal conflict.
Rolling his eyes, Tris glared at Pansy and snarled, “If you utter another word, I’ll shove your head right under my armpit so you can get a real good whiff of it!”
Pansy’s face drained of color instantly.
Although she had body odor too, she had been using potions to suppress it basically since birth.
The same went for her family, so she absolutely could not tolerate the smell of body odor.
If Tris really shoved her head under his armpit…
Pansy immediately covered her mouth and shook her head repeatedly, demonstrating through her actions that she wouldn’t say another word.
Satisfied, Tris sat down and began to eat quickly.
He needed to go back, take a shower, change his clothes, and use that potion that had been sitting in his trunk for ages before class started…
Going to class smelling so pungent would be a bit impolite, after all.
…
The first class for the Slytherin first-years was Charms.
“Today, we will be learning the basic logic of incantations and hand movements,” Professor Flitwick said, standing on his platform with a warm, beaming smile.
“But before that, I would like to ask: have any of you practiced magic at home before coming to school?”
The Slytherins shared their Charms class with the Hufflepuffs.
This year, the former were entirely from wizarding families, with nearly half of them belonging to the Sacred Twenty-Eight.
This was normal and typical for Slytherin.
What was unusual, however, was that Hufflepuff also had an exceptionally high ratio of students from wizarding families this year.
Out of every ten students, only two were Muggle-born, three were half-bloods, and the rest were from wizarding families.
There were even two from pure-blood families.
With such a student makeup, it was only natural that some of them had already learned a bit of magic before starting school.
As soon as Professor Flitwick finished speaking, nearly half of the young wizards in the classroom raised their hands.
Draco raised his hand particularly high.
As he did, he cast a glance over at Tris.
Tris, however, didn’t raise his hand.
He simply rested his chin lazily in his hand, watching the young wizards who had raised theirs with a faint, knowing smile.
Blaise and Theodore looked at Tris in confusion—both of them had raised their hands.
Last night in the dormitory, they had seen with their own eyes how Tris, lying in bed, pointed his wand at a sleeping mask on his nightstand and made it fly right into his hand. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Though they weren’t sure if it was the Levitation Charm or a high-level Summoning Charm, it was undeniably magic.
Yet now, Tris wasn’t raising his hand?
“I see…” Professor Flitwick’s eyes quickly swept over the faces of the young wizards who had raised their hands.
He nodded, seemingly memorizing everyone who did.
“In that case, the students who raised their hands will have an extra homework assignment this week. You will need to do extra practice on your wand-waving movements.”
“What?” Draco blurted out in surprise.
It wasn’t just him; every single student who had raised their hand wore a look of utter disbelief.
Professor Flitwick didn’t seem surprised at all by their reactions.
His smile remained as he nodded and said, “Indeed.
Incantations and hand movements are the foundation of modern magic, of the utmost importance.
“And when you practice magic on your own at home, it is inevitable that you will develop some errors in your movements and incantation rhythm.
Although minor issues won’t prevent you from casting basic spells, bad habits will affect your ability to master high-level magic later on.
“Therefore, I hope that through correct practice, you can break those incorrect habits. Yes, I think… an extra fifty repetitions of basic wand movements every day should do. I will ask an older student to supervise you.”
The students who had just raised their hands were completely dumbfounded.
Who knew there was such a trap?
Blaise and Theodore were utterly bewildered.
They couldn’t help but look at Tris again.
Tris maintained the exact same posture and expression.
Seeing them look over, he even gave them a slight nod.
*Son of a bitch!*
If Blaise and Theodore still couldn’t tell by now that Tris had known about this trap all along, then they really must have had a screw loose.
They were roommates who saw each other every single day, yet he hadn’t said a word to them about this?
What a dick!
Tris didn’t care what they thought.
In his opinion, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the professor’s approach.
In fact, he had already known about this issue when he practiced magic at home.
Since he had to borrow Molly’s or Charlie’s wand when he first started practicing, he naturally couldn’t keep it a secret from them.
At the time, Charlie had told him that if he developed any bad habits, the professors at school would assign extra work specifically to break them.
Tris hadn’t been too worried back then.
Just like how the system would correct his form when he was running or exercising, the system would also standardize his hand movements and incantation rhythm when he practiced magic.
What surprised him, however, was that when Percy found out he was practicing magic, he had actually stepped forward to help him correct any bad habits in his movements and incantations.
Tris knew very well that Percy was a top-tier, straight-A student.
He was a terrifying existence who had achieved twelve O.W.L.s—to put that in perspective, even the legendary student Hermione only got ten.
His guidance was naturally extremely effective.
Although Tris had the system to help correct the finer details, he was still very grateful for Percy’s help.
Knowing all of this, Tris hadn’t raised his hand when Professor Flitwick asked.
Even though his movements and understanding of the spells were perfectly fine, and he could have proven it to the professor if exposed, why look for trouble?
Isn’t it always better to avoid unnecessary trouble?
“Very well.” Raising his hand to signal the young wizards to quiet down, Professor Flitwick said with his usual smiling face, “Next, we will discuss simple incantation syllables.
“I won’t go into detail here about the origins of modern magic incantations—you will learn about that in your History of Magic class. Today, we will start with three of the twelve basic syllables and five basic hand movements…”
Tris studied very diligently.
Even though Percy had already covered these things, he still listened attentively.
The professor’s understanding was on a completely different level than Percy’s; there was always something new to be gained.
There were forty-one students in Tris’s year, split into two classes—one of twenty and one of twenty-one.
While it wasn’t as intimate as a graduate-level seminar, the professor could still easily pay attention to everyone.
Professor Flitwick went around listening to each young wizard’s pronunciation, observing their movements, and correcting them. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
The content of the class was minimal, but because he had to check everyone individually, the period went by quickly.
During this time, Tris’s standard movements and pronunciation earned praise from Professor Flitwick, though no points were awarded.
Tris wasn’t particularly interested in house points anyway.
No matter how many points anyone earned, Albus Dumbledore would eventually award Gryffindor enough extra points at the end of the year to hand them the House Cup.
How hard could that be?
If fifty points weren’t enough, he could just give sixty, seventy, or even a hundred.
It was all up to the Headmaster’s whim, wasn’t it?
As for the run-up to the end of the year, with their own biased Head of House, there was no way Slytherin’s points would lag behind.
Class times at Hogwarts were quite flexible; once the professors felt they had covered enough, they would dismiss the class.
This lesson was no exception.
Seeing that the young wizards had mostly mastered the material, Professor Flitwick nodded in satisfaction.
“That will be all for today. Go back and practice diligently. Next class, we will test the results of today’s lesson.”
The end of class was always a joyous occasion.
The young wizards immediately stood up and happily headed out.
Well, there was also the need to rush to their next classroom.
Hogwarts Castle was massive, and with the staircases and corridors constantly shifting, arriving at the next classroom on time was never a guaranteed affair.
Tris was also preparing to leave when he heard Professor Flitwick call out, “Mr. Weasley, could you stay behind for a moment?”
Tris was a bit surprised.
He had no idea what Professor Flitwick wanted with him, but he obediently stopped in his tracks.
As Draco passed by him, he wore a gloating, schadenfreude-filled expression.
Clearly, the young Master Draco instinctively assumed that being kept after class by a professor was never a good thing.
And as his follower, Pansy cast a smug, disdainful look at Tris as she passed.
Tris thought they were both idiots and couldn’t be bothered to pay them any mind.
But then, Blaise and Theodore also passed by with smug, gloating looks on their faces.
Their thoughts weren’t the same as Draco and Pansy’s.
They didn’t really have any major grievances against Tris at the moment.
They were just slightly annoyed that Tris clearly knew about the professor’s incantation trap but hadn’t warned them.
Tris thought they were idiots too.
But then, a saying crossed his mind.
*If you find that everyone around you in life is an idiot, there are two possibilities.
First, you’re a genius, and everyone looks like an idiot in your eyes.
Second, you are also an idiot, and birds of a feather flock together.*
Leaving his system aside, Tris didn’t think he counted as a genius.
Which meant…
“Ah, Mr. Weasley.” Professor Flitwick had already walked over, looking at Tris with a beaming smile.
“Let us keep this brief, as I wouldn’t want to delay you from your next class.”
“Um… actually, it’s fine. I don’t think Professor Binns would mind particularly,” Tris said with a shrug, while trying his best to banish his previous deduction from his mind.
“Haha,” Flitwick chuckled heartily.
“Yes, he probably wouldn’t mind indeed, but I still wouldn’t want a first-year getting into the habit of missing classes so early.”
With that, he slightly reined in his laughter, though a warm smile remained on his face.
“You seem quite familiar with Hogwarts. I expect your older brothers must have told you about it?”
“Yes, Percy told me a few things.” Tris didn’t know why Flitwick was asking this.
“Just as I thought. At the very least, those two troublemakers, Fred and George, don’t seem like the type to meticulously teach their younger brother about incantation syllables and hand movements.”
“Uh, well…” Tris felt a wave of awkwardness.
Did the professor realize he had already practiced magic before?
Was he being kept behind because he hadn’t raised his hand in class?
Professor Flitwick seemed to see through Tris’s awkwardness.
He chuckled again and said, “Easy now, easy. I have no intention of holding that against you. I actually have a different matter I’d like to discuss.”