Tris felt a bit nervous facing Professor Flitwick, worried that the professor might also give him an extra training regimen.
He felt his daily grinding quota was already sky-high; he really didn’t need another addition to it.
Seeing his reaction, Professor Flitwick smiled and said, “Don’t be nervous, don’t be nervous. I’m actually looking for you because I want to conduct a magical experiment, and I need your assistance.”
“Assisting with a magical experiment? Me?” Tris pointed at his own nose, looking completely bewildered.
*Who the hell am I supposed to be?*
*Am I even worthy?*
Tris possessed a system and a rather powerful skill—Mind Maze—and he considered himself at the top of the heap among the first-year freshmen.
But compared to Flitwick, they were in completely different leagues.
Professor Flitwick certainly didn’t know about the System.
Could he have found out that Tris could block external mental intrusions?
The Sorting Hat had mistaken his ability for Occlumency, and that information had most likely been shared with Headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
It would be perfectly normal for Dumbledore to inform the other professors.
Still, seeking him out just for that didn’t quite add up either.
Only after arriving in this world did Tris realize how formidable the Hogwarts professors truly were—though the Defense Against the Dark Arts professors for this year and next were obvious exceptions.
Take Professor Flitwick standing right before him, for instance.
Tris had seen his name and photograph in newspapers and books more than once.
A leader in modern charm research, a pioneer in practical combat magic, three-time champion of the European Dueling Competition, champion of the Transatlantic Dueling Master Tournament, Goodwill Ambassador between Wizards and Being-Hybrids…
A list of titles longer than he was tall…
Being a Head of House at Hogwarts was definitely no joke.
What kind of magic could such a legendary figure possibly want to research with a nobody like him?
Seeing the puzzled look on Tris’s face, Professor Flitwick explained, “Rest assured, you won’t need to do anything drastic. You see, as far as I know, your wand is yew with a dragon heartstring core, correct?”
Tris nodded.
This combination wasn’t particularly rare.
When he originally bought his wand, he had thought that as a transmigrator with a system, he would get some extraordinarily unique wand, only to be sorely disappointed.
What surprised him even more was that Mr. Ollivander didn’t hold much regard for wand cores other than phoenix feather, unicorn hair, and dragon heartstring.
At the time, Tris had even snickered to himself: *The Holy Trinity of the wizarding world, huh?*
As for the Thestral tail hair, Basilisk nerve, or werewolf hair he had seen in short videos in his past life, the shop did stock them, but they were all antique inventory passed down by ancestors.
The ones Ollivander made himself were exclusively from the Big Three.
Tris, Harry, Ron, and even Charlie had bought four new wands from him that day, all using these three core types.
“You see,” Professor Flitwick raised his hand, holding an oddly shaped wand.
“This is my wand—aspen with dragon heartstring. A wand exceptionally suited for spellcasting.”
Dragon heartstring?
Tris blinked, instantly realizing a possibility.
“Professor, could it be…?”
“Yes.” Professor Flitwick nodded with a smile.
“Our wands share heartstrings from the exact same Hebridean Black dragon. So, in a sense, these two wands can be considered brother wands.”
Tris’s expression turned odd.
Brother wands?
One of the central threads of the HP universe was a pair of twin wands.
Two wands made from the feathers of the exact same phoenix—Dumbledore’s Fawkes—one held by the Dark Lord and the other by the Savior.
It was basically the classic hero-and-villain pairing.
And now another pair had popped up?
Considering the prevalence of wands and the population of dragons, it was entirely reasonable for a single dragon to yield enough heartstring material for multiple wands.
Still, the fact that it happened to end up in the hands of himself and a professor gave Tris a profound sense of *damn, the wizarding world really is small.*
Seeing Tris daydreaming, Flitwick continued, “Ollivander is an old friend of mine.
We once researched a theory that two wands sharing the same source core might exhibit a special resonance effect.
“This effect has occurred a few times in history, but the relevant records are very vague.
“And magical combat, even in a dueling ring, is never entirely safe.
The mortality rate in private duels is exceptionally high.
As a result, the collected data is extremely limited.
“We have always wanted to study it, but lacked samples. But now, you are here!” As Professor Flitwick reached this point, his eyes shone with excitement.
“When Garrick told me, both of us were ecstatic, eagerly looking forward to your arrival at Hogwarts. Praise Merlin, you’re finally here.”
“Ah… Professor, so you want me to assist you in researching the special connection between two wands of the same origin?” Tris asked.
“Yes.” Flitwick nodded.
“It won’t take up much of your time. We can just pick one afternoon a week for an hour or two.”
Tris wasn’t particularly keen on the idea.
Hogwarts assigned quite a lot of homework, and he also had the grinding tasks assigned by the System.
His schedule was anything but open!
Besides, you’re a grand professor and Head of House asking a student for help—and you don’t even mention compensation?
Although in his past life he had heard about graduate students working as uncompensated lab slaves for their professors, Tris had zero desire to be such a selfless martyr.
However, bringing up payment himself felt somewhat inappropriate.
Tris feigned a conflicted, hesitant expression.
Since Flitwick was the Head of Ravenclaw, a house known for wisdom, he naturally possessed extraordinary intelligence.
Seeing Tris neither accepting nor declining, putting on an awkward, indecisive face, Flitwick immediately guessed his thoughts.
Flitwick didn’t mind this at all.
Goblins were big on equal exchange—even if they were the ones who dictated the value.
Having Goblin ancestry himself, Flitwick quite agreed with the principle.
He immediately chuckled and said, “Of course, I certainly won’t have you help for nothing.
Although the Weasley family is an ancient clan, I am well aware of its current situation.
“Certain advanced, profound magic and theories are probably not easy for you to access right now, are they?”
Tris’s eyes lit up.
This reward exceeded his expectations.
He had originally thought Professor Flitwick would just reduce his homework load or give him extra assistance for the future O.W.L.
exams—or perhaps give him a green light for N.E.W.T.-level classes down the line, though Tris felt he probably wouldn’t need that.
But now Flitwick was implying he was willing to teach him some of the wizarding world’s hidden secrets.
Seeing Tris’s reaction, Flitwick knew right away that his offer hit the sweet spot.
He gave a satisfied smile.
“It seems you are pleased?”
“Yes, Professor. It’s truly an honor to contribute to magical research,” Tris said with a straight face, uttering polite platitudes.
“Haha, what an interesting young fellow.” Flitwick burst into laughter, standing on his desk to pat Tris on the shoulder.
“I’ll let you know once I’ve arranged the time.
“For now, go run along to your business. Don’t be late for class.”
Tris nodded and turned around to hurry off to History of Magic.
Slytherin shared History of Magic with Ravenclaw.
The professor was a ghost who did nothing but read straight from the textbook, making the class dull beyond belief.
Besides, to accommodate Professor Binns, a ghost incapable of change—after all, a professor who needed no rest and no salary was a rare asset—Hogwarts hadn’t updated the textbook in centuries.
While history itself consists of fixed facts, historical discovery is a dynamic process.
New discoveries could overturn old conclusions at any moment, so it was hard to say just how many errors were contained in a history textbook that hadn’t been updated in centuries.
On that basis, Tris naturally didn’t care much for History of Magic, turning his attention instead to his classmates.
Although the content of the earlier Charms class had been simple, Tris had still studied and practiced diligently without paying much mind to the others, only glancing around near the end of class.
As for History of Magic…
staying awake was already the ultimate sign of respect Tris could offer.
*The girls in this year’s intake are surprisingly attractive, aren’t they?*
Tris swept his sneaky gaze over the young girls in the classroom and quickly came to that conclusion.
Over on the Slytherin side, Daphne was a born beauty; Pansy, if she didn’t constantly look down her nose at people, could be considered delicate-featured. New chapters come out on novelping dot com first.
Sophie Roper and Tracey Davis easily qualified as pleasant-looking.
The only one who didn’t fit the bill was Millicent Bulstrode.
Tris and Ron were definitely tall for their age, but Millicent, despite being a girl, was slightly taller than both of them.
Unlike Ron’s lanky height and Tris’s lean, athletic build, Millicent was heavyset.
With a broad face, a wide jaw, and a habit of constantly glaring at people, she was hardly easy on the eyes.
Things on the Hufflepuff side were even better than Slytherin.
Although none of the four girls over there seemed as pretty as Daphne to Tris, Susan and Hannah’s smiling faces with their baby fat were quite cute.
Lily Moon and Megan Jones could definitely be counted as pretty girls.
As for Ravenclaw, putting aside Padma Patil—one of the Patil sisters already whispered about among the boys as the prettiest girl in the year—Mandy Brocklehurst and Amanda Abrahams were certainly pretty as well.
Recalling the girls sorted into Gryffindor during the Sorting Ceremony, Tris felt that calling the overall standard high was an absolute understatement.
After History of Magic came Herbology.
*In a little garden, digging, digging, digging…*
On Wednesday night, they also had an Astronomy class.
*Come with me to watch the meteor shower fall upon the earth…*
For other classes, a year group was divided into two classes, but Astronomy was taken by the entire year group together.
This made sense.
Although the movement of the stars was similar every night, studying it as a proper discipline presented subtle differences.
If nothing else, what if a shooting star happened to streak across the sky during an observation?
Could you pray for another shooting star to magically appear during the next class?
Not to mention there was only one Astronomy Tower in the castle, shared across all seven years, which was already tight enough for a five-day school week.
The first three days of the week flew by in a blur.
On Thursday morning, Tris waited at the castle entrance for Harry and Ron, who were both yawning.
“I can understand Ron being like this,” Tris said, looking at the bleary-eyed pair in confusion.
“But Harry, you’ve been morning jogging with me for over a month during the break. Why are you still like this in the morning?”
“Seamus dragged us into playing Exploding Snap late into the night yesterday,” Harry said with another long yawn.
“Never again. It takes up way too much time.”
“Right. Have you guys finished your homework yet?” Tris suddenly remembered the question.
Because over the past few days, he had seen Harry and Ron wandering around the castle after classes more than once.
When asked, they claimed it was to familiarize themselves with the castle layout to avoid getting lost, but in reality, they were just playing around.
But if so, what about the homework…
“Homework? Isn’t homework due next week?” Ron asked, puzzled.
“We have the whole weekend to do it. I checked, and current homework really isn’t that much.”
Tris let out a dry laugh and said nothing.
Indeed, for now, the homework load wasn’t heavy.
Professor Flitwick’s written homework was minimal.
Although the Astronomy star chart was tricky to draw, the professor had guided them through outlining it during class, making it easy enough to fill in the details using the textbook.
Herbology homework was manageable as well.
For now, the only heavy load came from History of Magic.
Looking at it that way, their logic was technically sound.
The problem was that three major core classes were coming up.
Defense Against the Dark Arts under Quirrell might be a joke with light homework, but Transfiguration and Potions were absolute heavyweights.
At that thought, Tris couldn’t help casting a sympathetic look at the two.
Naturally, he wasn’t planning on warning them.
*You can’t teach someone with words; life has to teach them with hard lessons.*
*I’m doing this for their own good!* Tris thought with absolute conviction.