In the afternoon, as Professor Sprout, the Dean of Hufflepuff, announced the end of class, William and the others finished their first day of lessons.
Looking at their dirty clothes, William took out his wand and used the Scourgify Charm to clean them up.
In an instant, the dirty children became clean, and everyone went off to attend to their own business.
Hermione wanted William to go read books with her, while Ron and Harry wanted to play games.
“Hermione, William spent the morning reading with you; it’s time for him to play with us this afternoon,” Ron said righteously.
Harry felt a bit strange hearing this, but he had no objection to the suggestion and naturally nodded in agreement.
William:…Why did he suddenly feel like a group of children competing for an adult’s favor?
Just as William was thinking this, several Hufflepuff seniors suddenly rushed over.
Before anyone could react, they hoisted William up and slipped away, leaving behind the words, “We’re borrowing him for a while and will return him soon!”
William:…At this moment, it wasn’t children competing for favor anymore; he felt like a kindergarten teacher leading a group of overgrown kids.
Of course, it was only because he saw Anthony among them; otherwise, he would have run away the moment a crowd rushed at him.
At this moment, William felt his close combat skills needed improvement, since a Wizard’s fight relied on physical strength as much as spells.
Being led through many twists and turns, William didn’t know where he was being taken, but when they finally stopped, he thought he knew where he was.
“This is the Hufflepuff Common Room.
Are you inviting me as a guest?” William asked curiously.
He was quite fond of the Hufflepuff Common Room; after all, it was the most cost-effective and comfortable one among the four Hogwarts houses.
“Not exactly.
Except for Ravenclaw, which doesn’t mind people from other houses visiting, the other three houses don’t like being disturbed by outsiders,” Anthony explained.
“Then why did you bring me here?” William asked, his interest now waning.
“Well, we’ve almost finished the chili sauce we bought, but we don’t have much spare change left to buy more.
So we thought we’d let the house-elves try to make some.
Now that they’ve made it, we thought we should let you know,” a female student behind Anthony explained.
William became interested upon hearing this.
He didn’t mind others replicating it; after all, the recipe wasn’t some top-secret thing.
He was now particularly curious whether the chili sauce made by the house-elves was as good as his.
If it was good, he felt it was necessary to update the Hogwarts menu.
Of course, at that time, he would also start collecting some rewards every day.
“It’s fine, I understand.
So, can I go taste it?” William asked expectantly.
“Of course,” Anthony smiled.
At this moment, all the Hufflepuff students present felt a great deal of goodwill toward William.
Along the way, Anthony and his group wanted William to guess where the Kitchen was.
William naturally knew where the Kitchen was, but to play along with their performance, he had to ask about it with a curious expression.
However, the others didn’t speak, all of them acting mysteriously.
Thus, William continued the journey, cooperating with them.
Since the Hufflepuff Common Room was not far from the school’s Kitchen, William soon saw the fruit painting.
“William, here is the Kitchen.
Can you guess how we enter?” Anthony asked.
Seeing everyone’s expectant reactions, William didn’t want to act anymore.
In the time it took to perform, he could have already been eating the House-elf’s replicated chili sauce.
So he stepped forward, reached out, and tickled the pear.
The pear giggled and then turned into a green doorknob.
Grasping the handle, William pushed the Kitchen door open.
Turning back, he saw the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces.
“William, how did you know that was the way to open the door?” Anthony’s heart was itching with curiosity like a cat scratching.
“Because it was a very simple guess,” William replied as if it were obvious.
Everyone: Shocked again!
“There’s a smudge on the painting right where the pear is, and it looks like it wasn’t left by just one person.
So I guessed that the way to open the door must be related to that spot,” William replied.
He wasn’t lying.
Even if it were Hermione, she would have easily guessed it.
After all, the clue was too obvious.
At this moment, the group of Little Badgers finally understood the reason, and then happily led William into the Kitchen.
At the same time, a small number of Little Badgers imagined themselves in the same situation, felt they couldn’t have solved it so easily, sighed inwardly, and then also happily ran into the Kitchen.
The arrival of the Young wizards brought the house-elves scurrying over.
“Good afternoon, Young wizards!
How can we help you?”
“Good afternoon.
We need a portion of the chili sauce we asked you to try making earlier,” Anthony said.
As soon as the words were spoken, a portion of chili sauce was brought over.
Anthony took it and handed it to William.
William tasted it and found that the flavor was only average, like a low-end version.
To put it simply, this chili sauce was the kind that costs nine-ninety with free shipping; it wasn’t even a high-quality knockoff.
It was edible, but just barely.
“Soulless British chili sauce.”
This was the final evaluation William gave.
However, such a result was already quite good.
He thought his idea of changing the Hogwarts menu could perhaps be pushed forward.
Therefore, he first had to gain the goodwill of the house-elves.
“To be able to replicate the flavor so closely while lacking so many seasonings, you all are truly amazing,” William said, giving the house-elves a thumbs up.
At this moment, ‘Praise Bai’ was now online.
However, his action was like water hitting hot oil, instantly causing the house-elves to cheer with excitement, their eyes filling with tears.
At this time, William truly witnessed the servility of the house-elves; it seemed he didn’t even need to do anything special to max out their favor.
Meanwhile, Anthony and his group had already whisked William away again, explaining as they left,
“House-elves are just like that.
They’ll recover quickly once we leave.”
“Oh,” William responded, thinking to himself that he would have to come back here when he had time.
Adding the task of changing the Hogwarts menu to his agenda was now a priority.
By then, he would finally no longer have to eat chili sauce or cook for himself.
Leaving the Kitchen, William spoke a few more words with Anthony and then departed.
Instead of returning to the dormitory, William went straight to the Great Hall; after all, reading was the same anywhere.
Arriving at the Great Hall, William didn’t see Hermione and the others, so he found a quiet spot and began reading.
Pages turned one by one, and time slipped away, but the knowledge in his mind slowly increased.
It had to be said that the books Cedric recommended were indeed excellent.
For example, the book ‘Seven Days of Creation’ used a fairy-tale style to tell a story about creating one’s own small world using Transfiguration.
It was very unrealistic, but it was the kind of thing that could actually be done.
After finishing it, William tested it out and found that his Transfiguration had indeed made significant progress.
While happy, he looked forward to the contents of the other magic books even more…