At dinner time, William ate before Harry and the other two arrived.
Looking at the Young wizards at the Hufflepuff table, each with a portion of chili sauce, William didn’t know what to say.
“I really don’t know how long they can keep eating this soulless chili sauce.”
Thinking this, William got up and returned to the dormitory.
Arriving at the Common Room, he found a brightly lit spot and continued reading his book.
He didn’t stop until Hermione and the other two returned, full from their meal.
“William, you haven’t been reading this whole time, have you?” Ron asked in disbelief.
William closed the book and nodded, saying, “Yeah, these two books on Transfiguration are quite interesting.
You can borrow them when I’m done.”
“I’ll pass on that,” Ron refused quite bluntly.
William didn’t try to persuade him further, but changed the subject, saying, “Did you guys eat the chili sauce tonight?
The kind the Kitchen replicated.”
When it came to food, Ron and Harry were interested, nodding repeatedly.
“We did.
The taste is okay, but it’s far worse than your chili sauce.”
When it came to eating, Ron was a professional.
“But it’s free, isn’t it?” William smiled.
“True,” Ron laughed as well.
To him, this kind of free, delicious food was undoubtedly what he liked best.
It couldn’t be helped; the weasley family’s situation was truly poor, even compared to Hermione’s family.
“Hey, William, do you want to play wizard chess?” Ron invited.
“Sure, but I don’t know the rules of this game.
You’ll have to explain them to me first,” William replied.
After reading for so long, it was time to relax.
“No problem.”
Subsequently, William played wizard chess with Harry and Ron.
As for Hermione, she glanced over and continued reading her own book.
They played for an hour, which allowed William to see just how high Ron’s talent for wizard chess was.
“If there were a wizard chess competition, Ron, you would definitely take first place,” William said sincerely.
Hearing this sincere praise, Ron’s face immediately turned as red as his hair, and he modestly demurred with a few words.
Then, the players changed, Harry took the field, and William picked up a book to read.
He had borrowed two travelogues in total: one about the East, and one about Hogwarts.
That’s right, the author of this book described exploring Hogwarts and discovering some interesting secrets.
Although most of these secrets weren’t secrets anymore, it was still good for getting familiar with Hogwarts.
He glanced at the author, a Wizard named David Holmes, who had graduated decades ago.
However, even though the content described things from a long time ago, the author’s writing was very immersive.
But as William read further, he found that the adventure and exploration of the three Young wizards turned into a melodramatic love triangle.
The male lead loved the female supporting character, the female supporting character loved the male supporting character, and the male supporting character loved the male lead.
To be honest, seeing a perfectly good adventure story turn into a romance novel, William felt like abandoning the book.
Enduring the discomfort in his heart, William continued reading.
After quickly flipping through the book, a look of contemplation flashed in his eyes.
At first glance, the latter part of the book became a melodramatic love triangle, but if you removed the romance parts, you would discover what kind of treasure the author had left behind.
Solo exploration in the early stages, forming a dedicated exploration club in the middle, and contributing a special hidden room for that purpose.
According to the description in the text, it was a large suite, and only the “owner” of the room could set access permissions.
Although in the end, because he was eliminated, the author of the book completely sealed off that room.
But the few clues left inside were enough for William to try and reverse-engineer how to reopen that room.
For him, he really needed a private room where he wouldn’t be disturbed.
Of course, he also knew that the Room of Requirement could satisfy him, but quite a few people knew about that place.
Especially if someone was already inside, if a later person wanted to enter, they would either enter the room the previous person was in, or wait for them to come out before entering the room they wanted.
Closing the book, William’s eyes were full of contemplation.
By the time he had sorted out the clues and snapped back to reality, he found that only he and Hermione were left in the Common Room.
“Eh?
Where are Harry and Ron?” William spoke up.
Hermione closed her book upon hearing him and said, “They went back, and I’m going back too.
It’s getting late, get some rest early.
Goodnight.”
After saying that, Hermione carried her book to the girls’ dormitory.
William replied with a goodnight, then took out his mechanical watch and saw that it was indeed getting late.
“I got too engrossed in the book and lost track of time.”
Muttering softly to himself, William also got up to return to the dormitory…
And from that day on, William became obsessed with that special room.
Every day, besides attending classes, he was searching for it based on the clues in the book.
Even for after-class assignments, he would borrow Hermione’s homework for reference to save time.
Of course, this was only for History of Magic and Astronomy Class.
For subjects like Herbology, Charms Class, and Defense Against the Dark Arts Class, he did them himself.
After all, writing based on his own knowledge was much faster than copying for reference.
Speaking of which, it must be mentioned that the first lesson of Charms Class wasn’t about the textbook content, but about getting familiar with magic power, which was similar to the act of testing a wand.
Apart from that, there was Defense Against the Dark Arts Class.
Honestly, William was so overwhelmed by the smell of garlic that he was powerless to complain.
Just like that, three days flashed by.
Today was already Friday, their last day of classes for the week.
In the morning, at the long table in the Great Hall, William’s behavior over the past few days was finally questioned by the three of them.
“William, what have you been busy with these past few days?
We hardly see you except in class,” Harry asked as the spokesperson.
“Exploring the Castle.
Hogwarts is a Castle that has existed for a thousand years; it hides too many secrets,” William replied.
His answer wasn’t a lie, but he didn’t explain what he was doing in detail either.
Although he knew there was strength in numbers, these three in front of him were each more prone to trouble than the last, and he wanted some peace and quiet.
To avoid continuing this topic, William quickly changed the subject, saying, “Harry, there’s only one double lesson today, Professor Snape’s Potion Class, and it’s with Slytherin.”
Bringing up Snape immediately shifted Harry’s attention, as he hadn’t forgotten the incident in the Great Hall on opening day.
“Snape is the Dean of Slytherin, and they say he’s very biased.
We might have a hard time this lesson,” Ron added at this time.
Harry and William both expressed their agreement.
Just then, about a hundred Owls suddenly flew into the Great Hall.
This was mail time at Hogwarts; every morning at this time, a large number of Owls would fly into the Great Hall to deliver mail and packages to the Wizards.
Over the course of the week, everyone had grown accustomed to their arrival, so they all tacitly covered the food in front of them.
After all, no one wanted a few extra feathers or some droppings in their food.
You see, not every Owl could deliver things without also delivering some feathers or droppings.
At that moment, a Snowy Owl landed in front of Harry and dropped a note.
It was Harry’s Owl, Hedwig.
Since arriving in Harry’s hands, Hedwig had been mostly unemployed, except for delivering a few letters to William before the start of term.
After coming to Hogwarts, being unemployed was no different from being out of work.
Usually, she would fly in empty-handed to grab a bite to eat and remind Harry of her existence.
Now, the unemployed Owl finally had a job to do.
“It’s a letter from Hagrid,” Harry said at this time.
Well, while other people’s Owls flew across provinces, Hedwig could only fly within the “neighborhood” of Hogwarts.
“William, Hagrid invited us to visit him this afternoon.
Ron and Hermione can come along too,” Harry said after reading the letter.
“I’m fine with that,” William replied.
He had been busy looking for that special room these past few days; going today would be a good way to relax.
Harry looked at Hermione and Ron, and seeing them both nod, he lowered his head to write a reply.
After Hedwig flew off with the letter in her beak, Harry was already looking forward to the visit in the afternoon.
Looking at the happy Harry, William really wanted to remind him that he was happy a bit too early…