The opening banquet at Hogwarts had no special activities; apart from eating and drinking, it was just singing the school song.
When the banquet ended, the prefects led the first-years back to their respective house common rooms.
Because Sheeran had stepped heavily on his feet twice, Theodore limped at the very back.
“What is wrong with you, Mr.
Nott?” Professor McGonagall asked.
Hearing a professor ask about his injury, Theodore instantly felt deeply aggrieved and opened his mouth to bitterly denounce Sheeran’s atrocities.
He even imagined in his heart what it would look like if Sheeran were put in detention.
As a result, before he could even speak, Sheeran walked out from somewhere and steadied him.
“Professor McGonagall, there is no need to worry; Mr.
Nott simply sprained his foot.”
Theodore felt as though he had fallen into an ice cave, unable to say a single word.
After offering this explanation, Sheeran put on a concerned expression once more: “Mr.
Nott, would you like to go to the Hospital Wing to have a look?”
Although these words sounded warm to the heart and stomach, Theodore clearly felt that those hands suddenly applied force, gripping his arm tightly like a pair of iron tongs.
A threat, a naked threat.
“I am fine, thank you, Mr.
Prewett,” Theodore said.
“That is good, let us go.” Sheeran did not forget to greet Professor McGonagall, “Goodbye, Professor McGonagall.”
Watching Sheeran’s retreating figure, Professor McGonagall felt both gratified and regretful.
Such a model student, how did he end up sorted into Slytherin?
Nott felt incomparably stifled inside, wanting only to shout aloud: “Professor!
He is faking all of it, do not believe him!”
After leaving Professor McGonagall’s sight, Sheeran finally let go of him.
“Mr.
Nott, you had better not do anything foolish; of course, I also welcome you to do something foolish.” Sheeran smiled gently, his face wearing the smile of an innocent young boy, “Only next time, my price will be higher.”
Once Sheeran had walked far away, Nott cursed in a low voice through gritted teeth.
Afterward, his gaze fell upon the prefect at the front of the line.
William Rowle happened to know him, and the Rowle and Nott families maintained a relatively close association.
He calculated in his heart that once they returned to the dormitory, he would find William Rowle to help teach Sheeran Prewett a proper lesson.
A true Slytherin would certainly not care whether or not they could attack a classmate.
And he, a mere first-year student, was definitely no match for a prefect!
Thinking this, Theodore instantly felt a surge of confidence; his legs no longer ached, and his waist no longer hurt.
…
Unlike the towers of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, the Slytherin Common Room was located underground.
The prefects led the new students all the way down along a long spiral stone staircase.
The further down they walked, the more gloomy and silent the atmosphere became.
Even though more torches had been placed along the way, it still made people feel a chill that was difficult to dispel.
Sheeran could not help thinking that it was fortunate there was a spell like Scourgify.
Otherwise, in the Slytherin Common Room, one would not even be able to dry their clothes.
After walking down the long staircase, the first-years finally arrived in front of a damp, blank stone wall.
Prefect William Rowle held his head high, to the point where the new students could almost only see his nostrils.
“Entering the common room requires no knocking or specific magic, but you must correctly state the password.” William looked down his nose at everyone and shouted the password, “Pure-blood.”
After reciting the password, a concealed stone door appeared on the stone wall.
After following the prefect into the common room, Sheeran breathed a secret sigh of relief.
The Slytherin Common Room was not as cold, damp, and piled high with dripping seaweed and mud as imagined.
It was a rather luxuriously decorated, narrow and long basement.
The walls and ceiling were built of rough stone, and green-glowing lamps were tethered by iron chains hanging down from the ceiling.
Positioned directly opposite the door was an exquisitely carved fireplace.
At this moment, a pile of fire was crackling away, baking the entire common room until it was warm and dry.
The most eye-catching feature must be the large windows of the common room.
Through the windows, one could see the rippling lake water outside, along with quite a few bizarre aquatic creatures.
The tables and chairs placed in the common room were all extremely exquisite, exuding an air of lavish luxury.
This was hardly surprising.
Quite a few school governors of Hogwarts came from Slytherin, so their common room naturally would not be shabby.
Their gazes occasionally glanced toward Sheeran, their faces carrying a hint of mocking smiles.
“Prewett, although everyone is a pure-blood family, I still must remind you that there are gaps among pure-blood families.
After all, some families do not have many people left, and I still hope they can live on well.”
William walked up to Sheeran, elegantly straightened his collar, and said condescendingly, “Oh right, I arranged for you and Nott to share a dormitory.
If he bullies you, you can come find me.”
Of course, I will bully you together with him, you idiot.
William sneered inwardly.
“Prefect William, I did not call you wrong, did I?” Sheeran swiped away his hand and shook his head, “I am actually very disappointed.”
“Disappointed?” William was somewhat puzzled.
Noticing the commotion over here, several surrounding new students slowly gathered around.
Malfoy was also attracted, hastily beckoning and calling his two lackeys over to watch the show together.
“Slytherin makes me feel very disappointed; I thought everyone here consisted of shrewd ambitious schemers, and I never expected there would actually be trash who feel smug and complacent purely because of their birth.” Sheeran’s voice was unhurried, “Things possessed from birth are not worth showing off; glory and mighty power seized through extortion and force are what truly deserve praise.”
When saying these words, Sheeran intentionally or unintentionally glanced at Theodore.
It was clearly insinuating something.
“Arrogant!”
With the prefect backing him up, Theodore’s courage grew much larger.
No longer acting like a submissive coward, he pulled out his wand, preparing to teach this arrogant fellow a lesson.
He was a pure-blood wizard, influenced by his surroundings since childhood, and had learned a few spells before the term started.
But Sheeran was faster than him.
Coordinating his wand with the incantation, Sheeran cleanly and neatly cast a Severing Charm.
“Diffindo!”
Theodore Nott’s hair instantly drifted in the air like autumn leaves.
This made him almost completely bald.
Theodore was incomparably horrified inside, and his movement of waving his wand came to a halt.
As a new student who previously only treated magic as a toy to play with, when facing a real battle, his body was so stiff it simply refused to obey, let alone talking about counterattacking.
Equally stiff in body was Prefect William Rowle beside him.
As a prefect, he still had some combat experience.
He quickly recognized that what Sheeran released was not some high-level spell, but merely a simple Severing Charm.
This was a minor spell recorded in The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1, almost everyone in Hogwarts knew it.
But its effect heavily relied on the caster’s skill and concentration, being usable for both crude destruction and extremely delicate cutting tasks.
William trembled as he touched his collar.
The previously intact collar had been cut open at some unknown point, and a faint red line remained on his neck.
He did not doubt in the least that if it went any further, his artery would likely have been slashed open.
Yet Sheeran had precisely controlled it.
To be able to use a simple elementary spell to this extent, how much time and effort would it take?
William did not know; he only knew that Sheeran was definitely not as easy to deal with as he looked.
Was this the strength a new student should possess?
Even if one searched through all of Hogwarts’ alumni registers, it would probably be very difficult to find a genius comparable to him.
Offending such a person for an idiot like Theodore Nott was simply not worth it at all.
The surrounding crowd saw that Nott’s hair was gone and burst into loud laughter.
Several among them with good discernment saw that Sheeran used a Severing Charm, and could not help feeling secretly shocked inside.
Advanced spells depended on talent, while elementary spells depended on foundational skill.
Being able to use an elementary spell to this degree showed the profound depth of his foundation.
Even Malfoy had to admit inwardly that this fellow named Prewett was probably only slightly weaker than himself.
The crowd’s jeers and the anger of losing his hair caused Nott to almost lose his reason.
He shouted at the prefect: “Let us go together!”
William quickly pulled out his wand.
“Expelliarmus!”
Bang!
Theodore traced an arc in front of everyone, crashing into a chair as his wand flew out of his hand.
A strong sense of dizziness left him lightheaded and seeing stars.
“Prefect, what are you doing?”
William cursed fiercely in his heart. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Idiot!
Moron!
Didn’t you even see that the other person deliberately held back?
To actually still want to drag him down into the water!
Truly an unadulterated fool.
“Mr.
Prewett, I think this is a misunderstanding,” William put on a smiling face and said with a somewhat trembling voice, “Slytherin welcomes you.”
“The prefect is right, these are all misunderstandings.”
Sheeran glanced at Theodore, walked up to William, stood on tiptoes, and elegantly straightened his collar: “Hi, look, I accidentally slipped and cut the senior’s collar.
After all, I am a first-year student and still cannot control my spells well; you won’t mind, will you?”
“Not at all, not at all, these are just small matters.” William hurriedly shook his head.
With trembling pupils, he stared at the hand beside his neck, feeling as though his neck had been slithered across by a venomous snake; this made him tremble with fear, yet he dared not move randomly.
Sheeran revealed an incomparably brilliant smile: “Do not worry, Senior, I will help you tidy it up.”
Waving his wand, Sheeran used a Reparo.
“Right, one Galleon.”
William’s mouth twitched.
Could he not use this Reparo himself?
To actually still charge one Galleon.
But looking at the smiling Sheeran, he dared not refuse to pay, and could only tremblingly pull out a Galleon and place it into Sheeran’s hand.
After spending money to avert disaster, William only wanted to leave this place quickly.
But just as he took two steps, he was called to a halt by Sheeran once more.
“Mr.
Nott seems somewhat unwilling to share a dormitory with me.
I will take a little tiredness upon myself; tonight I shall sleep in the bed, and let Mr.
Nott sleep on the common room sofa.”
“Of course, no problem.” William agreed hastily.
Who cares where this idiot sleeps.
Having said that, Sheeran gave a wave of his wand and threw Nott’s luggage out.
From beginning to end, neither of them asked for Theodore’s opinion.
“Oh, I remember now, Mr.
Nott still owes Mr.
Longbottom an apology.” Sheeran looked at the stumbling, rising Theodore with a beaming smile, “And my twenty Galleons; that was our original wager.”
“I did not agree…” Theodore spoke with difficulty.
“I said you bet, so you bet.” Sheeran smiled and interrupted him, extending his hand toward him, “Honor the bet, pay up today, and go apologize tomorrow.
Do you understand?”
“What was said initially was ten Galleons.”
“I also said back then that my price would be higher.”
Theodore glanced toward William and found that he hurriedly turned his head away, acting as if he saw nothing at all, knowing then that he could not count on him.
Angry and frightened, he dejectedly fetched a money pouch.
Sheeran counted out twenty Galleons and tossed the money pouch back to Theodore.
He couldn’t help marveling that this group of pure-blood wizards was truly wealthy, with just about any random student carrying so many Galleons on them.
“Good night, Prefect William, you may leave.” Sheeran said.
William twitched the corners of his mouth, finally said a difficult “Good night,” lifted his arrogant head, and walked out stiffly.
Sheeran returned to his dormitory and tidied up his luggage slightly.
The Slytherin dormitories were large, and with only two people living in each room, it appeared even more spacious.
Above the exquisite four-poster bed hung green silk curtains, and even the bedspread was dark green, embroidered with intricate snake patterns in silver thread.
Sheeran was very satisfied.
This was much better than the orphanage.
Stretching lazily, Sheeran walked over to the window and glanced at the huge octopus swimming past outside.
Slytherin was truly wonderful.
The people here were polite, spoke nicely, and were extremely generous with their spending.
I super love it here.