Chapter 18. Slytherin
Lynn recalled his first encounter with Professor Fawkes.
He simply couldn't reconcile the mischievous, somewhat cool yet endearing old man with the serial killer Betty had described.
"Could I have that cream puff in front of me?"
Betty asked Lynn softly.
"Uh, sure."
Lynn actually wanted the only dessert on the long table; it was his favorite.
But since Betty had just helped him out of a difficult situation, he felt awkward refusing.
He was still troubled by Professor Fawkes's situation, but with limited information, he couldn't conclude that Professor Fawkes was a bad person based solely on hearsay.
Lynn could only trust Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall's character.
They clearly trusted Fawkes, and Lynn himself had a good impression of him; otherwise, he wouldn't have accepted the investment.
As for the murder...
he could ask in person sometime; there was no need to let such matters breed suspicion. The
atmosphere in Slytherin was actually quite pleasant.
Most of the students here were raised in family-style education, and while there were bound to be some who were spoiled or from families with questionable traditions, they were generally easy to get along with.
The older students told them many amusing stories from their time at Hogwarts, and a cream puff suddenly appeared in front of Lynn, making him appreciate the thoughtfulness of the house-elves.
After dinner, everyone sang the Hogwarts school song together in different tunes, creating a chaotic scene, but it was clear that Dumbledore enjoyed it.
The new students were led back to their dormitories by their respective house prefects.
"Our Headmaster Professor Snape may not have the best reputation in the school, but every Slytherin student sincerely loves him. Do you know why?"
Slytherin dormitories were underground, and Betty explained the professors of each course to the new students along the way.
The new students shook their heads, indicating they didn't know. Judy explained as they walked,
"The reason Professor Snape is disliked by students from other houses is because he openly favors us. Perhaps from the other houses' perspective, this is indeed unfair to them, but what is the professor doing this for?
Ultimately, it's us Slytherin students who benefit.
So students from any house have reason to dislike him, but we can't. He may be unfair, but he truly cares about us; he's the best head of household for Slytherin."
"You may know that Gryffindor values courage, Ravenclaw favors wisdom, Hufflepuff values loyalty, but besides demanding shrewdness and ambition, many in Slytherin overlook another quality we possess: unity! The unity unique to Slytherin."
"You know what? Everyone who enters Slytherin has the potential to become a great person. This proves that Salazar Slytherin values the unique qualities in you. There are many rumors about our house outside. They say we all like to study dark magic, and that we use bloodlines as an admission criterion.
You shouldn't believe what those competing houses say. I don't deny that we've had some dark wizards, but the other three houses also have dark wizards—they just don't want to admit it.
Yes, we do have a tendency to admit descendants of prestigious wizarding families, and you can find that many Slytherin students have at least one Muggle parent.
I really like our house emblem, the serpent, which represents: cunning, power, and often being misunderstood."
The young wizards following behind her listened to her words and quickly gained a deep impression of Slytherin.
Betty was undoubtedly a qualified prefect, and even Lynn's opinion of Slytherin changed significantly after her introduction.
They followed Betty to a hidden entrance to a basement.
"Entering the common room requires a password, which changes every two weeks. It is forbidden to write it down or share it with other houses. The new password will be posted on the notice board in the common room the day before it changes. For the next two weeks, the password is: Blood Oath."
The new students entered the Slytherin common room together. To be honest, it was beautiful.
The common room was located at the bottom of the lake and was semi-transparent. The walls were made of black Gothic marble, and the ceiling was a transparent semi-circle carved from crystal, allowing them to see the shimmering moonlight shining through the water.
Greenish lights were chained to the ceiling. There was a fireplace with an intricately carved mantel, and several carved chairs nearby. Occasionally, one could see giant octopuses or strange creatures through the windows.
"Brad, do you have time to help me get these gentlemen to their dorms? I still need to look after the girls,"
Betty said to a boy reading a newspaper in the common room.
Brad put down his newspaper and stood up. "Where's Raphael, the prefect? Why are you the only one helping with the new students?"
"Professor Snape asked him to help with some materials for tomorrow's class."
"That's unfortunate," Brad shrugged. "Leave them to me."
Lynn and the others then parted ways with the girls, and a new guide led them to the boys' dorms.
Their luggage and pets had already been placed at each person's bedside by house-elves.
After arriving at the dorm, Lynn first fed Umaru some water and biscuit crumbs before starting to unpack his own luggage.
The dorm was quite nice.
The bed was a traditional four-poster bed with green silk curtains and silver embroidery on the bedspread. Medieval tapestries on the walls told the story of Slytherin's great adventures, and silver lanterns hung from the ceiling.
If you listen carefully, you can even hear the gentle lapping of the lake against the windowpane.
After finishing packing, Lynn took out the timetable that Judy had given them.
Tomorrow they had three classes: Charms and History of Magic in the morning, and Potions in the afternoon.
Lynn didn't rest immediately, but instead took out his textbooks for tomorrow's three classes and quickly flipped through the material he had already previewed during the summer vacation.
To get the talent points for all subjects, he had to perform better than the other freshmen.
Just then, an unpleasant sneer came from beside him.
"What genius that comes around once in three years? I think you're just a mediocre genius that comes around once in a century. Who reads books before class even starts? Are you afraid of embarrassing yourself in class tomorrow?"
There are very few wizards, as can be seen from the number of new students entering Hogwarts each year.
There are only eight boys entering Slytherin this year, and unfortunately, Lynn ended up living with that annoying brat, Hubert.
Lynn looked up from his book and glanced at him.
In his past life, he'd been a teacher, though not to children this age, but he roughly understood their thinking.
This Hubert clearly had problems with his upbringing, or rather, a corrupt family.
Plus, he'd just been reprimanded by Betty at the dinner party because of Lynn, feeling humiliated, and now he wanted to regain that face in front of his two roommates.
As for his motives…
it probably wasn't just that he disliked Lynn because he was from a Muggle family; he likely wanted to use this opportunity to establish his leadership among the boys in his year.
In other words, he wanted to be the boss.
His thoughts were simple, even ridiculously childish, but equally hurtful; many cases of school violence started this way.
Lynn had a perfect solution for this kind of phenomenon in his past life, one that would work even at Hogwarts, a magical school.
He looked coldly at Hubert and chuckled lightly.
"I may be mediocre, but what about you? McKellen, what are you?"
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(End of Chapter)