Hogwarts: I'm Really a Model Wizard

The next morning, Kyle walked into the Great Hall with faint dark circles under his eyes, yawning.

In his drowsy state, he nearly walked to the wrong table, almost sitting at the Slytherin table before Michael, who was walking with him, stopped him just in time.

"Kyle, what's wrong with you?" Cedric passed him a glass of milk and asked, "Didn't sleep well last night?"

Kyle sighed. It wasn't that he hadn't slept well — he hadn't slept at all.

Good grief, he had spent the entire night searching the Restricted Section, and not only did he fail to find "Advanced Secrets of the Dark Arts", he couldn't even find a single mention of the word "Horcrux".

Only in a book called "Making the Soul Boil" was there a vague reference to Horcruxes, and even then, it was just a single sentence: "Find the vessel that carries the soul, and you will master the key to immortality". There was nothing else beyond that.

What kind of Restricted Section was this anyway? Bah, false advertising!

Of course, Kyle couldn't possibly search the entire Restricted Section in just one night, but he didn't want to continue looking.

Clearly, Dumbledore had already removed all books about Horcruxes, and what remained contained at most a few scattered mentions, which were basically useless.

He looked up, seeing his friends' concerned expressions, and shook his head with forced energy. "It's nothing, I just had strange dreams all night. I'm not quite used to it yet."

"Strange dreams?" Cedric frowned, "I remember Hufflepuff has Divination today. Do you want me to ask Professor Sprout about it?"

Following Fred and George's encouragement, he had also chosen Divination.

"No need." Kyle yawned again, "I was just reading books in my dreams all night. I'm probably just a bit overexcited about the new school year. I'll be fine tomorrow."

Uh... After hearing his words, everyone except Cedric turned away and stopped looking at him.

Even dreaming about reading books all night... is this what it means to be top of the class? Can't mess with that, can't mess with that.

Even Cedric couldn't help but twitch his lips, saying nothing more.

"Let me tell you something interesting." Michael suddenly leaned in, saying mysteriously, "Last night I heard from a first-year that Gryffindor's Harry Potter and Ron Weasley tried to feed Professor McGonagall dried fish during Transfiguration class."

"Feed McGonagall?" Cedric immediately became interested, asking incredulously, "Really?"

He knew that Minerva had a habit of demonstrating her Animagus form in the first class, but he never imagined anyone would dare to deliberately provoke her.

In Cedric's eyes, they had done it intentionally — after all, who brings dried fish to class? They must have known in advance that Professor McGonagall would transform into a cat and prepared accordingly.

As expected of the Chosen One, his courage was incomparable to ordinary people.

"Of course it's true." Michael struggled to hold back his laughter, "The story is spreading like wildfire through the school. That new student, Justin Finch-Fletchley, said they threw the dried fish across half the classroom, just like they were feeding a stray cat. Professor McGonagall's face turned green, and she punished them... pfft... made them stand through the entire lesson."

At this point, he finally couldn't contain himself anymore and collapsed laughing on the table, clutching his stomach.

Cedric also found it amusing, though his laughter wasn't as dramatic as Michael's.

Kyle instinctively turned his head toward the Gryffindor table.

Over there, Harry and Ron were huddled in a corner of the table, too embarrassed to look up, while Fred and George stood beside them, laughing and heartily slapping their shoulders. In their view, their brother and junior had done something truly magnificent, so impressive that even they had to express their admiration.

"These new students are really bold these days." Kyle turned back, calmly picked up a piece of toast and put it in his mouth, then helped himself to some fried eggs and ham.

When he had eaten enough, he tapped the table with his finger and said softly:

"Could I have a cup of tea, please?"

No sooner had he spoken than a steaming cup of tea appeared before him, with a small pot of sugar cubes beside it.

Kyle picked up the cup, tested the temperature and found it just right, then drank the tea in one go.

"Another cup, please."

After drinking two cups of tea in succession, he finally felt less drowsy, but to be safe, he asked for a third. The first class today was Transfiguration, and if he fell asleep during Professor McGonagall's class, his fate would definitely be worse than Harry's.

After leaving the Great Hall, the group said goodbye to Cedric and headed to the Transfiguration classroom on the fourth floor.

Whether due to yesterday's incident or not, Professor McGonagall looked even more serious than usual. Unlike Professor Flitwick, she didn't give students time to review last year's material in the first class of the new school year but went straight into new content.

Turning beetles into buttons — the difficulty had increased significantly from last year. Beetles moved, and they weren't slow.

Michael waved his wand, expending great effort only to give the beetle some exercise.

Ryan was cleverer — he simply pinched the beetle between his fingers so he wouldn't have to worry about aiming.

However, just as he raised his wand hand, Professor McGonagall appeared beside him and said sternly, "Didn't I just say not to touch the beetles with your hands? Didn't you hear me? Or do you think your left hand is redundant?"

The beetles weren't large, and when pinched, they appeared even smaller. One wrong move, and the spell could hit your hand.

With good luck, nothing would happen, but with bad luck... no one knew what might occur. This had happened last year when a young wizard's fingers fused together on the spot. He spent a full two days in the hospital wing before recovering.

Ryan shuddered in fear, stammering, "Pro-Professor McGonagall, I... I forgot."

"Hufflepuff loses three points." Minerva glared at him before walking away.

After witnessing Ryan's lesson, the others didn't dare try to be clever either and dutifully chased the beetles across their desks, wands at the ready.

However, most of their results weren't very promising. The beetles were too agile, and many students gradually lost patience, putting more and more force into their wand movements.

A series of crackling sounds began to fill the classroom, occasionally accompanied by stray sparks darting in all directions.

The beetle mortality rate began to rise sharply — some squashed by wands, others blown away — making Professor McGonagall's expression even more displeased.

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