Audrey widened her eyes and blinked. So this was what it felt like to have a Head of House who was crazily biased toward his own House?
Because it was a review lesson, class time wasn't taken up by the professor's demonstration. So, in the remaining time, Snape had the students brew a second potion.
The Sleeping Draught.
This was a potion learned in the second year.
Audrey again perfectly completed the potion brewing.
"Miss Astley has completed it best again. Another ten points to Slytherin."
Potions class ended, and Audrey walked out of the classroom.
Besides the ghosts that rushed over to leech magic, a group of fifth-year students also swarmed her.
"Miss Astley, have you studied Potions before?"
"Do Muggles have Potions?"
"Can you teach me? I want to be an Auror in the future, so my Potions grades must be good! But I don't dare ask Professor Snape!"
But before Audrey could respond, the young wizards all moved aside. Mainly because the ghosts had gathered around.
What did it feel like to be in close contact with ghosts? Only those who touched them knew! It was freezing!
Seeing she was entangled by the ghosts again, Audrey thought for a moment and turned back to the classroom. "Professor Snape!"
Snape was organizing his materials. A graceful melody drifted through the classroom, soothing the mood. "Lilies in the Night," a 1988 work by the Astley siblings, a very lyrical song.
When Snape saw it was Audrey, he immediately frowned. He waved his wand, and the music stopped abruptly.
"Miss Astley, what are you doing back? If it's because you forgot something, then I would have to doubt whether you are a cunning Slytherin."
Although Snape listening to her music surprised Audrey, she had no time to investigate. She clearly had more important things to discuss with Snape.
"Professor, I want to learn the spell you used to disperse the ghosts. Being followed by these enthusiastic ghosts all the time is becoming a problem!"
Snape said with a blank face: "That is an authority granted to professors by Hogwarts Castle. It is not an ordinary spell that can be learned. If you want that authority, you must first become a professor."
He looked at Audrey: "As a newly enrolled student, I believe you should be studying hard right now, not being overambitious and coveting a professor's authority."
"Additionally," Snape asked, "have you studied Potions before?"
"Yes, Professor," Audrey answered decisively. "In the two months before school started, Professor Dumbledore found me a tutor to help me catch up on the knowledge from the first four years."
Snape said, displeased: "Oh? And which Potions Master was it that taught you?"
His expression was somewhat resentful. 'Dumbledore actually let someone else teach Audrey Potions? Did they teach her well? Don't waste this fine talent!'
"Er, it was Mr. Nicolas Flamel."
Snape said no more. As an alchemy master renowned for centuries, Nicolas Flamel's Potions skills were naturally beyond question. They were the essence distilled over time.
However, what he would never have guessed was that Audrey's Potions knowledge was actually self-taught while she was pretending to be a Squib, purely out of boredom.
"I see. Study hard in the future. Don't waste your talent for Potions." Snape waved his hand, signaling Audrey could leave.
"Yes, Professor!"
Unable to get the method for dispersing ghosts from Snape, Audrey walked out, very dejected.
Isaline Windsor was still waiting for her.
"Audrey, let's hurry to the Great Hall for dinner!"
Although this friend had been won over by two crayfish, it seemed Isaline now genuinely considered her a friend.
"Okay, Isaline!"
But Audrey couldn't walk with Isaline. She had to follow about ten yards behind her. Looking at the ghost army surrounding her, Audrey sighed softly again.
... ...
Before Transfiguration class.
Audrey walked into the classroom with a "whoosh" of ghosts, giving Professor McGall a shock.
The elder cat-lady waved her wand, and the Transfiguration classroom immediately became a ghost-free zone.
"Ah..."
Seeing the ghosts forcibly pushed out of the classroom, Audrey let out a long sigh of relief. This gang of ghosts was too annoying. As soon as she left the Slytherin common room, they immediately stuck to her.
If this continued, her Hogwarts life would be a complete mess.
Watching Professor McGall expel the ghosts, she coveted that authority even more.
'I'm so jealous of the professors!'
In class,
Professor McGall did not review like Professor Snape, because she knew Audrey's Transfiguration level. There was no need to accommodate her...
Before school started, Dumbledore had filled her in. She had thought this genius girl would definitely get into Gryffindor. Professor McGall had been happy about it for days.
Who knew she would end up in Slytherin, leaving her to sigh in vain!
But Audrey's Transfiguration skill was truly high.
"Miss Astley is the first to turn an owl into a telescope!"
"The pattern, the details..."
"Perfect Transfiguration! Five points to Slytherin!"
For Audrey, who could skillfully apply Advanced Transfiguration in combat, showing off a few Intermediate Transfiguration tricks was a piece of cake.
The fifth-year wizards fell into self-doubt.
'Is this person really from the Muggle world? Isn't she more likely an elite secretly trained by some family!'
'If that's not the case, wouldn't it make the rest of us seem extremely mediocre?'
... ...
The first day of classes ended. Because Potions was a review, only the students who failed to brew the potion had to submit a twenty-inch-long essay.
But Transfiguration was much more outrageous. Everyone had to submit an essay on "animals into static objects," no less than forty inches.
'Forty inches! That's 3.3 feet! That's a meter long! Thirty centimeters wide, one meter long... how many words is that! And the key is, Professor McGall doesn't allow you to cheat with large fonts. So tough!'
It was clear that Hogwarts students had it rougher than full-time web-novel authors!
But homework was for later. It wasn't due tomorrow, anyway. After a hard day, Audrey decided to treat herself well at dinner.
"Spicy chicken, stinky mandarin fish, boiled beef, soy-cured duck!"
"Momo, that's all for now!"
Audrey sent her order to the kitchen via the Slytherin table and then sat quietly, waiting for the food.
Isaline looked at Audrey curiously: "Audrey, why aren't you eating?"
"I've ordered. It's not ready yet!"
The little snakes all looked at Audrey curiously. Last night's crayfish feast had been amazing. Now, they all put down their food and waited to see what would happen.
This was Slytherin cunning.
A moment later, the "three spicy and one stinky" dishes appeared in front of Audrey.
But before Audrey could start eating, the ghosts swarmed.
"Ya! This smell is so strong!"
"Oh, I can taste it!"
"Not bad!"
Even the usually reserved Grey Lady floated down to "snag" a whiff of the stinky mandarin fish's "aroma."
Audrey's mouth twitched. Her hand tensed instinctively, and she snapped her chopsticks in half!
The piping hot dishes were instantly turned into cold dishes by the ghosts!
The little snakes who had been thinking of mooching a bite immediately lost interest. 'Didn't you see? Miss Astley is about to cry from anger!'
Audrey pitifully finished her meal. Before she even got back to the common room, she felt an unbearable pain in her stomach. Her body, which had hardly been sick in sixteen years, seemed to have diarrhea.
'Sigh, it's no wonder! Being surrounded by the ghosts' cold air all day, and then eating cold food for dinner—oily, spicy cold food at that—even her stomach, which had been nourished by magic for sixteen years, couldn't take it.'
However...
"Can you all get out! Can I have some privacy!"
The pearly-white ghostly bodies continuously seeping through the stall partition completely set Audrey off.
Although the ghosts were polite enough not to poke their heads in, with a group of ghosts surrounding her, she... she couldn't go!
'This is impossible. This life is unlivable. To be tormented to the point of collapse by ghosts on the first day at Hogwarts—Audrey was probably the first in history.'
Audrey steeled her heart, gritted her teeth, cast a Vanishing Spell on her own stomach, and then pulled up her pants and rushed out of the stall.
Swish!
She disappeared, leaving the ghosts to look at each other in confusion.
When she reappeared, she was in the Headmaster's office.
When she appeared, the old Dumbledore was reading a letter, his face beaming, like a young man who had just received a love letter from the school beauty.
"Audrey, it's you!" Dumbledore immediately put the letter away. "Are you here to see me about something?"
But when he saw Audrey's tearful expression, his heart skipped a beat: "Child, what's wrong?"
Audrey looked aggrieved, even more aggrieved than when the Gray family had emptied out Lestrange Manor.
"Headmaster Dumbledore, I'm cold, and I'm hungry!"
"I just want one bite of hot food!"
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