"Are you okay?"
Michael carefully propped Sean up.
The young wizard was still breathing hard.
"I'm fine."
After a few minutes of rest, Sean finally came back to himself.
He had clearly overestimated this half-recovered body of his.
He decided that next time he would walk slower—and he quietly bumped Learning to Fly up the priority list.
It was now his first major goal right after earning the scholarship.
"…Alright then."
Michael's eyes drooped slightly, his gaze flickering with worry.
Once they were back in the dorm, things became much simpler for Sean.
All he had to face now were the "simple" assignments from:
History of Magic, Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, and Defence Against the Dark Arts.
Technically, they were all one-week homework tasks,
but Sean clearly had no intention of waiting that long.
He only needed half an hour to finish his Defence Against the Dark Arts essay.
The Charms assignment didn't even last twenty minutes in his hands.
The only slightly troublesome one was the one-foot History of Magic essay.
It was long, yes—but Sean had already done most of it yesterday. Only the conclusion remained.
"You've got to be kidding me…"
Michael, who had watched the whole process, sat there in a daze.
"You just… like that… just like that… finished three classes' worth of homework?
Including the nightmare-length History essay?!"
Sean turned his head slightly, his long lashes trembling.
"Don't look at me with that 'isn't this normal, can't you do it too?' expression!"
Michael snapped his book shut with a thump.
"I swear—right now, no one else has finished all of this homework!"
He said that, then stormed out of the dorm.
When he returned, he had two more people with him—
Terry and Anthony.
"Sorry to disturb you."
Anthony greeted Sean politely.
"Michael said there was a Mer—"
Terry started shyly, but the long–black-haired boy quickly clapped a hand over his mouth.
"Sean, look—none of us are done."
Michael shook two pieces of parchment in front of him.
There were nearly three inches of writing, but they were still far short of the assigned one-foot length.
"So—please teach us!"
Sean was a bit puzzled.
It was a lot of writing, sure, but it really shouldn't be that impossible…
Still, looking at the three pairs of earnest, expectant eyes, he nodded and picked up his own parchment.
"In fact,"
Sean said, pointing to his writing,
"finishing a history essay is actually very simple.
Professor Binns' topic is Emmerick and Uric the Oddball.
Step one is to draw a timeline and figure out which era these two wizards lived in…"
He handed over the timeline he'd drawn.
The three of them didn't dare even blink as they took it.
"Once you know their era, you can identify their historical background.
The information in A History of Magic is already detailed enough.
Then comes step two:
Use that background to analyze the actions of these two wizards. There's a phrase I like—
'Judging people without their context is just cheating.'"
"Step three: re-evaluate their behavior and present your own argument.
Step four:
Compare them to other historical figures and events in the same period.
Combine narrative and commentary—that's the core of a history essay.
Finally, for step five: you can wrap it up with a short conclusion,
or talk about the value of your argument—
and if you're feeling ambitious, you can add some deeper reflections or future implications."
As he spoke, Sean suddenly thought of something.
He opened a notebook that he had already filled halfway.
"Because the timeline in A History of Magic is a complete mess,
I reorganized it using this timeline and a few other books like Notable Magical Names of Our Time and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century.
I've整理ed them a bit here—
you can use my notes directly."
By the time he finished, the three boys' eyes had gone from blank to blazing.
In the end, Michael accepted the notebook with near-religious reverence.
"Sean, you're an angel Merlin sent to save us…
This is my scripture now…
My parchment—where's my parchment?
I'm going to fight this essay for three hundred more rounds!"
Terry and Anthony were equally fired up.
The three of them bent over the notes,
and the dorm fell into a rhythm of scratching quills and the soft crackle of the fireplace.
Anthony's earnest "thank you" still echoed faintly in Sean's ears.
He nodded, then knocked out his Transfiguration essay without any effort.
Truthfully, that same "method" could be extended to almost any homework.
Sean didn't care that there were suddenly two extra people in the room.
He only set aside the Potions homework, and in his personal notebook wrote down Step Two of his plan:
[Step Two: Acquire Potion Ingredients for Practice]
He had already gained a preliminary understanding of how to process the ingredients.
With enough materials, all the preparatory work for actual brewing would be complete.
But…
Where to get the ingredients?
The supply list for first-years didn't require them to buy potion materials.
All the students used the ingredients provided by Hogwarts during class.
So… could he use them after class?
Sean thought about it.
In theory, it should be possible—but the odds of Professor Snape agreeing were infinitely close to zero.
He couldn't help picturing Snape's face:
an expression composed entirely of the word "no".
He sighed very softly.
If there was anything worse than having no talent…
it was having no talent and then being taught by Professor Snape.
What should he do?
The question spun in his head as twilight descended over Hogwarts.
Blue and bronze draperies fell from the domed ceiling,
washed in a pale moonlight, stained into a deep, night-like navy.
The air was filled with the faint dryness of old pages,
the pliant smell of parchment, and a coolness like the air after rain.
Sean's gaze lifted toward the tall arched window.
His emerald green eyes seemed covered with that thin fog so common in Scottish autumns and winters,
reflecting the wavering glow of the fireplace, broken into fragments by the window glass.
"There will be a way."
Sean told himself softly.
"This is Hogwarts—a magical place."
Night passed. The castle woke again.
The stone statues along the corridors caught the first streaks of warm orange light,
and even the boy walking with a book had to lift a hand to shield his eyes.
Wednesday.
Ravenclaw had no first-period class that morning,
so most first-years were still lost in dreams.
Sean, however, was already up.
At this hour, the orphanage would have been serving breakfast. Miss it, and you didn't eat.
So he'd long since developed the habit of sleeping early, rising early.
He entered the Great Hall and launched a full assault on the pumpkin soup, chicken-and-ham pies, and Kribbage's Wizarding Crackers.
Next to him, as always, sat Justin, wearing his gentle, reliable smile.
"Good morning, Sean."
"Morning."
Sean nodded, then watched Justin pull out a thick copy of Notable Magical Names of Our Time.
"Hogwarts is incredible. If Professor Binns hadn't assigned that one-foot essay,
I might've had more time to explore the castle—and the kitchens next to our common room…"
At the mention of homework, Justin frowned slightly; the sunlight on his face dimmed just a bit.
"Mhm."
At the word kitchens, a light flashed in Sean's green eyes.
Damn Sorting Hat. I want to be a food-rich Hufflepuff too…
He sighed inwardly.
Then something clicked.
"Professor Binns assigned one-foot essays to Hufflepuffs too?"
"Too?"
Justin's head snapped up in surprise.
"Wait… don't tell me…"
Advance Chapters available on Patreon
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