Hearing Richie's question, Crabbe let out a mocking snort.
"Goyle, look how stupid he is."
"Draco literally just introduced himself, and he still doesn't know his name."
Beside him, Goyle cracked a wide, smug grin.
"Listen closely, 'Seven-Pointed Star.' Our boss's name is Draco Malfoy!"
Draco raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing Richie from head to toe, suddenly highly suspicious of whether he had completely misjudged the boy's intelligence.
But he quickly restrained his judgment and said in a deadly serious tone, "You should consider it an absolute honor that I, Draco Malfoy, have chosen you to be my friend."
Richie shook his head. "Right. So... who are you?"
Draco's eyes went wide.
Finally, Richie took pity on him and decided to explain.
"You've been standing there endlessly talking about your father and your family—the Malfoys."
"But you haven't actually said a single thing about yourself."
"If you want to be friends with me, it's very simple. Just tell me: Who is Draco, and who are you?"
Draco looked left at Crabbe, right at Goyle, and then down at himself.
Who is Draco?
Who am I?
Am I not Draco?
But I AM Draco?!
Richie's seemingly simple question completely short-circuited his brain.
"I... I am Draco Malfoy, the sole heir to the Malfoy family..."
"And then?"
"My father is..."
"Stop," Richie cut him off, stopping the exact same rehearsed speech dead in its tracks. "I don't want to be friends with your father, and I honestly couldn't care less about your family. I am asking you again: Who is Draco, and who are you?"
"I... I..."
Draco's face contorted into an incredibly bizarre expression. Outside of his heavily pre-rehearsed, aristocratic introduction, he genuinely had absolutely zero idea what to say.
"I am Draco... wait, I'm not... Draco?"
Seeing Draco suddenly looking profoundly lost and having an existential crisis, Goyle and Crabbe were completely baffled.
What's going on? What were they even talking about just now?
"A truly intelligent person fully understands who they are," Richie said, sitting up straight and looking calmly at Draco.
"And intelligent people only want to be friends with other intelligent people."
"Please go back to your seat, Slytherin. Class is about to start."
Hearing Richie's dismissal, Draco turned around with completely vacant, glazed-over eyes. Muttering "Who am I... who am I..." under his breath, he slowly shuffled away from Richie's desk.
"Hey! What did you do to Draco?!"
Seeing Draco stumble away looking mentally broken, Crabbe finally registered the situation and immediately got defensive. He was just about to lunge forward when Goyle grabbed him and held him back.
Goyle glared at Richie with intense suspicion and hostility.
"Seven-Pointed Star... we're going to remember you."
With that incredibly cliché threat, he dragged Crabbe away by the collar, dragging him back to their seats.
Watching the three of them scurry away with their tails tucked between their legs, the corner of Richie's mouth curled into a slight smirk.
Obviously, hitting an eleven-year-old with a deeply profound, existential philosophical question like "Who are you?" was going to violently shatter their worldview. This was especially true for a spoiled brat like Draco, who constantly hid behind his father's coat tails and entirely defined his own existence through his family's prestige. The moment you forced him to define his own individual identity, he naturally had a total breakdown.
Richie was entirely confident that Draco wouldn't be able to figure out the answer anytime soon. And if he did somehow miraculously show up with an answer? It would either be completely fabricated or entirely plagiarized from someone else. In either case, Richie would use that exact fact to effortlessly reject his friendship again.
And if Draco simply couldn't find the answer at all?
Well, intelligent people don't make friends with unintelligent people.
As long as Draco had even a shred of self-awareness, he wouldn't bother him again.
And if he did somehow have a massive character arc, achieve enlightenment, and truly figure out who he was as a person? Well, they could revisit the friendship idea then.
Richie hadn't done this just to maliciously mess with the kid. His primary goal was strictly to avoid any unnecessary interactions with the future villain, keeping himself far away from unnecessary drama and trouble.
And if Draco tried to use force?
Heh.
Richie subconsciously reached out and patted the wand tucked inside his robes. But as he did, he noticed the three boys sitting next to him.
Terry, Anthony, and Stephen were all staring blankly into space, looking completely lost.
"Richie... who... who are we?"
Richie's face completely froze.
Are you kidding me...
It took a massive amount of incredibly fast, smooth talking, but Richie eventually managed to successfully distract his three roommates from descending into full-blown existential dread.
Just as he succeeded, the Hogwarts bells finally chimed.
The students quickly scrambled into their seats.
A moment later, Professor Flitwick practically skipped into the classroom, moving with a brisk, incredibly light step.
"Ho ho! It is absolutely wonderful to see you all again! Especially you, Mr. Harland."
Instead of heading straight for the podium at the front of the room, Professor Flitwick walked directly over to Richie's desk.
"Can anyone guess what happened over the holidays?"
Flitwick looked around the room. Seeing the sheer suspense, the students immediately craned their necks, buzzing with curiosity.
Flitwick didn't keep them waiting. He immediately dropped the bomb.
"Several of my close friends over at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic informed me that a certain Hogwarts student visited their Star-Wand Dueling Hall over the Christmas break."
"He accepted five consecutive dueling challenges. And he won all five of them! In the professional dueling circuit, we call that a Grand Slam!"
Flitwick enthusiastically spilt the entire story. Hearing this, the students were completely floored.
The Slytherins, in particular, were heavily impacted. Due to their pure-blood upbringings, almost all of them knew exactly what Beauxbatons was, and the few who didn't fully understood the heavy weight of formal dueling.
A Hogwarts student traveled to a foreign magical academy, fought five duels, and swept all of them?!
"Merlin! That's... that's... oh my god, I don't even have a word for it!"
"Who was it?! Which upperclassman did it?"
"Oh, that is incredible. Going completely solo into an enemy stronghold and taking down five people!"
The young wizards excitedly whispered among themselves. Meanwhile, Professor Flitwick stood at the front of the room, beaming proudly down at an incredibly helpless-looking Richie.
"Mr. Harland, the next time you decide to do something like this, perhaps you could consult me beforehand."
"What I mean to say is, I could gladly teach you a few specialized dueling techniques to make defeating them significantly easier."
As he spoke, Professor Flitwick reached into his robes and pulled out an exquisite, highly detailed badge—two crossed wands set over a five-pointed star.
"This is the Star-Wand Dueling Medal. It was jointly awarded to you by the three Beauxbatons Dueling Professors. They hope you will carry on the proud, excellent tradition of dueling and continue to push your limits."
"They also asked me to pass along a message: your photograph has already been permanently hung on the wall of the Star-Wand Dueling Hall to heavily inspire their students. They sincerely hope you will return in the future to spar with them again."
Hearing what Professor Flitwick was saying directly to Richie, the students' eyes practically bulged out of their heads.
"Professor... what exactly are you saying?"
"That medal is a highly exclusive honor specific to Beauxbatons! It's only given to wizards with genuinely outstanding, proven combat records! It holds serious weight in the international dueling circuit!"
"The three Beauxbatons dueling masters gave that medal to... to Harland..."
"Wait. Merlin, you don't think..."
Professor Flitwick offered a massive, proud smile and officially revealed the answer.
"That is exactly right! The student who walked into the Beauxbatons Star-Wand Dueling Hall and claimed victory... was Richie Harland!"
Hearing Professor Flitwick explicitly confirm it, the entire classroom erupted in utter chaos.
"!!!"