"No way! I was complaining about you, can't you tell? It's all your fault for coming back so late and acting special, making us keep the common room lights on this whole time."
"Fine! I'm sorry, okay? I went to see the Headmaster. I came all the way from the East and didn't have time to buy my first-year supplies, so he helped me get my wand and things. I had to go pick them up, and going back and forth took a while."
"Are you a Muggle or something? You don't even know to buy your school supplies."
Malfoy went right back to his sharp-tongued mode, rattling off words like a machine gun. But Lin Shu wasn't annoyed at all. She simply sat down on the sofa next to him, watching him with a gentle smile the whole time. Only after he finished did she reply:
"Malfoy, actually, you can just openly care about me next time. I'm a stranger here, and you're one of my few friends. I like it when you care about me. It's getting late, so I'll keep you company tomorrow. Good night!"
With that, Lin Shu swaggered back to her room, leaving Malfoy with his breath caught in his chest, neither quite coming up nor going down.
"I'm furious! Shu Lin! You are so rude! How dare you walk away before me? Who do you think you're brushing off? You're brushing off Draco Malfoy!"
"And here I was worried the Headmaster would expel you, waiting up for you like a fool. From now on, even if you beg me, I won't even spare you a second glance. Just you wait, Shu Lin!"
Silence was his only answer. Lin Shu had already returned to her dormitory, crawled into bed, and peacefully awaited a good night's sleep.
This left Malfoy with the helpless feeling of punching a cotton ball. Yet Lin Shu always went along with the grain when dealing with him, leaving not a single flaw in her words for him to pick a fight over.
She was simply driving him crazy!
Lin Shu slept exceptionally well on her first night at Hogwarts, waking up bright and early the next morning at four to practice meditation.
This was a habit she had cultivated over many years, and the timing was carefully chosen—at this hour, spiritual energy was at its peak.
After finishing her meditation, washing up, and getting dressed, she still had plenty of time to spare.
She packed her books and made her way to the Transfiguration classroom, only to find it completely empty, just as she expected.
As for Transfiguration, she was full of anticipation. In the Dongxuan Sorcery she practiced, transformation magic was never touched upon.
Not only did her sect lack teachers to impart it, but not even the ancient texts mentioned it.
Perhaps it had existed once, only to be lost to time.
None of that mattered now; what she looked forward to most was seeing how Western magic achieved transformation.
She thought as she opened her textbook and began to read. After staring at it for a long time without making any headway, she found that it only recorded theoretical knowledge, falling miles short of the threshold for actual transformation.
Involuntarily, she raised her head and rolled her slightly sore neck, only to find a cat on the podium staring right back at her in a game of mutual eye contact.
"Huh? This cat... was it just here? Strange, I didn't sense it at all."
Wait a minute! This cat... something felt a bit off.
If it were just an ordinary cat, the energy radiating from its entire body was far too strong.
Could it be a cat demon? One that had cultivated a bit of spiritual power and wanted to use this body to advance its cultivation?
Hmph! Fat chance! No matter what high-level demon you are, no matter what evil spirit or monster you pretend to be, die—perish every last one of you!
We cultivators take subduing demons and eliminating devils as our bounden duty.
Time to catch a demon!
Without a single wasted moment, Lin Shu flung an explosive talisman straight ahead, formed a sealing incantation with her left hand to cast a tight net of spiritual restraint, and reached for another explosive talisman with her right. There was no way she was letting this thing survive!
"Boom, boom, boom—"
"Bang, bang, bang—"
A cloud of smoke billowed out. Lin Shu closed her eyes to sense her surroundings, using her heavenly vision to pinpoint the cat demon's location.
Yet there was no movement for a long time. Finding this strange, Lin Shu had no choice but to open her eyes and look ahead.
There stood Professor McGonagall with an afro of frizzy hair, wisps of black smoke still curling from her mouth, staring right at her with a blank, unblinking gaze as if she wanted to burn a hole through her.
Lin Shu's heart skipped a beat. Oh no!
Was this cat demon Professor McGonagall in disguise?
No, that couldn't be right! How could Professor McGonagall possibly be a cat demon? Driven by a mixture of doubt and rigorous caution, Lin Shu pulled out the Demon-Revealing Mirror her master had given her before her departure.
"Audacious cat demon, still daring to masquerade as Professor McGonagall! Behold my Demon-Revealing Mirror..."
One look was all it took to shock her to her core.
Professor McGonagall's face was reflected in crystal-clear detail—she wasn't some disguised monster at all.
Oh, goodness gracious!
She was so startled she almost dropped the mirror.
Oh my! Oh my!
She must have woken up on the wrong side of bed; that really was Professor McGonagall's face.
Check it again!
"Oh—merciful heavens!"
Oh no, oh no, OMG, it wasn't a hallucination. That cat really was Professor McGonagall in disguise. Ahhhhhh—it seemed she had messed up again.
Powers of heaven and earth, could someone please tell her what she had just done?
She had blown up a professor.
Blown her up!
Blown her up!
She figured she was probably about to win the grand prize of expulsion!
Who could have guessed that professors in the Western magical world had such peculiar hobbies? Turning into cats for no reason and not even bothering to conceal their aura, making her think some powerful demon had shown up!
Oh heavens, oh earth.
Would it still work if she pretended to faint right now?
Just as her mind raced, a sudden chill hit the back of her neck—the warmth of someone's breath brushing against her skin. With an awkward smile frozen on her face, she turned her head to look, only to find Professor McGonagall standing right behind her, crystal-clear and as large as life.
"I expect you to give me a reasonable explanation for rashly casting a jinx in the classroom—and doing so against your own professor."
"Professor, if I told you I didn't mean to do it, would you believe me? Or perhaps, if I told you this was all a misunderstanding, would you believe that?"
Lin Shu was practically ready to cry!
Professor McGonagall's expression was utterly ghastly. After casting a Scourgify charm on herself, she kept staring at Lin Shu with an unyielding, severe look, as if letting her off the hook without a proper accounting was completely out of the question.
Knowing she was in the wrong, Lin Shu fumbled through her small backpack until she found a jade bottle of Clarity Pills.
These had been refined by her master's own hands, and their efficacy went without saying.
They were high-grade pills capable of helping practitioners break through bottlenecks, rapidly accumulate spiritual energy, enhance the strength and resilience of their meridians, and expand their spiritual capacity.
Would this be enough as an apology?
She handed the bottle over gingerly, carefully reiterating the pill's effects.
Seeing that Lin Shu had a good attitude about admitting her mistake, Professor McGonagall gave up on the idea of making things difficult for her. However, she didn't dare accept the apology gift either—who knew what other kind of trouble this girl from the East might cook up next?
Thinking this, her hand nonetheless moved of its own accord to pull out the cork. A wave of potent herbal fragrance washed over her, instantly refreshing her mind and body, leaving her intoxicated.
What kind of potion was this?
Just catching a whiff of such fragrance and sensing its potency before even taking one told her this item was extraordinary.
She could only imagine how incredible the effects would be if one actually consumed it.
Suppressing her fluttering emotions, she maintained a calm facade as she accepted the apology gift. The matter was thus considered settled, though it inevitably drew her closer attention to this girl from the East.
From setting the Sorting Hat on fire during the welcoming ceremony and "exorcising" ghosts, straight to casting a jinx on her, every single incident proclaimed that this student was far from ordinary.
Though she was loath to admit it, the Eastern sorcery Lin Shu employed genuinely possessed resistance and even suppression against their magic. That was an indisputable fact.
Professor McGonagall fell into deep thought, while Lin Shu sat on pins and needles, praying for class to start soon, for class to end soon, and wishing the professor would stop looking at her... please stop looking at her.
Time slipped away, and class finally began as the other students arrived in succession. Lin Shu finally dared to shift her weight in her seat under Professor McGonagall's watchful eye.
Despite the unpleasantness she had just experienced, Professor McGonagall diligently began teaching the first Transfiguration lesson.
"Class, when it comes to Transfiguration, I believe there are a few key points and precautions I must explain to you. If you wish to apply this magic flawlessly, you must firmly commit these rules to memory.
First, before any transformation, you must concentrate completely, wave your wand with absolute precision, and pronounce the correct incantation.
Naturally, during the transformation process, you must abide by the fundamental laws of transfiguration. Magic cannot bring the dead back to life, it cannot conjure magical items out of thin air, it cannot alter quantity or essence, and it cannot create something from nothing.
Now, we shall begin our first lesson. I trust you have all noticed the matches on your desks; today's task is to turn them into needles."
Lin Shu listened with the utmost attention, terrified that missing even a single detail would cause her to botch such powerful magic. Once Professor McGonagall finished rattling off all the necessary cautions, she began to demonstrate the deceptively simple Transfiguration spell.
With a swift flick and tap of Professor McGonagall's wand, a match instantly transformed into the shape of a needle. Sitting in the front row, Lin Shu had the clearest view possible.
That needle looked completely real, without a single flaw.
This was simply too cool.
She had to learn it. She had to learn it! She had to master this, lest she bring shame upon the Dongxuan path.
With the demonstration concluded, it was time for the students to try it themselves. Recalling the instructions, Lin Shu focused her mind and strove to banish all distractions.
Then she articulated the incantation with absolute precision:
"Vera Verto."
A spark flashed at the tip of her wand with a crackling hiss to mark its presence, yet the match on the desk remained entirely unchanged.
Professor McGonagall had been keeping a close eye on her and immediately instructed:
"Your wand movement must merge with your mind and body, and secondly, you must vividly picture the image of a needle."
Guided by the instruction, Lin Shu tried again.
This time, as her wand came down, the match smoothly turned into the shape of a needle. The sight left Lin Shu utterly stunned.
She hadn't expected to succeed.
To put it another way, while she had been full of anticipation, she was a practitioner of Dongxuan arts after all, and she had harbored a lingering fear that she might be unable to learn Western magic at all.
In truth, right up until this spell succeeded, her path had been shrouded in uncertainty; she had been terrified that these years of living abroad would yield nothing.
Yet at this moment, those worries vanished.
She had done it.
And she was the first person in the class to succeed.
Lost in joy and excitement, she remained dazed for a long moment until Professor McGonagall picked up the silver needle she had transformed, inspected it carefully, and announced:
"Splendid work, Miss Shu! The first to successfully master the Transfiguration spell. Five points to Slytherin, for a flawless transformation."
Her success acted like a pebble dropped into a calm lake, instantly stoking the competitive fires of the other little snakes.
Lin Shu herself was overjoyed, grateful that Professor McGonagall was holding no grudges. She truly had encountered a wonderful, wonderful teacher!
In the rest of the class, Malfoy took the lead. Waving his wand and chanting the incantation over and over, he too successfully turned his match into a needle, earning Professor McGonagall's praise and winning more points for Slytherin.
Genuinely happy for her good friend, Lin Shu secretly flashed him a thumbs-up while wearing a radiant smile.
As this scene caught Malfoy's eye, that intensely warm gaze momentarily scorched him. He promptly tossed his head back, holding his chin high like a proud white peacock, letting Lin Shu's look of admiration wash over him once more.
That's right—he was certain Lin Shu's gaze was one of admiration, an adoration for heroes and geniuses. In any case, he was more than worthy of it.
Through continuous practice, many students succeeded one after another in turning their matches into needles. Professor McGonagall looked immensely gratified, her affection for her students practically overflowing like a rushing river.
As ill luck would have it, just at that moment the classroom door pushed open, and Harry and Ron hurried in. With their hair and robes somewhat disheveled, they looked apologetically at Professor McGonagall, causing her newly restored good mood to instantly curdle into sternness.
Late on the very first day of term!
Unbelievable!
As she looked at Harry, Ron, and now with the addition of Shu Lin, the three of them practically constituted a complete Trio of Trolls.
What was the world coming to? This was quite simply the worst batch of students she had ever taught.