Hector and the Weasley twins left shortly after the fireworks ended, crawling into their beds with hearts still burning with excitement.
It was truly a wonderful night. The surroundings remained quiet, without a single snore—it seemed the Stunners worked exceptionally well. Hector stared up at the ceiling and quickly drifted off to sleep.
As a result, Hector and the entire dormitory overslept. While lamenting how remarkably comfortable the Hogwarts beds were and how pleasant their rest had been the night before, they quickly got up and washed up. Hector, however, was bone-tired; night-walking was still far too heavy a burden for his current physical condition. He wanted to stay in bed, but Ron and Harry hauled him up without giving him any say.
First the two Weasley brothers, and now the youngest Weasley son and future son-in-law—it seemed hauling people out of bed was a traditional family skill of the Weasleys.
Hector resolved to eat more so he would have a bit more resilience if he ever found himself in this situation again.
Still, this method certainly woke a person up fast. Before long, the five young wizards bolted out of the Gryffindor tower. The corridors weren't overly crowded, but every eye was focused on Hector and Harry.
This caused the area around the five of them to become jammed with people instantly. Hector had no choice but to grab Ron, the tallest in the group, and yank him to the very front. Led by Ron's vanguard charge, the remaining four squeezed and carved a path through the crowd as fast as they could.
The following week was spent pretty much the same way. Once Neville and Seamus discovered the benefits of walking alone, they quickly quit the vanguard party. As for Ron, he didn't mind it much; on the contrary, he rather enjoyed the feeling of being the center of attention. Harry and Hector didn't have the luxury of minding—without Ron, the two of them could barely move an inch outside. Those fanatical witches made Hector feel somewhat like a celebrity from his past life dealing with sasaeng fans.
Consequently, Hector's sense of apology toward Ron grew heavier and heavier. Relying on the guy while plotting to poach his walls was simply too unprincipled.
Moreover, Hector had been wondering all along why Ron was starting to act more and more like a male protagonist. After all, being a human shield was a standard prerequisite label for most male protagonists in web novels early on. And if that was the case, did that make Harry the female lead? Was Malfoy the villain turning to hatred out of love? Oh no, the more Hector thought about it, the more wrong it felt—why did it somehow feel like everything was lining up?
This led to a couple of occasions later on when Hector attempted to slip away alone, but the rolling waves of young wizards all around forced him right back into Ron's reliable protection.
As for the classes that week, Hector actually found them quite interesting. On Wednesday nights, after using telescopes to observe the starry sky and track the stars' orbits, there were usually night-adventures sneaking into the Restricted Section with the Weasley twins or exploring the Forbidden Forest late at night. Three times a week, they went to the greenhouses for Herbology class behind that plump witch Professor Sprout, learning how to cultivate exotic plants and discovering their uses. Neville the chubby boy looked quite interested; Hector and the others thought it was alright, though quite novel.
As for pure-water classes like History of Magic, aside from finding the ghost professor somewhat interesting at first glance, Hector planted his face straight down onto the desk for the rest of the time. Seeing Hector fall asleep, Ron followed suit, and under the excuse that "even Old Dumbledore sleeps," he successfully got the wavering Harry to join the sleeping army shortly after, which greatly displeased Hermione, who was sitting next to Hector.
After class, she earnestly sought out Hector and delivered a detailed, stern lecture condemning his atrocious behavior of sleeping in class. Hector laughed it off, diverting the young girl's attention by mentioning that she could find him in the library that evening, and she finally left his sight in a reasonably pleasant mood.
Ron looked at Hector with eyes full of pure sympathy. He would definitely not go to the library—at least, not for now.
"I told you long ago to stay away from her. I honestly never thought she'd end up in Gryffindor; I thought for sure she'd be sorted into Ravenclaw." Ron gave Hector a comforting pat on the shoulder, and Harry patted him too, looking at Hector with eyes that bordered on pity.
"It's fine, Hermione is actually a pretty nice person, apart from being a bit rigid," Hector explained, which unexpectedly caused the other two to look at him with even more pity.
"Go eat already, you two. We've got Transfiguration this afternoon, and that's taught by our Head of House. Don't be late!"
Hector bolted out first. Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, smiled, and hurried to keep up with him.
Lunch went smoothly, and the midday break went smoothly as well. Just when everything was so pleasant that Hector thought the afternoon Transfiguration class would go off in the same smooth and pleasant fashion, the expected unexpected event was bound to happen.
Hector, Harry, and Ron stepped out of the common room right on time; Ron even felt there was enough time for a quick little nap.
He didn't think that for long, though.
The moment Ron set foot on the first flight of stairs, the entire staircase gave a loud rumble and began to shift, startling Hector right out of his skin.
In all the time he had spent here, this was the first time Hector had seen an entire floor of steps move. Then, almost immediately, every single staircase the three of them could see began to rearrange and recombine.
"Standing here like fools won't do us any good, mates!" Hector was already running, with Harry and Ron close behind.
Soon they encountered one bizarre-looking door after another. The first few doors kindly stepped aside to clear the path, but the ones further along proved rather unfeeling; unless you asked them to open with the utmost politeness, they wouldn't budge. There were even doors that, no matter how standardly you asked and bowed, remained completely impervious and locked you out anyway. Today, Hector and his friends ran into that kind—and they hit two of them in a row.
Hector used *Alohomora* to open the first door, but the second door seemed to have learned some lesson from the first; *Alohomora* proved utterly useless against it.
By the time Ron had reached the point of trying to kick the door down, Hector could hold back no longer.
"*Confringo*!" Hector told the two of them to stand back and cast the spell without a moment's hesitation.
The entire door blew apart in an explosion. Then the three of them discovered that the door blocking their way was, in a sense, actually just a wall that looked like a door.
"Do we learn this in the first year?" Harry looked both shocked and excited, and Ron was much the same. The two of them stood frozen in place until Hector crawled back out through the hole.
"Are you lot not moving? Waiting to get caught by Filch? Besides, we're going to be late in about two minutes! If I'm not mistaken, we should still be on the eighth floor."
That snapped Harry and Ron back to their senses. They quickly scrambled out through the hole. Fortunately, none of the other doors acted up anymore—they were probably frightened by Hector.
In their long careers at Hogwarts, they had never encountered such an unreasonable first-year freshman.
"Why is the Gryffindor tower on the eighth floor while the Transfiguration classroom is on the first?" Grumbling started from Ron as the three of them hurried down the stairs while trying to make sure they weren't tumbling head over heels.
His complaining seemed to backfire; the stairs began to rearrange and recombine once more. The staircase Hector and the others were on seemed intent on sending them back up to the eighth floor, because at the end of this stretch of stairs there was only one flight left, and it led upward.
"Fine, fine, fine," Hector wasn't just impatient anymore; he was gritting his teeth as he glared at the staircases, wondering how many *Confringo* blasts it would take to give these stairs a complete renovation without blowing Hogwarts straight to pieces.
He glanced down at the ground, which was currently an impossibly long way off. By the time he walked all the way down, Professor McGonagall's fury at the bottom would surely be enough to give the three of them a terrible time.
Hector made a very Gryffindor decision.
He simply jumped straight down from the eighth floor, clutching his thick Transfiguration textbook. Right before reaching the ground, he cast a Slowing Charm—it turned out to be a rather successful attempt, and Hector landed safely on the floor.
Harry and Ron didn't even have time to react. They stared at Hector's display of descending from the heavens and looked at each other in blank dismay.
"Do we learn this in the first year too?" Harry asked the ultimate question, and Ron indicated he had no idea either.
"No idea," Ron took a deep breath, looked at the distance from here to the first floor, and then looked at Hector, who was already waving at them from the bottom. Nothing was left in his heart except profound admiration. "Though I finally understand why Hector was sorted into Gryffindor."
"Need any help?" Hector's voice drifted up from the first floor.
Harry and Ron looked at each other and both shook their heads.
"No thanks. Ron and I are taking the stairs," Harry poked his head out and called back to Hector.
Ignoring the two of them who were hurrying down from the seventh floor, Hector stepped into the classroom first. Professor McGonagall was not yet in the Transfiguration classroom; only a tabby cat was sitting on the desk.
Hector knew that was Professor McGonagall, so he didn't dare misbehave. Seeing an empty seat left beside Hermione, he hurried over and sat down.
"Why are you only just getting here? Where are Harry and them? Make sure you don't lose points for Gryffindor because you're late!" Hermione looked very anxious; with her strict self-discipline, she always attached great importance to such honors.
"Uh, just a minor accident. I swear we definitely didn't oversleep," Hector immediately explained under Hermione's severe gaze.
After quite a while, Harry and Ron finally rushed into the Transfiguration classroom. The scatterbrained Ron was even feeling quite pleased that Professor McGonagall hadn't arrived yet and they weren't technically late—right before they watched that tabby cat instantly transform into a stern Professor McGonagall.
"Brilliant!" Ron breathed in amazement.
"Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Weasley. Perhaps I should turn you or Mr. Potter into a pocket watch? Maybe that would be more useful, so at least one of you could arrive at the classroom on time?" Professor McGonagall wore a smile on her face, but Harry and Ron couldn't feel much warmth in it.
"We got lost," Harry explained cautiously.
"Perhaps a map, then?" Professor McGonagall paused for a moment. "I trust you don't need a map to find your own seats."
Harry and Ron quickly hurried to their seats and sat down. Professor McGonagall walked up to the podium, looked out at the young wizards looking up at her with curious expressions, and let out a faint smile.
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing about in my class will leave and not be allowed back in. You have been warned."
Seeing the reaction of the young wizards below, Professor McGonagall looked satisfied.
"Transfiguration is a remarkably intricate and wonderful branch of magic. Personally, I consider Transfiguration to be the most elegant and superior of all magic. Once you master this subject, you will find it brings you a great deal of convenience," Professor McGonagall flicked her wand, turning her desk into a pig. The pig gave its body a lifelike shake and let out a grunt; just as it wanted to stretch its legs and run off, Professor McGonagall changed it right back. "Both in daily life and in combat."
All the young wizards were captivated by this trick—except for Hector, who had already seen Albus show off his fancy moves. Back then, Headmaster Dumbledore had put on a dazzling display specifically to make Hector temporarily give up spell practice and take up Transfiguration instead. That masterclass in Transfiguration had left a massive impact on Hector, effectively opening the door to a whole new world for him.
So magic could be played with like that.
That being said, the other young wizards were still quite stunned, and they were eager to learn how to turn furniture into any animal whatsoever. But they would soon realize there was still a great deal they had to learn before that.
Delighted to see that all the young wizards were eager to absorb this complex and profound knowledge, McGonagall quickly wrapped up the theoretical portion and handed a match to each of them.
"Now, we shall start with the basics. Please turn the match on your desk into a needle."
The young wizards drew their wands and, eager to try out the incantation they had just learned, went to work on their matches—unfortunately, with very little result. Even Hermione only managed to get her match to undergo a slight change, at least making it look a bit shiny.
Yet this fell far short of Hermione's standards. Already feeling somewhat gloomy, she looked over at Hector, who had been zoning out since the lecture and was still slacking off now, and felt a surge of irritation. She jabbed Hector hard and glared at him with a look that could almost be called ferocious.
Hector had no choice but to lean in closer and obediently prepare himself to receive a lecture from this strict Know-It-All.
"Being late is one thing, but not paying attention in class? If you keep acting like this, no matter what you say next time, I'm not letting you sit next to me," Hermione said, looking quite displeased as she stared at the listless Hector.
Hector instantly snapped to attention. Ever since the idea of "He-Hermione" had crossed his mind, losing the right to sit next to Hermione counted as a very real and effective threat.
"I was listening, really," Hector said cautiously, meeting Hermione's somewhat unfriendly glare.
"Really? Then, Mr. Dumbledore, please turn your match into a needle." Hermione clearly didn't believe him. She fixed her gaze on Hector, making him feel a bit prickly inside.
However, turning a match into a needle was the most basic of transfigurations, and Hector, having studied under Old Dumbledore, naturally wouldn't be stumped by it.
With just a light tap of his wand, the match slowly began to turn from wood into a gleaming silver needle from the tip downward. Soon, a complete and sharply defined needle appeared before Hermione's eyes.
Seeing this, Hermione nodded in reasonable satisfaction.
"Fine, I'll let you off. But I expect to see you in the library tonight. Don't make all sorts of promises like the last couple of days and then keep disappearing. Can you guarantee that?"
"I guarantee it." Hector felt a rather humiliating realization that he didn't even dare entertain the thought of resisting in front of Hermione. He merely allowed a tiny flicker of a spark inside himself wishing to rebel against tyranny, then glanced back at Hermione, who was completely absorbed in her book.
Hector promptly snuffed out that unrealistic spark. The little Hector inside his heart stomped hard a couple of times on the embers of that thought.
This couldn't be considered fear; it could only be considered respect, Hector explained to himself.
"An exceptional Transfiguration spell! Mr. Dumbledore, ten points to Gryffindor!" Professor McGonagall spotted the silver needle Hector had conjured and looked quite pleased. "Splendid talent, Hector. Keep it up."
Hector puffed out his chest with pride as well. After all, he had been able to do this very quickly when he first learned it, so Professor McGonagall's praise was, to put it mildly, thoroughly deserved.
Seeing the look of approval sent by Hermione, Hector puffed his chest out even higher.