Hogwarts in November was so cold that it made one want to stay in bed forever. Perhaps it was because he had been in Slytherin for too long, or perhaps it was because he had been raising Kulkan for a long time, but Sean felt as though he were on the verge of hibernating. He had been feeling a bit sleepy recently, especially every morning. He felt as though he were sealed to his bed, and it was incredibly difficult to muster the will to get up.
It wasn't until Blaise came to knock on his door that Sean finally put on his casual clothes and finished washing up.
Looking at the reluctant Sean, Blaise smiled and said, "I thought you were a very self-disciplined person, but it turns out you also have a less self-disciplined side too."
"It's just so hard to get out of bed in the winter," Sean grumbled.
As he spoke, Sean left Kulkan in his room, letting her lie on his bed where the residual warmth of his body lingered. The snake could stay warm there for a while. As for the temperature outside, it was simply too low, and Sean didn't want to let Kulkan follow him out to suffer in the cold.
Sean and Blaise didn't wear their school robes. Instead, they wore casual clothes suitable for exercise. Blaise wore athletic clothing similar to a Quidditch player's uniform, while Sean wore simple sportswear from the Muggle world. The two walked out of Hogwarts Castle and went to the open space where Flying Class was held to start their morning running exercise.
Since the troll incident, Sean and Blaise had made an agreement to wake up an hour early every morning for physical exercise.
After the duel with the troll had ended, Sean had activated the talent slot on his panel and gained two new talents derived from the troll's abilities: Giant Strength and Giant Hide.
According to the original panel's logic, Sean would have directly acquired abilities equal to the troll's. However, he and the troll were two entirely different species. If those abilities had been forcibly granted, it would have caused Sean's body to undergo a monstrous distortion towards the troll, turning him into a semi-human, half-troll hybrid – an outcome Sean would absolutely not allow.
Therefore, the panel had adapted, changing these two abilities into talents. Although this greatly weakened their original power, it meant they could enhance Sean's physical fitness as his body grew and developed. It was for this reason that Sean had chosen to start exercising daily, to maximize the effect of these new talents.
Of course, even at this early stage, Sean's strength had already significantly increased, surpassing that of ordinary people by a considerable margin. If Sean were to duel Malfoy now, he was confident he could resolve the conflict with a single punch.
At the age of eleven or twelve, it was a time of rapid physical development. Both Sean and Blaise were types who developed quite well, with good height and physique. After an hour of exercise, neither of them showed any signs of fatigue; instead, they both looked energetic and refreshed.
After returning to the common room to wash up and change, Sean and Blaise went to the Great Hall for breakfast and then went to their respective classrooms with the other students.
The end of Halloween did not make the students of the four houses quiet down. On the contrary, the atmosphere became even more boisterous, because after Halloween came the Hogwarts Quidditch matches. Although Sean personally wasn't very enthusiastic about this popular sport in the European magical world, most young wizards were obsessed with it, and strong Quidditch players often held a transcendent, almost celebrity, status within the school.
"Sean, the groups are out."
Looking at Blaise sitting beside him at lunch, Sean stuffed his last bite of food into his mouth, chewed, swallowed, and then said to Blaise, "What are the group results?"
"We're with Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw are in the other group. The winners of the two groups will compete for the championship."
"This grouping isn't very good," Sean commented, taking a sip of the milk in his cup. Ever since he had decided to start exercising, Sean tried to choose milk whenever he drank something.
Hearing Sean's words, Blaise nodded and said, "It is indeed a very bad grouping. Gryffindor's Quidditch team is about the same strength as ours, and we've had wins and losses against them before. Now there's an extra 'Savior,' and I hear his skills are quite good, otherwise he wouldn't have been promoted exceptionally. We're in danger this time."
Raising his eyebrows slightly, Sean looked at Blaise and found that he didn't seem to know that Malfoy had joined the Quidditch team and that the Malfoy family had donated a batch of Nimbus 2000s to the team because of this. It seemed that compared to Gryffindor's almost sieve-like level of secrecy, their own Slytherin team did a pretty good job in terms of confidentiality.
As the Quidditch season began, the entire Hogwarts was engulfed in an atmosphere even more fervent than Halloween. Whenever there was a match, the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch was packed, no longer the empty scene of only player training and young couples being affectionate like on weekdays.
Sean sat in the Slytherin section, holding a book and flipping through it, which made the surrounding Slytherin students stare in surprise, thinking that someone from Ravenclaw had gone to the wrong place and sat in their Slytherin seats.
The match started quickly, and the players of both teams were as usual. When Harry, holding his Nimbus 2000, was the first to follow the Gryffindor team onto the field, it immediately attracted the attention and a lot of discussion from others. Although the fact that Harry was exceptionally admitted to the Gryffindor team was no longer a secret in Slytherin, for most people, they did not know this news and naturally showed the expected surprise when they saw Harry.
Oliver Wood, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, looked at the surprised sounds from the audience and showed a satisfied smile on his face. This was the effect he wanted: surprise, and then lay the foundation for victory in one fell swoop. No one knew better than him how amazing Harry's talent in Quidditch was, a talent enough to become a professional player!
At this time, on the other side of the field, the Slytherin Quidditch players looked at the Gryffindor team, who had entered the field first, each of them holding their own brand-new Nimbus 2000. At the same time, Marcus Flint, the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, turned his head to look at Malfoy, who was standing at the end of the team looking a bit nervous, and said loudly, "Give the stupid lions of Gryffindor a lesson! Let them know that putting their hope in the great 'Savior' is a wrong decision!"
"Oh!"
Accompanied by the shouts of the team, the members of the Slytherin team entered the field one by one, also showing off Malfoy, who had also been exceptionally admitted to the team, and their Nimbus 2000s, one for each person!
Looking at Slytherin, which caused an even greater reaction from the crowd, Sean nodded slightly.
I can only help this much, he thought. If they still lose like this, then it's their own fault for letting Harry steal the show.
The match started quickly, and as Sean had imagined, the two sides were full of gunpowder from the beginning. The match was like a war, and Harry and Malfoy were constantly competing for the Golden Snitch flying around.
It has to be said that in terms of raw talent alone, Harry was at least two levels above Malfoy. Just as Harry was about to catch the Golden Snitch, his broom suddenly vibrated and then shook wildly in mid-air, almost throwing Harry off. Harry's Nimbus 2000 had actually gone out of control at this critical moment!
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