After checking the Room of Requirement.
Harry and I put the Invisibility Cloak back on and headed for the dormitory.
I had considered just sleeping in the Room of Requirement, but it would be a bit of a problem for a first-year to sleep outside the dormitory on the very first night.
In the end, we put on the Invisibility Cloak again and made our way back to the dormitory.
As we were quietly descending the Astronomy Tower, a certain cry reached our ears.
Meow—
It was the cry of a cat, its voice dripping with ill temper.
Turning our heads to look, we saw a cat with light brown fur trotting towards us.
It must not have been eating very well, as it was so skinny its eyeballs looked like they were about to pop out.
Strangely enough, even though we were hidden by the Invisibility Cloak, the cat was coming directly towards us.
Hmm. The Invisibility Cloak can't hide smells or sounds, so are animals its natural enemy?
A human voice followed the approaching cat.
"Mrs. Norris, do you hear something around here?"
Meow—
Following the cat, a grumpy-looking middle-aged man appeared.
His completely bald head was an appearance that would surely frighten any young student. Of course, my mind is that of an adult, so I am an exception.
Anyway. From the clothes he was wearing, he was undoubtedly the caretaker of Hogwarts. Reminds me of the old caretaker, Mr. Moon.
Harry whispered to me.
"Master, I think we're going to get caught! What do we do?"
Meow—
Though Harry spoke worriedly, I answered nonchalantly.
"So what if we get caught? It's fine as long as he doesn't remember us."
"Ah, that's true."
Whether we were having that conversation or not, the sound of footsteps grew closer.
Harry said to me.
"Master, let me try this time."
"Are you sure? If you use a Memory Charm incorrectly, it can cause permanent damage."
"Hmm, I'm still confident. I'll give it a try."
And with that, Harry threw off the Invisibility Cloak and drew his wand.
"Who's there! Who's out of their dormitory at this hour!"
"Obliviate!"
Flash!
The moment a light shot out from Harry's wand, the caretaker's eyes went blank.
A moment later, the caretaker, clutching his head and groaning, said.
"Ugh, my head. What was I doing here? Hmm? Mrs. Norris? Ah, I must have been on patrol, following the cat."
In that time, we were able to quietly return to the Gryffindor dormitory.
Harry grinned and said.
"It's fun having an adventure like this at night!"
"That's the real charm of attending Hogwarts."
And thinking about the classes to come, I crawled into bed and went to sleep.
Coming back to Hogwarts was definitely a very wrong choice.
I was able to realize this fact anew only after attending a few classes.
First, Charms class, taught by a professor named Flitwick.
This person, first of all, didn't teach magic.
Of course, since the foundation is important in magic, it was right to teach theory for a long time before teaching the first spell.
Though my own first week of learning magic from Professor Fig was a practical session involving a fight with a goblin.
[T/N: Professor Fig (피그 교수님): This refers to Professor Eleazar Fig from the game Hogwarts Legacy. He was the protagonist's (and thus Aisen's) main mentor, known for a very hands-on, practical approach to teaching.]
That was probably a special case for me.
But even taking that into consideration, I couldn't deny that Charms class was an extremely boring time for me.
How could I possibly enjoy listening to theory lectures when I had enough knowledge to have a debate about magic with the professor right now?
To be honest, even if we were learning magic, we would be learning basic spells, so it wouldn't have been very interesting, but wouldn't it have been better than a theory class?
In the end, I reached the conclusion that there was no reason to fight my drowsiness, and Charms class became a time for me to develop my growth plates.
"Hey, you can't sleep here! The professor is looking! Theory is the most important part!"
Hermione, who was sitting in the back seat, kept giving me hints, but I really know all of it.
Hermione seemed to be annoyed at me for ignoring her and sleeping, but it couldn't be helped.
The next class I took was Astronomy.
This one, at least, was a little better.
I had taken Astronomy when I was a student, but I could never understand why a wizard had to learn it.
As it happened, one of my friends was very knowledgeable in astronomy, so I benefited a lot from him.
In any case, it was a class where I wasn't getting absolutely nothing out of it. Though most of it was stuff I already knew.
Besides, when I was exploring the Muggle world, I had read up on Muggle astrophysics.
I was even inspired to come up with various new spells, but I'll talk about that later.
Anyway, the perspective of wizards and Muggles looking at the celestial bodies from different angles had some rather interesting points.
And yet, it was only 'a little better,' and not particularly fun.
History of Magic. Needless to say, it was boring. The fact that I was learning in detail about the last hundred years after my disappearance was interesting, but the problem was that this class started from the past and moved to the present.
In the end, what I was learning was all stuff I had already learned.
And Herbology class.
This one was the worst.
How could the professor know less about magical plants than I do?
As I was grumbling, Harry smiled awkwardly and said.
"Master. Isn't that because you used the Chinese Chomping Cabbage for such a creative purpose?"
I looked at Harry with a dumbfounded expression and argued.
"Harry. Think about it logically. The function of detoxifying a weak poison, and the function of killing a Dark Wizard by tearing them to shreds when you release five of them. Which one do you think is the more common use?"
I used to use the Chinese Chomping Cabbage so much. In the days when I refrained from using ancient magic, I had nothing to fear as long as I had cabbages and Mandrakes.
No matter how I thought about it, it was right to see this as a murderous plant that happened to have a detoxifying effect.
Why on earth are we only learning about the detoxifying function of the Chinese Chomping Cabbage?
Even though the Herbology professor, Professor Sprout, had praised me greatly after seeing how I handled the herbs, I simply could not accept it.
My old professor, Professor Garlick, had explained that the cabbage had a human-biting function when she explained it.
[T/N: Professor Garlick (갈릭 교수님): Professor Mirabel Garlick is the Herbology professor in Hogwarts Legacy. Aisen is comparing Professor Sprout's curriculum to the one he experienced in the 19th century.]
Don't tell me this information was also censored by the Ministry of Magic? I frowned and even considered the possibility of information control.
Finally, the class we were going to now was Transfiguration.
Harry looked at me and said.
"Come to think of it, isn't Transfiguration your specialty, Master?"
"I'm good at all magic, but besides ancient magic, I do have a particular fondness for Transfiguration."
Because there was no more efficient way to fight than to transform an enemy into a bomb and throw it at them. Since I used it often, I naturally became a master.
I personally think I've almost mastered Transfiguration, but I wonder if the Transfiguration professor really has anything to teach me.
I entered the classroom with a bit of anticipation, but the professor hadn't arrived yet.
As I was sitting in my seat without even taking out my textbook, Hermione came and sat next to me.
Seeing that I hadn't even opened my textbook, Hermione pointedly opened her thick textbook and said primly.
"Didn't you bring your textbook? Want to share mine?"
"No, I have it, I just didn't open it."
"What? Aisen, the textbook is important! The textbook is..."
Hermione, about to nag me. Just then, a cat appeared in a corner of the classroom.
"Oh, look over there! It's a cat!"
A few students, seeing the cat, approached it as if to pet it.
Oh dear, it would be better not to do that.
I gave a bitter smile, having deduced the identity of the cat through contextual clues.
And indeed, as I had expected, the cat suddenly transformed into a person. It was, without a doubt, the Deputy Headmistress, Professor McGonagall.
I had expected her to be a rather skilled witch since she was the Deputy Headmistress, but I never imagined she was skilled enough to use Animagus magic.
Even I can't use Animagus magic. The preparation process for learning it is extremely long, and I, who was researching ancient magic, couldn't afford to be leisurely practicing Animagus magic.
Maybe I should learn Animagus magic while I'm at it. I was a little curious what animal I would turn into.
A little while later, Professor McGonagall said.
"The Transfiguration you will be learning here is a very dangerous and difficult magic. If you cause trouble, no one will be able to attend my class, so be warned."
And with that, McGonagall demonstrated by instantly changing a desk into a pig and back.
The students all seemed to be impressed by it, but the task we were given was merely to turn a match into a needle.
Even that was difficult for the first-years, and everyone was struggling.
After a long time, Hermione, who had been constantly flipping through her textbook, was the only one who succeeded in partially changing the match into a needle. Its silver, pointed shape was something that could be argued to be a needle, somehow.
Seeing this, McGonagall praised Hermione.
"Miss Granger! Very well done. To achieve such a result in the first class, it's truly excellent! It has completely taken the form of a needle."
Hermione, who was happy to be praised, gave me a smug smile and said.
"How about that?"
"Not bad. That's some decent skill."
"What? Not bad? Then how well can you two do?"
At those words, Harry and I looked at each other once and shrugged.
I said to Harry.
"Harry, you go first."
"Alright, sure."
For the record, I had given him special permission to use informal speech in front of the other students.
As Harry waved his wand and muttered, the match instantly changed into a needle.
A sharp, completely silver-colored iron needle, ready to be used at a moment's notice. The beautiful engraving was a bonus. You have to be at least this good to be my disciple.
Seeing the match Harry had changed, McGonagall said in surprise.
"My goodness, Potter! This is truly amazing! I can say with certainty that I have not seen a single student achieve such a result in their first class in all my time at Hogwarts!"
Harry grinned and replied.
"You'll be in trouble if you're surprised by this."
"What did you say?"
And Harry gave me a look. Hmm, I guess I should uphold the dignity of a master here.
Just transforming it into a needle is too simple, so what's a good way to do this? After thinking for a moment, I grinned and waved my wand.
And then, the match, struck by the light from my wand, shattered into pieces.
Before McGonagall could open her mouth at the sight, I waved my wand once more.
And then, each of the fragments instantly grew into needles. A perfect form, none of which were inferior to the needle Harry had made.
Seeing this, McGonagall simply could not close her gaping mouth.
"By Merlin's beard! Potter, um, you're both Potters, so it's confusing. You are by no means a student who should be taking the first-year class! If you don't mind, please follow me to my office immediately after class. Harry Potter, you too."
""Yes, we understand.""
McGonagall, still unable to close her gaping mouth, muttered Merlin's name and returned to the front of the class.
As I looked at Hermione with a smile as if to say, "How about that?" I was met with an unexpected reaction.
"H-how, without even looking at the textbook!"
As if she was frustrated by the overwhelming difference in skill, Hermione bit her lip, and her eyes welled up with tears. Hmm, was I too hard on a kid?
Seeing the teary-eyed Hermione, Harry nudged my side and whispered.
"Master, a grown adult just made a little girl cry."
"Shut up, Harry."
Because I'm flustered, too.