The black-haired girl collapsed in front of Wayne, rubbed her forehead, and stood up, revealing her delicate and lovely features.
"It's nothing, just a bit of pain in my forehead," she said.
"I'm sorry, I was distracted and didn't watch where I was going," Wayne replied. Although he would likely become a troublemaker in the future, he still had some manners; after all, it was his fault to begin with.
Without waiting for the girl to respond, he pointed his finger and quietly incanted, "Healing as before!" A warm sensation spread through her forehead, and the girl suddenly realized that the pain was gone. She looked into the nearby mirror and saw that the recent swelling had vanished as well.
"A healing spell, and you performed it without a wand! You're amazing!" She exclaimed enthusiastically, looking at Wayne. "My name is Qiu Zhang. What's yours?"
"Wayne, Wayne Lawrence."
So this is Qiu Zhang. Wayne thought as he looked at the girl; she was so different from her portrayals in films and was indeed a quintessential Chinese beauty.
"I remember now! You're the one with the hat mishap from yesterday!" Qiu suddenly realized.
Wayne nodded with a smile, "That's right! If I had known there were so many beautiful girls in Ravenclaw, I might have chosen to join Ravenclaw instead of Hufflepuff."
Saying something nice was still within his skill set. As expected, when Qiu heard Wayne complimenting her, she blushed a little, feeling both shy and happy.
The distance between them shrank significantly as they walked and chatted toward the Great Hall, laughing together.
"Hmph!"
After they left, a soft huff came from the other side of the entrance. Hermione had just finished her Herbology class and witnessed the entire interaction.
Recalling her first encounter with Wayne and how he had treated her, she felt a strange discomfort.
....
"Quidditch trials start next week, and I'm unsure if I'll be selected."
Wayne and Qiu were getting along well, but their only disagreement was about how Qiu thought he should have joined Ravenclaw since he was so smart, rather than Hufflepuff.
Wayne, however, felt that there were smart people in other houses too—like Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore, who were not from Ravenclaw.
Of course, there was something about his judgments that he didn't voice. That was, he believed that Ravenclaw's so-called intelligence often boiled down to mere arrogance or cunning cleverness.
Just look at some of the graduates from Ravenclaw. The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this semester, Quirrell, was easily manipulated into becoming Voldemort's puppet. Next semester's Lockhart was an out-and-out fraud.
As for Barty Crouch, he indeed was an elite wizard and one of the most competent officials at the Ministry of Magic, but he temporarily lost his mind and secretly brought his son out of Azkaban, leading to a series of subsequent disasters.
From this perspective, most Ravenclaw graduates were just a bit clever but entirely missed the essence.
But such remarks were definitely not something Wayne would share with Qiu. Otherwise, the girl, who appeared charming just now, could instantly turn hostile.
Hearing her worry about the Quidditch trials, Wayne comforted her, "Don't worry. Cedric said that it would be remarkable for Ravenclaw's Quidditch team to gather seven players at all, so you'll definitely be selected."
Ravenclaw was predominantly female, and many oddballs existed within it who weren't enthusiastic about participating in group activities. Cedric's comment was rather accurate and objective.
Qiu's face darkened.
"Cedric?"
"That third-year who's first in his class, the Hufflepuff Seeker?"
"Thank you for the encouragement! I'm going to practice now! I'll definitely be on the field for the match against Hufflepuff!"
Fired up by this, Qiu fully ignited her competitive spirit. She had originally wanted to compete for the position of Seeker and had secretly practiced over the summer.
As long as she made the team, when the match against Hufflepuff came, she would definitely catch the Golden Snitch and show Cedric the consequences of underestimating Ravenclaw.
Wayne smiled as he watched her leave.
[Host sows discord, damaging the relationship between the two houses. Reward points +50]
Tsk.
Fortunately, this system was easy to manage; otherwise, it would definitely be uninstalled.
What do you mean by sowing discord? He merely relayed Cedric's exact words without embellishing anything. Besides, isn't trash-talking before a match normal?
He hadn't even gotten into the juicier bits yet.
For instance, Fred shared a secret on the train yesterday.
Every match between each house and Ravenclaw takes a long time. And why is that...?
Because of seven players: five are girls and both Beaters are also female.
Besides playing Quidditch, when would you get an opportunity to have so many girls with you, even pursuing you?
At this point, not only the twins but even Cedric flashed a cheeky smile, thoroughly enjoying the conversation.
....
The afternoon consisted of two back-to-back charm classes. Professor Flitwick stood atop a high stack of books taking attendance. When he finally called out "Harry Potter," he squealed with excitement and fell from the books.
After a while, he calmed down and began the first charm lesson.
Charm is the foundation of everything; learning charms is not just about mastering them but also about enhancing the efficiency of learning other spells, allowing young witches and wizards to develop their own understanding of magic.
That's why Harry could quickly get the hang of the Disarming Charm and Armor Charm after exposure to them.
With a good foundation, learning other spells would be much quicker.
"Today, we will learn the most basic spell, the Lumos Charm. It's quite simple; the incantation is 'Lumos'..."
.....
"What's wrong? Did someone upset you?"
Wayne was still sitting next to Hermione, but the little witch didn't give him a good expression.
When she saw Wayne sit down, she said nothing and turned her fair face away.
Her expression practically screamed, "I'm unhappy. Come and cheer me up."
Wayne thought for a moment; it couldn't possibly be about what happened in History of Magic class—Hermione wasn't that petty.
So what had happened?
"Don't talk to me in class, Mr. Lawrence!"
Well, she used his last name, so he had identified the source of the trouble.
Wayne couldn't guess what exactly made the little witch upset, and since he had no experience in comforting girls, he decided to take a cold-shoulder approach.
As Professor Flitwick let everyone practice freely, the classroom suddenly buzzed with noise.
The chorus of spell incantations filled the air.
Wayne raised his wand and softly chanted, "Lumos!"
___________________________________________________________________________
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