Having woken up from his sleep, Lynn didn't get out of bed immediately. It was still early outside; classes at Hogwarts didn't start until 9 AM.
The schedule for first-year students was quite loose, and the coursework couldn't really be called a burden at all.
This gave the new students at Hogwarts plenty of time to get familiar with the school and school life. In terms of education, Hogwarts was somewhat touched by the flavor of "happy education"; if you didn't take the initiative to work hard yourself, what you learned would only barely be enough for you to live a normal life in the wizarding world.
"Where can I go to get some money?"
Lynn pondered. Cho's birthday was in three weeks. If he didn't know, that would be one thing, but since he did know, he naturally had to prepare a birthday gift.
But he was currently empty-handed. Although he still had nearly two thousand British pounds in cash, Muggle money really wasn't very useful in the wizarding world. He had pretty much used up his Galleons in Diagon Alley; buying various books and materials had cost a lot. Even though the books were second-hand ones bought from the junk shop, it was still a considerable expense.
If Ollivander hadn't given him those introductory books, just buying the primers alone would have drained his wallet if Lynn wanted to research wand-making.
If one wanted to study the sub-disciplines of alchemy, the upfront costs were simply not something an average person could easily afford.
"I can't exactly ask Harley to lend me some, can I? Or should I find a chance to go out, exchange the pounds for gold, and then exchange that for some Galleons?"
"So troublesome. Constant teleportation is exhausting. I don't know how to Apparate yet, and this place is dead far from London—over six hundred kilometers. I'd die of exhaustion halfway there."
"If only Cho was born on December 25th. That way, one gift could cover both the birthday present and the Christmas present."
After grumbling a few times on the bed, Lynn threw off the duvet, breaking free from the seal of the warm bedding. As the lingering warmth of late summer thoroughly dissipated, the weather these days was getting colder and colder. A while ago, Harley and Cho still dared to wear dresses during the day, but if it were today, they wouldn't dare go out without draping a coat over themselves.
Rubbing his hands together, Lynn got up and finished washing up. Shortly after he got out of bed, the others in the dormitory woke up one after another.
"Good morning, Lynn."
Sleeping in the bed closest to the washbasin, Neville rubbed his eyes and propped himself up in a daze. He stifled a huge yawn, his chubby face full of confusion.
"Where did my robe go?"
Neville, preparing to get dressed, felt around left and right but didn't find his robes.
"Maybe the house-elves took it to wash for you." Lynn pointed to the wardrobe beside the bed. "Maybe it was put inside there."
"Great." Neville got out of bed and opened the wardrobe, and sure enough, he saw his robe. "If I had lost my robe too, that would have been terrible. Gran bought me several school robes just because she was afraid I'd fit nothing to wear one day, but I forgot when I left and only brought one with me."
"Neville, you really need to fix that habit of losing things." Seamus, who had also gotten up, had changed out of his pajamas and was pulling his head through his robes. "If Dean hadn't seen it yesterday, you would have forgotten to bring your schoolbag back to the dorm."
"Sorry." Neville gave a naive, simple smile, looking a bit embarrassed. "I'm always losing things, but I don't want to be like this either..."
"Do you want me to help out a little?"
Lynn, who was ready to head out, stopped in front of Neville's bed. He then rummaged around in his bag and pulled out his magical item.
[Da-da-da-da, da~ da-da]
[Owner Stickers~]
"As long as you stick this sticker on, you never have to fear losing your things again. Just say 'Come back,' and your lost item will fly to your side. It absolutely won't get lost or dropped."
"There are two sheets with 24 stickers here; that should be enough for you, Neville. You can choose some things you use often but tend to forget easily to stick them on, like your books, wand, and things like that."
"That's wonderful!"
Neville let out a cheer, stepped forward excitedly, and reached out to carefully accept the box of stickers Lynn handed him, holding it in his palms like a treasure.
"This suits Neville even better than a Remembrall!"
Seamus, who knew a lot about the wizarding world, exclaimed, "Where did you buy that? Diagon Alley?"
"It's not in Diagon Alley, and there's nowhere in England that sells it. This is the only copy."
"Is this too valuable?"
Although Neville liked the stickers very much, he felt a bit embarrassed.
"How about we treat it as an early Christmas present from me?"
"Then this must be the best Christmas present I've ever received, Lynn!"
Neville smiled happily. He made up his mind that he would prepare an equally wonderful gift for Lynn at Christmas.
"Although my magic pocket doesn't have everything," Lynn patted the pocket inside his robes, "I don't mind if you call me Dora-Lynn-mon."
"I'm going to the Great Hall to eat. Bye-bye."
"Bye-bye! See you in the Great Hall, Dora-Lynn-mon!"
After Lynn left, Seamus and Dean immediately crowded around Neville, telling him to stick a sticker on a book and test out the effect.
Off to the side, a somewhat envious Ron glanced at Neville, then curled his lips and muttered, "What's so special about that."
Lynn waited in the common room for a few minutes before he saw Harley coming down the stairs, linking arms with two girls on her left and right. On the left was Hermione, and on the right was the elder of the twin sisters, Parvati. Although she was a girl of Indian descent, as a noble Brahmin from India, her skin was actually quite fair; after all, most high castes are descendants of Aryans, so their complexion is quite white.
"Yo, found another new girlfriend, Harley?"
Lynn rose from the armchair and asked teasingly.
"Heh heh~ That's for sure. Parvati is so pretty, of course I want to be her good friend!"
Parvati, whose arm was linked with Harley's, lowered her head slightly in shyness and revealed a sweet smile. Harley had a great personality; she was cheerful and generous, and she was good-looking too, making her very popular among the girls. Although some people kept their distance out of jealousy, those people were mostly not among the ones Harley would get close to. She liked hanging out with good-looking people.
Before long, Lynn became familiar with Parvati as well. The group walked together toward the Great Hall. As they sat down at the dining table and began to enjoy breakfast, they gradually opened up a topic of conversation.
"Parvati, I have a question I'm a bit curious about. Do you mind talking about it?"
"What do you want to know?" Parvati put down her knife and fork and looked up at Lynn, who was sitting beside Harley.
"How did you come to attend school here at Hogwarts? There's a magic school in India, right?"
"Oh, that." Parvati didn't find it surprising. "My dad works over here, so I came to Hogwarts. There is a magic school in India, but I heard from my mum that it's not very good there."
"Though I feel it's actually quite interesting. The wizards over there don't use wands—or rather, only a portion of them use wands. The vast majority of wizards use a kind of short, thick staff. It's quite interesting when they cast spells too; they have to jump around in place, striking poses or dancing, while buzzing and chanting scriptures with their mouths. I saw it when I went back with Dad and Mum before. It was really fun."
"There is just one bad thing: they aren't hygienic. I grew up in Manchester, and Dad and Mum have lived here for a long time too, so it's really hard for me to accept that they take cow... um... better not say it. Let's eat, let's eat."
Parvati waved her hand in front of her nose as if fanning away some bad smell.
"Cow's what?" Harley revealed the expression of a curious baby, pressing Parvati for an answer.
"You'd better ask after you finish eating, Harley."
Lynn, who had already roughly guessed what it was, filled his stomach in a few bites and drank a mouthful of hot milk to settle his nerves.
"Alright..."
Harley pouted and focused on tackling her jam and bread.
Wait until they were well-fed and strolling toward the Transfiguration classroom, Harley asked the previous question again.
"Actually, it's just..." Parvati hesitated. "Let me state beforehand, I definitely haven't done that."
"So what is it, exactly?"
"When new students enroll over there, they are required to undergo a 'baptism'—smearing the excrement of Aditi, and then washing their souls clean in the Holy River."
"Excrement of what?"
Harley was shocked. Regardless of what creature's excrement it was, that would be disgusting!
"Aditi is the Unbound Mother Goddess, which refers to the cow. In Hinduism, cow dung is viewed as a purifying medium. There is a saying that cow dung cleanses filth," Lynn explained.
"Urgh~"
Harley retched, her expression exceptionally colorful.
"So that's the reason why I came to Hogwarts to study." Parvati spread her hands somewhat innocently. "I really couldn't accept that kind of thing. Even if Dad told me those Holy Cows grew up eating magical herbs, there isn't any essential difference between herbs and fodder, is there?"
"It's a good thing you came to Hogwarts, Parvati. You must stay fragrant forever."
"Mhm, I definitely will."
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