HP: Hogwart's Journey

It turns out that kids come in two types. Those who act like troublemakers on their own, and those who drag others into their mischief.

Under Robert's leadership, this group of little badgers didn't quite learn how to take down the Slytherins by themselves, but they did master the art of backstabbing behind their Badger King. When the little badgers—looking fresh-faced, with slightly swollen cheeks—appeared in the Great Hall, the older Hufflepuffs were shocked and immediately rushed to offer their concern. When they learned what these audacious little troublemakers had been up to, the Hufflepuffs were almost knocked out from the shock.

Professor Snape hurriedly left, shooting a vicious glare at the little mischief-makers. Ultimately, the whole fiasco was brushed under the rug by Professor Stan, who claimed it was a "magical duel" he had organized to test how well these kids could handle wizarding combat. Professor McGonagall was furious, but she had no choice. Since the professor had taken responsibility for it, all she could do was assign a mountain of Transfiguration homework to keep these unruly kids' boundless energy in check.

Madam Pomfrey, who ran the school hospital, mentioned that this was the first time she had seen so many students hospitalized in the first month of school, some of them having come back more than once. She suggested to Headmaster Dumbledore that the injured students should be sent to St. Mungo's for treatment.

"I suggest they spend a week interning in the Curse Damage Department on the fifth floor," Madam Pomfrey said. "That way, they'll learn to properly handle their wands instead of casting random spells like foolish trolls!"

Professor Sprout expressed her displeasure with the situation, as the little badgers' recklessness had robbed her of a valuable workforce. As expected, the little badgers received Professor Sprout's "affection" in the form of a task: they were required to submit a detailed guide on raising Devil's Snare, meaning that for the entire year, they'd be taking care of a plant carefully cultivated by Professor Sprout herself.

However, it wasn't all bad. When they returned to the Gryffindor common room, the little badgers were pleasantly surprised to find a gift box on each of their beds. Inside were two Chocolate Frogs and two large chunks of Honeydukes' finest fudge. It didn't take a genius to figure out that this was from Professor Sprout. The seemingly warm and straightforward professor turned out to have quite the hidden side.

Robert, happily munching on the fudge, couldn't help but think about how strange it was. Of course, there was no such thing as a free lunch, and he had spent many hours looking at his overflowing skill panel. Most of the skills listed were related to specific spells, such as "Bat-Bogey Hex Level 0 (2/10)," and others like "Levitation Spell Level 1 (1/20)."

He even saw one for "Whispered Incantation Level 0 (1/10)" and "Magic Surge Level 0 (1/10)," which he hoped meant what he thought it did. In any case, Robert was quite content. However, this large-scale skill grinding seemed to have its limitations. So far, he had discovered that he could only grind skills once every three months. But it might be that certain targets need to be at a higher level to progress, just like with the twins—he'd been able to keep leveling up his Mischief skill by practicing pranks with them. He was already at level 1.

Life at Hogwarts continued. Aside from the mandatory climb to the Astronomy Tower every Wednesday night, most of the other classes felt a little dull. Even Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration classes didn't challenge Robert. These lessons typically went like this: Professor McGonagall would write the key points on the board, and the little witches and wizards would copy them down. Robert would go up to demonstrate a spell and ask a few questions, at which point McGonagall would explain and start walking around the class.

Robert would take that opportunity to read *Transfiguration Today*, an academic journal focusing on Transfiguration. The content was often difficult for him, but Professor McGonagall would circle the articles that were appropriate for him to read, and he'd copy them down in class before returning the magazine to her after the lesson.

As for Flying lessons... Robert thought that some things just couldn't be forced, like the fact that he would get dizzy flying on a broomstick. Fortunately, he wasn't afraid of heights, and Madam Hooch had a laid-back personality—though a bit careless at times. After putting in countless hours of extra practice, he finally learned the skill just before Christmas. 

Flying on a Broomstick Level 0 (1/10)

Christmas quickly approached, and in the midst of all the studying, three months passed in the blink of an eye. Robert hadn't even realized it, but Hogwarts was now blanketed in thick snow. The lake had frozen over, and yesterday, Professor McGonagall came to take the list of students who would stay at school over the holiday. However, Elsa had written to him earlier, asking if he would come home to spend their first Christmas together. So, this year, he wouldn't be attending the Hogwarts Christmas feast.

But there was something bothering Robert—his Halloween had passed without a trace!

His pumpkin feast! 

Robert was completely dumbfounded. For a wizard with a pumpkin obsession, missing Halloween was nothing short of a tragedy.

"Actually, we invited you to the ghost's feast that night," Fred said, grinning. "You should have come, the ghosts really know how to spook the living, though Peeves kind of ruined everything."

"And then he got a good thrashing from the Bloody Baron," George added with a chuckle. "Oh, and I remember you were practicing a spell that night, right?"

Practicing a spell? 

Finally, Robert had a bit of a recollection, and he instantly felt embarrassed. He'd been trying to cast the Disillusionment Charm to scare people, but it turned out that the spell consumed a lot of magic, and he didn't want to be caught by the Slytherins after the feast ended, drained of power. So instead, he stayed in his dormitory flipping through books, looking for some low-energy spell to help him out.

As soon as he opened *The Book of Invisibility Spells*, a prompt appeared: **Invisibility Charm Level 0 (1/10).**

In the blink of an eye, Robert had learned it.

Studying brings joy!

And so, he completely forgot about Halloween.

Well, that was a heavy topic. Time to move on...

"Let's go play in the snow!" Fred said cheerfully. "There's nothing better than a good snowball fight on a day like this!"

George looked equally eager.

Robert shot them a disdainful look. "A snowball fight? You don't think it's a bit too empty with just the three of us?"

The twins argued that numbers didn't matter, as they usually played with Ron.

Poor Ronald...

Robert paused for a moment to silently mourn for their younger housemate, then put forward an idea. 

And so, by ten in the morning, every first-year student in the Great Hall received an invitation.

"Hogwarts First-Year Magical Snowball Combat Tournament?" Headmaster Dumbledore glanced at the white parchment in his hands, which was filled with colorful text describing the rules of the competition.

"Yes, Professor," Robert explained. "With the term ending soon, I thought we could give the professors a chance to assess our grasp of what we've learned so far, so they can plan for the next term." 

(End of Chapter)