Chapter 48: Hard Fists, Stiff Wands

Snape left the sniffling Malfoy behind and headed toward the first-year boys' dormitory. Goyle and Crabbe had just finished changing their clothes when Snape dragged them out for a confrontation.

Having received confirmation, Snape walked toward Chu Yang's room with a look of suspicion and shock.

Malfoy and the other two followed closely behind Snape.

Snape shoved the door open hard, then looked up, only to find that not a single spot showed any signs of damage.

Chu Yang, who was just stepping out of the washroom, caught sight of Snape's frost-covered face and the aggrieved-looking Malfoy trailing behind him.

Chu Yang smiled warmly and said, "Respected Professor Snape, is there something the matter early in the morning?"

Snape took a deep breath, bypassing the issue of the bookmark, and asked instead, "Malfoy here is your roommate, yet he spent last night sleeping in the common room. Care to offer an explanation?"

Chu Yang cast a swift glance at Malfoy and the other two, then asked in surprise, "Malfoy actually slept in the common room last night?"

An expression of regret surfaced on his face, accompanied by an apologetic tone. "I went to sleep rather early last night, and Malfoy and the others woke me up when they came back. I complained a bit; perhaps that's why he decided to go sleep in the common room."

Chu Yang looked at Malfoy with a beaming smile. "I am terribly sorry, Malfoy."

Malfoy felt his scalp tingle with dread!

"However, I recall inviting you to stay and rest afterward, don't I?" Chu Yang stared sincerely at the three of them.

Goyle and Crabbe subconsciously nodded on the spot. Chu Yang wasn't lying; he had indeed invited Malfoy to stay last night, except that the other boy had been far too terrified and bolted.

Having finally pieced together the whole story, Snape glared coldly at Malfoy. "Malfoy, I am someone who utterly detests lies. Your behavior today is something I will report truthfully to your father."

Malfoy let out an immediate shriek of despair!

The highest form of deception in this world was to scramble the sequence of the truth and then embellish it richly before telling the tale.

Chu Yang smiled quite contentedly, though in the eyes of Goyle and Crabbe, his smile resembled that of a demon.

"Off to class, right now!"

Snape roared in fury, sending Malfoy and his two cronies scurrying in panic out of the dormitory.

Before leaving, Snape cast one deep, lingering look at Chu Yang.

He knew matters were not as simple as Chu Yang made them sound, but since the boy had left no concrete evidence of wrongdoing, there was no need to pursue it further.

As for Malfoy, Snape's anger toward him stemmed entirely from sheer stupidity.

When arrogance and capability were mismatched, one was nothing more than an insufferable, pompous idiot.

Knowing Snape's temperament, Chu Yang understood the moment he saw the professor's reaction that this chapter was officially closed.

The very first thing Chu Yang did upon waking up this morning was erase any traces left behind from the previous night.

After removing the bookmark, he had simply used a mending charm to restore everything to its original state.

Snape probably never imagined that a newly enrolled young wizard could cast spells with such effortless proficiency.

Once Malfoy and the others had departed with Snape, Chu Yang leisurely gathered his belongings and headed out, only to be blocked by several older students the moment he stepped into the common room.

"Listen here, kid, I heard you turned a bunch of your classmates upside down the night before last. The tricks you learned in the Muggle world won't work all the time here." A tall senior glared down at Chu Yang from a position of towering superiority.

Chu Yang smiled with absolute politeness. "That's quite all right—as long as they worked the night before last!"

Hearing Chu Yang's retort, the tall senior felt his anger flare up instantly. He had never expected a mere first-year to dare talk back to him like this.

"Harper!" A tall, thin boy with long, curly hair reached out to stop the senior from losing his temper. "We are wizards, not common thugs brawling in Muggle streets. We have our own ways of handling things."

The bulky boy named Harper reined in his fury, stepped back a few paces, and muttered darkly, "You're right, Marcus."

With that, the long-haired boy named Marcus drew his wand from within his robes and pointed it at Chu Yang. "Do you have any idea how many points our house lost because of you? And the term has barely even started!"

Seeing him draw his wand, the polite smile vanished from Chu Yang's face. His expression turned solemn as he replied, "Firstly, I've already won back every single point Slytherin lost. Secondly, are you certain you want to go through with this? Do you possess the courage to bear all the consequences?"

"Courage?" Marcus laughed playfully, mocking him. "Courage isn't exclusively a Gryffindor trademark. Slytherin has never lacked courage either."

Amidst their standoff, another senior walked down the spiral staircase. Radiating a strong aura, he strode proudly over to them and said, "Marcus, don't overdo it, or I'll have a hard time explaining things to the school administration. This is my final year here, and I don't want any stains on my record."

"No problem, Prefect. I'll just use a simple petrification curse to keep him planted in the common room for the entire day," Marcus replied respectfully.

The senior cast a cold glance at Chu Yang before turning and walking away from the common room without looking back.

Was disciplining a half-blood or Muggle-born wizard in Slytherin supposed to be some monumental event?

Of course not!

This pack of older students had wanted to put Chu Yang in his place since last night, but because Chu Yang had changed dormitories at the last minute, they hadn't been able to track him down.

Who could have possibly predicted that an orphan-train boy like Chu Yang would manage to secure a two-person suite?

Students constantly walked past Chu Yang, every single one of them wearing an attitude of absolute indifference.

Not a soul here cared what his fate would be...

"Slytherin truly is a wonderful place; I'm growing fonder of it by the minute." The corners of Chu Yang's lips curved upward, though his eyes emitted a dangerous signal.

"I'm going to make you understand that fists are utterly useless to a wizard!" Marcus brandished his wand while chanting an incantation. His casting speed was exceptionally fast, completed in barely two seconds.

The tip of Marcus's wand flashed with a faint light.

With a vigorous flick of his wrist, the triggered spell shot toward Chu Yang like a flash of lightning.

Chu Yang sidestepped the spell with ease, even twisting his waist slightly as he engaged in some warm-up stretches, and taunted, "Your spellwork is quite practiced—must use this trick on people often, don't you? But your speed is far too sluggish; even my neighbor's grandmother is more agile than you."

"Is this supposed to be the wizard's way of handling things? It's far less formidable than a Muggle's fists."

Chu Yang's words carried minimal physical damage, but their level of insult was catastrophic. The students watching the spectacle burst into laughter, and Marcus's face turned visibly red with rage. Raising his wand once more, he prepared to cast a far more powerful spell.

Talk of restraint was entirely pointless; blinded by rage and humiliation, Marcus simply wanted to obliterate Chu Yang.

"Confringo!"

Marcus was casting the Blasting Curse!

Unfortunately for him, Chu Yang, possessing the Perception Haki, had already drawn his own wand and cast a counter-spell before Marcus had even finished shouting.

"Expelliarmus!"

Disarming Charm!

A beam of light burst from the tip of Chu Yang's wand, striking Marcus's wand with pinpoint accuracy and blasting it out of his hand.

The amused laughter of the onlookers in the common room instantly died out. Everyone stared in utter shock at the first-year who had managed to cause such a massive sensation.

Clearly, the scene unfolding before them was not what they had hoped to see.