The mastermind behind Hogwarts

Chapter 85 Freshmen Who Left a Bad Impression on Their Seniors (Please add to your favorites and read on!)

A flash of red light appeared, and Soldaya's wand slipped from his hand!

Disarming spell successfully activated!

Jericho curled the corners of his mouth into a smile.

"The wand flies here."

The wand, which had flown through the air, landed in Jericho's hand. He picked it up, examined it briefly, and exclaimed in a slightly exaggerated tone, "Wow, twelve inches long, ebony, with the heart and nerves of a fire dragon. Suitable for powerful, offensive magic and transmutation."

Jericho twirled Sordar's wand like a pen, looking Sordar up and down. "You look like a powerful wizard, so why is your wand in my hand?"

"You are very strong."

Sordaya looked at Jericho with a serious expression. Jericho hadn't used a wand when he cast the Disarming Charm! He was only a year older than him, yet he could cast spells without a wand!

Are all the people around Mr. Moriarty this terrible?

"Brilliant staffless spellcasting!" Moriarty praised. Jericho's staffless spellcasting technique was much more refined than when he cast it on Keith last year. He was very talented in staffless spellcasting, which might be related to the Blanche family.

"Oh, not at all, I just know some simple little magic." Jericho scratched his head and smiled shyly, as if he wasn't the one who had shown off his skills earlier.

He then placed Sordaya's wand on the table and said calmly, "If you want to stay by my side, I advise you to first learn to keep your abilities hidden."

"Hidden talent..." Soldaya's hoarse voice rang out. He had thought that he could gain a good position by Moriarty's side with the Unforgivable Curse, but he seemed to have underestimated the people around Moriarty.

"Alright, Soldaya, sit down quietly." Moriarty looked at the dazed Soldaya and spoke in a stern tone: "I thought you would bring me some surprises, but instead you chose to provoke me. You left me with a good impression at the Pureblood Gathering, which seems to have given you the illusion of arrogance? So this time, you have left me, and us, with a bad impression of being reckless, arrogant, and spoiled!"

Soldaya's gaze flickered slightly. Through the small window in the box door, he saw many figures moving about. They were all dressed in uniform black wizard robes, with green accents on the collar, cuffs, and hoods.

Those were Slytherin robes, which Soldaya recognized—the Selwyn family had been Slytherins for generations, and he longed to study at Slytherin as well.

And now he has actually made a bad impression on the head of Slytherin.

Soldaya lowered his head with some self-reproach; he had been presumptuous.

"Reflect on your behavior," Moriarty tapped the table. "Your pureblood representative was promoted by me. If you are sorted into Gryffindor because of your recklessness and arrogance, don't ever show your face in front of me again."

Marcus opened the door to the private room, and Moriarty went out. He saw Leon and the others gathered together and asked what had happened.

Leon replied excitedly, "Sir, we found Nicolas Flamel's luggage, as well as a large number of alchemical artifacts, in the last few boxes."

I assure you, every rune on those items gleams with wisdom and magic!

"Merlin, I thought Dumbledore was just saying it for show, and that Nicolas Flamel wouldn't come! But he came! He really came!"

Moriarty's eyes lit up: "Take me to see it."

Soon, Moriarty arrived at a private room filled with various suitcases, and on the chairs were many metal utensils, with larger ones inside smaller ones, and the smaller ones covered with cloth.

"Ding-dong~ The system has detected that the host has discovered twenty-seven alchemical items belonging to the alchemist master Nicolas Flamel. You will be rewarded with three exploration draws."

"Don't rush to draw them, save them first." Moriarty was finding these alchemical tools more and more appealing. Now he understood why the little snakes were dressed up properly, and he also understood why the young wizards had abandoned Diana.

"People say Slytherins are shrewd and calculating, always looking to the future, but we also have a side that's not widely known: we also possess a reverence for and a thirst for knowledge!"

Moriarty pointed to the alchemical props in the private room and shouted, "I'm very happy to see everyone's strong interest in alchemy. After enrollment, I will work with the school to develop a major project on alchemy, and I hope everyone will participate enthusiastically."

The little snakes applauded enthusiastically. What a wonderful thing it was to be able to work on a project with Moriarty!

"Clap clap clap—"

A loud round of applause came from the back of the crowd. Two little boys with red hair clapped their hands with grins, and they didn't stop even after the snakes stopped clapping.

The two men looked almost identical. After noticing that everyone else was looking at them, they exchanged a glance, and one of them said, "How well he spoke, how wonderfully he spoke."

Another said, "Of course, buddy, you know he's a Slytherin descendant after all."

The first one said, "We're Slytherin heirs now too. Go say hello to him, I guarantee he won't mind!"

"Clap clap clap clap—" The applause stopped abruptly.

One of the red-haired boys walked toward Moriarty as if no one else was there, but Leon, leading the snakes, blocked his way, staring at him with hostile expressions.

"Oh, oh~" The red-haired boy raised his hands and blinked his innocent eyes: "As you can see, I mean no harm. My name is George, and I'm just here to say hello to Mr. Moriarty."

The first one immediately said, "Shut up, Fred, I'm George!"

George took a few steps forward and waved to Moriarty: "Sir, that's what they all call you, but we've already come up with a much better title for you: Prince Slytherin!"

Fred immediately exclaimed, "You did an amazing job!"

"You single-handedly defeated the teams from three other colleges and won the College Cup!"

"You single-handedly defeated Charlie and Tonks!"

"You single-handedly broke into the secret chamber and drove away the basilisk!"

"The well-deserved Prince of Slytherin!"

The twins spoke one sentence at a time, each faster than the last. The little snakes were a bit dizzy and didn't quite understand, only knowing that they were generally praising Moriarty. Otherwise, Leon would have kicked them out long ago.

"Ha ha," Jericho suddenly laughed. "Sir, they must be Percy's brothers. Look at their identical red hair and freckles. Let them come over."

Jericho seemed to like the twins quite a bit. He looked at George with a smile, then at Fred, carefully distinguishing their differences.

George continued, "Then you must be Jericho Blanche! Percy's been talking about his short-haired blond nemesis all summer."

"What? What did you say?" Jericho's eyes widened. "Percy clearly lost to me at the Duel Club! And he's telling you he won!"

George and Fred exchanged a playful glance, and Moriarty caught the smug satisfaction in their eyes, thinking that Jericho might have fallen for it.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Fred embellished Percy's description of his summer smugness—according to the two of them, Percy felt even happier to have beaten Jerry Kirby to become prefect.

"I'm going to find him!" Jericho stepped out of the crowd, scoffing. "What a dishonest little brat!"

"Yes, yes, Percy is Mom's darling, he'll never grow up," George chimed in with a grin.

"You're not lying to me, are you, Jonathan?" Jericho turned his head suspiciously; clearly, his attempt to distinguish the twins had failed.

Fred said with absolute certainty, "No, no, he's not lying to you, and neither am I. If you don't believe me, you can come to us anytime. His name is Jonathan, and mine is George."

"Nonsense! There's no such person as Jonathan. Jericho has my name wrong. I'm George, you're Fred!"

"Hahaha!" the little snakes laughed at the same time.

Moriarty couldn't help but chuckle as he watched the twins' antics—they seemed to suffer from a bizarre condition called "social bully syndrome," quickly bridging the gap with strangers by joking about their names. Jericho, however, should have snapped out of it by now.

Sure enough, Jericho's face fell; he realized he'd been tricked.

I, Jericho, was actually tricked by two first-year students—no, to be precise, by two little brats who hadn't even sorted into their houses yet!

The twins immediately left a bad impression on Jericho.

"Your name is George? Your name is Fred? Very well, I'll remember you!" Jericho, trying to save face, warned the twins, "You like playing pranks, huh? I hope you'll still be laughing at school!"

But the twins weren't Soldayas; they completely ignored Jericho's warning.

Fred patted George on the shoulder: "You were too eager to say your name; you've given us away."

"I didn't, it's all your fault! Who told you to bring up names?" George retorted. "We should pay our respects to Mr. Moriarty as planned."

"Oh right!" Fred immediately waved to Moriarty. "See you at school, Mr. Moriarty. We're heading back to the box; there's a waiter waiting for us there."

George and Fred left, and on the way, you could still hear them saying, "That's it! After paying our respects to Mr. Moriarty, we'll find a hapless fellow to prank! Instead of pranking someone first and then paying our respects, you got the order wrong and it'll leave a bad impression on Mr. Moriarty!"

“They have made a good impression on me,” Jericho said, shaking his head as he watched them leave. “I take back what I said earlier, sir. They are stubborn and cannot be allowed near you.”

"It's alright, they're quite fun," Moriarty said with a smile. "This year's freshmen are exceptionally active, and we upperclassmen can't be outdone."

Marcus, give the order to have the senior students change into their school uniforms early, so that this year's two new professors can see the spirit of Hogwarts.

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(End of this chapter)