Everyone—literally everyone—None of them had expected John to suddenly make such a huge splash.
The youngest recipient of the Order of Merlin in history!
He had cracked the so-called unsolvable Blood Curse!
They were all reeling from the impact of this news, as if everything had suddenly become surreal.
Harry thought back to yesterday, when he had been studying Occlumency with Snape.
"Wish your grades improve," he recalled bitterly.
With achievements like that, he probably wouldn't be able to catch up in a lifetime.
John Wick…
He truly deserved to be called the best.
"John Wick is the most outstanding student I've ever seen," Professor Flitwick couldn't help but marvel.
He had never imagined a student could achieve so much, let alone that John had deciphered the Blood Curse.
Snape's expression was complicated—this level of excellence could no longer be described by that word alone.
The news spread quickly throughout Hogwarts.The Bloody Baron appeared beside the Slytherin table.
"I knew this day would come," the Bloody Baron said, as if it were only yesterday that he had seen that kid wandering the school at night.
Back then, he had even thought this was a student who'd been sorted into the wrong house—That kind of fearless, reckless energy… it was practically Gryffindor through and through.
It now seemed clear—he was truly a Slytherin.
Bathed in glory, he was undeniably the king of Slytherin.
Umbridge finally came back to her senses, her face dark as she marched over to quiet the Slytherins.
"Ok, ok, everyone now—"
Boom!
Suddenly, a huge dungbomb fell from the ceiling and exploded right on her.
The overwhelming stench was enough to make people faint.
Peeves' raucous laughter echoed through the hall.
"A grand salute for the King of Slytherin!"
Boom! Boom!
Boom!
One dungbomb after another rained down, filling the Great Hall with an unbearable stench.
Students fled the hall as Professor McGonagall stormed in, furious.
But even this chaos couldn't dampen the Slytherins' spirits. On the contrary, students from other houses gradually began to join in the cheers.
Slytherins admired strength.
And now, the other houses admired reputation.
Because of this incident, even in class, the professors all went noticeably easy on the students.
"I told you John Wick would become a big name," Ernie Macmillan bragged, showing off his "foresight."
He said to Hannah Abbott, "Back in first year, I already knew he was going to be amazing."
"Mhm mhm mhm," Hannah Abbott, with her braided hair, replied in an admiring tone, "And in second year, he protected Justin, and even fought the Basilisk!"
These were the people who displayed the picture of John fighting the Basilisk on their walls back in the second year.
"Yeah, he's our guardian angel," said Justin Finch-Fletchley.
"You're all pretty smart," Draco Malfoy strutted over, chest puffed out with pride, "but I knew even earlier than all of you."
Someone shouted from the crowd, "You mean that time he beat you up?"
Malfoy: "…" ಥ_ಥ They still remember the first day of school!?
"W-Who said that? Step forward!"
"Oh—Look! John is here!"
When John finally returned, he was immediately swarmed and lifted up by the crowd.
"Oh.. hey guys. What's going on—Woah! Woah! What the.."
At first, he tried to resist a bit, but there were too many people—so he gave up and went with it.
That was how he was carried back to the Slytherin common room, with girls along the way squealing in admiration and asking for his autograph.
But strangely, before any of their pens could reach John, they'd mysteriously vanish.
Pansy, leading the Slytherin girls, firmly blocked those butterflies from getting through.
She gave Daphne a hand signal, standing there like a warrior ready to die.
Daphne was moved to tears.
Even Malfoy gave up his usual routine of taunting Harry, and instead cleared a path like a proper vanguard all the way.
John also ran into Professor Trelawney, who, in her usual mystical manner, said, "Child, I knew it. I saw your glorious future in the Inner Eye."
John gave her a polite smile and replied, "Thank you, Professor Trelawney."
If only she drank a little less, maybe the smell of alcohol wouldn't be so overwhelming.
Ever since Umbridge had placed her on probation, Trelawney had started drinking heavily.
She didn't seem interested in celebrating with Slytherin. After saying her piece, she turned and headed back to the Astronomy Tower.
...
The next day, John paid a visit to Hagrid's hut.
Hagrid carefully cradled the Order of Merlin Second-class medal in his rough, oversized hands, his voice gruff with emotion. "You're amazing, John. I'll never have a chance to even touch one of these in my whole life."
Honestly, Hagrid didn't care that much about the Merlin Medal itself—what made it feel so precious was that it had been awarded to a friend.
He even prepared a gift for John: a few rare magical materials from the Forbidden Forest.
John accepted it and also healed the new injuries Hagrid had somehow sustained.
"Next time you get hurt, contact me directly," John said with a frown. "We're friends, Hagrid."
Hagrid let out a goofy laugh, marveling at John's magic.
Even Madam Pomfrey would need some time to treat those wounds—but John fixed them with a single spell.
"Your magical ability might already be on par with the professors," Hagrid praised.
John went to feed the Thestrals. The little one from last time had grown quite a bit.
However, it seemed a bit afraid of Zouwu. With Zouwu nearby, it didn't dare to move around much.
Tucking the Merlin Medal into his small satchel, John set off toward the unicorn habitat.
He needed a few unicorn horns and some other materials.
Weiwei was very happy to see him—John had brought the Constellations drink again.
It had already become an unspoken ritual between them: John would bring the Constellations, and the unicorns would offer up unicorn horns in return.
The golden liquor had even Clarke enchanted. "This is the best brew I've ever tasted. The magic in it helps the unicorns grow stronger."
John had prepared three bottles—one was opened on the spot, and Clarke immediately stashed away the remaining two.
Clarke had to be cautious with those greedy little unicorns.
To that, Weiwei insisted she definitely wasn't the one being referred to.
After retrieving a few unicorn horns from a tree hollow, John also wanted to pick some leaves from the big tree nearby.
That tree was very important to the unicorns, but in honor of the Constellations, Clarke reluctantly agreed.
On his way out of the unicorn habitat, John encountered some centaurs.
"Get out of our Forbidden Forest!" one centaur barked irritably. "And take that big beast wizard with you!"
The "big beast wizard" referred to Hagrid.
"Oh?"
John looked up, and his oppressive aura fell heavily upon the centaurs.
"Watch your tongue," John said coldly. "It's not your Forbidden Forest—it's ours."
That remark infuriated the centaurs. One of them raised a bow.
"We don't harm the young," another centaur said, pulling the archer's hand down.
They lowered their weapons. As John walked past them, he suddenly drew his wand and pointed in a direction.
A beam of white light shot from the tip of his wand, piercing through five or six large trees, finally striking the ground and blasting open a deep crater.
Dust and debris flew everywhere, and the trees crashed down with a thunderous sound.
Startled, the centaurs reared up in a panic, hooves stomping the forest floor in chaos.
John said flatly, "I don't harm the young either."
The centaurs glared at him, their eyes burning with rage. John's pupils narrowed into vertical slits, his voice turning glacial.
||Look at me like that again, and I'll consider it a challenge.||
The centaur under his gaze went pale, his limbs went cold, and he collapsed as if frozen stiff.
"What did you do to him?!"
"Just a little lesson," John said calmly. "So you learn to control your temper."
John looked calmly at the centaur who seemed a bit more rational and said, "You should know—I'm capable of certain things."
The centaur's expression turned ugly, but he didn't argue.
The fallen centaur wasn't in any real danger, but his body was so stiff he couldn't move at all.
To John, wiping out this group of centaurs would be effortless.
Their arrows couldn't pierce his scales, and his shadows could easily swallow their lives.
Centaurs were highly skilled in Divination and extremely sensitive to danger.
Though they were hot-tempered, after sensing genuine danger from John, they didn't dare speak recklessly anymore.
"Remember—if my friend Hagrid is ever troubled, I'll repay the centaurs a hundredfold."
John had little patience for these squatters trying to claim dominion. After issuing the warning, he left the Forbidden Forest.
Not long after he returned to the castle, he received an unexpected letter from an unexpected person.
"Eh..?"
He looked up at Daphne, and after confirming that the letter hadn't been delivered to the wrong recipient, his expression turned rather strange.
"A letter from Mr. Greengrass? For me?"
It wasn't addressed to Daphne—it was addressed to John.
John felt strange, as if he had written to Malfoy and told him that he wanted to talk to his mother.
The only difference was that this letter had been handed directly to John.
He opened it, and his eyes quickly scanned the contents.
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