Before class, Sean glanced at his panel. Since Malfoy and his two companions had simply been beaten up by him, he hadn't gained any abilities from them.
Of course, Sean wasn't particularly interested in gaining their abilities anyway. They were truly useless at the moment—even if he had gained some ability, the level would be lower than Sean's own abilities and completely worthless.
Perhaps they had some special talents, but ever since the Lockhart incident, Sean had gained some new understanding of his own luck, so he didn't want to waste time on it.
At worst, he could wait until they became Death Eater reserves in the future and their strength improved somewhat, then duel with them. The number of abilities gained at that time would be greater.
However, while Malfoy's trio hadn't given Sean any abilities, that brain-dead guy from the Slytherin Brotherhood reserve organization who came looking for trouble—since he had tried to point his finger at Sean first, the panel recognized the start of a duel. When Sean knocked him down, he gained a Level 3 Tickling Charm. It couldn't be said to be completely useless, but it really wasn't very useful.
The first afternoon class was Charms, and the second was Astronomy. This Charms class was taught jointly to Slytherin and Gryffindor, and from the start, both sides had a somewhat tense atmosphere.
With such a tense atmosphere, there was naturally no shortage of provocative competition between the two sides. The competition naturally involved answering Professor Flitwick's questions.
As Professor Flitwick posed his questions, both sides immediately began competing for them. However, as time passed, Hermione from Gryffindor monopolized almost all the questions.
As one of Professor Flitwick's most prized students, Hermione had successfully joined Professor Flitwick's Charms Club—the Gobstone Club—this year.
These classroom questions really weren't particularly profound for Hermione. The very few questions that were taken by others weren't because Hermione didn't know them, but simply because she was slower to raise her hand.
As Hermione dominated the Charms classroom, the Slytherin side became obviously dissatisfied. They kept having people compete for questions, but many couldn't answer Professor Flitwick's questions at all.
Just then, someone looked toward Sean, instinctively wanting Sean to answer questions and outshine Hermione. But then he suddenly remembered the previous Slytherin Brotherhood incident, and the words that had reached his lips were swallowed back down. For a moment, the Slytherin side fell silent.
Sean naturally observed all this, but just as he had thought before—since you chose to follow the Slytherin Brotherhood, don't expect me to continue doing anything for you.
I am myself first ,and only secondarily a Slytherin. That's all.
Last year's behavior of frantically competing for points for Slytherin would no longer exist.
The Charms class ended, and Astronomy passed without incident. Sean and Blaise returned to the Great Hall, sitting at the end of the Slytherin table to have dinner with Andy and Jansen, who were waiting there.
Although Blaise, Andy, and Jansen hadn't been targeted by the Slytherin Brotherhood like Sean, quite a few friends around them had distanced themselves, and they had been somewhat affected.
Fortunately, they had solid connections and abilities themselves. As long as they didn't openly oppose the Slytherin Brotherhood or cause trouble, no one would want to truly offend them.
"Sean, you've been keeping a low profile lately. How's your thesis coming along?"
As his closest friends, they naturally all knew what Sean was doing.
Hearing Blaise's words, Sean swallowed the steak in his mouth and took a sip of pumpkin juice: "Almost finished. I'm at the conclusion now. Once I finish writing it, I just need to give it to the Head of House for review."
Speaking of giving the thesis to Snape for review, Sean sighed very obviously.
Compared to writing the thesis, Snape's review was the most unbearable thing. Every review, Snape would tear Sean apart completely, making him doubt his existence. The key was that Snape never pointed out all the problems at once—he only mentioned part of them each time, then continued the assault next time. It was absolutely insane!
"Oh, by the way, Blaise, how's your love life lately? Any new developments?"
Hearing Andy's words, Blaise glanced at him and said dissatisfiedly, "Do you have any humanity? I'm someone who just broke up. What are you talking about?"
This immediately made Sean and the other two exchange glances, feeling amazed. Who didn't know who—everyone knew what kind of person Blaise was. Half of Hogwarts knew that seamless transitions were routine for him. Today was somewhat unusual.
Reaching out to pinch Blaise's face, Sean looked left and right suspiciously and said, "You're not Blaise. Who are you? Where did you hide Blaise? How did I not notice you took Polyjuice Potion?"
Waving away Sean's hand, Blaise said gloomily, "Stop playing around. I'm already depressed enough."
The three exchanged glances again.
It seemed Blaise's feelings this time were really different. But why did they break up?
Although they were curious, this was already personal privacy. Teasing was fine, but asking specifically would be inappropriate.
After dinner, Sean went to the library again and successfully finished his thesis completely there.
Looking at the thesis on the table, Sean exhaled. The main content of the thesis was finished, and he had avoided and corrected the common errors that Snape had pointed out last time. Now he just needed to see his Head of House's judgment.
It was almost bedtime. Sean took his things back to Hogwarts' dungeons and handed the thesis to Snape. The other party didn't say a word, just had an expression that said, "Turning it in so late and still having the nerve to seek praise—not scolding you is already pretty good." He took Sean's thesis, then waved his hand, indicating that Sean should quickly get out of his office.
Just when Sean felt lucky that he hadn't been sprayed by Snape last night, starting the next day, Snape began twenty-three days of continuous, high-intensity, inhumane venom spraying. He sprayed until Sean doubted his existence, doubted his intelligence, doubted his ears, doubted...
In short, Snape sprayed until Sean doubted everything about himself, feeling like he might be dreaming, that he was a fake person...
When Snape said he found no other problems and it could be mailed to The Golden Cauldron editorial department for submission, Sean was almost moved to tears, feeling that he really hadn't had it easy.
Other people lose hair writing theses; he risked his life writing theses. He felt that having to write three full theses during his time at Hogwarts, by the time the theses were finished, his little life would probably be lost at the hands of his Slytherin Snake King.