"I haven't taught the Hufflepuff and Slytherin classes yet... I think you know what to do?"
Before class ended, Professor Vitam stood at the door and gave each young wizard a chocolate frog card. All of her own, supposedly an exclusive limited edition not sold to the public.
This was to shut their mouths and let the other two houses experience the same show of power.
This was actually because she'd been away from Hogwarts so long she'd forgotten the school's atmosphere.
Suffering alone? Impossible! Even if Professor Vitam gave them cards to tell Hufflepuff and Slytherin the truth, it wouldn't work. Hogwarts was just that united and harmonious.
"So this is just a homemade souvenir, not worth any money."
Padma tossed Professor Vitam's card back and forth between her hands with deep disinterest.
She'd been ready to see gold when she heard "exclusive limited edition", but when she spoke to an upperclassman in the Great Hall who bought chocolate frog cards from Hufflepuffs, he pulled out an identical one from his bag.
Padma had to accept the reality that the entire school had this "exclusive limited edition".
"Right, Professor Vitam doesn't meet the criteria for chocolate frog cards anyway. Even if you wanted to sell it to people outside Hogwarts, collectors wouldn't recognise it, unless you find a fan of the professor, if any exist."
Terry was busy competing with Sterling for the last beef steak on the long table. Unfortunately, he was distracted by this explanation and lost.
"Don't look so glum. I haven't made you honour the Bertie Bott's beans bet yet."
Suddenly there was commotion from where the upperclassmen sat. Sterling looked over to see Robert and his friends painfully clutching their heads while other Quidditch players surrounded them laughing.
"Let me check." Terry slipped over to gather intelligence.
Sterling chatted with Hermione about Transfiguration homework while eating. As for Padma, she was now obsessed with The Quibbler and was browsing back issues.
"Merlin... Robert's starting to lose his hair..."
After Terry returned, he fearfully touched his own thick hair. Padma was quite puzzled.
"Doesn't he use Potter shampoo? Doesn't it contain anti-hair-loss potion ingredients?"
"Come closer..." After the four heads came together, Terry dropped a bombshell:
"Prefect Robert tried to reverse-engineer Potter shampoo's formula himself, but what he made gave him resistance to Potter shampoo!"
"Hiss, then his hair is doomed..."
Hermione and Padma could best understand how great this cost was. As girls, they'd naturally learnt about these wonderful magical hair care products. Potter shampoo could be said to be the best anti-hair loss product.
That's why it was the best-selling shampoo in magical Britain, because British wizards had the most serious hair loss problems.
"Tell me about it. Now he's both prefect and Quidditch captain... hopefully he won't need a wig by graduation."
Sterling suddenly had an inspiration.
"Do any of you have concerns about hair length? Or hair volume not being smooth enough, things like that?"
Hearing this question, Hermione nodded fastest, followed surprisingly by Terry. Padma cared least about this.
"I have a magic that can control hair, make it grow or shorten... a little charm with no practical use."
"It might just be hard to learn?" Seeing three pairs of sparkling eyes, he added.
Sterling really didn't dare guarantee they could learn it. The magic wasn't difficult, barely different from the Light Charm, but it came from Avalon.
Theoretically, Avalon was also part of the world, and magic circulating there shared the same origin as magical world magic...
They should be able to learn it, right?
Sterling felt it was worth trying anyway.
If it could indeed be learnt, Sterling would have quite a few magics to teach Terry and the others. Modern magic was... how to put it? It seemed more orientated toward daily life aspects.
For offensive magic, Avalon products were still the best.
"Look, look, look!" Terry shook Sterling's hand. He helplessly slapped it away, channelled his magic, and made his sideburns rapidly grow until the ends fell to the ground.
Hermione and Padma covered their mouths. They seemed to see salvation.
Terry's gaze was even more fervent. He saw an angel, a sacred angel rescuing him from Mediterranean hell.
Few people knew that Potter shampoo didn't work well on elderly people. Many older British wizards inevitably developed Mediterranean baldness.
"Let's start teaching now."
Terry had never been so eager to learn a spell.
Sterling shook his head. He wanted to include Harry, Ron, and Neville. Harry needn't be mentioned. As the special "Saviour", plus the opening night incident, Sterling still didn't understand...
If only one person among the six could learn Avalon magic, it could only be Harry.
Ron and Neville were both people Sterling had very interesting magic he wanted to teach them. Like Neville. When Sterling first met him on the train, he felt Neville should be very good with swords.
What a coincidence. Hero Magic included magical shaping. Though according to Professor Dumbledore, the Thirteen Magics couldn't be learnt outside Avalon, Hero Magic's core was actually the "weak overcoming strong" that Sterling hadn't tried yet.
Magical shaping was just an accessory of Hero Magic. Sterling felt if Neville could learn hair growth, he should also be able to learn this.
As for how the hair growth magic came about...
The princess in Maleficent's tower, whom Sterling had barely seen, had beautiful, magical long hair.
This magic was researched by Maleficent to help her comb her hair; otherwise, her hair would fill the entire tower.
"Let me try asking Professor McGonagall for an empty classroom for our practice?"
Because of his Transfiguration talent, Professor McGonagall cared greatly for Sterling. For something beneficial to learning, Sterling felt McGonagall wouldn't refuse.
Of course, the main reason was he'd bring Harry. Just for this point, even if McGonagall disagreed, Dumbledore would smooth things over.
"Oh? A classroom specifically for us?"
Terry immediately got excited: "That's treatment only upperclass student societies get!"
"I feel Sterling's magic isn't inferior to upperclassmen's." Following her deeper Transfiguration studies, Hermione increasingly understood what level Sterling's train transformation had been.
In her view, Sterling usually held back in Transfiguration class.
Prefect Robert's demonstrations in the common room weren't as smooth as Sterling's, and what he created wasn't as refined.
Padma pointed to a column in The Quibbler: "Fudge's Secret Army: Goblin Legion!" for them to see.
"I think we should give our study group a cool name. Look at this. I researched considerable materials and finally confirmed this editor's Goblin Legion refers to Fudge's accompanying Auror team."
"They suffered from not naming themselves. I heard from Senior Penelope that they're all strong, capable people."
"You wouldn't want us to spread... the Griffin Society name, would you?"
Sterling actually thought this name sounded pretty good. Penelope had obviously put thought into the example. Griffins had both eagle and lion characteristics.
As for why it was a counter-example...
Probably because generally, griffins better fit people's impression of Gryffindor. Indeed, it wouldn't be good if this Sterling-led study group gave people a Gryffindor impression.
But what specific name should they choose?
Sterling needed to think about it.