"I'm just a bird."
The bronze eagle head reiterated that it wasn't all-knowing.
Ian sighed with regret.
"I'm just a little wizard about to go to class." In the end, he didn't want to deepen any conflict with the bronze eagle head and found a reasonable excuse to leave.
Because there were now two classes in the morning, Ian tucked all the required textbooks under his arm and then slapped his two roommates awake.
"Oh no! Rebecca and I just had our baby!" Michael didn't even know what he regretted, as if he wanted to live a happy life entirely in his dream.
"Did you not come back last night?" William seemed not to have dreamed; he only glanced at Ian's unchanged bed and rubbed his sleepy eyes as he walked into the washroom.
"I was still secretly studying while you guys were asleep." Ian applied some psychological pressure on William, whose face showed uncertainty and discomfort.
He dreaded such situations.
"Why are you more talented and work harder than us! Damn it! I'm pulling an all-nighter tonight!" William was determined to devote his time.
On the way to breakfast in the hall, he was already nibbling on his textbooks, even choosing Magic History, the subject nobody wanted to study, trying to at least triumph in it once.
You have to admit, the little trick was quite clever.
"Eat this! It's delicious!"
"Don't grab my cream cake!"
"Why would anyone put chili in a cake!?"
Everyone indulged in the bountiful delicacies on the long table. Due to a bit of indigestion from last night, Ian only ate half a pound of lamb pie and drank three cups of extra sour, thick lemonade.
His attention was constantly on the owls delivering letters, allowing him to notice that many little wizards received howlers, though none were as loud as the Weasley mother's.
Molly Weasley's howler utterly overshadowed all other parents' roars in their letters. Ian couldn't tell if it was because the twins were caught sneaking around or if one of them broke their magic wand; he only heard Molly Weasley shouting that the broken wand would be repaired.
This mother, who raised many children, clearly didn't want to or couldn't bear the cost of new wands for the twins, resulting in one of them letting their brother Ron experience the "thrill" of using a damaged wand—he saw both twins looked as if they wished they could sink into the floor.
Though he heard last night that it was Fred's wand that got snapped, nobody knew which twin was which; goodness knows if they were using each other's names during their nightly excursions.
It aligns with the idea that most people use a friend's name when doing something mischievous.
"It really didn't get updated!"
Ian had been watching the delivery of letters by owls not without reason, and even after everyone had finished eating and started leaving the hall, he didn't see a single owl delivering the Prophet Daily.
The Prophet Daily was on hiatus!
The efficiency of over a dozen Saints was remarkably high!
"Apparently, the Prophet Daily didn't foresee the troubles it stirred... this is a hell of a joke." Ian felt the "authority figures are often least authoritative" notion was gaining weight.
During a somewhat dull flying class that morning, he kept pondering whether there'd still be a Prophet Daily in the future or if the Saints would turn it into the "Saints' Daily Threat."
"Pay some attention to your lesson, Mr. Prince. Do you want me to continue banning you from flying class?" Rolanda Hooch interrupted Ian's daydreaming.
She was explaining how to handle dangerous flying situations. Although much of it was monotonous, she emphasized it possibly because some little wizard tried to attach a lightning rod to a flying broom.
"A good thing like this?"
Ian first felt a surge of delight, then saw Rolanda Hooch's speechless face, and quickly retracted, "I mean, I really feel quite regretful."
Saying so.
He "reluctantly" put down his flying broom and was about to rush towards the castle to study in the library. Unexpectedly, Rolanda Hooch was just trying to scare him.
"Stay right there!"
Madam Hooch caught up with Ian on her flying broom.
"Get back here and listen properly, you little rascal!" She grabbed Ian and brought him back to the line of little wizards, ultimately stopping his plan to feign ignorance and skip class.
During the rest of the lesson.
The flying class teacher even paid special attention to Ian, often quizzing him on the points after explaining them, forcing Ian to stay alert and remember every word Madam Hooch said.
"I'll be keeping a close eye on your grades at the end of the term!" Madam Hooch was clearly very concerned about Ian's flying studies, still unaware of Ian's alchemy plans to replace flying brooms.
"I think I fly quite well..."
Ian suspected Madam Hooch's concerns stemmed from her absence in the Forbidden Forest the day before; otherwise, she might have directly awarded him a perfect score.
Thus, under Madam Hooch's special attention, a not-so-pleasant flying class came to an end, with Ian even getting a one-on-one lecture afterward.