"Draco, that Hayden guy doesn't seem to respect you very much."
In the Slytherin common room, a pure-blood boy named Theodore Nott teased Malfoy with a grin.
Malfoy frowned and jumped down from the stool.
"Yeah! That guy actually dared to disrespect me!" he said angrily. "He's the first person who's ever dared to ignore the Malfoy family. I'm definitely going to teach him a lesson!"
"Draco, did you forget what happened on the train this afternoon?" the chubby Goyle whispered near Malfoy's ear.
"Yeah. You reached out to shake hands with the famous Harry Potter, but he ignored you," Crabbe added honestly. "Hayden isn't the first one who didn't respect you."
The two large boys thought they were whispering.
What they didn't realize was that both of them had incredibly loud voices.
Every Slytherin student nearby heard their "secret."
When Crabbe and Goyle turned around, they saw the surrounding first-years and even the prefects staring at them with extremely interesting expressions.
Theodore Nott burst out laughing.
"What? Why are you all looking at us like that?" Crabbe and Goyle asked, completely confused.
Malfoy: "..."
He raised his foot and kicked the two clueless boys in embarrassment and anger.
"Shut up, you idiots!"
…
While Malfoy and his two followers were still arguing, Lykos had already entered the boys' dormitory area.
Following the nameplates on the doors, he quickly found his room.
"Lykos Hayden, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe, Draco Malfoy."
Each dormitory held four students, apparently arranged in alphabetical order—just like the sorting order earlier.
Malfoy and his two followers had naturally ended up together.
Unfortunately, Lykos had been squeezed into the same dormitory, becoming the third wheel among the trio.
Lykos sighed and pushed the door open.
Even without his previous memories, identifying his bed was easy.
The luggage beside the other three beds was exquisitely crafted and extremely luxurious. Three piles of expensive belongings were stacked together, glowing warmly in the firelight from the fireplace.
But the luggage beside the bed near the window was completely different.
Simple.
Plain.
To be more accurate, it wasn't even proper luggage.
It looked like two old tablecloths tied together to form a crude bundle—standing in stark contrast to the elegant belongings of his pure-blood roommates.
A classic poor-start situation.
Just like Tom Riddle.
Or Severus Snape.
"Well… I guess it's not all bad," Lykos muttered, shrugging. "At least Voldemort and our Potions professor both ended up doing pretty well."
He untied the bundle and began checking everything he owned.
Several second-hand wizard robes.
A second-hand wizard hat.
A pair of second-hand dragon-hide gloves.
An entire set of second-hand textbooks and school supplies.
Sure enough, nearly every item in the bundle could be described with one phrase—second-hand.
It perfectly matched the identity of a poor half-blood student.
But surprisingly, Lykos wasn't bothered by it.
In fact, he felt relieved.
Conditions this poor—worse even than the Weasley family's situation—suggested that he had probably been admitted to Hogwarts entirely through financial assistance from the school.
Which meant something important.
The previous owner of this body likely had no close family.
Sure enough, while rummaging through the bundle, Lykos found a small identification tag from Wool's Orphanage beneath an old second-hand cauldron.
Lykos couldn't help thinking that such an identity was extremely convenient for a transmigrator.
No family.
No connections.
No complications.
No wonder so many novels gave their protagonists an orphan background.
As for why Voldemort hadn't secretly supported him financially, that was easy to understand.
As an undercover agent, anything that might expose his identity had to be avoided.
After finishing with the luggage, Lykos began checking the robes he was wearing.
He clearly remembered that when he confronted Malfoy earlier during the Sorting Ceremony, he had felt a strange impulse to reach into the inner pocket of his robe.
Inside that pocket—
Were his wands.
Two of them.
The same material.
The same shape.
Even the grain and patterns looked identical.
The two wands were practically indistinguishable.
Lykos immediately understood their purpose.
They were meant to counter Priori Incantatem.
One wand would be used to cast forbidden spells.
The other would be used for daily classes and practice, hiding the fact that he knew more dangerous magic.
Having a spare wand would also be useful if one were disarmed or damaged.
Thinking of this, Lykos eagerly picked up one of the wands.
He decided to test what kind of spells he could cast.
"Expelliarmus!"
He raised the wand and spoke the famous spell from the books.
The wand trembled slightly.
Nothing happened.
"Stupefy!"
Lykos refused to believe it and tried another common spell.
Still nothing.
The room fell silent.
Only the occasional crackling of burning wood from the fireplace could be heard.
"Maybe those spells are too advanced… maybe I just haven't learned them yet?"
Frowning, Lykos pointed the wand at a book and tried a simpler spell.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
The Levitation Charm.
In theory, it was one of the most basic spells in the entire series.
But the book remained perfectly still on the bed.
Not even a single page moved.
Lykos: "..."
He found it completely unacceptable that he—Voldemort's chosen undercover agent—couldn't even cast a simple Levitation Charm.
Could it be…
In the real wizarding world, spells worked differently from what he had seen in the books and movies?
Did he actually have to start learning magic from scratch like every other first-year?
Groaning in frustration, Lykos collapsed onto the soft bed.
He held the wand up in front of his eyes, staring at its strange and intricate patterns.
"So I didn't get the usual transmigrator perk of instant overwhelming power, huh…"
He lazily pointed the wand toward the door.
In his mind, he imagined blasting Voldemort apart with a Killing Curse.
And without thinking, he spoke the words out loud.
"Avada Kedavra."
The moment the words left his mouth, Lykos immediately realized something was wrong.
As he finished the incantation, the wand suddenly began to shake violently.
A blinding green light burst from the tip of the wand, so bright it was almost impossible to look at.
At the same time, a strange rushing sound filled the air—like something enormous and invisible tearing through the sky.
Lykos's mind went completely blank.
The Killing Curse had worked.