11 Roommates

Pro had an ominous hunch as he strolled up the stairs, and couldn't help but slow his steps in hopes of delaying the inevitable. To Pro's dismay and prediction, it wasn't until he climbed to the top of the tower that he found his room. Glancing inside and seeing the familiar five boys who he had greeted at the dining table, Pro couldn't help but inwardly curse.

"I should have known this was going to be the case."

Six four-posters beds hung with deep red, velvet curtains were arranged in the room. Seeing his familiar trunk by one of the beds, Pro knew that there was no choice but to accept the fact that he was in the same dorm as Harry Potter.

Although it was a mentioned fact that there should be more than a thousand students at Hogwarts and that more than one hundred students are enrolled each year, it was also noted that the enrollment rate dropped drastically during Harry Potter's year. Theory said this was all thanks to Mr. Voldemort.

Hence, with just six first year boys in the 1991 school year, it wasn't too surprising that they were all stuffed into one dorm. Although the speculated max capacity of a dorm was five students, there was always an easy fix to raise the capacity, the Undetectable Extension charm.

With a glance, Pro was able to see that Harry was already in a deep sleep on his bed, and Ron was trying to get his pet rat, Scabbers, off his bed. Watching the other boys getting into their pajamas and getting ready to plop onto their beds already, Pro calmly strolled into the room and accepted his fate.

Seeing Pro come, Seamus, a boy with sandy colored hair, greeted him with a friendly smile,"Hey, Pro! What took you so long? Was pretty sure you were just behind us."

"Uh ... I was just checking the stairs to see if there was anything hidden," Pro dropped an excuse as he dug through his trunks for his pajamas.

"Blimey, you seem to be curious bout everything Pro. Did you find anything?" Dean, the dark hair and dark skin boy, chimed in as he plopped onto his bed.

"Nope," Pro responded as he pulled out his pajamas and began to head out.

"Wha- where you going Pro?" Dean asked with confusion.

"Shower," Pro replied as he brushed his hair.

"This late?" Seamus chimed in as he paused.

"Yep. Gotta wash my hair. Who knows how dirty that sorting hat is," Pro chuckled and left with a wave, leaving behind four boys who froze in place as they considered what he just said.

"He's right mate," Ron broke the silence before shrugging and hopping onto his bed, "But he's mental for going this late. I'm off to bed."

The other three boys were also too lazy to go for a scrub as they were too tired. Hence, Pro came back to a quiet room with occasional snores. Glancing at the moonlight streaming through the window, Pro dug through his trunk to retrieve his pen and paper.

Sneaking down to the common room, Pro sat in the cozy couch and diligently drafted a letter to his parents to tell them that he arrived safely so that mommy Beatrice can stop worrying. He also reported other trivial things such as which house he got sorted in, the food, and just enough to fill a page.

Heading back up, Pro sent Nightwing off with his letter back home. Quickly shutting the window where a cold breeze blew in, Pro then scurried off to bed.

Waking up early the next morning, Pro got changed into his uniform and prepared to head out to explore a bit. Pro wanted to go scout his route so that he won't end up getting lost and being late for his first day of classes. As for the other boys, Pro didn't bother to wake them up.

Jogging down the spiral staircase, it didn't take long for Pro to reach the commons room. Just when he was walking towards the exit, a bossy girl's voice sounded from behind him, "Where are you going?"

Glancing back, Pro saw Hermione lounging in a chair with a book in her hands. Now, she was glaring at Pro once more as if she wanted to find fault with him.

"Err ... going out to find the way to class so I don't get lost later," Pro replied while wondering why this girl is biting onto him like a rabid dog.

"Humph. It seems that even you will get lost. I mean, with how you seem to know everything in school before, I thought you were smarter than that. Of course, now we are at Hogwarts, things will change. I've learned all the course books by heart. I've also tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. I just hope it would be enough. By the way, how about you?" Hermione spat out a train of words like a machine gun as she glanced at Pro with eyes that seem to be seeking a challenge.

"Um ... I'm good, only learned some basics, nothing much," Pro replied calmly as he observed the cute, cheeky girl and decided to introduce himself to get a response, "By the way, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Pro Smith. How about you?"

Hermione's eyes seemed to flare up in anger as she bit her lips. She slammed her book shut as she hopped up with a huff while replying in an annoyed tone, "I'm Hermione Granger, and it's best that you remember it this time!"

Then, Hermione briskly stormed up the stairs while sniffing a bit, leaving Pro to awkwardly stand in the commons room.

"Uhh ... did I go too far?" Pro muttered, still as confused as before because he couldn't gleam any clues from her reply.

Clambering out of the hole and into the corridor, Pro watched the portrait swing close behind him.

"Well, let's leave the little girl problems to later. Now, I should figure out the routes a bit and also try to find a way to build my question answering cheat sheet," Pro muttered as he began to stroll down the corridor while referencing his memories and the mini-map.

It wasn't too difficult for Pro to familiarize himself with the route to his common room. He was also easily able to make it back to the Great Hall, and now he was just searching for his classrooms. Honestly, the mini-map was much more useful than Pro expected.

Besides the fact that the mini-map will show all the hidden routes behind tapestries and panels, the mini-map will also clearly render a red door wherever there is a door that can be opened, even if it is a secret tunnel; however, Pro still can't enter the tunnels unless he figures out the secret way to open them. Instead, this function truly made it easier for Pro to memorize the routes by using the doors on the mini-map as landmarks.

The R*nescape mini-map also diligently tracked all nearby individuals are marked them as yellow dots on the mini-map, treating them as NPCs. So, if Pro happened to get lost, he could easily use his mini-map to find the nearest personnel to ask for directions.

However, ghosts, mice, and pets were included in this mix. So, Pro might stumble upon other creatures, but Pro believed that it won't be too much of a hassle once he understood the moving patterns and areas of the people he could talk to.

The final useful function of the mini-map is that it actually clearly shows the breaks between some stairs. When Pro went to find the reason behind his rendering, he discovered that the rendered line breaks on the stairs correspond perfectly to the location of steps that had disappeared on the staircase!

Pro was then easily able to jump over the vanishing step and completed one part of his Hogwarts Mystery quest. With this function on his mini-map, Pro didn't have to worry about falling through vanished steps by accident unless he wasn't paying attention to his map.

After finishing his exploration, Pro returned to the commons room and went up the grab his books for class before heading off to the Great Hall. Dean, Seamus, and Neville also followed him when he left. Pro didn't mind as long as it wasn't the celebrity Harry Potter.

As he sat in the rowdy Great Hall while memorizing the answers to certain questions and the content that were most likely to be taught soon, Pro eventually noticed Harry and Ron coming into the Great Hall under the scrutiny of others. Well, it was mainly Harry getting all the special attention.

Watching Harry plopping himself down next to him, Pro's mouth twitched a bit before he greeted, "Morning Harry, morning Ron."

"Morning Pro," Harry muttered in an uncomfortable tone as he tried not to look at the people who were whispering about him.

"Well ... you'll get used to it," Pro comforted him with a lame line before returning to his reading.

"I hope so. I just wished they wouldn't do this. I just don't understand. I don't even remember what Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who did," Harry rambled on in frustration as Pro quietly listened while reading his book.

Finally noticed that Pro didn't care much, Harry fell silent before he blinked his eyes and asked, "You ... don't seem to be like the others."

Looking up at Harry, Pro asked in confusion, "Like others how?"

"Like others, you know ... you don't stare at me that way," Harry said as he glanced at Pro in confusion.

"Do you not like it that I don't stare at you that way?" Pro asked back with a chuckle.

"No- no, of course not. I actually prefer it if everyone was like you. I'm glad you are like that," Harry replied with a smile.

Clink. The sound of a fork striking a plate was heard, drawing Pro's and Harry's attention. Glancing over, Pro saw Ron silently playing with his utensils with a unhappy face.

Seeing his friend like this, Harry couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong Ron?"

"Nuthin," Ron replied.

Pro inwardly chuckled over a certain clingy boy's jealousy before stating, "I'll get back to my reading now Harry. We can chat more later."

"Oh, alright. No problem. I'm surprised that you weren't assigned to Ravenclaw. I've heard that's where all the smart kids go ... you and that other girl, Hermione ..." Harry muttered as he glanced at Pro's book with a confused face.

Pro didn't respond, so Harry could only turn back to talk to his other friend, Ron, who brightened up once he got the attention he needed once more.

It didn't take long for breakfast to appear on the tables. After enjoying his meal, Pro then headed off to class. Pro easily completed a part of the Attend Classes quest over the course of the week. There wasn't much chances for him to earn points in the boring History of Magic.

As for Flitwick's charm class, there wasn't any iconic answer so Pro obviously can't beat Hermione who stared at him with challenging eyes whenever she got to answer a question. She was also working hard in the library whenever Pro goes in, and every time she would provocatively glance at Pro. However, Pro still haven't found a chance to ask her what's wrong.

Instead, Pro had discovered an interesting function of the system inventory as a side effect of trying to find a way to cheat. When he stored a textbook into his inventory, Pro realized he could read the book in the system interface!

This completely opened a new way for Pro to cheat, and Pro knew he didn't even need to memorize the content of the books anymore. However, he still made sure to memorize some important points so that he could answer questions quicker.

It didn't take much for Pro to decide to order another set of school books for storing in his inventory. After all, it will be weird if he stored the book into his inventory and not have the book for class. Of course, he asked his parents to purchase this, which they happily obliged. He also requested his parents to buy him a small Muggle music box to prepare for his adventure quest.

While awaiting his order in the mail, the time for the first transfiguration class arrived. Pro had no trouble arriving in class. Under the queer stares of his classmates, he also did the customary bow to the black cat, hoping to gain some points.

On the other hand, the Harry and Ron duo were still late despite his clear reminder. The strict McGonagall deducted points from the Gryffindor house, but added the points back with the reason that I recognized her. Well, it seems that she was hard on the outside, but soft on the inside.

After the iconic demonstration of turning a desk into a pig, the lesson continued into a lecture, and Pro was luckily able to snatch the chance to answer one question from Hermione, earning her glare. Then, it was time for the hands-on match to needle practice.

At first Pro diligently practiced, not intending to show off, but he couldn't stand the challenging glare of Hermione. So, Pro cheated a bit by using his system to perfectly transforming the match, gaining the praise of McGonagall and some house points while Hermione deflated.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was a joke as expected. Pro knew it will continue to be a joke next year. Fortunately, he could earn defense spells for free by leveling his magic. On a happy note, his new set of books arrived along with a piano shaped music box. This took up another nine slots in his inventory, leaving him nine slots open.

Finally, the time arrived for double potions with Slytherin. It was time to meet Snape up close and personal. Pro just hopes he doesn't mess up his potions too badly.