Hogwarts starts with stealing power.

Lin Xia thought for a moment and decided not to disturb the others from doing their experiments. Instead, she went to the auditorium for dinner first.

In the Great Hall, Hufflepuff's dinner was as lavish as ever.

Lin Xia had gotten into the habit of activating the Extrasensory Spell when traveling, and even kept it active when falling asleep at night.

Her exceptional physical abilities and intellect are fully capable of handling the chaotic and complex information generated by the full activation of the Extrasensory Spell.

Thanks to the Extrasensory Spell, Lin Xia often receives a lot of extra useful information.

Although the majority of people at Hogwarts are students who learn ordinary knowledge, these students often make unexpected discoveries at Hogwarts.

For example, right now, she's using a psychic spell in the auditorium to hear an interesting discovery made by a student.

He was a Gryffindor student, and he was boasting that he had discovered a very interesting secret passage.

"This secret passage appeared in the form of a puzzle. It took me a whole semester to solve the puzzle and then I got a magic disc related to alchemy."

The student confidently declared, "The alchemical compass contains invaluable alchemical memories. Once I thoroughly study these techniques, I might be able to grasp the basics of alchemy, become an alchemist, and skip the long apprenticeship stage!"

The student spoke to his classmates with a show-off attitude.

Before that, his classmates had all said some things that were worth bragging about.

The classmates around him were all giving perfunctory replies, and Lin Xia just listened, but he could tell that no one believed him.

This greatly distressed the student who revealed the secret.

Lin Xia gradually pulled herself out of her thoughts and raised an eyebrow.

A secret passage filled with mysteries?

This is interesting.

You could take some time to explore the secret passage the student mentioned. She's not interested in the alchemy disk, but rather in the passage itself.

Based on the information he revealed, it is highly likely that this secret passage itself was created using alchemy.

If the secret passages could be thoroughly studied, alchemy would advance by leaps and bounds.

The alchemical compass obtained after deciphering the secret passage became secondary.

Lin Xia ate quickly, and just before leaving, she suddenly overheard students discussing the donation.

The voice sounded familiar; it was a Slytherin prefect speaking.

"Have you written to your family? We've recently received a lot of complaint letters from students."

They felt that our college's dining standards were not at all aristocratic and elegant, and demanded that they be the same as, or even better than, Hufflepuff's dining standards.

"We've received so many complaints. If we don't respond, these students will write to their parents, and then the parents, representing their families, will put pressure on our family, which will be even more difficult to handle."

This suggests that they achieved their positions as prefects in Slytherin through resource exchanges with other families.

But there is one important point.

If a prefect is unable to address the students' needs, then the families that are exchanging favors behind the scenes will certainly not mind replacing the prefect with an heir from another family.

After a moment's thought, Lin Xia understood what was going on.

It's still that corrupt system of the aristocracy!

While prefects in other houses may genuinely serve the students, Slytherin's prefects are almost always involved in some form of favoritism.

It's just unclear whether those who channeled benefits to Slytherin were the school's top students or certain professors.

"Don't worry," another student said, deliberately lowering his voice and speaking somewhat vaguely.

“I had previously contacted some of the best students in Slytherin, but they were all combat-oriented and had made no progress in research. So I wrote to the family and asked them to solicit research papers on the black market.”

My family has examined some of the research papers of dark wizards and said that they have merit. Products made based on the research ideas can make a splash in the wizarding world.

However, because these dark wizards are in dire straits, some of whom have become intermediate-level infected and don't have much time left, they have no choice but to sell the research they have been studying for so long.

My family has already purchased some papers. I will write another letter to urge them later, and I believe I will receive a reply soon.

"Then we'll use these research papers to apply for admission as outstanding students at the university, and then collaborate with the university on products developed based on those papers, donating a portion of the profits to the college, and demanding better catering benefits than Hufflepuff."

The voice suddenly chuckled, its tone arrogant.

"We can now think about who should be the top students in research."

At this point, the voice sounded somewhat sour.

"If I hadn't already become a class monitor, I would have wanted to become an outstanding student. The benefits for outstanding students are much better than those for class monitors."

Lin Xia, who was eavesdropping from a distance, had a slight glint in her eyes. She had suspected that Slytherin might obtain research products through off-site means, but she didn't expect them to actually buy them on the black market!
This left Lin Xia with a slight sense of regret.

In fact, she had many ordinary research ideas in mind, but unfortunately, she didn't have a way to sell them on the black market while she was at school.

Otherwise, she wouldn't mind selling these research ideas and ripping off the nobles.

Aside from some families that had fallen on hard times, the wealthy among these nobles were truly rich.

Putting aside everything else, just casually taking an antique or rare item from the family treasury and selling it can bring in a large sum of money.

These artifacts, which have been passed down for thousands of years, are all of great research value.

I wonder if today is a day for these class leaders to communicate.

She had only overheard the Slytherin prefects' conversation when she heard the Ravenclaw prefects asking how the research was going.

The Ravenclaw prefects lowered their voices, trying their best to hide the anger in their tone.

"We are the most intelligent and wise Ravenclaws, we are the masters of knowledge, we are thirsty for knowledge, yet we don't have a single outstanding student in research. Is this scientific? Is this reasonable? Is this magic?"

"I talked to all the outstanding students who were good at combat, and they all told me that they didn't have time to do research!"

"Bullshit! They clearly have research work to do, they're just interested in research on combat capabilities!"

“Prefect, those students who become outstanding students are among the smartest and most outstanding in the college. Letting them do research is the fastest way to get them involved.”

The prefect said angrily, "Do you think I don't know? But they just won't listen, what can I do?"
I just used some methods to overhear the conversation of the Slytherin prefects not far away. They have found a way to obtain research papers. Ravenclaw can't fall behind any longer!
We are the brightest students at Hogwarts, yet we haven't received the treatment we deserve. It's all because those outstanding students are inactive!

Of course, the prefect would not admit it.

Ravenclaw students are all very independent, preferring to conduct research alone rather than in a team. They believe that pooling the strength of many people is the behavior of the weak, while the strong should be solitary and proud.

After the class monitor finished speaking, he said, "We can't rely on those outstanding students anymore. We must take action and solicit research ideas from the entire college."

After thinking for a moment, the class monitor said firmly, "In that case, we will adopt a transparent and open call for papers method and set up an open email address for submissions."

We publish each research idea we collect without revealing the student's name, and then the entire college participates in the vote.

The student whose research path is chosen most often will be supported by at least 10 Ravenclaw students who will assist them in their research-based graduate studies.

After hearing this, another student couldn't help but say, "Are we just going to give up an outstanding student spot like this? Class monitor, that's not right!"

The college has a very strict selection process for outstanding students. Even the best Ravenclaw students have gone through many difficulties to become outstanding students.

It is especially difficult to become a student in the lower grades.

So when they learned that Lin Xia had been selected as an outstanding student in her first year, they were very surprised.

Many people secretly believed that the Sorting Hat had put Lin Xia into the wrong house, and that such an outstanding talent should have belonged to their Ravenclaw.

Furthermore, Hermione from Gryffindor also possesses Ravenclaw traits, so she should also be considered a Ravenclaw.

Lin Xia was momentarily distracted upon hearing this.

Why don't you mention that even the magical world was created by your Ravenclaws?

Anyway, everything belongs to you Ravenclaws, even the origin of the universe belongs to you Ravenclaws.

The class monitor said firmly, "If we don't offer something good, how can we get all the students in the college to participate actively? This is settled then."

If the selected research topic involves lower-level students, we will also help those students become outstanding students in the college.

It's no longer a matter of our food being as good as Hufflepuff's; it's that we Ravenclaws have to keep up with the best of the House!
Falling behind even once will lead to falling behind at every step. You don't want Ravenclaw to become just another ordinary, mediocre Hufflepuff community, do you?

……

After listening to the Ravenclaw prefects' conversation, Lin Xia waited on the chair for a while, but did not hear the Gryffindor prefects' conversation.

It was only then that she realized, oh, Gryffindor had always placed their hopes on Harry and Ron.

If the two people who joined his lab couldn't develop an item, then it was even less likely that anyone else could.

Gryffindor students are really not good at mental activities, but when it comes to fighting, that's a piece of cake.

As for why Hermione isn't included in Gryffindor, it's probably because Gryffindor students implicitly acknowledge that Hermione is actually Ravenclaw.

Lin Xia silently felt sorry for He Min.

Just as she stepped out of the Great Hall, she bumped into Professor Snape, who was rushing over.

His expression was not good, as gloomy as water, but Lin Xia was already used to it.

It seems that every time she runs into Snape, he doesn't give her a friendly look.

Snape brushed past Lin Xia. Suddenly remembering something, he paused, abruptly turned around, raised his head to face Lin Xia, and arrogantly said:
"I heard from McGonagall that you're also going to practice Occlumency?"

Lin Xia nodded; she had almost forgotten about it if Snape hadn't brought it up.

When she first returned to school, she overheard Ron and Harry discussing how they would train in Occlumency under Professors Snape and McGonagall during the winter break.

By practicing this spell, it becomes difficult for those with ulterior motives to discover one's true thoughts, and it becomes difficult for others to know one's secrets.

Lin Xia had read about Occlumency in a magic book and was very interested in its abilities, but she had never had the opportunity to learn it.

At that time, Ron asked Lin Xia and the others if they wanted to learn magic. Since learning more magic would mean having more ways to save their lives, everyone else agreed, and Lin Xia was no exception.

Snape's expression softened slightly, and he said calmly, "McGirl has been very busy lately and hasn't had time to teach you newbies."

I'm very busy, but I can try to spare some time for you to come to my office this weekend.

After saying that, Snape turned around and ran away in a hurry.

Lin Xia watched his rapidly disappearing figure, speechless.

What you just said felt like a forced sale.
Snape walked away so fast that she didn't even have time to say no.

However, the professor's interruption reminded Lin Xia of something. She returned to the auditorium, packed up a lot of delicious food, and then went to the laboratory.

As soon as she placed the food in the common area, the delicious aroma of the food wafted through the cracks in the door into everyone's laboratory.

Soon, door after door opened, and Hermione and the others came out, all hungry.

They didn't have time to speak, they just ate frantically.

After the meal, everyone sat contentedly on the sofa, chatting about what they had learned from the afternoon's experiments.

To everyone's surprise, the most successful ones were not Draco and Hermione, who already had a lot of research experience, but the Weasley twins, who had just joined the research lab and developed their first product.

The twins dropped a bombshell in the rest area.

"We were inspired by the truth serum formula you provided, and we have a clue about the solvent for the 'Ghost Talk Candy' and are testing the relevant materials."

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we should be able to find suitable materials within a week!

"A week?!"

Hermione loudly questioned, "How is this possible? How did you find a clue? There are so many compatible solvents, how did you manage to pinpoint the relevant one?"

The Weasley twins chuckled and sang in unison.

George: "Believe it or not, I found it."

Fred: "If you don't believe me, you can consider ourselves very lucky."

George: "Actually, the method we found is not a secret that cannot be made public."

Fred: "I'm just afraid you won't believe me if I tell you, and I think you really won't believe it, but the way we found the solvent actually relied on divination."

Hermione said speechlessly, "Divination? We're doing rigorous research. If every study could get the correct answer from divination, the wizarding world would be overflowing with research by now!"

The twin senior students shrugged and said in unison, "Believe it or not, this is our answer." (End of Chapter)