After finishing his gardening work with Hagrid, Noah realised it was almost lunchtime and set off for the Great Hall to have lunch with the Weasleys.
"Have a nice one, you little smirker!" Hagrid shouted after Noah.
The young man waved and set off for the Great Hall, arriving after a walk of about ten minutes and being stopped by perhaps six different students along the way.
The first person Noah saw when he entered was Percy Weasley himself. Young Percy was practically beaming with pride, wearing his Gryffindor Prefect badge.
The young man took a few steps forward and approached Percy.
Percy smiled when he saw him and said, "Noah!"
"It's been a while, Percy. Hope everything's alright," Noah replied, glancing at Percy's robe without a moment's hesitation, then teasing, "Prefect again, huh, Mr Perfect?"
If someone else had said those words, Percy might have taken offence or turned bright red as he always did when he got angry, but it was Noah who said them, and Percy knew very well that even when his little brother teased him, he had no intention of saying anything malicious or hurting him.
That was precisely why the smile on Percy's face widened, and he looked at Noah and said, "Rough week?"
Young Percy changed the subject and inquired about Noah's well-being, who looked half dead and incredibly tired.
"Yeah, Professor Snape's potions lessons are giving me a headache. I haven't slept in two weeks," Noah replied.
Of course, Noah hadn't told any of the Weasleys what he was really doing. Especially Molly Weasley needed to know nothing about Noah hunting Death Eaters.
Molly... to put it bluntly, she would first kill Noah, then she would kill Dumbledore over and over again.
Both Noah and Dumbledore knew this, so there was no need to upset Molly, whom Noah considered his second mother.
So, even during the summer holidays, when Noah returned to the places where he was spying, he would leave home, saying he was going to the McGonagall and Snape to receive training from them to family members.
Of course, Snape and McGonagall didn't hesitate to confirm these words.
"Come on then, there's no need to wait for Fred and George, Ron's already at the end of the table... even though it's annoying, I have to stay with him for a few days to help him settle into school," Percy said calmly, though it wasn't hard to tell from his tone how irritated he was.
Ronald must have done something to annoy him. Most likely, he had said something about Percy, a Prefect, constantly boasting about himself.
After moving to the Gryffindor table, Noah went and sat next to Ron and said, "Sup, kid?" somewhat teasingly.
Ron, unexpectedly, said, "Bloody hell! You look half dead!"
Noah wanted to laugh at these words, but said nothing, rolling his eyes and asking, "So, did you like Hogwarts?"
Ron, who was busy eating, suddenly paused and swallowed, as if trying to hide something.
"We---tra---ration..." Ron mumbled. He was definitely hiding something.
Noah frowned and said, "What did you say?"
At that moment, the bespectacled boy sitting opposite Ron said politely, "We were late for Transfiguration class this morning."
When Noah heard these words, he turned his head towards Ron and shouted, "What!"
Although his shout drew the attention of those around him, Ron simply lowered his head.
"From the first day, Ronald? Seriously?" Noah said as calmly as he could.
Noah had promised Molly before the summer holidays ended that Ronald wouldn't get into trouble at school, but he hadn't expected this to happen on the very first day he took his eyes off Ronald.
"I'm sorry, alright, I was too excited..." Ronald said.
Noah could only manage a deep breath in response, then turned to the boy he had just spoken to and said, "Pleased to meet you, my name is Noah."
The boy in front of him extended his hand and said, "I'm Harry Potter, pleased to meet you, Noah."
After shaking his hand, Noah took a few pieces of bacon and two boiled eggs from the plate in front of him, ate his first meal in almost a day, and then got up.
Before leaving the Great Hall, he turned to Ron and reminded him, "Don't be late again."
Then he left the Great Hall. He spent the day as if nothing had happened, spending his time in his room reading books and studying.
The next day, he made active use of his time. With special permission from McGonagall, he used the empty Transfiguration classroom to practise a few spells.
For the rest of the day, he had taken care of his daily chores and then helped Madame Pomfrey with a few potions. The fact that he took potions lessons from Professor Snape was hardly a lie, so when it came to potions, Noah himself was the one who helped the professors with their work.
Although Professor Snape did train him, it was not this year.
Madam Pomfrey had asked Noah for help making a few soothing ointments.
Noah had to spend nearly six hours of the rest of his day just for that.
Finally, after finishing his work, young Noah left the castle's infirmary and, exhausted, went to the forbidden corridor on the third floor to carry out his own duty: observing Fluffy and feeding him.
He headed towards the door he needed to enter and saw three people standing in front of it, whom he hadn't quite expected to see.
After approaching them slowly, with incredibly quiet steps, he paused and then calmly said, "Ronald."
The moment he uttered that name, the trio slowly turned around and saw Noah standing before them.
Noah's eyes locked directly onto Ron's; the young man's eyes were practically ablaze, his hair and eyes turning red, which meant he was incredibly angry.
"I can explain," Ron said quickly, but Noah was too exhausted to listen at that moment. Pointing directly towards the staircase area of the corridor, he uttered a single word: Now."
Ron immediately grabbed Harry and the curly-haired girl, whom Noah didn't recognise, and practically fled the area.
Noah thought it would be better to focus on the task at hand, as he could question this later, then opened the solid wooden door, with Fluffy behind him, and went inside.
Fluffy, who had been incredibly angry, calmed down the moment he saw him. Since Noah was a metamorphmagus and also another magical being, a High-Arch Vampire, it was quite natural for animals to like him.
So Fluffy did not see him as a threat.
"There you go, Fluffy," Noah said suddenly, and then immediately pulled out kilos of meat from a bag hanging from his belt and placed it in front of the dog's three separate heads.
It was a magical bag, made with the Extension Charm, a rather difficult type of spell. It would be more accurate to say it was a bag carrying hundreds of kilos of meat that Noah carried solely for Fluffy.
After Fluffy had happily eaten the meat given to him, Noah had petted him for a while, then left the room.
When he left the room, he saw someone he hadn't planned on seeing at all.
Professor Quirinus Quirrell, Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.
He might have been the professor Noah disliked the most in the entire castle. From Noah's perspective, he could even be described as a rather... creepy professor. He stuttered, appeared sweet to everyone else, but to Noah, he was repulsive, disgusting, and even spine-chilling.
"Professor," Noah said calmly, as he had to communicate with this creepy person, even if he didn't want to.