Christmas passed very quickly...
For example, Kasenhis and the others had barely finished lazing around Black's old house before school started again.
Fortunately, this time the task of escorting the train had been handed over to Grindelwald, while Kasenhis happily secured the job of patrolling Hogwarts.
Hogwarts might be ridiculously huge, but it was still much better than setting out in the morning, arriving at night, and having your backside flattened by sitting all day.
By evening, Kasenhis was cheerfully sitting at the staff table, watching the young wizards gradually fill the Great Hall, feeling thoroughly pleased with himself.
Snape, however, frowned.
"What's wrong? School finally started again, so why do you still look unhappy?" Kasenhis asked curiously.
"Not everyone enjoys going to work as much as you and SpongeBob do. But that isn't the reason. Slytherin is missing someone," Snape explained.
"Who?" Kasenhis asked as he looked toward the Slytherin table as well.
Well, would you look at that!
Someone really was missing, and it was even someone familiar.
Maple Green!
Could it be that she was too afraid to come back to school because Orlant might greet her with a nice Avada Kedavra the moment she returned?
Kasenhis thought about it while sipping his wine.
Just then, an extremely imposing-looking owl flew over from the distance, heading straight for Snape.
After taking the envelope, Snape didn't give the owl any snacks or dried fruit like everyone else usually did. He simply waved his hand, wrapped the owl in magic, and tossed it back out.
Seeing that Snape had received a letter, Kasenhis stopped talking and curled up in his chair, quietly waiting for the food to arrive.
Beside him, Snape gripped the letter so hard that the parchment crackled loudly in his hands.
"What happened?" Kasenhis asked.
"I'll tell you when I get back. I need to deal with something first."
With that, Snape stood up and called Slughorn out into the corridor.
The two soon returned, but both of their expressions were clearly sour.
"Did you two argue?" Kasenhis asked.
"No. We debated something. I think he is far too lenient with these young wizards!" Snape said, practically radiating cold air.
"What happened?"
Snape didn't answer. He simply handed the letter over.
Kasenhis took it, skimmed through it, and his expression immediately became painfully awkward.
The letter's meaning was very simple and straightforward.
Because Maple had slipped Orlant a Love Potion, Orlant reported her, and Maple was ultimately sentenced to fifteen days in Azkaban.
She had already served fourteen days.
Since there was only one day left before her release, she was requesting a single day of leave.
Kasenhis immediately put on a pained expression.
"So why does Hogwarts even teach students how to make this kind of illegal potion?"
Snape shrugged. "A traditional English craft. Brewing it is legal. Using it is illegal."
"So... this is the first case I've ever seen..." Kasenhis sighed. "Your Potions classes really were something. You taught a whole bunch of hormonal brats, yet not a single one of them ended up in Azkaban. Impressive."
"Of course!" Snape said, instinctively sounding rather pleased with himself.
Then his face inevitably fell again.
Because the student who had used the Love Potion just had to be from bloody Slytherin.
The problem was that this potion was supposed to be sixth-year material, and the Green family had no particular expertise in potions either. Buying it in Diagon Alley also required an adult wizard's wand for registration.
So where had Maple Green gotten the Love Potion?
The answer was obvious.
Slughorn had taught her.
Perhaps because he had taken a liking to the Green family's influence, Slughorn had unsurprisingly pulled Maple into his circle.
And then, as if tempting fate, he had even given her this kind of private tutoring...
"After all these years, he's still the same. He always likes teaching students things they aren't capable of handling," Dumbledore sighed from the side.
"Speaking of which, where is he?" Kasenhis looked to Dumbledore's other side.
Slughorn had clearly returned with Snape just a moment ago, but now he had disappeared again.
"He's looking for someone to pull some strings for Miss Green," Professor McGonagall explained.
"He complained to me just now. Apparently, he believes that when a student asks him about dangerous knowledge like this, they have absolutely no bad intentions and are merely trying to satisfy their thirst for knowledge. How many times has that mindset caused serious trouble for him now?"
"I've lost count." Dumbledore sighed.
"But Maple is getting out tomorrow anyway, isn't he? It's only one day. No, not even that, just one night." Kasenhis pinched the bridge of his nose.
He wasn't particularly worried about Maple.
For one thing, the Dementors in Azkaban were distributed according to certain rules.
Most of them were concentrated around the centre of Azkaban, where Dark wizards and Death Eaters were imprisoned.
Secondly, during the period when Sirius escaped and the two times they had deliberately gone to Azkaban themselves, the Dementor population there had basically been reduced to zero.
Going to Azkaban now was little more than spending Christmas somewhere else...
Poor Maple.
Taking the blame for Voldemort twice.
Once with Orlant, and once again with the Ministry of Magic.
As for why Kasenhis hadn't gone over to help...
Well, he hadn't known about any of this before...
But now that he did...
"Do you think Horace will succeed?" Professor McGonagall suddenly asked.
"If this were Fudge's government, perhaps it would work. But Barty Crouch may not necessarily do him any favour now," Dumbledore commented.
Sure enough, Slughorn soon returned looking utterly defeated.
"How did it go? Did you succeed?" Professor McGonagall asked curiously.
"No." Slughorn sighed. "Barty Crouch has been secretly purging suspicious pure-bloods from the Ministry lately. Without me realising it, most of my connections have become useless."
"What the hell is a 'suspicious pure-blood'?" Kasenhis asked while fiddling with a large pile of pixelated plants in front of him and taking out his brewing stand.
"Any pure-blood who might have a favourable relationship with You-Know-Who is considered a suspicious pure-blood. That includes, but isn't limited to, neutral pure-bloods and pure-bloods who know me... because Barty Crouch knows that I once taught..."
Slughorn suddenly fell silent halfway through.
He sighed helplessly.
"Forget it. Let's eat, let's eat!"
...
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