"Ah!"
With a startled cry, Link instantly bounced up from the bed.
At the moment of waking up, Link discovered that his bedside was already surrounded by people.
Among them were not only John and several other roommates, but also Cedric and Emily, this Slytherin.
"Link! You're finally awake!"
John exclaimed in surprise and was about to move toward Link.
But before he could get close, Emily yanked him away with one hand, then sat down next to Link on her own accord.
While reaching out to help Link wipe the sweat from his face, she asked with concern, "Did you have a nightmare?"
"Ah, I had a pretty terrible nightmare."
Link said with a calm expression. Other than the fine sweat on his face and his slightly rapid breathing, there were almost no signs that he had just been woken by a nightmare.
This was a manifestation of the Occlumency still working.
"What did Professor Snape say after you went to his office last night?"
"He said there's no big problem, boiled a pot of Dementor Heart Potion to nourish my body and that was it."
Link cooperated as Emily wiped off the sweat from his face, then took a bottle of potion from the bag at the head of the bed and handed it to her, "Right, this is left for you."
"Phew! That's good!"
Emily let out a long sigh of relief, accepted the potion but did not put it away, rather, she placed it back on Link's bedside table.
The rest of the people had roughly the same reaction as Emily.
After all, although Snape wasn't great as a person, everyone still recognized his professional competence.
Since he said Link was fine, then he was truly fine.
After confirming this, the crowd didn't stay long. After exchanging a few more words with Link, they gradually left the dormitory to let Link continue to rest.
Not long after everyone left, Arkam, who had been hiding under Link's covers, finally slithered out, silently winding around Link's neck and staring at him.
Link wasn't the least bit flustered by this behavior; rather, he naturally took out several turkey eggs and hairy coconuts and placed them on the ground.
Arkam was immediately distracted, swatted awake Yoyo, and began eating together.
It was only at this moment that Link finally brought his thoughts back to the previous dream.
In the dream, Mike had apologized to him. And also that final look Mike gave him.
Link could feel the sadness, guilt, and loneliness contained in it.
This gave Link a kind of absurd feeling, 'Maybe Mike wasn't as bad as others said, maybe, he didn't plan to possess me?'
The moment this thought arose, it was instantly snuffed out by Link with the help of the Occlumency.
Pinning all of one's hopes on others for one's own interests, this is the most foolish thing.
So the already ongoing plan must continue. The secret of his own body, he must figure it out.
Moreover, last night's dream also brought Link some unexpected gains.
He did not forget the wall in his heart that ultimately forced Mike to retreat.
This meant the Occlumency also worked in protecting the soul from possession.
'Looks like the next skill to spend a golden skill point on should be the Occlumency.'
Thinking so, Link took out the box of "Skar embryos" and began carefully inspecting it.
———
After waking up and returning to his studies, Link's situation was somewhat miserable.
Although Dumbledore didn't intend to punish Link for this matter, people still vigilantly kept their distance from Link on their own.
After all, this was someone who had been attending class perfectly fine, then suddenly blasted the Astronomy Tower with a spell.
If Link could attack the Astronomy Tower this time, then who could guarantee he wouldn't point his wand at a classmate next time?
This was the thought of the vast majority of ordinary students.
People were afraid of Link, so they began to alienate and slander Link.
This gave Link a sense of déjà vu from the "Heir of Slytherin Incident."
Of course, Link had never cared about the opinions of random nobodies.
But Cedric, John, and even Harry's group couldn't bear it.
They began to frequently interact with others, trying to make them understand that the previous incident was just an accident, and Link wasn't as terrifying as everyone imagined.
Unfortunately, people often only believe what they want to believe.
Harry and the others' approach was also too forceful, those who interacted with them often felt like their brains had been messed, an unpleasant sensation.
Most importantly, after that incident, Lupin's teaching style became rigid and conventional.
Although with Lupin's teaching ability, such lessons still allowed students to learn real skills, they were ultimately no longer interesting.
Many people blamed this on Link.
Draco, too, was experiencing the same treatment. This guy had never stopped his "actor career," always swinging around with his arm in a sling.
Fortunately, regarding Link's situation, he didn't show too much obvious schadenfreude, otherwise, Emily might've made him turn his fake act into a real injury.
But thanks to him, Hagrid directly shut down.
He didn't dare let students contact dangerous creatures like Hippogriffs anymore, not even some ordinary magical creatures was he willing to bring out.
Being overly cautious, he began teaching students how to raise Flobberworms over and over again, turning the otherwise solid "Care of Magical Creatures" class into a home economics class focused on Flobberworms.
All in all, the mood of the students during the entire late September and early October wasn't very good.
Therefore, during their free time from studying, they could only focus their conversations on Link, which was also a major reason the "Link incident" never cooled down.
After all, this could be said to be the biggest scandal since the start of the term.
However, this situation soon changed, because an even bigger scandal appeared.
"Link! Look! The Dementors are finally going to be withdrawn!"
Early on a weekend morning, Link had just finished washing up and arrived at the Great Hall when Harry excitedly shouted at Link while holding up a copy of the Daily Prophet.
If it were usual, this kind of behavior would definitely attract annoyance from many people around, and Link's appearance would make everyone act like facing a great enemy.
But today was different.
Everyone was burying their heads in their own Daily Prophet, occasionally showing shocked expressions, as if the newspaper had reported a bizarre story like the Minister of Magic Fudge falling in love with a female giant and bearing a child.
And in fact, the news written on that paper was indeed related to Fudge.
As soon as Link received the Daily Prophet from Harry, he clearly saw the huge headline printed on it,
[A perfunctory compromise or a sincere apology? Fudge publicly apologizes for the Dementor garrison at Hogwarts, and promises to withdraw all Dementors after Christmas!]
[By Rita Skeeter.]
Below the headline was a magical photo of Fudge bowing in apology.
Link did not continue reading, but instinctively raised his head and looked toward Emily's direction.
Coincidentally at this moment, Emily, who was being surrounded by a crowd of Slytherins, also looked at Link.
The two looked at each other and smiled.
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