"Mr. Percy, or Mr. Weasley, what should I call you?" Kayson asked.
"Just call me Percy, Professor," Percy said, sounding a bit nervous.
"Oh… Is something the matter?" Kayson was a little puzzled. He naturally knew Percy; wasn't he Gryffindor's Prefect and Ron's older brother? His excellence was beyond doubt, and he had heard Professor McGonagall casually mention that Percy was a true 'study maniac' back in the day, the kind who needed a Time Converter for his classes.
However, it seemed he only kept it up for one semester. In the second semester, he cut most of his elective courses, only keeping those that would greatly aid his future development.
That's right, Percy was a 'study maniac' in every sense. In his third year, elective courses opened, and by his fourth year, Percy had already set out a plan for his future and began acting on it. He was undeniably formidable.
However, Kayson and Percy had never met in the Alchemy classroom before, and this could be considered their first face-to-face interaction.
"Professor, I heard from my classmates that after the Alchemy exam, you kept the Little Wizards who wanted to work at the Ministry of Magic… and introduced them to your connections?" Percy asked.
Kayson nodded: "After all, Fudge and I don't get along at all. If Fudge knows they are my students and have a good relationship with me, he'll likely make things difficult for them. I have to help take responsibility."
"Ah?" Percy looked at Kayson in surprise. It took him a moment to realize that at the beginning of this semester, this Professor, during the annual review, had directly stormed into the Minister's office and dismembered one of Fudge's arms.
"Is there anything else?" Kayson still asked politely.
At this moment, Percy wished he could travel back an hour and slap himself repeatedly. He had come to network and gain connections, but he hadn't bothered to do proper research beforehand.
Kayson's connections were indeed vast; excellent people from all over the magic world were his students and friends. But his enemies were also top-notch, starting directly with the Ministry of Magic's big boss, Fudge. Who could handle that?
After Fudge's arm was severed, he might even try to curry favor when he saw Kayson. And while Percy himself held a so-called pure-blood title, it was basically useless. After all, his family had no industry, no power, and a pure-blood title wasn't even pleasant to hear. He held a so-called 'Twenty-Eight Sacred Blood' title, but in reality, people called him a pauper.
Given this situation, if Fudge found out that he had come to Kayson to seek connections, wouldn't Fudge bully him to death? And this was him actively seeking out the connection.
The others were Kayson's students; no matter what, they were passively on the same boat as Kayson. But he had actively jumped onto this 'pirate ship'.
Kayson looked at Percy with amusement, as his expression was truly too marvelous, and somewhat… obvious. It was hard not to understand, and he had also learned about this student Percy from Professor McGonagall.
In short… a total careerist. From the moment he became a Prefect, he showed traits of a careerist. Not only was he ambitious, but his abilities were also excellent. Since he became a Prefect, things weren't exactly 'orderly and well-managed'—after all, managing Gryffindor in a perfectly orderly fashion was beyond human capability.
But all the directives issued by Professor McGonagall were completed very well.
Such a careerist, who might have heard somewhere that Kayson introduced his students to seniors after the exam, came over to try and piggyback, but probably forgot about Kayson's feud with Fudge.
Now that Kayson had reminded him, judging by his expression, he was probably regretting it immensely.
"Student Percy, anything else?"
Percy quickly shook his head: "No, no!"
The extent of his head-shaking was such that it was fortunate his neck was covered in flesh, otherwise, he might have directly dislocated his cervical spine.
"If there's nothing else, hurry up and go. Are you planning to join the Ministry of Magic?" Kayson continued to ask.
Percy nodded blankly.
"Then you should stay even further away from me, otherwise, Fudge might make things difficult for you. Oh, by the way, no one else will know about you coming to see me today. You can rest assured about that."
Percy continued to nod, like a zombie. It took him a while to realize he needed to walk.
"Oh, right." Kayson said again as Percy was about to leave.
"What is it?" Percy asked stiffly.
"If you're worried, you can curse me a few times when Fudge is present. I won't mind," Kayson said with a smile.
Percy pursed his lips, subtly swallowed, then bowed sharply to Kayson and quickly got on the boat and left.
"This Little Wizards, it's interesting how many tricks he has up his sleeve," Kayson murmured, amused, watching Percy gradually move away.
A brief interlude quickly passed. Kayson filled in the Little Wizards' final grades and graduation grades on their report cards. For important exams, like the graduation exam, he would try to boost their scores a bit, and for those he couldn't, he'd give them some points for neatness.
Finally, after sealing and archiving the test papers and having a House-elf deliver them to Madam Pince, the office welcomed new guests.
"Are you still not going to take down that 'Sirius and Dogs Not Allowed' sign at the door?" Lupin asked, sitting across from him.
"He doesn't usually come to Hogwarts anyway, so it can just hang there," Kayson said casually.
"Alright, let's not talk about that. Dumbledore told me about our trip to the Romania Dragon Reserve this holiday," Lupin continued.
"Uh-huh, what about it?"
Lupin pulled an envelope from his pocket: "Didn't I only sign on for a one-year Professor position? Dumbledore has already secretly found me my next job."
Kayson took the envelope and glanced at the wax seal, the symbol of the Romania Dragon Reserve.
"Well, you certainly have a seamless transition," Kayson remarked.
"Seamless transition?" Lupin asked, puzzled.
"It means you might still have to come back to Hogwarts next semester. That time in the Headmaster's office, when we were discussing Karkaroff, didn't you know about the Triwizard Tournament?"
"Triwizard Tournament?" Lupin recalled. There was indeed such a thing. Then he looked at his new job in his hand, the Dragon Reserve envelope, and Kayson's remark that he would likely have a seamless transition and return to Hogwarts next semester…
"The Triwizard Tournament is related to Dragons!" he exclaimed, shocked.
"Obviously. When Dumbledore does things, it's a win-win," Kayson pointed to the envelope: "On one hand, you can earn a high salary at the Dragon Reserve, and on the other hand, you can make things much easier for Hogwarts. How good is that?"
"Isn't that cheating?"
"Isn't that the tradition of the Triwizard Tournament?" Kayson retorted, using a recently learned phrase.
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