Hogwarts: I Am Such a Model Wizard

Chapter 757: Punishment and Detention

During dinner, Dumbledore, who had been absent for a long time, appeared punctually in the instructor’s seat.

He looked like he had been traveling for quite some time—his silver hair and beard were dull and disheveled, and though he tried to conceal it, a closer look revealed the exhaustion on his face.

“He must have been busy lately,” Kanna remarked, glancing toward the instructor’s seat.

“Yes,” Kyle nodded.

Even though he was at Hogwarts, he could tell from the latest issue of The Daily Prophet that much of the morale in the fight against the Death Eaters was due to Dumbledore.

To counter their growing threat, Dumbledore had to leave Hogwarts more frequently, making his presence known beyond the castle walls. After all, the entire wizarding world knew that Voldemort feared Dumbledore more than anyone else, and as long as he remained active, people could cling to hope.

That was why Dumbledore had been so busy lately.

“By the way,” Kanna said suddenly, as she spread jam on her toast. “I heard Potter and Malfoy had a fight in the bathroom?”

“Yeah...” Kyle nodded absentmindedly but then froze. “Wait, who told you that?”

He distinctly remembered Kanna being in the common room all afternoon, buried in her homework. He hadn’t mentioned it to her—so how did she know? It couldn’t have been Snape...

“Oh, it was Mikel,” Kanna replied casually. “He went to the Hospital Wing this afternoon to get some Pepperup Potion so he could stay up all night working on his homework. He overheard it there.”

“Almost all of Hufflepuff knows about it now, and he said you were involved.”

“Tsk,” Kyle clicked his tongue, pursing his lips.

Mikel was practically born to be an Auror—he never failed when it came to gathering information.

“Well, it’s true,” Kyle admitted. “And they were both dead serious, like they were determined to win at any cost.”

“Then what about you? How did you get involved?” Kanna asked.

That was what she didn’t understand.

Wasn’t Kyle supposed to be in the Room of Requirement? How had he ended up on the seventh floor, caught up in a fight between Potter and Malfoy?

“It’s kind of a funny story,” Kyle said, rubbing the back of his head. “I decided to take the day off, and when this happened, I saw an opportunity to step in.”

He briefly recounted what had happened—how he had overheard the explosion, rushed to the seventh floor, and intervened just in time to keep Harry and Malfoy from being carried straight to the Hospital Wing.

“So you’ve already learned it, haven’t you?” Kanna’s eyes lit up with excitement. “The method of changing the nature of magic using runes that Professor Lagord talked about...”

Lagord, was the Charms professor in the Room of Requirement, who looked exactly like old Tom from the Leaky Cauldron.

Kanna had attended a few of his lessons with Kyle before. She hadn’t understood much, but she had remembered some of the key points.

And the one that stood out the most was changing magic with runes, which basically meant nullifying magic.

She also distinctly remembered Kyle being scolded the most in that class. It was hard to forget, considering he had been reprimanded for 55 minutes of the one-hour lesson.

But Kyle had no idea what she was thinking.

“I’ve sort of learned it,” he said after a moment’s thought. “Another reason it worked is that the spells Harry and Malfoy were using weren’t particularly complicated. They were relatively easy to counter. If it had been two professors, it definitely wouldn’t have worked.”

“That’s still pretty impressive,” Kanna said with a laugh. “At least Professor Lagord won’t scold you anymore, right?”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Kyle sighed, rubbing his forehead. Just thinking about the grumpy old professor gave him a headache—and this was only one of the many things he still had to learn.

After dinner, students began getting up from the long tables, preparing to return to their common rooms.

Kyle, however, didn’t move. He remained seated, waiting for a bit. He had a feeling he’d be summoned to the headmaster’s office soon, and staying put would save him the trouble of walking back only to be called out again.

But after ten minutes, when the Great Hall had nearly emptied, no one came for him.

During that time, Nearly Headless Nick drifted by, but he wasn’t looking for Kyle—he was

"Then we got onto the topic of that last Love Potion. He didn’t want to talk about it, but he told me what he thought. He figured someone was trying to manipulate him against someone at Hogwarts—and he guessed it was me.”

"I told him I needed his help. That memory."

"So Horace gave it to you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yeah," Harry said with a grin. "He did."

Dumbledore chuckled softly. "It seems you were quite lucky that day," he mused. "You have a very good friend, and a generous one at that."

It was easy to tell from Harry’s words—Dumbledore knew that the pumpkin juice Hermione had given him wasn’t ordinary. It had been laced with Felix Felicis.

That was why, when the time was right, Slughorn had been in the mood for a drink—and why Harry had managed to get exactly what he needed.

But Dumbledore didn't dwell on that thought. There were more pressing matters at hand.

As Harry spoke, Dumbledore stood and took the bottle, striding over to the cabinet where the Pensieve rested.

"Now," Dumbledore said, setting the basin on the table and uncorking the bottle, "we shall finally see the truth of it all. Come, Harry..."