Leaving the Slytherin Brotherhood reserve organization, Sean actually felt somewhat relieved, as if a burden had been lifted. As for what Oliver and the others said about expelling him from Slytherin House, Sean treated it as complete nonsense. Those guys from the Slytherin Brotherhood formed their own little circle and really thought they were something special.
Want to expel me from Slytherin? Let's see if our great Slytherin Snake King agrees. As long as I don't submit my papers, the Head of House will never let me leave Slytherin.
Before returning to his room, Sean saw that Blaise, Andy, and Jansen were already waiting at his door. Sean didn't say much, just opened the door to let the three of them in, then called for a house-elf to prepare some tea and refreshments for the four of them.
"Sean, what happened?"
Picking up his teacup and taking a sip of tea, Sean looked at the serious-faced Blaise and smiled: "Nothing too serious. Just because I killed the Basilisk, the Slytherin Brotherhood expelled me. They also want to expel me from Slytherin House, but I ignored them."
Frowning deeply, Blaise said with considerable disdain, "These guys want to expel you from our house? Do they really think they can call the shots in Slytherin?"
"Blaise, Andy, Jansen, you don't need to worry about this. Setting aside whether they can actually control Slytherin, even if they could, they couldn't possibly bypass Professor Dumbledore, our Head of House, or even the Bulstrode family to make such a decision. I'm not worried about any of this myself. I actually think this is quite good—without all those messy things taking up my time, I can focus on studying and writing papers instead."
This wasn't Sean comforting them, but what he genuinely thought. Before, he had no choice but to handle things personally. Now with Barrett inside, Sean naturally didn't want to continue staying there wasting time and energy.
Seeing that Sean truly didn't care about these matters, the three of them relaxed somewhat.
The four chatted for a while longer before Blaise and the others took their leave. Sean was happy to have some peace and quiet, sitting at his desk reading. Just then, Kulkan, who had been pretending to sleep when Blaise and the others came over, opened her eyes and crawled onto Sean's desk, staring at him.
"Hey, don't tell me you killed the Basilisk but didn't bring anything back for me."
Smiling at Kulkan, Sean reached into his bag and pulled out two boxes with preservation charms and three vials containing blood. These were things potion masters needed to carry with them, as many potion ingredients required preservation, so naturally there were many containers with preservation functions.
Seeing Sean take out these items, Kulkan immediately cheered and kept urging Sean to open the boxes and vials for her.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! I can already smell that fresh scent from the Basilisk."
Sean opened the boxes. Even with preservation charms, the Basilisk eyes and meat had an incredibly foul, fishy smell. But looking at Kulkan's expression, she was practically beside herself with anticipation. Humans and snakes really were different.
Once the boxes were opened, Kulkan immediately pounced and quickly swallowed the Basilisk meat, then had Sean give her a vial of blood to drink before continuing to eat, swallowing both damaged snake eyes.
After finishing everything, Kulkan burped, said, "Don't disturb my sleep, save the remaining blood as a snack," then clumsily crawled onto Sean's bed and coiled up on his pillow to sleep.
Looking at Kulkan, Sean shook his head helplessly, put away the remaining snake blood, and returned to his book. His paper on mental recovery potions had reached the most critical stage. If not for the Basilisk incident, Sean should have already started writing. But with over three months left at Hogwarts, it should be enough time for Sean to finish the paper and then revise it seventeen or eighteen times under his Head of House's nitpicking.
Early the next morning, Sean went to the Great Hall for breakfast with Blaise as usual.
Not long after sitting down, applause and cheers erupted from the Gryffindor side.
Sean looked up to see Harry arriving at the Gryffindor table with Ron and Hermione. The Gryffindors were celebrating their return and recovery.
"Looks like our Herbology professor succeeded, right? She restored all the petrified people."
Nodding, Sean said to Blaise, "That's right, Professor Sprout is indeed very capable. In potions, probably only our House Head surpasses her."
Just as Sean finished speaking, a voice sounded behind him.
"I think that while Professor Snape might be best at potions, Professor Sprout is definitely not far behind. And in herbology-related matters, Professor Snape falls short of Professor Sprout."
Hearing this, Sean turned to look at the speaker. It was a girl with dirty blonde hair who even wore carrot earrings. She was none other than Luna, who had also recovered from petrification.
"You're Luna. Congratulations on your recovery."
Looking at Sean, Luna nodded and said, "Thank you, and I also need to thank you."
"Thank me? Why?"
Luna looked at Sean with an expression that said 'why don't you know?' and said, "Of course, for killing the Basilisk. You not only avenged us who were petrified but also solved a huge threat for everyone else. Doesn't that deserve my thanks?"
Looking at Luna, Sean nodded lightly and said, "You're the first person to thank me for killing the Basilisk. For that, I also express my gratitude to you."
"You're welcome." After a moment of silence, Luna continued, "You're different from other Slytherins. You have a sense of justice."
Looking at Luna, Sean said somewhat helplessly, "I don't really take that as a compliment, since I personally still think I'm quite Slytherin."
"Sorry, I just wanted to praise you."
"It's fine. If there's nothing else, I'd like to finish my breakfast, if that's okay?"
Nodding, Luna didn't linger and turned to leave.
Watching Luna leave, Blaise smiled and said, "Sean, that young lady is a bit strange, but I can tell she has good foundations. It's just hidden by that odd outfit. If she dressed properly, she'd definitely be very pretty."
Sean looked at Blaise and shook his head helplessly: "Just eat your food. We have Transfiguration next, and if we're late, Professor McGonagall won't cut you any slack."