"Professor Dumbledore, we have an urgent matter to discuss with you." Alfrina tightened her grip on Lockhart's wrist, looking quite anxious.
Professor Dumbledore's lake-blue eyes scanned the three of them. "First, let's be clear, you've violated curfew… Come in with me."
He led the three of them to the stone gargoyle. This time, the gargoyle didn't utter a word, its eyes staring straight ahead unblinkingly, but its rear lifted, revealing the passage behind it.
Gary and the others followed Professor Dumbledore into the passage, climbing up the spiral staircase.
At the top of the stairs was the office door, a gleaming oak door with a brass griffin-shaped knocker.
Professor Dumbledore tapped lightly with his knuckles, and the door opened.
It was a spacious and luxurious circular room, its walls covered with portraits of past Headmasters and Headmistresses. It was late, and they were all gently snoring in their frames.
The largest piece of furniture in the room was a massive table with clawed feet. It was cluttered with all sorts of books and various silver items, completely full and disorganized.
Professor Dumbledore smilingly led the three of them to the table. He pulled out a strangely shaped wand, which actually had bumps all over it and was as black as ink. Professor Dumbledore casually waved it, and three mahogany chairs appeared behind them.
"Sit," Professor Dumbledore said, taking off his glasses. He suddenly looked a bit old, his sharp eyes gently closing. The wrinkles on his face and his tired expression made him look like an ordinary old man. He rubbed his eye sockets, letting out a long sigh. When he put his glasses back on, he was once again the powerful Dumbledore.
"What's the urgent matter?" he asked Alfrina kindly.
"…" Alfrina recounted the events of the evening, omitting the part about the three Gryffindor students.
"Ah…" Professor Dumbledore let out a sigh of unknown meaning. "Mr. Shafiq, you can cast the Shield Charm continuously?"
Professor Dumbledore had only heard Alfrina's narration and had not witnessed Gary's final powerful Shield Charm. Naturally, he didn't know how strong that spell truly was; he merely found Gary's continuous Shield Charm very interesting.
"Principal Dumbledore!" Alfrina exclaimed, getting anxious.
"I know, I know…" Principal Dumbledore's expression was rather helpless. "I will handle this matter, on the condition that none of you speak of it."
"Don't worry, our lips are sealed," Gary assured him.
Lockhart was still in a daze. Professor Dumbledore knew he had been traumatized and simply told him to see Pomfrey first thing in the morning.
After receiving Professor Dumbledore's promise, Alfrina's brows relaxed, then immediately furrowed again.
"Um… the three of us violated curfew…" she stammered.
"Ah," Professor Dumbledore thought for a moment. "You and Mr. Shafiq will not lose points this time, but Mr. Lockhart, you must pay the price for your recklessness. Ravenclaw will lose fifty points."
Professor Dumbledore's expression changed. "The Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum reform proposal your group submitted earlier was excellent. We should have a systematic Defense Against the Dark Arts syllabus by around September this year."
The year he took over as Principal of Hogwarts, he refused Tom's self-recommendation, and the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher position became cursed. For the past few years, he had to swallow his pride and ask his students and friends to step in as a stopgap.
With a new syllabus, as long as the appointed Professor is not ridiculously incompetent, students will be able to learn enough knowledge to cope with the OWL exams.
"Your rewards will be discussed once the plan is fully implemented," Professor Dumbledore adjusted his glasses. "It's getting late. If you go to the Great Hall now, you'll just make it for breakfast."
Time passed quickly; in a blink, the sky was already dim with dawn.
The group bid farewell to Professor Dumbledore and left his office.
Professor Dumbledore's smiling face instantly turned grim. His hands rubbed his wand, and his lake-blue eyes churned with turmoil.
Lockhart didn't go to the Great Hall downstairs. He excused himself, saying he wanted to go back to sleep, and left. Gary knew he was too ashamed to go; Ravenclaw students must have noticed their house gems had dropped significantly again.
Alfrina and Gary planned to eat breakfast first, then go back to the dormitory to sleep for two hours, before heading to watch the Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor Quidditch match at ten o'clock.
After Gary returned from the Shrieking Shack, the initial surge of excitement wore off, leaving him utterly exhausted. His taut muscles relaxed, becoming sore, and all he wanted now was to go back and sleep.
He and Alfrina barely finished breakfast. As they climbed up to Ravenclaw Tower, he felt as if his entire legs didn't belong to him; his calves were terribly sore and swollen, and his muscles were trembling in protest of his overuse.
"Don't ask me to play Wizard Chess again next time, Alf," he said exhaustedly before entering the dormitory. "I don't want to go on any more adventures."
Alfrina let out a dry laugh and threw her arm around his neck. "Don't say that! Didn't today unleash your potential? Otherwise, who knows when you'd have mastered the powerful Shield Charm."
"…" Gary thought about it. The strange change in his wand was also thanks to that grey wolf, and he didn't feel so bad anymore.
When he returned to the dormitory, Howard had just woken up and was putting on his robes. Seeing Gary enter, he asked, "Where did you go last night? You were gone all night?"
"Hmm…" Gary thought about Professor Dumbledore's words. "Alfrina dragged me into playing Wizard Chess all night. She's terrible at it but so addicted, she insisted on playing until she won. If I hadn't thrown a game when it was almost dawn, I wouldn't be back now."
Howard pondered Alfrina's personality for a moment, then lay on his bed, chuckling to himself.
"I'm going downstairs for breakfast. Do you want me to bring you anything?" Howard picked up his wand from the table.
"Uh…" Gary's face hit the soft pillow. "A glass of juice, to drink when I go watch Quidditch." He waved his hand weakly.
"…You're going to watch the Quidditch match?" Howard's eyes widened, and his forehead creased. "Do we even need to watch today's match against Gryffindor?"
He and Kona had originally been quite interested in Quidditch, but after watching one match, they gave up on any hopes for the Ravenclaw team; they played truly terribly.
Today, playing against Gryffindor, Howard didn't plan to attend. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to control his voice and would end up cheering for Gryffindor.
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