As soon as Sterling walked into the Great Hall, Terry elbowed him enthusiastically.
"Look, Headmaster Dumbledore is actually at school today!"
Sterling followed Terry's gaze and saw Dumbledore talking with Professor McGonagall at the staff table.
Knowing the headmaster was at school made Terry very happy.
Without him needing to remind them, Padma and Hermione gathered over, with Hermione pulling out that roll of parchment from her bag.
"Did we collect all the first-year signatures?"
Terry was the overall coordinator of the complaint-against-Quirrell plan. He looked at Padma, who immediately put on the tone of a professional clerk.
"Report! All signatures collected except for Slytherin, which we really couldn't complete!"
"We also have three House prefects' signatures. The Gryffindor female prefect signed after seeing Percy's signature, and as for the Hufflepuff prefect..."
"Third-year Cedric saw us collecting first-year Hufflepuff signatures and then called their prefect out to sign," Hermione added. This good news delighted Terry immensely.
They had originally estimated that having about half the first-years willing to contribute to this joint petition would be enough to catch Headmaster Dumbledore's attention.
But it had reached such a scale. Terry now had considerable confidence in getting rid of Quirrell.
"Professor Quirrell really is..." Sterling twisted his mouth with distaste.
The second day after Defence Against the Dark Arts class ended, Quirrell was slapped in the face with a Howler during breakfast. Terry, following Sterling's advice, handled it very cautiously.
Not only was the voice pitched so you couldn't tell male from female, but even the delivery owl was anonymously rented from Diagon Alley. As for the Howler's content...
Let's just say it fully showcased his reading volume as a Ravenclaw, plus the sarcastic skills he'd learnt from his Ministry of Magic father.
The commotion that day made even Sterling a bit afraid of Terry. He really didn't dare argue with him; Terry could really curse someone out.
Quirrell was so affected by that Howler that he didn't dare come to the Great Hall for meals for several days... Now, if things went smoothly, he'd never have to come to the Great Hall for meals again.
"Tch, you're talking as if you don't want to change teachers."
Terry ruthlessly exposed Sterling's pretence. In contributing to this matter, though Sterling hadn't collected signatures, he'd done plenty of other things.
To say the least, the idea of getting prefects involved to prevent the headmaster from ignoring them due to their low year level was his suggestion, and Robert had only supported it for Sterling's sake.
Sterling smiled. Of course, he was also eager to get Quirrell removed, at least on the surface, so Quirrell couldn't exercise his professorial authority so freely.
He actually knew today's complaint wouldn't achieve the best results.
Prophecy was absolute. Since Harry Potter's battle with Quirrell had already been "seen" by his prophecy, this scene would inevitably play out.
Even if Quirrell was really fired, Sterling would have to find a way to protect him. If he was still at school, the conflict between Sterling Page and Harry would necessarily take place within the school.
With Sterling's "Witness of the Author" surveillance and Dumbledore's possible protection, Harry would undoubtedly be much safer.
If Quirrell went outside, things would be uncertain.
Even though Sterling had seen Harry in the more distant future, proving Harry wouldn't die to this year's Quirrell... prophecy had one very important rule:
"Everything the prophet does for the prophecy is within the prophecy."
In other words, everything Sterling did would also advance the prophecy. So how could he know Harry's survival wasn't the result of Sterling locking his battle with Quirrell to Hogwarts?
For something as terrifying as prophecy, no amount of attention or caution was excessive.
Sterling poked at the lamb chops on his plate, watching the currently cheerful Headmaster Dumbledore from the corner of his eye.
He decided to monitor Dumbledore tonight to see his opinion on this complaint letter, then decide his own approach.
If the handling was too light, he'd have to reveal his prophet identity to try to influence Dumbledore's judgement. If the handling was too severe, he'd have to use Slytherin influence.
Yes, Slytherin's inability to collect signatures was Sterling's behind-the-scenes manipulation. This kind of thing was simple; just arrange a few incidents with "Witness of the Author".
Making the few Slytherins who had signed be "accidentally" discovered getting close to Muggle-born young wizards would naturally lead to their ostracisation and distaste for this complaint plan.
Of course, Slytherins couldn't possibly get close to Muggle-borns, but that didn't matter. They couldn't escape Sterling's pen.
As long as the complaint didn't gather signatures from all four Houses, even if Dumbledore really valued it and wanted to change teachers, Sterling could manipulate Slytherin public opinion to lean toward protecting Quirrell.
Sterling looked somewhat apologetically at Terry, who was fantasising with Hermione about kicking out Quirrell and welcoming a new teacher with superb magical achievements and teaching ability.
He hoped Terry wouldn't be too upset when he learnt the results.
Quirrell's professorial position couldn't be removed.
However, Sterling felt that if he could achieve his goal, Terry probably wouldn't be too unwilling.
After all, he didn't really have issues with Quirrell as a person. Purely as a Ravenclaw unable to tolerate his garbage-level teaching.
With things on his mind, they quickly finished eating and left the Great Hall. Terry had originally wanted to take the complaint letter directly for a real-name report, but Sterling grabbed him and dragged him out of the hall.
Sterling almost broke out in a cold sweat. Were there any broad-minded Dark wizards? If Terry reported this, Sterling wouldn't need to learn any more magic. He'd spend every day guarding Terry to protect him.
Hermione and Padma were also startled. Terry usually seemed so careful and thoughtful, but unexpectedly he was so hasty in this matter.
With much persuasion, the three of them working together finally dissuaded Terry. Sterling and the others found one of the school's public owls to send the letter directly to Dumbledore.
This time Sterling didn't have Terry do any disguising. Headmaster Dumbledore wasn't some untrustworthy person. This complaint letter only needed to be hidden from Quirrell.
The entire afternoon had no classes. Hermione and Padma decided to return to their dormitory to chat about girls' topics and parted ways with them.
Terry and Sterling thought about it. With nothing else to do, they decided to go to the library to preview next week's lessons.
They were still wandering the corridors when suddenly, a miserable scream came from outside.
"Ahhhh! Ahhhh!"
"That voice sounds familiar?" Terry looked around. "Sounds like Neville's voice? Shouldn't they be in Flying class right now?"
Sterling had already locked onto Neville's position. Right outside the window, Neville was crying and screaming while clinging to a wildly flying broomstick.
"Merlin's beard..." Terry stared dumbly at the scene.
"It's brake failure from an ageing broomstick. I knew those old things would have problems! Why isn't Madam Hooch saving him?"
Terry anxiously gripped the window frame. Though not from the same House, Neville was still a friend, he acknowledged.
Sterling was also somewhat anxious, but he quickly calmed down.
First, Madam Hooch was probably unreliable. For such high-speed flying objects, even he would have difficulty hitting them with spells. Madam Hooch's magical achievements were obviously not particularly excellent at a glance.
This was something Sterling had discovered by idly activating his magical vision to observe professors one by one. Absolutely reliable.
In such situations, only the four House Heads and Headmaster Dumbledore could handle it properly.
Terry wanted to immediately find Professor Flitwick, but Sterling stopped him.
"There's no time. Neville can barely hold on. Even if he could, the broomstick is about to fall apart."
He activated his magical vision, not to observe threads this time, but for the visual enhancement that came after activation.
Sterling focused intently on Neville, and the moment he completely lost his grip and fell from the broomstick, Sterling suddenly pushed open the window.
"Thorns, come forth!"
Sterling's entire right forearm became a mass of mist, and a large cluster of thorns emerged from the mist. The dark green thorns, deliberately retracting their spikes, instantly formed a web like a spider between several towers.
Neville fell onto the net, several thorns immediately wrapped around him securely, then all the thorns retracted, bringing Neville through the window and placing him before Sterling.
Terry was so shocked by this display of magic that his mouth hung open.
In the distance, from a high tower where he was admiring the scenery, a glint flashed through Dumbledore's glasses.