"Can you believe he said something like that? He actually wants us to be creative!"
The students had gone home for the holidays, and the library was empty. Even Madam Pince was gone. Pomona should have been able to speak without restraint, but she only dared to slam books around and did not dare raise her voice.
"That sounds like something he would say." Severus stood ramrod straight.
"What does he think this place is?"
"A school?" Severus asked after giving it some thought.
"What kind of tone is that?" Pomona asked.
"Do you know of any Muggle school where the lessons are lively and inspiring?" Severus asked.
Pomona calmed down a little.
"This place is becoming more and more like a giant nursery." Severus twisted his lips into a strange smile.
How had she forgotten? His classes were the very model of British classrooms. If every class at Hogwarts followed his standards, Harry Potter probably would not have been so eager for the holidays to end and to return to school.
"How rare. You're actually opposing that old fool."
"I am not!" Pomona retorted.
He looked at her in confusion.
She thought it, but did not say it aloud.
The fourth hexagram of the Book of Changes, the Hexagram of Youthful Folly, symbolized Enlightenment. It was not that "I" sought something from the child; the child sought something from "me." The first time he asked, "I" answered every question. But if he answered rudely again and again, then "I" would not answer. That was beneficial to staying on the proper path.
If Voldemort had never come into contact with the Wizarding World and never learned that knowledge, the harm he could have caused would have been limited. After all, he had been an orphan raised in an orphanage, with