Kayson felt a little awkward hearing Dumbledore's praise. "Are you trying to give me some incredibly difficult task?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "I was merely speaking from the heart. Go send your letter. I'm going to the kitchen to ask the house-elves to make us a little extra food."
"Mm-hm." Kayson shrugged, walked into the owlery, and returned to the castle shortly after sending the letter.
After returning to his office, he casually pulled out a cube and tapped it lightly. A string of positive emotion notifications appeared before his eyes.
Because whenever he taught, a whole string of emotion notifications would suddenly pop up in his face midway through class, and to keep himself from getting tongue-tied after being startled by some young witch who looked perfectly serious on the surface while pink bubbles had long since begun rising behind the scenes—
From the third lesson onward, he had taken the initiative to turn off the notifications, only turning them back on whenever he happened to remember.
Of course, sometimes he also forgot to turn them off. That was simply the fault of his poor memory.
The day's classes ended. Just as he was about to make himself a refreshing cup of green tea as a reward, someone suddenly knocked on his office door.
"The door's unlocked. Come in."
A small figure pushed open the door. Kayson raised an eyebrow. It was Neville.
There were another two behind him—no, three.
Two boys and a girl. One of them was a familiar face: Harry.
As for the other two...
"Come in, all of you. You look like friends?"
Neville nodded excitedly.
"Congratulations, Neville. And congratulations to all of you as well. You've made a very good friend."
Kayson took out four more cups and poured them each some green tea.
"Professor, let me introduce them. This is Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, the three friends I've made," Neville said excitedly.
"Mm-hm. Have some tea. It might be a little bitter."
Kayson waved his wand, and the teapot on his desk floated over to the tea table in the corner. After all, a professor talking to students across a desk always felt like a lecture, but sitting on the sofa was much better.
"Malfoy came looking for trouble with me again today. I used the Levitation Charm to lift him up, then slammed him heavily onto the ground. His two lackeys wanted to rush over and hit me—with their fists—but Harry and Ron happened to run into me, and they helped me drive Malfoy away."
"Malfoy said he was going to tell Professor Snape. We didn't know what to do when we ran into Hermione. She suggested that we come find you. And I happened to want to tell you too—I fought back successfully!"
Sitting on the sofa, Neville spoke with a flushed little face, gesturing wildly.
"Mm-hm. You took a brave first step, and you've also made loyal, reliable friends." Kayson nodded in praise.
Hearing those approving words, Neville's already red face grew even more excited. Harry and Ron were also a little embarrassed to hear such words used to describe the very best of friends.
Only Hermione still remembered why the four of them had come here in the first place.
"Professor Kayson, Malfoy said he would tell Snape. He'll definitely call Neville over and deduct a lot of points from Gryffindor."
"Let him deduct them. Didn't Professor McGonagall deduct points from Slytherin last time too? What's the big deal?" Kayson said casually.
"But... Professor, Gryffindor's points..."
"Gryffindor's points aren't actually important. What matters is that from now on, Neville won't be the little punching bag everyone bullies. As for point deductions, just treat it as giving Snape some face. How about it?"
Hermione shook her head. "No. Malfoy was clearly the one who did wrong first, yet Gryffindor still has to lose points in the end. That isn't fair."
"...You may not know this, but when I was young, I attended school in the Muggle World, from community primary school all the way to the University of Manchester. Basically every student believed that conflicts between students had to be resolved by the students themselves."
"Conventional methods like telling teachers couldn't solve the problem. They often couldn't truly punish the party at fault. On the contrary, the victim would suffer retaliation. Only fighting back with your fists could really get results," Kayson explained.
"Uh... Professor, I don't really understand," Hermione said awkwardly.
"On the surface, I mean to encourage Neville to fight back. But there's another meaning too: don't be afraid of losing points. Why isn't Mr. Malfoy afraid of losing points when he did something wrong, while Neville, who did nothing wrong, has to be afraid of it?"
"Should good people just let others point guns at them?"
Kayson spread his hands and said it bluntly.
Harry and Ron exchanged a glance and nodded in wholehearted agreement, while Neville had long since become completely convinced by everything Kayson said.
Only Hermione still felt that something was strange. "But the points..."
"Points aren't important. They're nothing more than some intangible, so-called honor. If that intangible thing makes a young wizard restrain himself and fear fighting back, then that honor is better off discarded."
"The professor is absolutely right!" Neville finally could not help agreeing.
"Mm-hm. Professor McGonagall will be happy to know you fought back too. At worst, you'll lose ten or twenty points. Perhaps Snape will deduct a little more, but it's fine. Just endure it and it'll pass. The Weasley twins—George and Fred, Ron's brothers—lose ten or twenty points every day, and aren't they doing just fine?"
"Okay, I'll remember that, Professor!" Neville nodded heavily.
After seeing the four young wizards off, Kayson became idle once again.
Well, not quite so idle, actually.
A phantom phoenix shimmering with silvery-white light abruptly appeared in his office and said, "Professor Kayson, please come to the corridor on the fourth floor of the school, the forbidden area I mentioned at the start of term."
"Remarkable magic."
Kayson stood up and walked out of his office with some resignation, wondering what work Dumbledore wanted him to do this time.
Only when he reached the corridor did he discover that he was not the only one summoned. Nearly all the professors teaching major subjects were there, along with Hagrid, who was holding onto one... three... well, one thing.
He was holding a gigantic three-headed dog, trying hard to calm the big dog down.
"I invited you here because I want your help setting up obstacles. I need to protect something precious: the Philosopher's Stone Nicolas Flamel entrusted to me."
Dumbledore pulled a blood-red gemstone from his pocket.
Quirrell's gaze upon the Philosopher's Stone was extraordinarily strange.
Satisfaction from Quirrell +10 Satisfaction from Voldemort +10
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