Points Are Not Important

Kayson felt a bit awkward listening to Dumbledore's praise. "Have you given me a particularly difficult task?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "I'm just speaking from the heart. Go send the letter, I'm going to the kitchens to have a private meal with the house-elves."

"Uh-huh." Kayson shrugged and walked into the Owlery. After quickly sending the letter, he returned to the castle.

Back in his office, he casually took out a small block and tapped it lightly. A string of positive emotional notification bars appeared before his eyes.

This was because during class, a series of emotional notification bars would suddenly pop up. To prevent him from stuttering mid-lecture due to some seemingly serious, but secretly love-struck little witches, he had proactively turned off the notification bars starting from the third class, only turning them back on when he remembered.

Of course, sometimes he forgot to turn them off. That was the fault of his bad memory.

The day's classes concluded, and just as he was about to brew himself a cup of refreshing green tea to reward himself, the office door was suddenly knocked.

"The door isn't locked, please come in."

A small figure pushed the door open. Kayson raised an eyebrow; it was Neville.

Behind him were two more, no, three.

Two boys and one girl. One of them was a familiar face, Harry. The other two...

"Please all come in. It looks like you're friends?"

Neville nodded excitedly.

"Congratulations, Neville, and congratulations to you all. You've made some very good friends."

Kayson took out four more cups and poured them green tea.

"Professor, allow me to introduce them. This is Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. They are the three friends I've made," Neville introduced excitedly.

"Uh-huh, drink your tea. It might be a bit 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 felt like a lecture, but it was much better on the sofa.

"Malfoy came to trouble me again today. I used the Levitation Charm to lift him up and then slammed him hard onto the ground. His two cronies tried to rush over and beat me with their fists. But Harry and Ron happened to run into me, and they helped me beat Malfoy away."

"Malfoy also threatened to tell Professor Snape. When we didn't know what to do, we ran into Hermione. She suggested we come find you, and I also wanted to tell you that I successfully resisted!"

Neville said, sitting on the sofa with his face flushed and gesturing animatedly.

"Uh-huh, you took a brave first step, and you've also made loyal and reliable friends," Kayson praised, nodding.

Hearing the words of affirmation, Neville's already flushed face became even more excited. Harry and Ron also felt a little embarrassed by the adjectives used to describe the best of friends.

Hermione, however, still remembered why the four of them had come.

"Professor Kayson, Malfoy said he would tell Snape, and he'll definitely call Neville over and deduct a lot of Gryffindor points."

"Let him deduct them. Didn't Professor McGonagall deduct points from Slytherin last time? What's the big deal?" Kayson said casually.

"But... Professor, Gryffindor's points..."

"Gryffindor's points aren't really important. What's important is that Neville will no longer be the bullied pushover from now on. As for the point deduction, consider it giving Snape some face, how about that?"

Hermione shook her head. "I don't think so. Malfoy clearly did something wrong first, and in the end, Gryffindor's points will be deducted. That's unfair."

"...You might not know this, but when I was young, I attended school in the Muggle world, from primary school all the way to the University of Manchester. Basically, all students believed that student conflicts should be resolved by the students themselves."

"Telling the teacher is a conventional method that doesn't solve problems. It often doesn't truly punish the wrong party, and the victim might even face retaliation. Only by fighting back with fists is effective," Kayson explained.

"Uh... Professor, I didn't quite understand," Hermione said awkwardly.

"On the surface, I'm encouraging Neville to resist. But there's another meaning: don't be afraid of losing points. Why isn't Mr. Malfoy, who did something wrong, afraid of losing points, but Neville, who did nothing wrong, has to be afraid?"

"Should good people let others point guns at them?"

Kayson spread his hands and said frankly.

Harry and Ron exchanged glances and nodded in agreement. Neville, however, was already convinced by what Kayson had said.

Only Hermione felt something was off. "But the points..."

"Points aren't important. They are just fleeting, so-called honor. If such ephemeral things make a young wizard hesitant and afraid to resist, then it's better to have no such honor."

"Professor is so right!" Neville couldn't help but chime in.

"Uh-huh, Professor McGonagall will also be happy that you dared to resist. This matter will just be a deduction of ten or twenty points. Perhaps Snape will deduct more, but it doesn't matter. You'll get through it. George and Fred, Ron's brothers, have ten or twenty points deducted every day, and they're doing quite well."

"Yes, I'll remember that, Professor!" Neville nodded solemnly.

After sending the four young wizards away, Kayson was once again free.

Well, actually, not that free.

A phantom phoenix, shimmering with silver-white light, suddenly appeared in his office and said, "Professor Kayson, please come to the fourth-floor corridor of the school, the forbidden area I mentioned at the beginning of the term."

"Amazing magic."

Kayson stood up and walked out of the office with a sense of helplessness. He wondered what task Dumbledore had for him now.

It wasn't until he reached the corridor that he realized he wasn't the only one called. Basically, all the professors for the main courses were there, as well as Hagrid, who was leading a... three-headed... one head.

He was holding a giant three-headed dog, trying his best to calm the large beast.

"I invited you here because I want you to help me set up obstacles. I need to protect something precious, the Philosopher's Stone that Nicolas Flamel entrusted to me."

Dumbledore took a blood-red gemstone from his pocket.

Quirrell looked at the Philosopher's Stone with an unusually strange gaze.

[Satisfaction from Quirrell +10]

[Satisfaction from Voldemort +10]