At breakfast the next day...
Because of their night outing last night, none of the three of them had a good rest. Now they all just wanted to finish their meal as soon as possible and then go to the classroom to catch up on some sleep, so they all sat on their respective college's side.
The Great Hall table was piled high with grilled sausages and fried eggs. Kayson was stuffing bacon into slices of bread, because Hufflepuff plates were always the first to empty, and if he didn't start stuffing them soon, it would be too late.
At the Gryffindor table next door, Lily was watching James Potter secretly taking pancakes from her plate, and decided to first be polite and then force him. "A torn robe can be mended, but what can be used to mend a broken reputation?"
However, the gift was obviously useless, which showed that the gift was of no use, so he simply took out the Iron Sword that Kayson had made for him from chainmail the night before.
Seeing this, James quickly put the pancake on her plate with a grin, and then smeared the syrup all over his hands onto Sirius's robe.
On Ravenclaw's side, Snape sat alone at the end of the long table, feeling drowsy and wanting to find some stimulating food to wake himself up a bit, while the other girls sitting with him were eating breakfast and reading.
I encountered a master of rote memorization during breakfast time, and despite my best efforts, I couldn't defeat him.
On the High Table, Slughorn glanced at Heath again. The latter was torturing a hard-boiled egg with a fork, the yolk dripping onto the plate, looking no different from a potato.
"Cough cough!" Slughorn elbowed him. "So, how did Kayson's apprenticeship go? Did he like the Cockroach Clusters?"
The fork clanged as it pierced the porcelain plate. Heath slowly turned his head, his eyes bloodshot. " Cockroach Clusters?"
"Yes! A whole jar full! I handed it to him myself!" Slughorn gestured the size of the jar, his oily face leaning closer. "Was he so excited yesterday? Did he bang on your office door with the jar?"
Heath stared at his opening and closing mouth, the scene from last night flashing through his mind.
The empty corridor, the torn corner of a robe, the remnants of acrylic cockroaches stuck to the rag... and the occasional snickering from the shadows of the ceiling.
His voice was forced out through clenched teeth, and the veins on the back of his hand throbbed. "I need a reasonable explanation. Were you really not just playing a trick on me yesterday?"
Slughorn chuckled, "No way! I've even planned out the scene of your master-disciple reunion! You hold up your elaborate plan in one hand, and he bows down in reverence..."
The plate in front of Heath was completely pierced by his fork, and the exploding fragments were evenly scattered all over the long table, while the egg yolk, which had been mashed into mashed potatoes, flew evenly onto Slughorn's face, like a face mask.
"Um... Thorne, while I completely understand your current excitement, I think you should try to control yourself. What do you think?"
"A duel," Heath shook his head, stating it bluntly.
"Huh? Kayson can duel with you? Even if he's talented, he's not that good, is he?" Slughorn asked in surprise.
Heath stood up and lifted the obese Slughorn up. "I mean you."
Slughorn kicked wildly, his feet dangling in the air. "Wait... wait! Thorne, are you crazy? I did all that for you and your father! It's a master-disciple relationship, you can't treat me like this! I'm your teacher, I shed blood for Dumbledore, I served Hogwarts! I want to see Dumbledore!!!"
Slughorn was thus pulled out of the Great Hall.
Dumbledore, however, remained calmly eating his caramel sandwich, without making the slightest movement.
"You've shed blood for Dumbledore? Lots of it!" Outside the Great Hall, Heath's roar echoed, making the wine glasses vibrate. "You've even recognized me as your master? I'll show you! You've performed meritorious service? I'll show you! Dumbledore can't protect you. If he dares to stop me, I'll stuff him into the tentacle cabinet!"
The entire Great Hall was deathly silent, and the young wizards dropped their forks all over the floor.
Dumbledore just popped the Lemon Drop into his mouth when the sugar ball rolled "plop" into his mustache.
"No? What's it to me?"
"It's a light teacher sparring spell..." Dumbledore, realizing what was happening, stroked his beard and stood up. "Class, continue sparring... Hey, Professor McGonagall, don't stop us! Sparring is good for your health! Besides, Heath just had a gland transplanted from a dragon a few days ago, and he's been irritable lately, which is a side effect of the recent transplant."
McGonagall froze, her wand halfway raised, watching helplessly as Heath tossed Slughorn back into the air above the Great Hall like trash, only to have him pulled back down by a tremendous force.
With a bang, the Great Hall doors were slammed shut by Dumbledore's wand. After all, the headmaster was kind-hearted and couldn't bear to see such human suffering.
seconds later.
The terrifying explosion caused the chandeliers throughout the Great Hall to sway wildly. The Pumpkin Juice bowl on the Gryffindor table overturned, and the orange liquid soaked Sirius's trousers.
"Damn it!"
" Protego! Listen to me... Ouch!" Slughorn's scream mingled with the crashing sound of shattering bricks.
The owl, who was delivering the mail right on time in the morning, was so startled that its feathers bristled and fell from the sky like snowflakes, landing in Lily's milk cup.
" Reducto! Pierce to the core... cough! Expelliarmus, okay?!" Heath's incantations grew increasingly dense.
Thump! Thump! muffled sounds came from the wall, like Indians beating up a Komodo dragon outside.
Taking advantage of the moment when the other young wizards were all in a daze, Kayson at the Hufflepuff table quickly devoured a large amount of food and put it on a plate.
Kayson quickly stuffed the last half of the sausage into his mouth and mumbled, "Shall we open the betting? I bet Professor Slughorn will turn into a slug in a few minutes?"
John Abott pointed tremblingly to the door. "They... they've been using Dark Magic?"
"It's just a friendly sparring match between wizards," Kayson shrugged. "At most... a passionate lesson?"
The Great Hall doors creaked open a crack.
Heath strode in. His robes were charred and curled at the hem, and smoke was still rising from his cuffs, but not a single hair was disheveled. He coldly surveyed the room, and the young wizards all lowered their heads and began to devour their empty plates.
" The Alchemy office." His voice was icy cold. "Closed all day. Some people..." His gaze swept across the Gryffindor table like a knife.
James had secretly slipped a sausage soaked in Pumpkin Juice into Sirius's pocket, suddenly shivered for some reason.
"Don't even think about sneaking in and stealing my dragon scale powder."
He strode towards the High Table, leaving a thin layer of frost on the long tables he passed. He suddenly stopped as he passed Lily.
"Miss Evans."
Lily, with a piece of bacon still stuck to her fork, murmured, "... Huh?"
"The robe is well mended." Heath glanced at the fine stitches in the corner of her robe. "Better than some little bastards who can only tear cloth."
Lily froze, as if on a stone statue. Snape, at the end of the Ravenclaw Table, coughed violently, nearly spitting out his lungs.
Heath had just sat down when the oak door was slammed open again.
Slughorn somehow Transfiguration himself into a magical wheelchair and slowly made his way to the Great Hall, cosplaying as Stephen Hawking.
Half of his meticulously groomed silver beard was scorched, and the other half was plastered into clumps by some kind of green slime. His ornate embroidered dark green robe was now a tattered rag, its hem trailing on the ground, stained with mud and ash.
The robe at the crotch was torn with a large hole, revealing red underwear printed with "I love dried jackfruit" underneath.
" Merlin's lace stockings!" a girl at the Slytherin table shrieked, covering her eyes. Then she whispered, "I know what to give the professor for Christmas!"
Slughorn strolled leisurely toward the professor's table. " Madam Pomfrey! Would you mind taking me to the Hospital Wing?"