Like Watching a Stage Play

Roger and Professor Flitwick didn't want Turpin to lose her future because of this, but now they couldn't call her away in front of everyone.

"Everyone, I'm sorry."

Roger stepped forward and addressed the Ravenclaw students waiting for the outcome.

"As one of the people involved in this incident, I'm asking Professor Flitwick to keep what happened confidential."

After hearing Roger, the students present exchanged astonished looks. They couldn't understand why Roger, the victim, would make such a decision.

But Scott saw Lisa Turpin in the crowd flush red around the eyes. She was staring fixedly at Roger with a complicated expression of love and hate.

Scott felt that it was very strange.

Until now, he had never imagined that a twelve-year-old girl could have such complicated emotions in her eyes.

She was far too mature for her age.

Just then, Chambers, who had been frightened on the pitch earlier, stepped forward and said angrily, "No! You have no right to do that, Roger! That blasted broom chased me halfway across the pitch!"

The other members of the Quidditch team were also somewhat dissatisfied. They felt that Roger wasn't the only one affected by the incident.

"This was a criminal act, Professor!" one of the players said. "Even if Roger wants to cover it up, the laws of the Wizarding World won't allow it!"

"Are you trying to protect a criminal, Roger?" Chambers glared up at Roger, the veins in his neck bulging. He was clearly furious.

Faced with his teammates' questions, Roger was at a loss. He couldn't help turning to Professor Flitwick.

Professor Flitwick was now in a difficult position too.

Scott watched the farce with a cool gaze and couldn't help thinking that Professor Flitwick was wonderful in every way—except that he was too softhearted.

Now that the incident had spread throughout Hogwarts, they couldn't simply hide it and hope it would go away.

If Professor Flitwick couldn't make a decision soon, this could damage his authority as Head of House and professor.

In Scott's view, since Lisa Turpin had done something wrong, she should take responsibility, whatever her reasons. Being young wasn't an excuse to get away with it.

Fortunately, Professor Flitwick wasn't the sort to make others pay the price for his own generosity. He had only been considering Roger's wishes. Now that the other people involved on the team disagreed, he wouldn't disregard their opinions.

Scott also noticed that Captain Bruce, who had been standing off to one side the whole time, hadn't opposed Roger's suggestion, but neither had he stopped the other players from objecting.

"I did it!"

The little girl's shrill voice rang out from the crowd, instantly drowning out the other students' discussion in the Common Room.

"I did it! I cursed that broomstick!" Lisa Turpin cried, her face deathly pale and her eyes squeezed shut.

The Common Room suddenly fell silent.

The students nearby began moving away from her. They all stared at her in astonishment.

At that moment, Scott lowered his eyelids.

He had been staring at Turpin with an unwavering gaze the whole time. He hadn't expected her to crack so quickly.

She didn't have much nerve.

Still, now that she had spoken up, things would be much easier.

Scott didn't say anything. He simply waited quietly to see how the others would react.

"Why did you do it?" Chambers walked up to Turpin and demanded angrily.

Turpin still didn't open her eyes. She grabbed her hair with both hands, messed it up, then crouched down and screamed, "It was Roger's fault! He's too much of a flirt! I wanted to teach him a lesson!"

"You..."

Chambers glanced in surprise at the little witch crouched on the floor, then turned to Roger with a look of disdain.

At that moment, Roger was bearing the strange looks of nearly everyone in the Common Room.

He blurted out a denial. "No, I'm not!"

In an instant, the disdain in everyone's eyes grew even stronger.

"Fine, I admit I can be a bit of a flirt," Roger immediately amended. "But you're the one person who can't use that as a reason to attack me, Lisa."

"Of course I can!" Turpin abruptly raised her head. "You dumped me! You were my first love!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the entire Common Room fell into another strange silence. Several students even dropped the books in their hands onto the carpet.

Roger's face turned bright red. "What you're saying is completely different from what actually happened!"

Scott exchanged a few glances with his two roommates. They couldn't help feeling both amused and helpless. If Roger couldn't explain himself today, he was probably going to be socially dead.

"Tell me, Lisa!"

Roger hurried down the stairs. The other students moved aside as he passed, leaving a clear path straight to Turpin.

"Lisa!" Roger said anxiously. "You were the one who said it back then. You said you hadn't really fallen in love with me; you just wanted to experience what it felt like to date! It was only after you said that that I spent two weeks playing at being in love with you!"

"Yes, that's what I said at first," Turpin murmured, wiping away her tears.

Roger breathed a huge sigh of relief, then asked, "You agreed with that at the time, too. Why are you saying something different now?"

"But...but didn't you say later that you liked me?" Turpin looked at him with red, tear-filled eyes. "That turned it from a game into a real relationship!"

Roger's face crumpled. He held back his temper and patiently explained, "That was just sweet talk! You understand? Since it was a dating game, of course I played the part of a proper boyfriend."

At Roger's explanation, Turpin trembled all over and covered her mouth with one hand. Large tears began rolling down her cheeks.

Roger patiently continued, "And after those two weeks, when I told you the game was over, you didn't object, did you?"

"I...I thought..."

Turpin sobbed uncontrollably, her words coming out in broken fragments.

"I thought the game ending...meant...that our real relationship...was beginning..."

She looked utterly heartbroken.

"I even gave you...gave you a Divination Crystal Ball!"

Roger looked as if he wanted to cry too. "I thought that was your thank-you gift for those two weeks of playing the game."

"I thought...I thought...we were really together!" Turpin began wailing. "But...but a week later, you got a new girlfriend!"

By then, the tense atmosphere in the Ravenclaw Common Room had completely disappeared.

Some students sat on the sofas, while others leaned against the walls, eagerly watching Roger and Lisa Turpin's "performance." They let out little gasps now and then, like they were enjoying a stage play.