041. She Was So Kind and Good

After Professor Flitwick sent the house-elf Lulu to protect Jacob's family, Jacob seemed to relax a little. He also spoke more fluently.

"She, Travers, has been deliberately befriending all the Pure-blood girls at school." He glanced at Turpin, who was sitting beside him. "Including little witches from newly established wizarding families, like Turpin."

Turpin turned and glared at him.

Professor Flitwick nodded. Most of the professors at Hogwarts already knew about this.

Jacob paid no attention to Turpin's angry stare and continued, "The professors questioned several of us who were close to Travers this morning. I imagine Professor Snape and Professor Sprout did the same."

"Yes," Professor Flitwick said. "While investigating the cause of the three girls' illness, we happened to discover this student group. But our questioning this morning didn't get us anywhere."

"The girls said they were just a group of girls their age spending time together. I'm sorry I told you this morning that the girls had asked me to run errands for them because Rowle fell down the stairs." Jacob lowered his head again as he spoke.

"What we said was true!" Turpin glared at Jacob and insisted loudly.

She took several deep breaths, then finally couldn't hold back any longer. She stood up and shouted at Professor Flitwick, "Professor! Jacob has been lying this whole time!"

She was clearly very agitated.

"He's slandering her! Miss Travers never did any of those things! You'll know when the house-elf you sent comes back!"

She turned to Jacob again and shrieked, "Don't think you can pin everything on Miss Travers, you little rat!"

"No! I wasn't lying! You just don't know the truth, Turpin!" Jacob shook his head quickly, his voice turning tearful again.

Turpin still glared at him furiously. "You're lying, Jacob!"

Then she started crying too.

"Miss Travers only wants to bring the students from all four houses at Hogwarts together. She chose to befriend the younger Pure-blood girls first because that's just the first step of her plan! And she had no other choice, did she?"

She looked utterly heartbroken.

Scott leaned back on the sofa, resting his head on one hand. He found Turpin's words rather interesting.

The very same thing could seem completely different when seen from another angle.

Jasmine Travers, a master of putting on an act.

Scott had to admit she was better at it than he was. At least when he had really been eleven in his previous life, all he could think about was playing.

"Poor Miss Travers. She's so kind and good! She's never looked down on you for being a Muggle-born wizard! Now she's even lying sick in the hospital! How dare you! How dare you slander her like that!"

Perhaps she had been holding it in for too long. Turpin had completely let loose and kept berating Jacob without pause.

"And besides, you were the one who pushed Caitlin down the stairs on the night of the start-of-term feast, just because she'd argued with you on the train..."

"Quiet! Quiet, Miss Turpin!"

Professor Flitwick tapped his fingers on the table.

"Miss Turpin! You can respond after Mr. Kent has finished speaking."

"But... Professor! You already believed him! He's deceived you!" Turpin looked at Professor Flitwick miserably.

Watching her, Scott felt that she was genuinely upset on behalf of her Miss Travers.

"Oh! Don't worry, Miss Turpin."

Professor Flitwick motioned for her to sit back down.

"I believe that as your professor, and as an adult, I can tell whether my students are lying." He said it with a stern expression.

"How can that be!" Turpin cried out, then clapped a hand over her mouth when she saw Professor Flitwick's gaze.

At that moment, Jacob gave Turpin a pitying look. Then he said to Professor Flitwick, "Professor, you can't really blame Miss Turpin. They... I mean, most of the girls have been deceived by Travers's false act. They've never seen what she's really like."

Hey, this kid!

Scott couldn't help giving an amused smile.

That was some seriously strong fake-sweetness.

Professor Flitwick glanced at Turpin again, making her swallow the words she had been about to blurt out. Then he gestured for Jacob to continue.

"Travers only shows her true colors in front of Morgan Avery and me," Jacob said. "In private, she calls all the Muggle-born students Mudbloods."

As he spoke, he gave Turpin another pitying look.

"She even said that someone like Miss Turpin hadn't quite washed all the mud off yet."

Turpin's eyes widened in disbelief. She covered her mouth and shook her head repeatedly.

Jacob looked away from her. He took a deep breath and said to Professor Flitwick, "The only reason Travers kept me by her side was to test her Dark Arts on me."

"What?"

The quill Professor Flitwick had just picked up fell onto the table. He jumped up from his chair, visibly agitated.

"Don't worry, Professor." Jacob managed a brave smile. "I'm all right. Travers didn't dare make too much of a scene. Most of the time, she only used a few Hexes on me, then gave me healing potions afterward."

Professor Flitwick took several breaths and said sternly, "You should have asked a professor for help from the very beginning, Jacob! You may have thought you were trapped with nowhere to turn, but for the professors, getting you out of trouble would have been easy!"

"Yes, I didn't realize that. I... I'd only just started learning magic. I didn't understand anything, and I was always scared." Jacob spoke sadly.

Professor Flitwick's tone softened. "You understand now. I hope you'll try to trust the professors from now on."

"I will. Thank you."

Jacob was deeply grateful to Professor Flitwick. He wiped his tears with his sleeve, then looked at Scott and Roger, who were sitting across from him.

"And thank you too, Mr. Trollope and Mr. Davis. You tried to save me."

"You're welcome. Just call me Scott, Jacob."

Scott smiled warmly.

"I feel terrible. If I'd stood my ground more, you wouldn't have gone through all that."

Jacob quickly said, "No, it wasn't your fault, Mr... Scott."

"Oh, and there's also Travers's retaliation against you."

As though he had suddenly remembered that the matter was still unresolved, he said to Scott and Roger, "Sorry, I only knew that Travers was planning to retaliate against you. She didn't tell me exactly what the plan was."

"She only told me to help Miss Turpin with what she was doing. Then... she suddenly fell ill, so the plan to target Mr... Scott may have fallen through."

"I see."

Scott smiled in relief, then turned to Roger. "Looks like I'm a lot luckier than you, Roger."