The Outcome of the Incident

"In all my years of teaching at Hogwarts, I have rarely encountered such a situation," Professor Flitwick said with a sigh.

He shook his head and said to the students, "Miss Turpin, Mr. Kent, I will inform Headmaster Dumbledore and your respective parents of everything that has transpired."

"By the way," he looked at Turpin, who was still dazed, "do you have anything to say, Miss Turpin?"

"P... Professor..." Turpin trembled, looking up with tear-filled eyes, "Can you... can you really tell if Jacob is telling the truth?"

"Yes, I can tell."

Professor Flitwick said firmly.

"You young wizards do not have complete control over your magic, or rather, cases like Mr. Trollope, who can master his own magic, are extremely rare."

Scott, who had been mentioned, smiled; he hadn't expected Professor Flitwick to still find time to compliment him.

Professor Flitwick continued to explain, "Experienced wizards can infer a young wizard's most genuine emotional reaction from their obvious magical fluctuations."

At this moment, Jacob stood up shakily and said, "Then... then this morning, I lied to you..."

"I certainly saw that, Jacob." Professor Flitwick gave him a reassuring smile, "Based on my many years of experience as a professor at Hogwarts, I generally do not take the initiative to expose a student's lies."

Jacob returned a shy smile.

However, at this moment, Scott noticed that Lisa Turpin was in complete disarray.

She seemed to have no idea who she should believe, and in her panic, she had ruffled her blonde hair into a bird's nest.

"Impossible... impossible..."

She muttered to herself, completely unable to accept that the image of the perfect Miss Travers in her heart had collapsed.

"Miss Turpin, there are still two questions you haven't answered." Scott, however, did not let her off the hook.

He sat on the sofa, leaning forward, and looked at her with an oppressive gaze.

"As everyone knows, Roger has always been a playboy..."

"Hey!" Roger protested indignantly.

Scott ignored his protest and continued to ask Turpin, "Roger's philandering is a fact you have known for a long time; why did you suddenly decide to take revenge on him? And where did you get the Dark magic object you used to curse Roger's broom?"

However, Turpin only dodged his gaze while crying.

A flash of pity crossed Professor Flitwick's face, but he still said nothing.

Scott remained unmoved, just watching Turpin.

"I don't know! I don't know!"

Turpin finally reached her breaking point and began to wail loudly again.

"It was them, they mocked me when I brought that up! And... and... I was so angry when I saw Roger with other girls!"

"The Dark magic object," Scott emphasized again.

"That... that was..." Turpin began to hiccup through her tears, "Morgan Avery gave it to me."

Scott leaned back against the sofa and crossed his fingers. "Miss Avery? And did you know that the Dark magic object would cause Roger's Flying Broomstick to explode?"

"I didn't! Really! I just wanted to teach Roger a lesson; Morgan said it would only cause his broom to malfunction."

She let out another tearful hiccup.

"Besides... besides... she said the broom would smoke as a warning beforehand, and Morgan also said... she said... if Roger were a competent Quidditch player, nothing serious would happen..."

She looked at Roger pitifully and begged him, "I'm sorry, Roger, I'm sorry, I will buy you a new broom!"

"That is the least you should do," Scott said mercilessly.

Turpin immediately cried even louder.

She said in despair, "What should I do? My mom and dad will definitely be disappointed in me when they find out about all this... They were so happy and wrote to encourage me when they heard I had become friends with Miss Travers... Perhaps in the future, they will only be able to visit me in Azkaban..."

"How pitiful, isn't it?" Roger whispered in Scott's ear, feeling a bit sympathetic as he watched the little witch's miserable state.

Scott remained noncommittal.

However, he had gained further insight into the absurdity of so-called "new wizarding families."

It was hard to say that Lisa Turpin's worship of Jasmine Travers wasn't influenced by her family's yearning for pure-blood status.

They were all just ordinary wizards; the arrogance of pure-blood families could at least be attributed to their history and heritage, but these people had deliberately manufactured a "class" just to make themselves seem superior.

In the end, they were disliked by both sides—isn't that ridiculous?

At this point, Professor Flitwick stepped out from behind his desk and said to them, "I will now announce the handling of this matter."

"Mr. Kent," he said to Jacob, "although the reason was that your family was threatened, you did indeed participate in the destruction of Mr. Davis's Flying Broomstick."

"I'm sorry, Professor," Jacob lowered his head in shame, "I'm sorry, Mr. Davis."

Professor Flitwick continued, "My punishment for you is detention, which will last for two months!"

Jacob nodded without objection.

"As for Miss Turpin," Professor Flitwick looked at the inconsolable girl, "regarding your punishment, I will make a decision after a three-way meeting with your parents and the Headmaster!"

"Will I really go to Azkaban?" Turpin curled into a ball in terror.

Professor Flitwick shook his head, "Just as Mr. Brown said earlier, this matter depends on whether your parents are willing to pay a large ransom for you."

Turpin shrank even smaller at once.

"Now, Mr. Trollope and Mr. Davis, you two may return."

Professor Flitwick said to Scott and Roger.

"I am going to take Miss Turpin and Mr. Kent to the Headmaster's Office."

"Very well, Professor."

Scott and Roger stood up from the sofa and walked out of Professor Flitwick's office.

The two passed through several corridors and arrived at the staircase in the main building of Hogwarts Castle, which was constantly shifting irregularly.

"I forgot one thing," Scott said suddenly.

"What?" Roger asked.

"I heard from the Weasley twins a couple of days ago that someone gave me an unpleasant nickname." Scott's expression immediately turned ugly when he mentioned this.

Roger, however, wore an interested look, "What kind of nickname?"

"You don't need to know," Scott looked at him expressionlessly, "The Weasley twins just told me that this nickname spread from Ravenclaw."

Roger said with a strange expression, "So you suspect that Travers deliberately had Ravenclaw students spread your nickname to get back at you?"

He clearly didn't think being called a nickname was worth caring about.

"Forget it," Scott began to descend the stairs, "I'll ask Jacob when he returns to Ravenclaw Tower; for now, I've decided to go ask Eddie first."