Two Generations of Grindelwald

"What do you think you're doing?! Let go!"

Seeing Vane lunge at Wentworth, Cedric finally snapped out of his shock and rushed forward, pushing Vane away from Wentworth with a face full of fury.

At the same time, everyone finally saw clearly that the person who had stepped in to stop Vane was none other than the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Ilona.

Professor Ilona walked over with a face full of rage, glaring at Vane as she asked coldly:

"What exactly were you trying to do just then?"

Vane scrambled to explain, but before he could get a word out, he heard Ilona snap viciously:

"Slytherin, thirty points from house!"

At this, Vane refused to accept it, saying with a face full of grievance:

"Professor Ilona, you can't just deduct points from us Slytherins! What about them!"

Vane pointed at the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students nearby, but Ilona didn't even glance at them, continuing instead:

"Questioning a professor? Slytherin, another ten points from house!"

At this moment, Vane and the other Slytherin students finally understood how students from other houses felt when facing Professor Snape.

Just then, Snape, McGonagall, and other professors finally received word and rushed over. It wasn't just the professors; even Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, had been alerted. After all, something like this hadn't happened at Hogwarts in many years.

Seeing his Head of House arrive, Vane immediately stepped forward to complain:

"Professor Snape, the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors joined forces to bully us Slytherins! You must stand up for us!"

Hearing Vane's words, Coke, the Weasley brothers, and others stood up together and said:

"That's a load of rubbish!"

Following that, everyone gathered around their respective Heads of House, starting to air their grievances all at once—a real-life Rashomon.

Only the Ravenclaw students remained gathered around Professor Flitwick, happily watching the drama unfold.

Seeing the scene descend into chaos with no sign of stopping, Dumbledore had to speak up loudly:

"Silence! Everyone, do you not have classes to attend? If I recall the time correctly, this morning's lessons are about to begin!"

"Now, except for the students I name, follow me to the Headmaster's office. The rest of you, return to your classes immediately!"

Dumbledore then named the two prefects, Vane and Coke, as well as the Weasley brothers from Gryffindor, and led them away.

"Alright, since you are all here, that saves me the trouble. Everyone with me, let's go!"

Professor Ilona looked at the Hufflepuff and Slytherin first-years gathered around and directed them all to head toward the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Seeing this, Cassandra didn't forget to take the lead, following right behind Ilona toward the classroom while shooting a vicious glare at Wentworth.

Upon arriving at the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, everyone was surprised to find that the desks and chairs had been completely cleared out.

Amidst the confused gazes of the crowd, Ilona said:

"As a first-time professor, I don't quite know how to lecture, but I believe in one thing: if you want to master Defense Against the Dark Arts, practice is key! I believe that practical combat is a student's best teacher!"

Hearing Professor Ilona's words, some looked at each other in confusion, some were eager to try, and Wentworth was filled with excitement!

After all, he had been looking forward to learning magic for a long time! Just then, Wentworth felt a burning gaze; following it, he saw Cassandra staring intently at him.

Connecting this to the practical combat Ilona had just mentioned, Wentworth suddenly had an ominous premonition.

While Wentworth and the others were heading to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Dumbledore was leading Coke and the others to his office, accompanied by Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, who had no classes that morning.

Along the way, Coke kept recounting how despicable Vane's behavior was in leading the Slytherins to corner the Hufflepuff first-years!

Meanwhile, Vane kept denouncing how shameless it was for Hufflepuff and Gryffindor to join forces to bully Slytherin.

The Weasley brothers, for their part, looked excited, declaring how satisfying and fun it had been!

But Dumbledore remained silent the entire way.

Until they entered the Headmaster's office, where Dumbledore led everyone straight to the Pensieve, drew his wand, and asked expressionlessly:

"Who will go first?"

The students looked at each other in silence.

After extracting everyone's memories, Dumbledore let them leave!

As the greatest white wizard of all time, having outlasted two Dark Lords, Dumbledore would not easily take anyone's word at face value.

Dumbledore's method was simple and efficient: extract their memories directly and judge for himself.

When Dumbledore finished viewing the memories of all four, he fell into deep thought, remaining silent for a long time.

"Dumbledore? What is it? What exactly happened?"

Finally, Professor McGonagall, who had been waiting on the side, lost her patience and couldn't help but ask.

Dumbledore stepped aside, signaling for Professor McGonagall to see for herself.

After viewing the memories of the four students, Professor McGonagall frowned and said:

"It seems the Slytherin students were indeed the ones who started the trouble. Professor Ilona's point deduction was justified."

Dumbledore, however, slowly shook his head and said:

"That is not what I care about at all."

Hearing Dumbledore's words, Professor McGonagall, as a friend who had worked alongside him for many years, quickly grasped his meaning and asked tentatively:

"Is it Wentworth you are concerned about?"

Dumbledore nodded slowly, and upon seeing this, Professor McGonagall sighed in deep agreement:

"Indeed. I witnessed his exceptional eloquence even before the Sorting Ceremony, and this astonishing ability to incite others is just like the Gellert of legend!"

"Even I did not expect that in the few days Wentworth has been here, Hufflepuff would seem to have changed its entire style. The Hufflepuff of the past would never have done such a thing! One can only say, he is truly worthy of the bloodline of the Grindelwald family."

However, Professor McGonagall's words did not receive a response from Dumbledore, who seemed to remain lost in thought.

"What is it? Was I wrong?"

Seeing this, Professor McGonagall could not help but ask curiously.

Dumbledore nodded slowly and began to speak:

"Everything you said is correct, but this was to be expected, was it not? What I am truly concerned about is the difference between Wentworth and Gellert!"

"If the people who gathered around Gellert back then were mostly pure-blood elite wizards, then now, Wentworth is consciously placing himself among the far more numerous half-blood wizards!"

"Wentworth is making the Acolytes more inclusive! In doing so, they will inevitably become even more powerful than they were before!"