Punishment and Confinement

At dinner, Dumbledore, who had been gone for a long time, appeared at the teachers' table right on time.

He looked travel-worn. His silver hair and beard had lost their luster, and though he was doing his best to hide it, anyone looking closely could still see the utter exhaustion on his face.

"He must have been very busy lately," Kanna said, glancing toward the teachers' table.

"Yeah." Kyle nodded.

Although he was at Hogwarts, the recent Daily Prophet reports had told him that more than half the morale in the fight against the Death Eaters outside came from Dumbledore.

So, in order to deal with the increasingly rampant Death Eaters, he had no choice but to leave Hogwarts and make frequent public appearances.

After all, everyone in the wizarding world knew that Voldemort feared Dumbledore most of all. Only when he took action could everyone else see hope.

That was why Dumbledore had grown busier and busier lately.

"Oh, right." Kanna seemed to remember something. She spread jam over a slice of bread as she asked, "I heard Harry Potter and Malfoy got into a fight in the bathroom?"

"Yeah..." Kyle nodded instinctively, but quickly froze. "Wait, who did you hear that from?"

He remembered that Kanna had been doing homework in the common room all afternoon. He didn't think he'd had a chance to tell her about it.

So how had she found out? It couldn't possibly have been Snape...

"Oh, Mikel." Kanna said casually. "This afternoon, he specifically went to the hospital wing to get some Pepperup Potion so he could stay up all night catching up on homework. He happened to overhear a few things there.

"Almost all of Hufflepuff knows now, and he said you were involved too."

"Tsk." Kyle clicked his tongue.

He had