45

Were the questions on those papers difficult?

Of course they were difficult. Sherlock had collected some highly challenging intelligence-test questions from Muggle society, and he had even found some online that were supposedly designed specifically to test the observational skills and intelligence of the American FBI.

In short, these high-IQ questions were driving the little Slytherin snakes mad. They only needed to answer the questions correctly to enter the Sherlock Club and receive one of Sherlock's recorded Magic Notebooks, yet the questions kept them firmly barred outside. Even a full day later, not a single name had appeared on the club's membership parchment.

It was not until the afternoon that the first name appeared: Severus Snape.

The little Slytherin snakes watched in stunned silence as their Head of House entered the Sherlock Club with a calm expression, then walked out just as calmly, except with a notebook in his hand.

That was right—the Sherlock Club's test papers had also begun circulating among the professors. One should not underestimate Sherlock's notes; they were the notes of the Prince of Charms himself.

In the history of the wizarding world, no one had developed more spells than Sherlock. That fact alone was enough to ensure that all future wizards would remember his name.

Moreover, in the eyes of Hogwarts' professors, they had never truly treated Sherlock as a student. If they were judged by actual ability, the positions of teacher and student between Sherlock and the professors might have needed to be reversed.

Thus, the professors did not feel that joining the Sherlock Club was in any way shameful.

Once even the professors became so enthusiastic about the papers, it was not long before every student in Hogwarts knew about them. Great crowds of students ran to Slytherin House and took papers from the box outside the Sherlock Club's door.

The little Slytherin snakes were furious about this and flocked to Snape to complain. However, he was engrossed in studying one of Sherlock's notebooks and was extremely impatient with the disturbances from the students of his own House.

He snapped, "Then why don't you idiots hurry up and study the questions on those papers? If you're so stupid that you can't even get through that door, what right do you have to stop students from other Houses?"

The little snakes left their beloved Head of House's office dejectedly.

Lupo, meanwhile, ran to Sherlock to complain. After thinking it over, Sherlock felt that having all the teachers and students at Hogwarts participate was not a bad thing. It might even spur the little Slytherin snakes to work harder.

Not only did Sherlock dismiss Lupo's complaint, he strongly supported people from other Houses joining the Sherlock Club.

Knowing that their protests were useless, the little snakes could only throw themselves into studying that extremely difficult paper.

At last, after Professor Snape, the second person to answer the questions correctly on their own appeared. The next day, after breakfast, the students discovered Kirk Avery's name on the club roster.

Kirk quietly took one of Sherlock's notebooks and nonchalantly found a corner to study it in.

The third person was also a professor: Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff. The paper she answered happened to contain questions related to plants, and based on the characteristics and common traits of plants, she answered the question correctly through her own experience.

In short, after an entire week had passed, only fifteen people in the whole school had answered the questions correctly. Dandeni had also solved one question and become a member of the Sherlock Club.

He had stayed up for an entire week over that question, and he looked as though he had become a hypocrite overdosed on drugs.

Sherlock shook his head and sighed. Sometimes, having such a brainless fan by his side was a little touching.

The Daily Prophet also learned that Sherlock had established a Sherlock Club at Hogwarts. It published the current list of club members, along with the matter of Sherlock's notebooks.

Aside from a chorus of shocked exclamations throughout the wizarding world, the first person to publicly denounce Sherlock in the papers also emerged.

This person wrote an open letter to the Daily Prophet, claiming that Sherlock's behavior of gathering students and teachers around himself at school was even more excessive than what the Dark Lord had done at Hogwarts back then.

Furthermore, Severus Snape, as Head of Slytherin, and Sprout, as Head of Hufflepuff, had not only failed in their duty to supervise the students but had joined in themselves. This was simply a dereliction of duty by Hogwarts' entire teaching system.

The writer also harshly criticized Hogwarts' headmaster, Dumbledore, claiming that Dumbledore was indulging a talented figure like Sherlock, who was moving in the direction of the Dark Lord and Grindelwald, yet Dumbledore turned a blind eye.

If Sherlock were to harm the wizarding world in the future, then Dumbledore would be the chief culprit.

It had to be said that this person's condemnation of Hogwarts as a whole and resistance against Sherlock shocked every wizard who read the paper.

If people had merely been worried that Sherlock might become someone like a Dark Lord in the future, then that was only concern. But the public statements this fellow had made in the Daily Prophet today were practically suicidal. If Sherlock truly turned out to be someone who never forgave even the smallest grievance, then the person who had once denounced Sherlock in the Daily Prophet would surely vanish from the world.

So no one knew whether they should praise this person's courage or call him utterly foolish.

Dumbledore quickly responded in the Daily Prophet, stating that the so-called Sherlock Club was merely a place for students to exchange knowledge, study together, and borrow study notes from one another.

The participation of teachers and professors would only provide better supervision.

Furthermore, one could not make defamatory speculations merely because the club's name happened to be associated with a certain person's name.

Such malicious slander could also gradually change a person who had originally been kind.

Dumbledore also mentioned that the papers Sherlock had provided, which served as entrance questions for the Sherlock Club, were indeed very difficult. He himself had been thinking about them for three days and still had no answer.

In short, the incident ultimately came to nothing. Rumor had it that the wizard who had once denounced Sherlock in the Daily Prophet had also suffered retaliation from dark wizards.

Behind those dark wizards, one could clearly see the Mephisto Family's hand at work. Wizards could not help but marvel that the Mephisto Family, which had once closed itself off and even fallen into decline, had emerged once more. Under Sherlock's influence, the Mephisto Family had become the most influential family in the wizarding world.

Fumengde had also, for a time, wielded immense power in the European wizarding world.