As Silan approached Snape's office, he heard quiet curses coming from inside.
"Those incompetents at the Ministry of Magic!"
"Letting Black roam free! What a pack of useless fools! These Aurors are less useful than Flobberworms!"
If he went in now, his Head of House would probably assume he had overheard something.
To avoid any awkwardness, Silan deliberately waited until the voice inside had quieted down before knocking.
The office fell silent, then Snape's voice rang out. "Come in."
"Good evening, Professor." Silan pushed the door open and greeted him politely.
The Scottish Highlands were already growing chilly in September.
The window in Snape's office was open, letting in a cool breeze that left the room quite cold.
After glancing at Silan's clothes, Snape waved his wand to close the window and lit a fire in the fireplace.
Rolling up The Daily Prophet on his desk, Snape pointed at the large pile of parcels beside it.
"Dumbledore has sent the potion ingredients. Check them."
Silan looked at the parcels beside Snape's desk with delighted surprise, thinking how quick Dumbledore had been. He had said a week, and a week it had been.
Dozens of large parcels were piled together, leaving almost no room to stand on one side of Snape's desk.
"Thank you, Professor."
Rather than rushing to open the parcels, Silan first straightened up and bowed to Snape.
Snape merely nodded in expressionless silence and turned away.
Silan walked over to the mountain of parcels and opened them one by one, inspecting the potion ingredients.
"Billywig stings..." Silan picked up a purple, narrow-necked glass bottle and opened it to look inside. "Every single one is intact. Excellent."
There were so many parcels that Silan simply waved his wand, opening all of them at once and suspending the ingredients in