Aftermath

The three professors who had just arrived stared at the spotless bathroom in confusion.

"It was a twelve-foot-tall Mountain Troll. I've already dealt with it," Sagreles said calmly.

The professors wore varying expressions. Snape couldn't help asking, "Dealt with it? How? Knocked it out? Drove it away? Or killed it?"

"The situation was rather urgent, so for Mr. Potter's safety, I had no choice but to use somewhat drastic measures..." Sagreles displayed the floating sphere of remains, making several of them frown repeatedly. Still, it answered the questions in their minds.

Once Sagreles saw that everyone understood the situation, he nodded and snapped his fingers at the sphere.

Boom—

White flames sprang up out of nowhere, wrapping around the sphere of remains. In the blink of an eye, it burned to ashes. A breeze spiraled through, carrying the last trace of ash into the toilet and conveniently closing the lid.

Whoosh!

The flush was pressed, and the enormous troll was disposed of completely...

Only then did Professor McGonagall notice the three young wizards in the bathroom. Worse still, all three were Gryffindors.

"You three, why are you here?" Professor McGonagall demanded sharply. Her lips had gone pale with anger as she pointed at Ron, who stood closest to her. "Weasley, explain what happened!"

The red-haired boy stepped forward awkwardly. All sorts of excuses frantically sprang into his mind, but none of them seemed convincing.

So he gave up, hanging his head helplessly as he admitted his mistake. "I'm sorry, Professor McGonagall, it was..."

"It was me. I went looking for the troll..." Hermione interrupted Ron shakily, speaking before he could continue. "I'd read about them in a book and thought I could handle it... Harry and Ron came to save me."

Professor McGonagall was somewhat surprised. She probably hadn't expected Miss Granger, who had always been so worry-free, to do something so reckless.

But she immediately put on a stern face and announced her judgment to Hermione. "Miss Granger, your foolishness has cost your house five points!"

Hermione lowered her head despondently. Professor McGonagall then turned to the two boys. "As for Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, you chose to stand up when your classmate was in danger. The courage you displayed earns Gryffindor five points each."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance and broke into radiant smiles.

"But don't let this happen again. If you encounter something like this in the future, don't handle it on your own. After all, you're only first-year students."

"Professor... Professor McGonagall... is... is right... What you... you did was far too... too dangerous."

Quirrell stammered his agreement, earning a contemptuous look from Snape.

Professor McGonagall ignored them and made a request of Sagreles. "Sagreles, I'll need you to escort these three back to their common room. Filius just told me that several students were shoved off the moving staircases on their way back from the Great Hall. They're still in the hospital wing..."

Sagreles nodded. "No problem, Professor McGonagall. I'll personally see them into the Gryffindor common room."

Then he beckoned to the three young wizards. "Let's go, you three."

The three of them turned and left obediently, like quails. Sagreles glanced at Snape's torn trouser leg, then calmly recalled the raven perched on a stall door before following the young wizards out of the bathroom.

None of the four spoke along the way. It was clear the three children hadn't fully calmed down yet, which was only natural. Facing a dangerous troll as first-year students was definitely beyond their level.

Sagreles turned toward the silent trio and, unusually, took the initiative to start a conversation. "Cheer up. You just fought a giant side by side... and made it out in one piece. That's something worth being happy about."

The three immediately looked embarrassed at his words. They remembered how they had performed just now, and honestly, it hadn't been good at all.

"Thank you, Professor Greengrass," Hermione said gratefully.

Harry and Ron nodded repeatedly as well. "Yes, Professor, it was lucky you came to save us. Otherwise..."

Ron shuddered as he spoke, remembering the troll's club that had never come down.

Sagreles smiled and shook his head. He took out his wand and lightly tapped Harry and Ron once each. A warm, peaceful force immediately filled their bodies, and they relaxed at once.

"Potter, Mr. Weasley, you possess extraordinary courage! That's a precious quality, especially for Gryffindor." Sagreles praised their actions, making the young wizards blush. They both raised their hands to scratch their heads without thinking.

Then he tapped Hermione, who was still somewhat downcast, with the tip of his wand and asked, "Miss Granger, have you heard of Love Potion?"

Hermione found it strange that Sagreles would ask such a question, but she answered honestly, "I have, Professor."

At the same time, an unknown force made her feel invigorated, and she couldn't help adding, "I saw a description of that potion in our Potions textbook."

Sagreles nodded. "Love Potion can make people feel false love... but there's no potion in the world that can create friendship out of nothing..." He spoke earnestly. "Not even false friendship."

"And that proves just how precious friendship is... doesn't it?"

Then he ushered the three thoughtful children into the common room.

Before the Fat Lady's portrait, the three young wizards thanked Sagreles again. Hermione even waved at Loctis. "Goodbye, Mr. Raven!"

Loctis ignored her.

Late at night, in the library.

Sagreles sat at a table. An idea that had surfaced during the feast had become increasingly clear, making him feel that the truth was indeed as he had suspected.

Voldemort wasn't dead!

This man, who had once ruled the British wizarding world with an iron fist, had ultimately met his downfall before a baby and vanished without a trace.

Many people said he was dead, but Sagreles now felt that his own guess was likely the truth.

"I'll have to ask Dumbledore during Thursday tea," Sagreles decided...

After the Halloween troll incident, Harry and Ron found that Hermione had changed a great deal. As Ron put it, "She suddenly became much more lovable."

The clever girl had finally understood something—sometimes, even if you were right, you still had to watch how you expressed yourself. A condescending tone made people think you were showing off! Once Hermione realized this, she quickly blended into the class.

After going through a crisis together, the three naturally became friends. It certainly wasn't just because Hermione had taken the blame for Harry and Ron during the troll incident.

She no longer resisted breaking school rules quite so strongly. Honestly, when a smart person truly wanted to get along with you, there were very few people she couldn't win over...

The three were currently heading to the Quidditch pitch together. Quidditch matches would begin at the end of the month, so Harry needed to train while Hermione and Ron went to cheer him on.

"So what spell was that?" Harry turned to Hermione. She had always been the best student among the three and knew many things that neither he nor Ron did.

"I already told you, I don't know, Harry." Hermione shook her head helplessly. This was the fourth time they had asked her.

"I heard older students all love Professor Greengrass's classes..." Ron cut in, sounding wistful. "There's absolutely no homework, and you don't even have to take notes. Most importantly, everyone seems a whole lot smarter in his classes..."

"That's because he cast a spell on the students..." Draco Malfoy appeared with his two lackeys, speaking in that slow, irritating drawl of his. "He even claimed it was approved by the Ministry of Magic's Department of Education, but Fudge told my father it was never registered."

"Oh, right. Fudge is the current Minister for Magic. You know that, don't you?"

The trio simply ignored Malfoy and his companions. Ron even turned to Harry and Hermione as though no one else were there. "Look at how smug he is. You'd think his father was the Minister for Magic!"

Draco's face darkened. He stepped in front of them, his tone brimming with malice. "Weasley, it seems you're just like your father. You both enjoy dealing with things related to Muggles..."

He glanced at Hermione beside Ron, then continued sneering at him contemptuously. "If I were you, I'd go home immediately and see whether your fat mother is sneaking food in the kitchen again..."

"Don't insult my mum..." Ron charged furiously toward Malfoy and grabbed him by the collar. But before his fist could land, a hollow voice came from behind him.

"Weasley, Gryffindor will lose five points for fighting..." Snape had appeared behind them at some point, and he deducted five points from Gryffindor the moment he spoke.

Ron was furious. Seeing Malfoy's smug expression, he couldn't help protesting, "That's not fair. He insulted my mother first..."

"Talking back to a professor. Another five points!" Snape said expressionlessly.

Ron wanted to say more, but Harry and Hermione stopped him and dragged him away.

By the Quidditch pitch near the Forbidden Forest, Ron was still muttering angrily, "You shouldn't have stopped me just now..."

"So Snape could keep finding excuses to take points from Gryffindor?" Hermione interrupted his complaint.

"But he..."

"I know, Ron, we all know... Malfoy is a sneaky bastard. Last time, he said he wanted to duel, then immediately went and told Filch, and we almost got caught..."

"Then you really shouldn't have stopped me..." Ron had gradually calmed down, though his mouth still wouldn't stop complaining.

"If I were as powerful as Professor Greengrass, just one spell—I guarantee that just one spell would be enough to make Malfoy shut that filthy mouth of his forever..."

Hermione reminded him, "That's impossible. Even if you were a professor, you couldn't just cast spells on students whenever you wanted."

Harry couldn't help speaking up either. "Do you think what Malfoy said was true?"

Seeing Ron about to get angry again, Harry hurriedly added, "I mean about Professor Greengrass. Malfoy said he cast spells on students in class against the rules..."

Ron said, "The Malfoys love exaggerating. If Professor Greengrass really broke the rules, why would he still be teaching peacefully at Hogwarts?"

Hermione said nothing. In truth, she thought Malfoy might actually be right about that, but Ron was clearly still angry, so she kept it to herself.

Harry, on the other hand, thought Ron was right. Professor Greengrass had been brought to Hogwarts by Headmaster Dumbledore, after all. Harry trusted Dumbledore, so Professor Greengrass's teaching methods couldn't be a problem.

"Do you think that night, when he tapped us with his wand, he was casting a spell on us too?" Harry suddenly remembered the night of Halloween. On the way back to the Gryffindor common room, Sagreles had tapped them with his wand, and afterward they seemed to feel much happier.

"You should get to training. Wood should have been there ages ago..."