Storms Return

The corner of Bellows's mouth twitched slightly, but this time he did not argue with Manus.

Because Manus was right this time.

"Among the more unusual people in Gryffindor and Slytherin, the feud between the elder and younger Blacks is the most unusual. But they have fought plenty of times before, so it probably wasn't them..."

Manus searched through what he knew of the two houses without slowing his neat, practiced movements.

"Someone even more unusual than the elder and younger Blacks... We have to make a very bold guess..."

Surprise flickered through Manus's eyes, and his hands paused slightly.

"Were the seventh-years who are graduating this year the ones who started fighting?"

Seeing the shock in Bellows's eyes, Manus knew he had guessed correctly.

If anyone at Hogwarts could be considered more unusual than the Black brothers, it was probably the students about to graduate. Strictly speaking, they were nearly no longer Hogwarts students.

The approaching Wizarding Level Exams affected the futures of more than ninety percent of young wizards. The heavy workload, coupled with the pressure of soon leaving school and entering society, was enough to make people feel suffocated.

Even old grudges with students from other houses would be set aside at a time like this. Hardly any seventh-years took part in fights.

After all, how many past brawls had truly been driven by hatred, and how many had simply been caused by taking sides?

Gryffindor and Slytherin had been at odds for far more than a year or two. Things simply had not been this serious or this frequent in the past. No one had ever heard of a student who constantly fought others at school chasing an opponent to their home with a wand after graduation.

On one hand, there was no such deep-seated hatred.