A Last Resort

However, Manus considered many possibilities and still could not imagine how the professors could resolve this matter.

It seemed there was simply no way to handle it.

After all, the root of the problem was not within the school. Even if they spent tremendous effort keeping the students under control, could they stop the students' parents from killing people?

Or could they control Voldemort?

If they could not prevent that, then even if a student's parents or relatives had died and their enemy's relatives were at Hogwarts, forcibly restraining them from doing anything could hardly count as solving the problem.

Even if these conflicts were temporarily suppressed, they would continue to accumulate as they waited for the day they erupted.

Yet if they did not want those conflicts to erupt now, suppression was the only resort left to them.

The signs of this problem had actually appeared long ago. But perhaps people had been more careful when they acted before, or perhaps it had simply been luck. Even when students' family members had been killed, the attacker had never had immediate family at Hogwarts.

Now that the issue had truly appeared before them, Hogwarts had no choice but to face it no matter how unwilling it was.

"Ding—"

The sound of a metal spoon striking the rim of a glass rang out. Those who had long since finished eating raised their heads toward the teachers' table, while those still eating stopped and looked over as well.

"Everyone, we have several announcements to make..."

McGonagall stood up. It was clear that she was in a heavy mood as well, otherwise her wording would not have been so utterly unadorned.

Next, as the representative, McGonagall announced that Hogwarts would be entering a stricter state of control.

Tolerance for conflicts breaking out in