Do You Know How Many Times I Failed?

The next day, before Manus could even check on how the Delicious Potion was brewing in the Potions room, Staky, who had finally arrived at Hogwarts, came looking for him first.

She had even waited right outside the classroom where he was having his previous lesson, specifically for him to finish class...

"Professor McGonagall, could you please find Manus for me?"

McGonagall glanced at Manus and nodded to him before continuing the lesson for everyone else.

"Professor Staky, wasn't that just now a sixth-year Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Defense Against the Dark Arts class?"

Manus looked at Staky in confusion. She should not have appeared outside the classroom that early, and the state she was in now... was indeed rather unkempt.

Her usually immaculate bun was now only barely holding its original shape. Loose hairs stuck out from every part of it, while several strands over her forehead seemed to have been casually brushed aside because they obstructed her vision...

She looked exactly like an aristocratic lady who had just suffered some terrible upheaval, gone bankrupt, and been driven out of her family manor.

Uh, perhaps he needed to reassess his impressions from novels and similar reading material.

"Don't worry about such trivial matters. It was Dumbledore's own mess anyway, and no one ever stipulated exactly which day I had to start work."

Staky waved a hand dismissively.

"Come with me. I have something very important to discuss with you!"

If something could make Staky this anxious and disheveled, it had to be about the Beauty Potion. But he was in class right now...

"Go on."

Manus looked at McGonagall in surprise. She was letting him leave halfway through Transfiguration to do something else? Even if another professor had requested him, this was completely unlike McGonagall's usual character.

"Help Staky return