The Edgy Half-Blood Prince

The next morning, Kyle woke up with a blissful expression after tricking Snape into giving him the method for learning Sectumsempra.

With Madam Pomfrey's help, Kyle removed the bandages from his hand, which meant he could finally leave the hospital wing.

After leaving the hospital wing, Kyle ran toward the Great Hall. Quite a few students were already eating there.

At the staff table at the head of the Great Hall, Dumbledore and Snape were discussing something.

The moment Kyle saw that, he had a bad feeling. He thought he should probably go to the kitchens for breakfast instead.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Dumbledore had already spotted him standing at the entrance to the Great Hall.

"Kyle Dumbledore!" Dumbledore's booming voice spread throughout the entire Great Hall.

Nearly every young wizard eating in the Great Hall jumped in fright at Dumbledore's Sonorus-enhanced voice. They could hear the anger the old man was suppressing.

The moment he heard Dumbledore call his full name, Kyle turned and ran without hesitation.

"Accio Kyle!" Dumbledore pulled out his wand and pointed it ahead.

As Kyle fled, he suddenly felt as though fate had seized him by the throat. No, it was his clothes that had caught him—his shirt collar had tightened perfectly around his neck.

Dragged along by his clothes, Kyle flew backward through the air, soaring over the students' heads straight toward Dumbledore before landing precisely in Dumbledore's clutches.

Held by Dumbledore like a chick, Kyle gave him a fawning smile.

Dumbledore's face darkened. "Where are the notes Severus gave you?"

Kyle scratched his head and pulled a thin booklet from his robes.

Dumbledore took the notes, and his expression eased considerably. Releasing Kyle's nape, he said, "You are not allowed to study Dark Arts on your own. It is very dangerous, understand?"

Kyle nodded frantically.

Seeing Kyle instantly become so obedient, Dumbledore rubbed his temples with a headache.

He did not even need Legilimency to know that the boy's behavior was definitely an act.

If he had guessed correctly, the reason Kyle had handed over Snape's notes so readily and had not argued against his orders was that he had already read what was inside.

He might even have memorized the method for learning Sectumsempra.

Forget it. Let him be.

Kyle was only learning Sectumsempra now. Among the Dark Arts, Sectumsempra was relatively less dangerous, since there was a counter-curse that could heal its wounds.

But if Kyle got his hands on the Unforgivable Curses...

Dumbledore's gaze gradually turned dangerous. He wondered whether he should cast Obliviate on Kyle and make him forget Sectumsempra.

In the end, however, he abandoned that idea. Considering Kyle's father, there was no way he could prevent Kyle from coming into contact with Dark Arts in his future studies.

Kyle glanced at Professor Snape beside him. "Do I still need to go to your office tonight?"

"No need," Dumbledore answered before Snape could speak. "Go eat breakfast now."

Only after hearing Dumbledore's words did Kyle finally breathe a sigh of relief and run toward the Gryffindor table.

After Kyle had left, Snape finally raised his eyes to Dumbledore and knowingly asked, "Do you still want me to be his teacher?"

Though Snape's tone was as cold and flat as ever, Dumbledore could still hear a trace of teasing in it.

Dumbledore's face darkened slightly. "Not for now."

At the Gryffindor table, George and Fred asked curiously, "What did you do to make Professor Dumbledore so angry?"

Kyle curled his lips into a smile. "I tricked Snape into giving me a spell. The Sectumsempra curse we saw last night."

George was so shocked that his fork fell from his hand. "You tricked it out of him!?"

Fred twitched at the corner of his mouth. He found it hard to imagine the kind of nerves needed to trick something out of Snape.

"Can you teach us?" George threw an arm around Kyle's shoulders.

Kyle spread his hands. "Professor Snape invented that spell. I don't know whether he'll allow me to teach it to anyone else. Besides, it's Dark Arts."

Come to think of it, Snape was pretty edgy. When Kyle had read the notes last night, the title page had prominently displayed a nickname—"Half-Blood Prince."

On the final page of the notes, the person calling himself the Half-Blood Prince had even specifically noted that he had invented Sectumsempra.

There was no need to think about it. This Half-Blood Prince was Professor Snape.

Kyle did not know whether Snape had given himself that nickname or whether someone else had, but if it was the former, then his edginess was truly off the charts.

The two of them were somewhat disappointed by Kyle's words.

"Then what about the magical power control techniques you promised us last night..."

"No problem!" Kyle readily agreed. "But you have to teach me magic too. I don't understand any of the spells in the Charms textbook."

A chaotic flutter of wings suddenly sounded overhead. More than a hundred owls poured in through the Great Hall's windows, circling through the hall and dropping letters and packages among the chatting, eating crowd.

Kyle reacted quickly, moving the bowl of pumpkin porridge in front of him just in time to save it from the tragic fate of being knocked over by a package.

Charlie Weasley picked up a copy of The Daily Prophet delivered by an owl. The front-page story was none other than last night's battle in the Forbidden Forest.

After reading the report, he looked up in shock at the Weasley Twins and Kyle across from him. "You three actually encountered something that dangerous in the Forbidden Forest last night!?"

His gaze swept back and forth over the three of them, as though checking whether any of them were missing parts.

Kyle stirred the pumpkin porridge in his bowl with his spoon. "It actually wasn't that dangerous."

The most serious injury he had suffered last night had not been caused by the werewolves or Professor Tom, but by the burns he gave himself when he forcibly cast Chidori.

Perhaps because it had been rushed out overnight, the newspaper only vaguely reported that Hagrid and the three young wizards had encountered werewolves in the Forbidden Forest, along with the Dark Arts Defence Professor's scheme.

The article did not describe the detailed course of the battle.

Besides that, it also got a few things wrong.

For example, Kyle and Snape had actually joined forces to take down Tom, but the newspaper claimed that Snape had arrived in time and rescued Hagrid and the three young wizards from Tom.

But that was fine too. Kyle had no intention of becoming too famous.

At the end of the article, it said that Tom Hiddleston's trial would be held at the Ministry of Magic a week later.

Dumbledore stood up and informed the students that their Dark Arts Defence Professor had been arrested, as well as the new arrangements for the course.

Since the original professor had been arrested, the teaching duties for Dark Arts Defence had fallen to Snape.

The moment they heard the news, the Gryffindor students felt as though the sky had collapsed.

Although Professor Tom was a criminal, that did not change the fact that his lessons had been lively and interesting.

According to Charlie, Professor Tom's Dark Arts Defence classes had been the best of the seven professors he had encountered over the past seven years.

"Wait, why has one subject had seven professors in seven years?" Kyle voiced the question in his heart.

"You know the Dark Lord, right?" Charlie lowered his voice.