Faced with Professor McGonagall's questions,
Zhang Xiao naturally knew how to answer.
He simply had to leave out any personal speculation or emotion and give a brief account of what had actually happened. The initiative would naturally return to him.
His wand spun once in his hand before he slipped it back into the pouch at his waist. He looked at Professor McGonagall and said calmly,
"Professor, I know nothing about this. I had only just returned to the common room when Miss Greengrass insulted me and attacked me. You saw what happened next."
With that, he pointed to the young wizards sprawled across the floor and the lamp that Dark Magic had corroded beyond recognition.
Professor McGonagall was genuinely dizzy with rage. Her whole body trembled, and even her thin cheeks kept twitching with fury.
"Dark Magic... Someone actually dared to use Dark Magic against a fellow student at Hogwarts!"
Snape's face was as black as the bottom of a cauldron. At last, he abandoned his drawn-out, aria-like delivery and shouted sharply,
"Marcus, get some people and take all these idiots to my office. Send someone to notify Madam Pomfrey. If possible, I sincerely hope she can prescribe something to make their brains work."
Marcus said hesitantly,
"Professor, do you mean giving them some Baruffio's Brain Elixir? Could I have a bottle too? That stuff is hard to get, and it's expensive."
In a rare moment, Snape actually fell silent. He stared pityingly at his house's Quidditch captain and offered an unusually useful piece of advice.
"Flint, I suggest you pursue a career in Care of Magical Creatures. Otherwise, when dealing with humans, you will find it very difficult to convince them that you are also human, rather than some sort of ape."
Marcus Flint said happily,
"Professor, my uncle suggested the same thing! What a coincidence!"
Snape was utterly speechless. Professor McGonagall looked at Marcus with concern and said quietly to Snape,
"Severus, this child... I knew he wasn't bright and had been made to repeat a year, but I never imagined..."
Zhang Xiao also watched Marcus sympathetically as he continued cheerfully directing his classmates to carry the young wizards away. These were pure-blood wizards. This was the product of inbreeding. These wizards probably had no idea that Muggle research into genetics and reproduction had long since reached heights beyond their comprehension.
With the professors driving everyone out, the common room soon emptied. Professor McGonagall's anger had yet to subside, and she muttered under her breath,
"So many older students, and not one of them stepped forward to stop it..."
Of course she knew why the older students had not intervened, but she still could not accept it. At that moment, she felt that the hot-blooded little lions of her own house were the most lovable students in the school.
Soon, all the young wizards had been carried away except Daphne Greengrass. Professor McGonagall easily lifted the spell on her, and the young witch had now come out of her hysterical state.
Her face was as white as paper. Clearly, Daphne had realized just how outrageous her actions had been. She swayed on her feet, looking pleadingly at Snape and Professor McGonagall as she begged in a small voice,
"Professor, I just lost my head for a moment. I can't remember what I did at all. I was just so angry..."
Snape gave a cold snort through his hooked nose and spoke slowly in an icy tone.
"You have disappointed me greatly, Daphne.
"Before the start of term, your father, Old Greengrass, came to see me. He wanted me to educate you strictly, to make you an outstanding witch capable of shouldering your family's responsibilities, and even an example for your younger sister. He had great hopes for you!
"But you... You lost your head so easily. I cannot see anything in you that resembles a Slytherin!
"This matter is no longer mine to decide. Put away that pitiful act! No one cares!"
Professor McGonagall pushed up her glasses and said sternly,
"Both of you, come with me!"
Zhang Xiao followed Professor McGonagall to her office. Daphne was immediately taken away, presumably to have her case dealt with, leaving Zhang Xiao waiting alone, bored stiff, in the prim and proper office.
After a while, a cat made entirely of silver light bounded gracefully through the doorway. It looked at Zhang Xiao and spoke in Professor McGonagall's voice.
"Zhang, follow the Patronus to the Headmaster's Office. Headmaster Dumbledore wants to see you. The password is Super Drooble's Best Blowing Gum."
Professor Dumbledore wants to see me? Zhang Xiao's heart clenched, then relaxed again. I haven't done anything wrong. What am I afraid of?
Even so, he could not help growing nervous as he followed the Patronus to the Headmaster's Office. Reputation carried weight. Unless you lived in this world, it was hard to truly grasp the pressure Dumbledore's presence exerted.
He was the man at the very pinnacle of the Wizarding World: Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, President of the International Confederation of Wizards, recipient of the Order of Merlin, First Class, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, wielder of the Elder Wand, and leader and Secret Keeper of the Order of the Phoenix.
He was the terrifying figure who had kept that electrical-socket-faced guy firmly in check for decades.
What does Dumbledore want with me? Even if this incident was serious, surely it doesn't warrant his handling it personally?
Zhang Xiao followed the Patronus along the corridors until he reached the famous gargoyle.
"Super Drooble's Best Blowing Gum!"
The gargoyle slowly spread its wings as though it were alive. Its stone eyes surveyed Zhang Xiao before it rotated upward, revealing the staircase behind it.
Zhang Xiao took a deep breath and stepped onto the stairs.
Dumbledore's office was said to be the most interesting of any headmaster's.
Zhang Xiao surveyed the spacious circular room. Quite apart from anything else, its floor space alone was considerably greater than that of the other professors' offices.
On slender-legged tables stood all sorts of curious silver instruments, whirring and puffing out little clouds of smoke.
The walls were covered in portraits of former headmasters and headmistresses. Before Zhang Xiao came in, they had been arguing about something.
As Zhang Xiao stepped through the door, they stopped talking and stared intently at him. An old wizard with a goatee and a shrewd, spiteful face called out,
"Aha, an outstanding Slytherin has arrived! Well done, young man! When I was your age, I could easily take down twenty of them!
"By the way, I hear you're an Eastern aristocrat whose family history is several times longer than the Black family's. Is that true? Does anything in this world really predate the most noble and ancient Black family?"
"For Merlin's sake, shut up, Phineas!" a stern-faced wizard with a long, flowing beard shouted forcefully. The other portraits joined in. Amused, Zhang Xiao stood there watching them argue.
Now that was a foreign spectacle he had never seen before! A proper sideshow!
At last, a kind-faced but imposing headmistress stepped forward. Zhang Xiao recognized her.
Dilys Derwent, a former headmistress and a distinguished healer. She was so famous that neither History of Magic nor Charms, nor many other subjects, could avoid mentioning her.
"Everyone, be quiet and listen to Headmaster Dumbledore. He's here!"
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