Harry and Ron were led away by Professor McGonagall. The stern woman also said she would tell Mrs. Weasley what had happened—that her son wanted to wrestle a troll.
Ron looked terrified as he was dragged away. His eyes were filled with despair, his expression with anguish.
Harry, meanwhile, looked numb. He seemed to have grown used to it; being dragged into trouble by Ron had become all too frequent an experience.
Their reactions put Su Ming in a good mood.
Finding new ways to torment Ron was someone's latest holiday pastime. Whenever the redheaded boy's smug expression changed dramatically after he cost Gryffindor points, it always brought happy things to mind.
Potter often suffered collateral damage, too, which had made Snape seem a little closer to Su Ming. Perhaps he felt they were on the same side.
When it came to their attitudes toward Potter, Snape and Dumbledore were not on the same page. Whenever Snape saw Harry, he remembered a certain woman's eyes, and it caused him immense pain.
He would never let anything happen to Harry. He did not even want Harry to take the slightest risk.
But Dumbledore still hoped to use Harry against Voldemort, because of the prophecy made eleven years earlier:
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to a family that has thrice defeated the Dark Lord, born at the end of the seventh month... the Dark Lord will mark him as his rival, but he will have power the Dark Lord does not understand... one must die at the hand of the other, for both cannot live; only one can survive..."
This was the prophecy made by Divination professor Sybill Trelawney all those years ago. Rumor had it that only one of her predictions came true each