Whether deliberately or not, the Weasley Twins had forgotten to tell the others how many points Douglas had taken from them.
Now it was breakfast time the following morning.
All the students in the Great Hall discovered that Gryffindor's hourglass, which had held the most points,
had suddenly become completely empty overnight.
At first, the Gryffindor students did not particularly care. After all, Gryffindor's hourglass got emptied every school year.
They simply had not expected it to happen so early this year.
The other houses did not have many points anyway. They would catch up sooner or later.
At the Gryffindor table, Hermione huffed to Harry and Ron beside her,
"Hmph, I earned more than half the points in that hourglass in class.
And they don't feel the slightest bit guilty!"
Hearing Hermione's words, Ron nearly sprayed out the pumpkin juice in his mouth.
"Blimey, Hermione, you actually expect George and Fred to feel guilty?"
Harry said quietly,
"Actually, I think Professor Holmes's punishment was already pretty harsh, making them write out the textbook from memory.
Even you wouldn't find that easy, would you, Hermione?"
Hermione swallowed her mouthful of sandwich and said disdainfully,
"Hmph! Professor Holmes gave them more than two months, too. I'd probably only need a week.
Mostly because all that writing would be exhausting."
Meanwhile, George and Fred wandered up and down the table with their plates.
They carefully dodged Percy's verbal barrage.
Just then, a burst of laughter came from the Slytherin table.
Marcus Flint, captain of the Slytherin Quidditch Team, stood up and announced loudly,
"You lot have no idea. Gryffindor's famous twin Beaters actually got hit by Dungbombs.
Haha! Looks like the Gryffindor Quidditch Team has started going downhill since the famous Chosen One, Harry Potter, joined them.
Don't believe me? I just heard it from Mr. Filch himself.
Last night..."
Humiliated and furious, George and Fred stood straight up and first glared at the Slytherin table.
Then they turned toward Filch, who stood behind the steps in the Great Hall, stroking his cat as he watched the entertainment.
Everyone in the Great Hall knew from the Weasley Twins' expressions that Slytherin definitely had not made this up.
What surprised them more, though, was that it had always been the Weasley Twins pranking other people with Dungbombs.
What brave soul had actually turned the prank on them?
It clearly could not have been Filch.
Pairs of gossip-hungry eyes fixed on the embarrassed, angry twins.
The Gryffindors were even more surprised.
But everyone soon connected this to what the Weasley Twins had said last night about running into Professor Holmes.
Could it have been Professor Holmes?
They looked around but could not find Professor Holmes.
What a pity. There was no way to verify that.
While everyone was still reeling in surprise,
the Weasley Twins drew their wands swiftly in perfect unison.
Immediately afterward, two spells, one red and one white, shot toward Flint.
"Langlock!"
"Itch all over!"
After the spells struck Flint, he first felt as though his mouth had been glued shut. Then his whole body began to itch.
He wanted to relieve the itching through laughter, but he could not make a sound.
The other Slytherin students had reacted as soon as the twins cast their spells.
Unfortunately, they were still a step too late.
They raised their wands toward Gryffindor.
But the Ravenclaw students sitting between them forced them to hold their attack.
They did not want to make more enemies for themselves.
The shrewd Slytherins knew very well how to weigh gains and losses in matters like this.
Not to be outdone, all the Gryffindor students drew their wands too.
The students from the other two houses saw that things were taking a bad turn.
Some hurriedly grabbed food from the tables and took cover off to one side.
A battle was about to erupt.
Just then, a lion's roar rang through the Great Hall.
"You... what do you think you're doing!
Stop this at once!"
Everyone looked over and saw Professor McGonagall standing on the steps like a lioness with her hackles raised.
She was seething.
Beside her stood a panting Filch.
Even the bravest Gryffindor would swiftly back down at the sight of an angry Professor McGonagall.
Many hastily put away their wands, grabbed the food in front of them, and ran toward their classrooms without looking back.
The Weasley Twins did the same, of course, but clearly,
Professor McGonagall had no intention of letting them go.
"Mr. Weasley, stop right there, both of you!"
The shout made Ron, who was running at the very front, falter.
Finally, Professor McGonagall clarified,
"George and Fred..."
At that moment, Snape finally arrived as well, his robes flowing.
When he saw that, in the entire Great Hall, there was only one Slytherin lying on the floor,
his expression darkened!
He casually cast Finite Incantatem on Flint.
"What happened!"
Trembling all over, Flint said quietly,
"Professor, the Gryffindors fought dirty.
They ambushed me when I wasn't looking..."
Snape glared fiercely at him. "Useless!"
Then he walked toward Professor McGonagall.
As soon as he approached, he heard Professor McGonagall sternly lecturing the Weasley family's two restless twins.
"You really are very brave!
Wandering around at night!
Attacking a professor!
Losing every point your house had!
Good heavens, I could hardly believe it when I woke up first thing this morning and saw Professor Holmes's message!
After making such an enormous mistake, the first thing you do this morning is start a group fight!
Fifty points from Gryffindor!
I will tell Professor Holmes to add another item to your detention.
Besides your Defense Against Dark Magic textbook, you will write out your Transfiguration textbook from memory too!
You must finish it this term!"
Professor Snape was taken aback. He had not expected a punishment like this.
Writing out textbooks from memory, well...
Looking at the Weasley brothers' ashen faces,
this punishment ought to be far more miserable than cleaning the innards out of a hundred frogs in his classroom.
So Snape said in a low voice from behind her,
"Add the Potions textbook as well. Also to be finished this term.
I think this is an excellent punishment!"
With that, he walked away without looking back.
After all, Professor McGonagall had already punished them, so there was no need for him to interfere.
Besides, he genuinely thought this punishment was excellent.
He could go back and try it on that Slytherin who had lost the fight.
Snape disliked Douglas merely because the fellow always seemed so unserious in Potions class.
Besides using his cauldron as an ordinary cooking pot,
the fellow was always taking the opportunity to pocket ingredients under the pretext of preparing materials for Potions class.
Things like bullfrogs, pig hearts, dog lungs, and so on.
He even kept doing incomprehensible, intolerable things in Potions class.
Once, Douglas had actually boiled his cauldron dry, leaving nothing inside but some ingredient residue.
He had actually said he wanted to see whether he could turn potions into alchemical pills!
Snape did not know what alchemical pills were. He only knew that Douglas was utterly unsuited to Potions.
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