Those words stunned both Hermione and Ron.
The smile vanished from Ron's face, and he frowned thoughtfully.
He immediately remembered Hermione's suspicions about Professor Moody a few days earlier.
At the time, he had thought Hermione was splitting hairs, but now, after hearing Professor Holmes, he suddenly felt... Hermione's suspicions seemed... quite reasonable?
Reaching a conclusion first, then looking for evidence... wasn't that exactly what Harry was doing? Because Professor Moody had said Snape was the mole, everything Harry saw Snape do now looked suspicious.
Hermione, meanwhile, had frozen completely.
Confirmation bias.
That term made her understand at once.
It precisely described Harry's current state and explained the logic behind everything Moody had done!
Moody wasn't guiding them toward solving the case. He was exploiting Harry's trust, exploiting this confirmation bias, and using Harry as a weapon against Snape!
The thought chilled her more than all her previous guesses!
For Harry, however, those words had the opposite effect.
He was excited about being on the verge of cracking a major case and felt he carried a great responsibility.
To him, Professor Holmes's story was just another tired old lecture, no different from nonsense like "don't trust anyone too easily."
His situation was completely different from the one in the story!
Professor Holmes had been misled by a petty Snape, whereas he was being guided by an experienced veteran Auror!
One was a prank; the other was a real conspiracy threatening Hogwarts's safety!
The two simply couldn't be compared.
Harry's thoughts went a step further.
He felt this was his maternal cousin's test for him.
Just as Professor Moody had said, an outstanding Auror needed a firm will and couldn't let other people's words sway him!
Professor Douglas was testing his determination to become a Sentinel in his own way!
He