Nine Out of Ten Men Go Bald
From the moment they saw the Daily Prophet, William and Roy believed that Professor Snape would definitely be released during the holidays.
Indeed, this report first dragged out all the former Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor and gave them a thorough dressing-down.
This leads to Professor Snape risking his personal safety to investigate the smuggler Robert during the summer vacation.
Such a great professor, how could you parents bear to let him enter Azkaban?
This is Dumbledore creating hype.
For a time, all the public opinion was for him to be... cough cough, for him to be acquitted.
Afterwards, Dumbledore attended Snape's hearing and presented important evidence.
It turns out that Snape spent the entire summer vacation with the famous Magizoologist Newt Scamander.
Snape was acquitted in court.
During the Christmas season, everyone was focused on the Snape attack, Daily Prophet tried its best to hype up the topic, drawing everyone's attention to the Hogwarts professors' issues.
The onlookers seem to have forgotten who attacked the Ministry of Magic; it's as if the incident never happened.
On the day before the end of the Christmas holidays, William boarded the Hogwarts Express with Bobocha in hand.
Bobocha sat in William's lap, and the two looked out the window at the scenery.
During this time, Bobocha has grown quite fast. The weather is too cold, and it doesn't want to move around much, spending all its time snuggled in Anne's bed.
William bought it a cat tree and plans to put it in his dorm room so it can get more exercise.
A moment later, Cedric knocked and came in, followed by Cho.
After Qiu sat down, Cedric locked the carriage door from the inside.
Then he hid behind the door, glanced warily around through the window, and then sat back down.
Being alone in a carriage with Cedric was certainly not a wise move. If it weren't for Qiu being there, William would have been worried about his safety.
Qiu clearly thought the same way.
Cedric, oblivious to their expressions, said mysteriously, "I went back and asked my father about that attack."
Cedric's father is a high-ranking official in the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures at the Ministry of Magic; he must know the inside story.
"My dad wasn't going to tell me, but I got him drunk on Christmas night," Cedric said smugly.
William and Cho stared at Cedric speechlessly. What a disappointing son!
Cedric glared at William. "Are you going to listen or not?"
"Listen, listen..." William said quickly.
These days, whoever controls the intelligence is the boss.
Cedric, speaking in a low voice like a middleman, said, "My dad told me that the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures was not attacked at all."
"What?" Qiu frowned. "How is that possible? During the Christmas holidays, the Daily Prophet has been reporting on Professor Snape, and they've been talking about the attack all semester."
"No." Cedric leaned back in his chair and shook his head. "The Ministry of Magic was indeed attacked, but the attack didn't target the Department for the Regulation of Fantastic Beasts; it targeted... the Department of Mysteries!"
"The Department of Mysteries? What does that do?"
Neither William nor Cho were born into wizarding families and were unfamiliar with the organizational structure of the Ministry of Magic.
"The Department of Mysteries, that's top secret... nobody knows what it's for," Cedric whispered.
"Your father doesn't know either?"
"Well, he doesn't know either. He only knows that the Department of Mysteries is responsible for conducting secret research."
Most of the information contained within this department is highly classified. Only a small number of wizards in the Ministry of Magic know what's inside.
Wizards who work in the Department of Mysteries are called the Unspeakable.
Cedric thought for a moment and said, "However, there's a common story that the Minister for Magic used the Department of Mysteries to develop terrible poisons and secretly drug those who disagreed with him..."
William rolled his eyes.
This isn't some common saying; it's something written in "The Quibbler."
Cedric, a loyal reader of the magazine, has once again begun trying to spread his "conspiracy theories."
"In short, it's a mysterious place, and perhaps it holds the power to overturn the entire Wizarding World," Cedric said.
William nodded and said, "That's certainly possible. Something very important must have been lost there, important enough that if people found out, it would cause a serious uproar."
Otherwise, Minister Fudge wouldn't have concealed the truth like that, deliberately claiming the Department of Mysteries Department for the Regulation of Fantastic Beasts Mysteries.
The loss of a few smuggled Magical Creatures is clearly not a serious matter, and would not even be taken seriously by the general public.
"What could be missing?" Qiu asked worriedly.
"It might be a very powerful weapon," Cedric shrugged. "I heard from my father that maybe the Death Eaters are unwilling to accept the death of You-Know-Who and are preparing to resurrect him... Anyway, this matter is forbidden to be told."
The three of them couldn't figure anything out, so to pass the time they started playing Dou Dizhu (a popular Chinese card game).
William was an expert in this area, and he couldn't possibly make the mistake of being "defeated with seventeen cards in a flash," so he won a lot of snacks along the way.
On the first night of the semester, everyone saw Professor Snape, who had been missing for most of the semester, at the dinner party.
He looked extremely thin, with a sallow complexion, as if he were malnourished.
At the principal's signal, everyone applauded to welcome his return.
The twin brothers clapped the most enthusiastically; this is probably what they call developing a bond through teasing.
Professor Snape remained as indifferent as ever, but thanks to the atmosphere, he drank several glasses of wine and seemed to become more talkative.
William wondered if it was just his imagination, but after so long, he felt that Professor Snape's hairline had receded considerably.
You know, in the United Kingdom, nine out of ten men are bald. A man of Dumbledore's age with long hair is a rare breed.
Professor Snape is now in his thirties, the prime time for balding, and the teaching pressure at Hogwarts is already immense; as the Slytherin Head of House, the pressure is even greater.
Not to mention that he was arrested by the Ministry of Magic during this period, which was exhausting for him.
William thought it entirely possible that Professor Snape would start losing his hair as a result.
While William was still seriously pondering Professor Snape's receding hairline, Dumbledore chuckled and patted Snape on the shoulder, then pulled out a gift box.
Hmm, why does this look so familiar?
William remembered—weren't these the shampoo and conditioner he had asked Dumbledore to deliver?
Wait a minute, if Professor Snape wasn't bald, giving him shampoo wouldn't be a problem, but now that he's bald, giving him this stuff is practically suicide!
Sure enough, Dumbledore pointed at William, Snape stared at him like a viper.
William now deeply regrets it; he should have given her a hair curling machine!
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