Lucius, So Useful

After Lucius Malfoy sat down, he felt that something was amiss.

How had the number of young wizards sitting beside Miss Grindelwald suddenly grown by several?

He glanced down the Slytherin table and counted the new students who had enrolled that year. Not one was missing.

So where had these others come from?

While he was wondering, Headmaster Dumbledore arrived in the Great Hall. He said a few words wishing everyone a happy holiday, then announced the start of the feast.

Dumbledore, who had been keeping a discreet eye on Anna from the High Table, naturally noticed the Gryffindors slipping in unnoticed at the Slytherin table. He gave a somewhat helpless chuckle, his gaze full of affection as he looked at his daughter.

The Slytherin table had been divided into two sections. Anna and her friends were surrounded by the Acolytes, and Riley and the others supported everything their young lady did, so few other students noticed Lily and her companions.

Not until halfway through the feast did Lucius finally realize that the red-haired young witch seemed to be one of the Gryffindors who was always with Anna—and a Muggle-born wizard at that. He found it hard to accept.

Under the gaze of every Slytherin student, he stood up and walked over to them, ready to ask them about it.

"Miss Grindelwald, these students don't seem to belong to Slytherin, do they?"

When Lucius spoke, Anna set down her knife and fork, elegantly picked up a handkerchief and wiped her mouth before answering his question.

"That's right, senior. Is there a problem?"

"You should know that this is the Slytherin table, not a place for students from other houses.

"Miss Grindelwald, please ask your friends to return to their own houses."

Anna gave Lucius a slightly surprised look. She had been worried about finding an opening, and she hadn't expected one to come right to her.

Lucius Malfoy, so useful!

There was a trace of sympathy in Snape's gaze as he looked at him. It seemed Lucius hadn't learned his lesson from his last encounter with Anna, nor had he taken to heart what Snape had said that afternoon.

"I see."

Lily had been a little worried, but she saw Anna nod, then rise unhurriedly to her feet as well. Anna stepped away from the table, grabbed Lucius by his robes and pulled him toward the High Table.

???!!!

The lively atmosphere in the Great Hall froze in an instant. All the students at Hogwarts fell silent once again, watching as Miss Anna Grindelwald dragged a thoroughly bewildered Lucius Malfoy, Slytherin's sixth-year Prefect, before Dumbledore.

Ever since this little troublemaker had arrived, it seemed that every great feast had brought a moment like this, when the entire school fell silent.

"Dad... Headmaster Dumbledore, I'd like to ask you a question."

Dumbledore's brow twitched, but when he saw the serious expression on her face, he guessed that she might be about to stir up trouble again, as she had last time. Still, as one of her fathers, he gave her a kindly smile.

"My dear Anna, what would you like to ask?"

Beside him, Professor McGonagall looked at the headmaster in some puzzlement, feeling that his tone was gentler and warmer than usual.

"May I ask whether Hogwarts has a school rule forbidding students from other houses from coming over to have dinner with another house?"

"Of course not, but everyone likes to have dinner with their own house."

"Then my inviting friends to eat with me at my house's table doesn't break any school rules, does it?"

"That's right."

"Since there's no such rule, these four long tables in the Great Hall, which represent the houses, don't actually belong exclusively to those houses.

"Except at the specially designated times at the beginning and end of the school year, everyone can go over to friends in other houses to spend time together and share breakfast, lunch and dinner, right?"

At that, Headmaster Dumbledore naturally understood what Anna had in mind. He looked at the teachers on either side of the High Table, then at the young wizards below, who appeared focused on the food in front of them but were all listening with their ears pricked. Finally, he nodded.

"That's right. Except when welcoming the young wizards into their houses at the start of the school year and when the House Cup is awarded at the end of term, when everyone must remain with their own house, there is no mandatory rule requiring the young wizards of each house to stay at their own house's table."

His voice grew a little louder so that all the teachers and the other students sitting in the front rows could hear him.

His daughter wanted to remedy and reform the current state of division at Hogwarts and foster friendship among all the students. There was nothing wrong with that.

No one had done so in the past because almost all the students had taken the situation for granted. But the result was that when someone like Voldemort reached his claws into the school, the students, who had never been particularly close to begin with, immediately became divided and hostile toward one another. It was a sight no headmaster wished to see.

The old man gently nudged the two teachers beside him with his arm. Taking the headmaster's signal, Professor Flitwick was the first to speak up.

"Yes, Miss Anna is quite right. For students, Hogwarts is a second home to all young wizards, and all the students are like family to one another. We have always regarded every student as our own child.

"Ravenclaw House warmly welcomes children from the other houses to our table."

Standing on his chair, Professor Flitwick smiled as he echoed Headmaster Dumbledore's words, giving the children of his own house an encouraging look.

"Hufflepuff will always be on friendly terms with the other houses."

Professor Sprout's smile was gentle and warm. Though she was very fond of the students in her own house, as Professor Flitwick had said, they had always regarded all the students as their own children.

"Of course, the same goes for Gryffindor, whether it's Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or... Slytherin."

Professor McGonagall nodded, and several boys who had been glancing repeatedly toward the other houses could no longer sit still. They ran up to Professor McGonagall and confirmed once more that they could visit the other houses. Then, with a cheer, they rushed over to their girlfriends in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, prompting good-natured laughter from both tables.

"Er, Slytherin also welcomes students from the other houses."

Seeing that the heads of the other houses had all spoken, Slughorn, the head of Slytherin, could hardly object. So he gave his answer under Lucius's gaze.

"Senior Lucius, you must have heard the headmaster and the other professors clearly.

"After all, once everyone leaves school, most will call themselves Hogwarts students rather than going out of their way to say they graduated from Slytherin, won't they?

"I'm sure you must have misremembered the school rules, senior, and that's why you suggested my friends return to their own houses.

"Otherwise, with the Malfoy family's good breeding, how could you have said something so rude?"