https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-725-Gifts-and-the-Soul-Sucking-Curse/12539223/
Chapter 724: The Shut Down Floo Network
Chapter 724: The Shut Down Floo Network
As expected, the Daily Prophet featured the incident of Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, being attacked at the Ministry of Magic, occupying a full two-page spread the next morning.
This news caused quite a stir at Hogwarts, and the Great Hall buzzed with chatter during breakfast that day.
Kyle glanced around the dining table; Susan wasn't there for breakfast, probably still in her dormitory.
To give Susan some time to calm down, Professor Sprout had paid a special visit to the common room the night before, excusing her from classes for the next few days.
On any other occasion, Susan would have been delighted, but last night, she couldn't bring herself to smile, keeping her head down silently.
And for the entire day, no one had seen her anywhere else in the castle.
"Slughorn is such a snob!" By dinnertime, Mickel was ranting about a certain professor.
"You know, he's hosting a party in his office this weekend, and he didn't invite Susan."
"So what...?" Someone brushed it off. "It's his party; he can invite whoever he wants."
"You're too naive. You don't know the whole story." Mickel shook his finger, about to enlighten the others.
"I've heard that Slughorn's Slug Club is exclusively for students who are either exceptionally talented or come from prominent families.
"Susan was supposed to receive an invitation, but after he saw the newspaper, he snatched it back, that stupid old slug."
"No way... " Someone still found it hard to believe that Professor Slughorn would stoop to such a rude act of retracting an invitation.
"Mickel, how do you know he took back the invitation?"
"Because I was right there, asked to deliver a message to him... " Mickel huffed. "He took the invitation right out of my hand. How could I not know?"
After a moment of silence, the person continued, "Is it possible that Professor Slughorn wants Susan to take some time to herself?
"Think about it, with everything that's happened, how could she be in the mood for a party?"
"I don't think so." Mickel pouted. "If Susan wanted a change of mood, he didn't have to take back the invitation. It's unnecessary."
Listening to Mickel, Connor asked curiously, "Is Professor Slughorn really like that?"
"More or less, but I think Mickel is exaggerating a bit."
Kyle pondered for a moment before adding, "While it's true that Slughorn does favor students from prominent families and can be a bit pragmatic, he's never been rude enough to retract an invitation. He might simply not invite someone instead."
"So, should I still go?" Connor looked down at the parchment scroll in her hand.
This was the invitation Mickel had just delivered, inviting her to a small gathering at the Potions office on Friday evening.
Initially, Connor had been curious about the gathering, but now she wasn't so keen on attending.
"It's up to you." Kyle poured himself some pumpkin juice. "To be honest, these gatherings are just for chatting, eating, and flattering each other. There's no real substance to them, and you won't gain any new knowledge about potions.
"Ah? Then I won't go!" Connor immediately declined.
Not knowing Professor Slughorn and having missed the gathering on the train, she had assumed it would be an academic exchange about potions.
Like the gatherings Professor Snape had taken her to during the holidays, where they discussed newly discovered potion ingredients or the pros and cons of different cauldron models.
"Sure, if you don't want to go, don't go. It doesn't matter." Kyle took a bite of his fried pork chop. "But have you thought of an excuse yet?"
"An excuse?"
"Yeah." Kyle said, "Slughorn is still a professor, after all. If you refuse his invitation, you should have a reason."
"Hmm... What if I say I have homework?" Connor asked tentatively.
"You can, but it might not work." Kyle said, "Harry once used that excuse, but the next day, Slughorn organized a study group and invited a few people to tutor Harry.
"You should've seen Harry; he was so flustered he didn't recover until the following day."
Connor shuddered involuntarily. If she were surrounded by a group of people tutoring her, she'd be just as bewildered.
No, she needed a better excuse.
"I have an idea..." Kyle suddenly said, "Why don't you ask Professor Snape to find a reason to put you in detention on Friday evening? That way, you'll have a valid reason to decline Slughorn's invitation."
Connor's eyes lit up.
Yes, detention! Why hadn't she thought of that? It was the perfect excuse, and Slughorn certainly wouldn't chase her down to the detention classroom.
"Luckily, we have a Defense Against the Dark Arts class tomorrow..." Connor said happily, "I'll ask Professor Snape to give us detention on Friday..."
"No, absolutely not!" Kyle quickly stopped her from having such a dangerous idea and cautioned her, "Just get detention for yourself, and don't involve me. That's very important.
But it would be a different story for him.
Kyle believed that Snape would definitely not mind giving him special treatment during detention, such as not wearing gloves while picking out the unusable ones from a bucket full of Filibuster beetles... It was said that Harry had earned himself this very detention after his first Dark Arts Defense class and had spent the entire night in the underground classroom.
Kyle felt that Snape definitely wouldn't skimp on Filibuster beetles, especially when he himself was serving detention. He might even go out of his way to buy a new bucket just for the occasion.
So, it would be better to come up with another plan, and compared to being detained by Snape, attending the occasional gathering wasn't so bad.
However, an excuse presented itself soon enough.
On Friday afternoon, Kyle received a letter from the Ministry of Magic, from Fudge, asking him to come to the Ministry as soon as possible to discuss something.
It just so happened that they had finished Potions class, and when Kyle showed the end of the letter with Fudge's name on it to Slughorn, he immediately fell silent.
"Oh, go ahead, hurry up and go..." Slughorn's eyes sparkled, "The Minister specially sent a letter, there must be something good."
"That's not necessarily true..." Kyle thought to himself.
When good things happened, Fudge wouldn't think of him, and he probably couldn't come up with a good idea to turn his increasingly poor reputation around.
Ever since Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, was attacked by Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic, people's trust in the Ministry had been declining.
The reason for this was easy to understand... If the Ministry couldn't even protect its own people, how could it protect others?
However, Kyle didn't have any particularly good ideas either. The most effective solution he could think of was for Fudge to resign and be replaced by someone more capable, like... Dumbledore.
Unfortunately, neither Fudge nor Dumbledore would agree to this idea.
Kyle reluctantly made his way to the Defense Against the Dark Arts office... not Snape's office, as he had too many things, and some potion ingredients had strict environmental requirements, so it was difficult to move them. Therefore, he was still in the original underground classroom.
Kyle went to Umbridge's old office, as she had previously set up a direct Floo connection to the Ministry of Magic from the fireplace in that room.
Although she had long since left the school, there had been quite a few outstanding students admitted to Hogwarts by the Ministry of Magic last year, and to facilitate their internships on weekends, this line had been kept open.
However, Dumbledore had placed an armored guard at the entrance, and only those who knew the password could enter.
"Bee Beans!"
Kyle spoke the password, and the armored guard guarding the door creaked as it turned and moved aside.
It was indeed a guard arranged by Dumbledore, as the password was in the same series as the one for his office, and it was a good thing that Duke Honeydukes had a wide variety of products, or they might have run out.
All the gaudy decorations and the little cat plates had been removed from the room, leaving only a bare table and a few scattered chairs, which was much more pleasing to the eye than before.
Kyle lit the fireplace and grabbed a handful of Floo powder from the nearby bucket, tossing it into the flames.
But strangely, the flames didn't change color; instead, a head emerged, and Kyle could clearly see the man's neatly trimmed goatee.
Although he didn't know what was going on, Kyle wasn't too surprised. He took out the letter he had received and said,
"I need to go to the Ministry of Magic."
The man in the fireplace glanced at the letter and Fudge's signature on it.
"Sorry, this Floo network has been shut down."
He ignored Fudge's signature as if he hadn't seen it and said matter-of-factly, "At the request of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts will be under the highest alert, and all Floo networks will be closed except for the one in the Headmaster's office, including this one.
"This fireplace will be completely sealed off afterward. No one will be able to use it."
"Okay," Kyle said, glancing at the letter in his hand, "What about this, then? The Minister wants me to come as soon as possible."
"You're still a student..." The man continued expressionlessly, "You don't need to get involved in other matters."
After saying this, the man disappeared.
Only the crackling sound of the flames burning remained in the room.
Kyle looked at the letter in his hand again and casually threw it into the fireplace. He then found a chair and sat down, watching as the parchment burned away in the flames.
He guessed that the Floo network was probably closed due to the incident with Amelia Bones...
Although he didn't know how the Death Eaters had entered the Ministry, this also suggested another possibility.
They might have used the fireplaces in the Ministry to travel through this very Floo network and enter Hogwarts.
A minute later, Kyle extinguished the flames and left the room.
This turned out to be a handy excuse; if Slughorn invited him again, he could simply say that he had to go to the Ministry. After all, Slughorn wouldn't possibly go to the Ministry to verify if he had actually been there.
Of course, the prerequisite was that he wouldn't be caught by Slughorn during this period.
Kyle went downstairs and made his way to the Hufflepuff common room.
Connor was there as well.
"I thought you were going to the Ministry?" She asked in surprise as Kyle walked in.
"The Floo network at school has been shut down, so I couldn't leave," Kyle explained briefly what had happened.
"What about you? Aren't you in detention?"
"I am in detention." Connor said seriously, "Professor Snape told me I must finish reading this book."
She picked up the copy of Advanced Potion-Making on the table. "I asked if I could come back here to read, and he agreed."
"Oh... okay..." Kyle muttered.
As expected, Snape's detention was like a walk in the park for Connor; aside from her, who else could make requests while serving detention?
"I remember you finished reading Advanced Potion-Making two years ago, didn't you?" Kyle sat down in an armchair next to her. "Why are you reading it again?"
"I only read half of it back then." Connor said. "Professor Snape thought that I wasn't ready for some of the potions in the latter half, so he took it away from me."
She opened the book to the page she was currently reading and showed it to Kyle.
On it was an illustration of a person whose body was severely distorted and disproportionately enlarged.
The Giant Potion... a potion that could make an ordinary person as large as a giant, but at the cost of immense pain, as if the person was being forcibly inflated.
In addition, there were the Boiling Blood Potion and the Madness Potion...
In simpler terms, they were dark magic potions. While they weren't pleasant, some of the unique herb combinations in these potions were essential knowledge for potion-making.
This was the main reason why Advanced Potion-Making was placed in the Restricted Section of the library. As for the Polyjuice Potion... it was just a minor part of the book.
The two of them spent time in the common room like this.
The next day, on the first weekend of October, was the long-awaited Hogsmeade visiting day that everyone had been looking forward to.
With the increasingly strict protective measures around the school, they had thought that they wouldn't be able to go to Hogsmeade, but now that the notice had been posted, everyone was delighted.
Even though they knew it was dangerous lately, no one wanted to stay cooped up in the castle all the time.
The professors seemed to feel that it was good to let everyone go out and get some fresh air once in a while, so they arranged for this Hogsmeade visiting day.
In the morning, a sudden gust of wind blew outside, carrying with it more than a few raindrops, but this did not dampen everyone's enthusiasm.
During breakfast, everyone was excited. Mickel and Ryan were discussing what they would buy in Hogsmeade, and they had made a long list that included almost every shop.
At the door, there was a sound of arguing, and just from the voices, they knew it was Harry and his friends.
"Hermione, we've tried it already. There's nothing wrong with the notes," the familiar trio walked into the Great Hall.
Harry was saying excitedly, "I never thought I'd get extra points in Potions class. It's incredible."
"But that's not because of your own ability!" Hermione said bluntly.
"But there must be some part of it that is!" Harry argued. "Even though I looked at the notes Kyle gave me, I did all the processes myself. Everyone else is also following the instructions in the book, aren't they?"
"It's not the same!" Hermione said.
"What's the difference?" Ron said casually, his face still glowing with excitement, obviously still exhilarated from some happy event.
"I know, Hermione, you're just jealous that our Potions grades are better than yours now..."
"That has nothing to do with it!" Hermione said, her cheeks reddening. "I just think you shouldn't take shortcuts."
"But our potion turned out perfectly, didn't it?" Ron said. "Even Slughorn couldn't find any faults. Since the result is the same, isn't it better to use a simpler process?"
The three of them bickered, each trying to convince the other, and not noticing that they had become the center of attention.
"What notes did you lend them?" Connor asked curiously.
"Just some small tips that Professor Snape taught us." Kyle shrugged. "I guess they never noticed it before when I was in Potions class with them. The processes that Professor Snape wrote on the blackboard were a bit different from what's in the textbook."
This wasn't hard to understand; Hermione probably relied mostly on the textbook.
As for Harry and Ron... they hardly dared to lift their heads during Snape's Potions class, so how could they compare what was written on the blackboard to the textbook?
...
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
Report
