"Professor, why did you suddenly smile?" Draco asked.
Kasenhis shrugged. "I'm just relieved. I'm genuinely glad that you recognize yourself as an independent individual, that you have your own identity."
"I know that, coming from a family like yours, you're bound to be more thoughtful than your peers and under more psychological pressure. But remember this at all times—that pressure is something you believe exists. It's not something that objectively exists."
"When you start feeling annoyed by other people's imaginary, condescending stares, all you need to do is… find your true self, and treat everyone else like eggplants and cabbages. That way, you can get rid of about 80% of the world's mental stress."
Draco looked up. "And the remaining 20%?"
"That's objective stress. Eighteen percent of that can be solved with money. The last two percent—you'll need power to deal with it." Kasenhis explained.
"Professor? What kind of pressure do you think I'm under?"
"The pressure from the Malfoy family. You're afraid that once Mr. Lucius Malfoy hands over the reins, you won't be able to lead the family to greatness?" Kasenhis casually listed a common worry among Slytherin pure-blood kids.
"Professor? Could you pick something else?"
"…Reputation? Your little rivalry with Harry and the others?"
Draco nodded. "Professor, what do you think I should do? Our conflict is almost constant, but…"
"You want to stop?"
"Not really. If possible, I'd like to fight with them for the rest of my life," Draco said earnestly.
"...…," Kasenhis fell silent. He had originally thought Draco was tired of the constant conflict and wanted to end it but was too proud to say so. He hadn't expected… this kind of conclusion.
Still, it wasn't a bad outcome. On Draco's side were his three little buddies—Goyle, Crabbe, and Pansy—while on the other were Harry, Neville, Ron, and Hermione.
Exactly three boys and one girl on each side. Four vs. four. Fair enough.
Kasenhis had a rough gauge of the magical abilities of both sides.
Draco's group were all from pure-blood families, steeped in a variety of dark spells from a young age. The Gryffindor quartet, on the other hand, were equally troublesome, each in their own way.
These two squads were basically the top-tier, rowdiest battle power units of their year.
That's not to say there weren't other strong students in their year—it's just that none were as… active.
And just like Professor McGonagall had said earlier, a well-matched rivalry could rapidly push young wizards to improve—as long as it remained a balanced fight and not one-sided bullying.
Kasenhis was more than happy to see some back-and-forth magical duels. It was, in a way, their contribution to the wizarding world, where high-end combat power was becoming increasingly rare.
After all, he had flown halfway around the globe with Grindelwald before, and from Grindelwald's own words, he'd learned what the magical combat level of their generation had been like… and how it compared to the present day.
So...
"Then go ahead and fight with them. But your four-man squad—you, Pansy, Goyle, and Crabbe—can only mess with Harry, Neville, Ron, and Hermione. Of course, if you want to draw your wands on someone stronger, I'd be very happy about that too."
"But if any of you pull your wands on someone weaker, I just might make you grind diamond blocks into diamond dust. And as for defining who counts as stronger or weaker—I already have a rough list in my head. Don't try to argue your way out of it or claim a weakling is secretly powerful. I won't be reasoning with you on that—I'm not the Wizengamot."
"And one more thing—absolutely no insults. Even if you chop off Harry's arm, don't you dare use a single offensive word!" Kasenhis added.
At the end, Kasenhis made sure to draw a very clear line for Draco.
It was fine to clash with the strong. But if any of them dared to pull wands on someone weak, Kasenhis wouldn't hesitate to drag each of them into his office for a personal… session.
Physical damage? Okay.Psychological damage? Absolutely not.
"Alright, alright." Draco nodded like a pecking chick, as if recalling the dark days of powdering the big Redstones.
"Ahem… anything else?" Kasenhis asked.
Draco quickly shook his head, said a hasty goodbye, and turned to leave.
"Oh right, Draco—whatever responsibilities and obligations your family places on you, that's a Malfoy family matter. As an outsider, as a professor, I sincerely hope you'll stick to your own heart. You'll always be Draco—not whatever symbol someone else tries to force onto you."
"Of course, I'm just an outsider. If you think everything I've said is absolute nonsense, feel free to turn around, curse me out, and run out of the classroom. I'm not Severus—I won't dock you any points." Kasenhis gave his final reminder.
Draco paused mid-step, turned his head, and looked at Kasenhis. "Thank you for being willing to say all that to me."
Once Draco left, Kasenhis let out a long breath.
Now that he'd managed to sway that young master, his little clique of friends would more or less be pulled along with him by default.
Kasenhis didn't know Pansy all that well yet, but Goyle and Crabbe were basically under Draco's influence 24/7.
So with this one conversation, he'd effectively influenced four people. Though, for now, it was just their behavior, not their mindset…
The psychological part would still need some follow-up. Maybe a bit of detention, maybe a "chance" encounter…
"Wait a minute! Those four!"
Kasenhis suddenly snapped out of it.
He had just encouraged Draco to continue going head-to-head with Harry and the others. Knowing Draco's "see stick, climb stick" personality, he was probably already in "target acquired" mode by now.
"Gotta warn them to watch out for sudden wands poking out of the shadows!" He quickly scribbled a note and stuffed it into an auto-pathfinding flying golem, enchanted to track down whichever of the Gryffindor four was closest by name magic.
"Phew… all done. Madam Pomfrey can suffer a little—I'll take the blame."
Kasenhis finally leaned back on the sofa without a care in the world. What he now envisioned was a terrifying storm of chaos about to erupt at Hogwarts.
And Madam Pomfrey would be left cursing everyone out.
Meanwhile, Sirius—who had spent all last night unsuccessfully searching for Crookshanks and then ended up chatting with some other pets in the Gryffindor common room—had just finished making up for lost sleep. He came downstairs just in time to hear Kasenhis mumbling to himself… and immediately launched himself toward the drone.
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