Chapter 83: Snape: My Student's Birthday Gift to Me, Not Bad, Right?
"Professor! There's a reason I came out!"
Malfoy cried out in pain as Professor McGonagall pinched his ear.
"Whatever your reason, you shouldn't be wandering around here during curfew!"
Professor McGonagall didn't listen to Malfoy at all, her tone furious.
"I'm going to have to give you detention! Besides that, Slytherin will lose ten points, no, twenty points! No, thirty points!"
"What? No, Professor! You can't do this! You don't understand at all, it's Harry, Harry Potter!"
Professor McGonagall narrowed her eyes. "Are you trying to tell me Harry tricked you into coming out here?"
"No! It's Harry Potter! He's going to the Forbidden Forest tonight to send away a fire dragon!"
Professor McGonagall was so angry she laughed. "Utter nonsense! You're making up stories here to cover up your mistake! Slytherin loses another ten points!"
"It's true, Professor, everything I said is true!"
Malfoy saw that Professor McGonagall didn't believe him at all, his eyes widened, and he said repeatedly.
"Enough! How could there be a fire dragon in the school? I despise liars! Come with me!"
Professor McGonagall pinched Malfoy's ear and dragged him towards the other side of the corridor.
"You will disappoint Professor Snape, Malfoy, a liar—I'd like to see how Professor Snape deals with you, come on!"
...
The next morning.
Dylan hugged the pillow in his arms and slowly woke up.
"It's the first time I haven't been woken up by Coal Ball's little paws."
Dylan was still a little unaccustomed to it.
There were classes today, but after trying to use the abilities of the Shadow Lynx and the dragon, Dylan's mental energy had been greatly affected. Even using spells to recover didn't help much, so he didn't plan to get up early today.
This led to Dylan having a good long sleep, even waking up with Harry and Neville, and then going to the dining hall for breakfast.
"Why aren't there many people from Slytherin over there?"
At the table, Harry was a little puzzled.
Dylan glanced over, his eyelashes fluttering. "I remember you guys told Malfoy yesterday that you were going to send Arno away tonight, right?"
Ron was taken aback. "Could it be that that guy secretly ran out last night to look for us?"
Dylan nodded slightly. "I think it's possible. Didn't you notice that not only are there few people on the Slytherin side, but there aren't many professors at the teachers' table either?"
Ron and Harry looked over, and it was indeed the case.
Soon, another wave of students poured in from the entrance of the dining hall, chattering among themselves.
Dylan and the others also got a general idea from their conversations.
"Hahahaha! That guy really fell for our trick! He thought we were going to send the fire dragon away, so he secretly ran out in the middle of the night but got caught by Professor McGonagall!"
Ron lowered his voice but couldn't help laughing, his shoulders shaking.
"I really want to see Malfoy's expression right now! It must be quite something!"
Harry also held back a laugh. "He even told Professor Snape about it beforehand, but when Professor McGonagall brought him to Snape, he didn't see us at all. He must have been very disappointed, right?"
Neville stuffed a thin-skinned, richly filled crystal bun into his mouth and mumbled, "I was wondering why so many people were looking at us on the way here."
At this moment, Hermione also walked over.
She had obviously heard about this from others. As soon as she sat down, she looked at Dylan and the others. "Slytherin lost sixty points because of Malfoy!"
"Sixty points?!" Ron's eyes widened.
Although he knew Malfoy would be in big trouble if he was caught by a professor, he didn't expect Slytherin to lose so many points all at once.
Harry was also a little surprised. "Why would they deduct sixty points directly? Wasn't Malfoy also given detention by Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape?"
Logically speaking, even if they were going to deduct points, since he had already been given detention, they shouldn't deduct too many points at once, right?
Hermione shrugged. "How would I know? I just heard that Professor McGonagall originally only wanted to deduct thirty points, but because Malfoy kept yelling that Harry definitely kept a dragon and was going to send the fire dragon away."
Hermione glanced at Dylan, who was quietly drinking porridge without much reaction, and continued, "In the end, after Professor McGonagall investigated and found that there was no fire dragon at all, she determined that Malfoy was lying and deducted another twenty points."
"As for the remaining ten points, Professor Snape deducted them."
Ron stared with wide eyes, saying incredulously, "Professor Snape is really biased! Usually when we make a mistake in class, he can directly deduct five or ten points!"
"But Malfoy wandered around during curfew and was caught red-handed by a professor, yet he only lost ten points from Snape?"
Hermione shook her head. "Either way, he's already caused Slytherin to lose fifty points. That's actually enough."
"Besides, Professor Snape probably didn't want Malfoy to lose too many points, otherwise it would be embarrassing for him if the news got out."
Hermione's guess was actually the truth.
After Malfoy was caught by Professor McGonagall and brought before Professor Snape, Professor Snape, on the grounds that Professor McGonagall had already deducted fifty points from Slytherin, only lightly deducted another ten points from Malfoy.
—He didn't want to receive strange looks from the little lions of Gryffindor during class.
But even so, the topic of Malfoy losing sixty points caused quite a stir, even in the early morning.
"Luckily we were just tricking Malfoy. If we had been caught by the professors with him, even if there was a reason, I'm afraid each of us would have lost fifty points, right?" Ron gnawed on the ribs in front of him.
Dylan cut the dry bread into strips, soaked them in milk, then poured the milk into the rice porridge, stirred it, and took a sip.
The taste was not bad.
He remained noncommittal to Ron's words.
At least, if he hadn't tamed Arno as a pet and been able to directly accommodate it in the pet space after Malfoy discovered Hagrid keeping a dragon.
Their only option would have been to contact Ron's brother and have them send someone to take Arno away, but this matter would obviously still have been discovered by Malfoy in the end.
Losing points would have been normal.
And Ron's guess was quite accurate.
The three of them would indeed have each lost fifty points, ultimately leading to Gryffindor losing one hundred and fifty points—while Malfoy would have only lost twenty.
But now, the offense and defense had completely shifted.
After breakfast, Dylan went to class with Harry and the others.
He had slept well last night. Although he didn't hold Coal Ball, the pillow was still okay.
Some more time passed.
January 9th arrived.
Dylan also didn't get up early today, but came to the dining hall for breakfast with Harry and the others.
The reason he didn't get up early today was precisely because—
"Swish swish swish"
Professor Snape entered the dining hall, his robes billowing as he strode to the teachers' table. The fabric of his robes shimmered slightly in the sunlight. Compared to his usual robes, this one no longer had a simple, tight-fitting design. Instead, it featured exquisite dark embroidered patterns and was slightly open at the front, revealing a dark-colored inner lining.
The cuffs also had delicate rolled edges, adding a touch of casual elegance to Professor Snape's appearance. Although it was still a pure black tone, this unique style still caught the keen eyes of Dumbledore, who glanced at it a few times.
After Professor Snape sat down, he began to eat his meal slowly and deliberately.
His movements seemed more deliberate than usual, occasionally gently adjusting the cuffs of his robes or slightly adjusting the position of his collar.
Although his face was expressionless, Dylan always felt that Professor Snape seemed to be subtly showing off.
Professor Flitwick, sitting beside him, was the first to notice. He pushed up his glasses and carefully examined Snape, asking curiously, "Severus, have you changed your robes? They seem a bit better looking than before."
Because Snape always wore the same unchanging black robes, the others had never really paid attention to the exact style of his black robes.
Now that they suddenly looked, they all felt that it seemed a little different from before.
Professor Flitwick blinked, scanning Snape's black robes up and down.
"And there are many spells cast on these robes, but... the level of magic, although good, doesn't seem like your strength."
Professor McGonagall also looked over, glanced down, and said with some surprise, "Your robes don't drag on the floor anymore."
"()..." Professor Snape's lips twitched.
He snorted softly and glanced at Professor McGonagall.
Then his eyebrows slightly raised, his face still carrying that cold expression, but his tone revealed a hint of pride.
"After all, it was a gift from your student. It's normal for the workmanship to be rough."
Professor McGonagall was taken aback. "My student?"
Her eyes flickered slightly, and the fine lines at the corners of her eyes deepened. "Could it be Dylan?"
Professor Snape didn't speak, but continued to eat his breakfast.
Professor McGonagall turned back to look at Dylan at the Gryffindor table. Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick also looked over.
Dylan was eating an orange. Feeling several gazes suddenly shooting over from the teachers' table, his whole body stiffened.
He raised his head and gave the teachers an awkward smile.
Professor Snape didn't look at him, but continued to eat his breakfast unhurriedly.
Then he picked up his wine glass, took a small sip, his expression nonchalant, his back ramrod straight.
Dylan quickly finished his breakfast and then hurriedly left with Harry, preparing to go to class.
"What's wrong with the professors? They were all looking at you just now," Hermione turned her head.
Ron and Harry also looked over curiously.
Dylan opened his mouth. "I'm not quite sure either."
A hint of worry flashed across Harry's face. "Could it be that they found out about you raising a dragon?"
"..." Dylan paused, glanced at Harry, "As long as from now on, you don't mention the word 'dragon' anywhere, I won't be discovered."
Harry scratched his head and chuckled. "It's good if they didn't. When the professors suddenly all looked over just now, it really startled me."
Dylan muttered to himself.
He was startled too!
Professor McGonagall's and Professor Flitwick's birthdays were both in October.
He had just started school not long ago during that time, his mind was focused on studying, and he wasn't particularly familiar with the professors yet, having only known them for a month, still in the familiarization stage.
So he didn't give Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick birthday gifts at that time.
He didn't know if the professors suddenly looking over was because of this reason...
"But I really didn't even know the professors' birthdays were on which specific day back then!"
Dylan felt that he really couldn't be blamed for this.
He didn't even remember that 1991 was Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts!
"I can only give the professors birthday gifts in the second year."
After a whole day of classes, Dylan went to Professor Trelawney to begin studying Divination.
In Dylan's view, Divination was also a very profound subject.
But the direction of research was completely different from Transfiguration and ordinary spells.
When Dylan arrived at the North Tower where Professor Trelawney was located, he saw that the tower door was half-closed.
Dylan didn't push the door directly open, but knocked lightly a few times, and then heard Professor Trelawney's voice, filled with a mysterious charm, say, "Come in, my dear child."
Pushing open the door, a faint scent of incense wafted over.
Dylan stepped inside. The light in the room was hazy. The sun hadn't completely set yet, and the remaining light of the sunset shone through the stained glass, scattering onto the floor, looking like an abstract painting.
Dylan saw Professor Trelawney at a glance.
At this moment, she was wearing a purple floor-length robe embroidered with many symbols and star patterns. She was tall, and countless crystal necklaces hung around her neck, jingling softly as she moved.
Under the exaggerated large hat was a slightly pale face.
Professor Trelawney was standing by a table, looking at the student in front of her.
Dylan looked at Professor Trelawney, who had changed into a new outfit, and was a little surprised. "Your attire today is quite beautiful."
Professor Trelawney grinned. "Thank you for your compliment."
She walked around and stood in front of the table.
"I was also inspired by you."
"Me?"
"Yes, new clothes welcome new good luck, so wearing them even more brightly, will it be even more different?"
Dylan blinked, at a loss for words for a moment.
He wasn't even sure if wearing new clothes would really bring good luck.
How could he possibly answer this question?
Professor Trelawney obviously didn't really want an answer from Dylan.
"I had a dream yesterday. I dreamed that I was wearing a purple dress, and then I stepped into a galaxy. I believe this is also a symbol of good luck."
Hearing Professor Trelawney's words, Dylan's eyes widened slightly, and his eyebrows rose.
"And then?"
Professor Trelawney smiled slyly. "Today, Professor Snape kept parading around in his clothes in front of me, but he was overshadowed by my bright and noble purple."
Dylan: "(д)!!!..."
(End of chapter)
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