Hogwarts: Don't call me the Staff Maker

Chapter 640 Dumbledore Returns to School, Tensions Rise

Chapter 640 Dumbledore Returns to School, Tensions Rise

"Oh, Albus!"

Slughorn was visibly surprised to see Dumbledore and quickly walked over.

What's wrong with you?

"A little trouble," Dumbledore said, his tone as calm as ever.

"However, Horace, I'm afraid I'll have to take up some of Siron's time—he probably won't be able to attend your dinner party tonight."

"Ah, no problem, of course no problem," Slughorn said. "Business comes first, I can invite him another time."

"Albus, you don't look too good right now. How about some energy tonic? I just made a pot this morning when I was teaching the seventh graders."

"That would be wonderful. To be honest, I haven't been this tired in a long time since my 100th birthday." Dumbledore readily agreed.

"Is it because of the mysterious man again?" Slughorn asked casually.

"I suppose so," Dumbledore said. While waiting for the stairs, he suddenly remembered something and turned to Sirius behind him, saying, "If you have time, you can come to the Headmaster's office at eight o'clock."

After saying that, he and Slughorn went upstairs together.

Although Potions class is held in the underground classroom, Slughorn's own office is on the sixth floor of the castle.

It was a very large room, bigger than any of the other professors' offices, which made it very convenient for him to host all sorts of parties.

After the two left, Harry asked curiously, "Sirlen, what is Dumbledore taking you to do?"

"I don't know either." Sirius shrugged. Dumbledore hadn't spoken to him alone, so he didn't know more than anyone else.

However, he could guess something; it might be related to that Slytherin locket.

"Wait, you're going to the headmaster's office, and Harry's going to detention. Does that mean I have to go to Slughorn's place alone?" Hermione said anxiously.

Although she was curious about Slughorn's party, she didn't want to deal with that stupid megalomaniac, McClagan.

And Sabine and Melinda Bobin are both standard Slytherins.

It would be fine if she had someone she knew with her to go with her, but if she was alone, Hermione wouldn't really want to go.

"You won't go alone. Ginny probably got an invitation too," Ron said irritably. He had noticed that Ginny was holding the same invitation as them when he came out.

Even Ginny was invited, but Slughorn hadn't even glanced at him, which left Ron feeling a bit resentful.

"Don't be sad, Ron." Harry patted him on the shoulder. "You'll soon find out that being invited by Slughorn isn't a good thing. Those parties are more boring than History of Magic."

"Maybe so," Ron said absentmindedly.

Harry's detention was also at eight o'clock, and since there was still some time, the group didn't just wait idly and went back to the Gryffindor tower together.

Because they had just finished dinner, the common room was crowded. Ron remained sullen, and even after they finally found an empty table to sit down, he didn't say anything. Instead, he crossed his arms and frowned as he stared at the ceiling.

Siron casually picked up a copy of the Daily Prophet, which someone had placed on the stool.

"Any new information?" Harry asked.

"It's the same as before, the good news is that there are no acquaintances here," Xiren said, and everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Since Voldemort made his public appearance, he and the Death Eaters have become increasingly reckless, and recently there have been reports of people being killed every day in the newspapers.

They hadn't felt anything before, until a few days ago when one of their classmates' family members was also murdered.

Hannah Abbott of Hufflepuff, along with other witches of the same age, lost her mother a few days earlier in an attack carried out by Death Eaters.

They never saw Hannah at school again after that.

It was after that report that most students realized that Death Eaters were not as far away from them as they had imagined.

More and more people are now buying the Daily Prophet, and every morning the auditorium falls silent for a few minutes. Everyone is praying that they won't see a familiar name in the paper.

"Stan Sampark!" Hermione, who was also reading the newspaper, suddenly mentioned a name that they both happened to know.

"That bus conductor?" Harry quickly thought of the somewhat talkative young wizard.

"He was killed by the Death Eaters too?" Ron finally stopped staring at the ceiling and asked疑惑地问道, "Why would they kill a ticket seller, just to get a free ride?"

"He wasn't killed by the Death Eaters, but Stan Sampark was arrested," Hermione said, frowning.

"What?" Harry was taken aback.

"Look here." Hermione laid the newspaper flat and pointed to a section of text.

"Stan Sampark, Knight Bus conductor, has been arrested on suspicion of engaging in Death Eater activities, the Auror said—"

"How is that possible?" Harry still couldn't believe it.

He had met many Death Eaters, and those people were completely different from Stan Sampark.

"They're probably under a Soul-Stealing Curse," Ron offered a reasonably plausible guess.

This isn't just speculation; it was all too common a decade or so ago. Whenever the Death Eaters were short-handed, they would use the Imperius Curse to force others to do their bidding.

However, as they continued reading, they discovered that it was something else entirely: someone had overheard Stan Sampark discussing the Death Eaters' secret plans in a bar, which was why the Aurors arrested him.

"Looks like he wants to show off how much he knows." Harry was speechless, not understanding what was so great about this, and even less understanding why the Aurors would bother arresting a ticket seller instead of real Death Eaters.

Stan Sampark's words were clearly just boasting.

After that, there wasn't much news worth paying attention to in the newspapers, but they learned something else from the conversation of the people next to them.

Another Hufflepuff student has dropped out, Eloise Midggan, whose father has just taken her away.

Harry remembered this person; she was a member of the SDA last year and one of Cedric's admirers. Harry was surprised that she had dropped out of school.

The Petit twins are also preparing to leave school.

According to Parvati Petit's roommate, their father is already in Professor McGonagall's office.

The talking in the common room grew quieter.

Around eight o'clock, someone brought Harry his detention order—to go to the underground classroom and pick out the rotting Flobber worms from the healthy ones, without wearing protective gloves.

"Didn't he stop teaching Potions?" Harry said angrily. He suddenly felt a strong urge to go to Slughorn's party.