MTL - Hogwarts: I Am Such a Model Wizard

 Chapter 697 Horace Slughorn

The village of Barberton seemed very big, but it was actually not small at all. The group walked for more than ten minutes before Dumbledore finally stopped in front of a dilapidated house.

 “Oh! My God, my God!” he exclaimed.

Kyle and Harry followed his gaze.

The first thing they saw was a carefully maintained path with neatly manicured gardens on both sides of the path, but what was incompatible with these was the house that looked like it had been blasted by a blasting spell.

　　The front door was reduced to a pile of broken wood, with only a small piece the size of a table remaining, hanging crookedly on the door frame.

Dumbledore looked around and whispered: "Kyle, Harry, pull out your wand and follow me."

 He walked cautiously up the garden path, followed closely by Kyle and Harry.

Then Dumbledore pushed open the front door, wand in hand.

 “Fluorescence.”

The situation in the room was even worse than outside. It was a mess. It seemed that everything had been turned out. A piano fell to the ground and the keys were scattered everywhere.

 There were also broken vases, glass shards, and various mats and other things scattered everywhere on the ground.

In addition, there was a large blood stain on the wall that was dazzlingly red.

"Something terrible must have happened here," Dumbledore said softly.

However, the tension in his tone has disappeared, and now it is a bit...well, artificial.

"Yes." Kyle nodded and said, "Harry, can you help move the piano to the armchair? I feel like there should be something underneath."

 “Huh? Oh, okay.”

Although Harry didn’t understand why he put the piano on the sofa, since Kyle said so, he must have a reason.

So Harry obediently pointed his wand at the piano.

 The piano slowly floated up, and then under Harry's command, it landed on the inverted armchair.

 The next second, the armchair screamed, "Ouch, take it away!"

Harry was startled, his hand shook, the spell was interrupted, and the piano fell heavily.

 The screams became louder, sounding like mandrakes that had just been pulled out.

Dumbledore waved his hand in time and moved the piano aside.

"Good evening, Horace." Dumbledore said with a smile, "It's all right."

Harry stared with dumbfounded eyes. In the blink of an eye, the armchair turned into a fat, bald old man squatting there.

He held his waist, narrowed one eye, and looked at Dumbledore with tears in his eyes.

"That's a piano, why didn't you stop them..." He struggled to get up, "Do you know how painful it was?"

"I'm sorry, Horace," said Dumbledore, "but that's not my fault. Your Transfiguration is flawless and I didn't notice it."

"Even though you said that..." The fat old man glanced at Dumbledore angrily, but he didn't seem so angry anymore.

“Well, there’s really nothing we can do about it. I should drink some Felixir in advance.”

 He sighed heavily, and the tips of his beard on both sides were raised.

 “Want us to clean it up for you?” Dumbledore asked.

 “Please, I really need to rest for a while.”

Dumbledore smiled and nodded, "Well, Kyle, Harry, how about leaving it to you? Oh, I forgot to introduce you, this is my old colleague, Horace Slughorn."

"No problem, Professor," Kyle said, waving his wand.

Furniture jumped back to its original position piece by piece, broken vases and glass returned to their original appearance in mid-air, and the keys on the ground returned to the piano...

On the other side, after Slughorn heard Dumbledore's words, the man suddenly stopped rubbing his waist, and his round eyes immediately looked at the two of them.

His eyes immediately fell on Harry's forehead and the lightning-shaped scar.

 “Oh, could he be just...”

"Yes, Harry Potter." Dumbledore said with a smile, "There is another one you should have heard of, Kyle Chopper, the youngest recipient of the Order of Merlin, formerly the second class..."

"Wait, what does this mean? I haven't heard of a new first-class medal in the magic world recently."

"Oh, this is inside information. Connelly seems to be interested in boosting the morale of the wizarding world." Dumbledore said calmly, "Being the youngest recipient of a first-class medal is a good topic."

　　While they were talking, the whole room had become completely new, and even the blood stains on the wall had fallen into a small glass bottle.

Kyle looked at the bottle.

Hmm, the fire dragon's blood is stained with dust and is no longer suitable for making potions... What a pity.

Kyle easily put the bottle into his pocket.

"Oh, that's my last bottle." Slughorn's eyes flashed with distress, but he didn't care about it at the moment.

"Don't think you can convince me with this, Albus, I've said it many times before, the answer is no."

 While saying this again, his eyes glanced at Kyle and Harry from time to time.

 “Will he really get a first-class medal?”

"It's just that Connelly has this idea." Dumbledore said, "Okay, let's not talk about this. Why don't you buy me a drink? Just think of it as a reminder of the past."

“Just one drink, then,” said Slughorn. He stood up, took a few glasses from the shelf, and poured a little mead into them.

There was really only a little bit, probably just below the bottom of the glass. It was obvious that he wanted Dumbledore to finish the drink quickly and then leave.

Kyle and Harry also mixed in a cup, of course, not much, maybe just one mouthful.

"Thank you." Dumbledore took the cup and didn't seem to mind at all. Instead, he took a sip with joy. "It tastes really good. It doesn't look like a product from the Leaky Cauldron."

"Of course, this is the treasure of the oak barrel bar. It uses the honey of the Three-tailed Bee." Slughorn said proudly: "I stopped by when I went to Romania before and bought it from the boss at a big price. ."

 Oak barrel bar?

Kyle always felt that the name sounded familiar, and then he suddenly remembered it after hearing about Romania.

The bar at the gathering place next to the Fire Dragon Sanctuary seems to be called this name... Strange, didn't Charlie say their signature is brandy?

Kyle doubtfully picked up the cup and took a sip, then put it back down.

Very good, now it is certain that Slughorn has been treated like a fat sheep.

He had drunk the honey from the Three-tailed Bee at Newt's place. Let's put it this way, there was no trace of that unique sweetness in this wine.

It’s not surprising that the oak barrel bar is operating normally... Chris was also tricked at first and bought two bottles of fake brandy, but later Charlie took it to exchange for two bottles of real brandy.

Kyle put the cup down silently without breaking it.

I don’t know if it was because he had been tense these past few days. After taking a sip of wine, Kyle suddenly felt a little sleepy and sat there in a daze.

 Not knowing how long it had been, he suddenly heard someone calling his name.

 “Kyle…Kyle…”

"Ah, what's wrong?" Kyle suddenly woke up and turned to look at Harry who was pushing him.

Dumbledore didn't know where he went, and there was only one person left next to him.

"Nothing." Harry said, "Mr. Slughorn just asked you which house you are in."    "Sorry, I didn't hear it." Kyle looked at Slughorn and said, "It's Hutch. Patch.”

"Oh, we are in the same house as your father." Slughorn didn't care, "But I like your mother better. She is smart, sensible, and confident... She was the pride of the entire Slytherin at that time."

 He took a sip of mead, as if falling into some kind of memory, "Of course, as a teacher, I shouldn't favor students, but I just prefer her.

“I still remember that in order to seek justice for your father, she beat a fifth-grade student into the school hospital for a week, and then blocked him in the common room, scaring him so much that he didn’t even dare to leave the dormitory.

“This kind of bad behavior should have led to a detention, but I didn’t do it. I just deducted ten points from her.”

 “Ah, please don’t misunderstand me.”

Slughorn quickly added: "I'm not encouraging you to violate school rules. The main reason is that there was a reason. The student said a very vicious curse word to her friend in front of her, and that word is absolutely not allowed to appear. In school.

"Your father wanted to reason with you, but he was ridiculed indiscriminately. To be honest, I still insist that he brought the consequences on himself."

“Of course, I still say that I don’t encourage you to violate school rules.”

Harry found that Slughorn had been looking at him intentionally or unintentionally when he was talking, and it seemed that this matter had something to do with him.

 But just when he was about to ask, the other party directly changed the subject.

Probably because he felt it was not appropriate to discuss this topic with his students, Slughorn stood up and said, "Come on, I'll show you my students."

 He brought the two of them to a cabinet, pointed to some photo frames on it and said:

"These are, you'll see Barnabas Guffey, the editor of the Daily Prophet, who was always very interested in hearing my opinions on the situation...and your father, Kyle, who was also One of my favorite students, I've always thought he had all the Hufflepuff qualities... Oh, and here he is."

Slughorn pointed to a photo frame, "Your mother was originally there, but then for some reason, she disappeared from the photo... You can definitely understand why, right?"

Kyle nodded.

 It should be because Diana entered the Department of Mysteries, but he didn't know the more specific reason.

 Slughorn introduced a few more names, basically all of them were well-known people in the wizarding world.

Kyle was looking at the photo, and Harry was talking to Slughorn.

"I think that as long as Dumbledore is the headmaster, the school staff will be safer than most. It is said that Voldemort is the only one afraid of him..."

Harry suddenly shouted loudly, startling Kyle.

Slughorn seemed to be thinking about what he said.

"Speaking of safety..." Kyle walked over and asked in a low voice: "Harry, do you know how Umbridge is doing?"

"I don't care what happens to her..." Harry said with a stiff neck, and sighed after a moment, "Well, I didn't expect someone like her to insist on opposing the Death Eaters, but the newspaper only said that she I was attacked, but what happened next, I don’t know.

"But I heard from Ron that St. Mungo's is now surrounded by Aurors, especially the ward where she is."

Slughorn fell silent again.

He must admit that this incident also touched him quite a bit. Umbridge was attacked by Death Eaters at St. Mungo's and under the eyes of so many wizards. What about him?

Since he has not joined the Death Eaters, he cannot be regarded as a friend by the Death Eaters. In this case, it may be safer to be next to Dumbledore...

Just as he was thinking about it, Dumbledore walked into the room just at this time.

"You're back, Albus." Slughorn came back to his senses and said, "Why have you been gone for so long? Are you upset?"

"No, I looked through those Muggle magazines," Dumbledore said, "Okay, Harry, Kyle, we have been bothering Horace for a long time, it's time to leave."

 “Are you leaving?”

"Yes." Dumbledore said, "It's already very late now. Kyle has to go to work at the Ministry of Magic tomorrow morning. If it's any later, it may affect his rest."

"Wait, going to work at the Ministry of Magic?" Slughorn couldn't help but said: "So that's true, he was hired under special circumstances?"

"Of course." Dumbledore nodded, "Didn't you read the newspaper? He has been in the position of Senior Assistant Minister for nearly half a year."

 "Senior Assistant Minister who has not yet graduated..." Slughorn muttered to himself, his eyes flashing.

"Goodbye then." Dumbledore walked to the door. "Although it's a pity that I can't work with you again, you can always go back to Hogwarts to visit if you want."

 “Goodbye,” said Harry, waving his hand.

As soon as the three of them walked out of the room, they heard a shout from behind them.

 “Okay, okay, I’ll do it!”

Slughorn ran out panting, "I must be crazy, but yes, I am willing to go back to Hogwarts."

 “That’s great,” Dumbledore said with a smile. "Well, Horace, we'll see you on September first."

　　"Okay, no problem." Slughorn muttered: "I'll ask for a raise..."

"Well, I'm sorry, it's not my fault." Dumbledore turned to look at Kyle, "In fact, someone can save me fifty galleons a month with just one word."

 “Really?” Slughorn’s eyes brightened.

Although he didn't know what was going on, the principal's salary was deducted at any time, which showed that Kyle had real power and did not have just one position.

"It doesn't matter." He said with a smile, "It doesn't matter about the salary. I just...miss my old colleagues a little bit. How about Minerva and Filius."

 “It’s all good,” Dumbledore said with a smile.

“Then we’ll see you on September 1st.” Slughorn said with a wave of his hand.

 The three of them set foot on the path outside again.

"Professor Dumbledore..." Harry asked in a low voice: "Why did Slughorn suddenly agree?"

"You should call him Professor Slughorn now." Dumbledore corrected: "I think he must have seen the benefits of returning to Hogwarts."

"benefit?"

 “Yes, like you and Kyle.”

Dumbledore continued: "Slughorn likes material comfort, and he also likes to make friends with famous, successful, and powerful people. But he is special. The people he makes friends with all come from his student days. Walk up.

“And he has a very unusual ability to always select people who will succeed in all walks of life in the future.”

"That's it." Harry nodded, "No wonder Kyle agreed immediately after knowing that he was a senior assistant minister."

“You are one of them,” said Dumbledore. “The Boy-Who-Lived, or as they are now popularly called in the newspapers, the Savior…”

Hearing this title, Harry couldn't help but shudder. He didn't like this title, and he didn't feel like he had done anything.

 It’s nothing more than someone paraphrasing what he said before about the mysterious man’s comeback.

 They walked a little further.

"Okay." Dumbledore stopped and turned around and said, "I may become very busy later. If you are in a hurry, Newt can find me."

Kyle nodded, "I understand."

 “So, do you need me to send you back?”

Kyle could see that Dumbledore seemed to want to say something to Harry alone, so he shook his head.

 “No, professor, I can just go back by myself.”

After saying that, he waved to the two of them and disappeared.

 (End of this chapter)