The redstone was soft, and the sound of filing it wasn't too harsh; with the door closed, it could almost pass for white noise to sleep to at night.
And so, it wasn't until the latter half of the night that Kaisen, feeling thirsty, sat up from his bed, groggily picked up a glass of water and drank it all, then after some thought, still walked out of the bedroom.
Draco was kneeling in the corner of the office, a file in his hand, leaning against the wall, already asleep.
Seeing this, he returned to the bedroom, took out a blanket, and carefully covered Draco with it, but he still had no intention of preparing a bed for him or letting him return to his dormitory.
People, after all, should always pay a price for their actions. Draco didn't know how hurtful a malicious word could be, so Kaisen, as a Professor, kindly helped Draco understand how heavy the cost of his actions was.
And so, the next day.....
Draco felt the sunlight on his face and opened his eyes, somewhat disoriented.
He expressed his deep respect for the nightmare of last night; there was no gore, no darkness, no jump scares, only a huge redstone and a file that could make him feel that deep fear.
But thankfully, the dream was over.
He subconsciously tried to stretch, then felt his body stiffen. Looking down... the redstone... only two-thirds of it remained after half a night of filing.
In his hand was still that small file.
......
He stood up, the blanket draped over him slipping to the ground. Somewhat exasperated, he kicked the redstone in front of him, but unfortunately, while redstone was soft, that was only compared to stone.
Compared to Draco's foot.....
"Ah!!!!"
He instinctively recoiled, one foot landing squarely on the blanket, the other tripping over it. Forces from two directions interacted, and he fell straight back, landing on his back.
The back of his head hit the ground hard, but thankfully there was a thick wool rug.
A string of bad luck, coupled with the accumulated grievance of filing redstone all night yesterday, caused Draco to break down and cry.
Meanwhile, Kaisen, holding a stack of refreshing potions, stopped outside the office door. He pressed his ear to the door and listened.
He only pushed the door open and walked in when the sounds inside had subsided a bit.
"Drink this refreshing potion, otherwise you'll probably catch a cold staying here all night." Kaisen placed the refreshing potion on the coffee table, along with a sandwich and a bottle of pumpkin juice.
"Oh, and breakfast."
Draco, who had been filing redstone all night, was already ravenous. He picked up the sandwich and took a bite, but when he tried to swallow, he felt a sharp pain in his throat.
He had already caught a cold.
"Looking at your progress... it'll probably take another twenty-one days of filing before you can get rid of detention." Kaisen looked at the extent of the redstone's wear, stroked his chin, and sat on the sofa, opposite Draco.
He looked at the Little Wizards in front of him, whose gaze was filled with fear and resentment, and shrugged, having no other thoughts. It was like a prisoner hating a jailer, perfectly normal.
But an explanation was still necessary.
"Do you regret it?"
"What?" Draco, enduring the pain as he ate, looked up and asked.
"Do you regret using such a filthy word to insult... Miss Granger?"
Draco didn't answer, still eating with his head down.
"Do you know what 'Mudblood' means....."
Draco shook his head.
"That's right, your father and mother might occasionally use such words, but they would definitely not intentionally teach them to you. In short, this word is very filthy; it's absolutely not just a common derogatory term for a Muggle-born Wizard."
"You can use any word you can imagine, including but not limited to genitalia, livestock, personal insult, humiliation, curses—even all of them combined wouldn't be as malicious as the original meaning of this word."
"I understand." Draco said dryly, his head bowed. Kaisen didn't know if he truly understood or not.
"After you finish eating, remember to drink this bottle of refreshing potion. I've prepared fourteen bottles of refreshing potion for you, but looking at your efficiency, I'll need to get seven more from Madam Pomfrey... which means you'll have to endure this for another twenty days."
Listening to Kaisen's cold words, Draco, who had barely managed to hold back his tears, burst into tears again. The originally sweet sandwich turned salty in less than five seconds.
"I hope you remember this lesson, Mr. Malfoy. After you've eaten and taken your medicine, you can wash up here, or you can return to your dormitory, wash up, and then go back to class. After class in the afternoon, after you complete the labor Professor McGonagall assigned you, return here until you've filed seven redstone blocks."
Draco listened, trembling, and looked up somewhat aggrieved: "Can I take leave and just file here all the time?"
"If you do that, other Little Wizardss will learn many more spells than you. You wouldn't want to be utterly defenseless in the next Wizard duel or fight, would you?" Kaisen didn't refuse, he just clearly explained the pros and cons.
"I'll be back after class."
"Of course, if you don't come, I'll just have to personally go to Severus to get you."
After Draco left the office, Kaisen waved his hand, collecting all the redstone dust scattered in the corner. It could be directly used as fifth-year teaching material.
Soon, the first-year morning classes were mostly over, and Draco dejectedly returned to the alchemy office, picked up the small file, and began to file.
Kaisen, meanwhile, still sat on the sofa as if oblivious, brewing a pot of green tea.
When it was time for afternoon classes, Draco would again dejectedly leave. Just like that, in only half a day, another third of the redstone was filed away.
Kaisen was quite satisfied with this; after all, if this efficiency and speed continued, he might not need to go to Madam Pomfrey for another stack of refreshing potions.
Of course, the redstone was secondary; he still sincerely hoped that this thoughtless Little Wizards would properly absorb this lesson.
After all, he was only eleven years old. His little self hadn't solidified yet; everything was still salvageable.
And so, the naive Professor Kaisen thought everything was moving in a good direction.
Especially one day, a week and a half later, Draco had filed down to the last redstone block.
If it weren't for the four Little Wizardss from Gryffindor showing up, he would have almost believed it.
Really.
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