"..."
Snape stared suspiciously at the bizarre group in front of him.
From left to right, there was the new Weasley student, Granger who liked to raise her hand and disrupt Potions Class, the son of his enemy, a new enemy, and the cat kept by Hogwarts' caretaker... Was there a rat perched on the cat's head?
Weird...
Very damn weird.
In Snape's eyes, besides Harry Potter and his gang, there was only that Weasley, although he was a little wizard, at least he was a Gryffindor – so why was this smooth-talking William Richard here?
Five minutes ago, he was still patrolling the fourth floor of the castle, as Peeves had been causing some trouble lately, and Dumbledore assigned two professors each night to patrol the upper and lower halves of the castle—
Of course, the more important reason was to prevent little wizards from being attacked during night patrols.
...But if this entire row in front of him were to be attacked, Hogwarts' air would be fresher for a whole semester.
Snape scanned the group with a dark expression, his mind imagining without any sense of professionalism—the attack list could also include those other two Weasleys, the fifth-year Marcus, and Gryffindor's Longbottom...
"Snap—"
Just as Snape was endlessly lost in thought, William, noticing the man had spaced out, snapped his fingers in front of Snape's face—
"What the hell are you looking at?"
The Chinese words were pronounced perfectly, but unfortunately, no one in this room full of foreigners understood the deeper meaning.
Even the cat and the rat were foreign.
Startled out of his fantasy, Snape instinctively furrowed his brow and reasserted his professorial authority, "…What did you just say?" Having not understood William's words, Snape coughed.
"I said, Professor—" William said, pointing to the washroom behind Snape, "are you just going to let her sleep there?"
"...She's just a ghost."
Snape looked back at the dark washroom. The toilet, which had been spurting water, was silent now. A gray-white phantom lay still on the floor, but there was still a small gap before she fully touched the intricately patterned tiles.
It was the weeping Moaning Myrtle, and in just ten minutes, she seemed to have completely lost her spirit.
Oh, right, ghosts didn't have spirits to begin with.
"Can ghosts die too?"
Ginny peeked out from behind Hermione, asking timidly. William gave her a puzzled glance, knowing only that the girl was usually shy around Harry, but...wasn't this like a whole different personality?
"No, ghosts can't die again—" William shook his head, "unless they don't want to continue like this or have fulfilled their wishes?"
"I've already informed the headmaster, now perhaps we should discuss some other issues—"
Snape interrupted William's explanation loudly, turning his head, his protuberant black eyes glaring viciously at Harry, "For example, why are you out of your dormitory and common room during curfew?
"And why is it that we always find you at the scene of the crime, Potter?"
Harry's breathing became heavy; he had known this moment was coming.
When William sent Hermione to get a teacher, he felt an ominous premonition. Upon hearing that Snape was the professor on duty that night, the feeling intensified, and when he saw the old bat floating over with his robes billowing at the end of the corridor, the dreadful premonition peaked!
Now, what was inevitable had come—Harry could feel Snape's eyes boring into him, teeming with sinister thoughts, as if any slip in his explanation would earn him a mad dog's bite...
He knew all too well that Snape had been wanting him expelled from Hogwarts and sent back to the Dursleys for ages.
"We..." Hermione tried to interject.
"Miss Granger, I'm talking to Mr. Potter right now, so ten points from Gryffindor." Snape's voice was icily cold.
Hermione's face froze; she could almost hear the sound of gems vanishing from the Gryffindor hourglass... no, that was clearly the sound of her heart breaking!
"...I dragged them on a night stroll, so punish me if you must!" Seeing Hermione's almost heartbroken expression, and unable to come up with a plan, Harry took a deep breath under Snape's pressure and stepped forward to answer loudly.
"Reason?" Snape asked unhurriedly, nodding.
"The reason is... because I was hungry—" Harry's lips started to tremble; he wasn't even sure what he was saying.
"Not hungry on Halloween, but hungry tonight?" Snape sneered.
"...Is that not okay?" Harry weakly attempted to explain.
"So you're saying you not only took two Gryffindor girls but even went to Hufflepuff House, dragging Mr. Richard out of his dorm, asking them to join you for a midnight snack?"
"..." Harry suddenly realized what he had said.
"Yes, Harry is exceptionally gifted, with arms so long they reached from the entrance of our common room to my dormitory." William nodded seriously under Snape's gaze.
"Pfft—" Ginny couldn't hold back her laughter any longer.
"Another ten points from Gryffindor!" Snape fumed, his eyes narrowing, leaning into William's face, aiming his anger, "And fifty from Hufflepuff—"
"Scourgify. (Scourify)"
"You have bad breath, Professor."
William said expressionlessly as he watched pink bubbles foam from Snape's mouth.
Staring at the rising pink bubbles, Snape was momentarily stunned, before his eyes visibly reddened, his sallow cheeks turning pale. From under his robe emerged his right hand, and the tip of his magic wand pointed straight at William's chin—"How dare you!" he roared hoarsely.
Harry and the others had never seen Snape so enraged. They watched the scene in astonishment, unable to comprehend the sudden change.
"Sectumsempra! (Sectumsempra)"
"Protego. (Protego)"
"Expelliarmus! (Expelliarmus)"
In the next moment, a purple light flashed over William, while a red light burst from the other end of the corridor, slicing through the air and hitting the enraged Snape, disarming him as his wand flew from his hand and landed in a wrinkled hand.
"Severus—" Dumbledore emerged from the shadows, his brow furrowing, "You should not cast spells on students."