Snakes at Hogwarts

Midnight,

Hogwarts Castle,

At the entrance of the principal’s office on the eighth floor,

"password"

In front of a wall, an extremely ugly stone monster carved in front of him asked the visitor in a thick and dull voice.

This is a gargoyle. There are many such statues in the castle. It is the masterpiece of a certain headmaster of Hogwarts who is good at alchemy.

They can carry out simple conversations with people and guard the entrance to specific rooms.

"Cockroach skewers."

The visitor was wearing a pure black cloak, with a hood on his head, and his face was looming under the reflection of the torches on the wall.

click

The gargoyle jumped to the side, and at the same time, the wall behind it cracked in half, revealing a narrow gap.

There is also a spiral staircase that moves slowly upwards. Following it goes up to the principal's office.

It looks like an elevator in the Muggle world.

"Ah, you're here. Severus is so sorry for asking you to come so late."

Behind the large principal's desk, Dumbledore, wearing a nightgown, looked at the visitors in front of him with a slightly apologetic look.

The latter gently took off his hood, revealing Snape's greasy black hair and iconic aquiline nose, which was Snape's sinister face that had never changed for thousands of years.

"Humph, you don't come to see me once or twice at night. Tell me, what's the matter?"

Snape's tone was colder than usual. Obviously, he was very dissatisfied with coming to the principal's office on the eighth floor at night to be summoned by Dumbledore.

"Before I say anything, I must advise you that wearing a hood at night can easily cause misunderstandings.

After all, students will not forget so easily that a few decades ago, it was a group of black-hooded wizards who turned the wizarding world upside down. "

"So what, it's already curfew time, and I don't understand who would be running around full of energy on the first day of the new semester."

After hearing Dumbledore's words, Snape's expression became even darker.

"Also, I think they want to know that their principal actually likes desserts like cockroach skewers."

"Ah cockroach skewers, I bet you'll love this sweet treat"

Dumbledore opened the drawer on the table and grabbed a handful of special candies with many legs.

If I had to describe it, it looked like a dozen cockroaches stuck together with glue.

“I have some more here that you want to try?”

His tone was cheerful, as if he didn't notice Snape's dissatisfaction at all.Snape looked at Dumbledore silently.

"Well it seems not everyone likes candy like this."

Five minutes later, Dumbledore was the first to break the silence. He grabbed a piece from the table and threw it into his mouth.

"Principal Dumbledore, if nothing happens, I will have to teach students tomorrow." Snape's face twitched.

Maybe he couldn't understand why such a great white wizard was so crazy, as if his brain had been damaged by some magic spell.

"Don't be impatient, Severus. Please forgive me for the procrastination of an older man in everything he does."

Dumbledore tapped his head lightly with his finger.

"I remember that Slytherin has a special tradition every year. Every year, all the freshmen will participate in a big brawl and the final winner will become the substitute prefect of the first year."

"Yes, this is a Slytherin tradition, used to make them aware of the qualities Slytherin values."

Snape replied inexplicably. He had never been able to guess what Dumbledore was thinking.

"Yes, tradition." Dumbledore nodded approvingly.

"As a magic school with a history of nearly a thousand years, we must have our own traditions."

"I'm glad you feel that way."

"I'm a little curious, who is the winner among this year's freshmen?" Dumbledore blinked.

"It's just a child's play, nothing worthy of attention." Snape obviously didn't want to say more.

"Think of it as satisfying an old man's curiosity, Severus."

"It's Andros Lobach, the little boy who spent the longest time in sorting this year."

"Ah, I knew he was a very interesting little guy."

Hearing Snape's answer, Dumbledore showed an unsurprising expression.

"Really? Apart from being a little clever, I don't see anything special about him."

"Look carefully, Severus, and you will find that our Mr. Lobach has some very unique qualities.

I hope you can do me a favor and pay more attention to his performance. "

"Are you asking me to spy on him? Spy on a freshman?"

Snape's face was full of sarcasm.

"Surveillance" Dumbledore waved his hands repeatedly.

"No, no, no, this word is too strong. I just hope you can pay more attention to him. I think this is also a good thing for Mr. Lobach."

"Hmph, I don't think it's a good thing for a student to be focused on by his principal." Snape curled his lips.

"Is it another weird language?" he asked.

"Otherwise, I really don't understand why you are so interested in a first-year student.

He is not the savior you created and held in the hands of wizards. "

"I'll take it as your promise, Severus." Dumbledore didn't seem willing to talk more about why he paid attention to Andros.

"If I have time, is there anything else I can do?"

"Of course, regarding our previous plan, I think there are still some areas that need to be improved."

...

...............................................................

Almost half an hour later, Snape left with a gloomy expression. He put on his hood again and covered his face in the dark hood.

It was already late at night, and the principal's office on the eighth floor finally became quiet, leaving only the snoring sounds of the portraits sleeping.

"You still think there's something wrong with that boy, don't you, Albus?" Delis Derwent asked from the wall behind the principal's chair.

They had talked about Andros before, on the night when the owl attacked by Ivar flew back to Hogwarts.

"No problem, Delis. I think he has many elusive secrets, which makes me very curious." Dumbledore blinked lightly.

"No matter what, you can't entrust a professor to spy on students like this."

Beside, another principal, Phineas Black, said with some dissatisfaction.

He is a principal born in Slytherin, so he naturally does not want students in his college to be treated so unreasonably differently.

"Shut up, Black. If I remember correctly, you did a lot of spying on the students when you were the principal." The former principal, Armando Dippet, couldn't help but sneered.

"Want to fight?" Phineas rolled up his sleeves.

"You think I'm afraid that you don't know who I beat and escaped from the principal's office last time."

"Quiet, gentlemen, the other portraits are asleep."

Seeing that the two portraits were about to fight in the principal's office, Dumbledore quickly spoke to stop them.

"Do you know who was the last student who made the Sorting Hat so entangled and was finally sorted into Slytherin House?"

"I don't know, who it is"

After being made into portraits, they all lost most of their memories and would only remember the most profound memories.

"It's Merlin."