Hogwarts: Don't call me the Staff Maker

Chapter 677 Speculation

Chapter 677 Speculation

No sooner had Dumbledore and his companions left than Sirius and Harry were expelled from the hospital by Madam Pomfrey, who said that the five-minute visiting time was over and that their continued presence would disturb the patients' rest.

Although Siren felt that Slughorn didn't seem to want to rest much—after all, he seemed more interested in talking to Harry and had been boasting about how he had noticed something was wrong with the mead the moment he saw it.

But Madam Pomfrey didn't care about any of that and still ruthlessly drove Siren and Harry away.

"Do you think this could be part of Malfoy's plan?" Harry couldn't help but ask after leaving the school hospital. "Maybe Voldemort was afraid he would reveal the secret of the Horcruxes, so he had them kill Slughorn in the school—"

"But that doesn't make sense." Before Siren could speak, Harry immediately contradicted his own guess. "Professor Slughorn just said that the bottle of oak-aged mead was a gift he intended to give to Dumbledore, but he changed his mind and decided to drink it himself. Malfoy definitely doesn't know about it, right?"

"Perhaps they originally intended to kill Dumbledore?" Siron said.

Harry instinctively stopped in his tracks, staring at Siron in disbelief.

Kill Dumbledore—who, Malfoy?

Did he eat too many dung balls?

Harry thought this was probably the funniest joke he'd heard all year.

"That's impossible, Sirius. Even Voldemort was afraid of Dumbledore. No matter what, Malfoy couldn't possibly kill him."

Harry, of course, didn't believe it, and Siren didn't say anything either. Let alone Harry, no one would believe that Malfoy would dare to poison Dumbledore.

"Harry, Celen, you're finally out."

Just then, Ron and Hermione ran over from the corner. They had been waiting there ever since Madam Pomfrey stopped them.

"What happened?"

"How is Slughorn? Is he still alive?"

"He's not only alive, but he looks great," Harry said, and then told the two what had happened at the school hospital.

Ron shared the same thought as Harry: that this was Voldemort's mission for Malfoy to silence Slughorn forever.

"But he clearly underestimated Slughorn's potions skills, didn't he? His poison didn't work at all; it was spat out," Ron said with a hint of schadenfreude.

"I've heard that Death Eaters are punished by Mystic if they fail to complete their missions. I really want to see Malfoy get punished; it would be very interesting."

"This is nothing to be happy about, Ron," Hermione said seriously. "Professor Slughorn was almost killed, which means Voldemort has started targeting Hogwarts, something that has never happened before."

Hermione's words made Harry and Ron's expressions gradually turn serious.

Yes, Voldemort can get Malfoy to kill Slughorn now, but what about after that? Will he get Malfoy to kill someone else?

"If you ask me, we should expel all the Slytherins!" Ron said through gritted teeth. "That way, no one will be willing to work for Mystic anymore."

"Don't talk nonsense." Hermione glanced at him. "You know that's impossible."

That's absolutely impossible. Hogwarts has four houses, it was like that a thousand years ago, it is like that now, and it won't change in the future.

The group waited for a while longer at the entrance of the school hospital, but Dumbledore and the others did not return until noon.

With lunchtime approaching in ten minutes, the group decided to return to the castle temporarily and try their luck again in the afternoon.

Before leaving, however, Celen went to the entrance of the school hospital to say goodbye to Slughorn, but was refused by Mrs. Pomfrey.

With no other option, Xilun could only turn and leave.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked.

"What?" Xilun looked at her in confusion.

"I saw it all," Hermione said. "While you were talking to Madam Pomfrey, you secretly slipped something under the door of the school hospital."

"Ah, it's just a little gadget." Xilun waved his hand.

"What is it?" Hermione pressed, determined to find out.

"A retractable ear—or rather, an eavesdropping ear now." Xiren took out something that looked like a mouth from his pocket.

This thing was invented by Fred and George to eavesdrop on Phoenix Society discussions. It looks like an ear and a mouth, connected by a thin, extendable line.

What you hear with your ears, you can say out loud the next second.

After the two opened their shop, they improved the retractable ears several times. Now the middle line is gone, and the ears are much smaller. If you squeeze them hard and throw them, they can turn into the shape of a leaf, hiding them as much as possible.

Tsk, come to think of it, if Fred and George were ever captured by the Aurors, I wouldn't be surprised at all—the stuff they sell, they should really spend a few days in Azkaban.

However, the Ministry of Magic probably doesn't have time to deal with such a trivial matter right now.

After Siron and his party returned to the castle, news of Slughorn's death had spread far and wide, and everyone in the Great Hall was discussing who wanted to kill him.

Harry and Ron instinctively looked toward the Slytherin table on the other side.

Because of this incident, the Great Hall was filled with unease, everyone worried that it might be Voldemort's conspiracy. Only in Slytherin was the long table filled with laughter and chatter, with people clinking glasses as if they were celebrating a second Christmas of the year.

This undoubtedly made Harry even more certain that Malfoy had poisoned the bottle of oak-aged mead.

Harry became even more attentive to them. From the moment he started eating, he kept staring at the Marauder's Map, almost shoving bread up his nose several times.

"I don't think you need to do this," she finally said as Harry knocked over the milk jug in front of Hermione for the third time. "We're eating right now, why can't you just look at him?"

"What I mean is, if he wanted to leave the auditorium to do something, you could see that without this map, right?"

Harry then folded up the Marauder's Map and put it back in his pocket, but he did not let his guard down. Instead, he turned to Ron next to him and whispered a few words to him.

Then Ron looked up and stared intently at Malfoy and the others, while Harry quickly shoved the food from his plate into his mouth. After that, he looked up again and stared, then it was Ron's turn to eat.

Xilun was stunned, as if he had seen two groundhogs with a clear division of labor.