A day at Hogwarts.

Chapter 664 Let's Play Chess
"The Bureau of Mysteries?"

Dumbledore frowned slightly, and his gaze sharpened.

Snape nodded coldly, adding expressionlessly, "Yes, that's where the Dark Lord's target is."

The principals on the wall whispered among themselves; many of them had visited that place in their lifetime.

Euprasia Moore cleared her throat and said hoarsely, "That place is no joke. What exactly does Voldemort want?"

Delis de Winter shook her head worriedly, saying, "The Brain Hall? Or the Death Hall? Both are dangerous enough."

They discussed Voldemort's possible motives, their voices low but filled with unease.

Dumbledore fell into deep thought.

He thought of the prophecy orb, the key item concerning the fate of Harry and Voldemort.

But the Department of Mysteries contained far too many things—a time-tamper that could warp time, bizarre minds, the Arch of Death, and so on—each capable of causing devastation in Voldemort's hands. This left Dumbledore momentarily uncertain of Voldemort's true purpose.
“There’s one more thing,” Snape broke the silence, “The Dark Lord says that Charles himself was behind what happened at Farbatton Castle last night.”

As Dumbledore's mole within the Death Eaters, Snape was well aware of his duty: to accurately relay Voldemort's decisions and statements for Dumbledore to analyze.

Voldemort's remarks about Charles were undoubtedly important intelligence. Dumbledore had a feeling that the relationship between the two seemed to go beyond simple hostility and contained some unknown connection.

"You mean, Charles killed Lukewood himself?" Dumbledore's expression instantly turned serious, his brows furrowed, and a look of disbelief flashed in his eyes.

Charles had personally told Dumbledore about Lukwood's undercover work at Falbotton Castle, which served as a cornerstone of their mutual trust.

Last night, Lukewood died suddenly, leaving only a few bone fragments. Dumbledore initially thought it was caused by him attempting to steal secrets and triggering the security system.

In Dumbledore's mind, at most Charles had set a trap to lure Lukewood into a trap, which was completely different from Charles personally going in with his white wand and coming out with his red wand to take a life. This made him feel a heavy doubt.

Snape replied, "The Dark Lord meant that he met with Charles last night, and after the negotiations failed, Charles directly killed Lukewood."

Last night, Charles did indeed leave the castle under the pretext of business, and then left again urgently after returning.

Dumbledore thought for a long time, then sighed and said, "I will have a good talk with him."

"Severus, there's something I'd like to discuss with you. The overall results of the last Potions class monthly exam didn't seem ideal. Many students complained that the questions were too difficult, and the passing rate was low..."

Dumbledore's tone sounded very serious, as if he were earnestly discussing a pressing work problem.

Snape's face darkened instantly, and his lips twitched slightly.

With so many students failing the monthly exams this time, professors will have their salaries docked if their teaching evaluations are not up to standard, according to Umbridge's new regulations.

Snape wasn't short of money. In addition to his salary at Hogwarts, he often brewed high-grade potions and sold them privately to earn extra income.

In the past, he wouldn't have cared about the small amount of wages deducted, but now things are different. He is saving money to rebuild his old house in Spider's End Alley.

Everyone has their own expertise. Just as not every wizard can concoct perfect potions like him, not every wizard can build a sturdy and beautiful house.

Therefore, if he wants to rebuild the house, he still needs to pay for a professional wizarding team; otherwise, if he does it himself, the resulting house will probably be even more outrageous than the Weasleys' crooked Burrow.

Snape immediately dismissed the idea of ​​saving money and doing it himself, thinking that it would be even more troublesome if it collapsed, so he decided to save money honestly.

But as a potions master, he had a strong sense of pride. Now that the monthly exam had turned out like this, he couldn't save face. It was like being slapped in the face in public.

Dumbledore spoke at length about teaching.

But Snape didn't listen to a word of it, thinking that if the students did well on the test, it must be because they hadn't studied well, and it certainly wasn't his problem.

Seeing his reaction, Dumbledore said nothing more and told him to go about his business.

Snape stood up and suddenly sneezed a few times, as if someone was talking badly about him behind his back.

At that moment, in the Gryffindor common room, Harry stared wide-eyed in surprise.

Neville said mysteriously to his classmates who were doing their homework together at the table, "I heard that if the passing rate for monthly exams is below 60% for three consecutive months, the professor will have his salary docked." "If it's below 30%..." He made a throat-slitting gesture with his quill pen, "then he'll be expelled."

Harry's four eyes lit up immediately.

"Really?" he asked excitedly. "Can even Snape be expelled?"

Ron turned to him and asked, "You're not planning to fail on purpose, are you?"

Lavender, sitting opposite him, said, "I think, given Professor Snape's attitude toward Harry, he wouldn't need to do it on purpose."

Several people around laughed.

Harry looked at the candlesticks on the wall of the common room and said hopefully, "If we can all refrain from going to Hogsmeade for three months, we can get Snape out of Hogwarts."

Many people felt that what he said made some sense.

“Don’t think about these things.” Charles came back from outside and sat down opposite Harry and Ron. “I just went to see Umbridge, and she agreed to arrange a make-up exam. If you pass, you can go to Hogsmeade.”

Instead of wasting time thinking nonsense, you should go get tutoring from Hermione and the others.

Everyone around immediately had their eyes light up.

Lavender immediately asked, "Is this true?"

Charles nodded and said, "Really, we'll see the announcement tomorrow."

As he spoke, he took a large roll of parchment from the bag and handed it to Ron, saying, "This is a chessboard for playing wizard chess with others using a communication notebook. Black gave it to you."

Ron chuckled as he took the chessboard. Everyone stopped doing their homework and urged him to open it quickly and see how to play.

Charles instructed Ron on how to connect the chessboard and the communication notebook, then joined the wizard chess group at Farbatton Castle, and then posted in the group, "There's no one who can beat me."

"Is the new guy so arrogant?" someone immediately replied.

Charles continued to teach Ron how to start the game.

"Wow!"

Ron's pieces rise from the board like sand forming a tower, and unlike traditional Wizard Chess, these pieces have extremely imposing "skins".

Soon, the opponent's pieces appeared, drawing another round of exclamations, especially from Ginny and other girls who had come to watch the spectacle.

Charles's lips twitched; he could tell at a glance that it was Gabrielle's design.

The two sides quickly engaged in battle.

Charles took out his communication laptop and chessboard, opened them, and entered spectator mode, synchronizing the two chessboards.

The area quickly filled with Gryffindor students, even those who didn't usually play chess came to watch the excitement.

Several students who enjoyed playing chess squeezed behind Ron. After watching for a while, someone asked Charles, "Who's on the other side?"

Charles pointed to the edge of the chessboard and said, "Only nicknames on the communication notebooks."

Soon, everyone noticed that Ron's brows were furrowed.

Harry asked cautiously, "Is the other person very strong?"

Ron stroked his chin and said, "I feel like the style of play on the other side is a lot like Percy's."

Charles then looked at the nicknames of the two people and, sure enough, the person on the other end was Penelope.

(End of this chapter)