The Wind and the Wings of Hogwarts

In his magical perception, the Potions Professor suddenly felt a magical fluctuation that didn't belong to him on his left arm.

The sudden surge of magical power gave off a chilling and sinister feeling.

At the time, Snape, who was inspecting the students making potions in the classroom, seemed perfectly normal on the surface, and only Scott noticed that he paused.

Out of curiosity, Scott used almost all his senses to carefully perceive that trace of magic.

Perhaps because his senses were too sharp, for a moment he even saw hallucinations of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and his nose seemed to actually smell a strong stench of blood.

The taste made him almost vomit.

When he uncontrollably opened his mouth as if to gag, he quickly withdrew his senses.

Unfortunately, Snape suddenly turned around and saw the unusual expression on his face.

The incident happened suddenly. Scott accidentally met the Potions Professor's dark and empty eyes for a moment. After regaining his senses, he realized something was wrong and quickly lowered his head to start processing the potion ingredients on the table.

Sure enough, the next moment Snape slid from the other end of the aisle to his desk, bent down and stared at the movements in his hands.

Scott ground the herbs with a mortar and pestle without changing his expression.

At that moment, he noticed that his partner Milton's breathing had become more rapid and his hands were trembling slightly.

Scott quickly took the knife and herbs from Milton's hand and handed him the mortar and pestle.

Snape scoffed at this. "How wonderful, Mr. Grevis. Is Mr. Trollope your babysitter in Potions class?"

Milton was weighing the materials on a brass balance when he heard this, and his hand trembled, spilling the materials onto the table.

Seeing this, Snape finally straightened up.

“It’s hard to believe you’re already in fifth grade, Mr. Grevis,” he said sarcastically. “Two points are deducted from Ravenclaw’s score because of your clumsiness.”

After saying that, he turned and left.

Milton looked like he was about to cry.

Scott shook his head and sighed inwardly; Snape's trick really never failed him.

Next, Scott and Milton had to start working on a new set of materials, which slowed their progress down.

It wasn't until quite a while after class that they finally handed in the potion they had made.

Snape glanced casually at the two potions in his hand and said to Milton, "I look forward to the day I can see you independent, Grevis."

Milton kept his head down, barely daring to breathe.

“You can go now,” Snape said. “I need to speak with Mr. Trollope alone.”

Milton looked up and glanced at Scott with concern.

Scott smiled at him and waved his hand, "You go ahead."

After Milton left, Snape first put down the potion bottle in his hand, and then stared down at Scott with his dark, empty eyes.

Scott had already been quietly performing the brain-blocking technique, so he didn't avoid his gaze.

“Occlumency, I don’t recall Hogwarts ever teaching you that course,” Snape drawled. “The genius Mr. Trollope.”

Scott chuckled. "I don't recall the professor being able to use Legilimency to read things in a student's brain either, Professor."

"Don't laugh!"

Snape kept his eyes fixed on Scott.

His expression was rather unpleasant, especially the deep, stiff creases between his brows.

“You are using your so-called magical perception to spy on your professor, which I must say is extremely impolite, Mr. Trollope.”

Snape lowered his voice, and combined with his distinctive intonation, it caused him to hiss like a snake as he spoke.

"I'm sorry, Professor." Scott, being very pragmatic, didn't try to argue but honestly admitted his mistake.

If he were to say to Snape at this point that he didn't mean it, Snape would probably think he was lying and become even angrier.

Actually, he didn't do it on purpose; he had just gotten into the habit of using his magical senses to probe his surroundings from time to time.

This behavior is generally undetectable to others.

Unfortunately, because he couldn't keep his expression in check today, Snape happened to notice.

Of course, he wasn't staring intently at Snape's arm; it must have been that fleeting eye contact that made Snape realize something.

After all, he didn't have time to perform the brain shut-off procedure at the time.

However, the situation wasn't too bad at this point.

At that moment, the evil magic overwhelmed Scott's keen senses, and all he could think about was how disgusting that magic was, so he didn't reveal any other thoughts.

At least at the time, he wasn't thinking about things like the "Dark Mark," which he shouldn't have known about.

Snape was clearly very unhappy at this point, and he asked Scott, "Tell me, what did you sense?"

Scott answered honestly, “A touch of evil magic has suddenly stirred within your left hand, Professor.”

Upon hearing this, Snape's expression turned even more unpleasant.

His right hand was already gripping his left arm tightly.

"Damn it."

He couldn't help but mutter a curse under his breath and paced back and forth a few steps.

Perhaps still unable to contain his anger after thinking it over, he made a few more sarcastic remarks at Scott.

"You have no sense of propriety and are always eager to show off your talents. Why wasn't that lousy hat sorted you into Gryffindor in the first place!"

Scott, with his head down, pursed his lips.

He felt wronged—what did his personality have to do with Gryffindor?

Of course, he didn't refute it, because he knew very well that speaking now would only add fuel to the fire.

"If I could, I'd really like to give you a forgetting spell to clear your overly curious mind!"

Snape said another irritating remark, then turned and strode out of the classroom.

"Follow me, Mr. Trollope!"

Scott responded and obediently followed behind him.

The two walked through the castle one after the other, attracting countless curious glances.

Scott even saw many people giving him a thumbs-up from afar.

Perhaps because Snape looked so unpleasant, these people thought he had dared to provoke Snape.

Chapter 311 Dumbledore's Inquiry

Snape led Scott to the principal's office as quickly as possible.

They entered from the third-floor entrance and took the automatically ascending stone steps to the eighth floor.

"Wait here obediently!"

Snape glanced at Scott, pushed open the door and went inside, then quickly closed it again.

Scott looked at the closed wooden door in front of him, turned around and leaned against the railing beside the stone steps, looking out of the castle through the glass window.

He guessed that Snape was probably reporting the Dark Mark's unusual activity to Dumbledore at that moment.

As for why Scott was brought here?

Scott himself felt that Snape probably couldn't do anything to him—Snape couldn't really give Scott a Forgetfulness Charm, nor did he want to explain the anomaly of the Dark Mark.

So he chose to pass the Scott problem to Dumbledore to handle.

The facts were pretty much as he expected.

The office door soon reopened, and Snape walked out.

"Go in, Mr. Trollope."

His expression was no longer as angry as before; he even gave Scott a very fake smile.

However, after saying this, the Potions Professor went straight up the sunken stone steps and left without looking back.

Scott sighed silently, took a deep breath, and then turned and walked into the principal's office.

Dumbledore was sitting behind his large desk when he saw Scott, and a kind smile appeared on his face.

"Good afternoon, Professor Dumbledore," Scott greeted him.

“Good afternoon, Scott.” Dumbledore beckoned to him. “Come and sit down. Perhaps we need to have a good talk.”

Scott nodded and sat down on the stool in front of his desk.

Would you like something to drink?

Dumbledore snapped his fingers, and an empty porcelain cup appeared in front of Scott.

“Tea is fine, no sugar needed, thank you,” Scott said.

"Oh, well, you don't like sugar?" Dumbledore said with some regret.

He snapped his fingers again, and steaming hot black tea appeared in the porcelain cup in front of Scott.

“Thank you.” Scott picked up his teacup and took a sip. “Yes, I don’t really like sweets.”

"What a pity." Dumbledore also picked up his cup, took a sip, and smacked his lips. "I was planning to share a delicious pile of cockroaches with you."

Scott laughed and said, "You should keep it for yourself."

"Very well." Dumbledore nodded gently.

Scott buried his head in his tea.

After a while, Dumbledore said with great interest, "It seems you're not too curious about what happened to Severus."

Scott nodded. "Yes, Professor, I'm not usually very curious about other people's business."

“That’s normal,” Dumbledore said with a chuckle. “Many Ravenclaw students are just like you.”

Scott did not deny this, saying, "Yes, we are not as enthusiastic as Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. We prefer to keep our distance from people."

"So do you think this is good or bad?" Dumbledore asked curiously, as if he were genuinely curious about it.