Hogwarts and the Holy Grail War

"Mr. Filch, I'd like to ask you a question." Ethan followed Alanna into the small door, stopped beside Mr. Filch and asked in a low voice, "I remember that except for the Hogsmeade weekend organized by the school, students need the professor's approval if they want to leave the school at other times, right?"

"Yes, why are you asking that?" Filch said impatiently.

"It's like this. Miss Shannans and I met Rosier and his friends in Hogsmeade. I want to ask, do you know which professor approved them to go to Hogsmeade?"

"Did you run into them?" Filch suddenly lowered his voice. He looked around warily and whispered to Ethan, "It was approved by Professor Snape. I saw the reason for going out was to let them go to Hogsmeade to buy cauldrons and so on. It's strange, because they just bought a batch before the start of the school year."

"Thank you." Ethan nodded, and he immediately understood.

It turned out that it was Snape who had given him the assist. He probably heard from somewhere that Alanna was going to Hogsmeade with him this weekend, so he found a reason to send Neil and the others to him so that they could receive a beating from him.

All I can say is well done.

I wonder what expression Snape would have if he heard that Neil had released Avada Kedavra on him in the street? I'm looking forward to it.

"So they didn't do anything to Miss Shannans?" Filch continued to mutter to Ethan.

"Don't worry, it won't happen again." Ethan secretly gave Filch an OK gesture to reassure him.

"That's good." Filch murmured, and then suddenly raised his voice, raised the broom fiercely and waved it towards Ethan, pretending to hit him, "Okay! Don't ask these nonsense questions, just go back to the castle!"

Ethan cooperated very well and ran to Alanna, shouting and yelling, and walked into the castle gate with her.

Filch held the broom and watched the two men's backs gradually disappearing into the distance. A meaningful smile suddenly broke out on his sagging pale face.

"It seems like they are a good match."

-

Chapter 77 I'll wait for you until the lilies have all withered

"I'll take you here, go back and have some rest."

In front of the Slytherin common room, Ethan stopped beside Alanna and turned to speak to Alanna.

"Are you really not going to the school hospital for a checkup?" Alanna turned to Ethan, her eyes full of worry. "First it was Avada Kedavra, and then you had a fight with the troll. What if there's really something wrong with your body..."

"Don't worry, it's really okay." Ethan smiled and said, "I'm just a little tired. I'll recover after a good sleep. There's no need to trouble Madam Pomfrey."

"I don't think so." A cold voice sounded behind Ethan.

Ethan and Alanna turned around to look at the source of the sound, and saw the head of Slytherin, Professor Severus Snape, standing in front of them, his long black robe fluttering in the wind.

Snape walked slowly to Ethan, staring at him with no expression in his eyes. Although his posture was not tall, Ethan felt a sense of being looked down upon from his majestic aura.

"You kept me waiting for a long time, Mr. Ethan." Snape forced a gloomy smile on his pale face. He glanced at Alanna beside Ethan, then turned back to Ethan, "I guess you and Miss Shannans had a great time in Hogsmeade today?"

"Thanks to you, the two of us had a very fulfilling time." Ethan replied with a wry smile, "Except for accidentally encountering a troll that broke into Hogsmeade, the rest of the time we had a lot of fun."

Although it seemed that Snape was being sarcastic to him, Ethan could still understand what Snape meant.

What Snape just said was actually asking him whether he and Alanna met Neil and the others whom he had released in Hogsmeade, and how things went?

Ethan replied to Snape that he dealt with the two guys without any effort and it was not as troublesome as the troll behind him.

Alanna blinked as she watched the two riddle men, one big and one small, in front of her playing riddles back and forth. Her eyes switched back and forth between the two, with more and more question marks on her face.

Why are these two people always talking about things she can't understand?

"Very happy, huh?" Snape pulled the corner of his mouth, the gloom in his eyes faded, and the expression on his face gradually changed to an indescribable coldness, "But some people may not think so. Mr. Ethan, you have made quite a noise, and it will be very difficult for some people to deal with you."

Translation: You've made a big deal out of this, and the Rozier family is now targeting you.

"It has to be done even if it's difficult, right?" Ethan continued to laugh nonchalantly, "If you really can't do it, you can come to me. As the person involved, I will fully cooperate."

Translation: It doesn't matter if they target me, as long as Alanna is not affected. She has to be removed from this matter.

"You don't need to tell me this. I came here to see you." Snape snorted coldly, crossed his arms over his chest, and looked at Ethan impatiently, "I think you need to give me a satisfactory answer."

Translation: I know this, that's why I came to you to ask what's going on.

"Um, Professor Snape." When Alanna heard that Snape seemed to be trying to embarrass Ethan, she quickly defended Ethan, "Ethan didn't mean any harm, he just wanted to help me..."

"Miss Shannans, I don't seem to be talking to you, am I?" Snape glanced at Alanna and said lightly, "You should go back and have a good rest. You don't need to worry about these things."

"Come with me, Mr. Ethan. Headmaster Albus Dumbledore has been waiting for you for a long time." Snape turned around and said with his back to the two of them, "By the way, Miss Shannans, you don't have to come with me. There is nothing for you to do this time."

"Ethan..." Alanna gently pinched the corner of Ethan's clothes.

"Don't worry, it's okay." Ethan smiled and said to Snape, "Professor Snape, can you wait for me for a minute? I'll talk to Alanna and then I'll go with you."

"Hurry." Snape snorted.

"Don't worry, I'm just going to explain. Professor Snape and the others are good people and won't make things difficult for me." Ethan stuffed the bag he was carrying into Alanna's hands and said softly, "Please help me take my things back to the Gryffindor common room. The entrance code is "Pig Nose". Just say it's my stuff and someone will help me take it back to the room."

"Okay." Alanna said again, worriedly, "Don't try to handle anything on your own. I will help you."

Snape, who was fed with a mouthful of dog food, looked at the two people who were showing off their love from head to toe with a gloomy face, and couldn't help but remind them: "It's one minute, Mr. Ethan."

"Okay, professor." Ethan smiled awkwardly, "I'll be right there."

Alanna watched Snape take Ethan away from the door of the Slytherin common room, bit her lip, thought about something, then quickly ran into the common room.

After Snape took Ethan out of the dungeon, he did not go to the marble staircase, but instead went around to another narrow spiral staircase in the tower and walked towards the headmaster's office on the eighth floor.

When Ethan saw that there was no one and no portrait on the stairs, he knew that Snape was going to take advantage of the fact that no one was around to say something bad to him.

"I must ask, Mr. Ethan." Snape, who was leading the way, said without turning his head, "Did Rosier really use the Unforgivable Curse on you?"

"Yes." Ethan nodded, not caring that Snape, who was walking in front of him, couldn't see his movements at all. "From the actions and effects of the spell, he did actively use the Avada Kedavra curse - on me."

Snape put a lot of emphasis on the words he just said. In fact, he asked Ethan three questions in one sentence:

First, was the curse Neil released really the Avada Kedavra? After all, judging from the light and effects emitted by the curse, there are many spells with similar performances to the Avada Kedavra.

The second is whether Neil's spell was really cast at Ethan, because there is a possibility that it was cast at someone else, or that it was deliberately missed.

The third and most important point is whether Neil really released the Unforgivable Curse on his own initiative. After all, in Snape's opinion, with Ethan's evil character, it is very likely that he used some tricks to deceive Neil's wand and frame him.

It’s not that Snape is too suspicious, but the answers to these questions are related to Neil’s fate - the Ministry of Magic stipulates that once a wizard releases an unforgivable curse on a person, then regardless of whether the spell is successful or not, he will be sent to Azkaban to spend the rest of his life.

If it was Ethan's trick, he might come forward to protect Neil. After all, the crime was not punishable by death, so it was enough to let him go to jail. There was no need to send him to Azkaban to be with the Soul Eater. But if it was really Neil who did it...

There is no hope, just wait for death.

Soul Eater's Kiss, execute immediately!

But in order to maintain his cool image, he can combine all these problems into one question. No one else can do that.

Ethan’s answer was very simple: Yes, that’s right, he did it, and it really has nothing to do with me this time.

Grandpa Neil was not a decent man when he was alive. Professor, please spit before you leave.

"Really? I see." Snape suddenly stopped, turned around and looked down at Ethan, "There's one more thing."

"What is it, Professor?" Ethan looked up at Snape, feeling a little amused.

Because he is almost the same height as me and cannot look down on me, I deliberately create this height difference through the stairs to achieve the effect of looking down on me.

You are worthy of being such a tsundere.

"It's simple," Snape said expressionlessly, but his eyes shone with a little brilliance, "How did you withstand the Killing Curse?"

"Maybe it's because his magic was not strong enough to support him to cast such a powerful spell." Ethan lied skillfully, "Or was it because he didn't have enough killing intent at that time?"

(Note: The original novel only mentions that whether the Killing Curse can be successfully released is only related to the amount of magic power, and there is no setting that it cannot be successfully released if the killing intent is not enough. This is still the author's second creation.)

"Your rhetoric may fool the Aurors, but don't think you can fool me." Snape stared into Ethan's eyes and said coldly.

"Okay, Mr. Ethan. Now tell me, what's going on?"

Chapter 78: She has a nice figure, quite strong

"what is going on?"

Snape stared into Ethan's eyes unkindly and asked in a cold voice.

Ethan looked at Snape's aggressive gaze and his heart skipped a beat.

This old bat might be using Legilimency on me to see if I'm lying.

A Legilimency master like Snape can often read the mind of a person simply by eye contact. If the person is not using Occlumency, the Legilimency master can see if they are lying by prying into their mind, and read their thoughts, emotions, and memories. And for extremely skilled wizards, they can even influence the mind of the invaded person, that is, create false memories for the target.

Ethan was not afraid of Snape's lie detector test on him. After all, Legilimency could not read objective facts, but only subjective thoughts. As long as he kept deepening the idea that this matter was true in his mind, he could still cope with it.

As the saying goes, to deceive your enemy you must first deceive yourself, the principle is basically the same.

However, this trick is useless against Claire's causal-level lie detection ability. Claire's lie detection ability will not be misled by personal self-deception, but correspondingly, it does not have the effect of Legilimency that can read additional memories.

All I can say is that each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

What Ethan was really worried about was that Snape would discover the secrets in his mind through Legilimency. Ancient magic was one thing, but if they found out that he was a time traveler, who knows what kind of trouble they would cause.

I'm afraid Snape will take the lead in slicing himself.

However, although Ethan did not know the brain block technique, fortunately, he still mastered the almighty ancient magic. It was no problem to deal with the mere Legilimency with ancient magic.

So Ethan blocked his own thoughts, while releasing a small amount of insignificant things so that Snape could see them.

If I block my thoughts completely, Snape will not be able to see anything and will become suspicious. Leaking some insignificant things can actually make it more credible.

Although he could deliberately create some junk information to disrupt Snape's observation, doing so would also make Snape suspicious, so it was better to use the simplest trick to fool him.

"I'm not lying, Professor. That's it."

Ethan looked directly into Snape's eyes and spoke calmly.

"Really?" Snape stared at Ethan's eyes for a long time before finally giving a cold laugh. He turned around and continued walking up the stairs. "Then I'll assume that what you said is true."

Ethan followed Snape's steps upwards without saying a word. He could tell that no matter what the reason was, Snape did not believe his words, but he could not find any flaws so he could only hold it aside for the time being.

At this time, it is better to remain silent.

The two of them climbed an unknown number of floors on the spiral staircase. They turned a corner at the stairs and came to a corridor. They stopped in front of a statue of a gargoyle at the end of the corridor.

"Pineapple candied fruit." Snape said reluctantly with a dark face.

This was obviously a command to open the door, as the statue suddenly came to life and jumped aside. The wall behind it split in two, revealing a spiral staircase behind the wall, which was slowly moving upwards like an escalator.

"Come up." Snape snorted coldly and stepped onto the spiral staircase.

Ethan followed Snape up, and heard a rumble behind him, and the wall closed again. They spun higher and higher, and finally stopped in front of a shining oak door with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin on the door.

Snape tapped the brass knocker gently, and the door quietly opened aside, revealing a spacious circular room behind.

"Ah, it looks like our guests are here." An old and kind voice sounded.

In the office, Headmaster Dumbledore was sitting behind a huge desk, talking to three Aurors with their backs to Ethan. When he saw Ethan appear at the door, Dumbledore stood up from the high-backed chair behind the desk and stared at him with his light blue, penetrating eyes.

Ethan felt a little uncomfortable under Dumbledore's sharp gaze. He suddenly thought that Dumbledore was also a master of Legilimency and might also be spying on his mind. So he silently strengthened his mind blockade by several layers.

Be prudent in doing things.

"Professor Dumbledore, I brought Ethan here." Snape walked in and stood in front of the table, giving a concise report.

Several people who had their backs to Ethan turned around and looked at him. Among them were Sarah and Tony, whom he had met not long ago, and an old man who was walking on a crutch, had gray hair, a scarred face, and unusually large eyes.

"Thank you for your hard work, Severus. You can go back and rest." Professor Dumbledore nodded to Snape and turned his gaze back to Ethan. "We were just talking about you, Ethan."

"Are you discussing my punishment?" Ethan forced a helpless smile at Dumbledore, "Professor, just tell me directly. I am willing to accept any punishment."

In any case, he had insulted Neil inhumanely in public, and any punishment he received, even expulsion, would not be excessive.

He didn't regret what he had done, but it was a pity that he died before he had the chance to enjoy his life in the magical world.

"No, Mr. Ethan. Why do you think we want to punish you?" Dumbledore shook his head and said in his calm voice, "After discussion, we all agreed that you should be rewarded."

"Ah? Why?" Ethan blinked in confusion. "I hit someone in public. Is it really okay not to punish me?"

This is like when you get involved in a gang fight in school, but not only do you not get punished, but you are awarded an outstanding three-good student. It is hard not to suspect that there is something fishy going on.

"But that was to seek justice for your friend - I remember it was Miss Alanna Shannans - right?" Dumbledore blinked, and there was a bit of kindness and mischief in his eyes when he looked at Ethan.

"And from what you said just now, we can see that you have deeply realized the mistake you made. I believe you will not make the same mistake again in the future, so there is no need to punish you."

"Not to mention that you also defeated a troll that attacked Hogsmeade. How can we not reward the hero who saved the village?"

"Professor, I feel embarrassed when you say that." Ethan scratched his ear, a little shy, "Actually, I'm not that good, I'm just lucky."

"Well, enough of your modesty," Sarah put in. "We're here mainly for another matter. But before that--"

The old man limped to Ethan and looked him up and down carefully with his unusually large bright blue eye. The blue eye kept moving without blinking, turning up and down, left and right, and had nothing to do with the normal eye - it was a fake eye.