"The best assignment this time goes to… Draco Malfoy! Let's all give Draco a round of applause!"
At the end of the class, Kayson read out the name of the Little Wizards who had completed the assignment best and led the applause.
From this assignment, Kayson also discovered another talent of Draco's besides Quidditch.
This child's Alchemy talent seemed exceptionally strong.
Not to mention the ordinary Hermione, who was a study fanatic, and the vast numbers of Ravenclaws, even Neville, who had started Alchemy lessons half a semester earlier, didn't complete the assignment as well as Draco.
His Alchemy level was even close to that of Little Wizards in their fourth year.
Soon, a half-hearted applause sounded in the classroom, and Kayson, seeing this, extended his hands and pressed them down in mid-air.
The applause immediately stopped, and Kayson rubbed his fingers; he had clearly seen the applause from the podium.
All of Slytherin applauded, which was within his expectations. Hufflepuff and the Ravenclaws, who didn't want to offend anyone, also applauded normally, which was still reasonable. But Gryffindor…
He couldn't use any uncertain words; there was none, not a single one.
He clapped his hands helplessly and called out, "Alright, Little Wizards, please be reasonable. This isn't the House Cup, nor is it the Great Hall, so I ask if you can temporarily put aside your prejudices between the Houses and take off your House robes."
The Little Wizards looked at each other, and finally, a group of Hufflepuffs and the four Gryffindors took the lead in taking off their House robes.
"Alright, what about the rest? Is it very cold in here?"
Soon, the remaining Little Wizards also sparsely took off their House robes.
"Look, now you truly look like a whole. Now, please applaud again, applaud for Draco, not for Malfoy, not for Slytherin, and not for the so-called pure-blood, but simply for Draco, applaud." Kayson said, knocking heavily on the surface of the golden podium with his knuckles.
This time, the classroom finally echoed with applause matching its number of people.
Kayson nodded and paused quietly for five or six seconds, then quickly raised his arm and clenched his hand.
"That's it!"
The Little Wizards still looked at Kayson blankly, and the latter shrugged: "Do what you should do."
Soon, the Little Wizards put their House robes back on.
"Honestly, just now you truly seemed like a unified Hogwarts." Kayson clicked his tongue and sighed.
The Little Wizards still stared intently at Kayson as if their heads were automatically locked on, which made him feel a bit strange. Then he rolled his eyes and quickly waved his hand, telling them to leave quickly.
Usually, occasionally the four Gryffindors would stay behind to chat with Kayson, but today was different; today, someone else stayed behind.
"Hmm… Draco, is something the matter?" Kayson asked, tapping the materials in his hand repeatedly on the podium as if tidying up papers at the end of a news broadcast.
"Nothing, I heard Professor you made a big splash at the Wizengamot?" Draco obviously didn't get straight to the point but casually brought up a topic.
"It's all thanks to the Professors and my friends at the Alchemist Association. Otherwise, if they had to choose between a Professor with no power or influence and the Ministry of Magic, who knows what the outcome would have been."
Kayson was also humble.
"..."
"...."
The next minute passed in a stalemate; neither of them said anything. However, Kayson still had the material in his hand to keep tapping the podium, but if Draco didn't speak soon, he would have truly stayed behind for nothing, in other words, a pure clown.
"Professor, should I say thank you?"
Kayson shrugged: "You and I think alike. Your family is full of love, which makes you very… natural."
"Professor, what does that mean?" Draco asked, puzzled.
Kayson pointed to a nearby table: "Why are you standing? Find a place to sit down."
Draco thought for a moment and then sat directly on the table.
"Professor, what do you mean by 'natural'?"
"Mr. Lucius or your mother must dote on you very much, right?"
Draco nodded, then quickly reacted: "Professor, are you blaming me for not having manners or for the awkward silence in our conversation just now?"
"I am not blaming you. On the contrary, I am happy to see you like this. The current you is a true, thirteen-year-old rebellious teenager, not a ridiculous teenage imitation of a forty or fifty-year-old family patriarch."
Draco nodded blankly. Although he didn't know what Kayson meant, at times like this, nodding was always good.
"You didn't understand?"
"..."
"Alright, I know you just didn't understand." Kayson also sat directly on the podium without any pretense.
"Professor, I don't know what you mean."
Kayson didn't answer him: "Why are you thanking me?"
"Because you helped me out? Isn't that what you should do?" Draco said, bewildered.
"How did I help you out?" Kayson continued to ask.
"You said, to make them no longer think of me as Slytherin, as Malfoy, as pure-blood, but only as a good student, Draco?" Draco tentatively replied.
"Anything else? Is that all you came to thank me for?" Kayson asked with a smile.
Draco nodded blankly: "Professor, do you have any other questions?"
As for whether Kayson had any other questions, there were absolutely none!
When he was teaching the older grades, there was still a Slytherin Little Wizards who won the outstanding assignment, named Finks. At that time, he still helped Finks out in the same way, but after class, Finks found him alone.
At that time, Finks babbled a lot, but in essence, he was very dissatisfied with Kayson stripping him of his Slytherin label, pure-blood label, and his surname label.
And he had a serious discussion with Kayson for half an hour.
And what choice could Kayson make? Of course, he chose to respect him.
Dumbledore was right; before, he did have the bad habit of making decisions for others, which was indeed a deeper form of arrogance.
And from then on, he decided to change his arrogant bad habit. For example, Finks, from the bottom of his heart, identified with his surname, pure-blood, and Slytherin being above his true self, and he enjoyed it.
Kayson naturally couldn't forcibly strip him of those labels.
Just as Dumbledore told him at the time, not everyone likes magic, and similarly, not everyone likes to show their true self.
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