Professor McGonagall looked sternly at the daring young wizards. "What on earth were you thinking?"
Her voice carried a cold anger. "Why didn't you just stay in your dormitories? You're lucky you weren't killed!"
At this moment, Hermione, having recovered slightly from her fright, stepped in front of Professor McGonagall. "Professor McGonagall, they were looking for me."
She had intended to lie to Professor McGonagall, claiming she had read about trolls in a book and thought she could handle one.
But unexpectedly, Hannah stepped in front of her.
"Professor McGonagall! At the end of Charms class this afternoon, Ron and Hermione had a conflict."
Hannah, speaking the honest truth, immediately disrupted the Little Beaver's plan.
"I stayed with Hermione in the girls' bathroom the whole afternoon. We didn't know about the troll breaking into the castle."
Kyle also stepped forward. "I was worried about the two of them running into the troll, so I came to find them."
Professor McGonagall looked at the three students before her. She knew they had a good relationship. "Is that so, Miss Granger?"
Hermione could only nod helplessly; that was indeed how things were.
However, she omitted a part of the truth—for instance, how two certain idiots had locked the troll inside the bathroom, nearly getting her and Hannah killed.
Considering the two had returned to distract the troll for them, Hermione and Hannah decided to let them off the hook for now.
Professor McGonagall's stern gaze shifted to Harry and Ron. "And what about you two?"
"They were probably worried about my safety too, so they came looking for me," Hermione explained on their behalf.
Professor McGonagall's expression softened noticeably. She looked at Harry and Ron, her tone slightly gentler than before. "If that is the case... for your bravery, five points will be awarded to each of you."
Harry and Ron exchanged a glance and grinned.
However, she swept a glance at Ron again. "But you should not speak ill of others behind their backs. Five points from Ron Weasley."
Ron instantly pulled a long face.
Kyle stealthily kicked the bathroom door behind him open a crack, revealing the scene inside, then coughed lightly.
He was signaling Professor McGonagall to award him a few more points; after all, he had single-handedly killed a troll.
Seeing the troll blood flowing all over the floor through the crack in the door, Professor McGonagall's cheek twitched.
Are the children of the Grindelwald family always this fierce?
"Twenty points to Hufflepuff."
After helping Harry clean the troll blood off his body, Professor McGonagall began shooing them away.
"You'd best return to your respective common rooms immediately. The students are finishing the Halloween feast in their Houses."
The five young wizards parted ways there. Hermione waved to Kyle and Hannah, then followed the Savior duo back to their common room.
Watching the retreating backs of the original trio, Kyle smiled. After experiencing this troll attack, Hermione should be able to properly become friends with those two, right?
In truth, because of Kyle and Hannah's interference, Hermione's friendship with the other two corners of the triangle was far from reaching the level seen in the original story.
"We should have won more than ten points," Ron grumbled as they walked away.
Harry patted his best friend on the shoulder.
"Professor McGonagall was right to take those five points. Otherwise, Hermione wouldn't have been stuck there during the Halloween feast."
The topic quickly shifted from Hermione to Kyle.
If not for the moves Kyle had taught him, perhaps he would have died suddenly by now? A certain Savior, unaware he had been pitted against a troll, thought to himself.
Late at night, in the Headmaster's office.
Kyle, who should have been sleeping in his dormitory, was currently standing there.
After staring at Dumbledore in silence for a long time, Dumbledore finally broke his composure before Kyle did.
"Don't you have anything to say?"
"You mean about that... Sectumsempra?" Kyle avoided Dumbledore's gaze, looking up at the ceiling.
Dumbledore narrowed his eyes. "That is not the issue. I want to know, how were you able to remain so indifferent in the face of such a scene?"
When Dumbledore approached the bathroom where the troll was killed, he could smell the strong stench from several steps away.
The scene behind the door was exactly as he had expected, with large pools of dark red liquid spreading across the floor.
Months ago, Dumbledore had used Legilimency to extract a memory from the minds of the Weasley twins—Kyle using Chidori to instantly kill a werewolf.
But that was a life-or-death crisis, so Dumbledore could understand.
However, the memory extracted from Harry tonight made him feel somewhat worried.
Viewing it from a playback perspective through Legilimency, Dumbledore discovered that when Kyle killed the troll with Sectumsempra, there was absolutely no panic on his face.
It was calmness mixed with a trace of excitement.
The decisiveness and ruthlessness Kyle revealed when killing the troll made Dumbledore see a shadow of the Dark Lord.
Of course, decisiveness alone was not enough to make one the next Dark Lord.
What worried Dumbledore even more was that after experiencing such an event, Kyle could calmly comfort Hermione and Hannah, and even argue with Professor McGonagall for more points...
Dumbledore sighed. Although the child's performance gave him enough relief regarding his capabilities, it also made him feel incredibly weary.
"Dad? Dad?" Kyle reached out and tugged at Dumbledore's sleeve. Why did this old man suddenly zone out while talking?
Dumbledore snapped back to reality and looked at Kyle with a grave expression again.
"So... Dad, if there's nothing else, can I go back to sleep?" Sitting in the chair, Kyle had already angled his feet toward the office door.
Dumbledore rubbed his chin. "You haven't answered my question yet."
"Alright," Kyle sighed. "Dad, have you ever seen a pig being slaughtered?"
Dumbledore: ???
What does this have to do with slaughtering pigs?
Kyle put down the glass of milk in his hand. "I lived in New York before. There was a Chinese restaurant nearby, and the owner was very kind."
The expression on Dumbledore's face became even more confused. What did this have to do with the question he just asked?
"He treated me to pork dumplings a few times. The pigs he used were raised and slaughtered by himself. I saw the scene of pigs being slaughtered a few times."
Dumbledore rubbed his temples helplessly. He could roughly understand Kyle's meaning.
"You mean you've seen this kind of scene a lot, so when you killed that troll, you didn't feel much emotional turbulence, right?"
Kyle nodded frantically.
So... this child treated the troll like a pig when he killed it?
Dumbledore never expected to get such a bizarre answer from Kyle.
He had originally prepared several speeches about love and peace, ready to cleanse Kyle's soul.
But when the issue involved Kyle's wandering past, those grand principles he had prepared were no longer applicable.
Fortunately, the worst-case scenario didn't happen. Kyle's style hadn't skyrocketed in the direction of the third Dark Lord, which gave Dumbledore some relief.
"Alright, go back and rest." Dumbledore stood up and patted Kyle on the shoulder.
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