After leaving the Headmaster's office, the two of them scratched their heads.
"So Professor Dumbledore gave us this because..."
...
That evening, Kasenhis was eating when a sudden commotion broke out at the Gryffindor table below.
"You already broke up with me once! Why are you doing it a second time?!"
Smack!
With a crisp slap, Lavender sent Ron crashing onto the long table. For a moment, chicken legs and broken plates flew everywhere, while sauce and hair became one.
After all, both the ketchup and Ron's hair were red.
But the question was...
Why had Lavender said this was the second time Ron had broken up with her?
Was that right?
Kasenhis wasn't the only one confused by this.
After dinner, Harry drank some milk and changed back into Harry Potter, and he didn't understand either.
"Why did she say... say Ron was breaking up with her for the second time?" Harry asked helplessly as he looked at the half of his face swollen like a pumpkin in the mirror.
"Because Ron had already broken up with Lavender before you did. Hermione wasn't around either, so I have reason to suspect those two might already be hiding somewhere and secretly dating."
As Kasenhis spoke, he used blue ice to make Harry a helmet and handed it over.
"Professor, what's this for?" Harry asked, confused.
"For an ice compress."
"Oh."
Harry put the helmet on. The face guard fit perfectly over half his face, and the cool sensation made him feel a little better.
"So why are you two here in the middle of the night instead of sleeping in your dormitory?" Kasenhis asked as he curled back up on the sofa.
"Lavender is hunting all three of us across the entire common room. Not just Ron. Neville and I are on her blacklist too. Once Neville gets back and Lavender yells at him for a while, he'll probably end up hunting us too," Harry said bitterly.
Kasenhis finally couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
"You two really are something. Back at Black's old house, we came up with so many plans and still couldn't get Ron and Hermione to stand together against a common enemy. But you two used a single bottle of Polyjuice Potion and somehow got both Ron and Lavender to hunt you down. Pure talent."
"Professor, stop making fun of us. We still don't know where we're sleeping tonight. How about we squeeze in with you?" Neville sighed.
"My bed is too small. You won't fit. Just find an empty corner somewhere in this office, Transfigure yourselves a bed, and sleep there for the night. Just remember to hide properly so Lavender doesn't find you."
Kasenhis pointed them in the right direction.
"Alright, Professor."
The two nodded and headed toward the work area of the office. There were piles of large redstone machines over there. Finding somewhere to hide would be easy enough.
Seeing this, Kasenhis took out a bucket of milk for himself, tilted his head back, and gulped it all down.
He was just about to head upstairs to sleep when he noticed that two more people had somehow appeared in front of his desk.
Ron, whose face had been beaten into something resembling braised pig's head.
And Lavender, who looked absolutely furious.
Kasenhis didn't hesitate for even a second.
Like a wise person's statue pointing the way, he raised a hand and indicated the correct direction.
The two of them nodded, then headed straight where Kasenhis had pointed.
"Good luck."
Kasenhis hummed a tune as he went upstairs to sleep.
...
In the blink of an eye, the semester had reached its later stages.
Well, not quite the very end, but the midterm exams had already been over for quite a while.
Strictly speaking, Hogwarts didn't officially have anything called midterm exams, but around the middle of each semester, the professors would still privately give the young wizards a round of tests.
The results weren't entered into their official records. They were simply meant to gauge how everyone was doing.
Kasenhis, however, wasn't particularly satisfied with these results.
It wasn't because of the ordinary students. If the students who attended his classes every day managed to pass, Kasenhis was already perfectly content.
But when the students he personally gave extra lessons to only managed to score an Acceptable, Kasenhis really couldn't understand it.
"Alright, explain yourselves. Do these grades look right to you?"
On either side of the coffee table, Kasenhis sat on the sofa staring at the two young wizards in front of him.
One was a fourth-year, the other a fifth-year.
Clay and Orlant.
The former was lazily sprawled across the sofa, while the latter looked rather restless.
"Professor, what kind of answer would you like to hear?" Orlant finally asked first.
"Right now, I really want to launch you into the Black Lake and then use that compound magic you invented to blow you into a mushroom cloud," Kasenhis said, his expression darkening further.
Clay, sitting beside Orlant, immediately understood.
Professor Kasenhis didn't like students who knew how to talk.
In that case, he should keep his mouth shut.
"Clay, that includes you. Have you gotten addicted to pretending you're mute? Since you sat down here, have you made a single sound? Are you a Sister of Silence?"
Clay, who had done absolutely nothing, pointed at himself in utter confusion.
"Professor, wizards can't become Sisters of Silence. We can use magic," Orlant added.
"Orlant, shut up!"
The atmosphere fell slightly silent.
"I need an explanation."
"My research focus recently... uh... shifted a little," Orlant said first.
"Thaumic Alchemy?"
Orlant shook his head.
"Large-scale AOE attacks centred around Flux contamination."
Clay stared blankly at the dim-witted-looking senior beside him.
Was that really alright?
He was only a fifth-year and he was already researching large-area contamination attacks whose danger level was basically equivalent to nuclear radiation?
And he had just casually said it out loud?
Was Professor Kasenhis really not going to humanely dispose of him on the spot?
"Hmm. That reason is at least somewhat acceptable," Kasenhis muttered.
Clay hadn't even had time to turn his head back before his eyes darted toward Kasenhis first.
How did those words come out of your mouth, Professor Kasenhis?!
"So does that mean I pass?"
"Of course not," Kasenhis replied quietly.
"Professor Kasenhis, could you come to my office?"
Dumbledore's phoenix Patronus suddenly appeared on the desk and began speaking.
Seeing that Dumbledore had chosen this method of communication, Kasenhis figured it must be something urgent.
He stood up and said, "Clay, give Orlant two pounds of homework first. I'll be right back."
With that, Kasenhis Ender Blinked away.
Orlant looked at Clay.
"What does 'two pounds of homework' even mean?"
...
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