Dumbledore hurried to the clearly defined line separating the two Houses and scanned the surroundings.
The moment his eyes fell upon the three members of "The Father-Troublers Alliance," he understood immediately that this fight was inextricably linked to them.
I'll deal with you three later!
Dumbledore surveyed the scene.
The vast majority of the Gryffindor students were still standing. Even so, nearly every one of them was nursing some kind of injury. The two young girls, Hannah and Hermione, were remarkably unscathed, despite having been among those leading the charge.
Among the Gryffindors, the most severely injured was likely Ron. He had been hit by the backlash of his own Slug-Vomiting Charm. Harry had intended to take him away, but before they could leave, the two sides had come to blows. Consequently, Ron was still sprawled at the edge of the battlefield, continuously retching up slugs.
The situation on the Slytherin side was far more pathetic.
Although the number of Slytherins gathered on the Quidditch pitch far exceeded the Gryffindors, numbers did not equate to combat prowess. Furthermore, they'd had Kyle—transformed into Snape—charging at the very front, dealing out inhumane beatings.
When facing the "Old Bat," their combat effectiveness was slashed by 99%, and their will to fight was similarly gutted. How were they supposed to fight Gryffindor under those conditions? Even knowing that this "Snape" was hitting them with jinxes and pummeling them with a Beater's bat, they didn't dare strike back.
Of the Slytherin students lying on the ground, more than half had been leveled by Kyle in his Snape disguise.
"In all my years at Hogwarts, I have never seen something so atrocious—a mass brawl between two Houses!"
Dumbledore's face was grim, and behind his half-moon spectacles, a cold fire seemed to burn within his bright blue eyes. He looked around; the once-smooth lawn of the Quidditch pitch was gone, looking as if a layer of earth had been scraped away. The ground was riddled with craters and hollows, all blasted out by stray spells. Among the crowded onlookers were many young faces from the first and second years; clearly, even the lower years had participated in this unprecedented brawl.
"Professor, Pansy from Slytherin attacked Hannah with magic, and then the two Houses started fighting. I was just trying to break it up," Kyle said, getting his word in first. He selectively ignored the fact that Hannah had slapped Pansy first.
At that moment, several of the Hogwarts Heads of House also hurried onto the Quidditch pitch. Professor McGonagall's lips were pressed into a thin line, her expression rivaling that of the Old Bat.
"Merlin's beard! How could you!"
Snape's expression was even worse. From the state of the field, it was blatantly obvious that Slytherin had been defeated.
Hannah and Hermione stepped up beside Kyle, taking turns to explain the cause of the incident. Both of them chose to omit the detail about Kyle transforming into Snape to carry out a campaign of strategic deception against the Slytherins.
"Professor, it was self-defense!" Kyle argued, poking his head out from behind the Weasley twins.
However, the sight of the Slytherin students lying on the ground behind Dumbledore, groaning in pain, coupled with the blood-stained Beater's bat in Kyle's hand, stripped his "self-defense" excuse of any credibility.
Noticing Dumbledore's gaze, Kyle silently loosened his grip on the bat. The bat hit the ground with a clatter, lying limply at Kyle's feet. With a casual flick of his foot, Kyle sent the bat rolling away until it vanished.
Watching Kyle's blatant maneuvering, the dark clouds on Dumbledore's face turned even blacker, looking as though they might start dripping ink.
Dumbledore took a deep breath. "Enough, Miss Abbott, Miss Granger. The professors will investigate this thoroughly."
He turned to the two Heads of House whose students were not involved. "Filius, Pomona, please take the injured students to the hospital wing first."
Hearing this, Kyle immediately grabbed Hannah and Hermione and tried to blend into the crowd of the wounded. He felt that being ganged up on by so many people had caused him significant emotional trauma—he counted as an injured party and was in desperate need of treatment.
"Kyle, you stay right where you are!"
Only a fool would stay. If he didn't run now, when would he? Kyle sped up his escape.
The next second, a Full Body-Bind Curse hit him from behind. Kyle's body went rigid, and under the force of his own momentum, he face-planted into the dirt.
After "calling" Kyle to a halt, Dumbledore looked toward the two involved Heads of House, Snape and McGonagall.
"Severus, Minerva, please escort the uninjured students back to their respective common rooms. Investigate whether the cause of the incident is truly as Miss Abbott and Miss Granger described."
With a flick of his wand, Dumbledore hoisted the "fallen" Kyle into his clutches. Only then did he raise his hand to lift the Petrificus Totalus, leading the boy toward Hogwarts Castle.
In the Headmaster's office, facing a Dumbledore whose face was as dark as the bottom of a pot, Kyle put on a fawning expression and helped his "old man" sit down behind the desk.
"Dad, please, calm down."
He snapped his fingers, and a house-elf appeared silently in the office.
"Dad, what would you like to drink? Honey lemon water or iced watermelon juice? I'll have the kitchens prepare it."
Looking at Kyle's sycophantic attempts to please him, Dumbledore's anger dissipated quite a bit, even though he knew it was an act.
"Out with it. What happened?"
Sensing that Dumbledore's tone had softened, Kyle instantly regained his serious demeanor. "It's pretty much exactly as Hannah and Hermione said."
Kyle began to recount the entire sequence of events he had witnessed from his vantage point as a "spectator." Even though this was just Kyle's side of the story, Dumbledore didn't feel the need to verify its authenticity. While Kyle was often full of nonsense and hyperbole, he wouldn't lie to Dumbledore about things like this.
Listening to Kyle's narration, Dumbledore rubbed his temples with a sense of helplessness.
"I think you should hide out in the Headmaster's office for a while. Otherwise, Severus is going to kill you."
Kyle put his hands on his hips, acting bold despite being in the wrong.
"He wouldn't dare. Unless he wants to never see Harri again and be forced to face a Harry who looks almost exactly like his old rival every single day."
Dumbledore nearly choked on the iced lemon juice in his hand. Regarding the "strange preferences" held by certain Hogwarts professors, Dumbledore found himself with so many things to criticize that he didn't even know where to start.
So, he wisely chose to skip the topic.
"Did Miss Parkinson really call Miss Granger a 'Mudblood'?"
"Mudblood" was a severe insult in the Wizarding World. Hannah giving Pansy a slap was considered a light response. Had it been Dumbledore in his youth, he likely would have responded with a Cruciatus Curse. Considering Kyle was a descendant of Grindelwald, Dumbledore felt Pansy was lucky she hadn't been hit with an Avada Kedavra on the spot.
Hearing Kyle explain that Pansy had initiated the magical attack on Hannah, and that the situation only escalated after Kyle used a "parry," Dumbledore's mood eased significantly. At the very least, his son hadn't been the one to start it. That was something worth celebrating.
He then gave Kyle a peculiar look. "So, Miss Abbott took the initiative to stand up for you?"
Kyle's face went blank. "Dad, is your focus in the wrong place?"
Dumbledore acted as if he hadn't heard him and continued to press for details. "Then what about Miss Granger? I think that little girl quite likes you, too. And then there's Alfred's granddaughter..."
"Dad! That's enough!" Kyle grabbed a handful of Cockroach Clusters and stuffed them into Dumbledore's mouth.
"If sweets can't shut you up, then you'd better go out and figure out how to mediate the conflict between Gryffindor and Slytherin!"
Dumbledore took the Cockroach Clusters from Kyle's hand and popped one into his mouth.
"Speaking of Slytherin..." A mischievous glint flashed in Dumbledore's eyes.
"How about I transfer you to Slytherin? I believe you're more than capable of subduing them."
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