"Um... is that enough?" Kane asked flatly.
"Yes, I think that proves the point quite well. Should we award Mr. Heath some points? Ten, I think."
Dumbledore looked delighted.
"This is how Hogwarts children become so mischievous," Professor McGonagall sighed. Then she turned to Hermione.
"Miss Granger, Messrs. Potter and Weasley say Mr. Heath came looking for you. Why were you here? Was this a personal adventure, or were you locked in here for some undisclosed reason? Have you been bullied?"
It was understandable that McGonagall asked. Since Hogwarts was founded, girls' bathrooms had probably had the highest death rate of any location in the castle. From old ghosts whose names no one remembered to Myrtle more recently, every one of them carried a story of grievance and resentment.
And now Hermione had somehow played hide-and-seek with a troll in a girls' bathroom. Without Kane, Hogwarts might have gained another bloody bathroom tragedy.
"So, Miss Granger, did another young wizard or professor lead you into this bathroom or lock you inside?"
Hermione hurriedly shook her head. She had only come here to cry privately. Her roommates knew about this place too, but they could not possibly have smuggled a troll into Hogwarts. And they were not that sort of people.
"Then it seems clear that this was merely a coincidence, Minerva. Have the young wizards return. The Halloween feast should continue."
Dumbledore sent everyone else away and remained behind to repair the bathroom, which the troll had destroyed so thoroughly.
Unlike Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout, who hurried off to gather the students, Snape and McGonagall slowed their pace.
Snape wanted to know whether the purple meat chunks Kane had put in his pockets had any special use. McGonagall, meanwhile, clearly wanted Kane and Hermione to tell her more about the troll.
She did not have Dumbledore's enormous heart. The thought that a troll had found a way into Hogwarts would keep her awake at night.
Whether that breach was physical or a person.
Snape and McGonagall stalled behind the four students, each believing their matter was more important. In the end, Snape outstubborned McGonagall.
"If Dumbledore does not intend to tell you, what good will it do to question those two? Are you going to identify the troll's species from their description?"
McGonagall fell silent. Snape had a sliver of a point. She would activate Deputy Headmistress Mode and question Dumbledore directly. She wanted to know what the most powerful white wizard alive had protected while sitting at Hogwarts.
The four young wizards had no idea what had happened behind them until Snape's voice drifted over.
"Mr. Heath, what use are those purple chunks of flesh you obtained from the troll?"
Kane stopped. The other three looked at Snape's shadowed face, then chose to walk a few steps farther away and watch from a safe distance. That made it less likely Snape's sulfuric saliva would splash onto them.
"Do you really want to know?" Kane asked, raising an eyebrow.
Honestly, he did not know what Monster Meat could do in this world. Cooking seemed to be its only use.
"I would not be standing here asking otherwise."
The instant Snape finished speaking, Kane moved at lightning speed. In less than a second, he had pulled out a cauldron and four pieces of Monster Meat.
The moment Snape saw the cauldron, memories he had deliberately sealed away seemed to burst loose. He rushed to say, "No. Not the cauldron."
But he was too late. Kane had already put three pieces of Monster Meat into it. Only the last piece remained.
"N-no, Heath. You won't do it. If you dare..."
Splat!
The final piece slipped from Kane's hand and fell into the cauldron.
Kane pressed his lips into a line. He swore it had only been a slip of the hand. Just a slip and quick hands. Really.
As the final piece dropped in, Snape closed his eyes helplessly. He did not dare look. One glance would burn the image into his memory.
But as the cauldron's sounds grew faster and more urgent, he braced himself and opened his eyes. What if something unusual happened this time? What if Kane was brewing a special potion instead of making food?
None of that happened.
With a ding, an appetizing-looking Monster Lasagna appeared in the cauldron.
Snape took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and abruptly let out a sharp, humorless laugh.
He had been laughed into anger again.
After smoothing his expression, he forced himself not to think about that damned cauldron or that damned Monster Meat.
"Now give me one of those purple chunks. I will study it myself. Then take your cauldron and that damned lasagna and disappear from my sight."
"Oh."
Kane pursed his lips, took out a piece of Monster Meat, and handed it to Snape. He was about to leave with the cauldron when panting sounded behind him.
"Wait! I haven't eaten any yet!"
They looked up to see Dumbledore hurrying toward them. At over a hundred years old, he was moving so fast that McGonagall could barely keep up behind him.
Snape grew even angrier at the sight. He flicked his robes and strode away.
"Ah, I could smell that from quite far away."
Dumbledore Transfigured a knife and fork and cut himself a piece of Monster Lasagna.
"Is this the lasagna you said you would treat me to?"
He started to bring it to his mouth.
Kane stopped him. "Wait. It might have... a few side effects."
"I understand. But I hope you understand that some tolerable side effects are worth enduring. Taking that brave step into the unknown makes life more colorful."
With that, Dumbledore took a bite of the Monster Lasagna.
Then he fell silent. His face went tight as he rose and walked quickly after Snape.
He needed an antidote from Snape immediately.
"Is it really that remarkable?" McGonagall asked curiously, watching Dumbledore leave so quickly.
"Perhaps you should try it?" Kane said, pushing the cauldron forward with pursed lips.
After thinking about it, McGonagall decided Dumbledore was right. Life was short. Trying a little of everything could not be bad.
Soon, she too followed Dumbledore in pursuit of Snape's antidote.
"Such fragile stomachs," Kane commented.
He devoured the remaining Monster Lasagna. Other than feeling as if he had lost a little Health, nothing happened. So he headed for the Great Hall while steadily losing Health.
??? Why was it not stopping? Oh well. He could eat something later.
The Great Hall's Halloween decorations were exquisite. Kane's group of three... no, four now. Harry and Ron were peppering Hermione with questions.
What had happened in the bathroom? Why had she been there? Was the troll really as frightening as Dumbledore's recreation? Had some evil little Slytherin locked her in the bathroom and released a troll to murder her?
Kane saw that Hermione's face had turned red. Harry and Ron's questions were obviously getting on her nerves, though she was actually trying to find a way to make secretly crying sound a little more poetic.
Kane decided he should speak for his female classmate, who could not explain herself.
"Hermione was only hiding in that bathroom to shed a few tears because of forces beyond her control."
Hermione, who had just found a dignified explanation, went red again.
And the source of all her suffering looked toward Huginn, who had flown in through the Great Hall's skylight.
The Purple Gem he had ordered from Gringotts had finally arrived.