Before parting ways with the Weasley twins, Sean had instructed them to borrow a camera, then fetch Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape. The moment he shouted "Slytherin will win!" inside Jovic's office, they were to burst in and snap the evidence.
It was an extremely simple trick—almost childish.
But Jovic had never imagined that a group of first-year students would set such a trap.
Especially Sean.
The boy had far too many schemes.
Jovic had already been humiliated twice by Sean, and both times had caught him completely off guard.
"So now you two have also offended a bunch of upper-year students," Sean said to the twins. "Aren't you worried about being isolated later?"
"Why should we be?" Fred replied casually.
"As long as we've got each other," George added.
The twins exchanged a glance and clapped their hands together.
Sean felt a strange twinge in his chest.
He patted them both meaningfully.
"You're right. With the two of you together… I doubt anyone could isolate you anyway."
The very next day, news of Jovic's gambling ring appeared in The Hogwarts Weekly.
The headline read:
"Former Death Eater's Bad Habits Return—Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Scams Students Out of Money! Remove Him From Hogwarts!"
Sean's money—and the money of other students—was returned.
Jovic also submitted a list of students who had participated in the betting.
Although the students received their coins back, each of them had five points deducted from their house.
As for Sean and the Weasley twins, their actions had earned twenty points for their respective houses.
Some students who had been hoping to make money even complained that Sean had ruined their chance to profit.
Sean didn't care what they thought.
For two days straight, students all over Hogwarts talked about the scandal.
Everyone speculated how Dumbledore would handle it.
On the third day, rumors finally began spreading.
"Sean, did you hear?" Fred said excitedly. "Professor Jovic has been suspended for two months."
"Who told you that?" Sean asked.
Suspension hadn't even crossed his mind.
"Roger Davies from Ravenclaw," George replied. "He said Defense Against the Dark Arts classes will be replaced by Charms for the next two months."
Roger Davies…
Sean vaguely remembered him from the joint classes with Ravenclaw earlier in the term.
So that meant Professor Flitwick would temporarily take over the lessons.
The situation reminded Sean of something from his previous life.
It was like when the gym teacher didn't show up and the language teacher took over the class.
Fortunately, Sean had special permission to skip Charms too.
"Professor Flitwick is definitely better than that former Death Eater," Fred said cheerfully. "He never gives detention."
Although Jovic had been suspended, he still lived at Hogwarts.
Sooner or later, they would run into him again.
Among the three troublemakers, the one Jovic hated most was Sean.
In his eyes, the Weasley twins were merely mischievous—but Sean was the truly cunning one.
One morning, teachers and students were eating breakfast in the Great Hall.
An owl flew in and dropped a letter onto Jovic's table.
After reading it, Jovic's face turned pale.
Without saying a word, he stood up and left the hall through the back door.
Meanwhile, the students below were excitedly discussing the Quidditch match that would begin soon.
Sean, however, was absent-mindedly chewing his buttered bread.
His mind was elsewhere.
He was completely immersed in analyzing the magical structure of the purification spell.
Ever since Merlin had passed the spell's memory into his mind, Sean had been desperate to master it.
Only then could he begin absorbing the power of the Wizard's Heart.
But Merlin's purification spell was ridiculously complicated.
It contained thirty-two magical frameworks.
Sean wasn't even sure he could fully understand the theory before the end of the semester.
And that was just the theoretical part.
Once he actually started practicing it, it might take even longer.
"Well… that makes sense," Sean muttered to himself.
"When Herpo created the Wizard's Heart, he intended to use it himself."
"There's no way he imagined that thousands of years later a teenager would try to absorb its power."
"Sean, you're really impressive," Chris said from across the table.
"With only ten Galleons, you managed to get Jovic suspended for two months."
"Oh… it was nothing," Sean replied vaguely.
"He just underestimated us younger students."
"Still, thanks for lending me the Galleons," he added. "Otherwise we wouldn't have gotten the evidence."
Chris looked delighted.
"Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff lost quite a few points this time."
"We're now thirty points ahead of Gryffindor."
"If we keep this up, the House Cup will belong to Slytherin this year."
"Good luck," Sean said with a shrug.
"I won't be much help."
Ever since passing the exams for five subjects, Sean had stopped attending those classes entirely.
That meant he had fewer opportunities to earn points for Slytherin.
Only Potions still saw him regularly.
As for Flying class, he showed up briefly and slipped away whenever possible.
Without Sean—the classroom's notorious point machine—the house scores gradually began balancing out again.
In the first year alone, aside from Sean, the most outstanding students were Chris and Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff.
Both had earned plenty of points for their houses.
Unless something unexpected happened, Slytherin would likely win the House Cup this year.
Possibly next year as well.
But in two years…
When Harry Potter and his friends enrolled, things would become unpredictable.
After all, Harry came with the advantage of being the protagonist of destiny.
After breakfast, the entire school headed to the Quidditch stadium.
On the way there, Sean crossed paths with members of the Slytherin team.
Two of them glanced at him strangely.
One of them, a fourth-year named Caden Boye, was also a member of the Ouroboros Society.
Sean barely knew him.
In fact, they had never even spoken.
Those two had probably placed bets with Jovic earlier.
And Sean had completely ruined their plans.
The Quidditch commentator for this year's freshmen was Lee Jordan from Gryffindor.
He had a natural gift for talking.
Last month, he had somehow won the commentator position during the selection process.
"Good afternoon everyone!" Lee Jordan announced enthusiastically.
"Welcome to the opening match of this year's Hogwarts Quidditch season!"
"Today's match—Slytherin versus Gryffindor!"
"Please welcome the teams!"
Cheers erupted from both houses.
The players from Slytherin and Gryffindor soared onto the field on their brooms in dramatic fashion.
"Gryffindor will win! Gryffindor! Gryffindor!"
The Gryffindor stands shouted loudly.
The Slytherins didn't chant slogans, but they cheered proudly for their team.
"Hey Sean, the match is starting!" Cassius said excitedly, grabbing Sean's shoulder.
Cassius was a die-hard Quidditch fan.
"I know, I know," Sean said. "Stop shaking me."
Sean looked around at the enthusiastic students with little interest.
Then, while glancing casually toward the teachers' seating area, he noticed something.
Someone was missing.
The former Death Eater—
Jovic.
He wasn't sitting with the other professors.
Sean didn't think much of it.
He simply assumed that, since Jovic had been suspended, the man felt too embarrassed to sit among the faculty.
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