Snakes in Hogwarts

late at night,

Hogwarts Castle,

In front of the principal’s office on the eighth floor,

"Password!"

In front of a wall, a carved and ugly stone monster asked the visitors in front of him with a thick and dull voice.

This is a stone beast with a dripping mouth. There are many such statues in the castle. It is the masterpiece of a headmaster who specializes in alchemy at Hogwarts.

They can simply talk with people and guard specific room entrances.

"Cockroach string."

The visitor was dressed in a pure black cloak with a hood on his head, a face looming under the torch on the wall.

Click!

The Dripping Mouth Stone Beast jumped to one side, and at the same time, the wall behind it split in half, exposing a narrow gap.

There is also a spiral staircase that moves slowly upwards, following it up is the principal's office.

It looks like an elevator in the Muggle world.

"Ah, here you are, Severus~ I'm so sorry to let you here so late."

Behind the large principal’s desk, Dumbledore in his nightgown looked at the visitors in front of him with a slightly apologetic look.

The latter took off his hood lightly, and his black and greasy black hair and the iconic hooked nose were exactly Snape's somber and unchanging face.

"Hmph~ You don't find me once or twice at night, let's talk, what's the matter?"

Compared with usual, Snape's tone was colder. Obviously, coming to the principal's office on the eighth floor at night to accept Dumbledore's summons made him very dissatisfied.

"Before I say anything, what I must advise you is that wearing a hood at night can easily cause misunderstandings.

After all, students will not forget so easily. A few decades ago, a group of wizards with black hoods turned the magic world upside down."

"So what, it's already curfew time, I don't know who will run around with great energy on the first day of the new semester."

Hearing Dumbledore's words, Snape's face became more gloomy.

"Moreover, I think they would like to know that their principal would actually like desserts like cockroach skewers."

"Ah~cockroach skewers, I bet you will like this sweet!"

Dumbledore opened the drawer on the table and grabbed a handful of special candies with these many legs.

If I had to describe it, it looked like a dozen cockroaches were glued together.

"Is there anything else I want to try?"

His tone was cheerful, as if he hadn't noticed Snape's dissatisfaction at all.Snape looked at Dumbledore in silence.

"Well~ it seems that not everyone likes this kind of candy."

Five minutes later, Dumbledore broke the silence first, he grabbed a piece from the table and threw it into his mouth.

"Principal Dumbledore, if nothing goes wrong, I will teach the students tomorrow." Snape's face twitched.

Maybe he didn't understand why such a great white wizard was so mad, as if he was hurt by a curse.

"Don't be anxious, Severus, please forgive an elderly person for being a little procrastinated in anything."

Dumbledore tapped his head with his fingers.

"I remember that Slytherin has a special tradition every year. Every year, all freshmen will participate in a big fight and decide a final winner to become the first-year substitute prefect."

"Yes, this is Slytherin's tradition, used to make them aware of the qualities that Slytherin values."

Snape replied unclearly, he had never guessed Dumbledore's thoughts.

"Yes, tradition." Dumbledore nodded approvingly.

"As a magic school that has been passed down for nearly a thousand years, we must have our own traditions."

"I'm glad you think so."

"I'm a little curious, who won this year's freshman?" Dumbledore blinked.

"It's just a kid's fight, nothing worthy of attention." Snape obviously didn't want to say more.

"As if to satisfy an old man's curiosity, Severus."

"It's Andros Lobach, the little boy who spent the longest time in sorting this year."

"Ah~ I know, that's a pretty funny little guy."

Hearing Snape's answer, Dumbledore gave an unsurprising expression.

"Really? Aside from being a little clever, I didn't see anything special about him."

"Look carefully, Severus, you will find that our Mr. Lobach has some very unique qualities.

I hope you can do me a favor and pay more attention to his performance."

"Are you asking me to monitor him? Monitor a freshman?"

Snape's face was full of sarcasm.

"Surveillance?" Dumbledore waved his hand again and again.

"No, no, the word is too heavy. I just hope you can pay more attention to him. I think this is also a good thing for Mr. Lobach."

"Hmph, I don't think it's a good thing for a student to be focused on by his principal." Snape curled his lips.

"What kind of weird language again?" he asked.

"Otherwise, I really don't understand, why are you so caring about a freshman in the first grade?

He is not the savior you created by the wizards in the palm of your hand."

"I assume you agreed, Severus." Dumbledore seemed reluctant to talk about why he should pay attention to Andros.

"If I have time, is there anything else?"

"Of course, regarding our previous plan, I think there are still some areas that need to be improved."

...

.................................................. .............

Almost half an hour later, Snape left with a sullen face. He put on his hood again, hiding his face in the dark hood.

The night was already very deep, and the principal's office on the eighth floor finally became quiet, leaving only the snoring of the portraits sleeping.

"Do you still think that boy has a problem, Albus?" Dairis Derwent asked on the wall behind the principal's chair.

They had talked about Andros before, on the night that the owl attacked by Ivar flew back to Hogwarts.

"It's not a problem, Dalys, I think he has many elusive secrets, which makes me very curious." Dumbledore blinked gently.

"No matter what, you can't commission a professor to monitor students like this."

Next to him, another principal, Phineas Black said with some dissatisfaction.

He is the principal of Slytherin, and naturally he does not want the students of his college to be treated unreasonably differently.

"Shut up, Black. If you remember correctly, when you were the principal, you monitored the students." The former principal, Armando Dupete couldn't help but sneered.

"Want to fight?" Phineas rolled up his sleeves.

"Do you think I am afraid of you? I don't know who was beaten by me last time and escaped from the principal's office."

"Be quiet, gentlemen, the other portraits are already asleep."

Seeing that the two portraits were about to fight in the principal's room, Dumbledore hurriedly stopped.

"Do you know who was the last student who made the Sorting Hat so tangled and was eventually assigned to Slytherin College?"

"I don't know, who is it?"

After being made into portraits, they have lost most of their memories, only the deepest memories.

"It's Merlin."