Slytherin had a match coming up soon.
Their opponents were the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.
Ravenclaw's captain was Cho Chang, Cedric's girlfriend.
As captain, Malfoy doubled the team's training schedule, making life miserable for the Quidditch players.
John couldn't help but wonder if Malfoy wasn't worried Astoria might break up with him if he kept this up.
Classes also grew more intense.
In Defence Against the Dark Arts, Sirius taught the students how to deal with giants.
But facing those massive creatures was far from as simple as dealing with trolls.
Everyone had to hand in an essay on how to confront a giant, as well as how to escape a giant's pursuit as quickly and efficiently as possible.
A sense of an approaching storm hung over the school, and Professor McGonagall assigned a heavy workload in Transfiguration as well.
Potions homework piled up even faster, leaving many students feeling suffocated.
The incident involving Ron's poisoning was still unfolding, but the tension was eased somewhat when the second Saturday of March arrived.
A Quidditch match began.
Hufflepuff versus Gryffindor.
Many people had originally believed that Gryffindor stood a very good chance against Hufflepuff.
But the outcome left everyone stunned.
Keeper McLaggen, as usual, failed to get along with his teammates. In the middle of the match, he actually snatched a Beater's bat, insisting on demonstrating how the game should be played.
When Captain Harry went over to stop him, he ended up taking a solid blow to the head.
With Gryffindor's Seeker taken out of the game, even Ginny and Katie Bell's desperate scoring efforts couldn't turn things around.
The final score was set.
320 to 60.
The result put Malfoy in an excellent mood for the rest of the day.
He mocked freely, "Can't even manage a team properly. What does Potter think he's competing with?"
After losing two matches in a row, Gryffindor had essentially said goodbye to any hope of victory.
That alone was enough to make Malfoy cheerful, and he even became noticeably more tolerant toward his own teammates.
"Turns out Harry really is his one true love," John remarked with a sigh.
It was said that Malfoy even made a special trip to the hospital wing to mock Harry. If Harry's skull hadn't been cracked, he definitely would have gotten up and fought Malfoy on the spot.
In the Great Hall, John ran into Cho Chang.
This seventh-year Ravenclaw was about to graduate next year, and she wanted to fulfill one last wish: defeating that skunk Malfoy.
She came over to Slytherin to deliver a threat.
"Tell that skunk to wash up and get ready to be beaten by Ravenclaw."
Cho Chang was still holding a grudge over the incident last school year when Malfoy nearly knocked her off her broom.
John said he would pass the message along to Malfoy, assuming Malfoy was capable of feeling nervous in the first place.
Seeing John sit down, Daphne said, "I saw several Ravenclaw boys fawning all over Cho Chang."
"Don't worry, she doesn't care for them," John chuckled. "Don't forget she's also the Head Girl."
Cedric was very confident in Cho Chang, and the two of them had been keeping in constant correspondence.
The ones who truly suffered were the owls carrying their letters. The barn owls in the Owlery had all grown noticeably thinner.
…
Monday.
Harry was discharged from the hospital wing.
Ron was still lying there. Madam Pomfrey said that although his condition hadn't worsened, he would still need a long period of recuperation to slowly purge the poison from his body.
Harry had tried to find an antidote in Advanced Potion-Making, but neither bezoars nor any other method worked on Ron in his current state.
All they could do was let him recover gradually.
On the night of the poisoning, the Weasley family came to the school to visit Ron. Mrs. Weasley, who had only recently recovered, was heartbroken.
Their family had suffered one misfortune after another this year.
Ron had woken up yesterday, but he was still weak and unable to move.
When he heard that Harry had been sent to the hospital wing by McLaggen, costing Gryffindor the match, Ron said feebly, "I'm going to kill McLaggen."
Obviously, Ron wasn't capable of doing that right now.
Classes didn't change much without his presence, except that Hermione and his friends often went to visit him.
Ginny and Dean's relationship seemed to have genuinely developed cracks; they were once spotted arguing in the common room.
Evening.
Harry headed to the gatekeeper's office as usual.
Dumbledore was there, waiting for him.
"Professor, why me?" Harry couldn't help asking.
Dumbledore took down a bottle from the rack filled with countless memories and opened it. His hand paused, and he looked at Harry kindly.
"Why you, Harry?"
Harry nodded and said, "I'm not as outstanding as you think."
He wanted to ask why Dumbledore had chosen to cultivate him in the first place.
"John is clearly more outstanding. If it were him, wouldn't dealing with Voldemort be easier?" Harry voiced his doubts, laying bare his own lack of confidence before Dumbledore. "And Neville—he's excellent too, isn't he?"
"No, Harry."
The wise, gentle old man shook his head. "You possess something they do not."
"Love?" Harry said irritably. "But what use is love, really?"
"Love is the most powerful force of all, Harry." Dumbledore poured the memories from the bottle into the Pensieve. "There is no enemy that love cannot overcome."
The scene within the Pensieve began to shift as Dumbledore spoke gently, "We can find the answer here. You can see the difference between you and him."
Harry hesitated for a moment, then nodded and leaned his head in.
The world around him changed.
It was no longer the small office, but a place that felt familiar.
The room that once housed the Mirror of Erised.
Harry saw himself leave the room. He remembered this moment clearly; it had left a deep impression on him.
Dumbledore appeared beside Harry, looking at his younger self from five years ago. Stroking his beard, he said, "My beard was truly magnificent back then."
Harry didn't understand what Dumbledore wanted him to see here. After a while, he saw Dumbledore speaking to empty air.
"Perhaps I should speak to you face to face as well, Mr. Wick."
In the previously empty room, John's figure gradually appeared.
Only then did Harry realize that after he had left that day, John had actually gone inside.
In the memory, Dumbledore praised John's Disillusionment Charm, then asked what John had seen in the mirror.
"Food. Lots of food… and me becoming strong."
Listening to John's words, Harry felt a little dazed.
John truly was moving toward exactly what he desired.
"You are indeed the most suited for Slytherin. There is no doubt about that."
"Promise me, John, that you will not touch those forms of magic from which there is no turning back."
"I promise you, Professor."
Right before Harry's eyes, the two of them made an agreement. Only then did Harry learn that back in first year, Dumbledore had already discovered that he was searching for clues about the Philosopher's Stone.
He couldn't help asking, "Why?"
"Yes, Harry," Dumbledore said, looking at the still-green John, "I knew what you were doing in your first year."
"Do you want to ask me why I acted that way?"
Dumbledore continued, "At the time, I believed I had everything under control. In the end, that proved to be nothing more than arrogance."
"Including my judgment of John."
The memory ended, and they returned to the gatekeeper's office.
"He is different from you, Harry," Dumbledore went on. "John is not someone who abides by rules. His understanding of taboos is one of utilization."
"That is something people find frightening—myself included, a confused old man."
Even back then, Dumbledore had sensed it: the child named John Wick had little reverence for taboos.
"I admit I have my own selfish motives, Harry," Dumbledore said honestly. "When it comes to John, there is too much I do not know. You, however, are different."
"I understand you better than you understand yourself. I believe I need to guide you."
Harry asked uncertainly, "You mean you knew…"
"That John would become so outstanding?" Dumbledore said. "Just as Tom Riddle did when he first entered the school?"
Yes.
Harry didn't say it aloud, but his expression said everything.
"I did pay attention to him from that moment on," Dumbledore said, his tone turning serious. "But John is not like Voldemort. He behaves far more like a Slytherin. He fits every Slytherin trait, including Parseltongue."
"Parseltongue?" Harry asked in confusion. "John can speak Parseltongue?"
"He used it when he opened the box in the Constellation Society," Dumbledore said. "He is as exceptional as Salazar Slytherin himself, but that does not mean he is an evil wizard, Harry."
Seeming to sense what Harry wanted to say, Dumbledore shook his head. "You should not harbor hostility toward Slytherin wizards. Hogwarts is a whole."
"Alright," Harry replied, though it was hard to tell whether the words truly sank in.
That marked the end of the lesson.
…
Malfoy began sharpening his forces. Before the first Saturday of April arrived, he tirelessly devoted himself to three things.
Classes, training, and mocking Harry.
With no chance of even contending, Malfoy mocked Harry without restraint.
"Pfft~! That was the worst result in Gryffindor's history. And the team was led by the chosen one."
The Gryffindor students glared at Malfoy in anger.
It didn't help. The day of the Slytherin versus Ravenclaw match had arrived.
Even in the Great Hall, one could feel Ravenclaw's determination to slaughter the evil dragon that was Draco.
John advised Malfoy, "Remember, Cedric isn't always that good-tempered."
Take it easy. Don't end up hurting Cho Chang.
Cedric would kill you for it.
________
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