Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is not meant to infringe upon copyrights.
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Eighth floor, Headmaster's office. Dumbledore sat there leisurely, sipping his black tea with triple sugar, watching with interest as Snape and Professor McGonagall argued.
It was quite a coincidence.
Professor McGonagall had only come to see Dumbledore, but upon entering, she heard Snape shouting about expelling a student.
"It's that Kyle Chopper again! He's cheated other students out of at least five hundred Galleons these past few days!"
"I said before, he's instigating his classmates, reckless, and disregards school rules; he should be expelled."
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After listening for a while, Professor McGonagall roughly understood what was going on. She frowned and said, "Severus, we don't expel students for such trivial matters as selling a few items."
"Trivial matters?" Snape raised an eyebrow, shifting his gaze from Dumbledore to Professor McGonagall.
"Excuse my bluntness, Minerva, but he's now trying to organize students to cheat on exams."
"Cheat? Are you kidding me?"
Professor McGonagall said incredulously. "I've seen those things; they're not even magical items, just ordinary decorations."
"So, Mr. Chopper is selling counterfeit goods?" Snape drawled. "After all, ordinary decorations aren't worth ten Galleons.
Selling counterfeit goods at Hogwarts to cheat other young wizards deserves expulsion!"
"Calm down, Severus."
Dumbledore finished his tea and placed a large parchment on the table.
"This is their product brochure; you probably haven't seen it yet." He pointed to the bold, large print at the bottom. "They've actually made it very clear, so it's not exactly deception."
Snape looked up; the bright, large print made his eyes hurt.
[This product is only symbolic...please purchase at your discretion.]
"Also..." Dumbledore hesitated for a moment before saying, "As far as I know, most students buy the ornaments for five galleons, only a small portion... well, the nicer ones, sell for ten galleons."
Upon hearing Dumbledore's words, Snape's expression suddenly turned extremely ugly, as if he had eaten a plate of uncooked intestines.
So only the Slytherins bought the ten-gallon ones?
"And this part," Snape said, looking at the flyer with a gloomy face, "they also mentioned you, isn't that a lie?"
"Actually...what they said is true."
Dumbledore's old face suddenly flushed red as he said, "I did wear something similar during my graduation exams, but Professor Marchbank confiscated it later."
"Merlin's beard, I always thought no one remembered that."
Snape's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and he grabbed the flyer and left the headmaster's office.
"Bang!"
The loud slamming of the door woke up Fawkes, who flew onto Dumbledore's shoulder and angrily pecked at his beard.
"Sorry, Fawkes, Severus didn't mean it."
Fawkes ignored him and continued tugging at his beard.
Left with no other option, Dumbledore took some mandrake leaves from his drawer to calm his phoenix.
He then looked up at the incredulous Professor McGonagall and said, "Don't be so surprised, Minerva. I was only seventeen then; it's normal to do things that are hard to understand.
Besides, that exam was on the history of magic, Professor Binns's class… you should understand."
Professor McGonagall's lips twitched; she wanted to laugh… but she held it in.
"Alright…" Dumbledore changed the subject, "What brings you here?"
His expression turned serious as he got down to business.
"Ahem, this is the entry list you requested from June to August of last year." She placed a small stack of parchment on the table. "The owl couldn't find you yesterday, so the Ministry of Magic sent it to me."
"Thank you, Minerva. I need it right now."
Dumbledore took it, flipped through it for a moment, and then took another similar stack of parchment from the shelf behind him.
Professor McGonagall glanced at it curiously, but due to her limited vision, she could only make out the first few words:
"Outbound from Albania…"
As Dumbledore began to carefully compare the two lists, Professor McGonagall quietly left.
With the door closing again, the Headmaster's office returned to silence.
The portraits on the wall, which had been pretending to be asleep, opened their eyes and huddled together, discussing the previous topic with great interest.
"It's that little wizard named Kyle again," a witch said. "How many times has that name appeared in the headmaster's office?"
"At least three times," a thin old man said. "The potions professor has been coming every time lately because of him. Another problem student."
"I don't think so," the witch who spoke earlier shook her head. "I've seen that boy in the corridor. He's smart, humble, and polite. He even greets the portrait."
"Maybe he's just putting on an act," a sarcastic voice said. "Just like that student before… hypocritical."
"Shut up, Phineas," a bearded wizard said irritably. "That's different. He's a Hufflepuff!"
"That makes sense," Phineas Black picked his nose. "He's from that stupid house. He probably doesn't have that kind of cunning…"
"How dare you…"
The bearded wizard stormed into Phineas's portrait and grabbed his collar. "Say it again! What's wrong with Hufflepuff?!"
The bearded wizard's original portrait clearly stated that he graduated from Hufflepuff.
"You, what do you want to do…" Phineas struggled fiercely, his collar being grabbed. "Let me go! You want to hit me again?"
"I've been wanting to for a long time!"
The bearded wizard punched him to the ground, then proceeded to stomp on his face repeatedly.
"Stupid school? Ha! Today I'll show you what Hufflepuff is all about!"
The other portraits rushed over, expertly pulling out snacks, drinks, and small stools, and began to gather in the front row to watch.
Watching Phineas get beaten up was their favorite form of entertainment.
The Headmaster's office couldn't be without Phineas getting beaten up, just as the Black Lake couldn't be without the Giant Octopus.
At this moment, Dumbledore, who had been reading the parchment, also looked up.
He adjusted his glasses, ignoring the portraits, and got up to walk to the window, staring blankly out the window.
[End of the chapter]