Cornered and at a loss for words, Lockhart completely lost his composure. He fumbled for his wand in a panic.
Before he could touch it, a flash of red light struck him. Not only did he miss the wand, his entire hand ballooned painfully.
"Ow—!"
His shrill scream was so piercing that Tver winced.
"Don't make such a scene. Class is about to start."
Marvolio curled his lip and flicked his wand again, removing the swelling from Lockhart's rapidly puffing hand.
But that only made Lockhart latch onto the gesture like it was his last hope. Before his hand had even recovered, he turned desperate eyes toward Dumbledore and Tver.
"Headmaster Dumbledore, help me! I'm your student!"
"I assure you, the Ministry will treat you fairly and justly," Dumbledore sighed.
Seeing Lockhart like this, he already understood that Lockhart really had committed an unforgivable crime.
Unwilling to watch any further, Dumbledore pushed past the large man standing at the door. He merely nodded to Harry and the other two, then strode away in silence.
Left with no one else to appeal to, Lockhart turned to Tver.
"Tver, help me! I've helped you so much—you can't just watch them take me away! I still have to help you write the exam papers!"
Tver laughed lightly.
"Sorry, but you've already finished this year's exam papers. I don't need you anymore."
"..." For the first time in his life, Lockhart hated his own diligence.
Marvolio, however, had no patience left. He ended the matter with a clean Stunning Spell, then had his men haul Lockhart out.
He exchanged no further words with Tver; he merely cast a fierce glare at Harry and the other two waiting outside before marching off.
Only Tver was left in the office.
He neatly packed everything into a single trunk, though the photographs on the wall were less cooperative.
They shouted at the top of their lungs about being innocent, even threatening to expose everything that had happened here.
No doubt about it—Lockhart had indeed done quite a bit in the international wizarding world. Especially the photos: some people might not know who he was, but they had definitely seen Lockhart's face somewhere.
Not that it mattered. Marvolio wasn't someone who acted without certainty. If he'd come to arrest someone, it meant he already had solid evidence and a complete plan for handling public opinion.
A feat like this would probably earn him an Order of Merlin.
Voldemort getting a medal—this world was getting stranger by the day.
Tver stepped out of the office, amused.
"What are you three doing here?"
He found the trio standing there, trembling.
"I—I—what were we doing again?" Ron whispered, immediately looking to Hermione for rescue.
Hermione shot him an exasperated look, took a deep breath, and said, "We came to apologize."
"If it weren't for you, Harry wouldn't have gotten out of the Chamber safely. We're really sorry for doubting you."
She bit her lip, her face full of guilt.
To think they'd suspected such a good professor—it was truly unforgivable.
"Remember what I told you last year? Don't judge a person too quickly," Tver reminded them solemnly.
He had no intention of becoming the permanent scapegoat; that role was far better suited to Snape.
The three of them lowered their heads at once, too ashamed to speak.
"Alright, come back to my office and tell me—what made you start suspecting me?" Tver said with a smile that eased the tension.
"I don't think I've done anything particularly detestable, have I?"
Harry and Ron, ever carefree, immediately perked up and began chattering about all the things that had made them suspicious.
"Of course not. You're not Snape."
"It's just that the professor's research is terrifying—studying Neville, Hermione, and all that. It's hard not to be suspicious."
Tver opened the door and chuckled. "That's just normal academic research. If you knew anything about Muggle science, you'd realize it's nothing unusual."
Of course, in the wizarding world, research involving souls or the human body was still taboo.
So Tver brushed past it lightly.
Harry and Ron didn't think too deeply about it—they didn't enjoy thinking deeply in the first place—and nodded along.
Hermione looked like she wanted to say something, but remembering how she had doubted him earlier, guilt pressed down on her and she stayed quiet.
"Sit down. Pumpkin juice alright?"
The three nodded obediently and settled onto the small sofa.
Tver had noticed more and more students coming to his office lately. One chair wasn't enough, and conjuring extra seats every time felt rude, so he simply brought out the sofa he liked to lounge on while reading at night.
"I've noticed you all really love pumpkin juice. The tea I prepared hasn't been touched in two years."
He pulled over a chair and sat across from them, with four large cups of pumpkin juice floating along behind him.
But something in the room clearly wasn't happy about not getting any pumpkin juice of its own, thumping irritably from under a black cloth.
Ron shivered for no reason. Pointing at the cloth-covered cage, he asked, "Professor… what's in there?"
Tver glanced back.
"Ah, creatures you're familiar with—and about to become even more familiar with."
"So we'll be seeing them in class?" Ron stretched his neck excitedly, as though that might let him see through the black cloth.
"That's right." Tver nodded. "But what I really want to know is… did you start suspecting me just because of my research?"
He did have his own hidden agenda, of course, but he doubted these young wizards could see through anything that subtle.
Or… had he slipped somewhere?
The thought made his expression grow a little heavier.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione misunderstood at once, assuming he was displeased with them. Their hands shrank back from the pumpkin juice.
"Actually… it's mostly because of Dobby."
Harry figured that since the professor had been wrongly accused, it was fine to bring up the house-elf.
"The night Colin was attacked—before you came into the hospital wing—Dobby showed up there."
Tver knew this happened in the original plot and nodded for Harry to continue.
Encouraged, Harry spoke with more confidence.
"Besides telling me he tried everything to get me out of school because he wanted to protect me… he also said you'd had a very cheerful chat with Malfoy's father over the summer. He told me I should keep my distance from you."
"Of course, Dobby turned out to be wrong," Harry added quickly.
Only then did Tver remember that little house-elf.
He had made the same mistake Voldemort once did—completely underestimating a house-elf.
House-elves were stronger than many other magical creatures, but compared to wizards, their abilities weren't especially impressive. They were beings with a high baseline yet a limited ceiling, operating on a magical system entirely different from wizardry.
And because their magic wasn't the same, many ordinary restrictions simply didn't work on them. That tended to give them surprising advantages.
It seemed growing stronger and living comfortably had made him arrogant without noticing.
Tver quietly raised the priority he placed on house-elves—and other magical creatures—in his mind.