Professor Snape, the most unjust scapegoat in history, would probably have some feelings if he knew yet another giant black cauldron had just been dumped onto his back.
Then again… maybe not. After all, when you carry pots long enough, eventually you stop feeling the weight.
And what can Snape do?
Even if Harry throws ten more pots at him, he still has to forgive him in the end…
But our focus right now isn't Snape's emotional state, it's how Allen and the others are going to escape the crime scene. Because Allen, well… he's the type to attack first and not bother with cleanup later.
Ahem. What I mean is: even though Allen's flurry of probing attacks successfully scared off the mysterious watcher, the classroom holding the Mirror of Erised had been completely destroyed in the process.
Though to be fair, it was already rundown enough that one could slap a giant DEMOLITION sign on it.
But this was not the kind of demolition that earns you money, this was the kind that earns you a prison sentence.
Set fire to a mountain, go to jail for life.
And even though Allen and Filch had a somewhat decent relationship, this was definitely not the kind of situation where that mattered.
Allen had just gotten out of a long detention. He was absolutely not looking to make another "contribution" to school cleanliness.
"Allen, what do we do now?" Harry was still dazed from everything that just happened, and then saw Allen's expression.
That expression clearly said: Are you stupid?
Yet what Allen spoke was short and powerful:
"Why are you standing there? Run!"
Harry hurried after him, but then saw Allen turn around with a look of utter disappointment before flicking his wand toward Harry's feet, a Silencing Charm to quiet his footsteps.
Harry was instantly impressed.
For someone who snuck out at night the moment he got the Invisibility Cloak, this was a level of rule-breaking artistry he deeply admired.
••┈┈┈┈┈༓┈┈┈┈┈•••
Meanwhile, in the Headmaster's Office of Hogwarts.
The moment Dumbledore entered, the portraits of former headmasters all woke up with a start.
One of them yawned hugely and greeted him sleepily:
"Ha, Albus, seeing you this late is unusual. You're getting old, you shouldn't be treating your body like this."
"I'm not that old, Phineas." Dumbledore replied in a half-joking tone. "At least when I see fresh young first-years, I still feel like I have plenty of years left."
"Fine, fine. But I'm curious, what brings you here in the middle of the night?"
"Oh, not much." Dumbledore said while rummaging through a shelf. "Just looking for a potion I remember leaving here."
"Ah, here it is." He pulled out a small shining vial.
The portraits all gasped at once.
"Heavens, isn't that one of Fawkes' tears?! Albus, you're injured?!"
"It's nothing serious, just a small wound." Dumbledore lifted his sleeve, revealing a long thorn embedded deep in his arm. The skin around it had turned bluish, and the color was spreading against a temporary sealing spell.
When he fought Voldemort, the toxin carried by these flowers hadn't mattered, Voldemort's body then was basically sand.
But now, this poison was highly effective.
So yes, Allen's ability to accidentally sabotage his own allies was… top-tier.
But to be fair, this was not Allen's fault.
Dumbledore had been spying first, and he hadn't revealed his identity.
So even if he got caught and suffered for it, he really had no grounds to complain.
He had simply underestimated Allen.
When Harry asked Allen what he saw in the mirror, Dumbledore also became curious.
He had never investigated Allen much, but Allen's reputation for causing incidents had already placed him firmly on Dumbledore's watch list.
Worse, Harry had been sticking to Allen ever since entering Hogwarts.
As Harry's pseudo-parental figure, Dumbledore had a duty to check whether Harry's friendship choices were safe for his healthy emotional development.
All done in the name of love and justice, of course.
Yes yes. Perfectly reasonable.
And then curiosity killed the cat.
The title Widowmaker does not mean the assassin herself is a widow, it means she has made so many widows.
And Allen had inherited that assassin's legacy long ago.
Dumbledore, on the other hand, was known as the greatest white wizard since Merlin, which is… not really a title associated with stealth ambushes.
Imagine this scene:
A white-bearded old man wearing glasses, standing at a high vantage point…
Then he dramatically leaps off with absolute style, lands perfectly in a haystack, waits in silence, and at the perfect moment, hidden-blade one-hit KOs an unsuspecting target…
Or jumps from the rafters in a slow-motion cinematic finishing kill.
Actually… That would look kinda badass.
But alas, Dumbledore does not have Gandalf in his nickname.
Therefore, his melee skill tree is untrained.
So while his invisibility spell works fine on newbies like Harry and Ron, it did nothing against Allen, a mage who specialized in backstab ambushes.
The moment Dumbledore got close to listen in, Allen noticed him.
Allen didn't know it was Dumbledore.
So he attacked with full lethal intent.
And Dumbledore couldn't just reveal himself and beat up two students caught sneaking out after hours.
He wasn't Allen.
If Allen were in his shoes, he'd beat them first, then yell:
"I knew you two were up to no good! Caught red-handed!"
So even though Allen struck first, Dumbledore also had no choice.
He could only choose… to forgive him.••┈┈┈┈┈༓┈┈┈┈┈•••
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