Cassandra's temper, as quickly as it flared, always subsided just as fast when it came to Tom. The two sat on the shore, her earlier excitement now gone.
"Tom, don't you think it's wrong of us to separate it from its family so young?" she asked, stroking the little unicorn, a hint of annoyance in her tone.
Tom was surprised. This silly apprentice actually has a soft spot? She couldn't care less about people, but she cares about a unicorn?
But in reality, Cassandra didn't really care about unicorns. This one was different; Tom had given it to her, even if it was a "free purchase," so she wanted to take good care of it.
"Alright," Tom said, standing up.
Cassandra looked up, puzzled. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm packing them all up and taking them with me." Tom looked at her as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Surely you aren't planning to return empty-handed?"
Cassandra's lips twitched. "Then who's going to take care of them?"
"You are, of course."
"You jerk," she retorted. "You are only interested in catching them, not raising them. I'm not interested in raising unicorns."
"Then forget it." Cassandra wasn't truly interested in pets. Keeping one as a hobby was fine, but too many, even rare and precious unicorns, didn't interest her.
Tom didn't press the issue; instead, he came up with another idea for his silly apprentice. "When you go to the Forbidden Forest each week to learn divination from that centaur, you can bring this little one back to see the others."
Cassandra wanted to say, Would the other unicorns really welcome a "horse trader" like her?
"Don't worry," Tom said, as if reading her mind. "They won't do anything to you."
Hearing this, Cassandra immediately recalled the scene of the little unicorn being affectionate with Tom, and she didn't ask further questions.
Tom didn't elaborate either. He simply sat there, quietly watching the night view for a while.
...
The next day, Hogwarts Great Hall.
"You know what's going to happen next, right?" Dumbledore looked at the professors and students below with a serious expression.
The students didn't respond. Except for the Slytherins, the rest didn't look particularly pleased.
As for the professors, apart from the nonchalant Tom and Nagini, and Snape with his nose stuck in the air, the rest also wore serious expressions. Minerva McGonagall, however, was uncharacteristically unconcerned.
"Alright, it seems you're all ready." Dumbledore sighed helplessly. "So, next…"
With the end of the academic year, the highly anticipated House Cup awards ceremony arrived as scheduled.
"Fourth place…"
"Ahem, Albus," Professor McGonagall frowned slightly, somewhat embarrassed. "Just state the House Points."
Upon hearing this, Dumbledore's eyes lit up and widened slightly. No wonder she's so resourceful!
"Fourth place, 39 points!"
After a few seconds of silence at the Gryffindor table, a clamor erupted.
"What?!"
"Inside job! This is absolutely an inside job!"
"How could we not have broken 100?!"
Some of the Gryffindor students even used their extraordinary wisdom to figure out the "truth" and then launched a barrage of punches at the other students sitting next to them!
"It must be because you lot were too arrogant this year! I told you to be careful when playing pranks on Filch, but you insisted on beating him up openly!"
"We were just celebrating last year's rare high score…"
"Stop arguing. We've already been very restrained, or we'd be owing another two hundred points."
Dumbledore's face darkened. Professor McGonagall lowered her head.
"A bunch of good-for-nothings," Tom said with feigned displeasure. "We haven't even announced Gryffindor yet."
The Gryffindor students were stunned for a moment, then overjoyed. "Professor! Could it be… could it be that we're not in last place?!"
"No, it's still you."
Looking at Tom's mocking smile, the students felt a chill run down their spines.
Dumbledore gave Tom a disapproving look but didn't say anything more. "Third place, Ravenclaw, 846 points!"
The Ravenclaw students were dissatisfied. They hadn't expected to get first place, but why weren't they second?
But then again, it made sense. This year, those usually lazy Hufflepuffs were acting like they were on steroids, not slacking off like last year.
"Second place, Hufflepuff! 971 points!"
"Wow!"
"Hufflepuff! Cedric!"
The Hufflepuff students laughed and cried at the same time, because they knew that, after today, Cedric Diggory would be gone.
That's why they worked so hard this year. This is... their last moment of glory!
But thankfully, we can relax starting next year, hehe.
Looking at the excited students from his own house, Professor Sprout shook his head with a helpless smile.
"And… you know…" Dumbledore smirked and winked. "First place, Slytherin! 7983 points!!!"
"Not over 10,000?! No!!!"
"Damn it! We've let Professor Tom down!"
"This is rigged! Absolutely rigged!!!"
"I strongly demand a recalculation of our house points this semester!"
"The great Riddle House will never allow such a disgrace to happen again!"
"Aren't you Slytherin?"
"That's all in the past. Now I'm saying we're Riddle House, so what? Any objections?"
"Damn it! If it weren't for the other houses, this wouldn't have happened! Otherwise…"
"But aren't they Death Eaters, too?"
"It's alright, I'll carry on with their share."
The students from the other three houses looked stiff, as if holding back their rage.
"Damn it, we don't even have a fraction of your points! And you dare to talk about 'shady dealings'?!"
"And the one who said he'd kill his colleague, come out here! Let's fight one-on-one!"
Not only that, but the two ghostly old men in the shadows were equally agitated.
"What did I just hear? Old ghost, you didn't change your surname, did you? Following the surname of a grandson is normal, Salazar Riddle? Ahahahaha…" Godric Gryffindor pointed at Slytherin's almost black-with-rage bald head, laughing wildly, showing absolutely no mercy.
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