Outside the auditorium.

Several Hufflepuffs were picking pomegranates. There weren't many edible fruits in winter, and their magic wasn't yet at the level where they could grow crops out of season.

Hufflepuffs may not care much about other things, but eating is one of the few things they care about.

You eat as much as you can.

For example, in this cold winter, if you want to eat some fruits, you can either buy them or grow them yourself.

The little badgers didn't have much pocket money, so most of it was spent on Honeydukes.

Things like buying fruit... they can't really do it.

They are very interested in growing fruits.

But at this moment, the little badgers were holding pomegranates, with no intention of enjoying this rare delicacy in winter, and were staring blankly at the scoring hourglass hanging on the wall.

The one that belonged to Gryffindor, with its ups and downs and stumbles.

In a few seconds.

It was a process of adding points, subtracting points, adding points, and subtracting points back and forth several times.

After several minutes, this thrilling ups and downs finally stopped and the score remained at its original position.

"What's wrong with Gryffindor?" someone asked curiously.

This kind of frequent changes, which made the audience's eyes twitch, was really abnormal.

"Isn't Professor Snape in a bad mood recently?" A little badger lowered his voice, poked his head out carefully.

Someone next to him interrupted: "When has Professor Snape ever been in a good mood?"

"Maybe things have gotten worse in the past few days." The little badger continued, "Sitting in the office, bored, deducting Gryffindor's house points for fun?"

This conjecture sounds a bit ridiculous.

But if you think about it carefully, it is really possible that this is something Professor Snape could do.

Anyway, in the end Gryffindor's score remained unchanged, and Professor Snape let out his anger.

In the principal's office.

Snape, who was thought to be taking out his anger on Gryffindor, said coldly: "Twenty points deducted from Gryffindor."

He was too lazy to even look for a reason now.

Dumbledore sighed, somewhat helplessly: "Twenty points for Gryffindor, Severus, I think we should suspend this boring game altogether."

"You're the boring one, Albus." Snape shook his head and counted on his fingers, "Five points from Gryffindor."

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes, looking at him with a determination not to give up, and opened his mouth, ready to add back the deducted points.

Snape spoke before him: "Don't add any more points. So far, Gryffindor's score is exactly what it was at the beginning."

"Really?" Dumbledore raised his hand and pushed up his glasses.

Snape nodded.

Harry nodded as well.

After all, magic is idealistic, and most wizards are not good at logic. This is reflected in life, that is, wizards are not good at mathematics. Snape is one of the few exceptions. He is very good at logic and even enjoys it. In the first grade, the barrier he made for the Philosopher's Stone was a reasoning problem based on "logic".

certainly……

Voldemort is also an exception. Even if he was not so rational and crazy at the time, that kind of simple reasoning questions would not be difficult for him.

Dumbledore was not the type of person who was very good at mathematics, but the long years had brought him wisdom, including some knowledge that was difficult for him to master, mathematics being one of them. He counted on his fingers for a long time, and even pulled out his memory, looked at it again, and calculated the numbers.

"It's just right." Dumbledore pulled his beard and finally calculated the result after a while.

Snape sneered: "Albus, your doubting my mind is the most ridiculous thing."

Dumbledore blinked, his face full of innocence.

Snape raised his head and said calmly, "Professor Dumbledore, I'm sorry, I have to ask for leave for the next few days. There are some things I need to do."

“It could be a few days, or it could be more than a week.”

"You'll have to find a substitute teacher."

Dumbledore looked embarrassed: "Severus, my dear professor, although this will give me a headache, but since it is you who requested leave, I think I have to agree. Do you have any good recommendations for substitute professors?"

Snape said nothing.

Harry said, "We can call Uncle Remus over. He is no longer a werewolf, so the students won't have any objections."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.

"Albus, when you go out to travel, you can call Geralt along." Harry continued, "He is as perceptive as I am, and can discover many magical landscapes that your brain cannot discover."

Dumbledore responded cheerfully, "An excellent suggestion."

When a new week comes.

The little wizards discovered that Hogwarts had prepared a Christmas gift for them in advance.

In the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Professor Snape's skull-like face was no longer seen, but instead he appeared as a professor they were familiar with.

Professor Lupin!

Of the six professors they had experienced in recent years, he was recognized as the best.

only……

Professor Lupin, who appeared before them this time, looked a little strange.

Unlike their impression of him being in dire straits, poor, thin, and looking like he was seriously ill all the time - in fact, he was indeed ill, Professor Lupin now looked like a decent human being, wearing a brand new robe, an ice blue color that best suited his fair skin, and his hair was meticulously groomed, no longer messy like weeds.

Her figure has also become stronger and she no longer looks frail.

His face became rosy, but thick dark circles appeared under his eyes.

"Professor Black?" someone asked tentatively.

In their impression, Professor Lupin never dressed up.

The only time Professor Black would dress up was when he used Polyjuice Potion to disguise himself as Professor Lupin.

Now……

They had an inexplicable sense of déjà vu, and it was hard not to have such doubts.

"Sirius?" Lupin smiled. "What makes you think he's pretending to be me?"

"Of course it's me, Remus Lupin."

As soon as he opened his mouth, the students could immediately tell that this tone of voice and gentle demeanor were definitely not something Professor Black could do. This was Professor Lupin.

The students cheered.

"Professor, what happened to Professor Snape? Will you be the one teaching the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes from now on?" A Gryffindor student asked eagerly, his eyes full of anticipation.

Lupin whistled: "It seems that you are still so unwelcome to Professor Snape?"

"But I regret to inform you that Professor Snape did not encounter any accident. He is safe and healthy. However, as a potion master, there are always things that he cannot shirk. He needs to leave Hogwarts temporarily for a while. I will take his place until the Christmas holidays."

Students wailed: “Just until Christmas break?”

This sounds like a long time, until the end of a semester.

But...it's already December, and there are only a week or two until Christmas, just a dozen days, which is really too short.

"Okay." Lupin clapped his hands, "I understand your teaching progress."

"Professor Snape is indeed an excellent master of Defense Against the Dark Arts. His course arrangement cannot be done to this level even if I were to do it."

"But I'm afraid we have different understandings of Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Next, let's have a good class."

Lupin waved his wand and the view of the basement became bright.