"Kyle, you must come to the party tomorrow."

After the Potions class, Slughorn stopped Kyle who was about to leave and said, "This time it's to celebrate Mr. Sabini Blaise's seventeenth birthday. You will definitely come, right?"

He looked very happy, shaking his head, as if the person who was about to have a birthday was himself.

Kyle, who was stopped by him, just nodded and said, "Of course, Professor Slughorn, I will participate."

"I knew it." Slughorn smiled even more happily. "The coming of age of a wizard is a big day. Many people will come to participate. You definitely don't want to miss it.

"Then I'll go prepare the drinks for the party. I hope the Three Broomsticks still have some good aged wine..."

Slughorn fastened the gold clasp of his dragonhide briefcase and began to walk out.

"Wait a minute, professor, I want to ask a question." Kyle suddenly stopped him.

"Then ask quickly, child, ask quickly..." Slughorn turned his head and said kindly.

"Professor, do you know...Horcruxes?"

Slughorn froze, his hand suspended in midair, his round face seeming to dent.

It was very strange that a person who was very energetic just now seemed to become listless in an instant, as if he hadn't slept for several days.

He licked his lips and asked in a hoarse voice: "You, what did you just say?"

"Horcrux, Professor," Kyle repeated. "I saw this in a book and was curious."

"Dumbledore asked you to come?" Slughorn asked in a low voice, but his tone was very firm. "Dumbledore showed you the memory... right? He asked you to ask me!"

Slughorn's eyes were filled with shock and fear, and sweat began to form on his forehead.

"What memory? Does Professor Dumbledore know this too?" Kyle asked puzzledly.

"You don't know?" Slughorn was stunned for a moment, then pulled a handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped his forehead.

"Is there anything I should know?" Kyle said, "Like I said, I read it in a book."

"What book!" Slughorn demanded, "I'm sure there won't be any records of that kind of thing in the Hogwarts library. You can't fool me. It must be Dumbledore..."

"No, Professor, I saw it from Nicolas Flamel." Kyle interrupted him and said, "I found a book called "Advanced Black Magic Revealed" in his private library, and the content inside is really interesting.

"It's just that some of the questions are too general. I don't quite understand them, including Horcruxes."

"I have no comment!" Slughorn said softly, wiping his sweaty brow again. "You've got the wrong person, Kyle. I know nothing about Horcruxes... nothing!"

Slughorn repeated the last word emphatically, as if to emphasize something.

Then he grabbed the dragonhide briefcase, stuffed the handkerchief into his pocket, and was about to walk out.

But after reaching the door, Slughorn suddenly stopped again.

He seemed to have thought of something, took a deep breath, turned around again and looked at Kyle.

Looks like, too much like...

At this moment, Slughorn seemed to see two figures overlapping.

He was equally talented, shining with an eye-popping brilliance, as if he didn't fit in with the other people at Hogwarts.

And like that man, he also noticed the Horcrux...

"I advise you not to waste your time on this, Kyle. It's not something you should know."

Slughorn said seriously: "You should use your energy on other things, such as... well, Quidditch is good. I remember you are a good chaser.

"If you wish, I can recommend you to the Holyhead Harpies, where you would surely become a famous professional Quidditch player."

Slughorn didn't give Kyle a chance to speak.

He didn't even care about Kyle's answer. After he finished talking, he slammed the door and left the classroom.

Kyle and Connor were the only ones left in the room.

"What did you ask him?" Kanna asked puzzledly.

She had never seen a person's expression change so quickly, and the fear on Slughorn's face just now was almost overflowing.

"Nothing, just some past events he doesn't want to talk about." Kyle spread his hands and followed Kanna out of the basement classroom.

"You didn't do this on purpose." Kanna looked at Kyle suspiciously, "To avoid attending the party?"

"It's a pretty good effect, isn't it?" Kyle said with a smile. "For a long time, I probably won't have to worry about him inviting me to a party... He won't even want to see me."

…

The fact was exactly as Kyle predicted, and Slughorn didn't say a word to him for two weeks. Even in the Potions class, he would keep his distance from Kyle as much as possible, and would deliberately ignore him when checking homework, as if Kyle was transparent.

Even Connor, who was sitting with Kyle, had a rare few days of leisure. Slughorn seemed to have made up his mind to draw a clear line between himself and Kyle and the people around him.

But this is exactly what Kyle wants to see, and so does Kanna.

Connor, who hasn't been in "confinement" for two weeks, has told Kyle more than once that he should have done so earlier.

In response, Kyle only said that he wanted to thank Harry for giving him inspiration.

This is also true. If Kyle had not met Harry, Ron, and Hermione discussing Horcruxes in the hallway before, he would not have thought of this idea.

What Slughorn resists most is anything or any topic related to Horcruxes. It is easy to keep a distance from him, just talk about it.

Kyle was a little annoyed. Why didn't he think of this before? ...

There was no change in the weather from February to March. It was still as cold as ever, but humid and windy. The tiny snowflakes were blown onto the windows of the classroom, making crackling sounds.

It was the weekend, but people were generally unhappy because they had just received a notice that the plan to visit Hogsmeade had been cancelled.

“This is the second time!”

While eating breakfast, Kyle heard someone complain, "Why is this happening? I've been looking forward to it since last week!"

"I thought of that a long time ago." Justin Finch-Fletchley walked over and patted the other man on the shoulder. "Don't forget, the previous Gryffindor is still in St. Mungo's."

"But I ran out of candy at Christmas, and I was thinking of buying some more."

"I bought a lot last time," said MacMillan, "but now I only have Every Flavour Beans and Furry Mints left."

"That's great. If I had known, I would have bought an extra Galleon last time."

Kyle walked past several people.

He also didn't find it strange to cancel the Hogsmeade visiting day. Apart from the last attack, there had been more and more reports of missing persons in the Daily Prophet recently, some of whom were relatives of Hogwarts students.

Under such circumstances, the school will definitely not let students leave easily.

Kyle and Connor sat down at an empty seat and prepared to have breakfast.

"Kyle, what are you doing today?" Connor asked, spreading jam on her bread.

"No, what's wrong?"

"I want to try a new potion today." Connor said, "But there are a lot of things to prepare, and it's troublesome to handle. If you're free, can you help me?"

"No problem." Kyle nodded. "When?"

"How about after breakfast, we can go to the basement classroom."

"I think it's better to go to the Room of Requirement." Kyle thought for a moment and said, "If we go to the underground classroom, we may run into Slughorn. I heard that he rarely holds his favorite parties anymore. It would be bad if he gets scared again.

"The things in the Room of Requirement are quite complete, and the environment is better than the basement classroom."

"That's fine." Kanna nodded.

After breakfast, the two went to the eighth floor together, where they met Harry and Ron.

It's just that...there seems to be something wrong with the two of them.

"Let me go, Harry, I'm going to find Romilda Vanni, don't stop me!"

Harry grabbed Ron's arm tightly and dragged him forward, while Ron was like a fish thrown onto the shore, twisting his body and struggling.

"Why is she there!?"

"Maybe, in Potions class..." Harry said casually.

"Maybe I can apply to go to school with her!" Ron said happily.

"Yes, yes, you can...oh, don't drool on my sleeve!"

"What's going on?" Connor came up to Kyle and asked, "Look at Harry's eyes. Did he get bruised? Also, I feel like Ron's condition is a little off."

Kyle looked over and found that there was indeed a light bruise around Harry's left eye, about the size of a fist.

Combined with Ron's infatuated look, Kyle roughly guessed what was going on.

"Harry!" he called to the two of them, "Did Ron drink a love potion?"

Apart from the Imperius Curse, the only thing that could make Ron voluntarily give up his weekend tutoring was the love potion.

"I think so." Harry also saw the two of them and said quickly, "He ate the chocolate cauldron that Romilda Vani gave me for Christmas."

“That should be it.

"Connor said thoughtfully: "Remember what I said before that someone brought love potions to Hogwarts? Vani was one of them, but I remember I had confiscated her love potion. "

"Apparently, she bought another bottle," Kyle shrugged.

"Stop talking about this." Harry said anxiously, "Do you have any ideas?"

Kyle walked over and tapped Ron's forehead with his wand.

"The infatuation is over!"

"Hey, what are you doing!" Ron pushed Kyle unhappily, and then said to Harry beside him: "Let me go, I want to go find my dear Romilda!"

"No use?" Harry looked at Kyle blankly.

"Obviously, Romilda used a real love potion, not a joke product from Weasley's Joke Shop." Kyle put away his wand. "In this case, an antidote needs to be prepared."

"Would you?" Harry asked.

Kyle didn't say anything, just glanced at Connor.

"Half an hour." Kanna said, "To remove the effect of the love potion, you need to mix multiple potions together, but I lack the most basic tranquilizer."

"If you don't want to wait, you can go to the school hospital or find Professor Slughorn." Kyle looked at Harry again and said, "They should have ready-made potions to use."

"I'll go find Professor Slughorn," Harry said, "but can you help me? He keeps kicking my legs and it hurts so much. Could it be that the love potion also has the effect of increasing strength?"

"Normally, no." Kyle said with a smile, "But who asked you to stop Ron from pursuing his beloved girl? If not you, who else would he hit?"

Kanna couldn't help but burst out laughing.

You know what, the way Harry looked at Ron now really did look like a villain who was trying to tear others apart.

Harry's face fell all of a sudden. If possible, he didn't want to be like this. But there was no other way. He couldn't really let him go to find Romilda.

"Forget it, there's no rush about the potion, let's help him first." Kanna said.

"Since you said so, okay." Kyle took out his wand again.

"Fainted!"

There was a flash of red light, and Ron immediately fainted in Harry's arms.

"This is much easier now."

Kyle used the Accompaniment Charm to bring the unconscious Ron and Harry to Slughorn's office.

The door was ajar; Harry knocked gently and it creaked open.

"I'm sorry, Professor Slughorn, Ron he...oh, my God!"

Harry, who had just opened the door, suddenly screamed.

Kyle raised his head quickly, and then he saw Slughorn, like an angry bull, suddenly pushed Harry away and ran out of the corridor recklessly.

At the same time, he kept repeating, "Get out of the way... Rosmerta... dear... I want to see her now!"

Forehead……

Harry sat on the ground in a daze, rubbing his sore back from the fall.

So, Slughorn likes Madam Rosmerta of the Three Broomsticks?

Somehow, he always felt that the scene before him looked familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere.

By this time, Kyle had quickly thrown Ron aside and pointed his wand at Slughorn.

"Fainted!"

The next second, Slughorn also lay motionless on the ground.

Kyle used a Stunning Charm on the Professor!? Harry was startled at first, then suddenly realized what was happening.

No, it was the love potion... He remembered that Slughorn's behavior just now was exactly the same as Ron's after he ate the chocolate cauldron.

Harry looked quickly into the office.

There was no chocolate cauldron inside, only a plate of steaming steak, which should be his breakfast, as well as a bag of candied pineapple and half a glass of mead.

"What's going on!"

Harry was a little confused.

"Would Madam Rosmerta of the Three Broomsticks use a love potion on Slughorn? That doesn't seem necessary."

To be honest, Kyle didn't think it was necessary. After all, Madam Rosmerta was very popular in Hogsmeade, and Slughorn... He went to the Three Broomsticks at least twice a week, and once more when there was a party.

But what he just shouted was not false, they all heard it.

"In any case, let's send them all to the school hospital first. When Slughorn wakes up, he will naturally know what happened."

Kyle rubbed his forehead and said, "Harry, you know the walking spell... Forget it, go and inform Professor McGonagall.

"Slughorn is different from Ron. He is a professor. It is no small matter for someone to use a love potion on him."

"But Ron..." Harry turned around and looked at Ron who had just been thrown aside by Kyle.

"We won't leave him here," Kyle said. "Connor, you take care of Ron. He'll be more relaxed."

Connor nodded and took out her wand and pointed it at Ron.

"Zombies are floating."

Ron immediately floated limply in the air and was led forward by Kanna.

Harry finally breathed a sigh of relief, stood up from the ground and immediately ran towards Professor McGonagall's office.

Kyle took Slughorn away in the same way.

Their unique combination immediately attracted everyone's attention, mainly because Slughorn was too conspicuous.

A professor actually fainted in the castle. Everyone was curious about what happened and the atmosphere was a little tense.

However, Kyle and Connor were at a loss for words. They couldn't just say that he had drunk a love potion. Would Slughorn still be able to save his face?

So they could only walk through the castle towards the school hospital under the strange looks of the students.

"Kyle, why don't you let me go find Professor McGonagall?" Connor said worriedly, "If Madam Pomfrey asks, Harry might know more."

"Don't worry, Madam Pomfrey won't ask." Kyle shook his head and said, "And Harry may not know how to perform the walking spell, so we can't ask him to carry Ron over."

(End of this chapter)