Slughorn wanted to conceal what happened today and pretend that nothing had happened, but this was obviously impossible.

To some extent, the effect of a love potion is no different from that of the Imperius Curse, both of which can make a person obey orders.

Love drugs are even less risky because there is an antidote and they are not illegal.

And Slughorn was a professor at Hogwarts. If he was manipulated by someone to do something, no one could imagine what would happen.

Therefore, after receiving the message sent by Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore rushed back to school that day.

At the same time, Kyle and Connor were called to the school hospital again.

When they arrived in the courtyard, they met Harry and Ron who had just come down from upstairs.

"What a coincidence," said Harry. "Dumbledore called you too?"

"It's obvious isn't it?" Kyle said.

"So the principal is finally going to punish Romilda Vanni?" Ron danced excitedly. "I went to see her today, but instead of apologizing, she scolded me for stealing food!"

Ron waved his hands angrily, ripped a handful of branches from the bushes beside the courtyard, and threw them back as if they were all Romilda Vanni.

Kyle glanced at him and thought about it carefully. He was right. After all, her original target was Harry. So Ron ruined her plan? Kyle always felt that it was a bit strange...

Several people quickly arrived at the school hospital.

The atmosphere here was very depressing. Dumbledore stood there silently, with no expression on his face.

Professor McGonagall and Snape were also there, and they were working with Madam Pomfrey to examine Madam Rosmerta on the bed.

Just like the two people in the morning, Ms. Rosmerta also fell into a coma. As to whether it was the effect of the coma spell, Kyle didn't know.

Harry and Ron were startled by the scene before them. Seeing that no one spoke, they shut up and stood quietly by.

Soon, a drunken Slughorn arrived.

"Albus..." A voice came from outside the door before he arrived.

"I've already told you that it was Rosmerta who gave me the love potion. If you have any questions, why don't you just ask her directly..."

Slughorn was stunned when he walked in. He also saw Ms. Rosmerta lying on the bed, and was a little unresponsive for a while.

"What's going on?" He said subconsciously, "She must know that she can't escape, so she's just pretending..."

"So you mean to say that she cast the Imperius Curse on herself in order to avoid punishment?" Snape stood up and said in a long voice: "Excuse me, this is a much greater punishment than using a love potion."

"What did you say?" Slughorn shuddered, half sobering up. "The Imperius Curse?"

"Yes." Snape said, "and according to our previous observations, she had been controlled by someone as early as three months ago."

"Three months...what's going on?" Slughorn asked in confusion.

“That’s exactly what we want to know.”

Dumbledore turned around and spoke calmly, but he did not look at Slughorn, but instead his eyes fell on Ron.

"Oh, Mr. Weasley, I just noticed you're here too."

"Yes, yes," Ron whispered.

"Just right." Dumbledore looked at him. "Could you tell me what happened this morning? It would be best if you could be more specific and not leave anything out."

"It's like this..." Ron thought carefully about everything that happened in the morning.

“I was picking up presents and accidentally mixed up a box under Harry’s bed.

"Inside it was a chocolate cauldron, which was given by Romilda Vani to Harry, but I thought it was for me... No, I mean, I thought it was a gift from Harry to me, so I opened it and took a bite.

"It turned out there was a love potion in it... and then I was sent here by Harry, that damn Romilda Vanni!"

"No, Ron, we're going to Professor Slughorn's office first," Harry added.

"Oh, yes, that's right."

…

Ron spoke in a halting manner, while Harry helped to fill in the blanks.

Dumbledore listened carefully until the two finished speaking. Then he nodded slightly and looked at Kyle and Connor beside him.

"Is that so? You met on the eighth floor?"

"Yes," said Kyle. "We were on our way to a quiet place to brew a potion."

"Why don't you go to the dungeon to make potions?" Snape asked suddenly, squinting his eyes and staring at Kyle with a bad look.

"There is a magical room there, which is much better than the dark environment of the underground classroom." Kyle shrugged, "Dumbledore should know."

Kyle didn't know if it was his illusion, but he felt that Snape's expression was uglier than before.

"That's right." Dumbledore said at the right time: "It's amazing. I dare say that 90% of the students don't know where it is. I didn't expect you to find it."

Snape seemed to accept this statement and stepped aside without saying anything.

"Well, it's clear now, isn't it?" Dumbledore said. "Mr. Weasley's case was just a misunderstanding and has nothing to do with Ms. Rosmerta. If anything, it just happened that she experienced the same thing as Horace at the same time."

"You can go back now." Dumbledore said with a smile, "The kitchen has prepared pepper fried pork chops today. You must not miss it."

Ron wanted to go out immediately. The atmosphere here was too depressing and he had wanted to leave for a long time.

"Kyle, please wait a moment. I have something else to ask you." Dumbledore suddenly spoke up and stopped Kyle who was about to go out.

There was no choice but Kyle to shrug at Connor and retreat back into the room, but Dumbledore had already looked at Slughorn by then.

"Horace, can you tell us now?"

"What do you want to know?" Slughorn asked, sitting on the bed closest to him. "First of all, I must say that I didn't know she was under the Imperius Curse, nor did I know what she was going to do to me."

"I think it's not Madam Rosmerta who wants to attack you, but the person behind her," said Dumbledore. "Have you noticed anything different about her lately?"

"Different from before?" Slughorn thought for a moment. "I haven't noticed it, but if I must say it, it's probably because she's too enthusiastic."

"enthusiastic?"

"Yes," said Slughorn, "I think it was the day before Christmas, and I was running low on drinks, so I had to go buy some.

“Even though there were a lot of people in the store, Rosmerta kept talking to me… She had never been so enthusiastic before.

"But I didn't think too much about it. I just thought she was interested in the ball I was hosting. After all, there were quite a lot of people that day, including the Minister of Magic. It was normal for her to be interested, right?"

"Cornelius Fudge?" Dumbledore frowned. "I don't remember him visiting me on Christmas Day."

"I'm not looking for you. I'm looking for Kyle. I previously announced that Kyle would attend the ball," Slughorn said. "But then some changes occurred. After learning that Kyle was not attending the ball, he left soon."

Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, Kyle spread his hands, indicating that he knew nothing.

He was already at Nico's manor at that time and had no idea that Fudge had come to the school to look for him.

But Dumbledore didn't care.

"So what did you and Ms. Rosmerta talk about?"

"Nothing much." Slughorn thought for a while, "Just some candidates for the ball... Oh, by the way, before I left, she asked me what gift I was going to give you, and strongly recommended the aged mead in the store."

"But I remember that your gift to me was red currant rum," said Dumbledore.

"Yes, it was brought by the Minister, and it was aged as well," said Slughorn. "So I told her I had a gift ready, but I could buy the mead myself."

"Is it the bottle in your office?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"No, Minerva, the bottle of old mead Rosmerta mentioned was broken just as she was about to give it to me," said Slughorn. "I was very sorry for it."

"That's a pity indeed." Dumbledore raised his eyebrows.

But no one present was a fool, and they all knew what he meant.

It seemed that the other party wanted Slughorn to give the bottle of wine to Dumbledore as a Christmas gift.

There must have been something else added to the bottle of wine, so after learning that Slughorn had prepared it in advance, in order to avoid being exposed in advance, they had to find a way to destroy it.

Snape sneered beside him.

Slughorn's face turned even redder, but fortunately he had drunk a lot of wine beforehand, so no one else could see it.

"What happened next?" Dumbledore didn't care and continued to ask, "What about the love potion?"

"It happened yesterday." Slughorn glanced at the bed not far away, "As usual, I went to ask her if she had any new aged mead.

Of course, there wasn't any. Just when I was about to leave, she suddenly gave me a portion of candied pineapple, saying it was a new dessert she had prepared.

"Because I said before that my favorite thing is mead with candied pineapple, and I thought she took my advice."

Then there was a long silence.

Dumbledore lowered his head, wondering what he was thinking.

Snape's mouth twitched, and finally he couldn't help asking, "Didn't you notice that the color of the candied fruit is wrong?"

"You don't understand, Severus." Slughorn faltered. "Because everyone makes it differently, the color of the preserves will also be different. This is normal."

Snape really didn't know what to say, so he could only sneer again and turn his head away from him.

I don’t know when it started, but it gradually became gloomy outside and it started to rain. The rain hit the window, making a crackling sound.

"Albus, do you know who did this?" Professor McGonagall walked forward and asked.

"I will find him," Dumbledore said softly. He looked at Kyle again. "Did you notice anything different about Madam Rosmerta when you last went to the Three Broomsticks?"

"It's normal, there's nothing strange going on... at least that's what I saw." Kyle said, "Or you can ask other people, like Ron, who prefers staring at Madam Rosmerta rather than his own wine glass."

Unless someone was assigned to do something special, such as delivering preserves to Slughorn this time, it would be impossible to tell from the outside that someone was under the Imperius Curse.

This is why more than a decade ago, so many Death Eaters chose to use the excuse of being under the Imperius Curse to escape the scrutiny of the Ministry of Magic, because with a little bit of trickery, even the Aurors would not be able to detect it.

"Why don't you ask Rosmerta herself?" Slughorn asked doubtfully. "I think she should know who asked her to do this."

"In fact, we have already asked her." Dumbledore said, "She knew nothing. The man never showed up, and when we were about to ask her in detail, she fainted due to weakness."

"Well... okay then..."

For a moment, the room fell silent again.

The rain was getting heavier, and because she was worried that she would be seen by students and cause unnecessary trouble, Ms. Rosmerta was sent to St. Mungo's.

Snape also left. Dumbledore wanted to call him, but he turned a deaf ear to him and disappeared in the corridor not far away.

"Didn't he hear it just now?" Kyle asked tentatively, looking in the direction where Snape disappeared.

Snape going against the headmaster...it's really rare.

"No, he heard it." Dumbledore said with a complicated expression, "It's just that we have disagreements on some things. If it weren't for the seriousness of this matter, he wouldn't even show up where I am..."

"Differences?" Kyle muttered quietly, but after noticing Dumbledore's increasingly complicated expression, he wisely did not ask.

The two returned to the principal's office.

Dumbledore waved his hand, and immediately a steaming fried pork chop, some toast, and a bowl of corn soup appeared on the table, obviously prepared for Kyle.

Kyle didn't hesitate and sat down to eat a bite of fried pork chop. Then he looked up and asked, "The person who used the Imperius Curse on Ms. Rosmerta should be Malfoy."

"I think so," said Dumbledore. "Only students from Hogwarts can make shopkeepers relax their vigilance."

"So, his target this time has changed to you?"

"I am glad of his doing so," said Dumbledore, not seeming to mind at all that someone was trying to get at him.

"But Mr. Malfoy seems to have made a mistake." He continued: "Horace was reluctant to give away a bottle of aged mead, and he gave me red currant rum because he didn't like it."

"Indeed." Kyle nodded and continued to eat his fried pork chops while thinking about everything that had happened before.

It is not difficult to know from the existing information that Malfoy wanted to attack Dumbledore at the beginning. He used the Imperius Curse to control Madam Rosmerta and asked her to sell a bottle of special mead to Slughorn, who then gave it to Dumbledore.

It must be said that his plan was very good and no one would suspect him, except for one thing: he did not expect Slughorn to have prepared a gift in advance... The bottle of red currant rum sent by Fudge was also the most suitable gift.

Since the plan didn't work, he could only think of other ways.

So this morning's incident happened.

"He probably wants Horace to assassinate me in the castle." Dumbledore said calmly: "As a professor and my old colleague, if Horace really wants to do this, he still has many opportunities."

Kyle glanced at Dumbledore and didn't quite agree with this statement.

Dumbledore has hardly been in school recently, so it's hard to even see him, let alone kill him.

There is some possibility that it is used against myself.

Kyle narrowed his eyes, it seemed that this possibility was not impossible.

"Perhaps in Mr. Malfoy's opinion, I am much easier to deal with than you." Dumbledore said suddenly, bringing Kyle back to his senses.

Dumbledore poured himself a cup of black tea. "But I have to say, he made a mistake."

"Give Slughorn the love potion at school?" asked Kyle.

"No." Dumbledore shook his head, "He chose the wrong person.

"Although Horace is not good at fighting, he is also a master of potions. The love potion can work for a short period of time, but it cannot control him all the time. It can only last for an hour at most."

Dumbledore gave a relatively conservative time.

Kyle had no doubt about this.

"What should we do next?" he asked. "We can't just let him do this forever."

Dumbledore did not answer, but just looked up at the portrait on the wall.

"So far, there has been no change on the map," said a witch. "We have been watching it."

"It seems that he is not ready to act immediately." Dumbledore whispered. "Has he not found the other Vanishing Cabinet?"

"No, he has," said Kyle, "Over the Christmas holidays, the house-elf who was helping out at Weasleys' Joke Shop saw Malfoy go to Knockturn Alley.

"I also stopped by on the day I came back from Nico Manor. It's in Borgin and Burke's. I saw it. No matter the size or the patterns on it, it's exactly the same as the one in school."

Dumbledore's eyes lit up.

"This is really good news." He stood up and said, "You always bring me different surprises, but why did you tell me so late?"

"Professor, have you forgotten that I came to see you after the holiday?" Kyle said slowly, "And twice!"

"There's nothing we can do about it. There are always emergencies." Dumbledore looked a little embarrassed and quickly changed the subject: "Okay, Kyle, you go back first. I need to think about this matter carefully."

(End of this chapter)