Chapter 746 Soul-stealing Curse

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

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

Even the risk of love drugs is smaller, because it has an antidote, so it is not illegal.

And Slughorn is a professor at Hogwarts. If he is manipulated into doing something, no one dares to imagine what will happen.

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

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

When they came to the courtyard, they also met Harry and Ron who had just come down from upstairs.

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

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

"So is the principal finally going to punish Romi Davanni?" Ron danced excitedly on the sidelines, "I went to see her today, and instead of apologizing, she even scolded me for stealing food!"

Ron waved angrily, pulled a handful of branches from the bushes beside the courtyard, and threw them back as if they were all Romy Davanni.

Kyle glanced at him,

Thinking about it carefully, what the other party said was indeed not wrong. After all, her initial target was Harry, and Ron could be considered to have ruined her good deeds?

Kyle always feels a little weird...

Several people quickly arrived at the school hospital.

The atmosphere here was very gloomy. Dumbledore stood there without saying a word, with no expression on his face.

Professor McGonagall and Snape were also there, and they were cooperating with Madam Pomfrey to check on Madam Rosmerta in the hospital bed.

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

Harry and Ron were startled by the battle in front of them. When no one spoke, they shut their mouths and stood quietly.

Soon, a drunken Slughorn arrived.

"Albus..." Before anyone else arrived, a voice came from outside the door.

"I've already said that it was Rosmerta who gave me the love potion. If you have any questions, just ask her directly...!"

Slughorn walked in and was suddenly stunned. He also saw Ms. Rosmerta lying on the hospital bed, and was a little unresponsive for a moment.

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

"So you are saying that in order to avoid punishment, she used the Imperius Curse on herself?" Snape stood up and said in a long voice: "With all due respect, this method is much more punishable than using a love potion. .”

"What did you say?" Slughorn trembled all over, half awake from the wine. "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 doubtfully.

"That's what we want to know."

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

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

"Yes, yes," Ron whispered.

"Exactly." Dumbledore looked at him, "Can you tell me what happened this morning? It's best to be specific and don't leave anything out."

"That's right..." Ron thought carefully about everything that happened that morning.

"While I was picking up presents, I accidentally mixed up a box under Harry's bed.

"In there was a chocolate cauldron that was given to Harry by Romy Davanni, but I thought it was for me... No, I mean, I thought it was a gift from Harry, so I opened it. I took a bite.

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

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

"Oh, yes, that's right."

…

Ron spoke intermittently, while Harry helped fill in the missing parts.

Dumbledore listened carefully, and until the two of them finished speaking, he nodded slightly and looked at Kyle and Connor.

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

"That's right," Kyle said, "We were going to a quiet place to brew the potion."

"Why don't you go to the underground classroom to brew the potion?" Snape suddenly asked, squinting his eyes and staring at Kyle with an unkind expression.

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

I don't know if it was Kyle's misunderstanding, but he always felt that Snape's face looked uglier than before.

"That's right." Dumbledore said at the right time: "It's amazing. I dare say that ninety percent 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 speaking.

"Well, the matter is very clear, isn't it?" Dumbledore said, "Mr. Weasley's matter was just a misunderstanding and had nothing to do with Ms. Rosmerta. If it must be said, it happened to be at the same time. I just went through the same thing as Horace.”

"You can go back." Dumbledore said with a smile, "Today the kitchen has prepared pepper fried pork chops, you must not miss it."

Ron was about to leave immediately. The atmosphere here was too depressing and he wanted to leave a long time ago.

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

There was no other way, Kyle could only shrug at Connor and retreat into the room, but Dumbledore was already looking at Slughorn at this time.

"Horace, can you tell us now?"

"What do you want to know?" Slughorn sat on the bed closest to him and asked: "First of all, I must say that I did not know that she was under the Imperius Curse, nor did I know that she was going to do something to me. do what."

"I think the person who wants to attack you is not Ms. Rosmerta, but the person behind her." Dumbledore said, "Do you think there is anything different about her recently?"

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

"enthusiastic?"

"Yes." Slughorn said, "I think it was the day before Christmas. The drinks I prepared were a little short, so I had to buy some temporarily.

"Even though there were many people in the store, Rosmerta kept talking to me... She had never been so enthusiastic before.

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

"Cornelly Fudge?" Dumbledore frowned, "I don't remember him looking for me on Christmas Day."

"I'm not looking for you, I'm looking for Kyle. I previously released news that Kyle would attend the dance." Slughorn said, "But something changed later. After learning that Kyle did not attend the dance, After that, he left quickly."

Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, Kyle spread his hands to express that he didn't know anything.

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?"

"It's nothing." 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 highly recommended the store. of aged mead.”

"But I remember that the gift you gave me was red currant rum." Dumbledore said.

"Yes, it was brought by the minister, and it was aged as well." Slughorn said, "So I told her that I had prepared a gift, but I could buy the bottle of mead myself."

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

She remembered Harry saying before that in addition to steak and preserves, there was half a glass of mead in Slughorn's office.

"No, Minerva, the bottle of old mead that Rosmerta was talking about had been broken, just when she was about to bring it to me." Slughorn said, "I felt sorry for it for a long time. It’s time.”

"That's really a pity." Dumbledore raised his eyebrows and said.

But everyone present knew what he meant.

Apparently, the other party wanted Slughorn to give the bottle of wine to Dumbledore as a Christmas gift.

There should be something else added to the bottle of wine, so after learning that Slughorn had prepared it in advance, in order not to be exposed in advance, he had to find a way to destroy it.

Snape sneered beside him.

Slughorn's face turned redder. Fortunately, he had drunk a lot of wine beforehand, so no one else could tell.

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

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

Of course, there was no such thing. Just when I was about to leave, she suddenly gave me a pineapple preserve, saying it was a new dessert she had prepared.

"Because I said before that my favorite is mead with pineapple preserves, I thought she took my suggestion."

There was a long silence after that.

Dumbledore lowered his head, not knowing what he was thinking.

Snape's lips twitched, but finally he couldn't bear it any longer and asked, "Didn't you notice that the color of the preserves was wrong?"

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

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

I don’t know when it started, but it gradually became gloomy outside. It started raining, and the rainwater hit the windows, making a crackling sound.

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

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

"It's normal, there is no strange behavior...at least that's what I saw." Kyle said, "Or you can also ask other people, such as Ron, he prefers to stare at Ms. Rosmerta, Instead of your own wine glass.”

Unless they are arranged to do something special, such as delivering candied fruits to Slughorn this time, people who are under the Imperius Curse cannot tell from their appearance.

This is why more than ten years ago, so many Death Eaters chose to use the Imperius Curse as an excuse to escape the scrutiny of the Ministry of Magic, because even Aurors couldn't tell it with a little bit of trickery.

"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," Dumbledore said. "She knows nothing. The person has never shown up, and when we were about to ask in detail, she passed out due to weakness."

"That's it...that's okay..."

For a moment, the room fell into silence again.

The rain was getting heavier, and Ms. Rosmerta was sent to St. Mungo's because she was worried about being seen by students and causing unnecessary trouble.

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

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

Snape confronting the headmaster... this is really rare.

"No, he heard it." Dumbledore said with a complicated expression, "It's just that we had differences on some things. If it weren't for the important things this time, he wouldn't even show up where I am..."

"Disagreement?" Kyle whispered, 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 a steaming fried pork chop, a few slices of toast, and a bowl of corn soup immediately appeared on the table, obviously prepared for Kyle.

Kyle was not polite. He sat down and took a bite of fried pork chop. Then he raised his head and asked, "The person who used the Imperius Curse on Ms. Rosmerta must be Malfoy."

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

"So, his target this time is you?"

"I'm glad he did," Dumbledore said, not seeming to mind at all if anyone tried to deal with him.

"But Mr. Malfoy seems to have made a mistake." He continued: "Horace is not willing to give away a bottle of aged mead to others. He gave me red currant rum because he didn't like it. That’s all.”

"Indeed." Kyle nodded and continued to eat the fried pork chop, thinking about everything that had happened before.

It is not difficult to know from the available information that Malfoy initially wanted to attack Dumbledore. He used the Imperius Curse to control Ms. Rosmerta and asked her to sell a special bottle of mead to Slughorn. Well, let the other party give it to Dumbledore.

I have to say that his plan was very good and no one would doubt him. The only thing he didn't expect was that Slughorn had already prepared a gift in advance...the bottle of red vinegar sent by Fudge. Chestnut rum is also the perfect gift.

If the plan didn't work, he would have to think of other ways.

So what happened this morning.

"He probably wanted Horace to assassinate me in the castle." Dumbledore said calmly: "As a professor and an old colleague of mine, if Horace really wants to do this, there are still many opportunities."

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

Dumbledore was almost absent from school recently. It was difficult to see him, let alone kill him.

It is still possible to say that it is against myself.

Kyle narrowed his eyes, as if this was not impossible.

"Perhaps in the eyes of Mr. Malfoy, I am much easier to deal with than you." Dumbledore said suddenly, and at the same time, Kyle came back to his senses.

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

"Slughorn drank a love potion in school?" Kyle asked.

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

"Although Horace is not good at fighting, he is also a potion master. The love potion can be effective in a short 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 didn't doubt that.

"What are we going to do next?" he asked: "We can't let him continue like this."

Dumbledore didn't answer, just looked up at the portrait on the wall.

"So far, there have been no changes to that map." A witch said, "We have been watching it."

"It seems that he is not prepared to act immediately." Dumbledore whispered. "Didn't you find another disappearing cabinet?"

"No, he's found it," Kyle said. "During the Christmas holidays, the house elf who helped Weasley in the joke shop saw Malfoy going to Knockturn Alley.

"I also stopped by on the day I came back from Nico Manor. It's in Borgin-Bock. I saw it. Whether it's 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 vacation?" Kyle said unhurriedly: "And twice!"

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