Late at night...
Gryffindor Tower,
Girls' dormitory.
Hermione leaned against the window glass in the moonlight. In the same dormitory, Lavender mumbled a few times in bed before swaying upright. After putting on her slippers, she picked up her wand and cast a rather gentle Lumos Charm.
Then she saw Hermione sitting by the window, a sight capable of scaring a normal person straight into a heart attack.
"Good heavens, Hermione, why are you sitting by the window instead of sleeping?" Lavender patted her chest after being startled by Hermione, still feeling a little shaken.
"Nothing... I'll go downstairs in a bit to get something for a midnight snack," Hermione said dryly.
Lavender nodded.
"If you can, please bring me some too... Actually, forget it. It's the middle of the night. I'll go to the bathroom, then come with you."
Hermione nodded mechanically and let Lavender go to the bathroom. Then she opened the window and poked her head outside.
"If that's the case..."
In a daze, she took a deep breath, stood on the windowsill, then straddled the open window frame. After shifting her body and turning around, she placed herself entirely outside the window.
Just then, Lavender finally came out of the bathroom. She instinctively looked towards the windowsill, intending to go downstairs with Hermione for a midnight snack.
Then she saw Hermione somehow appearing outside the window, as if she had clipped through the wall.
"Am I still half-asleep?"
Lavender strangely patted her own face, then reacted with lightning speed.
"When you said you were going downstairs, you didn't say you weren't taking the stairs!"
With a shout, she threw herself towards Hermione.
But Hermione had already made the motion of delivering a critical hit to the Hogwarts lawn.
In that instant, a flash of deep blue fire appeared. Grindelwald materialised in mid-air, while Hermione, who had just been performing a free-fall attack on the grass, had already woken up and was now being held in the air by Grindelwald's magic, utterly bewildered.
Lavender let out a sigh of relief at the sight.
"Thank you so much, Professor Grindelwald!"
Grindelwald nodded.
"Mhm... Go to bed early. Miss Granger needs to make a trip to the Headmaster's office now. She's already the sixth one tonight who couldn't think things through."
"The sixth one!" Lavender said in surprise.
"Mhm... I suspect Hogwarts is being affected by some strange form of emotional magic," Grindelwald nodded.
"Emotional magic?" Lavender asked in astonishment.
"That's not something you need to concern yourself with. Go to sleep early."
"Alright, Professor Grindelwald."
Lavender shrank her neck somewhat timidly under Professor Grindelwald's imposing gaze.
...
Kasenhis, who had been called awake in the middle of the night, appeared in the Headmaster's office in a daze. Snape and Professor McGonagall were there as well, along with the six young wizards Grindelwald had brought over.
As for Grindelwald himself and the other professors, they were riding broomsticks and patrolling all around Hogwarts, inside and out, to make sure no one else launched a free-fall attack on the lawn.
"Gellert has already secretly searched Hogwarts from top to bottom and confirmed that no students have been injured because of this strange emotional magic."
As Dumbledore spoke, he used the Elder Wand in his hand to lightly trace around the top of Hermione's head, who had just arrived in the Headmaster's office. Finally, he drew a tiny scarlet thread of blood-like light from her mind with the Elder Wand and placed it inside a specially made glass vial.
"I believe the most important thing right now is to urgently gather all the students in the Great Hall. That way, even if they behave abnormally, they won't end up free-falling onto the lawn. As long as it isn't an Unforgivable Curse, any magical injury can be healed," Professor McGonagall said quickly, clearly alarmed that even Hermione, who was exceptionally steady in her eyes, had been affected.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Kasenhis shook his head. "According to Clay, he only felt that strange emotion and wanted to kill himself when he became extremely sleepy while wandering at night. That may indicate that this strange emotional magic can only affect students who haven't rested properly."
"And it's three in the morning right now. If we wake all the students and gather them in the Great Hall, then hand them all sleeping bags, they'll have lost any desire to sleep by then. Maybe they'll fall asleep again around five or six, but they'll still have to get up at eight and start classes."
"Perhaps they'll be very safe this morning, but in the long run, that would become a vicious cycle," Kasenhis said while yawning.
"Perhaps we can use Draught of Living Death," Professor McGonagall continued.
"Draught of Living Death merely forces the body into unconsciousness. It does not allow an active soul to rest. We still don't know whether this magic affects the body or the soul. Making arrangements now... is premature," Snape explained.
"That's because the Slytherin dormitories are underground... They don't exactly have the chance to jump from a high place," Professor McGonagall said, taking a deep breath.
"But they are also the ones who know the most Dark Magic. I don't know whether some of them have somehow learned one or two methods capable of taking their own lives in an instant," Snape replied.
"What matters now is protecting the students, not saying nonsense like your students are more likely to die, so there's no need to worry about mine," Professor McGonagall said, rarely showing anger.
"I simply think the current situation is the most stable. When Hogwarts has not yet suffered any deaths in the true sense, the best course of action is to touch nothing!" Snape's tone also grew stiff.
Kasenhis watched all of this.
He had a hunch...
This was also the work of that strange red magic in the vial.
He subconsciously glanced at Dumbledore, and Dumbledore happened to look at him as well.
"You sensed it too, didn't you? They've also been affected by that magic."
Kasenhis nodded.
"So this magic doesn't just guide people into harming their own lives. It can also make people's emotions turn angry."
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