Although Newland spoke with extreme sincerity, Emily still shot him a look full of suspicion and hostility.
As for Sigefin at the side, although he still didn't quite understand what exactly had happened, after the initial shock he still let out a string of cold laughs.
In the end, he even spoke up directly, "If it wasn't you, who else could it be? Hurry up and confess honestly. I know you're capable of pulling something like this!"
Sigefin's voice sounded a bit strange and slurred, as if his tongue were injured.
That was probably the reason he hadn't been willing to speak earlier.
Newland, however, completely ignored the two of them. His gaze remained utterly sincere as he continued to look straight at Link.
This wasn't because Newland had some extraordinary mental fortitude.
In fact, Emily's long-cultivated presence as Slytherin's top dog was terrifying, especially to fellow Slytherins.
Right now, Newland felt as if Emily's gaze were like a venomous snake, constantly slithering around his vital points.
The intense sense of danger made the spot between his eyebrows itch and throb.
And very soon, a real venomous snake appeared.
Arkam crawled out from Link's discarded cloak.
Flicking its tongue, it slowly climbed onto Newland's body and wrapped itself around his neck, coil after coil.
That slippery sensation, along with the occasional hissing sound from Arkam's mouth, plunged Newland into boundless terror. His body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Seeing this, a smile thick with mockery appeared on Emily's face.
Sigefin, meanwhile, had already clamped his mouth shut, no longer daring to mock Newland.
He knew that Link could speak Parseltongue, and precisely because of that, he felt that the serpent coiled around Newland's neck seemed to be asking Link for instructions… asking whether it could just bite Newland to death.
"Uh, Lord Flamel…" Sigefin suddenly spoke again.
"I was actually just joking earlier. Even though I don't really know what happened here, I think it's better to investigate first before reaching a conclusion. After all, if..."
"Newland, I believe you."
Before Sigefin could finish, Link's voice cut off the rest of his words.
As soon as he finished speaking, Arkam swiftly slipped back into Link's cloak.
The cold winter weather was simply too unfriendly to a cold-blooded creature like him.
Unless absolutely necessary, he didn't want to move at all.
The instant Arkam left, Newland collapsed into the chair like a heap of mud. Sweat streamed down his face, quickly stinging his eyes shut, yet his trembling hands didn't even have the strength to wipe it away.
"Huh? Wait, what?! You're just going to believe him like that? Not investigate any further?" Sigefin said again, utterly astonished.
His contradictory behavior made even Emily give him a strange look.
Link, however, merely chuckled softly and shook his head.
In the view of advanced Legilimency combined with the Super-Perception Charm, Newland's entire body had been radiating intense fear and sincerity just moments ago.
Someone like that would absolutely not be lying.
At least not about that question.
Seeing no one paying him any attention, Sigefin angrily punched Newland and said, "Hurry up and confess already! What guilty things have you actually done?"
Though Sigefin's words were crude, being jostled like this actually eased Newland's fear quite a bit.
He shot Sigefin an indignant glare, then carefully looked at Link and said, "Thank you for trusting me, Lord Flamel! But… what should we do now?"
"You don't need to worry about this matter. I'll handle it."
Link said calmly. After that, he closed his eyes and lay back.
It was a very obvious signal to send them off.
Newland and Sigefin exchanged a glance, then bowed together and withdrew from the carriage.
Through the slowly closing gap in the carriage door, they could still be seen walking while playfully punching each other back and forth, their relationship seeming to have improved quite a bit.
Click!
The door finally shut completely and locked itself automatically.
Emily let out a soft sigh. No one understood the pressure Link was under better than she did.
And she knew even more clearly that Link was not a god.
As a person, Link could get tired too.
Emily placed Link's head on her lap and began massaging his temples.
A dull train whistle sounded, and the train began to creak and sway as it moved.
Amid this rhythmic rocking, Link's tightly furrowed brow gradually relaxed. His breathing became steady and long, and he slowly drifted into sleep.
———
When Link woke again, it was already completely dark outside the carriage window.
He had slept extremely well, something quite rare for him.
Ever since his mental power had skyrocketed, sleep had become something optional to him, and he hadn't experienced such deep sleep in a very long time.
Especially with the faint, lingering fragrance coming from Emily, it gave him a sense of inner peace.
He sat up and stretched deeply, then smiled at Emily, who had already changed into her school uniform.
"Thank you, Emily."
Emily covered her mouth and smiled, then handed Link his Hogwarts uniform.
"We've already arrived at Hogsmeade Station. Hurry up and change."
"Whew! Time really flew by."
As he spoke, Link slipped on his robes, then pecked Emily on the cheek. The two of them laughed as they stepped off the Hogwarts Express together.
At some point, the snow had already stopped, and the weather outside was unexpectedly good.
Bright moonlight poured over the thick layers of snow, reflecting an even brighter glow. As it clashed with the surrounding darkness, it blended into a deep, beautiful blue.
Taking a deep breath and letting the icy air fill his lungs, Link stepped onto the platform together with Emily.
There weren't many people left at Hogsmeade Station. Even the professors who usually came to greet students were nowhere to be seen.
Newland was quietly waiting in the snow.
Seeing Link and Emily appear, he hurried forward and bowed, making a guiding gesture.
Link nodded, and under Newland's guidance, he and Emily crunched through the snow and boarded a Thestral carriage that had been specially reserved for them.
As for Newland himself, he climbed onto the driver's seat outside to act as the coachman.
Feeling the carriage slowly lift into the air, Emily smiled and said, "A pretty good subordinate."
"Who says he isn't?"
Link replied, then shook his head again.
There weren't any particularly strict hierarchies within the D.A. Army, and Thestral carriages didn't actually need a driver to steer them. Theoretically speaking, Newland didn't need to do such deferential things at all.
Yet he still did.
To a large extent, this was to ease his own inner fear, not to curry favor with Link.
That was also why Link accepted Newland's service so calmly.
Because if he didn't, Newland wouldn't feel grateful, he would instead be tormented by even greater psychological fear and distortion.
After flying for over twenty minutes, the Thestral carriage finally descended slowly onto the plaza outside Hogwarts Castle.
As expected, there were no professors waiting to receive the carriage.
So after watching Link and Emily enter the castle, the half-frozen Newland still had to drive the carriage onward to the gamekeeper's grounds.
There was a huge temperature difference between inside and outside the castle.
The moment Link and Emily stepped inside, they felt a wave of warmth rush over them.
The entrance hall ahead was lit red by torchlight.
They crossed the stone-tiled floor and headed toward the pair of doors on the right that led to the Great Hall, where the welcome-back feast was being held.
Inside the Great Hall stood four long House tables, filled to capacity. Above them was a pitch-black ceiling with no stars, exactly like the sky they had seen through the tall windows outside.
Candles floated above the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts drifting through the hall and the excited faces of the students. They chatted animatedly, exchanged news from the holidays, loudly greeted friends from other Houses, and sized each other up, inspecting new hairstyles and new clothes.
Everything was basically the same as usual.
Except for the trio sitting at the Gryffindor table, Harry and the other two.
The way the three of them sat there could only be described as anxiously waiting.
When they finally saw Link and Emily appear, they couldn't help but stand up and shout loudly.
Unfortunately, the Great Hall was far too noisy, and Link couldn't hear a single word they were saying.
Link and Emily completely ignored the trio. After kissing each other on the cheek, they headed off separately toward their respective House tables.
The Hufflepuff students had naturally saved a front-row seat for Link.
Link nodded his thanks to the classmates guiding him, and as soon as he sat down, Cedric, whom he hadn't seen in quite some time, slid his chair over.
"Thanks for the Christmas gift, Link. I really like it."
As he spoke, Cedric lifted the M-shaped brooch pinned to his chest.
That item was an accessory exclusive to Ministry officials, usually used to display identity and rank. The one on Cedric's chest was something only the Minister for Magic could possess.
In fact, it had originally been one of the relics of Cedric's ancestor, Eldritch Diggory.
Eldritch Diggory had once served as Minister for Magic. After he died of dragon pox in his office, the brooch was reclaimed and archived by the Ministry.
This time, Link had obtained it through old Barty and given it to Cedric as a Christmas gift.
What surprised him was that Mr. Diggory hadn't carefully stored away such a significant heirloom, but had instead let Cedric wear it.
It seemed Mr. Diggory had great expectations for Cedric.
After glancing at the brooch, Link smiled and said, "There's no need to be so polite between us. I really liked your gift too, Scherl is one of the few Quidditch players I truly admire."
Cedric nodded, taking that as a perfect opening, and leaned a bit closer to Link, lowering his voice.
"You've already heard about what's going on with Harry Potter, right?"
Link didn't speak, only nodded.
"I've already gathered all the details," Cedric continued.
"Sparlon, a seventh-year Ravenclaw student, half-blood, with a father who once worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"He joined forces with many ambitious near-graduates from all four Houses and pledged themselves to Umbridge, becoming the 'volunteers' she uses to get things done."
"In exchange, Umbridge promised to give them special bonus points in this year's N.E.W.T. exams and open up opportunities for them to take positions in any department of the Ministry of Magic."
Not only that, she also taught them the Disillusionment Charm and some other Auror spells and equipment in advance, without authorization.
After Umbridge clashed with Hagrid, they wanted to repay the favor, so they put Hagrid under round-the-clock surveillance.
The result is that Hagrid's secret of harboring a giant has now been exposed, and Harry Potter got dragged into it as well.
They're feeling extremely smug right now, and are even thinking of using this incident to demand more benefits from Umbridge and expand the size of the 'volunteer' team."
"So that's how it is. I understand." Link said thoughtfully.
After that, he went right back to chatting with others, the smile on his face unchanged, as if what Cedric had said were completely unimportant.
Only Cedric, sitting extremely close to him, noticed that a vein had already bulged on Link's pale neck.
Cedric chuckled quietly. He didn't ask what Link planned to do next, but instead joined in the table's conversation.
In his view, that kind of question was simply stupid.
He had known Link for over five years. If anyone truly understood Link, Emily might not even match him, and subordinates like Newland and Sigefin, who had popped up halfway, were even further behind.
Because of that, he had complete confidence in Link. Matters like this wouldn't stump him at all. As a partner, all Cedric needed to do was lay out the intelligence clearly and let Link know.
With Link and Cedric joining in, the atmosphere at the Hufflepuff table became even livelier.
Students who had gone home for the holidays vividly recounted the "Gringotts Heist."
Although the incident had been reported in the Daily Prophet, the detailed particulars and the various speculations from parents and elders were things the students who stayed at school could never have imagined.
As one outrageous conspiracy theory after another, so absurd that even Link, the person involved, didn't know whether to laugh or cry, was tossed out and triggered gasps of amazement from the Hufflepuffs, the stay-behind students naturally refused to be outdone.
So they began recounting everything about Harry Potter and Professor Hagrid secretly raising a giant.
However, their focus remained on how Professor McGonagall had shouted down Umbridge and used Dumbledore's name to force Umbridge to temporarily back off from Harry Potter and Hagrid.
As for the claim that Hagrid and Harry Potter wanted to control a giant to attack Hogwarts, they were more inclined to believe that it was Umbridge's slander.
After all, compared to Professor McGonagall, Umbridge left an extremely poor impression.
And people's sense of good and evil was inevitably influenced by personal likes and dislikes.
But just as the leading speaker was vividly describing the story between Professor McGonagall and Umbridge, about to reach its climax, he suddenly shut his mouth and shrank under the table at lightning speed, as if he'd seen a ghost.
The others were left bewildered, until a few students turned their heads and suddenly realized, at some point, Umbridge had appeared in the entrance hall.
And at that very moment, she was walking toward the Great Hall with several volunteer students in tow.