Professor McGonagall's public announcement about Hogwarts opening a Love Class was spread by the Young Wizards who witnessed it to those who weren't present in a very short amount of time.
As a result, during dinner, the Hogwarts Great Hall was even livelier than usual, with everyone excitedly discussing which Professor would be the one to teach the Love Class.
"It must be a Professor whose own romantic life is going smoothly," one Young Wizard asserted.
"Not necessarily; maybe the Professors want to use their own failed experiences to warn us," another Young Wizard immediately retorted as soon as the first one finished speaking.
"Failed romantic experiences!" The first Young Wizard stared at him in disbelief. "Are you sure you want the Professors to talk about that? Wouldn't that be reopening their old wounds?"
The Young Wizard who had retorted opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing.
It was true; that really would be like rubbing salt in someone's wounds. If it were him... he probably wouldn't want to mention a failed romance ever again.
At the Ravenclaw Table, Amanda, Hermione, Cho Chang, and Marietta Eckmore were also discussing the matter.
Hermione highly praised Professor McGonagall's decision, agreeing wholeheartedly. "The introduction of such a class is truly meaningful. All schools should teach it, honestly."
"Well, that's true," Marietta Eckmore said, scratching her hair, "but wouldn't the Professors feel embarrassed when they talk about it?"
"What's there to be embarrassed about? The ability to love someone is the greatest and most precious ability humans have evolved to possess. Learning how to love others while also loving oneself—what a beautiful thing that is."
Hermione spoke with great conviction, her head resting on her small hands. Cho Chang silently gave her a thumbs-up next to Marietta Eckmore, and Marietta Eckmore nodded in agreement.
Amanda sat in the middle of the group without saying a word, her mind racing with thoughts, making her movements as she ate dinner appear mechanical.
"Amanda, what are you thinking about?" Seeing Amanda like this, Hermione couldn't help but reach out and gently poke her shoulder.
Quickly snapping out of her thoughts, the mechanical feeling around Amanda diminished by more than half.
She turned to look at Hermione and spoke in a calm, flat voice, "I'm thinking about Filch."
"Filch?" Hermione frowned. To be honest, she didn't have a very good impression of the Castle Caretaker; or rather, none of the Young Wizards had a good impression of him.
"Didn't you say he was sent back to his office by Professor McGonagall?"
"Yes," Amanda nodded certainly.
"Then why are you still thinking about him?" Cho Chang looked at Amanda in confusion, habitually placing a cup of pumpkin juice by her hand to replace the now-empty Goblet.
Amanda would step in to solve problems at critical moments, and in daily life, they looked after her like a child. Now, it wasn't just Cho Chang who was used to this; everyone around Amanda was accustomed to it.
"Filch has psychological issues," Amanda said, her brow furrowing. "If these psychological issues aren't resolved, he might become an internal hidden danger for Hogwarts in the future."
"His hostility toward the Young Wizards is too strong, which could very likely lead him to make incorrect decisions later on."
"Hmm," Hermione nodded thoughtfully. "So what do you plan to do? Go talk to him?"
"I'll try talking first; it would be best if we can reach an understanding," Amanda replied expressionlessly. "If we can't..."
Amanda didn't finish the sentence, but her meaning was clear.
If they couldn't reach an understanding, then Filch would have to be asked to leave Hogwarts. Facing a future where they might have to fight against Voldemort, Hogwarts must be a monolith.
Filch had been willing to stand with Umbridge when she targeted the Hogwarts Young Wizards. If this attitude wasn't corrected, he would become the most obvious flaw in the future monolith of Hogwarts.
Of course, considering Filch's age and the fact that he was a Squib, Amanda would provide him with a suitable job.
At least enough to ensure he wouldn't starve after leaving Hogwarts.
As for how Amanda knew he was a Squib, the analysis was actually quite simple.
First, in the four-plus years Amanda had been at school, she had never seen Filch use magic once. One must realize that cleaning Hogwarts Castle was a "massive undertaking."
Even if students serving detention occasionally helped him clean, it would still be enough to exhaust an elderly man. In such a situation, it was impossible that he simply didn't want to use magic and preferred manual labor.
Such a thought contradicted human logic. Amanda didn't believe Filch would have a mindset that was so difficult for an ordinary person to understand or even imagine.
Second was Filch's attitude toward the Young Wizards. As the Hogwarts Castle Caretaker, he was responsible for managing the Hogwarts Castle corridors and the cleanliness of Hogwarts.
From this perspective, it was normal for him to feel hostility toward those who frequently played pranks in the corridors—even pranking him—such as the Weasley Twins, or those who disrupted Hogwarts' cleanliness. In fact, it would be abnormal if he didn't feel some hostility.
However, he clearly harbored absolute hostility toward all other Young Wizards as well. Just like today, seeing two Young Wizards about to be punished by Umbridge, he was inwardly cheering and even eager to become Umbridge's accomplice.
This was enough to show Filch's psychological issues; he was hostile, even resentful, toward all Young Wizards.
Searching through the memory images in her mind related to Filch for analysis, his eyes and micro-expressions revealed another emotion besides anger and hostility: a faint sense of jealousy.
When he looked at the Young Wizards, he felt anger and hostility, but also jealousy. Based on Amanda's deduction, the most logical reason for this was that Filch was a Squib.
Furthermore, it was highly likely that someone—perhaps a Young Wizard formerly at Hogwarts—had discovered he was a Squib and mocked him for it. This was why he harbored such complex emotions toward the Young Wizards who could learn magic at Hogwarts.
Anger, hostility, jealousy—of course, if these three emotions were directed only at the specific Young Wizard he had a conflict with, Amanda would find it understandable, even blaming the Young Wizard who had mocked him.
But Filch projected these emotions onto all Hogwarts Young Wizards and even turned against his own side because of them. That was not behavior Amanda could condone.
It was fortunate that Mother Rowena and Mother Helga weren't here; otherwise, after what happened before dinner, he and Umbridge might have been thrown out of Hogwarts together.
After all, the two of them were older than Headmaster Dumbledore—not just in terms of age. They certainly had the authority to expel a Castle Caretaker from Hogwarts.
Amanda was prepared to give Filch one last chance. If he still couldn't realize he was wrong and that he needed to change...
Then she really would have to find her two mothers and ask Filch to leave Hogwarts. He would be a liability that absolutely could not be kept.
Any hidden danger that could harm Hermione, her friends, or the Professors had to be eliminated as much as possible.
Understanding the unspoken second half of Amanda's sentence, Marietta Eckmore put down her knife and fork. "Filch definitely won't like you approaching him with that goal. Do you need us to go with you?"
Amanda tilted her head and blinked. "No need. It's just Filch."
It was just Filch; he posed no threat to Amanda at all. If several Young Wizards went together, including her, they might actually scare something out of him.
"Don't worry, Senior Marietta," Hermione said softly, reaching out to hug Amanda's arm and explaining for her. "With Amanda's abilities, whatever Filch might want to do to her, he won't succeed."
After saying this, Hermione didn't forget to "add a patch" for Amanda. Although Amanda shouldn't have those kinds of problems anymore, just in case...
So she turned back and looked steadily at Amanda, choosing her words carefully. "Amanda, since you know Filch is hostile to Young Wizards and sides with outsiders, you must not let him say a single bad thing about you or let him punish you, okay? Don't listen to anything he says or take it to heart. Just determine if he's willing to change his current mindset."
Listening to Hermione, Amanda nodded without any change in expression. "I understand. Thank you for the reminder, Hermione."
In truth, she wasn't as rigid as before. She would now only listen to reasonable instructions from Professors she acknowledged.
Unfortunately, Filch was clearly not within that scope.
After dinner, Hermione, Cho Chang, and Marietta Eckmore went back to the Dormitory first, while Amanda headed straight for Filch's office. Arriving at the door, she raised her hand and knocked politely.
Knock, knock, knock... Three slow and polite knocks sounded. Filch, who was rubbing his arm in the office, looked toward the door with a gloomy face.
"Come in," he said hoarsely, and Amanda pushed the door open and walked in.
Filch's pupils contracted sharply. He jumped up from his chair and uncontrollably took two steps back as he saw Amanda enter.
Then, realizing what he had done, he stopped and put on a vicious expression toward Amanda.
"What are you here for? To throw me out again?!"
Amanda didn't even blink, and the door to Filch's office behind her slammed shut with a "bang," startling Filch into taking another two steps back.
"I think you've misunderstood something, Mr. Filch," Amanda said in a calm, steady voice, completely unaffected by Filch's hostility. "I have no hobby of throwing people out."
"But I must say, my action of throwing you out before dinner was your own doing."
"You're saying I deserved to be thrown out by your magic!" Filch looked at the little Witch before him in disbelief. How could she say such a thing!
And to think McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, even Snape, and that Headmaster Dumbledore all liked her and thought she was a good student?
They must all be fooled by her. Look at what she's saying to old Filch, the Castle Caretaker—saying he deserved to be thrown out by her magic!
"Did you not deserve to be thrown out by me?"
Amanda raised an eyebrow, and her aura instantly surpassed that of the angry Filch. A person's pressure doesn't have to be shown through anger; those who can only show their authority through anger are the incompetent ones.
"You are the Caretaker of Hogwarts Castle. You should stand on the side of Hogwarts. You should stand on the side of the Young Wizards of Hogwarts. And yet, you unhesitatingly stood with Umbridge and the Ministry of Magic."
"If that's not deserving of being thrown out by me, what is?"
"That's because there are Ministry of Magic regulations," Filch shouted, stiffening his neck to hold his ground.
"But the Ministry of Magic's regulations are not recognized by Hogwarts, not recognized by the Professors, and certainly not recognized by the Young Wizards. They are more useless than paper in a trash can."
"You only support those useless regulations and work for Umbridge because you hate the Young Wizards and think those rules will make them miserable. You do it willingly, even happily."
"Am I right?"
Amanda unceremoniously stripped away Filch's last shred of dignity. His face turned red with anger and embarrassment. If he didn't know he was no match for the little Witch before him, he would have wanted to lunge forward and choke her to make her stop.
"I'll say it again: you are a person of Hogwarts. You should stand with Hogwarts and its Young Wizards."
Amanda narrowed her eyes slightly, increasing the pressure on Filch. His legs even began to tremble slightly, and a faint fear of the little Witch before him filled his heart.
"I came here today to reason with you and to give you a warning, Mr. Filch. If you cannot adjust your mindset and stop being hostile toward the students of Hogwarts, I will have no choice but to ask my mothers to remove you from Hogwarts. Of course, I will provide you with a new job."
"Hogwarts will face many challenges in the future. We cannot tolerate the presence of someone who might betray us at any moment."
"Now answer me, Mr. Filch. Will you give up your hostility toward the Young Wizards from now on?"
Filch's aged face twitched a few times. He clenched his fists tightly. Madam Norris lay at his feet, not daring to move. "I will. I definitely will."
"A wise choice, Mr. Filch. I hope you keep your word. I'll be watching you."
Amanda nodded with satisfaction, her expression still unchanged. "I'm sorry for taking up your time. Goodnight, Mr. Filch."
Politely bidding Filch farewell, Amanda turned briskly. The door to Filch's office opened automatically, and she strode out.
Inside the office, Filch slumped into his chair, staring blankly at Madam Norris at his feet.
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