As Armothas was going to Hagrid's house, he could feel the atmosphere of the house not as pleasant as he had imagined.
Firstly, it was Hermione, who became famous after the daytime battle and won the match. When she saw him walking into the house, she immediately stood up from Hagrid's bed and her hands were tightly clasped, her eyes darting nervously and unwilling to meet his gaze. Hagrid, on the other hand, was also staring at the standing corner with teary eyes of Womble.
"Professor Brian-"
The person who opened the door was Ron. Upon seeing Professor Bryce, Ron's expression flickered with a hint of constraint. Unlike Harry and Hermione, Ron, who had given up the sports class, now rarely had face-to-face opportunities with Professor Bryce. The most frequent place where they met was in the Great Hall of the school.
Armothas also felt the slight abnormality in Ron's expression. He smiled gently at Ron and patted his shoulder before entering the house.
This casual gesture, however, left Ron standing in place, looking helpless and at a loss for words.
"How are you, Sirius Black?"
After scanning the room with his gaze, Armothas took in everyone's emotions. Then, he walked directly to Hagrid's bed (Hermione quickly made way for him).
Sirius Black's eyes were covered with a bandage, and the inner part was ointment. He knew who had come in by the sound of Ron's greeting.
"Not bad at all—"
Sirius Black sighed with a bitter smile,
"But I'm afraid you'll have to help me take a leave of absence from Mrs. Bones, Hermione's move was to help you, Armothas—"
Armothas laughed heartily upon hearing this, while Hermione looked so upset that she was on the verge of tears.
"I'm sorry, Professor, I-"
Hermione lowered her head, wanting to express her apology, but there seemed to be too many things to apologize for. She didn't know where to start.
"You did very well today, worthy of my instruction—"
Hermione looked defeated, and Armothas knew why. He spoke gently,
"I guess you're thinking that if today's Chinese fire-ball dragon wasn't impersonated by Sirius, you couldn't have passed the test. But I want to tell you that things are quite the opposite."
That was indeed the one issue Hermione was most concerned about after learning everything from Harry. She looked up at Professor Bryce, her eyes wide with astonishment.
"I'm sorry, Professor Bryce, I'm not quite clear--"
"I believe Sirius has already told you that I intentionally created some difficulties for you. If you were facing a real fire-ball dragon, I think your summoning charm was enough to solve the problem at the beginning. So there's no need to overthink it, Hermione. Your excellence is evident."
"So..."
Armothas moved his gaze from the greatly touched Hermione's face to the corner where the house-trained wizarding creature was standing.
"Did you educate Womble, right?"
"It admitted quite readily, didn't it?"
Hagrid sighed and slapped his head.
"But it's hard to make a house-trained wizarding creature realize that helping its owner overcome difficulties is not the right thing to do."
Armothas nodded, then fell silent.
He recalled the scene he had witnessed in the underground cavern of Azkaban island, within the secret lair of the despicable Harlpy, where thousands of house-trained wizarding creatures had been decapitated and their hands were amputated to form steps, trampled upon by anyone. That sight, even for a well-versed Armothas, had caused a chill to run down his spine at first glance.
The "History of Hogwarts" clearly states that the first person to employ house-elves at Hogwarts was Helga Hufflepuff. Even so great a witch, however, could not completely eliminate the slave mentality that was etched into the souls of these creatures from their origins. One can imagine that when Harlpy created these creatures, the evil intent he put into it was quite extraordinary.
"Come to me, little one--"
Armothas sat down, waving at Womble in the corner.
The silence from Professor Bryce made Hermione's heart skip a beat. Womble's impulsive behavior had almost ruined the Triwizard Tournament and made Hogwarts a laughing stock. If Professor Bryce didn't get angry, it would be strange. So when Professor Bryce called Womble over, Hermione's face turned pale immediately, and she rushed out to intercept it in front of it.
"Womble only... only, it's not its fault, Professor. This is my fault. I had previously asked Womble to cheer me on in the competition. It didn't understand my meaning. Professor Bryce, if you want to punish someone, it should be me who should be punished!"
Harry and Ron both looked worried. To be honest, they didn't think Professor Bryce would have any beef with a house-trained wizarding creature. However, Hermione's stubbornness about this matter was causing them headaches. Hermione had even set up a House-Elf Rights Promotion Association and got everyone around to join the association. It wasn't until she was chosen as a champion that the matter exhausted so much of her energy that it might have calmed down by now.
"It's all Womble's fault, Womble caused a great inconvenience for Mrs. Weasley, Womble is willing to accept any punishment from the great Professor Bryce!"
Womble darted out from behind Hermione's calf, tears streaming down its face as it stared at Armothas,
"Womble only hopes that Mr. Bryce won't kick Womble out--"
"Armothas--"
Seeing the humble Womble, Hagrid felt a pang of guilt in his heart. To be honest, Womble had helped him a lot, and they had become friends. If Armothas were to kick Womble out of Hogwarts, he couldn't really accept that either.
"Putting little Womble in detention is fine, but since there wasn't any serious damage done, could you maybe--"
"I'm not planning to give you any punishment, Womble, as long as you don't give me another 'surprise' like today, after all--"
Armothas's tone was gentle,
"In any case, it was I who brought you into this world--"
Womble's big eyes, full of tears, shook violently, a sense of confusion arose from the bottom of his heart. It seemed that there was a crack in the soul of the house-trained wizarding creature at the last moment.
Hermione was already in tears. She looked at Professor Bryce with uncontrollable excitement, recalling the moment when they saved Rhiannon and Womble together.
"Come on, little one, lie down on the bed here, I need to give you a check-up--"
Armothas stood up and gave Womble the place,
A check-up?
The people in the room all looked confused. Womble hadn't been injured; what kind of check-up did he need?
Womble instinctively declined, hesitant and worried. It was just a house-trained wizarding creature, and the opportunity to lie on a wizard's bed was only to lay the bed and make the blankets. How could it lie down on a wizard's bed? That was simply against all laws! However, Professor Bryce's orders must be obeyed, so Womble hesitantly climbed onto Hagrid's bed and lay down as instructed.
"What are you going to do, Armothas?"
Sirius stepped back towards the wall, his eyes still hurt too much to see, but he had heard every word of the conversation.
"I want to take a look--"
Armothas bent down, telling Womble to relax, then he extended one finger to touch Womble's forehead.
"The soul of a house-trained wizarding creature--"
The instant the words were spoken, a gust of wind suddenly appeared in the comfortable room. No one noticed that the illusion magic shining on Armothas's eyes had shattered. Only Womble saw that the wonderful and bright purple eyes of the great Professor Bryce suddenly turned into gem-like purplish purple, then its consciousness was blurred and immersed in the deep, enticing purple eyes.
Midnight.
The candelabrum in Professor Armothas's office was one of the last to be extinguished among hundreds of rooms in Hogwarts.
Most of the guests who attended the banquet had already left through the temporarily opened Floo Network, leaving only a few guests to stay overnight, and they were all hoping to take this rare opportunity to communicate with Professor Armothas.
By the time he returned to his office, a new day had already arrived.
The powerful magic and mental strength given to Armothas gave him the energy that ordinary wizards do not possess. He pulled out a magic book from the shelf and quietly flipped through it under the quiet candlelight.
His strength had reached a bottleneck, and to break through this barrier, he could only rely on the relentless accumulation of small drops and opportunities--
As he flipped through the books, Armothas's mind recalled the curse he had seen in Womble's soul. It was a curse that had been present in its soul from the moment it was born, when its life first began to glow with spirit.
The core of this curse is still——
Knock-knock.
Deep in thought, Armothas snapped out of it and looked towards the door. He raised his eyebrows in surprise, then closed the magic book and spoke calmly,
"Come in, Ron--"
(Chapter ends)
