章節 25: Objection!
Nagini was excited to finally be able to leave her confinement in the female dormitories and already made plans with Aurelius to visit Diagon Alley soon after returning. They also discussed how to present the situation to his mothers and not get the wrong idea, believing their son was precocious and had other thoughts.
Silvia had proven to be an excellent friend and business partner; perhaps it was from making so much soap or helping with the other products, but she seemed to have sparked an insatiable desire to learn the crafting arts; she even learned to imbue carving tools with "memory" so that they follow the preset actions to produce large amounts of the same product without having to hire workers. She single-handedly created factory automation on a large scale. Simple tasks like sweeping have been done to things like brooms, but never this complex and on mass. Aurelius supported her development by providing materials and books to reference.
Hermione had helped with research and implementation of ideas, but her true potential emerged when Aurelius suggested she take a part-time job as his secretary. Thanks to her passion for scheduling, note-taking, and planning, the little witch had a blast while earning even more money than she did as an assistant. She also insisted that it was never too early to accumulate work experience to add to her resume. She will become a super manager without knowing how to do individual jobs.
The Weasley twins joined him as distributors throughout Hogwarts for a fee per product sold. They also seem to have noticed that Aurelius didn't particularly like Ron. They fully understood why. Table manners aside, anyone would be upset when someone takes credit for their accomplishments and even alters the story beyond belief. *cough* I'm talking about a particular blonde-haired git *cough*
While in the library, he saw the oddest but reasonable thing. Aurelius saw Harry and Ron looking at books in the library about who Nicolas Flamel was. After an hour without getting the answer they were looking for, they gave up without hesitation and went to Hermione for the answer.
Hermione brushed them off when they asked her to look into it. They treated her looking into it was more important than what she was doing. As if she didn't have her priorities and responsibilities, she left with her books and decided to study at the Galegold common room.
Harry was startled, and it took Ron a few seconds to understand what had happened. He would've started to throw a loud tantrum if it wasn't for his lips being stuck together inexplicably. Madam Pince gave Aurelius a look because she noticed him moving his hands when it occurred but couldn't care less for the loudmouth ginger. The little wizard needed a lesson in manners, so she didn't particularly care who gave it to him.
What prompted this behavior was a lesson that Hermione wouldn't soon forget. Aurelius asked her, "Why invest time and effort in ungrateful people who would only give you a perfunctory thank you? Other people see your efforts and how valuable your assistance is, so why not focus on them?"
He waited for her to answer, but she gave no response, only looking down, so he did something she didn't expect him to do. He took her head into his chest and said that she didn't have to be strong in front of him. She broke down, saying she just wanted to make friends and didn't want to live in a house of strangers, so she did what she knew to try to make friends, but it didn't work; however, she was adamant that she had to continue to try.
'While I appreciate her determination, she's pushing her efforts in the wrong direction regardless of its relevance to me.' I thought unselfishly.
"Hermione, do you know the saying about doing the same thing and expecting different results?" I asked her gently.
"I believe it was the scientist Albert Einstein, and I believe the saying was insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results," said Hermione trying to divert her thoughts from her feelings.
"You say you didn't have any friends. I think it's safe to say that since you're insecure about that, that was the case before Hogwarts." I said with confidence but an equally gentle tone.
She begins looking down and gives a slight nod.
"Are you doing what you did in school to make friends?" I asked her, already knowing the answer.
She gives another slight nod.
"You either need to adapt to your audience, or you need to pick a different audience. Honestly, I think you'd make excellent friends with those in Ravenclaw. Honestly, I'm surprised you weren't sorted in Ravenclaw immediately. Not to say that there aren't intelligent people in Gryffindor, but your values and qualities scream Ravenclaw." Aurelius said with a serious but joking tone towards the end.
"The sorting hat said as much, but I wanted to be in Gryffindor because the greatest wizard, the headmaster, was in Gryffindor. And the hat said that I was fairly courageous since one of my greatest fears is rejection, and I face that quite a bit." Said the bushy-haired witch.
"I agree with the part of you being courageous for doing that, but the first part I find to be quite flawed reasoning given that the name everyone swears by was a Slytherin," I said in confusion.
"Wait, really? Who? Wait a minute... Ah, you're referring to Merlin." She said, both bewildered and confident.
"As for adapting to your audience of Gryffindor. You can emulate those who are already well-regarded, popular, or well-received. Granted, it's harder to fake than changing your audience, but the saying fake it till you make it applies here." I told her.
With his lessons, Aurelius got Hermione to overcome her impulses to not stubbornly impose her views on others because there will always be those who are stubborn regardless of how many facts and logical reasonings you throw at them, especially those who live in the house known for their stubbornness.
He even got her to value herself and her time. He told her to brush off anyone who didn't value her time enough to request at least a trade, be it monetary or favor for a favor. While friendship is nice, it comes with mutual respect, and people like Ronald haven't earned your respect or given you any respect. She took that, especially to heart, and realized she might loathe the Slytherin-hating git.
It was only when Aurelius discovered the two's inability to question teachers or look at a book for more than an hour that he bumped into the corner of their table they were studying and "accidentally" dropped a Nicolas Flamel chocolate frog card right in front of Ron and Harry's eyes. Who, after reading the card, didn't even give it back to Aurelius. I get that they're excited, but come on, they couldn't even return the damn thing to the person that passed by them.
Several days later, Ron and Harry showed up in the infirmary wing, and everyone talked about their late-night adventure. Ron only received minor bruises and contusions due to failing to keep his cool when they encountered the devil's snare. Luckily for him, Harry somehow managed to remember the Lumos Solem spell taught by Professor Sprout and saved him. Ronald then got more bruises and a minor concussion from getting knocked out after hitting the ground from getting blown off his horse in wizards chess. Harry had slight burns on top of the fact that his hair was burned off completely, along with one eyebrow. It turned out that during the fire riddle, he made a mistake and drank nettle wine. He got through on the second attempt to confront the possessed Quirrell. The next thing he remembers is waking up in the infirmary. After taking a hair growth potion and some ointments, the two appeared at dinner in the Great Dining Hall.
Dumbledore gives out his points, which surprisingly have sound reasoning. Granted, they gave more context than an obscene number of points for ridiculous reasons such as "for the best-played game of chess that Hogwarts has seen in many years." Aurelius was only awarded 30 points for developing an entirely new potion and did the proper thing of giving partial credit where it was due. So, the canon reason would be only more ridiculous.
"For Ronald Weasley, I award Gryffindor 60 points for aiding Harry Potter in stopping Quirrell from stealing a valuable artifact from Hogwarts by willingly sacrificing himself in a life-sized version of wizards chess that was housed in the third corridor holding various traps to prevent the stealing of the artifact."
"For Harry Potter, I award Gryffindor 70 points for directly facing Quirrell, stopping him from obtaining the artifact, knowing that he likely would lose his life."
"Wait, so you're saying that you discovered this by relying on the words of those two or that you were already aware that a potential thief that could harm the students was in the castle, and you willingly endangered those two given that you would have to know this was happening?" said an irate six-year Ravenclaw.
'Well damn, a girl after my own heart. A shame that we aren't closer in age.' I thought.
"We were aware that a thief would make an attempt for the artifact, but Hogwarts has some of the most powerful wards to outsiders, so a thief being able to break into the castle would be seen as unfathomable. Additionally, we were caught completely unaware that the person would be our very own colleague whom we've known for years, especially one who seemed to have lost much of his courage due to his trauma. After all, would you reasonably believe that Professor Quirrell would have been the thief of all people? As for the story, we obtained the information through their words, their memories that we viewed through a pensieve, and evidence found at the investigation site." said Dumbledore.
"And finally, for Neville Longbottom, I award him 10 points for standing against his friends from making a risky move despite his timid nature."
'Well damn, those are all good points. Well played Dumbledore, well played.' I thought, genuinely impressed.
The rest of the students were also satisfied with this reasoning, while some still had doubts about their safety; however, they were overwhelmed by the solid reasoning. The banners shifted to red and gold, signifying their winning by 10 points, but before they could celebrate properly.
"Headmaster, I can respect those two for their actions and even applaud them for their results; however, I cannot abide by your awarding them points. The only person whose actions warrant points is Neville Longbottom." I said confidently, cutting through all the noise with the sonorous charm.
Gryffindor stopped moving with glee and looked at Aurelius with annoyance as if they had been force-fed a bitter potion. Only a few lions, like Hermione, were too embarrassed at the blatant show of favoritism due to the surge of points. When they got points for being saviors despite her savior getting no points for stopping the troll from claiming a student's life, namely hers, she had her pride as a proper witch and would win on her own merits.
The teachers were just as surprised, but even Professor McGonagall was attentive. She wasn't against her lions being recognized for their achievements but giving her house an obscene number of points for the foolishness of Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter ground on her pride as a lioness. For Merlin's sake, they didn't even notify anyone. She loved her lions, but she wasn't one for blatant favoritism. Her pride as the headmistress of Hogwarts made her seek fairness.
"And pray tell, is your reasoning Mr. Galegold?" said the somewhat irked Dumbledore.
"Their actions are a direct violation of all the precedents you've set both by explicit instruction and by how the points were distributed throughout the year."
Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff started muttering amongst themselves out of surprise. They did not expect anyone to dare to act at that moment. Even the Slytherin were surprised but listened along carefully. Going so blatantly against the headmaster, whose roles gave him so much authority both inside the school and outside. And if his objections ended up with Gryffindor not getting any favoritism for years to come, it would be so worth it. While Galegold was ahead of Slytherin, being beaten stung their pride. They could respect that he hadn't lost any points and had earned every point he received. It was just a plus that Gryffindor would be in last place.
"My taking down of the troll to save another student was not awarded points to set a precedent of not endangering ourselves by not retreating against a threat that we are likely not equipped to handle. By giving 5 points to all three of us present, Potter and Weasley, for attempting to retrieve Ms. Granger to follow the others back to their common room, and myself, who came to retrieve them to follow me back to their common room, made it sufficiently clear that our accomplishments outside of being students listening to our professors shall not be awarded regardless of their impressiveness; however, you are contradicting that very precedent that you set by awarding their accomplishments. According to your statement, they also entered a place that you deemed as too dangerous that you'd be foolhardy to attempt that it might as well be a suicide attempt. Your awarding points go directly against the precedent you set that we shouldn't endanger ourselves and rely on authority figures by contacting them. Also, rewarding that behavior sets a dangerous precedent that attempting foolhardy actions, as long as you get results, should be praised and rewarded."
The other students murmured, and the older students nodded in agreement. The Gryffindor older years, while annoyed, didn't voice their opinion because of the sound reasoning. The younger years were more vocal about him wanting to win the cup.
'I don't deny nor agree with their accusations because, regardless, they've drawn their lines, and the most stubborn of all the houses, especially the younger years, wouldn't move that line regardless of how many facts smacked them in the face.'
Dumbledore takes the measures of all the students and then takes a look at all the other teachers and a final look at the head of house Gryffindor, who was also the headmistress of Hogwarts where she must remain as impartial as possible gives a curt nod, so they all come to the agreement that Mr. Galegold is right.
"The staff have all come to a final decision that Mr. Galegold is correct, and as such, the winner of the house cup is House Galegold!!!"
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