HP: It's a snake, not a badger.

Chapter 37 College Cup

The blood voluntarily donated by unicorns, the blood and tears of phoenixes, the blood and saliva of qilin, and the slime of giant squid were all laid out on the principal's office table.

"Now all that's left is the blood of the Thunderbird and the blood of my family. I need to find Newt for the Thunderbird's blood, but I should have enough blood from my family."

Dumbledore fiddled with several small red bottles, wondering if it was the right choice to call back his deceased loved ones, but he really missed Ariana, his sister.

"Time reveals itself."

Dumbledore hid the crystal bottles carefully. Today was the last day of the semester, and he was going to the Great Hall to announce the winner of the House Cup.

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"This is delicious. Remy, could you pass me the apple pie over there?"

"Here you go, I'll take the fried dumplings from your side."

The Hufflepuff badgers love feasts, and they always get to eat a lot of good food at them. Since Emeric arrived, they get to eat even more.

The situation was similar at the Gryffindor table, where Harry and Ron had sauce all over their mouths. Harry glanced at the Slytherin table as he ate, where Draco was elegantly sipping Emerick's special blueberry juice.

He couldn't help but exclaim how cute Draco was; his lips were stained a deep purplish-red, making him look incredibly kissable. Thinking of this, Harry blushed. They had kissed before; Draco's lips were soft, fragrant, and sweet—he loved them.

"Harry, this is so delicious, why are you blushing while eating?"

"It's nothing, keep eating."

Ron looked up and saw Harry blushing. He didn't understand but respected Harry's decision, and stuffed a delicious chicken leg into Harry's mouth.

Draco initially wanted to drink grape juice to pretend he was mature, but after being shown the grape juice making process by Emery, he thought all other juices were pretty good.

At the Ravenclaw and Slytherin long table, the hawks and snakes ate the food elegantly. Although it wasn't as lively as Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, they were enjoying their meal, as evidenced by the speed at which the snakes moved their knives and forks.

"Clang, clang, clang"

"Alright, children, now for the most exciting part! We're about to present the House Cup. The scores are: 4th place Gryffindor 277 points, 3rd place Ravenclaw 303 points, 2nd place Hufflepuff 397 points, and 1st place Slytherin 436 points."

"However, some recent events also need to be taken into account, and I will award some points for those."

"First up, Miss Hermione Granger, who can think calmly when faced with danger, is awarded 50 points."

"The second player, Mr. Ron Weales, won the greatest game of chess at Hogwarts in recent years, adding 50 points."

"The third one, Mr. Harry Potter, gets 50 points for his extraordinary courage and fearless boldness."

Finally, for…

"Cough cough"

"Is this the end of the bonus points?" Emeric squinted and coughed twice. Noticing Dumbledore looking at him, he raised his cup and toasted Dumbledore.

"For Mr. Emeric Thaddeus, who saved the unicorn from poaching, add 50 points."

"The winner of the House Cup is: Slytherin."

As the words fell, the green Slytherin House flag was hung all over the Great Hall, marking Slytherin's seventh House Cup victory.

The little snake on the long table demurely raised its cup and toasted the other houses. Emeric looked at Severus's satisfied expression and chuckled.

As Dumbledore's points increased, Severus's face darkened. Originally, Emeric had no interest in the Academy Cup, but since his sweetheart wanted it, he would give it to him.

Severus noticed Emeric's gaze, raised his cup and tilted it towards him, approving of his actions in stopping Dumbledore.

"Children, here is some advice for you. Do not use magic while you are away from school unless you are with an adult wizard. Your wands contain tracking threads, so control yourselves if you don't want to receive shouting letters and tickets."

"Now enjoy the banquet and summer vacation."

Dumbledore stretched out his wand and pointed it into the air, and a shower of ribbons and candies fell from the sky, landing on the young wizard.

Harry, carrying a heart-shaped candy, sneaked into the Slytherin pile to find Draco.

"Can I visit you during summer vacation? I don't want to go so long without seeing you."

"I'll go home and ask my dad. If that doesn't work, I'll write to you every day."

Emeric listened to the couple's mushy conversation, then turned his back to them and rolled his eyes. Weren't they both incredibly bored? It's just a summer vacation apart; weren't they tired of being together every day during school?

He had no reason to write to Severus, who wanted to meet. Driven by jealousy, someone prepared to write to Lucius, inviting his family to his estate in Sadius, Germany.

But soon Emeric had a brilliant idea. He was very grateful to his past self for inviting the Potions Master to visit the herb garden in order to earn pocket money. Wouldn't that be reasonable? To make it even more reasonable, he could add some requests, such as exchanging potions for herbs.

This way, Severus could stay at his house for a while, and as long as he could participate in the research during this period, he would have a reason to follow Severus home later.

Otherwise, given Severus's personality, he might come back from summer vacation looking haggard again. He'd probably be holed up in the potions room every day, only remembering to eat when he was starving, and eating whatever was available, otherwise just going hungry.

"Allie, wait a minute, Gellert needs to see you." Dumbledore called out to Emerick, who was about to leave the Great Hall. If it weren't for Gale looking for him, Dumbledore wouldn't have wanted to see Emerick at this time.

Clearly, he knew how excessive his extra points had been; if Emeric hadn't stopped him, his heart would have already turned to France.

After agreeing, Emmerich went back to his dormitory to take a look, then took all his homework and went straight to the principal's office. He said he had everything else at home and didn't need to bring it.

"Gellert, what do you want with me?"

"Eri's future has changed, and I don't know if that's a good thing. I can't see the future now."

Emeric's expression changed slightly. The reason he transferred schools wasn't just because he thought it would be fun, but also because of Gellert's prophecy: a child born from nature has no compassion in his heart, so nature refuses to acknowledge his existence, and eventually the child will return to the embrace of the gods.

Since that prophecy, Gellert could no longer see his future, and as he grew older, he could no longer see the future of those around him.

Gellert wanted to change Dumbledore's future; he wanted to survive. That was his real reason for being at Hogwarts.

"I think the predetermined future has changed. The Albanian forest acknowledges my existence, although I still don't know what pity is."

"Albus's fate won't turn out that way anymore. Gellert is alright now. Stop prying into fate. My inherited memories tell me that false fates become real through constant prying."

"I understand, don't worry." Gellert patted the child who was hugging him to reassure him.

"Gellert, I need someone skilled in hand-to-hand combat to teach Harry fighting techniques. It's time for the Saints to return to the stage; let the Death Eaters experience the charm of the first Dark Wizard!"

"Of course, my child, cheers for our unpredictable future."

Having resolved their biggest concern, the elderly and the young prepared to tackle another problem.