Among the four Hogwarts Houses, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff belong to relatively moderate centrists, while the two Houses, Gryffindor and Slytherin were at opposite extremes, with a hostile competitive relationship, and they never agreed with each other.
However, this hostility and competition were within the scope of the school rules.
In the words of Fred and George, they all knew where to draw the line. There might be people, who would occasionally cross one or two toes, but before getting into trouble, they would immediately withdraw, otherwise they would be severely punished by the school rules.
But at noon that day, the atmosphere in the Great Hall was very strange.
Evan was keenly aware of what seemed to happen between the Gryffindor and Slytherin Houses.
The tension between the two sides had reached the limit. That was something that had never happened before.
Evan, Colin and Ginny just walked in and saw the students of Slytherin House, headed by Malfoy, staring at them with contempt.
Harry and Ron hurried up to meet them, and welcomed them to the Gryffindor table.
Looking carefully at the way they were cautious with each other, Evan suspected that if not for the professors sitting on the teacher's seats, they would fight immediately.
"What's going on here?" Evan sat down beside Hermione.
"It spread everywhere in the school, Sirius and Snape had a duel." Hermione whispered, and her voice was full of worries.
"Duel?!" Evan froze. "We saw it at the school gate yesterday…"
"Not that time, it happened this morning. The two of them fought in the staffroom. Several passing Hufflepuff students witnessed the whole duel!" said Hermione. "The movement was very big at that time, until Dumbledore came forward and the two men stopped."
Evan was amazed. No wonder he didn't see Sirius and Snape in the Great Hall this morning. He thought that they had finished their breakfast early. Who could have imagined that they were actually fighting upstairs?! No wonder Snape was so abnormal this morning and was so bad for everyone.
"Sirius is too impulsive. He had already fought Snape twice with the first day of school…" said Hermione.
Evan was not much surprised, Sirius and Snape's duel, anyway, was bound to happen, but he did not expect it to come so soon.
Until one would emerge as a clear victor, the two of them will definitely keep on fighting.
"Now since we know that there was a duel, what is the outcome?"
"It wasn't completed; they've been separated by Dumbledore!" Hermione continued. "But after class Sirius told us that he could beat Snape within just a few more minutes."
In Evan's view, this sentence should be Sirius speaking out to save face. Snape should be stronger than him.
Over a decade ago, they might had been evenly matched. But Sirius had been in Azkaban for thirteen years after all, and his magic and fighting skills have regressed, while Snape had made great progress.
If they continued the fight, Sirius was likely to lose to Snape.
But with Sirius's fighting style, Snape would certainly pay a considerable price even if he finally won the duel.
In short, if other external forces and environmental impacts were not taken into account, the outcome of the duel should be defeats and losses for both sides.
"Well, Sirius and Snape fought, but what happened to Malfoy and those Slytherin students?" Evan asked curiously, "Look at them; it's as if they can't wait to eat us!"
"Why don't you understand, Evan?" Harry came up and said, "Since Sirius and Snape are confronting each other, we must support Sirius."
"Support Sirius?!" Evan became more puzzled.
"Exactly, we've all planned to find a chance to fight Slytherin, and we will win the fight. We are now recruiting people. Look at Malfoy and Slytherin House, they must think the same. They all support Snape."
A face to face confrontation between the Houses, winners and losers, the whole idea was really childish.
Evan knew that Dumbledore would never let this happen. He would certainly restrain Sirius and Snape to prevent further deterioration of the situation.
"You feel it's ridiculous, too, don't you?" Hermione asked. After seeing Evan nodding, she continued. "But Harry and Ron both think that way. How can I persuade them if they won't even listen?"
"That's not our idea, Hermione. After knowing about this matter, many Gryffindors are ready to fight the Slytherins. That's what everybody wants to do." Ron said innocently, "What's more, this time, Sirius took the lead."
"This is just a few of your private plans. Sirius will not agree with such a crazy idea." Hermione said with concern, "Did you forget that it happened once last year, and Professor McGonagall was mad at the time, and she said that if anyone dared do that again, he would be expulsed."
"You mean the melee of the Quidditch pitch." Harry recalled, "Fred and George threw a lot of Dungbombs at the time, and Malfoy was the focus."
"He deserved it, who told him to say that to Hermione!" Ron added, looking at Hermione at a glance, and quickly turned his eyes away.
"But none of us got the advantage at last, and everyone was punished." Hermione tried to pull the topic back to what she wanted to say, "This time…"
"Okay, Hermione, it's not a punishment to help Lockhart reply his mail. I heard Harry say that you and Evan didn't go there at that time." Ron waved his hand. "I spent the night under Filch's surveillance wiping the trophy, and also spitting up slugs for more than two weeks."
"The reason why, is that you are not supposed to…"
"The situation is different this time, Hermione! Malfoy was clearly preparing for an attack," Harry said in a low voice. "Sirius and Snape's duel was just the fuse. He must be planning something on this pretext. We have to be defensive."
"If that's the case, we should tell the professors." Hermione said uncertainly.
"Oh my God, do you want us to tell Professor McGonagall that Malfoy might be ready to attack us in the hope that the school would provide protection?" Ron waved his fork and refused. "It's embarrassing. If we do, we'll be jokes."
"But…"
"Have you forgotten what happened this morning? Malfoy is provocative. We must fight." Harry said firmly, "There is no way out, Hermione! This is for Sirius, and for us!"
For the conversation between the three of them, the more Evan heard, the more confused he was.
He didn't know how Harry and Ron managed to escalate Sirius and Snape's duel into a war between the two Houses, and what happened in between the two situations to cause this escalation. But just by analysing the situation, Malfoy might indeed be planning what conspiracy. This morning's duel was very likely to have its repercussions.
The required Défense was indeed quite necessary, but wouldn't it be too trivial to engage in direct fight on such a large scale?!