Felix stayed in his office until noon, before heading hungrily to the great hall for a meal.
Instead of sitting at the faculty table, he chose a random long table of students, with several young wizards discussing the morning's events just a short-distance away.
"In just one morning, Peeves has attacked many Slytherin students in the great hall, and pushed down statues in the corridors, painted mud all over the armour, and scribbled on the ceiling. ..." One student counted Peeves' crimes on his fingers.
"I think he must have spent all day yesterday thinking about how to celebrate, which is why he's so efficient today."
Felix listened on, when a few Slytherin students walked in with angry faces, their angry yelling audible to him from seven or eight seats away.
"... This is outrageous, to run into our common room and fool around! Make sure to tell Professor Snape ..."
Their voices faded away.
Felix walked out of the great hall, intending to pay a visit to Belby, only to see that the door of his office is locked tightly.
As he prepared to leave, he is greeted by a tall, lean figure of Belby, who looked jubilant.
"Damocles."
"Oh, Felix, did you come to meet me? I went to Professor Snape's office, to improve the wolfsbane potion, which is progressing promisingly ...," said Belby enthusiastically.
The two exchanged a few pleasantries, and Belby suggested, "Why don't we go for a drink?"
Felix readily agreed.
"Please wait, I still need to clean up ..." Belby said vaguely, and the two walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts class office, which had a very different style from when Lockhart was there.
Instead, it is somewhat similar to Snape's office - several large cabinets arranged against the wall, each containing a variety of bottles and jars; on a long table, is a row of glasses and crucibles.
One of the crucibles is brewing a potion, it is set under the orange flame, the mouth of the pot emitting steam.
Felix shot a couple of glances at the crucible, which consisted of a creamy mass, only the colour of it is an uncomfortable dark green.
"Is this some sort of smear ointment?"
"Yes, it works wonders on large boils caused by Stinging Jinx, I had been discussing it with Madam Pomfrey, and boy, is she a treasure trove of potions for all sorts of minor injuries and ailments."
Felix said approvingly, "I couldn't agree with you more, Damocles." He had found this out when he was in school.
Belby lifted a curtain in the corner, inside which there were two metal cages, two red caps were sleeping quietly inside it.
But when he took out two thumb-sized glass bottles, they opened their eyes at once, "chirping", two paws on the bars of the cage.
Felix could read the emotion of 'eagerness' on their dry, thin faces.
Belby issued a tone of voice, the red caps immediately silenced, head pressed against the side of the cage, the mouth wide opened.
He poured the bright red liquid from the glass bottle into their mouths, and the red caps had an intoxicated look on their faces, their bodies swaying as if they were drunk.
Then Belby covered the curtain and went back to Felix, slipped two green leaves into the crucible, tapped the edge of the crucible twice with his wand, and the dark green contraption began to swirl.
"There, that's settled. Let's go." Belby said.
As they made their way down the stairs to the ground floor, they saw several Slytherin underclassmen running in disarray not far away, hiding the backs of their heads from the pervasive chalk heads with the hoods of their wizard robes.
"Oh, ten, ten, fantastic, one hundred!" A dwarf-looking midget chased after them, flipping in midair and waving his two little shorthands incessantly.
"Peeves."
Peeves Ghost stopped as he looked at the two professors next to him, "Oh, I didn't notice~ These little wretches are attracting all my attention ..." He looked at them with wide-open eyes and unnaturally pulled at his peaked cap.
Felix beckoned and let the pointy hat on Peeves' head fly into his hand, "I don't suppose this is yours, is it, Peeves?"
"Yes, it's mine, Professor." A Slytherin boy came over and whispered.
Peeves gave him a hard stare, "Lord Peeves remembers you!"
The Slytherin startled, the half-extended hand stopped, expression very hesitant.
Felix waved his wand, a silver light struck the Peeves Ghost, his eyes became lax. The whole person fluttered lightly, and his mouth kept chanting, "Don't, I hate classes!"
"Don't pull my hair ..."
"I hate the history of magic!"
"Why did he get the highest grade!"
The few young Slytherin wizards looked at Felix in awe, and even Belby's eyes went a little straight; he could deal with the Peeves, but causing this effect would be a bit of a head-scratcher.
The Peeves seemed to have split into a million minds at once, and from different people.
"Don't look at me like that, it's just a simple confusion spell to make it think it's just been born," Felix said.
"Any word on that?" Belby asked, though he didn't think it's just a simple confusion spell.
"Peeves is a special ghost, or maybe it's more appropriate to call him a rowdy ghost, who arrived with the construction of Hogwarts, but didn't take a concrete form until the school enrolled many students, and he took benefit of their playfulness and overflowing magic."
The students who had just been chased listened quietly, exchanging excited glances with each other.
"He won't always look like this, will he?" Belby asked.
"No, it will take a week at most to recover, but the process won't be too pleasant ... I thought he would remember how it felt." Felix said regretfully.
"Professor, is there any good way ...," said the little wizard who had been robbed of his hat.
But Felix did not seem to hear, he asked Belby with a clearly puzzled expression on his face: "Do you think we should tell the little wizard that the Tongue-Tying Curse is also workable against ghosts?"
"Not good, it might bother some ghosts ...," said Belby cooperatively.
"The ghosts in the castle are very friendly, if any little wizard dares to use it against a ghost, just detain them for a whole year," Felix said.
The corners of Belby's eyes twitched a little, are you serious?
The Slytherin students were also startled, and they said formally, "Professor, we'll leave first."
"Your hat." Felix tossed him the peaked cap in his hand.
"Thanks, Professor!" The young wizard said thanks and ran away, pulled by his companion.