There was still some time before dinner, but in the winter nights of England, darkness always fell particularly early.
Before five o'clock, the road ahead was already indistinguishable without lights.
So, Tewell cast a guiding fluorescent charm, urging the reluctant students to make their way back to the castle. Meanwhile, he made some minor alterations to the area, halving its size and arranging some imp magic.
After completing all this, he leisurely made his way back to the brightly lit castle.
However, upon entering the castle gates, he encountered an unexpected individual.
Or rather, someone who was intentionally waiting for him.
"Well, well, well, isn't this our beloved Professor Fawley?"
Snape stood sideways by the dim gate, half of his body buried in the shadows, revealing only a face with a smirk on the corner of his mouth and those cold eyes.
Tewell was taken aback by the sudden and eerie voice; he even reached for his wand.
"Beloved might be an overstatement, but at least Professor Snape, unlike you, is kept busy here," he replied, reinserting his wand into his robe pocket.
He then straightened his robes and smiled at Snape.
Snape sneered, not bothered by Tewell's sarcasm.
"I'm curious, Professor Fawley. Although you only teach three grades, why have you been so busy? You disappeared since yesterday morning until now."
His mouth still held a smile, but his eyes bore a hint of ruthlessness. It seemed that if Tewell's answer didn't satisfy him, he would draw his wand the next moment.
Tewell glanced unexpectedly at Snape, not expecting to be under Snape's suspicion as well.
Was it because of Quirrell's stupidity?
"Unlike Potions class, Defense Against the Dark Arts always requires preparation of some animals for teaching purposes, so I went to the Forbidden Forest to search. Any problems?"
Snape scanned Tewell from head to toe, finally fixing his gaze on his empty hands. "And the animals?"
"Dead," Tewell replied nonchalantly, but under the torchlight, it seemed somewhat eerie.
Snape's smile vanished instantly, his eyes narrowed slightly. He took a small step forward into the light, but also blocked the light from shining on Tewell's face.
"I think you should know your own identity. Don't do anything suspicious," he warned.
"Thanks for the reminder. I think compared to Professor Snape, I'm not that outrageous, am I?"
His eyes were no longer cold, but playful. Then, he leaned down to whisper:
"I don't know what you're up to, and I don't care about your collusion with Quirrell. But, once I find out you have ulterior motives, I won't mind adding some Veritaserum to your dinner."
"Well, I also want to taste Veritaserum. But be careful; I'm afraid I might say something that students can't handle."
"Like, about you and the Dark Lord."
Snape's gaze instantly hardened. With Dumbledore's guarantee, he was not afraid of the past being exposed.
But his behavior at the school would certainly be restricted. If it disrupted the tasks he must carry out, it would be unacceptable.
So, he glared fiercely at Tewell, his voice raised slightly.
"I don't care what you know. If you dare to defy—" But at that moment, his face turned to the corner of the corridor, "Who's there?!"
In less than a second, three tiny figures emerged from the corner.
"Uh," Harry hesitated, "Professors, we just finished dinner, so we came over here, uh..."
"Digestion!" Ron answered loudly, nodding confidently and even patted his round little belly, as if to add credibility to his words.
Hermione couldn't stand it anymore; she pulled on the back of his shirt, "Stop it, Snape's eyes can kill you!"
"If no one has taught you etiquette, you can go ask the giant troll from Halloween; he has a lot to teach you."
Snape said ominously, "Minus five points each!"
He gave Tewell one last glance before striding away in anger.
Harry and his friends breathed a sigh of relief.
They were used to losing points, although this time it was a bit much, but fifteen points didn't make much of a difference.
"Three sets of exam papers," Tewell smiled at them suddenly, "Three for each of you. Finish them before the end of next week, or your Christmas gift will be a whole set of exam papers, enough to last you until the end of the school year."
Not only Snape, but Tewell himself had been careless.
Despite feeling physically tired, the increase in his power this time had made him a little too self-satisfied.
As someone who had high standards for himself, he couldn't allow such a low-level mistake.
He handed out the nine exam papers to them and then left.
He was still thinking about dinner, but now he needed to sleep first. However, this left Harry and his friends with a grim expression.
Hermione glanced through the papers; the content wasn't as simple, with many essay questions.
She didn't mind; she even looked forward to receiving the professor's Christmas gift. But Harry and Ron couldn't bear it.
"Three sets of papers, isn't that too much?" Harry complained as soon as Tewell left.
Ron sighed, "Let it go. We can each do one set. After seeing Professor Fawley's look just now, I didn't dare to plead for leniency!"
"This is the first time I've heard of doing papers after class. The professor won't leave any loopholes for us," Hermione shook her head, showing them the questions on the papers.
"And," she cautiously glanced in the direction the professor had left, "this is also the first time I've seen the professor so angry. Are those two discussing something important here?"
"Of course!" Ron exclaimed angrily. "Snape must have pressured the professor to steal something, and then the professor disappeared all day!"
Harry nodded in agreement.
"Exactly. Snape even reminded the professor to watch his identity. Maybe Snape has some leverage on him and is forcing him!"
Hermione looked at her two indignant friends with a mix of belief and doubt.
The professor's attitude just now didn't seem like he was being threatened. How could these two come up with so many ideas?
But she didn't have a more rational explanation, so she could only say ambiguously,
"Our most important task now is to find out who Nicolas Flamel is."
"And also what's wrong with Professor Fawley!" Ron emphasized solemnly.
"...Fine, if possible, also investigate what leverage Snape has on the professor," Hermione said helplessly.
"And then help the professor get rid of it!"
"...Sure."