After walking out of the headmaster's office, Harry curled his lip: the Ministry of Magic and the Wizengamot?
Ha.
He turned and headed back to the common room.
Back in the headmaster's office he had left behind, however, chaos had nearly erupted.
Snape had arrived early and had been hiding his presence the whole time; after watching Dumbledore return the gun to Harry and even casually let him go, he felt like his head was about to explode.
No sooner had Harry left the headmaster's office than Snape stormed up to Dumbledore, looking ready to grab the old man by the collar and pour the sea out of his brain.
Then Snape glanced to the side and spotted the jar of Cockroach Clusters that Dumbledore hadn't quite managed to hide, and thinking about how quickly the stock of Tooth-Freshening Potion had been depleted these past few days, he felt a sudden urge to kill the old bee.
"Dumbledore! Have you got cockroaches in your brain?" He slammed his hand down on the desk in front of Dumbledore, leaning in close and glaring fiercely into his eyes, as if trying to read his thoughts through them.
Dumbledore, now focused on saving his sweets, scrambled to gather the Cockroach Clusters into his arms to protect them from the Potions professor's wrath.
"That was a gun! And you're just letting him bring it to class?" Snape had no time to pay attention to the old bee's fumbling; he hissed in interrogation. "Have you forgotten how many casualties that group of lunatics from Silver Sun caused with Muggle weapons?"
"They nearly blew up the Ministry of Magic!"
"Calm down, Severus." Dumbledore calmly tossed a Sherbet Lemon into his mouth and spoke in a soothing tone.
"There's still a difference between bombs and guns." Dumbledore said amiably. "And I trust that Harry wouldn't do something like that."
"He'll be studying here for seven years. He'll have his teachers here, and his friends."
"Severus, you must understand, the fact that the Dursleys despise wizards so much yet still get along well with Harry actually shows that Harry is a very good child."
"And you heard what he said." Dumbledore cautiously glanced at the Potions professor, whose expression was twisted with rage, and decided he shouldn't provoke his colleague to death. He cleared his throat and reluctantly offered an explanation.
"If I take Harry's gun away, he'll just get another one, unless he's willing to give up bringing weapons to school on his own."
"I think, since Silver Sun was the first to introduce Muggle weapons, wizards' views on Muggle weaponry are already starting to change."
"So having the Boy Who Lived draw on Muggle resources might yield some unexpected benefits."
Snape's lips twisted. He glared at Dumbledore and ground out a sentence through his teeth: "…Fine."
Snape was furious, his head buzzing.
But since he could do nothing to Dumbledore, he could only resort to threats.
"Then, according to you, I hope that Potter brat lives up to your trust."
"I hope you'll still be smiling when Hogwarts lies in ruins!"
Harry returned to the common room to find Ron and Hermione sitting in front of the fireplace.
Hermione was clutching a thick book, trying to stay awake by reading, but the more she read, the sleepier she got.
Harry noticed she was holding the book upside down, and the pages even had suspicious wrinkles, as if drool had dripped on them.
Ron, meanwhile, was slumped back in his chair, sliding downward and looking like he was about to fall onto the floor.
Both of them were so tired they had no idea what was happening around them.
Harry's mouth twitched. He walked over and patted Ron's shoulder. Ron struggled to pry his eyelids open and squinted at Harry. "Harry…?"
He mumbled indistinctly: "…you're finally back… why are you crawling…?"
Harry: "…"
Crawl your uncle.
"You're the one crawling," Harry retorted irritably. "You two actually waited here all this time? What time is it, and you're still not in bed?"
"Harry?" Hermione startled awake, rubbing her sore eyes. She relaxed when she saw Harry, then slowly got up from her chair with a yawn.
"You're finally back… come on, let's go to sleep…"
"At least tomorrow's the weekend…"
Clutching her book, Hermione grumbled and headed back to her dormitory on unsteady feet.
Harry glared helplessly at Ron, who had passed out again, and sighed.
Then he bent down, flipped Ron over, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and dragged him back to their dormitory.
There were no classes the next day. Harry had gone to bed late and woken up late, so he missed breakfast.
When he returned to the dorm after lunch, Ron had just gotten out of bed and was sitting under his covers, looking completely dazed.
Seeing Harry come in, Ron scratched the back of his head and asked in confusion, "Harry, what time did you get back last night? How did I end up in bed?"
As he spoke, he grimaced and rubbed his back, waist, and rear. "Why does my back hurt so much?"
Harry paused, remembering how he had dragged Ron from the common room all the way to the dorm, how this redhead's back had polished the floor and even scrubbed clean dozens of staircase steps.
…It would be strange if it didn't hurt.
But Harry's expression didn't change as he asked in return, "You don't remember?"
"You were asleep in the chair when I got back. I woke you up, and you went back to the dorm yourself. It's probably just the way you were sleeping; back pain isn't unusual. It should be fine after a couple of days' rest."
"Is that so…" Ron muttered, puzzled, as he ruffled his hair. "I don't remember any of that."
And something felt weird about it.
A moment later, Ron gave up thinking about it.
He must have been too groggy.
He quickly perked up again. "Harry, where did Professor McGonagall take you yesterday?"
"The Forbidden Forest."
Ron nodded in understanding. "Oh, so it was the Forbidden Forest…"
"…"
Ron suddenly processed what he had heard. His expression turned horrified, and he whipped his head around with a yelp. "What? The Forbidden Forest?"
"D-did you run into anything…?" Ron gulped nervously, even lowering his voice unconsciously. "I've heard the Forbidden Forest is really dangerous…"
"Oh, we did." Harry's tone was light. "There was a Dark wizard there hunting unicorns."
"But he ran off when he saw there were a lot of us."
Ron gasped, his face turning pale. "Merlin…"
He thought of something else and stammered, "S-so, d-did Malfoy go with you yesterday and come back with you?"
"Yeah." Harry almost laughed, remembering Draco's expression. "He was scared half to death."
As for who scared him half to death, that was none of your concern.
But this time, Ron didn't gloat. Instead, he muttered dazedly, "He came back… I thought Malfoy was dead…"
Harry: "…"
"That's a bit much."
Ron snapped out of it, realizing what he had said, and explained awkwardly, "I just thought Malfoy's such a rotten person, he'd probably get killed by a Dark wizard…"
Harry said sincerely, "No, no. When he's facing someone stronger, he knows how to back down."
Harry couldn't help but laugh: he was so scared he didn't dare make a sound.