Emily suddenly stopped what she was doing.
At first, Link didn't pay any attention to it and continued enjoying Emily's lap pillow, the massage she'd just given him, along with the faint, elegant scent that came and went around her nose, had almost lulled him to sleep.
It wasn't until Emily frowned and pinched his nose that Link finally opened his eyes.
"Link, don't you feel like something's been a bit off lately?"
Of course Link knew what Emily was referring to. He closed his eyes again and said, "Isn't it a good thing to be a little more relaxed?"
Emily pinched his nose again in dissatisfaction.
"That's exactly the problem, it's too relaxed, so something's wrong!"
Link looked at Emily helplessly, and only when he finally became serious did Emily start counting on her fingers as she continued, "Look, lately the M.O.M.H.L. factory has been running really well, the D.A. Army meetings have been going smoothly week after week, the professors have been smiling more, and even Umbridge has been unusually quiet recently, she hasn't caused any trouble at all."
"Uh, of course, I'm not saying that things have to go wrong for it to be good."
"I just… I just feel like this calm is a bit too unnatural."
Link nodded slightly and said calmly, "I'm not entirely sure why Umbridge hasn't been making trouble, but the reason everything else at Hogwarts has been so peaceful is entirely because Dumbledore has returned."
"Even if Dumbledore came back, it still, what!?" Emily suddenly caught on mid-sentence and lowered her voice. "You're saying Dumbledore is back at Hogwarts? When did that happen?"
Link smacked his lips and said, "No one knows the exact date, but judging by the timing, it should've been not long after the Christmas holiday ended."
Emily carefully set up a silencing charm, making sure Newland and Sigefin in the distance couldn't observe what was happening, before saying, "How do you know this so clearly? Hardly anyone at Hogwarts, including me, knows about this!"
At this moment, Emily was visibly excited and animated.
Before Link could answer, she waved her hands repeatedly and said, "Wait, let me guess… it was Professor Snape, right? He's been passing information to us all this time. The last time, about the Death Eaters going after Azkaban, it was him who told us, so this time shouldn't be any different, right?"
When Emily mentioned Snape, Link's mood dimmed slightly.
He shook his head and said, "It wasn't Professor Snape. It was Hagrid."
"Hagrid?"
"That's right, Hagrid. Haven't you heard? All of Umbridge's accusations against Hagrid, about secretly bringing giants into the Forbidden Forest and plotting to attack Hogwarts, have been completely overturned."
"At the moment, Hagrid has only received a 'probationary observation' punishment and hasn't been subjected to any Ministry review at all."
"I obviously didn't step in to plead for him, so in the whole of Britain, who else has that kind of authority, and would be willing to clear Hagrid of his charges? It's pretty obvious."
Link continued explaining, "Of course, at first this was just my guess. But after I went to visit Hagrid as his benefactor and brought a bottle of Firewhisky, the fact that Dumbledore had returned was completely confirmed."
"You know how Hagrid is, once he starts drinking, his mouth turns into a sieve. He can't keep anything to himself."
Emily's face turned a little pale. She bit her finger and said, "That doesn't make sense! Link, could this information be fake?"
"If Dumbledore really had come back, Professor Snape would definitely know."
"And if he already knew, why wouldn't he tell us?"
Hearing this, Link fell silent.
He truly didn't know how to answer Emily.
After Snape leaked the Azkaban situation to him last time, Link had once thought that Snape was preparing to join their side.
That made Link happy for quite a while.
After so many years of teacher-student ties, if possible, Link really didn't want to use coercive methods on Snape.
After all, a forced melon can still quench thirst, but it's never sweet.
But after thinking things through over this period of time, Link realized that Snape hadn't changed at all, he was still the same old obsessive man stuck in his first love and unable to move on.
The intelligence he provided about Azkaban had no real value either.
By the time he gave it to Link, Voldemort and the Death Eaters' infiltration of Azkaban had already reached a stage where even Link's intervention would have been almost impossible to reverse.
And it was precisely because Snape knew that even if Link learned the information, it wouldn't affect his standing among the Death Eaters that he handed it over so easily.
From that behavior alone, Link could already more or less tell.
In Snape's heart, Emily and he simply weren't that important.
At the very least, they weren't as important as Harry Potter.
Link had no intention of telling Emily this cruel truth.
Unlike Link, Emily genuinely liked Snape as a teacher, even treating him with the same attitude one would have toward a father.
Link couldn't imagine how heartbroken Emily would be if she learned the truth.
But with Emily's intelligence, how could she fail to notice anything at all?
Just from Link's silence, Emily vaguely guessed something.
Her breathing suddenly became heavy. She tightly intertwined her fingers with Link's, and after a long silence, Emily finally changed the subject first, speaking in a hoarse voice, "Then tell me, why would Dumbledore hide the fact that he's already returned?"
"It makes no sense at all. He's Dumbledore."
Link held Emily gently, feeling sorry for her, and explained directly, "He's trying to create the illusion that he's been away from Hogwarts for a long time, to lure out people with ulterior motives."
"If I had to describe it, what he's doing is like fishing."
"He deliberately throws down a piece of bait, then stays quiet."
"If a fish really bites, he'll use all his strength to reel it ashore and then take it home and eat it."
"Then we're probably one of the fish he wants to reel in too, aren't we?" Emily said coldly.
Link chuckled softly, "Of course he wants to reel us in, but we're not that kind of fish."
"You see, we've been very well-behaved lately."
"A fish that's completely silent, sunk all the way to the bottom of the lake, how could you possibly catch it with just a fishing rod?"
Emily finally relaxed a little, though her expression still wasn't very good.
Seeing this, Link stood up and said, "It's getting late. We should head back to the M.O.M.H.L. factory to rest."
"It's better for Newland and Sigefin too. With the two of us here, they probably can't focus on reading anyway."
At first, Emily felt a little shy when she heard this.
After all, a special office inside the M.O.M.H.L. factory was their third sleeping place, aside from their respective house dormitories.
When Link said he wanted to go back to the M.O.M.H.L. factory with her to rest tonight, it was hardly a hint, it was basically a direct statement.
But when she heard Link mention Newland and Sigefin afterward, Emily was startled.
She flusteredly pushed Link away and hurriedly looked toward the library area.
Sure enough, even though Newland and Sigefin were protected by a silencing charm, they still occasionally glanced over in their direction.
"Hey! Why didn't you say so earlier!"
Emily beat on Link in embarrassment and anger. Link didn't dodge at all, instead, he wrapped her straight into his arms and said, "What are you afraid of? There's a silencing charm anyway. They can't see anything, and they can't hear anything either."
The two of them left the Room of Requirement while playfully bickering, and only then gradually settled down.
Link gazed at Emily's rosy face glowing under the torchlight, and his mood finally improved.
Days this lively and wonderful, Link felt he could probably enjoy them for quite a long time yet.
After all, Dumbledore's fishing skills really weren't very good.
The bait he'd set wasn't rich at all.
Surely no one would be so blind as to fail to see through such a crude setup and such obvious intentions, and rush out impatiently to take the bait, right?
Link grinned, looking at the moon outside the window, sincerely hoping that Dumbledore would never catch a fish.
However, making wishes to the moon was ultimately not very reliable.
———
And so, perhaps because Link wasn't sincere enough, the very next morning, when Link and Emily arrived at the Great Hall, they unexpectedly found a huge crowd already gathered around the notice board.
This gave Link, whose mental strength had grown so powerful it was nearly like a sixth sense, a very bad premonition.
"Link! Over here!"
John's familiar voice rang out from ahead.
More and more people noticed Link and Emily because of the shout.
The crowd that had been packed together spontaneously parted, making a clear path straight to the notice board.
Link walked forward helplessly for a few steps and then discovered that the notice board, which had previously been chaotic and plastered with all kinds of small ads, had now been completely cleared.
Only a single, exceptionally large piece of parchment remained.
Written clearly on it were the words, [Hogwarts High Inquisitor's Decree]
D[ue to the increasing workload of investigations at Hogwarts, starting today, a student Inquisitorial Squad will be established specifically to assist the Hogwarts High Inquisitor in investigative work.]
[Members of the Inquisitorial Squad will receive additional points in their NEWT examinations and will be granted priority access to internships at the Auror Command.]
[Note: Those interested should report to the Defence Against the Dark Arts office to register before the end of next month.]
[The above provisions comply with Educational Decree No. 24.]
[Signed:]
[High Inquisitor]
[Dolores Jane Umbridge]
"This notice isn't just posted here," John leaned close to Link's ear and whispered. "It's also been put up in all the house common rooms."
"But there probably won't be many people responding. After all, Umbridge's reputation is already completely rotten."
After saying that, John nodded toward the surrounding crowd with his chin.
Link looked around, and sure enough, almost everyone's face was filled with mockery.
Some even openly shouted, "To hell with Umbridge!"
Clearly, under Link's sustained and forceful publicity efforts, combined with Umbridge's own nonstop self-sabotage, her reputation at Hogwarts had sunk to rock bottom.
However, despite John having observed this place for quite some time, what he saw was still only superficial.
Under the influence of Legilimency, Link could easily tell that many people here were actually planning to go to Umbridge's office later to ask in detail about the Inquisitorial Squad's benifits.
The reason they were standing here pretending to curse Umbridge was simply because they couldn't bring themselves to lose face.
This situation was exactly what Link had expected.
After all, the excellent image built by the Aurors over decades had long been deeply rooted in every young wizard's heart.
Compared to the tangible benefits of priority access to the Auror Corps, simple likes and dislikes became unimportant.
From the current perspective, Umbridge's move was indeed clever.
If this Inquisitorial Squad plan really went smoothly, Umbridge might actually be able to split the previously united student body and create a situation where she could turn their own strength against them.
But the problem was, Dumbledore was currently inside Hogwarts.
How could he possibly allow Umbridge to disrupt the Hogwarts he had run for decades?
Umbridge had bitten straight onto Dumbledore's fishing hook.
"Tsk, a fish has taken the bait. Looks like our leisurely days are coming to an end!"
After saying that, Link sighed and even rubbed his waist.
Because he'd had to comfort Emily last night, Link had been busy all the way into the latter half of the night.
Now, with this happening on top of it, Link instantly felt that his waist hurt even more.
Seeing this, Emily's little face turned red. She discreetly pinched Link, which finally made him stop rubbing his waist.
And just then, a group of students wearing armbands suddenly walked over.
They rudely shoved aside the crowded students and surged toward the notice board.
A few strong, high-year Gryffindors in the crowd were genuinely bold. Seeing this, they didn't put up with it at all and directly blocked their way.
As a conflict was about to erupt, the people around them all grew excited.
They had actually been fed up with these volunteer-looking guys for a long time, but had endured it because of school rules.
Now that someone was willing to be the first to stand out, all the better.
If things really got chaotic, kicking someone or throwing a punch to vent their anger would be just fine.
After all, "the law doesn't punish the many" also applied in the wizarding world.
What they didn't expect, however, was that the moment those Gryffindors stepped forward, before they even had time to spit out a few harsh words, one of the volunteers had already pulled out his wand and pressed it against a Gryffindor's chest.
"We are the Inquisitorial Squad of Hogwarts High Inquisitor, Madam Umbridge. We have independent investigative authority and the right to use spells. Are you sure you want to oppose us?"
The volunteer, or rather, the Inquisitorial Squad member, holding up the wand narrowed his eyes and said ominously.