Chapter 454: Hogwarts' Study Panel — Chapter 191

Dear Mr. Green:

If I were to send you a book,

I would not send you poetry,

I would send you one about plants, about crops.

To tell you the difference between rice and barnyard grass,

To tell you of a barnyard grass that lives in fear,

Longing to sprout,

Spring.

Spring has already passed—do you have time to come to Hollyse and look at these seeds?

—Yours faithfully: Roland Taylor

Xiang Xiang Xien's gaze lost focus for a long while. He put away the letter, only to find Professor Professor Sineipu right beside him.

Professor Sineipu's face chilled. This fool always let his guard down around him; with a casual glance, he knew exactly what foolish thing this fool had done.

Draining his own vault for such laughable reasons…

"Wh—fool! In that head of yours, there must always be these naive little thoughts."

Professor Sineipu scoffed, mocking him in a tone of bitter disappointment.

"May I go out for a bit, Professor?"

Xiang Xiang Xien asked.

"Hah—the self-righteous, kind-hearted Mr. Green—what do you think you're doing? How are you any different from them in—"

Professor Sineipu's words caught in his throat. After a long while, he jolted awake as if from a nightmare.

How… was he any different from them?

He swallowed his own words. Every time he looked into that fool's calm eyes, he somehow always forgot that the boy had once been in the very same situation as himself.

A broken, nearly nonexistent family; poverty and frailty that followed like a shadow; thoughts naive to the extreme…

Professor Sineipu's gaze wandered through this familiar place, and before his eyes a hawk-nosed man appeared in a haze, bellowing at a cowering woman and a small boy, while the black-haired little boy wept in the corner.

When his eyes swept over the bedroom, he again saw in a haze a greasy-haired youth sitting alone in a dark bedroom, pointing his wand at the ceiling and shooting flies…

He was repeating the story that had once happened to him; he was always good at doing these things…

He felt a pain rising from the bottom of his heart. In the end, he was no different from those people he despised.

He heard someone mocking: Severus, you've truly done a fine thing—you loathed those people so much, fought them for so long, and in the end you became just like them. What ideal in this world is worth such a fall as the price?

His throat trembled; not a single word could come out.

The voice sounded as if forced out:

"I'll—take you—"

Professor Professor Sineipu's expression was not good, and he remained silent on the way.

"Professor, can we go to Diagon Alley?"

Xiang Xiang Xien was preparing to withdraw some Jin Jialong; there were always places where they would be more useful than sitting in a vault.

To Xiang Xiang Xien's words, Professor Professor Sineipu once again said nothing. He merely gave Xiang Xiang Xien a deep look, then cast Disapparition and arrived at Diagon Alley.

The sun-drenched street was bustling with noise,

And the snow-white building of Gulingge stood right before them.

The goblins were always respectful and courteous toward professors. Once inside, goblin-driven carts raced along the small iron tracks, darting through the bank's underground passages to reach the various vaults.

Even the breakneck speed along the way failed to bring the slightest change to Professor Sineipu's gloomy face; only the goblins seemed to cower even more under the professor's low pressure.

After the vault door was opened, the dazzling Jin Jialong brought the first big change to Professor Professor Sineipu's expression:

"This is your vault?! What on earth have you been doing?!"