Chapter 254: House Wars

Among the four Hogwarts Houses, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff belonged to relatively moderate centrists, while the two Houses, Gryffindor and Slytherin, were at opposite ends, with a hostile competitive relationship, and never agreed with each other.

However, this hostility and competition was within the scope of the school rules.

In the words of Fred and George, everyone knew where to draw the line. There might be people who occasionally crossed a toe or two, but before they got into trouble, they would back off immediately, otherwise they would be severely punished by school rules.

But at noon that day, the atmosphere in the Great Dining Hall was very strange.

Ivan was well aware of what seemed to be going on between the Gryffindor and Slytherin houses.

The tension between the two parties had reached its limit. That was something that had never happened before.

Ivan, Colin and Ginny just walked in and saw the Slytherin House students, led by Malfoy, glaring at them.

Harry and Ron hurried to join them and welcomed them to the Gryffindor table.

Looking carefully at the way they were wary of each other, Ivan suspected that if it weren't for the professors sitting in the teachers' seats, they would fight immediately.

"What's going on here?" Ivan sat down next to Hermione.

"It spread throughout the school, Sirius and Snape had a duel." Hermione whispered, and her voice was full of worry.

"Duel?!" Ivan froze. "We saw it yesterday at the school gate..."

"Not that time, it happened this morning. The two of them got into a fight in the teacher's lounge. Several Hufflepuff students witnessed the whole duel," Hermione said. "The confrontation was really big at the time, until Dumbledore stepped forward and the two of them stopped."

Ivan was astonished. No wonder he hadn't seen Sirius and Snape in the Great Dining Hall this morning. He thought they'd finished their breakfast early. who could have guessed they were fighting upstairs?! It wasn't unusual for Snape to be so abnormal this morning and so mean to everyone.

"Sirius is too impulsive. He's already fought Snape twice on the first day of school..." said Hermione.

Ivan wasn't too surprised, Sirius and Snape's duel was bound to happen anyway, but he didn't expect it to come so soon.

Until one of them was victorious, the two would continue to fight.

"Now that we know there was a duel, what's the outcome?" asked Ivan.

"It wasn't over; they've been separated by Dumbledore!" Hermione continued. "But after class, Sirius told us that he could beat Snape in a few more minutes."

In Ivan's opinion, this sentence should be Sirius talking to save face. Snape should be stronger than him.

More than a decade ago, they might have been equals. But Sirius has been in Azkaban for thirteen years after all, and his magic and fighting skills have regressed, while Snape has made great strides.

If they continued the fight, Sirius would probably lose to Snape.

But with Sirius' fighting style, Snape would pay a considerable price even if he eventually won the duel.

In short, if other external forces and environmental impacts were not taken into account, the outcome of the duel should be defeats and losses for both sides.

"Well, Sirius and Snape fought, but what happened to Malfoy and the Slytherin students?" Ivan asked curiously, "Look at them, it's like they can't wait to eat us!"

"Why don't you understand, Ivan?" Harry walked over and said, "Since Sirius and Snape are facing each other, we should support Sirius."

"Support Sirius?" Ivan was even more confused.

"Exactly, we have all planned to find a chance to fight Slytherin, and we will win the battle. Now we're recruiting people. Look at Malfoy and Slytherin house, they must think the same. They all support Snape," Harry said.

A head to head confrontation between Houses, winners and losers, the whole idea was really childish.

Ivan knew Dumbledore would never let this happen. He would certainly restrain Sirius and Snape to avoid further deterioration of the situation.

"You feel it's ridiculous too, don't you?" Hermione asked. After seeing Ivan nod, she continued. "But Harry and Ron think so, how can I persuade them if they won't even listen to me?"

"That's not our idea, Hermione. After knowing about this matter, many Gryffindors are ready to fight the Slytherins. That's what they all want to do." Said Ron innocently, "Besides, this time, Sirius took the lead."

"These are just some of your private plans. Sirius won't go along with such a crazy idea." Hermione said worriedly, "Did you forget it happened once last year? Professor McGonagall was really mad at the time, and she said that if anyone dared to do that again, they would be expelled."

"You mean the fight on the Quidditch pitch?", Harry remembered, "Fred and George threw a lot of stink bombs at the time, and Malfoy was the center of attention."

"Served him right, whoever told him to say that to Hermione!" added Ron, shooting a glare at Hermione and quickly averting his gaze.

"But none of us got the upper hand in the end, and everyone got punished." Hermione tried to pick up on what she wanted to say, "This time..."

"Well, Hermione, it's not punishment to help Lockhart answer his mail. I heard Harry say that you and Ivan didn't go there at the time." Ron waved his hand. "I spent the night under Filch's watch cleaning trophies, and also spitting slugs for over two weeks."

"So that's one more reason why you shouldn't...," Hermione said.

"The situation is different this time, Hermione! Malfoy was clearly preparing for an attack," Harry said quietly. "Sirius and Snape's duel was just the fuse. He must be planning something on this pretext. We need to be on the defensive."

"If that's the case, we should tell the professors." Hermione said uncertainly.

"My God, you want us to tell Professor McGonagall that Malfoy might be ready to attack us in the hope that the school will protect us?" Ron waved his fork and refused. "It's embarrassing. If we do, we'll be a joke."

"But..." Hermione said.

"Have you forgotten what happened this morning? Malfoy is provocative. We must fight." Harry said firmly, "There's no way out, Hermione! This is for Sirius, and for us!"

From the conversation between the three of them, the more Ivan listened, the more confused he became.

He didn't know how Harry and Ron managed to escalate Sirius and Snape's duel into a war between the two Houses, and what happened between the two situations to cause this escalation. But just by analyzing the situation, Malfoy could be planning a conspiracy. This morning's duel is very likely to have its repercussions.

The defense in question was indeed quite necessary, but wouldn't it be too trivial to engage in a direct fight on such a large scale?