'Lucius, perhaps you would like to hear what the person involved thinks?' Dumbledore glanced towards the window seat, speaking in a tone that was almost entirely absentminded.
Seeing Dumbledore's detached performance, Lucius frowned, a sliver of doubt piercing his confidence.
'Headmaster Dumbledore, you do not seem too concerned about whether this Defence Against the Dark Arts professor stays or goes,' he asked, his voice laced with suspicion.
Lucius still remembered that before deciding to convene the Board of Governors, he had first written a letter to Dumbledore, hoping that the Headmaster would personally dismiss Dracula. However, Dumbledore's reply had politely—but firmly—rejected his "suggestion," which had led to the rather tiresome scene of today's Board of Governors meeting.
'He certainly is not concerned, nor does he need to be concerned about this matter.' Just then, a mellow and impossibly clear voice came from the window.
Lucius was startled and looked abruptly towards the window of the meeting room.
There, a man with silver hair and burgundy eyes was leaning casually against the window frame, a bright red lollipop in his mouth. He was looking at the governors seated around the table with an expression of profound interest.
'Who are you? How dare you come to eavesdrop on a meeting of the school's Board of Governors?!' one of the elderly governors rapped his knuckles sharply on the table and questioned Dracula, his face flushing with indignation.
'Eavesdrop? That is not right. I was here before your meeting started. Were you not the ones who were telling me everything?' Dracula smiled playfully. 'Or has the governors' eyesight become so poor? Is it at this point? If Hogwarts is left to you to manage, I do not think the Four Founders would be relieved, would they?'
The old governor who had raised the question was so angry that his teeth itched. He said indignantly, 'Young man, state your name! I will personally see to it that you are expelled from Hogwarts!'
Hearing the words 'young man,' Dracula raised his eyebrows, his expression becoming extremely strange, a mixture of amusement and something unreadable.
'You old fellow are quite the smooth talker. I like you,' he said cheerfully, his tone utterly devoid of sarcasm.
The elderly governor did not understand Dracula's strange words and wanted to continue his outburst, but Draco, who was standing quietly behind Lucius, interrupted him.
'Sir, this is our Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Dracula,' Draco whispered to the old governor, his voice barely audible.
'So you are the current Defence Against the Dark Arts professor!' The old governor was taken aback for a moment, then he slammed his hand heavily on the table and said loudly, 'With such a fellow who disrespects his elders, I do not believe he can possibly teach the students well. I vote to expel him!'
He was the first to take out the Board of Governors badge from his pocket and raise it high above his head.
Lucius smiled inwardly upon seeing this and also took out a badge, raising it above his head in solidarity.
Following that, four more governors, after some brief hesitation, also raised their respective Board of Governors badges, casting their votes in agreement.
Whether a resolution of the Board of Governors passed or not was determined by a vote. Each governor possessed a Board of Governors badge, and these badges were magically connected to the very fabric of Hogwarts Castle. Whenever a vote was successful, a contract was formed between the badges. If more than half—that is, seven or more governors—voted in favour, the resolution would pass.
This type of resolution, of course, excluded the appointment or dismissal of the headmaster. The headmasters of Hogwarts had always been highly renowned and powerful wizards, and such a decision would have a significant impact on the entire British wizarding world. Therefore, the appointment or dismissal of the headmaster required a unanimous vote from all members of the Board of Governors.
But this vote on whether to fire Dracula was clearly not in that category. Now, six governors had already voted in favour. As long as one more of the other six governors voted in favour, Dracula would be expelled from Hogwarts.
It could be said that Dracula's position as Defence Against the Dark Arts professor had become precarious.
However, Dracula did not feel any sense of crisis at all. He watched the Board of Governors' voting process, and his originally interested expression gradually became one of profound boredom.
'Why do you have to make such a simple thing like voting so complicated? And it is so terribly boring,' he curled his lip. 'Why do you not just stop voting? It is too much trouble. Just have me fired and be done with it.'
Hearing Dracula's words, Lucius subconsciously looked over, his eyes widening in disbelief.
'Are you saying that you yourself agree to us expelling you?' he asked incredulously. He did not even notice that the Board of Governors badge in his hand had poked his son, Draco, in the face.
Dracula took the blood-flavoured lollipop out of his mouth, tilted his head to look at Lucius, and then let out a low, almost contemptuous chuckle.
'I think you may have misunderstood, Mr Malfoy,' Dracula said, his voice dropping to a smooth, dangerous purr. 'What I mean is—it would be much simpler if I just got rid of the entire Board of Governors.'
'?!'
The members of the Board of Governors looked at Dracula in utter confusion, an extremely comical feeling surfacing in their hearts. They could not understand how this upstart professor could say such absurd, outlandish words.
'You? Expel the Board of Governors? Hahahaha…' The elderly governor could not help but laugh, a wheezing, incredulous sound. 'Young people these days! They just do not know the immensity of heaven and earth! They always think they are the boss of everyone, and all sorts of ridiculous jokes end up happening as a result!'
With someone taking the lead, the other members of the Board of Governors also could not help but smile, then laugh, looking at Dracula as if he were a particularly amusing court jester.
Dumbledore sat at the head of the round table, watching the performance of Dracula and the governors with great interest. From time to time, he would cast a pitying expression towards the members of the Board of Governors. Of course, none of them thought that Dumbledore was pitying them; they only thought that he was preparing to plead for Dracula.
Amidst the arrogant laughter of the governors, Dracula took out an old, worn piece of parchment from his pocket—the deed to Hogwarts.
He injected his own ancient, vampiric magic into the deed. The mysterious and obscure symbols on the parchment immediately began to glow and flow, and a map of every magical node of Hogwarts appeared on the paper, shimmering with a faint, otherworldly light.
Dracula glanced at the Board of Governors badge that Lucius was still holding triumphantly above his head, and then quickly found the corresponding node connected to that badge among the thousands of magical nodes of Hogwarts.
The shift from triumph to terror came far too quickly. The governors had not even finished laughing when they suddenly found they could no longer laugh.
They were just about to form a contract through the Board of Governors badges in their hands to expel Dracula from Hogwarts when they discovered that all of these badges had lost their magic. At the same time, they had lost all of their functions. They were now just pieces of inert, polished metal.
'The Board of Governors badge seems to be broken,' Lucius said, his voice tinged with confusion. He patted his badge hard, discovering that it had indeed lost its function. He then looked to Dumbledore. 'Headmaster Dumbledore, can you repair the Board of Governors badges? They seem to have suddenly malfunctioned.'
Dumbledore looked at him cheerfully, without replying. He then looked back at Dracula, who was watching the show with a relaxed air, and the Headmaster's expression became one of eager expectation.
The next moment, Dracula's voice, calm and final, rang out through the stunned silence of the room.
'The magical connection between the Hogwarts Board of Governors badges and the castle has been cancelled. Congratulations—you have all been expelled.'
***********
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