Speaking of which, the reason why Snape discovered Luna's outing last night was because of Aberforth.
Luna's words at that time suddenly opened the knot that had been binding Aberforth for many years, so that the latter immediately drove away all the drinkers in the bar under strong regret.
Such an offending thing, not to mention that Aberforth is still a member of the Order of the Phoenix - even if he has nothing to do with the Order of the Phoenix, "that night there was a weird old shopkeeper with big muscles and a round waist who abandoned his customers and ran after a certain girl" Strange news will spread like wildfire.
So in fact, not to mention Snape, even Lupine and others in London had already learned about this nonsense through Mundungus.
Snape, on the other hand, only concluded that the person traveling at night was Luna through the rather specific description in the rumors.
"... What did you do when you left Hogwarts so late last night?"
At this moment, Snape stood quietly behind the podium, looked at Luna on the seat and questioned.
"Huh?" Luna immediately tilted her head and recalled, "Professor Snape, where did you see me? Why don't I remember it?"
The entrance to the secret passage she took was entirely within the Ravenclaw Tower, and if you wanted to enter the tower, you had to pass the bronze eagle knocker - even the school professors were no exception to this.
Therefore, Luna was really a little surprised at this time.
"Can you walk through walls like a ghost... Oh, you are actually a ghost, right?"
When Aberforth drove away the guests angrily, Luna had already left the bar, so it was impossible for her to know how her night out was exposed to Snape in the first place.
Otherwise, with her extremely quick thinking, she might actually be able to guess the source of the leaked news like a flash of inspiration!
However, no matter how out of touch Luna's words were, Snape paid little attention to them.
"Miss Lovegood, you don't have to worry about how I knew it," he raised his chin and said, "Tell me! Where did you and Aberforth go after leaving Hogwarts last night? London? ?”
"Oh! How come you know everything?"
After hearing Snape's question, Luna suddenly looked at him with an expression of admiration.
"I see, you are not only a ghost, but also a 'know-it-all'! Wait, if 'Miss Know-It-All' is Hermione... then you must be 'Mr. Know-It-All'!"
Hermione's nickname was given by Snape, and most of it was malicious sarcasm. And now Luna was conveniently placed on top of his own head, and Snape was so angry that the corners of his eyes twitched.
After waving his hands slightly impatiently, Snape skipped the topic again and finally said bluntly:
"In short, you not only left the dormitory last night, but also sneaked out of the school and went to London. In order to give appropriate punishment, starting after school today, you will go-"
The matter of punishing students should be left to the dean of the school where the student is located, but Luna is a young wizard in Ravenclaw, so it must be handled by Flitwick no matter what. But Snape didn't want to worry so much now. He could just tell Flitwick later.
After all, in the final analysis, he didn't really dislike Luna—even when Luna violated school rules, he didn't actually feel that bad.
To be honest, Snape's punishment of Luna this time was really just to warn her not to run to London again.
Obviously, Snape today is no longer the somewhat absent-minded Potions professor he once was.
All right! Of course, he seems to have some partiality for the Slytherins after all.
But before Snape could say the details of the punishment, he heard footsteps at the door. Immediately afterwards, the front door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom was opened from the outside, and Professor McGonagall suddenly appeared at the door.
"Severus, so you are here?"
It can be found that Professor McGonagall came in a hurry, because she just stood outside the door, so she didn't even see Luna sitting in the middle of the classroom.
Behind her, there were Flitwick, Sprout and Slughorn, all of whom were following closely in the corridor outside.
Before Mag's last sentence could be finalized, she followed up:
"Over at the Ministry of Magic, Mr. Scrimgeour sent someone to deliver an urgent message - you know, Maka has gathered all the Muggles who may have been infected by dark magic into the dungeons of the Ministry of Magic. And just this morning, Those Muggles suddenly mutated without any warning... That level of the dungeon has been lost."
Just hearing this, Snape probably understood what Scrimgeour meant by sending urgent news.
"So, he wants to ask for help?"
He said he was asking for help, but people who knew the inside story actually knew that he actually wanted to invite Maka over.
However, no one knows where Maka is now, and Scrimgeour obviously knows it too. Therefore, he had no choice but to go directly to the current principal of Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall.
"Hmph..." Snape chuckled and said sarcastically, "I guess at the moment, our minister doesn't know whether to praise Maka for his foresight or to blame him for bringing big trouble to the Ministry of Magic!"
Snape never had a good impression of Scrimgeour.
This former Auror has always been mediocre in ability, but he took advantage of the chaos when Fudge was killed by Voldemort, and Maka and the Order of the Phoenix intervened, and he took the position almost half-forced and half-voluntarily.
Now, the stability of the British magical world relies mostly on Maka's reputation. Although he has done a lot, it is all trivial.
Of course, at least that's how it seemed to Snape.
However, no matter how much he looked down on the current Minister of Magic, he still had to help when he should. Just like the reason why Maka is happy to let Scrimgeour continue to stay in that position, at least this guy always firmly believes that standing by Maka's side is the most correct choice.
"Don't talk about that yet." McGonagall pretended not to hear Snape's sarcasm and continued, "Severus, in short, I plan to let you and Slughorn go for a trip - Let’s go check out the situation first! Find out exactly how to deal with it, and remember to keep in touch.”
There were some words that McGonagall didn't say clearly, but Snape understood them clearly.
As we all know, the dungeons of the Ministry of Magic are not directly connected to the upper floors, and even the elevator cannot directly go down to that floor. As for the staircase leading to the dungeon, it can actually be completely blocked.
So, what Professor McGonagall actually means is that if the current situation in the Ministry of Magic is not so bad that the isolation is broken, then let's just delay it a little longer! It would be best if we could drag Maka back.
After all, who knows what kind of shit the Muggles down there have become now
"Yes, I know-"
Due to this sudden incident, even Snape accidentally forgot Luna's existence. But before he could remember it again, everyone present suddenly heard a light voice, interrupting Snape's answer.
"Professor McGonagall, if you can let me go to the area where Maka disappeared," Luna suddenly stood up from her seat and looked at the door calmly, "Maybe I can find where Maka is."
"What? You...are you serious?"
If she had gone to Professor McGonagall yesterday to request that she be allowed to go to London, she would have been rejected; but now that the Ministry of Magic was in trouble, the possibility of the other party agreeing to her was very high.
It can be said that Luna realized this almost instinctively, so she spoke without thinking.
"Well, it's true!"
…
Luna relied on her own talent and hard work to gain the ability to perceive magic.
The ability to rely on one's own spirit to sense magic power surpasses contemporary detection alchemy tools in terms of subtlety. If used properly, it can even help Luna greatly deepen her study and application of magic spells.
However, her talent in magic and her spiritual talent were obviously two completely different aspects. In addition, the study of magic is definitely not a day's work, so it can be put aside for the time being.
Now all she needs is to use the basic function of sensing magic to detect traces that other wizards cannot detect.
To be honest, it is still unknown whether the space where Maka is located can be found through this more detailed search.
Therefore, the word "maybe" that Luna used before was really not being modest on her part.
The words were divided into two parts. When Professor McGonagall made a prompt decision and asked Flitwick to take Luna to London to try to find Maka, Snape and Slughorn followed the original plan and soon appeared in Fireplace foyer at the Ministry of Magic.
"Mr. Scrimgeour."
When the two of them arrived there, they immediately discovered that the foyer, which was supposed to be bustling with people, was completely empty. Scrimgeour must have had some secret secret, so he simply found some excuse and invited out all the wizards who came to handle matters from the Ministry of Magic.
"Ah! Professor Snape, Professor Slughorn, you are here..."
Scrimgeour watched the two men walking toward him, and while approaching them, he glanced several times at the place where the two men had just appeared.
It was a pity that the person he had complained about not long ago because he kept stuffing Muggles into the dungeon had now disappeared no matter how much he hoped for it.
Brother, don’t leave the mess and run away!
"Don't look, we haven't found where Maka is yet -" Snape said indifferently, "Of course, he will reappear in front of us sooner or later, there is no doubt about it."
No matter what the situation at the Ministry of Magic is, it's never wrong to give Scrimgeour a shot of vaccination first. If he confirms that it can be delayed later, his words will naturally have the effect they should have.
"Oh, yes, yes!" Scrimgeour smiled reluctantly.