"In that case..."

Professor McGonagall glanced at Professor Sprout, whose lips were trembling with anger, then at Albus "Oh, I'm so tired and just want to retire" Dumbledore, who had suddenly stalled. She raised her eyebrows noncommittally—well, now all the Houses' hands were dirty, so there was no need to think about remedial measures. They could just discuss a unified solution.

After a few seconds of deliberation, Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and took over the conversation with a serious expression.

"It seems we need to discuss an appropriate response as soon as possible... otherwise, if this continues, the entire student body and faculty of Hogwarts might go hungry from time to time."

As the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall quickly understood the root of the problem.

The school hadn't dealt seriously with the previous small-scale garden dispute between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, or rather, it hadn't provided targeted education and punishment. This had led students to gradually regard such behavior as a viable option.

Clearly, mere point deductions, detentions, or punitive labor seemed somewhat inadequate from the current perspective.

And if they wanted to go beyond the established school rules and create and implement new regulations, it would require discussion among all core faculty members. Even Professor Dumbledore couldn't just make something up off the top of his head and directly draft new disciplinary measures.

However, faced with this completely new and sudden event, Professor McGonagall couldn't think of any particularly effective solutions for the time being.

While Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore were contemplating a solution, Ailina had walked up to Professor Sprout and was quietly asking the stout witch about the cause and effect of the whole incident—she only knew that Hufflepuff House had robbed the faculty garden, but from the current situation in the office, it seemed that all the Houses were involved?!

A moment later, before the professors could agree on a unified opinion, Ailina, having listened to Professor Sprout's explanation, looked up and silently glanced at Professor Dumbledore and the Heads of the Hogwarts Houses, and said in a particularly calm voice.

"Um, excuse me, professors. Could I interrupt for a moment?"

Undoubtedly, "stealing vegetables" was indeed a part of the "Hogwarts Happy Farm" game.

But even when that little game was at its most popular in her previous life, it was only a matter of casually taking a melon or two, and the original owner would still be left with a considerable harvest. It was never the case that the entire plot of land would be carried away, as it was now.

In Ailina's understanding, it was like that classic statement by Mr. Lu Xun:

[If a little wizard is hungry after class and picks a melon to eat, it doesn't count as stealing here at Hogwarts. What needs to be controlled are those greedy badgers, snakes, lions, and eagles. And once you discover such a situation, you have to draw your wand and walk over gently...]

In other words, this incident must be dealt with seriously, and the students involved must pay the price—whether it was blatant robbery or a scorched-earth policy, it had violated the fundamental bottom line.

"First, I suggest that the house-elves in the kitchen have a collective day off tonight and stop serving dinner."

Ailina paused slightly, looked around at the professors who were trying to interject, and quickly continued.

"As an alternative, each student should be given a cauldron and corresponding basic cooking utensils, so that at least they can use their own hard-working hands to turn the stolen food into delicious dishes—if they have the ability to do so."

In fact, after learning the full story from Professor Sprout, the first thought that popped into Ailina's mind was: these naive children are probably thinking too highly of themselves, and really think that the Hogwarts kitchen is still a group of timid house-elves who dare not resist the demands of wizards?!

Even if they manage to steal the vegetables successfully, there is still a gap of at least several thousand years between the raw materials and delicious dishes, which cannot be made up for by just one or two "Potion Cooking Classes."

"Oh?" Professor Sprout looked at Ailina with some surprise.

In her mind, she had originally just wanted to try to recover the stolen vegetables as much as possible, and then severely criticize and warn the students involved while ensuring that dinner went smoothly. She hadn't expected such a drastic measure as directly cutting off the food supply!

It was only then that Professor Sprout suddenly realized that the little witch in front of her was not an ordinary first-year student. She was the first wizard chef to manage the Hogwarts kitchen in so many years.

"But... Miss Kaslana, regardless of whether your suggestion is feasible, there are two questions that need to be resolved first—"

Professor McGonagall pondered for a few seconds, shook her head, and continued.

"The students of all four houses have vegetables stolen from the garden this afternoon, so what about the faculty? Also, is simply letting them cook for themselves a bit too playful... This doesn't fit our traditional punishment methods."

Clearly, from Ailina's words, the so-called Hogwarts kitchen stopping dinner service was not just aimed at the students of the four Hogwarts houses.

This was also normal, after all, it would be difficult for the professors to enjoy the delicious food with peace of mind while watching the children below them frowning and cooking for themselves—although Professor McGonagall expressed doubt about the severity of this punishment.

The most crucial thing at the moment was that the faculty garden had been completely robbed by the Hufflepuff students. Although, theoretically speaking, using magic or ordering the house-elves to directly "transform" the vegetables back wouldn't be a particularly difficult task.

But as Dumbledore had been emphasizing during previous discussions: Hufflepuff House had used the wrong method to fight the wrong, then as Hogwarts professors, they should be even more cautious and careful when dealing with this matter, and must not make the same mistake again.

"The first question is simple, tonight's cooking for the faculty seats will be personally handled by Professor Snape and me. As for the ingredients, I will temporarily find some substitutes with Hagrid and Professor Sprout later."

Ailina shrugged her shoulders, glanced at Professor Snape, who was trying to interject, and said quickly.

"Don't rush to refuse, Professor Snape. The main part will still be done by me... You are mainly responsible for soups, liquid foods, and pre-processing some ingredients. This is only a special case, and will not be repeated—and taking a step back, as a member of the Hogwarts faculty, you have to eat dinner, right?"

"Hmph, just this once."

Snape hesitated slightly, looked around at the professors looking at him, snorted with a cold face, and said unwillingly—thanks to the recent potion class reforms, the potions master didn't have so much resistance to cooking anymore.

"As for the second point, of course it's not just that simple."

Ailina nodded with satisfaction, a hint of eager anticipation appearing at the corner of her mouth.

"In fact, in response to this sudden incident, I have prepared a series of update plans, uh, I mean countermeasures. As for the specific situation, I can give you a brief explanation first: First, I will call it the [Hogwarts Potato Standard Plan]..."