bacchusnovels Chapter 303 The Strange Hermione
Chapter 303 The Strange Hermione
Chapter 303 The Strange Hermione (Part 1)
Hermione's hardship continued to worsen; three whole days had passed since she last sought out Sean.
During those three days, she barely had time to catch her breath, as her coursework came in like snowflakes.
She constantly used the time converter to travel between different classrooms, trying her best not to miss any courses.
When she saw Malfoy again, it was already Thursday morning.
It was Potions class, and Malfoy swaggered into the underground classroom, his right arm wrapped in bandages and slinged in a bag, looking exactly like a hero who had just successfully defended Moscow and was retreating from the battlefield.
"How are you, Draco?" Pansy Parkinson asked with a silly grin, "Is it still hurting a lot?"
"Yeah," Malfoy said, making a face as if to appear brave.
But Hermione noticed that the moment Pansy turned around, Malfoy winked at Crabbe and Goyle, as if he were plotting something.
In today's class, Snape assigned a new assignment:
Make a shrinking potion.
Simply put, this potion can shrink or transform the user into a younger form.
If prepared correctly, the shrinking potion will be a bright, vibrant green, but if it is made incorrectly, the potion will turn orange and will obviously be toxic.
Malfoy deliberately placed his cauldron next to Harry and Ron's cauldrons, so that the three of them could prepare the ingredients at the same table.
"Sir," Malfoy cried, "I need someone to cut the roots of these daisies for me because of my arm." "Weasley, cut the roots for Malfoy," Snape replied without looking up, his tone devoid of warmth.
Ron's face flushed red, and he angrily whispered to Malfoy, "Your shoulder is perfectly fine."
Malfoy smiled smugly from the other end of the table, his face full of provocation.
"Weasley, didn't you hear what Professor Snape said? Cut these roots off right now." His voice was full of mischievous pleasure.
Ron reluctantly grabbed the knife, dragged the Malfoy daisy root in front of him, and began to chop it haphazardly, cutting it into large and small, very uneven pieces.
"Professor," Malfoy drawled, feigning innocence, "Weasley has ruined my daisy roots, sir."
Snape strolled slowly to their table, his eyes lowered, peering through his hooked nose at the roots, a malicious smile creeping across his face.
"Switch roots with Malfoy, Weasley."
"But, sir—" Ron had just meticulously cut his root, and felt wronged.
"Change it quickly," Snape commanded in his imposing voice.
Ron angrily pushed his neatly chopped pile of daisy roots in front of Malfoy and picked up his knife again.
"And, sir, this fig of mine needs to be peeled." Malfoy's voice was laced with a malicious laugh.
"Potter, help Malfoy peel the figs," Snape said to Harry with disgust, a look he always gave Harry.
Harry reluctantly took Malfoy's crumpled fig, while Ron continued cutting the messy pile of daisy roots that were now his to use.
Harry quickly peeled the fig, then, annoyed, tossed it to Malfoy across the table. Malfoy grinned more triumphantly than ever before.
"Have you seen your friend Hagrid recently?" he asked in a low voice, a sneer on his lips.
"None of your business," Ron replied angrily without looking up.
"He probably won't be able to be a teacher anymore," Malfoy said, feigning sadness. "My father is very unhappy about my injury—"
"Malfoy, if you keep talking, I'll really hurt you!" Ron roared, his voice burning with unyielding spirit.
"—He protested to the school board and to the Ministry of Magic. You know, my father is very influential. And this kind of wound is so hard to heal—" he sighed dramatically, feigning bravado, "who knows if my arm will ever be the same again?"
"No wonder you're putting on such a show," Harry said indignantly, his hands trembling so badly that he accidentally sliced off the head of a dead caterpillar.
“That’s right,” Malfoy said in a low, smug voice, “partly right, Potter. But there’s more to it than that. Weasley, slice the caterpillar into pieces for me.”
A few cauldrons away, Hermione noticed that Neville was also in trouble.
He always made a mess of Potions class, which was his worst subject, and his fear of Professor Snape made things even worse.
Nawi's potion was supposed to be a bright green, but it turned orange instead.
"Orange, Longbottom," Snape slowly scooped some out with a spoon and poured it back into the cauldron so everyone could see, "Orange. Tell me, boy, what can possibly penetrate your blockhead?"
"Didn't you hear me clearly say that all you need is a rat's spleen? Didn't I make it clear that just a little bit of ant juice is enough? How can I possibly make you understand, Longbottom?"
Hermione, who was standing nearby, noticed that Neville's face was flushed, his whole body was trembling, and he looked like he was about to cry.
She finally couldn't hold back any longer and said to Snape, "Please, Professor, I can help Neville correct his ways—"
Upon hearing Hermione's voice, Snape turned his head and stared coldly at Herman with his venomous eyes.
Then she said coldly, "I don't recall inviting you out to show off, Miss Granger."
Hermione's face turned as red as Neville's.
"Longbottom, at the end of this lesson, we're going to give your toad a few drops of this potion and see what happens. That might motivate you to brew the medicine properly."
After saying that, Snape walked away, leaving Neville breathless with fear.
He sobbed, "Help me!"
Upon hearing Neville's request, Hermione offered her help without hesitation.
After Snape left, Seamus Finnigan leaned over to borrow Harry's bronze scales. While glancing at Snape's retreating figure out of the corner of his eye, he cautiously said, "Hey Harry, did you hear? This morning's Daily Prophet—they think someone saw Sirius Black."
"Where?" Harry and Ron asked immediately. Malfoy looked up from the other end of the table and listened intently.
“Not too far from here,” Seamus said excitedly. “It was a Muggle who saw it. Of course, the Muggle didn’t know what had happened and thought he had just seen an ordinary criminal, so he called the hotline. By the time the Ministry of Magic arrived, he was already gone.”
"Not far from here—" Ron repeated, casting a meaningful glance at Harry. He turned and saw Malfoy intently observing them, then asked coldly, "What's wrong, Malfoy? Is there anything else to skin?"
Malfoy's eyes gleamed with malice as he stared intently at Harry, leaning over from the other side of the table.
"Do you want to catch Black by yourself, Potter?"
"Yes, that's right," Harry answered without hesitation.
Malfoy's lips curled into a sly smile as he whispered, "Of course, if it were me, I would have taken action long ago. I wouldn't stay in school and be a good boy; I would definitely go out and find him."
"What nonsense are you spouting?" Ron replied dismissively.
"Don't you know, Potter?" Malfoy's voice was low, his gray eyes slightly narrowed.
"Know what?"
Malfoy chuckled softly. "Perhaps you're unwilling to take the risk and prefer to let the Dementors deal with him, is that it? If it were me, I would definitely seek revenge and hunt him down myself."
"What are you talking about?" Harry demanded angrily. Just then, Snape interrupted them: "Now you should have finished adding all the ingredients. This potion needs to be simmered before drinking. While it's simmering, pack your things up, we'll test Longbottom's potion—"
Crabbe and Goyle laughed without restraint as they watched Neville frantically stirring the potion, sweating profusely.
Hermione whispered the instructions to him in a low voice, so Snape wouldn't see. Harry and Ron began tidying up the unused ingredients, then went to the stone basin in the corner to wash their hands and get their spoons.
"What does Malfoy mean?" Harry asked Ron in a low voice, placing his hands under the icy jet of water spraying from the monster-shaped gargoyle. "Why should I seek revenge on Black? He hasn't done anything to me yet."
"Don't listen to his nonsense," Ron said indignantly. "He's just trying to incite you to do something stupid—"
As get out of class was about to end, Snape strode toward Neville, who cowered trembling beside the cauldron under his imposing presence.
"Come here, everyone," said Snape, his dark eyes gleaming, "to see what Longbottom's toad will become. If his shrinking potion turns out well, the toad will shrink into a tadpole. If he doesn't do it right—I have no doubt his toad will be poisoned."
The Gryffindor students watched with concern, while the Slytherin students were extremely excited. Snape, holding Neville's toad Raffer, dipped a small spoon into Neville's potion. By then, the potion had turned green, and he poured a few drops down Raffer's throat.
The classroom fell silent instantly. Rafer opened his mouth and gasped for breath. Then, with a "poof," Rafer, now a scorpion, writhed in Snape's palm.
The Gryffindor students cheered. Snape looked very unhappy. He took a small bottle from his robe pocket, poured a few drops of liquid on Rafer, and Rafer immediately turned back into a toad.
"Five points deducted from Gryffindor," Snape announced coldly, and everyone's smiles vanished instantly. "I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. get out of class dismissed."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione went upstairs to the foyer. Harry was still pondering Malfoy's words, while Ron remained angry about Snape.
"Deduct five points from Gryffindor just because the potion was brewed correctly! Why don't you just tell a lie, Hermione? You should say Neville did it himself!"
Hermione had already left the classroom and was hurrying to the Myrtle bathroom on the second floor, thinking about how to use the Time-Turner to go back a few hours and catch up on the lessons she had missed.
As she reached the door of the washroom, a woman dressed entirely in a black cloak suddenly walked out of the door.
Hermione instinctively stopped and frowned slightly.
The edge of the woman's cloak brushed lightly against Hermione's arm, bringing a touch of coolness.
Hermione scrutinized the face. Although the shadows obscured most of its features, Hermione could still feel a strange sense of familiarity.
Just then, the two walked forward almost simultaneously, and Hermione bumped into the woman.
Hermione immediately took a step back, staring intently at her, trying to make out her features from the shadows of the cloak. The woman's hand trembled, dropping a thick book and an unusually strange pocket watch. Hermione quickly bent down to pick them up, the familiar feeling still swirling in her mind.
"I'm sorry, I—" Hermione stammered, looking up and handing over the book and pocket watch.
"It's alright," the woman replied casually.
The moment their eyes met, Hermes felt a strange electric current surge through her heart.
Just as she was about to ask a question, the woman turned around and disappeared at the end of the corridor.
Hermione stood there for a moment, trying to shake off the strange feeling, before quickly entering the sanctuary to adjust the time-tamper, preparing to go back a few hours and catch up on the missed lessons.