novelhk Page 356
Page 356
In a corner of the school, Ron was yelling at a younger girl who had just come to him asking how to make a love potion and about how to seduce boys.
Ron's feelings were very complicated; this was the third time this morning.
Ron has never been so popular with the witches.
Unfortunately, this welcome was not the way he had imagined.
"Should I study Potions seriously and then open a love potion training course or something?" Ron said to Harry during the afternoon Potions class, flipping through the Wizarding Weekly haphazardly. "If this had happened before Christmas, I wouldn't have been unable to find a dance partner."
He still harbors resentment about what happened before the Christmas ball.
“Oh, come on Ron, even if the girls attended your love potion training class, they wouldn’t want you as their dance partner.” Harry covered his face, trying to persuade his friend not to be so shameless. “They’d just think you’re looking for a boy as your dance partner.”
“Even if I didn’t do that, I still found a boy as my dance partner…” Ron glanced at Harry and said helplessly, “It can’t get any worse than that, maybe a witch will actually take a liking to me?”
As he said this, his eyes were fixed on Hermione, who was separated from him by two people, and he didn't pay attention to the situation around him.
“Mr. Weasley, despite your colorful social life,”
Snape's icy voice rang out beside them, startling them both, "But I must warn you, no whispering in my class! Ten points deducted from Gryffindor."
All the students turned around and looked at them.
Draco seized the opportunity and pointed the Potter stinking badge at Harry from the other end of the classroom, making it flash.
"Oh, still hiding under the table reading magazines?"
Snape then said, grabbing the copy of "Wizarding Weekly"
"Gryffindor loses another ten points... but of course..."
Snape's gaze fell on Rita Skeeter's article, and his dark eyes immediately lit up.
"Porter needs to collect newspaper clippings..."
Hermione on the other side almost burst out laughing; she felt like she'd heard those words before…
It seems that Gilderoy Lockhart, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in his second year, had a habit of cutting out newspapers with his own articles printed on them.
This joke is way too old.
Obviously, given the slow pace at which wizarding trends change, it's entirely possible for a single joke to last for a whole year; at least everyone present remembered that comical professor.
The Slytherins' cheerful laughter echoed from the underground classroom.
Snape's thin lips twitched, revealing a malicious smile, and he loudly read the article aloud:
"'Harry Potter's Secret Sad Story'... Oh my god, oh my god, what's wrong with you now? He might be a very special boy...~"
Snape paused after each sentence, letting the Slytherins laugh to their hearts' content.
“'...Those who have good intentions for Victor Krum hope that next time he offers his sincere affections, he will choose a more worthy candidate.' How touching!"
Snape said sarcastically, rolling up the magazine amidst the Slytherins' bursts of laughter.
"Hmph, now I finally understand why 'Miss Know-It-All' wisely left you two (Hermione: 'Why is it my business again?') I think it's best to separate you two so you can focus on making potions instead of thinking about these messy romantic affairs."
As he spoke, he pointed towards the podium.
“Weasley, you stay here. Potter, go to the table in front of my lectern. Alright, get moving.”
The two had no choice but to comply. Harry was furious. He threw the ingredients and his schoolbag into the cauldron, then carried it to the empty table at the front of the classroom.
Snape followed and sat down at his lectern, watching Harry take the contents of the cauldron out one by one.
Harry decided not to look at Snape and started fiddling with his scarabs, imagining that each one had a Snape face.
"You've become the center of media attention, which seems to have made your already careless head even more inflated, Porter."
After the rest of the class had quietly begun making potions, Snape said.
His voice was very soft, and if Hermione hadn't had her senses greatly enhanced after drinking the Sense Elixir, he probably wouldn't have heard a word he said.
"You probably assume that the entire magical world is amazed by you,"
Snape continued, "But I don't care how many times your picture appears in the newspapers. To me, Potter, you're just a nasty little boy who thinks he can ignore all the rules and regulations."
Harry poured the powdered beetle into the crucible and began cutting ginger roots.
His hands trembled slightly with anger, but he kept his eyes down, as if he couldn't hear what Snape was saying to him at all.
“Therefore, I must give you a friendly warning, Potter,” Snape said in a softer, more sinister voice, “despite your minor fame… if I find you barging into my office again…”
“I’ve never gone near your office!” Harry said angrily, abandoning his earlier feigned deafness.
“Don’t lie to me,” Snape said in a low voice, his unfathomable black eyes glaring at Harry. “African tree snakeskin, gill pouch grass. Both of those are my personal stash, and I know who stole them.”
Harry stared at Snape without showing any weakness, and he refused to blink or show any guilt.
Only Hermione knew the truth: Harry definitely didn't steal those two items.
Because she herself had stolen them before, she knew very well that they were important ingredients for making compound decoctions.
He also remembered the information Levin had revealed.
If there's anyone in Hogwarts who would need him the most, it would only be Barty Crouch Jr., who transforms into Professor Moody.
To maintain Professor Moody's appearance at all times, Barty Jr. must take a sip of Polyjuice Potion every so often, which is why he always carries that curved bottle with him.
"You weren't in your own bed the night someone broke into my office!" Snape hissed. "That doesn't fool me, Potter! Sure, Mad-Eye Moody probably joined your fan club too, but I'll never tolerate this again! If you ever sneak into my office in the middle of the night again, Potter, you'll be in big trouble!"
“Okay,” Harry said, bending down to chop his ginger root. “I’ll keep that in mind so I don’t get the urge to go there someday.”
"Do you know what this is, Potter?" said Snape, his eyes gleaming with malice again.
“I don’t know,” Harry said, and this time he was telling the whole truth.
"This is Truth Potion—a potion that teaches you to tell the truth. It's incredibly effective. Just three drops are enough to make you reveal your deepest secrets and have all the students listening attentively."
Snape said fiercely, "Of course, the Ministry of Magic has very strict regulations governing the use of this potion. But you must be extremely careful, or I might make a mistake."
He gently shook the crystal bottle. "..." Pour it into your pumpkin juice for dinner. Then, Potter... then we'll find out whether you actually went to my office or not.
Harry hesitated; he had too many secrets he didn't want to reveal to the public, and he had no doubt that Snape would actually do it.
In the midst of this almost frozen atmosphere, someone suddenly knocked on the classroom door.
"Come in," Snape said in his usual voice.
The door opened, and the whole class turned to look. Igor Karkaroff, the headmaster of Durmstrang Institute of Witchcraft and Wizardry, walked in, and everyone watched as he headed toward Snape's podium.
He twirled his goatee with his fingers, looking restless.
“We need to talk,” Karkaroff said abruptly as he approached Snape.
He seemed determined not to let anyone hear what he was saying, so his lips barely moved, as if he were a very poor ventriloquist.
“I’ll talk to you after class, Karkaroff,” Snape said quietly.
But Karkarov interrupted him.
“I want to talk now, while you can’t slip away, Severus. You’ve been hiding from me.”
“We’ll talk after class,” Snape said sternly.
Karkaroff looked panicked, while Snape seemed very angry.
But for the rest of the time, Karkaroff lingered behind Snape's lectern.
He seemed determined not to let Snape slip away after class.
In their anxiety, they didn't notice that after class, a figure didn't leave with the other junior wizards, but disappeared into a corner.
"What's so urgent?" Snape asked Karkaroff in a low voice after the students had left the classroom.
“Look,” Karkaroff said.
He lifted the left sleeve of his robe to show Snape the Dark Mark on his forearm.
"How about it?" Karkarov said. "See? It's never been this obvious. It's gotten hotter and hotter since the World Cup."
"Hide!" Snape said fiercely, glancing in the direction of the classroom with his dark eyes, but finding nothing.
“But you must have noticed—” (Kakarov's words 8)
He said thoughtfully.
"So what!" Snape said impatiently.
“If anything happens, let’s run away together,” Karkaroff said weakly. “Severus, we can run together, we can both go into hiding and find somewhere where no one is around. Maybe America, where we can look after each other.”
Snape was silent for a moment, then shook his head and said calmly, "If you want to escape, you can escape yourself... I want to stay at Hogwarts."
"For..." Karkaroff wanted to say something more, but Professor Snape gave him a cold glare.
"No matter what, remember loyalty." These words made Karkaroff swallow his own words.
Karkaroff stood there stunned for a long time, then covered his Dark Mark with one hand, turned around, and strode out of the classroom.
Chapter 391 Ron's Aphrodisiac Tutoring Class
That evening at dinner time, Hermione and Ginny went to the Ravenclaw table again and joined Levin and the others.
Taking this opportunity, she told Levin about what she had seen and heard in Potions class.
"Just as I expected." Levin nodded after listening.
Looking at the worried Hermione, he couldn't help but comfort her, "Don't worry, he won't get his way."
"What won't go as planned?" Luna looked up from her plate, her eyes filled with confusion. "Is it Ron's love potion cram school... or Karkaroff's escape plan?"
"Is Ron really going to start a love potion training course?" Marietta popped up and asked excitedly. "If it's true, I'd like to learn from him."
As she spoke, she glanced at Levin with ill intent.
Although she was Zhang Qiu's best friend, she had been eyeing Zhang Qiu's boyfriend for a long time.
However, Zhang Qiu's attitude was very decisive: "Don't even think about it, Marietta. This is the only thing I will not agree to!"
“Don’t be like that, Zhang Qiu, aren’t we best friends?” Marietta said shamelessly. “Anyway, he has a lot of girlfriends, so one more won’t make a difference.”
"Absolutely not!" Zhang Qiu crossed her arms over her chest.
In front of men, best friends are all things that can be abandoned.
"That's great, to be fought over by girls right in front of you... When will I ever get that kind of treatment?" Steve looked at his roommate with admiration.