Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 470 Harry, the Target
It was past midnight, and the common room was empty except for the four of them still sitting there, writing furiously. All was quiet except for the sound of quills scratching across parchment.

Finally, Harry was the first to finish his Potions homework, and then Ron looked up.

They were exhausted, and the moment they put down their quills, their eyelids began to droop uncontrollably.

"Wait a minute, give them to me." Hermione stopped writing her paper and said, "Let me take a look and make some changes, so that Snape won't have an excuse to cause trouble for you tomorrow."

The two immediately woke up and handed the homework to Hermione.

After that, there was another long period of quiet, until almost midnight when Hermione returned the revised paper to the two of them.

"Alright, copy this down, and add the ending I circled. Snape shouldn't be able to give you any trouble with your homework."

“Hermione, you are truly the best person I’ve ever met in my life,” Ron said weakly. “If I ever dare to argue with you again…”

“…I knew you were back to normal,” Hermione said. “Stop dawdling. If you two hurry, you should be able to get a few more hours of sleep.”

……

From midnight to dawn, and then until the first light of day, tinged with morning mist, appeared outside the window.

When Siren finally put down his quill, there was no one around. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had already gone back to their dorms sometime earlier.

He vaguely remembered that it had been about an hour ago.

Harry and Ron left first, Hermione a little later. She was writing a long paper on the Vanishing Charm, almost as if she were competing with Siron.

I have no idea what she was imagining.

Xilun stood up, yawned, and, taking advantage of the remaining time, hurried back to his dormitory for a nap.

Although he could drink the potion of clarity, it had been modified by either Snape or Madam Pomfrey, and tasted sour and astringent, like drinking a sip of fresh lemon juice.

If possible, Xilun wouldn't really want to drink that stuff.

……

After sleeping for less than two hours, Xilun was awakened by a sudden loud explosion.

“Thank you, Gulu…” Xiren sat up and said to the house-elf beside her bed.

The sound just now was made when Gulu Phantom teleported in; it was also the alarm clock that Xilun had set for himself in advance.

Hogwarts forbids Apparition, but this restriction only applies to wizards; house-elves have their own magic.

In retrospect, this method of waking people up is effective immediately, but it's not very user-friendly.

The house-elf greeted Xilun excitedly and even asked if he needed breakfast brought to the dormitory.

It disappeared from the dormitory and went back to the kitchen after Xilun refused.

Just as Siron left the dormitory, a sleepy-eyed Harry and Ron appeared in the hallway.

With Hermione waiting in the common room, they went to the Great Hall for breakfast and then quickly headed to the underground classroom for Potions class.

The first class today was Potions. After coming down the stairs, the chilly air unique to Potions class instantly dispelled the sleepiness of the group.

No one could... and no one dared to doze off in Snape's class, especially since he was going to announce last week's test results today.

Snape was already waiting in the classroom. Harry's heart skipped a beat; he thought he saw Snape give him a meaningful look.

This subconsciously reminded him of the prophecy that Siron made during the divination class last week.

"It shouldn't be... right..." Harry reassured himself.

Five minutes later, his completed test paper was handed out, with a long, sharp "D" hastily written on the top corner.

“If you hand in something like this on your OWL exam, this is the grade I’m giving you,” Snape sneered. “Our great star almost ended up like Longbottom. If there are two Ts in a year, people will think I’m a terrible teacher.”

"T" is the worst grade of all, meaning a brainless monster.

Of all the fifth-grade students, only Neville Longbottom has consistently gotten this grade from Snape.

Harry's result was only slightly better than T, ranking second to last, even though Ron got a P (poor).

After finishing typing all the exam papers, Snape walked to the front of the classroom and turned to face everyone.

"Unexpectedly, if the OWL exam is held tomorrow, most of you will fail."

"In order to prevent some of you from ruining my reputation, as agreed before, I will arrange tutoring for two people this Saturday."

"Who is it, Professor!" Malfoy chuckled, deliberately raising his voice.

“First, there’s Mr. Neville Longbottom, who got a ‘T’…” Snape paused, then continued, “and then there’s… Harry Potter, who got a ‘D’.”

If there had been a mirror, Harry would have seen his face was bright red. He suspected that Snape had deliberately given him such a low score so that he could be put in solitary confinement on Saturday.

“Yes, he did it on purpose.” After class, Siren patted Harry on the shoulder and said.

“I should have believed your prophecy and bought Fred a vomit candy before Potions class today,” Harry sighed. “I’d rather spend the day in the hospital.”

"What prophecy!" Hermione, who always scoffed at divination, seemed to have heard a key word and immediately turned around to retort, "It's obvious, okay? Snape and Sirius have a terrible relationship, and you're Sirius's godson, so of course he'll cause you trouble."

“Oh, right, we can go find Sirius!” Ron seemed to have thought of something and almost jumped up on the spot.

"What?" Harry clutched his backpack. For some reason, he instinctively didn't want Sirius to know he had gotten a bad grade.

"Snape deliberately gave you a low score so that you would embarrass yourself in front of everyone."

Ron said angrily, "Although we can't do anything about him, Sirius is a professor now, which doesn't mean he can't do anything about it either."

“No, Ron, this will only escalate the conflict!” Hermione tried to stop him. “Fifth year has only just begun. If this continues, Harry will be constantly targeted.”

"Does that mean if we don't say anything, Snape won't target Harry?" Ron retorted.

“Impossible.” Before Hermione could answer, Ron said to himself, “We have to go find Sirius, Harry.”

"But what if they start fighting?" Harry said, somewhat worried.

“That’s perfect,” Ron said. “Didn’t Malfoy get his confinement lifted for this reason last time? Maybe you can too.”

……

(End of this chapter)