Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 18 Harry's Doubts

Potions class continued, and Professor Snape's attitude towards the other Gryffindor students was equally hostile.

The students worked in pairs to mix and prepare a simple medicine to treat scabies, which required weighing dried nettles, crushing snake fangs, and boiling slugs with tentacles.

Snape specifically praised Malfoy in this step, saying that the blond kid had indeed handled the move perfectly.

The most dangerous step is adding porcupine quills; the book says that if this step is done wrong, there will be big trouble. Soon everyone will find out what that big trouble is.

Neville and Seymour were in a group, and before they even took the pot off the fire, they put the porcupine quills in.

Suddenly, a thick, acidic green smoke billowed from the pot, which then twisted and shrank into a ball, spilling the medicine inside and flowing all over the stone slab with a corrosive hissing sound.

"what!"

People nearby quickly stood on stools, and others followed suit. A few who were slower had large holes burned in their shoes.

No one was hurt except for Neville, whose arms and legs were splashed with the medicine, which corroded and tore his clothes. The medicine got on his skin and quickly caused red and swollen scabies.

Neville was in unbearable pain and squatted on the ground, howling incessantly. He tried to cover his wound with his hand, but each touch only intensified the pain, and pus was squeezed out.

Loren Ron and the others felt terrible watching this, but there was nothing they could do.

Snape walked over, staring intently at Neville, looking very angry.

He waved his wand, clearing the potion from the ground. Then he turned the wand around and quickly cast several healing spells on Neville, which quieted Neville's wails somewhat.

Snape pulled a small black bottle from his pocket, poured out a drop of white, tree sap-like substance, mixed it with the scabies medicine, and applied it to Neville's wound.

The red, swollen scabies quickly subsided, leaving only some red marks. Neville couldn't resist touching it, and then shuddered in pain.

When Snape finished his work and saw this, he finally opened his mouth and yelled, "You idiot, I think you put the porcupine quills in before you took the pot off the fire, didn't you?"

Neville was scolded and cried, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Take him to the school clinic ward. I'm just giving him temporary treatment; he'll need further treatment from the doctor."

Snape, unable to bear it any longer, gave the order to Seamus, who was standing next to him.

Simon helped Neville up and headed to the school infirmary.

Hermione was still shaken, and a little angry. She bit her lip and said resentfully, "That was terrifying! There weren't any safety measures at all during the lab classes here!"

Loren's only memory of the Potions class in the movie was the part where they teased Harry at the beginning; the unexpected events later on also frightened him. However, Loren comforted Hermione, saying, "This was just an accident; everyone will be more careful in the future."

The students around him gradually got off their stools and sat down again, with some praising Professor Snape as a true master of potions.

Harry hadn't even recovered from the series of shocks when Snape started acting up again: "Potter, why didn't you tell him not to add the porcupine quills? Do you think it makes you look good just because he made a mistake? Gryffindor loses another 5 points."

Harry was a little down. He didn't know about the feud between his parents and didn't understand why Snape hated him so much.

The potions class ended an hour later.

After lunch, the three of them went to meet Hagrid. They walked through fields, where the sun generously shone on them, warming them and freeing them from the Potions class.

"Ah~"

Loren had spent the last few years in the wilderness, and this scene made him feel more comfortable. He would run a few steps on the grass, stop, and pluck some unknown wildflowers. Harry and Ron were also infected by this enthusiasm, running and stopping intermittently.

At five minutes to three, the group arrived at the small cabin on the edge of the forbidden forest. In front of the door was a stone bow and a pair of rubber overshoes. Loren felt a particular affinity for such a cabin and went to knock first.

He opened the door a crack, revealing a large, bearded face. He paused for a moment upon seeing Loren, then smiled broadly when he saw Harry behind Loren.

"Oh, come in quickly, look at me, I've been so busy I forgot about our appointment." Hagrid pulled the hound back a little more and welcomed the three of them into the house.

The hut had only one room. Hams and pheasants hung from the ceiling, a copper kettle boiled water in a brazier, and a large bed with tattered quilts placed in the corner. The environment was even more dilapidated than Loren's house.

"Sit down! Don't be shy." Hagrid gestured for the group to sit down, then released the hound from his grip. The hound lunged at Ron, who was nearly scared to tears, but the hound only licked his ears.

Hagrid laughed as he watched this scene: "I forgot to introduce you, this is my friend Tooth." The dog was clearly not as fierce as it looked.

Harry and Loren couldn't help but laugh at Ron's disheveled appearance. Harry introduced them, "These are Ron and Loren, my friends."

Hagrid glanced at him and chuckled, "It's the Weasleys again. Your two brothers have given me a hard time several times. I've spent most of my life trying to get them out of the Forbidden Forest."

As Hagrid spoke, he took out some rock-skin cakes to serve the three of them.

The pancakes made a "thump, thump, thump" sound as they hit the plates, and the three of them felt a little stiff in the neck.

"Try it, Ya Ya loves it!"

Harry and Ron picked up a piece and mustered their courage to take a bite.

"Clang!"

Their expressions turned pained; the biscuits nearly broke their teeth. Despite Hagrid's enthusiasm, they pretended to enjoy them, slowly grinding them with their teeth.

Listening to the crunching sound of teeth grinding, Loren roughly understood why Ya Ya liked to eat this; dogs love chew toys, don't they?

Loren held a cookie in his hand. He wasn't going to torture himself, so he started complaining about the Hogwarts staircase while holding the cookie.

The topic shifted, and Harry started talking about his classes these past few days, complaining bitterly about Professor Snape's favoritism and difficult behavior.

Hagrid stammered for a moment, trying to refute Harry, but finally only said, "Snape is a professor, he won't target you."

That sounds very unconvincing.

"Cough cough."

Hagrid began by talking about Ron, "How's your brother Charlie? He's just like me, very good with animals."

The topic shifted too abruptly, and Harry felt that he didn't want to talk about the professor.

Ron's older brother Charlie works in the dragon-related field after graduation, and he shared some of what he knew.

Loren picked up the Daily Prophet from the table and began to browse through it.

Harry immediately saw the report about the burglary at Gringotts. Gringotts claimed that the intruders had broken into the vault, and that the owner of the vault had already taken everything from it that day, so nothing was stolen.

The report concluded by stating that a Gringotts goblin spokesperson said this afternoon that they could not disclose what was stored in the vault and advised against interfering in the matter.

Loren saw it and knew that it was that old bastard Dumbledore who had tricked Voldemort. But he had a lot of complaints he wanted to vent to the Gringotts bandits.

Are all the goblins at Gringotts scoundrels? Someone went into the place where they were supposed to be keeping customers' things, then came out and said nothing was missing, warning all customers not to ask around. Unbelievable.

Harry remembered that day vividly; it was almost the most memorable day of his life: "Hagrid! We were there the day Gringotts was broken into!"

"Huh? I don't quite remember." Hagrid's eyes darted around, offering no direct answer.

Harry kept this in mind. Could the small bag Hagrid took from the 713 vault that day have been the intruder's target?

Time passed by unnoticed. A piece of rock-skin cake, eaten with tea all afternoon, was still not finished. However, when they weren't looking, Loren fed the rock-skin cake to Ya Ya.

Harry returned with a head full of questions: What was that bag Hagrid was carrying? Where is it now? Why was Hagrid avoiding talking about Snape?

(End of this chapter)