Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 59 A Beautiful Misunderstanding

Loren quickly finished his homework and, together with Ron, blew on the blue flames back and forth. The two of them, heads tilted back, took turns blowing, passing the fireballs around, having a great time like two silly dogs playing with a ball.

Hermione tucked the revised manuscript into the book, planning to finish the copying over the weekend.

The girl looked up at the two mentally challenged men playing with fire, then glanced at Harry beside her, who was staring at his book and occasionally grinning foolishly. She felt a deep sense of despair. What should she do? None of her friends seemed quite normal.

"Loren, how's your communication with Lee Jordan going?" Hermione started a conversation.

"Phew!" Loren didn't stop. "Lee Jordan said that commentary is all about improvisation, phew!"

"We can't predict the course of the match, so there's not much to practice. Phew!" Loren thought this made a lot of sense; at least from this point of view, the two were on the same page.

The two were very close, and Hermione vaguely felt tiny droplets of water on the back of her hand. Hermione's expression turned to horror—his saliva had landed on her!

"That's enough!"

Hermione's temples throbbed. She took out her wand and tapped Loren, stopping this seemingly silly, boring, and annoying game. She put the blue flame back into the jar.

Why did you suddenly become a commentator?

Hermione put the jar away, and Ron was also curious about the question. Judging from his previous behavior, Loren was not good at flying and did not like Quidditch.

Loren gave him a look that said, "Whether it's Wong Tai Sin or Guan Shen, they all started as commentators and eventually became masters of 'poisonous milk,' capable of killing gods and Buddhas alike."

Hermione didn't understand a single word of what was said, but that didn't stop her from understanding what Loren wanted to do.

This person has a terrible personality and always does things he thinks are funny. You could tell from the beginning when he instigated him to touch Professor McGonagall's Animagus. There was no other reason than to have some fun.

"Hehehehehe..." Harry, who was standing nearby, suddenly burst out laughing when he saw something funny. It was so silly.

Loren and Ron couldn't bear to watch and were about to interrupt him.

"Harry Potter!"

Snape had just seen them in the hallway. Last night, while guarding against Quirrell, he had mistakenly entered Fulwe's room and injured his leg, so he was limping over.

"What are you holding in your hand?" Snape looked at the person in front of him, his gaze involuntarily drawn to those green eyes.

Harry understood that as a student, it was best not to talk back to the professor. He didn't say anything, silently closed the book, and handed it to Snape.

The Amazing Quidditch

Snape stared at the title on the cover, his eyes twitching, a strange irritation rising within him.

Quidditch, Quidditch, just like his wretched father, he's quite proud of his little talent in Quidditch, and his laughter could be heard in the hallway just now.

"Books from the library are not allowed to be taken out of the castle. Gryffindor loses 5 points."

Before the others could react, Snape turned to Loren and said, "You don't need to come to the office tonight." With that, he picked up his book and limped away.

Loren looked a little confused. "Huh? Oh, okay."

The four watched Snape walk away.

"He made up a rule on the spot!" Harry said indignantly.

Hermione noticed something else: "What happened to Professor Snape's foot?"

"I don't know, but he must be in a lot of pain," Ron said with a smug smile.

Loren clicked his tongue thoughtfully. Dumbledore had really screwed over his own people. Thinking about it, it seemed like this was the only record of Fulvi's. Snape was really unlucky.

……

The Gryffindor common room was bustling with noise as everyone discussed tomorrow's Quidditch match.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting together by the window. Hermione was checking Harry and Ron's Charms homework, and she wouldn't let them copy her work directly.

The two could have directly referred to Loren's answers, but Loren's homework was full of scribbles. They had to carefully decipher them to figure out whether it was the villain Murric or the weirdo Yurik. It was too much work; they could have found the answer by flipping through a book.

So they came up with an idea: they would write down the easy questions themselves, and for the ones they didn't know, they would just fill in a random answer, and then Hermione would check them, and that way they would know the correct answer.

Harry wasn't thinking about his homework; he was preoccupied with tomorrow's game, growing increasingly anxious. Lately, when he was feeling anxious, he would take out "The Amazing Quidditch" and read the interesting stories to calm his nerves.

The book was confiscated.

Why should I be afraid of Snape? Harry's fear turned into anger:

Harry stood up and said to Hermione and Ron, "I'm going to find Snape to get my book back. Do you want to come with me?"

Are you crazy?

Although Ron didn't say anything, his eyes clearly conveyed the meaning.

Hermione shook her head as well.

"Then I'll go myself!"

The two men's rejection fueled Harry's inner urges, and he turned and left.

Stepping out of the lounge, the slightly cooler air brought him back to his senses. A thought of retreat crossed his mind, but going back now would be too embarrassing.

Harry had a good idea: if other professors were around, Snape wouldn't be able to refuse him. He decided to try his luck in the faculty lounge.

On the other side, in the Hogwarts basement.

Loren followed the familiar road and arrived at Snape's office.

"I told you you don't need to come over tonight!" Snape's voice was a little louder than usual, and it sounded a little annoyed.

There was someone inside. The office's defenses and alarm spells weren't activated, so Loren simply pushed the door open and went in. Snape was grading papers.

"I've come to see you, Professor."

Loren didn't know why he came. Perhaps it was because Snape helped him prepare the wolfsbane potion, or perhaps it was because Snape taught him more advanced potion knowledge, or perhaps it was because of their time together every Friday night that made him feel that his relationship with Snape wasn't so distant.

Snape ignored Loren and kept his head down.

"Why not try White Fresh?" Loren brought up Snape's leg injury.

Snape jerked his head up and glared at Loren, as if those words had stung him. "Fool! You've wasted all that potions knowledge!"

"You don't even know that white peony root can only treat superficial wounds? Do you think I'm as stupid as you?"

"Do you think I, a professor of potions, don't even know what a white sage is? Or do you simply know nothing and are just offering some presumptuous advice?"

Snape rattled off these words in a rapid-fire manner, his anger evident and his words spoken without a second thought.

Loren knew this was a manifestation of emotions that had been building up for too long and could no longer be suppressed; he himself wasn't angry. What kind of internet trolls hadn't he seen in the 21st century? This wasn't even the beginner level.

The atmosphere fell silent.

This scene gave Snape a sense of familiarity; it seemed as if a similar moment had occurred many years ago, the same anger clouding his judgment, the same words spoken without thinking. The time, the place, the people had changed.

Snape knew he was now a professor, and Loren was just a student; the two didn't have a deep friendship. Even if Loren pulled out his wand and killed him right now, Snape wouldn't regret his earlier insults.

He would never again experience the pain of losing Lily, but the emotions that had been brewing in his heart for decades were like a shattered wine jar, the smell of ethanol permeating everywhere.

After a long silence, Snape spoke, "I'm sorry, I was a little out of line."

Snape apologized! Loren found the scene utterly horrifying, but he wasn't stupid enough to utter a moronic line like, "Oh, what did you say?"

Loren acted as if he hadn't heard him. "Should we go check on Mrs. Pomfrey?"

Snape leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "No need. I had Filch get me some medicine. Help me to the faculty lounge to apply it."

……

Harry went to the staff lounge and knocked on the door, but no one answered.

Could Snape have left the book in here? That would be incredibly lucky. Harry thought it was worth a try, so he pushed the door open a crack and peered inside—a horrifying sight awaited him.

There were three people in the room: Snape, Filch, and—Loren.

Snape pulled his robes up above his knees. One of his legs was covered in blood, a bloody mess.

Filch was bandaging Snape's wounds nearby.

Loren watched from the side.

"Dictamnus dasycarpus can only treat superficial wounds; for more serious ones, it needs to be combined with other herbs," Snape said.

Filch's bandage pressed against the wound.

"Hiss!" Snape gasped. "Damn it, how is it possible to defend against three heads at the same time?"

Harry's pupils contracted upon hearing this; Snape's injury was inflicted by Fluffy.

Upon hearing this terrible news, he wanted to close the door and leave.

"Potter!" Snape turned around quickly, putting down his robe to cover his wound.

Loren was also surprised; he didn't remember this scene in the movie.

Harry felt his trachea tighten and he couldn't breathe. He quickly said, "I want to know if I can get my book back."

"Get out! Now!"

Harry hurriedly ran away, going upstairs to his lounge.

"Did you get the book?" Ron asked, looking at Harry, who was breathing heavily. Hermione was also curious.

Harry caught his breath for a moment, then lowered his voice and told them everything he had just seen.

"Do you know what that means?" Harry asked, holding his breath. "On Halloween, he was trying to get past Fluffy's guard! I saw him then; he was looking for that thing that Cerberus was guarding."

"I bet he let the troll in to distract people."

Hermione's eyes widened. "I know he's not a good person, but the professor would never steal something that Dumbledore is guarding closely."

Ron refuted this claim. "To be honest, Hermione, you always think the professor is incapable of anything. But I think Snape is capable of anything."

At this point, Ron also became curious. "What is he looking for? And what is that big dog guarding?"

Hermione suggested, "Didn't Harry say Loren was here too? Maybe we can ask Loren."

"Loren saved our lives, so we shouldn't doubt him."

Ron said, "But what if Snape has put some kind of curse on him? You know, he goes to Snape's office every Friday. Who knows what they're doing?"

"But..." Hermione couldn't bring herself to talk about Loren and the werewolf; it was Loren's private matter. She couldn't find the words to refute him and her face flushed red with anxiety.

Harry was a little confused. "But Loren said from the beginning that he had a way to deal with Cerberus. If he was on Snape's side, Snape wouldn't have been bitten."

"That's just what he said; who knows if he really has a way?" Ron retorted.

Hermione wondered if Snape was using the wolfsbane potion to blackmail Loren, and Loren was forced to pretend to be on Snape's side for the sake of the potion, but did not actually help Snape.

Following this line of thought, everything seemed to make sense, and the little witch was certain of her guess. She wanted to find an opportunity to talk to Loren alone.

Hermione didn't realize that her previous firm belief that the professor was fine had unknowingly changed because of her worry for Loren.

Harry agreed with Ron in his heart, but he didn't say anything.

The discussion continued until Loren returned.

The scene just now wasn't in the movie. Loren had no idea that Harry and his friends had developed so many ideas based on that scene, and for some reason, they didn't ask.

Thus, a wonderful misunderstanding arose among the four of them.

Even as he lay in bed, the question kept buzzing in Harry's head, preventing him from falling asleep for a long time...

(End of this chapter)