Hearing the encouragement from the little lions around him, Neville forced out a smile that looked more painful than crying.
"Thank you for speaking up for me, Harry."
Seeing Neville's appearance, Harry, who had originally thought he was right, began to regret his earlier outburst.
"I say, Harry, you clearly knew the old bat would find any excuse to cause trouble. Why do such a thing?"
As Harry's good friend, Ron spoke more casually, "It was completely meaningless!"
"I was too impulsive," Harry sighed. As he spoke, he secretly glanced at Sherlock.
The reason he had acted that way earlier was because he suddenly remembered something Sherlock had once said. "My friend, never lose the courage to question authority."
But now it seemed things weren't going as smoothly as expected.
"My friend, questioning authority isn't wrong; you just chose the wrong method."
While Harry was lost in thought, Sherlock's voice sounded beside his ear.
"Sherlock, how did you again—"
"Harry, figuring out what you're thinking is far too simple for me. I won't explain the specific process."
Sherlock said with a smile, "The tower of authority is riddled with cracks, but reckless charging will only bury the truth under rubble. As a teacher, Professor Snape naturally has an advantage over students in terms of status. When your power isn't strong enough, you must borrow the strength of others."
"Just regarding today's incident, if you truly wanted a fair result, it would be quite troublesome. First, you'd need to prove that Malfoy hadn't asked Professor Snape for leave beforehand. After obtaining solid evidence, you'd then tell Professor McGonagall about what happened and let her deal with Professor Snape, rather than confronting him directly in this setting."
Sherlock's words made Harry fall into deep thought.
"I understand now, it's like wizard's chess! Directly attacking the queen gets you killed by the bishop, but using a knight's fork can expose the rook's weakness."
Harry hadn't yet understood, but Ron did. He excitedly waved his silver spoon, nearly knocking over Neville's cauldron, and hurriedly apologized.
However, this incident was nothing compared to the troubles Neville encountered in this class.
Just as excellent as his performance in Herbology was, equally terrible was his performance in Potions.
Unlike other professors, Professor Snape's Potions class basically never reviewed previous content. So even though this was the first class of the new term, he began entirely new lesson content.
Shrinking Solution.
This was a magical potion that could shrink living beings or revert them to a younger state, typically appearing as a bright green acidic liquid. Its main uses were research and dealing with large monsters with strong spell resistance, or transporting livestock, for example, shrinking an entire flock of sheep to fit in a wizard's pocket.
The ingredients were relatively complex. shrivelfig, daisy roots, caterpillars, wormwood, leeches, rat spleen bile, hemlock essence, and others.
This was quite troublesome because Professor Snape rarely relied on textbooks, often teaching through oral instruction and blackboard writing. While this was naturally good for students with strong understanding abilities, it wasn't good news for students like Harry and Neville.
For other classes it might be fine, but in Potions class, Harry absolutely refused to be separated from Sherlock.
So, when Ron saw Hermione approaching with intentions to join them, he immediately moved his stool to sit beside Sherlock and Harry without a word.
"Hermione, I think you should go help Neville instead. He needs your help more than we do."
Seeing Ron shamelessly present his desire to ride coattails in such refined terms, Hermione immediately looked to Harry, who quickly said. "Hermione, I also think Ron makes a good point."
The subtext was: mate, you can't sacrifice me for your happiness!
Hermione glared at him irritably, first looking at Sherlock who remained unmoved by this, then at Neville who looked hopeful. She sighed and simply set up her cauldron next to Neville, and began to prepare ingredients with Neville and Seamus.
Mainly because if she didn't settle this quickly, Professor Snape might find another excuse to deduct points.
Of course, her approach made Neville and Seamus ecstatic.
There was an expert to carry them!
Looking at Hermione's side with its "one god carrying two burdens" formation, Ron felt both ashamed and fortunate. If he hadn't acted decisively just now, he'd be the one working with Round-face and the Explosion Expert now.
Just thinking about that scene felt excruciating.
The preparation of the Shrinking Solution officially began, and Harry and Ron immediately started assisting Sherlock.
Harry carefully peeled the shrivelfigs.
Ron cut all three of their daisy roots into evenly sized pieces, then began slicing the caterpillars.
With Sherlock's guidance, their cauldron was soon filled with green potion.
"Phew..."
Ron opened his textbook and glanced at it twice. When he discovered that the potion in front of them was identical to the illustration in the book, he breathed a long sigh of relief, feeling even more fortunate about his decision to ride coattails.
What's wrong with riding coattails? He'd earned the right to these coattails with his own ability, why should he give them to someone else!
Harry looked toward Hermione's direction and saw her frantically busy. Besides feeling the same fortune as Ron, he also felt somewhat ashamed, feeling he'd wronged his good friend Hermione.
It wasn't that Hermione's Potions skills were inferior to Sherlock's, the main problem lay with her partners.
Everything suffers in comparison.
Though he and Ron were also burdens, they were much better than Neville and Seamus.
Fortunately, today's class hadn't yet required any spellcasting, or Hermione would have been even more like a firefighter.
But fortunately, though the path was zigzagging, the future was bright.
Hermione was well-prepared for the difficulties she would face.
By the time the allotted time was nearly up, she had finally successfully helped Neville and Seamus brew three cauldrons of brilliant green potion.
Hermione also breathed a long sigh of relief.
It was really exhausting.
After Potions class ended, Neville and Seamus hurriedly expressed their gratitude to Hermione.
Without Hermione's help today, losing house points would have been the least of their worries—being thoroughly humiliated by Professor Snape would have been truly unbearable.
Just as Neville was stuttering his thanks to Hermione, Seamus suddenly remembered something and said to Sherlock and Harry.
"Did you read today's Daily Prophet? It reported news about Sirius Black."
"A Muggle spotted Black and called the hotline, but by the time Ministry officials arrived, he had already left."
"Oh, you read the paper, Holmes?"
"Obviously."
"The key issue is that the Muggles spotted him not far from here, what's wrong, Harry?"
At this point, Seamus suddenly noticed something odd about Harry's expression and asked curiously.
"Nothing," Harry said with difficulty, "I just didn't expect the Ministry still hasn't caught him."
"Well, after all, he's someone ruthless enough to escape from a place like Azkaban. Catching him won't be easy... Speaking of which, though the Dementors make us uncomfortable, thinking of them guarding around the school actually makes me feel more secure."
The discussion about Sirius Black ended there.
Hermione and Ron both looked at Harry with some concern, seemingly afraid he might impulsively run out to find Black.
But Sherlock remained steady as a rock.
The most impulsive moment had already passed.
At this point, Harry was actually less likely to do such a thing again.
During the recent Potions class, when Sherlock pointed out the need to pay attention to methods when questioning authority, this was also a form of psychological suggestion—he believed Harry could understand.
Just then, Harry looked toward Sherlock.
Gray eyes met green eyes, and everything was understood without words.
During lunch, everyone was discussing Sirius Black.
Even Gemma Farley came to the Gryffindor table.
Seventh-year Gemma had grown even more beautiful, and becoming Head Girl had added another layer of radiance to her presence.
Even Gryffindor students had heard she regularly received love letters.
This would surely reach its peak next February on Valentine's Day.
"Harry, your condition looks much better than I imagined."
Hearing Gemma's words, Harry looked at Sherlock in surprise.
"Don't look at him," Gemma smiled and shook her head, "I was the one who told him about this first."
Harry had a moment of realization. He immediately remembered the three letters Sherlock had received during his summer stay at Sherlock's house—one of them was from Gemma.
"Thank you, Gemma." Harry said sincerely.
Hermione and Ron looked suspiciously at the exchange between these three, both sensing that Sherlock and Harry were hiding something from them.
Ron was still pondering when Hermione spoke first.
"Miss Farley, was Malfoy's apology to Harry arranged by you?"
"Yes, Miss Granger."
Gemma looked at Hermione with her blue eyes and smiled slightly, "I trust he hasn't been causing you trouble recently?"
"Indeed not." Hermione nodded.
"No wonder he hasn't been bothering us lately—"
Ron also showed an expression of realization.
Like this morning's incident in Potions when Harry lost points, if it had been before, Malfoy definitely wouldn't have missed the chance for sarcastic comments, but today he seemed to have misfired.
"Although the Ministry didn't catch Black this time, they at least tracked his movements."
At this point, Gemma paused, saying somewhat hesitantly, "Perhaps he'll be captured soon."
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