Malfoy and his group fled in a panic. Once back in the empty Potions classroom, they all looked a bit dejected.
"Draco, we've already set up all the traps—what happened?" Two girls carefully walked in from outside, carrying several glass bottles, looking puzzled when they saw everyone's expressions.
"Disperse, Pansy." Nott frowned, shoulders slumped, and said weakly, "Gray definitely isn't coming... Professor Sprout figured it out; she kept Wade Gray."
"You all are too impatient. Now look, everything's ruined!"
Malfoy angrily kicked over a stool, then huffily sat down at a table. Crabbe and Goyle glared at the others with bulging eyes, as if it were all their fault.
"Next time," Zabini shook his head, sat down too, and sighed. "As long as you want to—there'll always be a chance to corner him."
Though he said that, after an initial burst of energy, then a decline, the Slytherins' morale, except for Malfoy, plummeted.
The blonde girl who had entered with Pansy hesitated, saying, "What about these potions? Should we throw them away?"
The bottles contained failed Pimple Curing Potions. Malfoy's potion-making skills were quite good, but Neville's failed potion in the first Potions class caused considerable chaos, leaving a deep impression on Malfoy.
In his opinion, that kind of potion was much more useful than any Pimple Curing Potion.
This time, to deal with Wade Gray, Malfoy had deliberately brewed a pot of Pimple Curing Potion in secret, and intentionally added porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire, successfully obtaining a large bottle of green venom that could melt cauldrons.
Unfortunately, this potion continuously volatilized. Before long, it would transform from a highly corrosive acidic solution into an ordinary liquid, causing no harm to anyone besides an unpleasant smell.
Malfoy waved his hand and said, "Throw it away... Wait, give it to me, Daphne."
He suddenly had a mischievous idea, took the glass bottles from Daphne's hand, and carefully tucked them one by one into a corner desk drawer—Malfoy had found out that Wade often sat in that spot.
"I have more here, Draco!" Pansy squeezed Daphne aside and eagerly handed over the potion in her hands as well.
Daphne hesitated, "What if someone else gets hurt?"
"Who cares!" Malfoy said indifferently. "It'll be their bad luck! Maybe the professor will even give Gray detention!—'Wade Gray, why did you put such dangerous things in the desk drawer? Deliberate harm to a classmate, fifty points from Ravenclaw!'"
Malfoy mimicked Professor Snape scolding Harry Potter, which immediately made everyone burst into laughter. Nott even made a strange face, crying out in a high-pitched voice, "I didn't, Professor—I don't know what happened—"
"Hahahaha—" The others laughed, banging on the tables, almost breathless.
"He's here! He's here!" a boy ran in quickly, shouting excitedly, "Draco, he's coming this way!"
"Who?" Malfoy didn't react for a moment.
"Who else could it be?" The boy, Millicent Bulstrode, jumped impatiently, yelling, "—Wade Gray!"
"How could that be—" Zabini asked, puzzled.
"He must think that with the professor's warning, we wouldn't dare to act!" Malfoy jumped off his chair, pulled more potion bottles from the desk drawer and handed them to a few others, urging, "Quick, quick, do as we planned!"
Everyone moved. The two girls stood back a bit, but Pansy couldn't help but move closer to Malfoy, as if fighting alongside him. A few boys drew their wands to lock the classroom windows, then prepared to cast spells. Crabbe and Goyle held the Pimple Curing Potions like grenades, ready to throw them at any moment. Nott even pulled out two hidden Dungbombs from under the cabinet of ingredients.
Daphne was peering by the window, hidden in a corner to avoid being seen, observing carefully.
"It really is Wade Gray," the blonde girl whispered. "He came alone."
"Didn't bring anyone else?" Zabini asked, frowning.
"No."
"Strange..." Zabini couldn't figure it out. Did he really have no caution at all?
"Hmph, typical Ravenclaw bookworm!" Malfoy said scornfully, giving his final instructions: "Remember what we discussed—first the Dungbombs, then the Pimple Curing Potions, and I'll seize the opportunity to hit him with a Leg-Locker Curse. Crabbe, Goyle, you two grab him, and Nott, remember to snatch his wand!"
Crabbe and Goyle both acknowledged. Nott looked at the Dungbomb in his hand, his face suddenly turning a bit green.
—When snatching the wand, he wouldn't get this stuff all over him, would he?
Looking at the narrow space by the door, Nott was a bit unsure.
He started thinking about putting the Dungbomb back... or swapping with Goyle? His body, twice the size of others, would definitely block most of it...
Just as Nott hesitated, he suddenly heard someone whisper, "Expulso!"
"What?"
An invisible wind suddenly swept sand and stones, whistling and swirling in the classroom. Nott had just begun to speak when he got a mouthful of sand. Everyone simultaneously let out a miserable shriek, then started rubbing their eyes.
"He's at the door!" Malfoy covered his mouth with his sleeve, struggling to shout, "Throw the Dungbombs! Quick, throw the Dungbombs!"
A sound came from the doorway. Nott didn't have time to distinguish it and forcefully threw the Dungbomb out.
"Bang!"
The Dungbomb hit an ugly head and exploded, instantly spraying foul-smelling matter throughout the classroom.
A giant cockroach crawled in through the doorway.
Facing that face that drove all reason away, Nott belatedly realized—the sound he heard earlier seemed to be saying: "Engorgio."
The boy, his mind blank from fright, was helplessly pinned down by the giant cockroach.
Immediately after, one, two, three... a total of five or six spiders, also enlarged to the size of hunting dogs, crawled in behind the cockroach.
"Ahhhhh—"
Everyone in the Potions classroom let out frantic screams, scrambling to flee in disarray. Malfoy quickly jumped onto a table to pull open the window, only to find it locked by a spell.
—The spell they had cast themselves.
"Alohom—" Before he could finish the Unlocking Charm, a claw hooked his clothes from behind, dragging his entire body backward.
"No—no—let go of me—"
"Mommy—"
"Help me—"
The classroom was filled with the terrified cries of the students. The insects, under a Confundus Charm, didn't actually harm them, but merely close contact was enough to scare them almost to the point of wetting themselves.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
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