In a moment of crisis, an unusually old house-elf suddenly appeared next to Harry, grabbed his arm, and instantly apparated them away.
At the same time, three or four spells struck the attacking Thestral, freezing it in mid-air.
One of the spells came from Wade.
He held his wand, flipped off his Thestral's back, and ran over to check.
Immediately after, Professor Sprout and Professor Snape also appeared nearby.
"What happened?" Professor Snape said with a dark expression, his gaze dangerously fixed on the terrified girls.
"An invisible thing... It attacked Harry Potter!"
One of the little girls said in a panic, looking like she was about to cry.
"A house-elf took Harry away!"
Wade glanced at the girl's red hair... another Weasley.
Hagrid also rushed over, looking at the Thestral frozen in mid-air, and said with worry and confusion, "But Geraldine is a gentle and good girl... She has never attacked anyone..."
"What did that foolish Gryffindor do before?" Snape asked in a cold tone. "He provoked the Thestral!"
"Harry didn't do anything!"
Ginny Weasley mustered her courage, met the Potions Master's gaze, and said loudly,
"He just helped us drive away a Grindylow, and then he was suddenly attacked!"
"I don't think it's Harry's fault, Professor."
Wade suddenly said, "Look at this Thestral, there's a wound on its back."
Professor Snape walked over and saw a long, thin wound on the Thestral's back near its hind leg, bleeding.
He approached the Thestral, and his hooked nose twitched twice.
"The smell of Cheerful Grass."
"Cheerful Grass?" Ginny instinctively followed up with a question.
"Go and look at your textbooks!" Snape glanced at her and said, "Cheerful Grass can be used to brew Confusing Concoction. It can make the user feel fear and palpitations, and even cause hallucinations and manic tendencies."
"So... someone fed this Thestral a potion?" Wade's expression was serious. "Did they want to use the Thestral to harm Harry, or did they want to cause chaos in Hogwarts?"
Professor Sprout pried open the Thestral's mouth and looked inside, saying, "It's not a finished potion... There are still grass roots between its teeth. It looks like someone directly fed it a large amount of Cheerful Grass."
"I remember this grass is mainly produced in East Africa and the Arabian countries. Its transportation and sale are forbidden in most countries..."
Wade recalled the content of his books. "But... er... the UK and New Zealand allow a certain amount of sales, but it's not easy for ordinary people to get their hands on it."
"As long as there's a way, getting it is much easier than you think. More importantly... who would lay a hand on Hogwarts' Thestrals..."
Snape said with a thoughtful look.
Hagrid said furiously, "If I find out who did it, I'll make them pay!"
Ginny watched the several people discuss, unable to interject for a long time.
Her friend tugged on Ginny's arm, wanting to leave, but Ginny's feet were rooted to the spot, and she refused to move.
After the conversation between the few of them paused for a while, Ginny tentatively said, "Professor, Harry was taken away..."
"The house-elf will take him to the Hospital Wing if that's what you're asking." Snape said.
His tone was cold and he looked impatient, but compared to the treatment other Gryffindors received from Snape, he was already being very gentle with Ginny.
Wade looked at the dazzling red hair with a thoughtful expression.
"Thank you, Professor."
Ginny didn't feel like she was being treated specially. She just thought Professor Snape was as terrifying as ever.
The girl whispered her thanks, then pulled her friend and ran.
At this moment, Dumbledore had also arrived at the scene.
The reason he was a step late was that he had gone to check on Harry first, and there were still some bloody stains on his sleeve.
"How is Harry, Dumbledore?" Hagrid asked anxiously.
"Just some flesh wounds. Madam Pomfrey can heal them in no time."
After Dumbledore finished speaking, he waved his wand lightly and also checked the Thestral. Professor Sprout told him about the discoveries the others had made.
Dumbledore nodded slightly.
"Hagrid, take all the Thestrals back to the stable. I think we need to conduct a full inspection."
"What about Geraldine, sir?" Hagrid asked nervously. "I know she hurt Harry, but it wasn't on purpose. Geraldine has always been a good girl..."
"Of course, she was just used by someone with malicious intentions." Dumbledore said, "Until the potion wears off, you'll be in charge of her care."
"Okay, Professor." Hagrid sniffled, lifted the frozen Thestral with one hand, and then carried her away.
"Dumbledore!" Snape said disapprovingly, "A beast that has harmed someone should not be kept..."
Professor Sprout frowned. "There's a difference between intentionally harming someone and causing harm passively, Severus. She was confused by the Cheerful Grass and didn't know what she was doing."
Dumbledore didn't make a decision right away. Instead, he asked, "Mr. Gray, what do you think?"
Wade was startled. Snape and Professor Sprout both looked at him at the same time.
Facing the gazes of the two professors, he thought for a moment and said, "I think we should first let the students participating in the challenge leave, and the project should be temporarily suspended. We need to check if any other creatures have been tampered with."
"As for how to deal with the Thestral named Geraldine... why don't we ask for Harry's opinion? After all, he's the victim."
Dumbledore nodded and said, "Then let's do it that way."
Snape immediately huffed. The way he looked at Wade seemed to show his dissatisfaction with him as well.
The few of them knew very well that given Harry's personality and his relationship with Hagrid, he would definitely not pursue the matter further.
Wade just pretended not to see it.
Anyway, Professor Snape was always like this—he didn't give good expressions or say good words, but he would always answer questions, and he would always help when asked.
In all the time he had been at the school, Wade had only seen him praise Malfoy once.
Of course, this might also be because they didn't have Potions class with the Slytherin students. Otherwise, they might have witnessed Professor Snape's colorful way of praising Slytherin.
But for more than a year, whenever Wade asked Professor Snape questions about potions, even about topics beyond the curriculum, he always got an answer.
After he switched to brewing potions in the Room of Requirement, he no longer practiced in the dungeons.
After being sarcastically ridiculed twice by Professor Snape on the way, Wade finally figured out that he meant, "Why aren't you practicing anymore? Don't give up halfway!"
Wade: "..."
So after a Potions class, he took his recent accomplishments to the professor for review and explained that he had changed his practice location recently because some potions took too long to brew and he couldn't occupy the classroom for that long.
Then he received comments like "so-so" and "don't get carried away."