After a long while, Ciel recovered from his excitement and looked at the reward orb floating above the Elber Tree branch, still feeling a sense of unreality. Though the system hadn't indicated successful cutting, he could confirm that the first step of cutting had truly succeeded.
Regardless of what happened next, regardless of whether the entire cutting process could be completed, at least the first step had survived. Everything afterward would have hope.
Thinking about the process of this step's success, he took a deep breath. "Without Umbral's help, this step would definitely have failed. Intelligent Umbral Thorns helping the Elber Tree branch with cutting – this is probably an idea never conceived in the Herbology world. If this got out, even Herbology masters would be shocked speechless."
Then he collected his scattered thoughts and focused again on the Elber Tree branch that had just completed the first cutting step. Having just been cut into soil, it needed extremely careful tending; there was no room for carelessness. If the extremely fragile magical transport channel just established had problems, it would truly drive one mad.
While he carefully tended the Elber Tree branch, in Professor Sprout's office, she tiredly rubbed her eyes, drank a cup of stimulating herbal tea, and closed a just published Herbology journal with a complex expression.
The journal had just published an article that astonished many Herbology masters, the work of a young herbologist named Ed. Professor Sprout had never heard of him before, but the name was probably false to avoid revealing his true identity.
After all, this article's results were truly surprising, a crucial processing step for cultivating active ancient plant seeds. Ed had cultivated a special plant. Using this plant with some materials to make a potion could slightly enhance ancient seeds' vitality.
Though Ed revealed nothing about this special plant's source and cultivation method, the prepared potion's effects had been verified. This meant the extremely difficult topic of ancient herb cultivation had taken another small step forward. Many Herbology masters had written congratulations.
As one of the Herbology masters researching this topic, Professor Sprout was naturally happy. But thinking of Ciel, she felt some regret. Without Ed's article, Ciel should have secured the Youth Award position in this year's Botanical Society awards.
But with this article's appearance, it would be very difficult. Though both were top-tier publications, their significance was in different leagues. Professor Sprout sighed, wondering whether to delay Ciel's results until next year, when there probably wouldn't be research at Ed's level.
While writing congratulations to Ed and pondering this question, hurried footsteps sounded outside her office. Professor McGonagall knocked and hurried in, followed by the Golden Trio.
Immediately, McGonagall asked: "Pomona, do you know what plants Ciel has been cultivating in the small greenhouse recently?"
Professor Sprout frowned with confusion: "Ciel has the ability for independent Herbology research. I don't interfere with his projects. But Minerva, why are you making such a fuss this early?"
Her gaze then fell on the trio behind McGonagall with even more confusion: "Harry, Hermione, and Ron? What does this have to do with you?"
The trio couldn't contain themselves and immediately described the horrific scene they'd witnessed in the greenhouse. Hearing them accuse Ciel of cultivating extremely evil Dark Arts herbs, Professor Sprout's face turned iron grey:
"Nonsense. Ciel would never do such things. Besides, your Herbology knowledge might not recognise some rare herbs."
Hermione urgently raised her voice: "Professor Sprout! I assure you, we followed under the Invisibility Cloak and got very close. No herb looks like that; just approaching made us shudder."
Harry stated firmly: "If we're wrong, we'll accept punishment. But we can't risk this."
McGonagall looked at Sprout and said quietly: "Pomona, to be safe, perhaps we should check?"
Professor Sprout took a deep breath and nodded stiffly with a cold expression, striding out. McGonagall looked embarrassed, knowing this had made Professor Sprout very angry. After all, everyone knew Ciel was Professor Sprout's most cherished relative.
Anyone would be unhappy if their relative was reported for dangerous activities. But the trio's description seemed genuine; they wouldn't fabricate such serious matters. With current tensions, it was better to confirm and avoid accidents.
McGonagall quickly followed with the trio. The group arrived outside the small greenhouse. Professor Sprout opened the door, and everyone saw Ciel half kneeling, carefully tending something.
Even hearing the door open, he showed no reaction. Hermione tensed: "Professor, looking at Ciel, he might be bewitched by Dark Arts plants. He might not know what he's doing."
McGonagall nodded slightly. Things related to Dark Arts, whether plants, creatures, or objects, could possess mind beguiling powers. This child might indeed be affected if careless.
Thinking this, she raised her vigilance, gripping her wand and stepping forward carefully. Hearing Hermione's reminder, Professor Sprout frowned even more. She scanned the greenhouse, sensing the magical auras within.
As a Herbology master, she had long reached the level of perceiving plants through magical sensing. But the magic emanating from greenhouse plants now felt somewhat strange. Charred smell, as if lightning had struck. Plus another unfamiliar magic, ancient, weathered, and powerful.
Simultaneously, Professor Sprout sensed extremely familiar magic. Moments later, she realised what it was, eyes showing tremendous shock: "This is?! No mistake, definitely that thing."
Next moment, Professor Sprout couldn't contain her excitement and eagerly approached. Seeing him carefully tending the Elber Tree branch and sensing it absorbing magic from soil, even with Professor Sprout's knowledge, her breathing quickened.
She truly hadn't expected his Herbology to advance so rapidly to this level, completing the first step of Elber Tree cutting! Simply incredible!
What confused Professor Sprout more was that he hadn't asked her for various potions needed for cutting, indispensable for creating cutting environments and extremely rare. Even Snape couldn't stock such specialised, expensive potions. Only Herbology masters would keep them.
This meant he had likely completed the first cutting step without potions. How was this possible?
With Professor Sprout's acuity, she immediately realised he must have used a new method, bypassing potion limitations. Realising this, Professor Sprout tried to restrain herself but couldn't help laughing aloud.
She had been worrying about this year's Youth Award being unwinnable, but now, that was uncertain!
While Professor Sprout was extremely excited, McGonagall and the trio felt alarmed. Why was Professor Sprout also showing obsessed behaviour? Was this Dark Arts plant so powerful it could bewitch even a vigilant Herbology master?
McGonagall gripped her wand tighter, took a deep breath, and pulled Professor Sprout back: "Pomona, snap out of it!"
Simultaneously, protective spells containing sacred magic fell on Professor Sprout. Professor Sprout looked at McGonagall puzzledly: "Minerva? What are you doing?"
McGonagall paused, realising something was wrong. The protective spells showed no reaction, meaning Professor Sprout wasn't under Dark Arts influence or bewitched. She was genuinely happy.
Next moment, McGonagall also saw the Elber Tree branch. Her pupils slightly contracted. Indeed, she wasn't an herbologist, but after working with Professor Sprout for years, she knew about the Elber Tree research project and could recognize such obvious features.
So this scene wasn't some Dark Arts plant but Ciel successfully cutting an Elber Tree, making progress on a Herbology master's research topic?!
Realising this, McGonagall's face immediately flushed red. She turned to stare at the trio: "Where's that evil plant with red fuzz requiring blood feeding you mentioned? Where? Don't tell me it's just this successfully cut Elber Tree branch?"
The trio were also stunned, scanning the greenhouse. But the variant humanoid bioluminescent mushrooms they had seen were long since reduced to ash by his Ancient Weather Magic and buried beneath the Elber Tree branch. How could they find them now?
Harry's face showed disbelief: "How could this be? They were clearly here before!"
Hermione was also bewildered, pointing at empty ground: "I remember they were here. How could they be gone?"
Ron raised his voice: "Ciel must have hidden them, knowing we'd investigate, Professor McGonagall, you must believe us!"
Before they could finish, McGonagall took a deep breath, her face changing from red to iron grey, looking at them with deep disappointment:
"You've disappointed me greatly. I thought you'd be more careful regarding a classmate's reputation. I never expected even you, Miss Granger, to be so reckless. I see no Dark Arts plants, only Ciel's outstanding Herbology achievements from countless nights of practice. Perhaps you should focus more energy on your studies."
Then, as they tried to argue, McGonagall announced their thunderous punishment: "Due to your behaviour, Gryffindor will lose fifty points, fifty points each!"
This meant the trio had cost Gryffindor 150 points total. Originally, though Gryffindor couldn't match Hufflepuff, they led Slytherin and Ravenclaw. The little lions often consoled themselves that while they might not win the House Cup, beating Slytherin felt great.
But losing 150 points meant even the badly beaten Slytherin could easily surpass Gryffindor. The decision that made the trio's faces pale was announced next.
McGonagall's face was iron grey and extremely stern: "To teach you a lesson about not joking with others' reputations, you must patrol the Forbidden Forest."
This left their minds completely blank; they had never imagined facing such punishment. Ciel, tending the Elber Tree branch, heard this with a flicker of strangeness.
Unexpectedly, even under these circumstances, the original story's point deduction incident still occurred? But moments later, he put this aside. The trio's affairs, point deductions or Forbidden Forest patrol, had nothing to do with him.
But Ron obviously disagreed. After being scolded out of the greenhouse by McGonagall, he walked toward the castle with Harry and Hermione, showing resentment:
"McGonagall was completely fooled by Ciel. He definitely pulled some trick! He got us into this mess, just wait, this isn't over!"
He gritted his teeth: "When Professor Quirrell returns, whatever Ciel and Snape are plotting will be finished."
Professor Quirrell's name made Harry and Hermione recover hope. They could only pray Professor Quirrell would quickly return to Hogwarts after solving the disappearance incident.
But before that, looking at the Hogwarts Castle, all three looked grim and sighed deeply. Inside the castle, a great storm probably awaited them.
Currently, Professor Sprout was curiously asking him about cutting process details. To avoid worrying her, he omitted cultivating variant humanoid bioluminescent mushrooms and nearly encountering Dark Arts danger.
For the ancient magic source, he explained it as residual magic from Hufflepuff's Cup still in the greenhouse soil depths. This explanation made Professor Sprout nod slightly, quite possible. But her eyes still showed some regret.
If so, it would be difficult to produce results rivalling Ed's paper. This year's Youth Award remained uncertain.
But immediately, she heard him mention that Umbral Thorns with similar properties could help Elber Tree branches absorb magic during cutting. This made Professor Sprout's eyes immediately burst with joyful brilliance:
"Indeed, this is possible, an unprecedented approach! This could significantly improve first-step success rates!"
Professor Sprout's heart immediately settled. This achievement alone was enough to rival Ed. Combined with his other results, hopes for this year's Youth Award were high!
While Professor Sprout and he discussed Elber Tree topics, a silver phoenix Patronus flew toward the greenhouse with Dumbledore's voice:
"Pomona, come to my office. Important developments regarding the disappearance incident."
The interrupted Professor Sprout frowned, but with current magical world disappearances causing panic at Hogwarts and many young wizards showing fear and anxiety, if there were the latest developments, she needed to go immediately.
Professor Sprout hurried toward the headmaster's office. Soon, owl wing beats sounded outside the greenhouse. Tonks had sent him a letter.
Opening it, his pupils slightly contracted. Inside, Tonks wrote with high spirits: "We've locked onto the monster's hiding area with tight blockades. At most two or three days, this will end."
He took a deep breath. Joy from cutting the Elber Tree branch quietly faded. The disappearance incident ending meant Quirrell would soon return to Hogwarts. This school year's peaceful time was probably running out.
His face showed gravity, but he wasn't panicked. He had long prepared for this day. Through confronting variant humanoid bioluminescent mushrooms, he had confirmed one thing: the Quintapeds' source was some ancient Dark Arts power in that temple.
This power was affected by ancient magic, especially his Ancient Weather Magic, which seemed to have restraining effects. If this worked against temple power, restraint should be even more obvious against Quirrell transformed into a Quintaped.
"But my current Ancient Weather Magic casting is still quite slow, especially maximum power, requiring considerable time to construct magical nodes. If Quirrell finds an opportunity to attack me, current means might not buy time to cast Ancient Weather Magic. Control and entanglement aspects need strengthening..."
Ordinary binding spells would probably be much less effective against Quintapeds. He pondered countermeasures, scanning the system panel. Suddenly, his eyes brightened.
[Levitation Charm Deduction Ability Enhancement (Platinum Level)]
A previously overlooked ability caught his attention, obtained from harvesting the Elber Tree. A flash of inspiration crossed his mind.