Chapter 192: Snape: Who Do You Think Is Behind This? Luna's Encounter in the Forbidden Forest
When Professor Sprout announced that the mandrake juice Leonardo had provided was fit for use, the tightness in Filch's chest finally eased. His legs seemed to give out, and he slumped back against the wall, drained.
He looked at Leonardo with genuine gratitude. Filch could not do magic, and he did not understand herbs or potions, but he understood this much: with Leonardo's help, his cat could be saved.
If they had been forced to wait for the school's mandrakes to mature, Filch was terrified Mrs Norris would not last that long.
Noticing Filch's gaze, Leonardo smiled and gave him a small nod.
He happened to have mandrakes on hand, so he might as well take them out and save someone… or rather, save a cat.
And with a cure available, this might even speed things up, might it not, Lockhart and Tom?
Leonardo flicked a glance towards Lockhart among the professors. Lockhart's eyes kept darting away, as if he had not expected anyone to produce a solution on the spot. He looked almost deflated, as though the crisis atmosphere he had been counting on had failed to materialise.
Leonardo thought back to what he had seen while watching Lockhart in his office. From the way Lockhart had been communicating with Tom in the diary, it was clear Tom had agreed to one condition: no killing, only petrification.
It made sense. Lockhart, by nature, neither wanted nor dared to murder anyone. He only meant to manufacture danger and headlines, then leave Hogwarts with a neat little pile of honour and fame.
As for Tom in the diary, he was only a fragment of a soul. His goal was to drain life and build himself a body. And to keep Lockhart obedient, he would not push too far and scare him into backing out.
Still, it would be better to add more safeguards and avoid any accidents.
Seeing Leonardo's smile, Filch's gratitude swelled again. If there had not been so many people watching, he would have thanked Leonardo properly.
He even caught himself thinking that if Leonardo ever broke school rules in the future, he might simply pretend he hadn't seen it. Then again, over the past year, Leonardo had done nothing wrong at all. He was, infuriatingly, a model student.
With the main ingredient secured, the potion could finally be brewed.
When Dumbledore asked how long it would take, Snape replied coolly, "With mandrake juice of this quality, two days at most."
He took the jar and, as he passed Leonardo, dropped a curt order. "Come to my office. We need to talk."
The Potions Master's Office
Leonardo helped process ingredients while Snape worked, and after a time, he asked, genuinely curious, "Professor, if the school's mandrakes are not mature yet, why not buy them elsewhere? Is it that only Hogwarts grows them?"
Leonardo truly did wonder. In the original sequence of events, the petrified victims lay in the Hospital Wing until the end of the school year. Waiting for the school's own mandrakes to mature had always felt absurd to him.
Snape gave him a strange look. "You do not seriously believe mandrakes are easy to grow, do you?"
Leonardo paused. With his "diligent little gardener" advantage, the ugly little things did not scream at him. His yields were higher, and the growth cycle was shorter. Add the various brews and concoctions he had developed, and growing mandrakes felt no harder than growing potatoes.
Snape lowered his eyes to the oversized jar of mandrake juice and seemed to realise his earlier question had answered itself.
"In any case," Snape said flatly, "Hogwarts is the largest supplier of mandrakes in Britain. The Ministry and shops in Diagon Alley purchase stock from here."
He hesitated, then added, "And it is not the harvest season. For you to have produced this…"
Before Leonardo could decide how to explain, Snape waved a hand, cutting him off. "Enough. You have your methods. Just do not waste your focus. You have an aptitude for Potions. Practise."
Snape's eyes slid to Leonardo's hands as he worked. Something in the technique caught his attention.
"The method you use," Snape said slowly, "is rather… classical."
Leonardo's process was smooth and natural, but it did not resemble modern practice, or even anything recent.
"I learned it from my teacher over the summer," Leonardo replied.
It was the truth. He had picked up these techniques from Nicolas Flamel. Alchemy overlapped with a great deal of potioncraft, and Flamel was, unsurprisingly, highly skilled.
Snape's brow furrowed. The old-established potion masters Snape knew did not use these particular methods either. So who, exactly, was Leonardo's teacher? Wizards like that were rare these days.
The office fell quiet again, filled only by the soft sounds of chopping and measuring.
After a long moment, with most of the preparation done, Snape asked without warning, "Leonardo. Who do you think is behind this?"
The question made Leonardo's heart jump. Was there a major Snape storyline this year? Had Snape stopped being background scenery?
He kept working on the remaining ingredients and asked evenly, "You sound as if you already have someone in mind."
Snape gave a cold, humourless laugh. He set his tools down, wiped his hands, and said, "At Hogwarts, more people appear every year. Some are new students. Some are…"
New students?
Snape's suspicion was edging close to the answer Leonardo already knew. In the original events, Ginny Weasley had received Tom Riddle's diary, and everything had followed from that.
Snape's voice sharpened, as though he were biting down on the words. "Some are newly appointed professors. There are not many changes, of course. This year, only one."
He pronounced the final words with deliberate emphasis. "The Defence Against the Dark Arts professor."
Leonardo could practically hear the resentment dripping off each syllable.
Snape genuinely suspected the colleague who had taken the Defence post Snape wanted?
That was uncomfortably accurate. The instincts of a double agent were frightening.
Was Snape about to go after Lockhart?
The moment Snape brought up the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Leonardo's first thought was that the old bat was about to fixate on Lockhart the way he had fixated on Quirrell last year.
But that did not quite fit, either. In the original year, Snape did not do anything dramatic. He mainly harassed Harry and brewed the antidote for petrification.
Leonardo still asked, "Professor, if you suspect Gilderoy Lockhart, why not…"
Snape's answer was a sneer as he moved to the cauldron and began arranging ingredients.
"Dumbledore pays me a Potions Master's salary."
"The safety of the school is the Headmaster's concern."
The bitterness and dissatisfaction were unmistakable.
So Snape only did the work he was paid to do.
By the sound of it, he had no intention of involving himself this year. He was going to do his job and let the rest burn.
Leonardo thought back to last year. Snape had watched Quirrell closely, partly at Dumbledore's request, partly to protect Harry Potter. He had supervised and obstructed Quirrell for precisely that reason.
But Snape was clever. After last year's affair, he had likely worked out Dumbledore's habit of leaving threats in place to temper Harry, to force the Boy Who Lived to grow.
If that was what Snape believed, then reporting and protesting would achieve nothing. Dumbledore would not truly intervene as long as matters remained "within control". He would treat it as another trial for Harry Potter.
Leonardo's mind leapt to another detail. When Harry faced the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, Fawkes had arrived as if summoned by fate, delivering the Sorting Hat with Godric Gryffindor's sword hidden inside, then blinding the basilisk to remove the greatest threat.
From that angle, Dumbledore had everything in hand again, as usual.
Unfortunately for Dumbledore, Leonardo intended to borrow the basilisk this year.
And that sword of Gryffindor, said to appear only to those who truly possessed the qualities of Gryffindor, when they had need of it.
Perhaps he should "borrow" the Sorting Hat ahead of time and see whether he could draw the sword when facing the basilisk.
Leonardo glanced at Snape. If Snape planned to stay out of it, why bring it up at all?
He asked instead, "Professor, do you know what the 'Chamber' refers to? The one mentioned on the wall?"
Snape's hands paused briefly, then he answered as though he had already prepared the explanation.
"You know the history of Hogwarts's founding and the four founders," Snape said. "You also know the later split between Gryffindor and Slytherin, for example…"
When Snape's gaze turned on him, Leonardo supplied, "For example, Slytherin wanted Hogwarts to accept only children from pure-blood families and refused Muggle-born students, because he thought they could not be trusted?"
In the founders' era, the wizarding world truly had been vulnerable. People feared magic. If they discovered a witch or wizard, they reported it to the Church, and witch-burnings followed. Even if a Muggle couple had a magical child, the consequences could be…
A Muggle-born student being noticed by their family and friends, and that attention spreading outward until it reached the school, was not impossible.
Snape studied Leonardo for a long moment, then nodded. "Yes. That is what the records say. As for the Chamber, it is more legend than history."
He continued, voice low and controlled. "The story claims Slytherin built a secret room within the castle. Only Slytherin's true heir can open it again, release the monster within, and purge those deemed unworthy of learning magic."
Leonardo said, "So you think this so-called heir will use the creature in the Chamber to kill students like me, Muggle-born students?"
Snape's frown deepened. "The legend may be false. It may simply be someone using it maliciously to create panic."
After a brief pause, Snape added lightly, "Once the antidote is brewed, people will calm down. Until the truth comes out, keep your eyes open."
So that was it.
Snape had taken a long route to warn him to be careful.
As for the basilisk coming for him, Leonardo almost wanted to laugh.
Let it try.
"I understand, Professor," Leonardo said. "Thank you for your concern."
Snape began dropping ingredients into the cauldron and replied blandly, "I am not concerned about you. It is merely rare to find a student who is not incompetent at Potions, and I have no desire for others to question my teaching."
Then he added, "Also, when you are moving about the school, keep away from Harry Potter. He has a talent for attracting trouble."
The way Snape emphasised the word "trouble" made Leonardo want to laugh. Harry did, after all, stumble into life-threatening adventures every year. It must have made Lockhart positively jealous.
"All right," Snape said. "Brew a batch of antidote yourself. The mixtures we make in class do not show what you can do."
The Forbidden Forest
Leonardo searched for the thestrals' territory.
He meant to design a magical device to counter the basilisk's deadly gaze. At minimum, it needed to blunt the instant-kill effect, so that it worked more like a reflection off water or a camera's lens. If a person saw the basilisk, the worst outcome would be petrification.
He might need thestral tail hairs for it, which was why he had come to the Forbidden Forest to acquire supplies… or, as he would politely phrase it, to explore.
"Aurelius," Leonardo asked quietly, "they're nearby, aren't they?"
"Yes, Master," Aurelius's voice echoed in his mind. "I ran into them a few times when I was playing in the Forest before."
Aurelius hesitated, then added, "Master, I can sense humans near the herd as well."
Humans?
Probably Hagrid.
Leonardo gave Aurelius a few short instructions, and the little qilin rose into the air, vanishing as it concealed itself.
Then Leonardo continued forward.
He could see thestrals now. Otherwise, collecting materials and using them to craft tools would be inconvenient at best.
Before long, he saw several shapes like smudges of shadow. Their bodies were like horses stretched too long, covered in smooth black hides that made them look like living darkness.
Their heads were the most unsettling, a blend of dragon and reptile, with pale, pupil-less eyes. Wide, bat-like wings lay folded tightly against their sides.
There they were. Thestrals.
But Leonardo's attention was fixed on the figure standing among them.
A girl with long, dirty-blonde hair falling over her shoulders. Between the strands, he caught the glimpse of radish-shaped earrings.
She was barefoot, standing on the cold ground as if she did not feel it at all.
She looked like something out of the woods itself.
Her pale hand was stretched out, stroking a thestral's neck.
The thestral did not flinch away. It lowered its head, docile, and nudged into her palm.
Luna Lovegood?
What was she doing here?
"They're beautiful, aren't they?"
Luna turned her head. Her large silver eyes looked slightly dreamy as they settled on Leonardo, and her voice drifted softly, as if carried by a breeze.
"You can see them too, can't you?"
Leonardo walked closer and rested a hand on a thestral's forehead. It did not resist in the slightest. If anything, it leaned into his touch.
"Yes," he said. "Luna, we met at the Weasleys' before. What are you doing in the Forbidden Forest?"
Luna understood at once that he truly could see the thestrals. Like her, he had witnessed death and separation.
"I'm looking for my shoes," she said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
"I think it was the Bubble-Snotters," Luna added, looking down at her bare feet. "They're very shy. They live in damp corners, and they love collecting little things they think are pretty with their slime. My shoes are probably the prettiest yellow they've ever seen."