[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]

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  Gryffindor was celebrating its first victory of the year, a win against Slytherin.

  If you asked who was the happiest on the team, it had to be Wood!

  Although he had been taken out by Slytherin's little trick and couldn't participate in the ter matches, Ron’s performance had been even more dazzling than his own. That made him happier than if he had won.

  Since joining the Quidditch team, Gryffindor had never won the annual championship, which remained his biggest regret. Now that he was in his fifth year, he didn’t have many chances left. But he believed this team had real potential. Even if they were still a bit inexperienced this year, next year would bring great opportunities.

  "Ron, make sure to py in the next match. If you perform like this again, I’ll gdly make you my successor!" That’s what Wood told Ron after the game, his excitement barely contained after hearing how well Ron had pyed.

  Compared to the overjoyed Wood and the rest of the team, Harry and Ron weren’t nearly as ecstatic.

  That wasn’t to say they weren’t happy about winning the match. In fact, they were thrilled.

  But something Harry had noticed on the field, and something Hermione had discovered off it, left them feeling uneasy.

  "I saw it with my own eyes. Snape was staring at you intently, and his lips were moving. He had to be casting a spell, a dark one!" Hermione said with certainty.

  "Harry, we read in that book that when casting a curse, you have to maintain eye contact with your target. Snape didn’t even blink!"

  Until now, Hermione hadn’t disliked Snape as much as Ron and the others. But after this incident, her opinion of him plummeted.

  The idea that a professor would curse a student from a rival house just to win a match was unacceptable to her. If he had done it for another reason, like his well-documented dislike of Harry, it would have been even worse.

  Harry nodded. He had caught a glimpse of Snape while on the field. Though he hadn’t seen everything clearly, he had noticed the dark magic surrounding Snape and the eerie projection of his soul.

  Moreover, the rippling magic had undeniably come from Snape, and it had been aimed directly at him.

  At that moment, Harry had tried his best to break the curse, but it had little effect. Thankfully, it was just then that Hermione acted, setting Snape’s robes on fire. Moments ter, Harry’s broom returned to normal.

  That only confirmed their suspicions further.

  "I told you, he’s a bad guy," Ron said eagerly, speaking before Harry could.

  Compared to Harry, who was simply ignored in Potions css, Ron had it much worse. Snape’s sarcasm and constant criticism made his lessons miserable. But unlike Harry, Ron didn’t have the nerve to stand up to Snape, he was too afraid his parents would be called in.

  "Should we tell a professor?" Harry hesitated.

  "Tell a professor?" Hermione considered it for a moment before shaking her head. "I don’t think it would help. The professors might not believe us, after all, we have no solid proof."

  "What if he was the one trying to get past the three-headed dog and steal whatever it’s guarding?" Ron suggested.

  "It would still be difficult. We have no evidence," Hermione replied, shaking her head again. "We don’t even know for sure that Snape’s leg was injured by the three-headed dog, and by now, it’s already healed. We also can’t say for certain that he was the one who defaced that page on anger in Do Muggle Diseases Have an Effect on Wizards? All we know is that he borrowed the book. I’m afraid our suspicions wouldn’t be enough proof for a professor.”

  Hermione’s logic was undeniably solid, far more so than that of the two boys, who now found themselves at a loss for words.

  "I wish I could just hex him and get my revenge", Harry thought bitterly.

  Unfortunately, the kind of cruel curse he wanted to use didn’t exist, not in Hogwarts, nor in the memories of Neil.

  The three of them exchanged gnces for a while before Harry tentatively suggested, "What if we talk to Hagrid?"

  Harry and Ron often spent time with Hagrid, sometimes running into Ron’s twin brothers there. They also occasionally helped him care for his collection of exotic creatures.

  Hermione had only started visiting Hagrid after Halloween, but he had taken a liking to the bright young witch. Over time, Hermione had also grown fond of Hagrid, he might have looked intimidating, but deep down, he was kind and lovable.

  Compared to their professors, Hagrid, despite being much older, wasn’t as strict. He felt more like a friend.

  Harry’s suggestion was quickly agreed upon by the other two.

  The match had taken pce on a Saturday, and with no csses to attend, the three of them hurried out of the castle toward Hagrid’s rge wooden house.

  But when they knocked on the door, it wasn’t Hagrid who answered, it was Neville.

  That took them by surprise.

  "Ha! Harry, that was an amazing game!" Neville beamed when he saw them. "And Ron, your performance in the second half was incredible! Not even Curtis Rooney could have done better!"

  Ron’s grin stretched from ear to ear.

  Rooney had been the legendary keeper of the Chudley Cannons during their prime, a Hall of Famer, and one of the greatest goalkeepers in Quidditch history.

  "Neville, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked, curious. Since she hadn’t pyed in the match, she wasn’t as excited as Ron and Harry. She was puzzled by Neville’s presence, just a short while ago, they had all been sitting together in the stands, watching in horror as Harry was flung around on his broom like a rodeo rider.

  "It's Trevor." Neville said, pointing to the table beside him. On it sat a ceramic basin with a rge toad resting inside. Harry and the others immediately recognized it as Neville’s pet.

  In fact, Harry and his friends had met Ron early on because of this very toad.

  Neville looked at Trevor with a helpless expression and expined:

  "Trevor hasn’t been eating much tely. I think he might be sick. I didn’t dare go to Professor Kettleburn, so I came to Hagrid to try my luck. Hagrid said it’s because of the cold weather, so he went into the forest to find some herbs for me."

  Professor Kettleburn taught the elective Care of Magical Creatures css to third-years and above. He was an elderly but cheerful and approachable teacher.

  However, for Neville, who tended to stammer in front of him, Kettleburn wasn’t exactly the best person to talk to.

  "Toads, they’re supposed to hibernate in winter, right?" Harry thought for a moment, then gnced at Hermione beside him. She nodded immediately, though neither of them was entirely sure.

  Frog hibernation was common knowledge in the Muggle world, something their primary school teachers had mentioned.

  But that was the Muggle world. Neither Harry nor Hermione knew if the same applied to magical creatures.

  "Really?" Neville scratched his head and smiled. Then, taking the initiative, he poured tea for Harry and the others, tea that Hagrid had prepared for him earlier.

  Hagrid’s things were always a bit rustic, whether it was food or household items.

  But when it came to food, it was usually quite good, except for the infamous rock cakes from Harry and Ron’s first visit. The best part, though, was the tea!

  Harry had drunk plenty of tea at the Dursleys, but it never seemed to compare to Hagrid’s. He wasn’t sure if it was the type of tea itself or Hagrid’s brewing technique, but he strongly suspected it was the former.

  "By the way, are you just here to visit Hagrid, or is there something else?" Neville asked casually.

  "Well..." Harry and the other two hesitated for a moment. But considering Neville was one of their closest friends, after exchanging gnces, they decided to tell him what had happened on the Quidditch pitch that day.

  Of course, Harry left out anything about his magical senses, only mentioning that his broom had gone out of control and that Hermione had made a concerning discovery.

  When Hermione first noticed Snape’s suspicious behavior, Neville had been there. However, she hadn’t told anyone around her at the time, so Neville was unaware of what was happening.

  After hearing their expnation, he was shocked.

  "How could something like that happen?"

  Neville believed most of what Harry and the others said. After all, on Halloween, he had seen Snape with his own eyes heading toward the fourth-floor corridor, and his leg had been injured for days afterward.

  The four of them specuted for a while about what exactly the three-headed dog was guarding that could interest Snape. But with so few clues, they couldn’t come up with an answer.

  Just then, Hagrid returned.

  The weather was quite cold today, so Harry and the others were wrapped in thick cotton robes. Hagrid, however, was still wearing a thin coat and didn’t seem to feel the chill at all.

  Seeing Harry and the others there, he was momentarily surprised before breaking into a wide grin.

  "I was just wondering if you lot would come by, and here you are! Haha! That was a fantastic performance, Harry and Ron, especially you, Ron! Your second-half py was absolutely brilliant!"

  Ron’s grin stretched from ear to ear again.

  "Hang on, let me get something for Neville’s toad." Hagrid smiled and pulled a handful of flowers and herbs from his pocket, pnts that even Hermione didn’t recognize. He tossed them into a small ceramic bowl, then retrieved a wooden pestle from his cupboard and began grinding the mixture.

  Partway through, he grabbed a few beetles from a jar in the corner and threw them in as well. Then he resumed grinding.

  Once the herbs and beetles had been reduced to fine crumbs, Hagrid poured in a small amount of thick, blood-like liquid from a tiny bottle and mixed it all together.

  "There! All done!" Hagrid beamed. "Just have Trevor drink this. I promise he’ll be full of energy for months!"

  Neville eyed the small bowl in Hagrid’s hands, though, for him, it was more like a rge bowl, his expression somewhere between stunned and uncertain.

  While he wasn’t as skilled in Herbology as Hermione, Neville actually knew more about magical pnts than she did. He recognized most of the herbs that had stumped Hermione.

  He knew they were non-toxic, but after considering their individual properties, he couldn’t figure out what effect they’d have when combined. In the end, he chose to trust Hagrid and handed the bowl to Trevor.

  Neville would regret that decision for months.

  Not because Hagrid’s remedy didn’t work, on the contrary, it worked far too well.

  Trevor became unnaturally energetic.

  At first, he had barely moved from his resting spot. But after drinking the potion, he was suddenly everywhere. His constant disappearances caused chaos for months.

  The only saving grace was that the dormitory door was enchanted. Trevor couldn’t escape into the castle, otherwise, he might have ended up as a wandering toad at Hogwarts.

  ******

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