HP North Star's Radiance

Everyone made room for Barron so he could conduct a preliminary examination of the impetuous little boy.

Fortunately, apart from that gruesome wound, Leo is not seriously injured. He has not woken up yet simply because he was frightened.

Minor injuries and pains are commonplace, and after the initial panic, everything quickly returned to normal. The DAs settled the unconscious Leo aside to rest and continued their training in Defense Against the Dark Arts and willpower.

Practice what needs to be practiced, make plans to sabotage what needs to be made, teach students what needs to be taught, and everything is as if nothing has happened.

Barron was a good nurse, but not a good soldier. He was always gentle and easygoing, but his good temper also meant he wasn't tough enough, not resolute enough, and soft-hearted.

It was Neville who brought Baron into the DA, but it was Ginny who trained him.

Before Neville became the leader of the DA, he was always encouraged by others and rarely had the opportunity to encourage others. But Ginny was different; she had the opportunity to observe Hermione and Harry encouraging her brother Ron up close.

Ginny patted Baron on the shoulder generously, making him slump: "Thanks, Baron!"

Barron nearly fell over, gasped, and managed a slight smile: "It's what I should do, we're all friends."

Perhaps others don't possess such sensitivity, but Baron is already a semi-healer with nearly three years of experience. He has studied healing magic, is familiar with all sorts of potions and elixirs, and is even more familiar with... the potions sent by his Potions professor.

The potions made by the two professors and Praris are all very good, but there are subtle differences between them.

Professor Snape was meticulous in his potion-making, achieving excellent results with consistent quality control. In other words, even between different batches, no significant differences could be found when comparing them in the end.

Before the Astronomy Tower incident, Madam Pomfrey would privately tease Professor Snape, saying that his potions were like those mass-produced by Muggles on a mechanized assembly line.

Professor Slughorn possesses a Slytherin-like shrewdness, knowing how to handle the school infirmary in the easiest and most effortless way. In other words, he prefers to cook a communal meal. Quality doesn't matter; all that matters is whether it works and whether the requirements are met!

Professor Slughorn is clearly a Potions Master, and even Professor Snape's teacher, but he always uses an oversized cauldron to get by, resulting in inconsistent quality and control over the potions he makes.

Praris also differs from these two professors. She doesn't use large cauldrons, only ordinary ones, but this genius excels at being observant and adaptable. Therefore, she combines the strengths and weaknesses of the two professors, producing potions that are plentiful and satisfying, though the quality may not be consistent, the effects are always outstanding.

The potion Ginny produced was from a very ordinary potion bottle, the kind used at Hogwarts. But the moment the potion touched Leo's skin, Baron knew it was Prareas's creation.

Only three people in the entire school could achieve this level of quality, but it didn't fit either Professor Snape's devilish control or Professor Slughorn's egalitarian system.

Given this premise, Baron immediately had a conclusion about who provided the potion—he promptly confessed to the crime of stealing the potion from the school infirmary.

Baron couldn't understand why Praris would help DA, but in his eyes, the reason was never important.

Importantly, without Prares's generous matchmaking, there would be no "nurse" Barron today, and his ideals would be much further away than he imagined.

Although not everyone can guess the potion's creator, didn't he recognize it? As long as he admits it, even if the potion's creator is exposed, it will be Baron's fault for stealing the potion.

Baron believed from the bottom of his heart that Myrtle would support his decision.

Prarese had no idea that Baron had taken the blame for her. Dealing with such a minor issue was a piece of cake for her—she simply had to accuse DA of theft in a rude manner and demand severe punishment.

Meanwhile, Praris is working on improving the ecstasy.

Professor Snape offered no comment on the bizarre report, seemingly tacitly approving of Prareas's actions, only requesting that she submit the results of the first phase of the experiment as soon as possible.

The problems with euphoria drugs have been briefly discussed before; their drawbacks lie in their superficiality, widespread use, and addictiveness.

To combat addiction, Praris chose to add lavender essence, which helps to smooth the effects of the medication and balance emotions.

The byproducts of the lavender essence reaction are slowly released throughout the potion's effects. Once the potion reaches its peak potency, the reactants gradually reduce its potency to lessen the overwhelming feeling of the potion's sudden end and prevent addiction.

At the same time, lavender essence has a calming and soothing effect, preventing wizards who have used the modified euphoria from becoming too excited and losing their minds.

To put it simply, the original euphoric potion was like sending students back to Hogwarts immediately after the holiday of revelry, and then having them start high-level courses like Transfiguration and Potions on the very night of their return.

In this context, the joy of the holidays and the stark contrast with school make students miss their holidays dearly.

The improved version of the "happy agent" adds a buffer to the night before returning to school, and the courses after the holidays also take students' feelings into consideration by choosing easier content and not immediately increasing the intensity.

In this way, students can gradually adapt to school life, and their resistance to missing the holidays will not be so strong.

On the surface, Prareth's inspiration came from the spiritual potions she had developed. These potions involved a person's perception and subconscious, very close to the study of the soul—presumably one of the reasons Voldemort targeted her.

In fact, the creation of spiritual potions was closely related to her initial theoretical research on soul magic.

Nothing happens without a reason; fate is a spider web that binds everyone together.

Prareas argues that happiness and hope are also internal states that can be "perceived" and "enhanced," rather than being awakened by memory. Therefore, it is not necessary to create happiness; it is entirely possible to "enhance" existing positive emotions.

As for how the Death Eaters find that bit of positive emotion to enhance their abilities? What does that have to do with Praris? She's just a bunch of quack researchers!

Great, this can definitely be the goal of the second phase, and we can produce a thick interim report.

In terms of breadth, Prarese envisions precise control and enhanced targeting. She believes that by adjusting the combination, proportion, and order of herbs, it is possible to selectively enhance positive emotions.

In any case, the preliminary improved euphoria was born, and Praris finally had something to report.

This research took nearly a week, and time sped up to a new Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

As mentioned in the previous lesson, some students are not good at using the Crucifixion spell, but the DAs have undergone willpower training and are able to resist this attack.

Praris believes that this statement is not entirely accurate, as none of the former members are DAs. They openly contradict the Carlo siblings, declaring that they would never use the Cruciatus Curse on their classmates under any circumstances.

Those who can be considered to have mastered the Cruciatus Curse include those who cheat, like Praris, and those who genuinely possess the desire to torment others, like Crabbe.

Beyond these two groups are the students who, despite their poor skills, still force themselves to use the Crucifixion. They are the many more mediocre and silent individuals at Hogwarts, numbly submitting to Amicus in order to survive.

When Amykus asked his students to practice the Crucifixion Mantra, the Damas kept their mouths shut, which greatly angered Amykus.

Knowing Neville was a tough nut to crack, he dragged out Hannah Abbott, the round-faced girl from Hufflepuff, and said menacingly, "If you can't read this out, you're next!"

Hannah didn't dare open her eyes, shaking her head frantically: "No, no, no—"

Amycus suddenly let out a short laugh and pressed his wand against Hannah's face: "What a lovely face—would you like me to leave my unique mark on it, hmm?"

Hannah almost cried; she was so terrified! Hannah's mother had been killed by Death Eaters, and for a whole year, she hadn't been able to fully recover from the grief of losing her mother.

Now, she has fallen into the hands of the Death Eaters.

Neville looked distressed and shook his head at Hannah, as if to say, "It's alright, it's not your fault."

"Crusio!"

When Hannah shouted this, Neville clenched his fists and closed his eyes, but no light appeared—of course, it wouldn't have any effect, because the Cruciatus Curse's incantation is "Crusio," not "Crusio."

"Useless!" Hannah was thrown to the ground, and Amicus spat at her disdainfully. "You can't even pronounce a single incantation properly!"

The intelligent people present knew that Hannah wasn't incapable of reciting the spell, but rather that even in her most fearful moment, she was unwilling to use the Cruciatus Curse on Neville.

Perhaps, in Hannah's eyes, her mother was killed by the Death Eaters, and even if she were to die, she could not do the same thing as the Death Eaters.

Those who stubbornly refused to use the Crucifixion Curse, those who deliberately mispronounced it like Hannah, and those who intentionally rendered the magic ineffective—Dumbledore's Army upheld their principles in their own way, but in doing so, they also became the targets of persecution.

"This is insane," Pansy muttered under her breath. "What's wrong with just giving a perfunctory response?"

Praris just watched silently, without answering Pansy's question.

She just... just inadvertently recalled that rainy afternoon when Mr. Snape stood by the railing at the end of the corridor and whispered to her, "Only those I cannot help."

Amicus locked up the "disobedient" students. He turned to the remaining, more "obedient" students, a slight smirk playing on his lips, but no real smile in his eyes: "Classmates, how lucky they are! I bet you're envious of them—I've got a troll, which isn't easy. I'm keeping the troll in the underground classroom; they'll be taking care of it today!"

What? Raising a giant monster!

The students could no longer contain themselves and began discussing the matter in a noisy murmur.

Just imagine—the troll's stench is more disgusting than a toilet or sewer, along with its stupid, uncomprehending brain and savage strength!

In an instant, the students who were punished turned pale, and those who were not punished were not much better off.

As soon as Amicus announced his dismissal, Praris strode up to him and said bluntly, "Professor, you can't do that!"

“Oh?” Amicus’s gaze turned dangerous. “Miss Prince, do you have any unique insights?”

Chapter 250 I Believe in You

“I wouldn’t call it any insight,” Praris said calmly, ignoring Amicus’s gaze. “But trolls can’t be kept underground.”

Amycus keeps trolls to torment disobedient students. If Praris directly opposes his keeping trolls, wouldn't that be upholding DA? —She's not that stupid!

Therefore, she did not object to Amycus keeping trolls, but only to keeping them in underground structures.

“You probably don’t know,” Prares said slowly, “Mr. Snape’s old office was underground, not just because it was close to Slytherin—Professor McGonagall’s office was quite far from Gryffindor.”

“As we all know, potions are a discipline that demands precise control,” Prares said cryptically. “The underground… is a good place, stable enough that even if things get chaotic in the castle, it won’t affect Mr. Snape’s work.”

According to Praris, it's fine to keep other things in the dungeon, but she's researching new potions underground, and there's a giant monster dancing around next to her, making it impossible for her to work!

Amicus clicked his tongue in annoyance, exhaling stale air from his nostrils.

He was thoroughly fed up with these researchers! Back in the day, Winnie Brown frequently complained about the other Death Eaters interrupting her train of thought and making all sorts of demands. They contributed little to their master, yet caused the most trouble!

"Ha!" Amicus waved his hand impatiently and turned to leave. "Anyway, Snape isn't working underground anymore, so what's wrong with keeping a troll as a pet!"

“Professor Carlo!” Praris called out to him again, “I completed the preliminary work on the assignment you asked me to do last time yesterday, but the next stage…”

Amicus immediately turned around, his eyes gleaming with excitement: "Oh? Let's talk in the office!"

Prareas let Pansy and the others go ahead, while she followed Amicus. Since she left first, Pansy, Daphne, and Draco walked together for a while.

Draco was looking down, seemingly lost in thought, when he was suddenly pulled by Pansy.

"Draco!" Pansy asked eagerly, "What has Pray been up to lately?"

“I don’t understand—” Draco slowly pulled Pansy’s hand away, “Why do you care about this?”

"Oh dear!" Pansy was getting a little anxious. She pulled Draco aside and told Daphne to go back first.

Daphne didn't care at all what kind of trouble they were causing and left decisively.

In Daphne's eyes, only a girl like Pansy would care whether someone accompanies her to and from school or to the bathroom; she was just going along with it casually.

Pansy looked uneasy, her voice full of worry: "Pry has been keeping to himself and acting mysteriously lately, and now he's talking to Professor Carlo about homework—what's there to talk to a professor about our Defense Against the Dark Arts homework!"

Draco listened, but he didn't react.

He said nonchalantly, "Praris has his own ideas."

"It's all your fault!" Pansy began firing indiscriminately. "You don't care at all what Pray is doing!"

Draco, arms crossed and leaning against the wall, said impatiently, "Didn't I just say? Praris has her own ideas! Do you think you're wiser than her? Or do you think you're more capable?"

Pansy froze, then stammered, "I was just... worried about Pray. Crabbe reported the DA, and those people are retaliating against him, shoving his head down the toilet, kicking his ass..."

The DA's disruptive activities have ranged from nonviolent protests in classrooms to vandalism and looting in person, and now have expanded to attacking patrol officers and retaliating against whistleblowers like Crabbe.

Therefore, Slytherin students now act collectively. Only Slytherins like Daphne, who have a clear conscience and genuinely despise Mudbloods from beginning to end, are unafraid of being put in a sack.

“That’s pretty scary!” Draco sneered sarcastically. “To be honest, I really hope they mess with Praris and see whose head gets shoved into the toilet!”

Praliss had told Draco about her connection to the Order of the Phoenix long before he let the Death Eaters into Hogwarts.