HP North Star's Radiance

After that, Professor Snape, through some incredible skill with his words, actually managed to persuade the Carrow siblings to abandon their plan to create a troll. But even without a troll, there was still the Cruciatus Curse and other forms of torment.

In the Muggle Studies class, Alecto hurled insults at Muggle-born wizards, and even took out a list of Hogwarts students from previous years, picking out some of the students one by one and using extremely offensive language to insult these predecessors.

These students were all Muggle-born, and some of them died tragically at the hands of the brother and sister.

Neville slammed his fist on the table and stood up, loudly questioning Alecto about how much Muggle and Muggle-born wizard blood she and Amycus had on their hands. This wasn't Hogwarts' annual roster; it was evidence of the Death Eaters' crimes!

Upon hearing Neville's words, Praris silently lowered his head and lowered his eyelids.

Amidst the students' suppressed sobs and gasps of fear, she clearly caught the sounds of Neville and Alecto arguing, followed by Neville's scream, and finally the dull thud of him hitting the ground. He fell to the ground, and for a fleeting moment seemed to spring back up, like a fish helplessly struggling on the shore.

Closer still, there was the gloating laughter of Crabbe, Goyle, and some other Slytherins.

In any case, Praris and Neville had known each other for six years and had worked together for more than half a year.

Reasonably, Prarese wouldn't risk her life for Neville again, much less stand up for him. Her only choice was to ignore him, as a sign of respect for this somewhat reckless warrior.

In Prarese's eyes, Neville's decision was undoubtedly foolish and a pointless sacrifice.

But the explanations she and Ginny had given each other helped Praris understand their decision:

Some things are done not because they are right, and some things are done not because they are beneficial—perhaps this is Gryffindor-style courage.

She inexplicably recalled Mr. Snape's words: "Every day, someone falls, and I just watch... just watch."

Praris sat in the crowd, not even looking up, just listening... just listening.

She couldn't help but feel uneasy just thinking about how she was ignoring it. Before this, she could sometimes even find excuses to defend the DAs.

But what about Professor Snape? He didn't even have a reason to lower his head; he had to keep his eyes open and watch how those people died. He had to make decisions he didn't want to make, decisions that oppressed and hurt his students—he was the kind of professor who believed that students and children shouldn't bear responsibility, that adults should do everything!

Praris felt a deep bitterness in his heart, like a lemon being squeezed like a rag. But Praris could say nothing, could ask nothing.

She knew that Professor Snape wasn't the kind of person who readily opened up. He always wanted to be in control, and only when he decided to say something was it appropriate to talk about it; otherwise, it would be an offense to him.

Alecto used the Cruciatus Curse very effectively, leaving a long, gruesome scar on Neville's face.

“Give me some time,” Praris whispered from across the mirror. “I think I have a way to get rid of it.”

Neville paused for a moment, and after a long while, he said, "Thank you, Praris, but I don't need it."

Prareas was conflicted. Ginny's eyes were filled with anger and heartache for her comrade-in-arms, but Neville said he didn't need it.

“Honestly, don’t laugh at me, but to me it’s a hero’s badge.” Neville grinned somewhat foolishly. “This scar tells everyone about my bravery and fearlessness. Don’t I look much more imposing?”

Ginny chuckled, but perhaps because of the lingering sadness, her beautiful face looked rather awkward when she smiled, but no one there cared.

Neville scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly: "I... I was terrified of the Crucifixion when I was a child, thinking it must be worse than hell. But after actually surviving the Crucifixion, I found that it wasn't unbearable."

"You may not know, but my parents were driven insane by the Crucifixion. Now, I feel almost exactly what they went through, and our family will always stand together."

Neville's injury was clearly a bad thing, but it boosted the morale of the DA again, giving them even more courage.

“That’s what we learned from Harry,” Neville said with a smile. “We believe there should be a flag, and as long as the flag doesn’t fall, hope won’t be lost.”

Prareas knew perfectly well that she and the professor were not like them, yet they secretly sided with them. She would never have made such a decision, but unexpectedly, she began to admire it.

Perhaps there is no single right decision in this world; what everyone strives for is simply to make their decisions as right as possible.

This applies to Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Welwyn, Dumbledore, Professor Snape, and herself.

Prareas also learns that the fact she hasn't been attacked by the DA is thanks to Ginny and Neville's efforts. She once "beat up" Neville, and the DA should retaliate against her, but Ginny and Neville tell their companions, "It's not worth it."

"I also want to avenge Neville. But our numbers and strength are limited. This Slytherin is too aggressive and vigilant; the chances of a successful sneak attack are too low, and the cost-benefit ratio is not high." Ginny said thoughtfully, "If we must take action against her, we need to plan more carefully and comprehensively."

“That doesn’t matter to me,” Neville immediately followed Ginny’s lead. “Our more important targets are Snape, the Carroll siblings, and those Slytherins who keep reporting us. My personal grudges don’t matter; our decisions must be accountable to the entire DA.”

“Neville practiced for ages how to say it!” Ginny said mockingly. “He was afraid he’d mess it up and give himself away.”

Neville, a little embarrassed and annoyed, said, "Ginny, so you're a really good liar?"

“Of course,” Ginny said proudly. “I was even pretending not to like Harry!”

Speaking of Harry, Ginny's mood sombered again, like a lion whose mane had been soaked by rain—unfortunately, a lioness's mane isn't long, so this somber mood wasn't really noticeable.

“Thank you, but it doesn’t matter whether you stop them or not.” Praris smiled and shook his head, saying calmly, “Let them run into walls. Once they’ve hit a wall, they’ll know who they shouldn’t mess with.”

Praris said this, but Ginny still felt that DA shouldn't retaliate against Praris: "We are trustworthy partners on the same front. I can't do something so unjust as to use your potions while attacking you!"

“Oh, right! Prareas, I have to clarify, we didn’t have anyone spying on you,” Ginny said suddenly, as if remembering something. “But some DAs saw that Amycus and Snape had you summoned to their offices several times. You also mentioned something about homework… Can we understand what that is?”

Neville chimed in, "Everyone suspects you and those two Death Eaters are plotting something and wants us to find out what's going on and sabotage the organization."

In the same castle, with so many students inside and out, just like what Draco was doing, although we don't know exactly what he was doing, we at least know that he was doing something secretly.

Praris casually fiddled with his fingers and said calmly, "It's nothing. They were trying to get me to make something, so I did."

"You did it!" Neville and Ginny exclaimed in surprise. "But...but...but—"

“Could I possibly refuse? I don’t want to die,” Prare said calmly. “Professor Snape knows my own worth better than I do myself.”

"Don't worry, isn't it normal for potions to have some inherent flaws? Just like taking cold medicine will make you sneeze, or eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans will risk making you taste boogers."

Chapter 252 Extreme Strength

In the rebooted DA, Luna is always the core member of the trio, and her ideas often serve as a flash of inspiration and a way to stop the two Gryffindors from running away.

After Luna leaves, Ginny and Neville must find a unique and wise partner to complement their flaws—and that person is the semi-outsider Praris Prince.

After the conversation ended, Neville looked down at his notes while touching his scabbed wound.

The next second, Ginny slapped his hand away with lightning speed: "Keep your hands to yourself!"

Ginny is already showing a lot of Mrs. Weasley's flair. Molly is the boss of everything in the Order of the Phoenix; she even scolds Sirius for saying anything out of line.

Neville awkwardly withdrew his hand, touching the back of his hand that had been slapped red: "Uh, I couldn't help it."

“I really don’t want to say this!” Ginny said, sounding a little irritated.

Neville asked, bewildered, "It's okay?"

“No, that’s not it!” Ginny walked back and forth, slamming her right fist into her left palm. “What Seamus and the others saw Praris doing was that she was working for those Death Eaters. They wanted Praris to make some unknown potions!”

Neville nodded nonchalantly: "That's right, that's what she said."

"What do you think they would ask Prares to do in a situation like this?" Ginny blinked rapidly as she thought, her long eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings. "It certainly can't be anything good!"

“Trust Praris!” Neville said loyally. “She’s already sacrificed so much for us; she wouldn’t betray us. Since she said she could tamper with potions, then there’s no problem.”

Neville has always had a tolerant leadership quality, but Ginny really wants to punch Neville—is it a matter of belief or disbelief?

"Did you eat sheep droppings like they were chocolate?! How could I not believe Prader!" Ginny glared at Neville. "Harry needs Ron and Hermione, we need Prader and Luna, but are we just going to leave Prader to fight alone? We can't just keep asking her for help without thinking about how to help her!"

"If Praris tampers with the potions herself and gets caught, she'll have to bear the consequences alone! But if we openly cause her trouble, it's okay if her research progress is a little slower, and it's normal for all sorts of problems to arise, isn't it?"

Ginny's insults have always been this vicious. In the past, when Ron was kissing Lavender but wouldn't let Ginny kiss anyone else, she would call Ron a "hypocrite," blatantly exposing his shortcomings without any regard for her own brother's feelings.

Neville suddenly realized, picked up his notebook, and said, "That makes sense. I'll make a plan."

"Stop planning! At Praris's pace, by the time you finish planning, her research byproducts might already be born!" Ginny hurriedly pulled out the magical items she had put away. "Two-way mirror, let's contact Praris now."

Praris, who reappeared in the two-way mirror, seemed unsurprised, simply saying, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"No, no, no!" Ginny said excitedly, "It's you, it's you who needs our help!"

“Is that so?” Praris said softly. “I don’t see what I need unless you’ve created new trouble for me.”

“That’s right!” Ginny said matter-of-factly, “We’re going to cause you trouble!”

Even someone as calm and rational as Prarese couldn't help but crack his mask when faced with Ginny's bizarre remarks.

Neville coughed twice and nudged Ginny with his elbow, a silent hint: "That's not how it works!"

Uh?

Ginny finally realized how easily her blunt words could be misunderstood, and she quickly explained, "What I meant was, DA could interfere with your potion research for the Death Eaters. What do you think?"

“Not very good.” Praris regained his composure and said coldly, “I think you probably haven’t considered the risks of this plan.”

Risk?

Ginny glanced to her left—Neville was scribbling something in his notebook. Sensing Ginny's gaze, Neville looked up, ready to explain.

“Praris is right.” Neville couldn’t help but reach out his hand again, but was glared at fiercely by Ginny and silently withdrew it. “Cough, the scar is a little itchy.”

Ginny was a little confused by all this complicated stuff and asked bluntly, "What risks? Come on, what we do doesn't have risks! If we're going to avoid doing something just because it's dangerous, we might as well disband!"

Praris pinched the thin skin on her wrist, trying to find a balance between reason and emotion.

She could completely understand that Ginny was trying to help her out of kindness, and this trust made the collaboration feel much better—at least much better than with the Order of the Phoenix and Harry and Ron before, although there were factors of changing circumstances and personal growth involved.

But this courage is sometimes so reckless as to be almost foolish. If Prarese hadn't matured over the years, she might have said something that could easily damage the friendship.

“That’s not how it works,” Neville’s honest voice rang out. “We’re not fighting alone; we have to be responsible for the lives of the other DAs.”

“Everyone knows what kind of person Praris is. If she holds back or doesn’t attack us, it’s highly suspicious. If she does attack us, there’s no guarantee that no one will escape her clutches.”

Neville put it somewhat euphemistically.

More precisely, as Draco said to Pansy, it was all too obvious whose head would be shoved into the toilet.

“I can barely make out your thoughts, but they go far beyond that.” Praris lowered his voice, revealing a dangerous aura. “If you can only come up with such superficial ideas, I will start to doubt the correctness of cooperating with you.”

“Have you considered what would happen if one of you got caught while trying to escape? After what happened with Neville and McMillan, Alecto Caro urged Professor Slughorn to hurry up and brew the truth serum. If you two get caught, and I get a dose of the truth serum, you two can send me to the guillotine.”

Of course, there are more risks than just these, and there are deeper reasons that Praris cannot say out loud.

Even if DA isn't caught after this incident, Prarese and Professor Snape will still face scrutiny.

On one hand, the Death Eaters and Voldemort would question Prasris's fighting ability, given that he couldn't even protect his own territory. On the other hand, as the main person in charge of Hogwarts, Professor Snape might be deemed to have mismanaged the situation.

Besides, DA members are just DA members; they may not fully carry out Neville and Ginny's plans. If the level of destruction gets out of control, things could easily become unmanageable.

“That doesn’t sound like a good thing.” Ginny’s expression went blank for a few seconds before she said dryly, “So you’re just going to have to bear it all by yourself?”

"No benefit?" Praris said calmly. "Wrong, there is a benefit."

“Once the plan succeeds, I can legitimately delay the experiment without any punishment—with you 'scapegoats' to shield me, right?”

"For you, my inability to deliver research results is exactly what you want to see. Effectively striking at people like me and my plans would be a morale booster, wouldn't it?"

During the discussion, the pros and cons of the entire plan gradually came to light. The advantages were very obvious, tempting Neville and Ginny to take the risk, but the disadvantages were also clear to all.

It sounds harsh, but as things became clearer, Neville began to feel eager to try it out.

He believed that since the drawbacks of this matter were closely related to Praris's own safety, Praris would not stand idly by once the plan was decided to be implemented, and would definitely help to improve the plan.