HP North Star's Radiance

But if this stuff were sold on the market, it could make Praris a fortune. After all, a single leaf of the Poison Tentacle is worth ten Galleons, and many wizards would surely be interested in it.

However... Praris silently mourned for the sixth-grade students, who were about to face a group of poison tentacles that were even more enthusiastic and cheerful than in previous years.

“It’s nothing, ma’am,” Prarese said. “Professor Snape could have done it easily, and even better. I should be thanking you for your trust.”

Ms. Sprout patted her hand: "No, Severus is too busy, I can't bear to put anything on his shoulder again. Oh, and here are some herbs for you, and Millie, right? The cat grass that the child eats."

“Uh, more or less, ma’am. It’s Millie’s cat, Nina.” Praris tried hard to suppress a laugh.

Ms. Sprout laughed heartily: "Well, children, forgive me, you all look as cute as kittens to me."

When Prarese walked out of the herbalism classroom, she was carrying a huge basket.

Prarese felt that Ms. Sprout treated her like Mrs. Weasley treated her children, and every year Prarese would see the lady build up a mountain of luggage carts for her children.

rustling sounds—

Praris turned around and saw a ginger cat-like creature running from the direction of the Quidditch pitch. Its face was flat, as if it had bumped into a wall while walking without looking where it was going.

"Krok Hill?"

The raccoon seemed to understand her words and stopped to look at her.

Praris crouched down: "What are you doing here?"

Crookshan's cat-like eyes scrutinized her carefully, as if trying to discern something.

Praris didn't look at him anymore, afraid that he would think she had ill intentions, so she stood up and continued walking forward, saying, "Good boy, go back to the castle, Granger will worry about you if you run around everywhere."

Crookshanks seem to be the kind of cat with a strong personality, just like Granger wrote in his letter.

He didn't want to walk behind Praris, so he ran ahead of her, glancing back at her every now and then.

She walked with Crookshanks for a while, until they were almost at the castle, when Crookshanks called out to her twice.

This was the kitten's way of showing affection, and Praris responded by giving him a full-face kiss, answering his "question."

Finally, the two "kittens" parted ways in front of the castle.

Prarese thought Granger was overthinking it; in her eyes, Crookshanks was a clever cat, cautious and sensitive.

As she walked downstairs with her basket, nearing the Slytherin common room, an arm suddenly draped over her shoulder.

“You were almost sent flying by my spell.” Praris continued walking forward without looking to the side.

Stella said in surprise, "But you didn't draw your wand."

Praris slapped her hand down; the basket was heavy enough. "I still know one or two wandless spells and silent incantations, which work even better when I'm scared."

“It’s terrifying, you geniuses.” Stella exclaimed. “I’m going to spend my money again. You can’t imagine, Sinesta is already thinking about which bottle of wine to buy.”

"What do you mean? Marcus just told me today that we beat Ravenclaw a few days ago," Praris said in surprise. "Is there anything unusual going on in Gryffindor?"

Stella asked, "Why guess Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw?"

“Miss, what a lovely question you’re asking! Professor Sinister has bet on Gryffindor!”

Stella laughed twice to cover her embarrassment: "Harry Potter got his hands on a rocket crossbow, which is very disadvantageous for Malfoy. If they both see the Golden Snitch at the same time, Malfoy is likely to be at a disadvantage due to his speed."

Praris nodded, as she had expected.

When Professor McGonagall's examination of the Rocket Crossbow's curse concluded, it was time for the Rocket Crossbow to return to Potter's side—something that couldn't be stopped. And she kept her promise to Granger, revealing not a single word.

One frustrating thing is that at Hogwarts, Quidditch isn't a sport where you can just work hard. For example, Harry now has a rocket crossbow, while Draco replaced the entire team's gear with Nimbus 2001s last year, and Hufflepuff's victory over Gryffindor this year was inseparable from the Dementors' efforts.

“Give Draco a little more confidence,” Prares said slowly. “He’s worked very hard this year.”

Prareas's scolding woke him up. During this time, Draco had spent a great deal of time training, and his level of effort was almost comparable to Prareas's when he enrolled in all the elective courses.

Therefore, his speed in catching the Golden Snitch greatly surpassed his own record. Slytherin's victory over Ravenclaw can be described as a complete triumph.

This is incredible for Draco, given his personality and family background; he probably won't ever work any harder in his life. He's combining opportunism with hard work, hoping to redeem himself this year and prove himself.

Marcus was very supportive of him. In order to train Draco, he placed a Golden Snitch on the field and had all the players distract Draco, requiring Draco to find the Golden Snitch under such interference.

But now, the appearance of the Rocket Crossbow is undoubtedly a big blow to the Slytherins. Last year, Draco and Potter both had the Light Wheel, but he still couldn't beat Potter.

Now, Porter has switched to the rocket crossbow.

Although the Slytherins remained united, almost no one had high hopes for Draco, nor did anyone think he could win on his own merits; they began to favor off-field tactics.

The above information comes partly from Stella, an old Slytherin Quidditch player, and partly from Prarese's own observations and deductions.

The repercussions of this event extended to the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw match, during which Draco, Marcus, and two of Draco's henchmen were all suspended, resulting in a 50-point deduction for Slytherin.

"madness!"

Miss Farley was furious. Beside her stood Selwin, arms crossed, and in front of her were four people standing haphazardly. Although she was no longer the prefect, her influence remained, and the new prefect, Selwin, still followed her closely in learning.

"Absolutely utterly stupid! You four have slapped Slytherin's face in the dirt! Now everyone knows you're afraid to face Gryffindor! Does this do any good for Slytherin's morale?!"

Praris took off his wizard hat, blinked, and walked into the common room, where he saw Gemma Farley looking furious.

Marcus single-handedly held off three people and took responsibility: "Gemma, it's all my fault. What do they know? But you know what we were thinking. We were just trying to win."

“What’s your hurry? You’ll get your turn to be criticized!” Miss Farley pointed at Marcus’s face and said, “The captain is the leader, and you’re just a fat sheep that only knows how to bleat grass and grow big but not smart!”

Prarese quickly stopped herself in her tracks; for the past two years, she had spent more time brewing medicine in the office, composting in the herbalism classroom, and studying in the library. This was the first time she had witnessed Miss Farley's outburst.

"Get out of my way!"

Farley gestured for Marcus to move aside, revealing the three people behind him, and said earnestly, "Draco, I praised you to the professor. I said you've matured and become more composed lately because of your progress, and the professor said the same thing to your father."

Draco, who had initially looked resentful, seemed to regard Farley as nothing more than the previous prefect. Her authority was outdated, yet she was still acting arrogantly. Hearing Farley's words, Draco's expression changed to surprise.

“Now I regret what I said, and you should think about it. Slytherin will win by any means necessary, but that doesn’t include winning by any stupid means necessary. As for Goyle—I’d rather not say anything about either of you.”

The new prefect, Selwyn, looked at Farley with adoration, his eyes glued to him.

"What happened?" Praris finally spoke.

Farley sighed: "They pretended to be Dementors in the Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor match to scare Potter. That lousy tactic was completely useless and even cost us fifty points."

After a while, everyone left, leaving only Draco sitting on the sofa, his arms resting on his knees, his fingers interlaced in front of his legs, silent.

Praris took a cup from the glass cabinet, poured in hot black tea, and placed it in front of Draco.

"Are you going to lecture me again? Or pity me?" Draco sneered. "You don't really think I've admitted my mistake, do you? Every tactic has the possibility of failing. We've only suffered a temporary setback."

Praris tilted his head, puzzled, and said, "Not bad, very spirited. But you're not a child, and I'm not a professor. Why should I educate you? Was Miss Farley not strict enough?"

Draco choked for a moment, then turned his head to look at the patterns on the fireplace.

"How do you plan to beat Porter?" Prareas asked.

Draco's gaze shifted from the fireplace to Praris's calm face: "You think I can win?"

“Do I need to go through all that roundabout talk with you?” Praris said. “Isn’t this what you’ve been hoping for all along, and what you’ve been striving for? Are you backing down at the last minute? Or do you think Porter and his rocket crossbows are invincible?”

"You're kidding!" Draco blurted out almost the instant she finished speaking. "You think I'm afraid of him?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he recalled his last conversation with Praris, and his expression instantly became unnatural: "In short, of course I will win."

“Since you’re not going to back down,” Praris said, staring directly into his dark eyes, “then this is my only advice to you: your goal is to catch the Golden Snitch, not to make things difficult for Potter.”

“This isn’t the first time you’ve said something like that,” Draco rolled his eyes. “Anyone who didn’t know better would think I have a terrible memory.”

Praris smiled slightly: "What can we do? History repeats itself, you too."

Draco glared at Praris with displeasure, as if accusing her of her discouraging words.

Praris stood up, patted his right shoulder, leaned down, and whispered in his left ear, "Don't be angry. I'm waiting to celebrate Slytherin's victory."

After saying that, Praris straightened up and walked towards the dormitory without any hesitation, leaving Draco standing there dumbfounded.

After a while, he reached out and covered one ear, then suddenly burst out laughing.

Realizing what a foolish thing he was doing, Draco quickly suppressed his smile, lowered his hand, and acted as if nothing had happened.

After a while, he couldn't help but touch his ear again, as if he were discovering for the first time in his life that he had an ear.

In the evening, Stella and Prareas sat on the left, while Marcus and Draco sat on the right.

Stella spoke first: "Today you were all pretending to be Dementors, but it was no use. Potter is no longer afraid of Dementors and has unleashed his white mystical magic. Right?"

Marcus nodded: "That's right."

Stella nodded: "So, the time has come for King Arthur to need Merlin—Praris."

“That’s called the Patronus Charm. It’s a powerful spell that helps you fight Dementors. It’s not difficult, but it’s generally considered to be a spell that’s hard for ordinary people to learn,” Praris said calmly. “So you don’t need to pretend to be Dementors anymore. It won’t work on Potter at all.”

Chapter 58 Quidditch "Strategist"

Marcus looked displeased: "Do you mean we shouldn't continue our off-field actions, shouldn't continue targeting Porter, and should just let him steal the Golden Snitch?"

“Of course not. In your eyes, is the world just black and white?” Stella glared at him with disdain. “Little Pu, tell them our plan.”

"Is this my new name?" Praris asked calmly.

Stella reached out to pat Praris's head, but Praris dodged her. The older Slytherin smiled, her eyes narrowing, and said, "You can never have too many nicknames."

Praris refused to answer the silly question: “Back to our question, gentlemen. Whatever your original intentions were, continue with them without deducting Slytherin points.”

“I don’t understand, what’s the point of us discussing this here? Are we just going to do nothing?” Marcus said impatiently.

Praris reached out and pressed down: "Marcus, swallow your restless heart and use your rusty brain for a while. I won't waste time on useless things; after all, I already have enough to do."

Praris looked at Draco and said, "We're used to Draco targeting Potter. Don't look at me like that, am I not telling the truth? Therefore, Potter and Wood will definitely take advantage of this, make a feint, and attract your attention."

“Just like against Ravenclaw, Potter swooped down, pretending to have found the Golden Snitch, and Cho Chang believed him and followed him,” Stella added from the side.

Praris nodded: "According to Miss Stella's analysis, due to Draco's great victory last time, the score difference between us and Gryffindor in Quidditch is 70 points. Therefore, Gryffindor must reach 70 points before they can catch the Golden Snitch, otherwise they will beat Slytherin and lose the game."

“Therefore, any move Gryffindor makes about the Golden Snitch before 70 points is a feint, and we can follow it without hesitation,” Stella chimed in.

Marcus asked with genuine concern, "We all knew it was a feint, so why did we keep following it?"

Praris shook his head in disappointment: "I need to take back my praise of you from yesterday. It turns out that you haven't made any progress in over two years, Marcus."

Marcus crossed his hands and made a "shut up" gesture.

Praris continued his analysis: "If we don't follow, Potter will know that Draco has seen through his plan, and he will no longer spend his energy misleading Draco, but instead focus his attention on the Golden Snitch. This is not a good thing for Draco."

“Of course we have to follow him until seventy minutes in, but that’s all. You don’t need to go find where the Golden Snitch Potter saw is. Because either he didn’t see it at all, or he saw it but didn’t catch it.”

Stella crossed her legs: "Put one-tenth of your energy into acting and following Potter, and the remaining nine-tenths, like Draco has been training these days, into pinpointing the Golden Snitch's location amidst distractions."