HP North Star's Radiance

She sat on the stool, supporting herself with her hands, holding her breath, and staring nervously at Professor Snape's back, like a child who had made a mistake.

The human brain is incredibly complex and delicate, and also very vulnerable; no one knows this better than Prarese. Revealing her secret was nothing, but causing the professor harm because of her incompetence would fill her with immense guilt.

After a long, very long time, Snape said, word by word, "Rest... Miss, we need to adjust the teaching plan."

What rushed toward Snape was not Prares's powerful rational analysis, but the memories imprinted with her deep emotions.

A group of young, yet distorted faces uttered mocking voices: "You don't really think we're all the same, do you? Everyone here—is Joseph, only you are Prince!"

The loving faces showed pity, but could not hide the schadenfreude beneath: "Lord! How could someone abandon their child on Christmas? How much must her parents hate her?"

Sister Maine's face appeared in Praris's memory: "Father! We must expel her from the convent! How can someone with such wicked thoughts remain in the convent? She tarnishes the glory of the Lord!"

Then came the shift in "Little Prareth's" attention, and Snape experienced Prareth's omniscient perspective for the first time.

Sister Mayne's collar revealed a third of a hickey, her hair was flattened, her nun's habit was covered in dust, there was dirt from the warehouse showing on the edge of her shoes, her makeup was more refined than usual and she had applied new light-colored lipstick, she smelled similar to Mr. Matthew, and she was taking an unusually large number of baths, etc.

These minute details, which are almost imperceptible, are magnified in her eyes as if she were looking at them with a magnifying glass.

A chubby face magnified in "Little Praris's" memory: "You are the devil! The devil's child! You deceived the priest! I will expose you sooner or later!"

The scene changes rapidly, and we arrive at a dimly lit small kitchen.

"Only one pound?" The old woman's face clearly showed her disgust. "If you're going to steal, at least steal more! Take it!"

Without explaining anything, "Little Praris" quickly picked up the piece of black bread from the ground, carefully stuffed it into her clothes, and ran to the storage room without looking back.

She tiptoed and peered carefully through the lock on the storage room door, which had a hole punched in it, before finally walking to the corner of the storage room.

A floorboard was lifted up by "Little Praris," revealing an envelope wrapped in cloth underneath. She carefully lifted the cloth and opened the envelope: inside were several banknotes and a greeting card.

Snape narrowed his eyes upon seeing this.

Snape never wrote Christmas cards for anyone, except for Lily, who was not considered an ordinary person.

In short, he had never written a letter to a six- or seven-year-old child before. So, he dug out the greeting cards his prefect had given him in his school days, changed the name on them, and copied them all over.

In Slytherin, Lucius's greeting card was like a Christmas shop flyer; no one passing by would miss it. Every freshman in Snape's year received one, the only difference being the recipient's name.

In Prarese's memory, she treasured this mass-produced copy of the greeting cards. He watched "Little Prarese" praying devoutly to the envelope, praying that if there truly was a God, the kind half-blood prince would live happily.

Living happily! Ha!

Snape couldn't help but sneer inwardly. What an utterly stupid idiot! A pound for a slice of black bread harder than a rock! Believing in some vague, unreliable god! And hoping this so-called god could bring him happiness!

In reality, Prarese looked at Professor Snape with trepidation.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "Miss, it seems this method is not suitable for you."

“I can try again.” Praris blinked. “I can do it, it just takes some time.”

“No need.” Snape added as soon as he finished speaking, “Advanced Occlumency would be more suitable for you.”

Advanced brain occlusion, simply put, involves sealing off specific areas while exposing a false portion that can be seen by others.

Before learning Occlumency, one must first understand its target audience and how it involves capturing the target's thoughts and memories. Capturing the target's thoughts allows one to directly observe and access their ideas and memories.

What Prarese needed to do in a short period of time was to perform an adaptive and modified version of Occlumency, a technique tailored for her by the Occlumency master Snape.

By leveraging her own strengths, she only needs to lock away her key memories and overwhelm others with complex thoughts when making eye contact, thus achieving the effect of brain shut-off.

This is a shortcut that only she can take.

As for the real, traditional advanced brain-closing technique, that will have to wait until she learns how to control her overflowing thoughts.

"Did the professor punish you?" Millison couldn't help but ask. "It wasn't your fault!"

"Of course not." Praris childishly tugged at a piece of corn with Nina, making the kitten howl in exasperation. "He didn't punish Draco, so why would he punish me?"

Milison scoffed: "That Moody, unable to catch the real Death Eaters, takes his anger out on the students!"

"Shh." Pansy covered Milison's mouth. "Let's avoid sensitive topics."

“Pansy, you’re such a coward,” Milison couldn’t help but mock her.

Daphne chimed in Pansy's defense, her smile still gentle, but her words sharp: "Millison, the dead can't speak; the living do the talking. The brave die quickly, and the microphone ends up in the hands of the prudent. If you're not a coward, go be a Gryffindor. We promise—we'll write you up as the great hero Burstdle."

“If that’s how you put it, then I’m really going!” Milison wasn’t intimidated by Daphne’s imposing manner at all. “I’ll be waiting for you to write my book!”

The two stared at each other for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter.

Pansy and Praris couldn't help but laugh, shouting that they wanted to kick Millison, the "traitor," out.

Despite the laughter, Praris has too many "debts" to keep up with. For example, she still owes Professor Victor's class.

Victor was a lenient teacher who rarely assigned homework, only instructing Praris to catch up on the material from that lesson. This made things much easier for Praris.

Chapter 72 Conscription

For the next period of time, the Slytherins fully utilized their shrewdness and adaptability, and behaved themselves exceptionally well.

Draco, who instigated the trouble, was still in confinement, Moody's madness left the students apprehensive, and Professor Snape was visibly in a bad mood.

Some might question, "They're Slytherin, why are they afraid of their own headmaster?"

What student isn't afraid of their teacher? Especially since this teacher is Professor Snape!

Professor Snape's decision not to deduct points from Slytherins doesn't mean he doesn't criticize them. Typically, he only lets Draco Malfoy off the hook. He treats everyone else equally, even his gifted apprentice Prince, whom he always addresses with a harsh and critical tone.

This time, Moody killed two birds with one stone: the professor's favorite student and his trusted apprentice. And the professor wasn't even there to make it clear that he couldn't favor them!

This caused the Slytherins to cower in fear, afraid of running into the line of fire.

So why do some people still think it's a good thing?

Because Professor Snape's fire was now spreading towards Gryffindor, he used a pretext to punish Neville Longbottom with a period of solitary confinement for his sixth cauldron that had burned. Neville was forced to gut the toad until he collapsed.

The Potions Office.

For Neville, the most terrifying thing now is not that he himself is gutting the toad, but that he is watching Prince of Slytherin gut the toad.

Prareas held a thin slice of knife in her hand, the blade twirling between her fingertips. In just a few seconds, the toad's internal organs were completely removed.

With two soft thuds, the toad's body and internal organs were tossed into two separate buckets.

Neville was both shocked and frightened. He had a pet toad named Lucky, who couldn't bear to watch such a stimulating scene.

"What's so interesting, Mr. Longbottom?" Prarese squinted. "Or are you not getting enough work?"

"No, no, no, no!" Neville shook his head frantically.

Praris turned his head and asked, "And you?"

Draco immediately bent down to work on the herbs, trying to make himself appear busy.

The situation is quite complex and cannot be explained in a few words.

Praderes came to the office with a legitimate reason: she wanted to see Professor Snape to test her latest progress in learning Occlumency.

Neville, on the other hand, ran right into Professor Snape's trap and was punished by having to deal with the horned toads—the raw materials for the potion prepared for the competition.

Draco was the one with nothing better to do; he actually had time to come and mock Longbottom.

Professor Snape, whether genuinely busy or simply feeling a surge of inexplicable anger at the sight of the two, simply dumped them both on his apprentice, even asking her to finish the rest of the work as well.

Where is he? He vanished with a flick of his cloak, probably off to do some dirty work again.

As soon as Professor Snape left, Draco's stoic tail swished up, and he said smugly to Neville, "Longbottom, you should thank Professor Snape. I think this will be a good exercise for your courage, won't it?"

Draco looked at Praris, trying to find approval in her face.

Praris skillfully pulled open the drawer, took out a razor blade, and with a pinch of two fingers, he disemboweled the horned toad without even changing his expression.

The conversation just now was her warning to those two guys.

After reprimanding the two men, Praris, while keeping his head down and working, said expressionlessly, "I can tell you both hate this kind of work, right?"

Praris looked at Neville: "Mr. Longbottom, having grown up in the wizarding world, you must have heard about the dangers of the Triwizard Tournament, right?"

Neville shrank his neck and nodded timidly.

Praris said softly, "These horned toads are used to prepare the potion that will be used in the Triwizard Tournament. Maybe it can save one of the Hogwarts students."

“If you treat this as a punishment, then one or two hours will feel very long for both of you. If you treat this as a way to learn and improve your abilities, then one or two hours will be worth savoring repeatedly.”

Draco said arrogantly, "Prareth, you overestimate Longbottom's brain. I bet he didn't understand a word you said. It's a complete waste of your time."

Praris put down his knife and slowly clapped three times. It was clearly a gesture of praise, yet it inexplicably felt mocking.

As soon as the applause subsided, she suddenly said, "Very energetic, Draco. What kind of potion can you make with the Indian sappanwood you have?"

Draco scrambled to his feet: "Uh, well... of course I know! Yes, painkillers."

"Barely passed. Longbottom, where's the horned toad you had?"

Neville grabbed the toad and shook his head frantically.

Prarese said calmly, "Mr. Longbottom, can you guess what characteristics a toad might have?"

"Is it...poisonous?"

Praris nodded. "Yes, it's poisonous. Like herbs, there's often an antidote near a poisonous plant. And the entrails of the longhorn toad can be used to make a variety of antidotes."

Neville initially thought he would be consumed by the fear of disemboweling toads during this time. But he soon discovered that he had long since forgotten about being afraid.

The Slytherin girl seemed completely unaware of how stupid he was. After asking about the things they were holding, she opened the storage room next door and pointed to each of the bottles and jars, asking about their functions and uses.

Her expression wasn't serious; instead, she treated him and Malfoy with an air of "you'll definitely know" and "you'll definitely understand," as if they weren't fundamentally different.

Draco was doing exceptionally well in Potions class, his skills were improving, and his question-and-answer session with Praris was seamless and logical. Even when he couldn't recall something, Praris would quickly bring it to mind.

Neville, on the other hand, was sweating profusely. He felt that he had learned more in that hour than he had in a year. Nevertheless, he was still vaguely drawn into the thought loop that Praris had created and began to think about the problem.

Ask questions, but Prarese doesn't allow anyone to stop what they're doing.

Unbeknownst to them, with Praris's help, the toads that Nave was dealing with were descending, descending, and descending at an extraordinary speed until they were all gone.

When Neville was dealing with the last horned toad, he was still racking his brains trying to figure out the function of the crocodile's heart, having long forgotten how scared he had been at the beginning.

Praris began washing the blades with practiced ease, then turned and called to Draco, "Draco, that's about it. Put the rest back where they belong."

After saying that, she walked purposefully to the wall, took a transparent bottle from the shelf, and headed towards Draco.

"Hand out."

Prarese's tone almost made one wonder if she was saying "It's raining" in winter, rather than "reach out your hand." (Note: Rain is very frequent in the UK from October to April.)