Hogwarts: I Became the Third Dark Lord.

Upon going outside, they found that the Slytherin freshmen had already disappeared, while the Hufflepuff freshmen were still waiting outside the Potions classroom.

Seeing Wentworth come out, they immediately rushed forward and bombarded him with questions, forcing Wentworth to deflect by saying:

"Oh, it's nothing. I just had some questions about potions, so I stayed behind to ask Professor Snape."

As soon as Wentworth finished speaking, the worried expressions of the Hufflepuff freshmen vanished instantly, replaced by expressions of admiration. Some even silently gave Wentworth a thumbs-up and patted him on the shoulder.

"Wentworth, I respect you as a true man!"

Just then, Snape's voice rang out from behind them:

"If you don't want to leave, you can all come back in!"

The Hufflepuff freshmen fled in disarray.

Wentworth turned and bowed to Professor Snape before turning away and following the other freshmen. When no one was looking, Wentworth opened the old textbook he had borrowed from the Potions classroom.

On the title page of the textbook, a name was prominently displayed—the Half-Blood Prince!

After confirming that he hadn't taken the wrong one, Wentworth's lips curled into a confident smile.

Suddenly, someone slapped Wentworth hard on the back, startling him. Wentworth quickly put away his old textbooks and turned around to see Cedric.

"Hey, how was Potions class? Professor Snape didn't make things difficult for you, did he?"

Seeing that it was Cedric, Wentworth relaxed and shrugged, saying:

"How could they not have made things difficult for me? They deducted five points!"

Cedric waved his hand dismissively and said:

"This is nothing. I thought you'd lose at least thirty points. Five points? It's basic stuff. Nobody will blame you! By the way, what reason did Snape use to deduct points from your score?"

Wentworth gave a wry smile and said:

"He said I was flirting with Cassandra in class...it's unbelievable!"

Cedric stared at Wentworth with a blank expression, and after a long while, a hearty laugh came from Cedric's mouth.

Cedric laughed heartily until he saw Wentworth's face darken. He quickly stopped laughing and, forcing himself to speak, asked:

"Seriously, is there really something between you and Cassandra? I felt there was something more between you two on the Hogwarts Express!"

Wentworth quickly denied it:

"No way! I like tall girls with big butts!"

No sooner had Wentworth finished speaking than a voice of embarrassment and anger came from behind them, before Cedric could respond:

"Wentworth, you're shameless!"

The two turned around in surprise and saw Cassandra. Wentworth immediately felt embarrassed. He was about to explain when Cassandra said:

"You wait for me!"

Then, Cassandra walked past the two without looking back and disappeared from their sight.

Seeing Cassandra leave, Wentworth and Cedric exchanged bewildered glances. After a long pause, Wentworth finally spoke:

"Actually, she still has a lot of potential. There's an old Eastern proverb: 'A girl changes a lot as she grows up!'"

Cedric said with a helpless expression:

"Do you think she's angry about this?"

"Believe me, absolutely!"

Afterwards, the two went to the auditorium for dinner.

When Wentworth and Cedric appeared in the Great Hall and walked toward the Hufflepuff table, many people greeted Wentworth warmly, which made him feel somewhat flattered.

After Wentworth was seated, people kept coming up to ask him if he was planning to host another hot pot party soon. They only left after Wentworth repeatedly assured them that he would notify them in advance if there was a hot pot party next time.

On the other hand, Cassandra looked at Wentworth, who was surrounded by people in the center of the crowd, and gritted her teeth in secret.

"Cassandra, you don't look well. What happened?"

At that moment, Slytherin's prefect, Warlin, came over and asked with concern.

Since the start of the new semester, Prefect Wellin has approached Cassandra to speak more than once, and the other Slytherin students have wisely given them space.

Upon hearing Welin's voice, Cassandra instinctively frowned. Cassandra didn't have a good impression of Welin because Welin's father worked for her father, so Welin was always somewhat obsequious when facing Cassandra.

Wellin did this to curry favor with Cassandra, and Cassandra knew why he did it. Girls mature earlier than boys, and in a family like Cassandra's, there were plenty of people who fawned over her.

But Cassandra just didn't like it. "You're a prefect, and a Slytherin prefect at that! Don't you have any dignity as a prefect? ​​What happened to the pride of Slytherin? You're a disgrace to Slytherin!" That was Cassandra's opinion of Weylin.

At times like these, Cassandra would think of Wentworth's ever-present elegant smile, seemingly indifferent to everything yet curious about the magical world. Despite being a half-blood, or even a Muggle, wizard, he was more like a pureblood than many purebloods.

Don't ask how Cassandra knew Wentworth wasn't a pure-blood family. Long before Cassandra arrived at Hogwarts, her father had already given her a list of noteworthy new students.

But upon hearing Slytherin Prefect Weillin's voice, Cassandra's eyes flickered, she withdrew her furrowed brow, deliberately feigning displeasure, and said:

"Senior Weylin, today, we Slytherin were looked down upon!"

Upon hearing Cassandra's words, as expected, Welin immediately revealed an angry expression and said viciously:

"What?! Who dares to look down on us Slytherins!"

So Cassandra told Wellin, embellishing the story of what had happened in front of the Potions classroom that afternoon.

In summary, Hufflepuff prefect Kirk, along with older students, blocked the path of the new Slytherin students, allowing the Hufflepuff students to get ahead of the new Slytherin students.

Wentworth, who was waiting for the meal to be served, was completely unaware of all this.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Snape's Office

After dinner, Wentworth went to Snape's office alone. This time, even Cedric avoided the place and did not follow.

After knocking, the door to Snape's office opened from the inside, revealing Snape's perpetually cold face.

"Were you busy with that damn hotpot again? Why are you so late!"

Without waiting for Wentworth to explain, Snape turned and walked back to his office.

Wentworth shrugged and followed Snape inside.

Perhaps because it was underground, Snape's office was incredibly dark, with many large glass jars on the shelves along the wall, filled with all sorts of disgusting things.

Snape pointed to a table next to him, and Wentworth very tactfully went over and sat down obediently.

Then Snape took a cloth bag from the other side and tossed it to Wentworth.

Wentworth opened it and saw that the bag was filled with many bean-like plants.

"I hope you don't tell me you don't know what these are, but judging from your performance in class today, you should recognize them."

Wentworth nodded and answered:

“Of course, Professor Snape, these are Twisty Beans, they can be used to…”

But Wentworth was interrupted by Snape before he could finish speaking.

"I don't need you to tell me what they can do! You weren't even born when I was using them to make potions!"

"Your task tonight is to extract at least 10 grams of their juice. I hope you won't be like the previous idiot who used up an entire bag of Twisty Beans and still couldn't extract anything! You know how to extract it, right?"

Wentworth nodded. Last night, when Cedric was tutoring him, he mentioned Twisty Beans. He said to use a pure silver knife to chop them up little by little. With each cut, juice would flow out, and the juice could accelerate the reaction of many potions.

Seeing Wentworth nod, Snape said nothing more, casually tossed Wentworth a small sterling silver knife, and went about his own business.

Wentworth, holding a knife, looked at the Twisted Beans on the table and thought to himself that it was a good thing Snape hadn't made him brew potions today. Otherwise, knowing nothing about potions, he probably wouldn't have been able to get back to his dorm before curfew.

But Wentworth quickly realized that Snape had promised to teach him how to make potions with a cauldron, but now it seemed he was being used as a laborer!

He'd only made a hotpot with a crucible, was it really necessary to be so angry? Even if he was angry, two days had passed, and his anger hadn't subsided yet? No wonder Lily ultimately chose Potter; what a petty man! Wentworth kept cursing at himself.

Once she got started, Wentworth realized that she had underestimated the job, and that the name "Twisty Bean" was indeed accurate.

The beans in front of me were smooth and hard. When I cut them with my knife, the beans were fine and rolled to the side, but I almost lost my finger.

Wentworth went to great lengths to process a single bean and obtain a few drops of juice, a far cry from the 10-gram mark.

"Mr. Wentworth, are you planning to stay in my office tonight?"

Sometime later, Snape found himself standing behind Wentworth, and a look of disdain crossed Snape's face when he saw Wentworth's behavior.

"I'm going to see Headmaster Dumbledore. Hopefully, you'll be back with one gram of Twisted Bean Juice. Also, use your brain—which's barely better than a troll's!"

After Snape finished speaking, he turned and walked out of his office, leaving Wentworth alone in the dimly lit room.

Seeing Snape leave, Wentworth breathed a sigh of relief. It has to be said that Snape's aura was incredibly strong. Even though Wentworth knew Snape's character, he still felt extremely oppressed.

Wentworth then opened the old textbook with the Half-Blood Prince's name on the first page, and soon found a note next to a potion recipe that required Twisty Beans.

The notes read:

Extracting juice from Twisty Beans is extremely troublesome, but you can forcefully press the beans with the blade of a knife; this will yield more than twice the juice per bean. Because the beans are very hard, you need to cast a power-enhancing spell on your arm beforehand. The spell is as follows…

After reading the notes, Wentworth remarked that perhaps Dumbledore rejected Snape's request to become the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, but insisted on making him the Potions professor, simply because Snape was truly an unparalleled Potions genius.

Looking at the dense notes in the book, interspersed with spells invented by Snape himself, Wentworth's anger at being assigned to hard labor by Snape gradually disappeared.

Well, let's just consider it tuition. After all, the contents of this book are priceless.

Using the methods and spells recorded in the book, Wentworth worked much faster, and soon he had collected 10 grams of Twisty Bean juice, while Snape still had half of the bag of Twisty Beans left.

With his work finished, Wentworth couldn't help but wander around Snape's office. Looking at the cabinet full of glass jars and the disgusting things inside, Wentworth thought that anyone working in this office would probably not be mentally healthy.

"Wentworth, have you given up completely? If so, then I can understand why you use a cauldron to cook, because you are destined to be unworthy of concocting a single potion!"

Suddenly, Snape's voice rang out behind Wentworth, startling him. Wentworth turned around and saw Snape standing in the office doorway, glaring at him with fury.

"Professor Snape, let me explain!"

But before Wentworth could explain, Snape said impatiently:

"Enough said. I don't welcome students like you here! Get out!"

Seeing this, Wentworth simply shut his mouth, walked back to the table, took out the vial of twisted bean juice he had extracted, and waved it in front of Snape's eyes.

For a moment, Snape's office fell silent, the atmosphere somewhat awkward. But Wentworth wasn't the one who felt awkward; if he weren't concerned about his image, he probably would have whistled.

"What, you think you're so great? Anyone can extract that much juice from that big bag of Twisty Beans. You're just pretty fast!"