The days at Hogwarts

Thinking of what happened to Longbottom's parents, Hermione put away her joking thoughts and sighed sadly: "Neville will be very happy if Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom can get better."

Perhaps Neville could also be less heavy and be able to chase and fight with others freely, just like the two people in front who are gradually running away.

……

In late May, the flavor of summer becomes stronger, bluebells bloom more vigorously, and the blue-purple flowers are bright and dazzling under the sunlight.

Loren did not tell Neville about his treatment of the Longbottoms. He did not want to give anyone false hope.

Neville still pointed his wand at his heart and chanted spells every day at sunrise and sunset, but he could not hear a second heartbeat.

As the end of the semester approached, Harry and Ron became diligent and even brought their History of Magic textbooks with them when they played wizard chess.

Hermione began to act mysteriously again, often running to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and coming back smelling of white fresh essence.

Loren had a vague idea of ​​what she was doing, but he didn't say it outright.

In the past two weeks, he has perfected the idea of ​​adding Rafflesia and Leopard Flower to the Wolfsbane Potion. Snape has verified the theory and the idea is feasible. It takes a month to ferment the concentrated extracts of several flowers, so there is no way to conduct experimental verification now.

Loren didn't want to spend time reviewing and was left alone with nothing to do.

Reading newspapers, story books, joke books... time just passes by little by little.

There were only three days left until their first exam, and during breakfast, Professor McGonagall made an announcement.

"I have good news for you all," she said, and instead of the auditorium becoming quiet, it became noisy.

"The final exams are cancelled!" George and Fred shouted happily.

"The dinner will be tonight and we'll have the holiday tomorrow!" a boy at the Hufflepuff table shouted excitedly.

When the noise died down, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout told me that the mandrakes are finally ready to be harvested. Tonight, we will be able to wake up the petrified people. I hereby declare that this terrible year will come to a successful end."

Everyone burst into loud cheers, and the auditorium was filled with joy, even the anxiety of the end of the semester was diluted.

Loren held the table knife in his hand and asked thoughtfully, "Do you think they need to take the final exam now that they wake up?"

Ron didn't have time to swallow the bacon in his mouth, his eyes suddenly widened: "You are so cruel, Loren!"

A smile played on Hermione's lips.

Harry slapped the table happily. "Great! Poor Colin is finally waking up. Merlin is my witness. I'll give him a hundred autographed photos even if he asks me for them."

"autograph?"

Snape came over at some point and said sarcastically, "The famous Potter is going to hand out autographed photos again. Do you want me to notify everyone to line up?"

Harry and Ron looked at each other and thought to themselves that this was bad. Harry already had experience dealing with Snape, so he lowered his head silently.

Loren felt that the air around him was a little stagnant, so he smiled and came out to ease the atmosphere: "Professor, what do you want to talk to us about?"

Seeing Harry lower his head, Snape felt that it was pointless to make things difficult for him, and turned his gaze to Loren: "Come to my office after breakfast. You can learn something from the process of preparing mandrake into potions."

"Okay, professor." Loren nodded obediently.

"Also," he raised his voice slightly and sneered, "the medicine will be delivered to the school clinic at eleven o'clock. If some people want to hand out autographed photos, they can prepare them in advance."

After saying this, Snape flicked the back of his robe and left without looking back.

Ron looked at his back and scratched his head. "Am I still asleep? I feel like the old bat's last words are a reminder for us to go to the school infirmary and wait for Colin to wake up."

"Maybe they really want me to prepare an autographed photo." Harry took a sip of the milk in the cup. He would rather believe that this cold joke was the truth.

"Are you going to the school infirmary? I have other things to do in the morning and can't go." Hermione turned her head and asked them.

Harry nodded without hesitation and said, "Colin was injured because he went to the school infirmary to see me. If he wakes up and sees me first, he will probably be very happy."

"Oh no—" Ron frowned, "I don't want to go to the school hospital. I'd better go back to the lounge and read a book. Maybe I can do one more question in the exam."

Harry looked at his other friend hopefully, "What about you, Loren?"

Loren shook his head: "You should go by yourself. Colin and I are not familiar with each other. After watching the configuration process of Mandrake, I will go back to the lounge."

Harry made a grimace and sighed, "Well, it looks like I'm the only one."

……

When Loren was eating breakfast and leisurely rushing to Snape's office, he happened to catch up with Professor Sprout delivering the harvested mandrakes. The mandrakes cut with branches lay quietly on the table, with some fine soil.

"Good morning, Professor Snape, Professor Sprout." Loren went over and greeted them one by one.

Snape hummed coldly, and Professor Sprout nodded to him.

Professor Sprout looked around at the bottles and jars in the office and couldn't help rubbing his arms: "Then I'll go back first, Severus. I have to say that it's too cold here, and there's no sunlight at all."

Snape didn't react and said calmly, "A dark and cold environment helps preserve the medicinal materials."

"I couldn't stand it..." Sprout muttered as he walked away.

The sound of the door closing was heard, and for some reason, Loren and Snape both felt a lot more at ease.

Snape led Loren to the storage room inside the room. "The effect of Mandrake in removing petrification comes from its unique magic. It is different from those potions with complicated formulas. We only need to maximize its magic."

The other auxiliary materials needed have been prepared on the operating table. They are basically pure substances, such as dew illuminated by moonlight, the first snow of last year, and clear transparent crystal...

Snape lit the fire, melted the crystal in the crucible, and slowly added other substances: "Many potions use this idea, simple, pure, but very effective."

"... bezoar antidote, the essence of rue is the same..." Snape's movements were calm, and even revealed a kind of craftsmanlike beauty, as if what he was brewing was not a potion, but some kind of work of art.

"The design idea of ​​the resurrection potion is the same as this. It uses the two-horned beast, two-eared grass and the Philosopher's Stone as the cornerstones, and adds other auxiliary ingredients to maximize the magic of replacement, so as to -" Snape said loudly, "defeat death!"

Loren pursed his lips and didn't burst Snape's fantasy. According to Flamel, no matter how correct Snape's thinking was, he couldn't fully understand death, and the resurrection potion was just a mirage.

It didn't take long to brew the potion, and it was completed in less than half an hour. If it wasn't for explaining it to Loren, the speed would have been even faster.

Coming out of the basement office, Loren delivered the medicine to the school clinic on the way.

The bedside was lined with a grand ceremony, including the headmaster and the deputy headmaster. Dumbledore stood solemnly beside the bed, the light in his eyes was obscure, and Professor McGonagall stood beside Madam Pomfrey, watching her pack the potion.

Harry stood there stupidly. He was a little surprised to see Loren coming. When he realized what was happening, a look of joy flashed across his face. He winked at him and signaled him to stay with him.

"?"

Loren's eyes were blank. After asking a few professors, he prepared to leave.

"Loren! Loren! Stay with me!"

Harry shouted in a low voice with all his strength, his eyebrows, eyes and nose were twisted into a ball, and his mouth was a little crooked.

Loren frowned, looked around, and muttered to himself in a voice that Harry could hear: "Strange, why do I seem to hear someone calling me."

Harry looked at Loren walking away with a look of despair. If he hadn't seen the smile on Professor McGonagall's lips, he would have almost thought that he had put on the invisibility cloak by mistake.

……

Gryffindor common room.

"Loren! You've thrown away our friendship!"

Harry sat down angrily, causing the sofa to shake, making it impossible for Loren to concentrate on reading the joke book in his hand.

"Well—" Loren groaned, "I can pick it up."

Harry was so angry that he grabbed his joke book and wanted to teach him a lesson.

"Stop it, stop it." Loren put down his book with a smile and asked seriously, "How is the situation in the school clinic? Do they still have the final exam?"

Ron looked over curiously.

"Of course not. They have been petrified for too long and need to be observed in the school infirmary for a week."

Harry poured a cup of tea on the table. "Colin just woke up and screamed for the camera, saying that he took a picture of the monster. We explained for a long time before he figured out what happened. After listening, he clamored for the camera again and really wanted my autographed photo. Justin wanted to apologize to me, saying that he shouldn't have doubted that I was the heir of Slytherin."

Harry drank a cup in one gulp and took a breath. "Then it's none of my business. Dumbledore said he would be responsible for the attacks on Colin and Justin. He also said he would visit their parents during the holidays to discuss how to make compensation."

Ron asked in confusion: "How can this be Dumbledore's responsibility? He didn't know Voldemort would get involved with Crabbe."

"I thought so too." Harry nodded.

"really weird……"

Loren had a calm expression and raised the joke book again, but his eyes were distant, as if he was not reading the jokes in the book, but looking somewhere else through the paper.

……

June st.

Loren sat in the Transfiguration classroom, concentrating on answering questions seriously. The silver-threaded feather pen left neat handwriting on the paper, which was neater than any homework in the past year.

The main content of the Transfiguration test is about the Vanishing Spell. The teaching reform for the second grade deleted some of the content, and the test question types were also adjusted. The overall difficulty has become lower, and it tests the young wizards' control over the correlation between knowledge points.

The situation is similar for exams in other subjects, except for Potions.

Deleting some of the teaching content made Snape pay more attention to the details of the examination. He wanted to test the formula, preparation method and preservation method of the potion.

As expected, the focus of the herbology exam was on mandrake. Professor Sprout asked questions from various aspects, including its growth cycle, habits at each stage, and medicinal value after maturity. More than half of the entire paper was about mandrake.

The practical test at the second-year level was no problem at all for Loren and the others. Whether it was turning a rabbit into fur slippers or using a freezing spell to condense an intricately shaped sculpture in a water tank, they got full marks from the professor without much effort.

The difficulty of the Potions Practical Exam lies in enduring Snape's cold gaze, not in brewing the swelling potion.

As in previous years, the last subject was the History of Magic exam, and when Professor Binns' ghost asked them to put down their quills and roll up the parchment with their answers, all the little wizards in the classroom cheered.

The little wizards could not wait to rush out of the hallway, across the lawn, and run back and forth by the lake. In just a few minutes, the naughty boys were already fighting with the tentacles of the giant squid, stirring up waves and startling the girls to scream.

Hermione took Loren to a secluded place to sit down and breathed a sigh of relief: "I feel relieved all of a sudden. I was always worried that I would fail the exam if I neglected my review."

Loren looked at her expression quietly, thought for a while and said, "Yes, the questions are very simple, except that Professor Flitwick's test paper is a bit novel. You have to use the universal deciphering spell on the test paper to see the other half of the question."

Pretending not to notice the little witch's gradually stagnant expression, he sighed with emotion: "There must be a lot of people who didn't notice it. Tsk tsk, someone is going to be in trouble."

Hermione turned her head stiffly and stammered, "Really? I, I didn't notice it either!"

"I knew it wasn't that simple..." The little witch's voice was a little broken.

"Haha! I was kidding!"

"Loren Morgan!"

"Hey, let go! Let go now!"

……

After a struggle, Hermione supported herself with her hands, facing the tree above her head, with a happy smile on her face.

Loren couldn't help but look at her exposed arms, which were as white as jade and had slender bones. "Why are you so strong?"

"What are you mumbling about?"

"nothing."

"Hehe, I've told you many times not to tease me anymore."

"I didn't agree."

Hermione didn't want to deal with this man.

The weather was a bit hot and humid, and the cool breeze blowing from the Black Lake made the two of them close their eyes.

"Don't you think the clouds over there are a bit thick?"

"It is going to rain."

Chapter 259 After the Early Summer Rain

boom!

Clang!

There was a roar of thunder and heavy rain.

The rain poured down on the ancient outer walls of Hogwarts Castle like a column. Large streams of water flowed down the cracks in the stones, and the heavy water droplets hit the leaves of the Whomping Willow, making dense and loud snapping sounds.

Moist water vapor flowed freely through the corridors of the castle, gathering into a cool breeze, making the pages of parchment books rustle.

The little wizards of Gryffindor were reluctant to close the windows, letting the noisy sound of the rain echo. Everyone spoke at the top of their lungs. They cheered and shouted loudly, as joyful as the wind and rain tonight.

"Crackling Explosion Cards! We are three and one short. Is anyone coming?!"

"Count me in!"

"Where are my slippers? Someone kicked my slippers away!"

"Don't wear any more clothes, just go barefoot!"

"General!"