An intense battle of wits began through the gazes exchanged between the two.
While listening to the lesson, Tucker questioned Aine with his blue eyes: What are you doing?
Aine, also listening to the lesson, answered Tucker with his green eyes: Nothing~ I’m listening to the lesson!
Tucker glanced at the spot where the Night Flower essence had been smeared, then looked at Aine : You did this?
Aine shook his head and looked at Tucker: I didn’t do it.
I just smelled the scent of Night Flower essence and got curious~ so I touched it.
Tucker narrowed his eyes and glared fiercely at Aine : It was definitely you!
Aine narrowed his eyes as well and glared fiercely at Tucker: No!
I didn’t do it!
The two continued communicating through their eyes while listening to the lesson and following Professor Sprout’s instructions to carry out the procedures.
Their ability to do three things at once initially went unnoticed, but when Professor Sprout realized that the two were operating skillfully without even looking at what they were doing, they went from being unknown first-years from two different houses to the center of everyone’s attention.
It could be said that the two became the stars of the lesson.
The moment they finished working together, they stood across the table with their arms crossed, glaring fiercely at each other.
Then they noticed that the surroundings had become strangely quiet and looked around at the same time, realizing that they had become the center of attention.
The two pointed at each other simultaneously and shouted in unison, “It’s all your fault!!!”
The two were then kept behind by Professor Sprout to clean the greenhouse.
Professor Sprout had clearly seen through Aine’s plan.
After all, with an Ambrosius joining her house, she would naturally pay some attention to him.
The scent of the Night Flower essence Aine had brought could effectively soothe the plants they had been studying in class, the Moonshadow Shrub, causing it to display a breathtaking moon-white glow.
Although Aine and Tucker had not made a sound, their completely unabashed eye contact had prompted Professor Sprout to make them stay behind and clean the greenhouse together, so that they could understand the consequences of ignoring their professor during class.
Being punished together was the friendship method Aine had come up with, but it only worked on geniuses like Tucker.
Normally, when you tried to interact with someone like that, they would simply ignore you.
After Professor Sprout left, Aine openly extended his right hand.
My name is Aine Ambrosius.”
Tucker Rhine, who had received a good family education, also extended his hand and shook Aine’s firmly.
“My name is Tucker Rhine!
You did that on purpose during class!!!”
Aine looked completely innocent.
“What did I do on purpose?”
Tucker placed his robe on the table.
“Smell it!
Wasn’t it you who put this Sunburst Flower essence on it?!”
Aine finally realized what he meant.
“Didn’t the Sunburst Flower essence get on your robe when you were brewing your own potion?!”
Aine continued, “Have you met me before?
Or do you think I have some grudge against you?”
Tucker also calmed down and smelled the spot Aine had touched.
The scent of Night Flower essence?
Then Tucker looked at Aine.
“You were the one who smeared the Night Flower essence on it?”
Aine nodded.
After seeing Aine nod, Tucker thought back to whether he had offended anyone recently.
The two finished cleaning the greenhouse with completely baffled expressions, and by the time they left, they had officially become friends.
After parting with Tucker, Aine did not return to the dormitory immediately.
Instead, he headed to the Hogwarts library.
If you think the Hogwarts library was only as large as the one shown in the movies, then you would be mistaken.
How could a magical school that had existed for more than a thousand years possibly have only a few hundred books and a single Restricted Section? This story is hosted at g.com.
The library was divided into two main parts.
One was the regular library, which housed both basic and advanced books.
The other was the special library, which occupied a separate small room.
This special library was the Restricted Section.
The regular library alone was as large as three Great Halls, and its three-story open vertical structure was enough to rival the libraries of some pure-blood wizarding families that had existed for thousands of years.
After speaking with Madam Irma Pince, Aine learned that the regular library contained as many as three hundred thousand books.
Many of them were unique copies, so they had to be preserved with great care.
Some books were so ancient that they had already been subjected to large numbers of preservation spells.
As a result, their properties had become too powerful for young students to handle, so they had been placed in the Restricted Section.
After learning this, Aine understood why ordinary students were forbidden from entering the Restricted Section.
The books inside had already become living books through the passage of time and the effects of magic.
They were true magical books rather than mere books that recorded magic.
After all, the common knowledge of the modern magical world was that the older something was, the more dangerous it was.
In the library, Aine discovered books that did not exist among his family’s collection, particularly books introducing Ancient Runes and books discussing the properties of potion ingredients.
For Aine, these two types of books were currently the most important.
One would allow him to understand the history of the evolution of spells in the magical world, while the other could help him develop new recipes.
Unlike Aine, who had gone to the library, Tucker returned to the Ravenclaw common room and used his improved Tracking Charm to find the culprit who had smeared Sunburst Flower essence on his robes.
It was a second-year student who was jealous of his talent for brewing potions.
When Sunburst Flower essence was mixed with Moonshadow Shrub on its own, it would cause a wizard to hallucinate and experience a certain degree of magical instability.
If Aine had not also smeared Night Flower essence onto Tucker’s robes, neutralizing the Sunburst Flower essence and preventing the original accident, Tucker might have lost a large number of house points and been ostracized by the entire house.
However, when Tucker publicly revealed what had happened in the common room, it was the second-year student who ended up being ostracized instead.
After all, this was Ravenclaw, not Slytherin!