Although John did not currently have much direct interaction with Harry Potter, Neville’s experience today made him realize something.
Since he existed within Harry Potter’s story, did that mean certain events from the plot had already begun?
Would he end up getting dragged into Harry Potter’s various crises in the future?
It was not impossible.
After all, danger always seemed to gather around the protagonist.
The protagonist could always turn danger into safety, but a side character like him might not be so lucky.
Still, with the greatest wizard of the century watching over Hogwarts, nothing truly terrible should happen…
right?
Maybe they would just turn into exciting adventure stories.
Forget it.
After confirming Neville was fine and hearing that he planned to return to his dormitory to change clothes, they stopped chatting and continued toward the Great Hall for lunch.
There, John noticed that Harry Potter looked just as worried as Neville had earlier.
A boy and a girl were sitting beside him talking to him.
However, John paid little attention to it.
He simply returned to the Ravenclaw table and started eating.
With Titus around, their table was always lively.
After lunch, they decided to head back for a nap since they only had one class in the afternoon, and it did not begin until three o’clock.
“Hmm?
Why are you still here?” After lunch, John and the others headed back together.
It was only after reaching Ravenclaw Tower that John suddenly noticed Titus beside him and asked in surprise.
“What do you mean, ‘why am I still here’?” Titus looked equally confused by the question.
“Don’t you need to go back to Hufflepuff?” “…Oh, right.
I forgot.
I’ll head back now.” Titus froze for a moment before slapping his forehead and quickly turning around.
He had almost started thinking of himself as a Ravenclaw student already.
Although visiting other Houses was not a problem, he had not brought his Potions textbook for the afternoon lesson and still needed to return to his dormitory to get it.
However, just as John and the others climbed a few steps up the tower staircase, Titus’s terrified screams suddenly echoed from below, along with frantic running noises.
“Ahhh!
Help!
Stop chasing me!” Hearing Titus shouting like that, John thought Dementors had somehow attacked Hogwarts and immediately rushed downstairs to check.
When he reached the bottom, he discovered Titus being chased by a fat rat, while behind the rat was a flat-faced orange cat.
John looked at the scene speechlessly.
Fine, being afraid of rats was one thing, but getting chased by one?
He calmly walked forward, passed the frantically fleeing Titus, then delivered a powerful kick straight at the fat rat.
The rat let out a shrill squeak as it was launched directly out the window, flying from the fifth-floor corridor and disappearing completely.
The flat-faced orange cat chasing after it also stopped and tilted its head at John.
Its expression practically seemed to say: You kicked away my prey, so what am I supposed to eat now?
“Sorry, kitty.
I kicked away your lunch.
Here, take this instead.” John crouched down in front of Crookshanks and rubbed its head before pulling a paper bag from his pocket.
Inside were two sandwiches he had planned to eat after his nap.
He removed the bacon from one sandwich and tossed it toward the orange cat.
To John’s surprise, Crookshanks immediately jumped onto his lap, bit down on the entire paper bag, and carried away both sandwiches at once.
Huh?
Since when were cats so shameless?
Watching his food get stolen by a cat, John could only laugh helplessly.
Meanwhile, the lone strip of bacon remained on the floor as though mocking him, as if the cat had tossed him a bit of charity instead.
After cleaning up the crumbs on the ground, John turned back toward Titus and the others.
Ryan and Ethan were laughing nonstop at Titus for being chased around by a rat.
Titus himself still looked frightened.
He explained that he had encountered the rat while turning a corner, and it had suddenly leapt onto his clothes, nearly scaring him to death.
He had shaken it off with great effort, but after falling to the ground, the rat had started chasing him like it had gone mad.
The whole thing truly broadened John’s horizons.
A rat daring to chase people around in broad daylight was ridiculous.
John could not help wondering whether Hogwarts allowed students to keep cats and owls mainly to control the rat population.
It actually sounded fairly reasonable.
…
John truly could not understand it.
Potions was a practical subject.
Brewing potions produced large amounts of smoke and strange smells, almost like boiling traditional herbal medicine.
So why was the classroom placed in a windowless underground dungeon, with ventilation relying entirely on a single tiny window near the top of the wall and illumination provided by only a few candelabras?
Were they not worried about students suffocating down there?
When afternoon Potions class began, John sat in the classroom with a completely speechless expression as he observed the environment around him.
The dim and cramped dungeon classroom was packed with Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students.
Cabinets along the walls were filled with jars of murky yellow liquid that seemed to contain preserved animal organs.
At the front of the room, a cauldron continuously released thick smoke, filling the entire dungeon with an unpleasant smell.
After catching that familiar scent in the air, John finally realized where the smell on Professor Snape during his home visit had come from.
Bang.
The classroom door was suddenly shoved open roughly.
Professor Snape, dressed in flowing black robes, strode quickly onto the platform.
“Turn to page three of your textbooks.
Now.” Like Professor Binns, he skipped all introductions and immediately began teaching.
However, unlike Professor Binns’s dullness, Professor Snape carried an overwhelming sense of sharp efficiency.
John obediently lowered his head and flipped through the textbook while desperately thinking to himself: He can’t see me.
He can’t see me.
John had originally planned to return the Hogwarts history book to Professor Snape once he arrived at school, but he still had not done so.
He did not want Snape recognizing him and being reminded of the book.
Mostly because yesterday and today had been adjustment periods, so the matter had slipped his mind.
And partly because he was lazy.
“Who can tell me how to distinguish between puffer-fish eyes and dried nettles?” Professor Snape stood at the front of the classroom, speaking slowly as though nobody else existed.
The moment the question was asked, John looked up with a puzzled expression.
One was a fish eye, and the other was a herb.
What exactly was there to distinguish?
However, even though Professor Snape appeared to be reading from a book, it was as if he had eyes beneath it.
The instant John revealed a questioning expression, Snape spoke slowly.
“Mr.
Merrick.” “If you are questioning my class, you may leave my classroom immediately.” Professor Snape’s voice was low and cold, instantly drawing everyone’s attention toward John.
Snape lowered the book in his hand and slowly walked over to John’s desk, looking down at him.
Just as he had done during his visit to John’s home.
Without even pulling out his wand, Professor Snape casually waved his hand.
Two jars containing potion ingredients flew onto John’s desk.
Then two small piles of brown granular powder floated out from the jars and landed before him.
At first glance, they looked almost identical, like two piles of cumin powder.
Not to mention identifying dried nettles, John could not even tell which pile was the puffer-fish eyes.
John immediately understood.
These ingredients had likely been dried and ground into powder, similar to certain herbal medicines.
Because they looked so alike and were easy to confuse, Professor Snape had deliberately asked the question.
“Now, tell me which is puffer-fish eyes, and which is dried nettles.” Professor Snape snapped John’s textbook shut before slowly leaning closer, speaking word by word.
Combined with his cold expression and oppressive presence, the pressure was immediate and overwhelming.
Ryan and the others sitting beside John had already begun sweating nervously.