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Chapter 1300: Hermione's Question
🕑 Added 2024-11-20 21:42:39 +0000 UTCBy the time Hermione's potion had finally turned pink, Harry's was already like clear water.
“And time’s ... up!” called Slughorn. “Stop stirring, please!"
He moved slowly among the tables, peering into cauldrons.
Perhaps because he was not satisfied with the overall results, Slughorn made no comment, but occasionally gave the potions a stir or a sniff, or shook his head in disappointment.
At last he reached the table where Evan, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were sitting.
He first smiled ruefully at the tarlike substance in Ron’s cauldron, then looked at Evan and Hermione's potions with delight.
Both of their potions were now pink, with Evan's being slightly paler and closer to completion.
However, neither of them had fully succeeded; the main issue was an excess of sopophorous bean components.
To speed up the process, both Evan and Hermione had added a few drops of sopophorous bean’s juice in addition to the required slices, which meant their potions needed more time to brew.
"Not bad, really not bad. You two have found the trick and are almost done. The rest is just a matter of time. I think Evan's potion might be slightly closer to completion, so..." said Slughorn approvingly, but his eyes finally fell on Harry's cauldron, and a look of incredulous delight spread over his face, "Wait, what do I see here? The clear winner!"
The whole class turned their heads and followed Slughorn's gaze towards Harry's cauldron.
"Good lord, Harry! Good lord, excellent! It’s clear you’ve inherited your mother’s talent. She was a dab hand at Potions, Lily was!" He shouted to the dungeon, and took out the small bottle of Felix Felicis. "Here you are, then, here you are — one bottle of Felix Felicis, as promised, and use it well!"
Harry slipped the tiny bottle of golden liquid into his inner pocket, feeling an odd combination of delight at the furious looks on the Slytherins’ faces and guilt at the thought he’d won this bottle of Felix Felicis not through his own skill…
…………………………………………………………………………………………….
“Harry, how did you do that?” Ron asked impatiently as soon as they left the dungeon.
When Slughorn had announced Harry as the winner, Ron had been utterly dumbfounded.
Ron knew Harry's usual level in Potions, so he was so surprised.
If it had been Evan or Hermione, he wouldn't have been so shocked.
"Yeah, spill it—what's the deal with you two?" Hermione added, narrowing her eyes and scrutinizing Evan and Harry.
They hid from the crowd and made sure that no one was eavesdropping, then Evan and Harry told the whole story.
It was mainly Harry who spoke, and Evan added a few words.
Evan figured it was better to leave the book's mysterious owner and the identity of the Half-Blood Prince for Harry to uncover on his own.
This matter didn’t affect the bigger picture—it was a private feud between Harry and Snape, and it wouldn’t be wise for others to get involved.
And to be honest, Evan had only skimmed through the book earlier and hadn’t found the signature of the Half-Blood Prince yet.
In the corridor leading to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione’s face became stonier with every word Harry uttered.
“I suppose you think I cheated?” Harry asked, aggravated by her expression.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly your own work, was it?" she said stiffly.
"Why wasn’t it my own work?" Harry asked back in annoyance.
"He only followed different instructions to the book, and apparently the annotations were useful," said Evan.
As soon as he finished speaking, Hermione turned to him angrily.
"The annotations were very useful?! That's a great explanation. I can't believe that you went along with Harry using those unverified, potentially dangerous methods instead of stopping him,” she said. “You know, those notes you’re calling ‘useful’ could also be very dangerous!"
"I don't see any danger in changing the direction of the stirring of the wand," Harry put in. “I was just trying a few tips written in the book’s margins. Hermione, honestly, there’s nothing wrong with that."
"But..." Hermione faltered, looking deflated as if unsure how to counter his point.
Indeed, what danger could there be in simply changing the direction of the wand's stirring?
"Those improvements to the methods of making potions do not seem to be dangerous at the moment," said Evan, gently taking Hermione's hand.
He thought her caution was justified. If he didn’t know the details, he would also have been careful.
And to be fair, the annotations in Snape’s book didn’t just involve improving potion recipes.
In addition, there was some magic that he studied, real Dark magic.
Those things were very dangerous, and if used carelessly, accidents could easily happen.
Therefore, Hermione's worry was absolutely valid.
As for why the Dark magic was recorded in Advanced Potion-Making, it involved another hobby of Snape, or it could be said that most talented wizards were like this, especially Slytherin students. They always had a yearning and desire for powerful Dark magic and conducted research in secret.
In a school like Durmstrang, such behavior was encouraged, not prohibited.
At Hogwarts, students learned Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Starting from the sixth year, professors would also teach some Dark magic knowledge in class or require students to read Dark magic books as an after-school extension supplement.
Only by truly understanding the Dark Arts could one better defend against them and fight against Dark wizards.
With that in mind, understanding Dark magic — without using it for personal ambition — wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
"Seriously, why are we even discussing this? I think that book is brilliant!" Ron sighed. “Slughorn could’ve handed me that book, but no, I get the one no one’s ever written on. Puked on, by the look of page fifty-two, but —"
"You haven't grasped the crux of the matter, Ron." Hermione seemed to have suddenly thought of something and became alert. "The key issue now is that Evan and Harry are believing in a magic book of unknown origin and are following the instructions on it. This behavior is very dangerous. Have you forgotten that diary?"
Ron stopped talking. The incident with Riddle's diary was still fresh in his memory.
He’d been controlled by Riddle to do this and that, releasing the Basilisk and almost killing others.
"That's different!" said Harry quickly.
"I didn’t sense any magical aura from it — it’s just a regular magic book. It couldn’t possibly be something like a Horcrux," said Evan in a low voice, glancing around to ensure no one was listening.
Hermione was right to be vigilant, but the only downside was that she was too persistent.
It was not easy to convince her without providing real evidence or detailed explanation.
