"Yeah, the books he reads are really profound and complicated, and it has always been like this." Harry continued to say, "Evan and Hermione are the best young wizards I have ever met."
"Harry, this is not a good thing. Don't you understand still?!" Ron looked around, lowering his voice and eagerly saying, "Evan and Hermione are different, although I don't understand how Hermione can have so many classes at the same time, at least we know what she is doing, but Evan reads those magic books…"
"What do you want to say?" Harry looked away from the parchment.
"I mean, the magic books that Evan looks at are all in the Restricted Section. He must be studying something behind our backs. I peeked at his research notes the other day, and there were some terrible patterns on them, which didn't look like any decent magic." Ron hesitantly said, "Harry, he might be studying…"
Harry looked up at Ron in surprise, and he finally knew what he wanted to say.
Neither of them spoke and a terrible feeling of uneasiness took over.
From Ron's expression, he was obviously suspecting that Evan was studying BLACK MAGIC.
Harry instinctively wanted to refute that possibility, but didn't know what to say. Evan had always given an impression of omniscience. He knew a lot about magic. After Ron was controlled by the Imperius Curse, it was also Evan who first discovered it. If Evan hadn't studied it, how could he know about such an evil black magic?!
But Evan studying black magic was something that Harry just couldn't believe. In his mind, black magic was extremely evil, and it should be absolutely prohibited. Those who study black magic are also Dark wizards like Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew.
They were ruthless, cold and emotionless, and Evan couldn't be such a person.
But Harry couldn't refute Ron's remarks. The idea that Evan was studying the Dark Arts was like a big rock pressing down on Harry's heart, making him breathless. He felt a panic he had never felt before.
"Maybe, he just wants to know…" Harry said softly.
His voice was very low. He did not want anyone to know about his conversation with Ron.
"Harry, this is not a joke. I've been controlled by mysterious people, and I know that feeling. Dark Arts should be absolutely banned." Ron also lowered his voice and said, "We must take action."
"What do you want to do?"
"I don't know, but at the very least, we need to understand what Evan is doing." Ron continued, "If he's really studying the Dark Arts, we can tell other people about it and make sure they know what he really is. For example, Dumbledore or Sirius, they would never allow Evan to do such a thing. They will help us."
There was a short silence. Ron saw that Harry was obviously hesitating. Strange emotions re-emerged in Ron's body. After guessing that Evan was studying the Dark Arts, he had a brief feeling of surprise, followed by a strong sense of injustice.
He remembered the eyes of the others looking at him, and the rumours in the school.
Ron felt that was very unfair. He was only innocently controlled twice by the Imperius Curse. He was also a victim. But the others looked into his eyes, with evident distrust, as if he had really wanted to do those bad things.
Evan was studying black magic, which was eviller than the things he did. But no one said anything about him. On the contrary, many people worshiped him as a hero, and Evan was becoming even more famous in school than Harry.
In Ron's opinion, all of them were being deceived by Evan.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that everyone was blinded by the appearance of Evan. So was Harry, Hermione, his family and others.
Everyone believed in Evan, but he betrayed everyone's trust. He was studying black magic behind their backs. He was doing something very evil on the sly.
A strong sense of responsibility rose deep in Ron's heart, and he felt obliged to reveal Evan's true colours and stop the ongoing plot. The strange feeling that appeared at the Quidditch pitch a few months ago was also the main reason that prompted Ron to do this.
"Harry, we…"
"I know what you mean, Ron, but I believe in Evan. There is no evidence that he is working on the dark arts. He can't borrow those magic books from the Restricted Section without the permission of a professor and the Headmaster." Harry thought for a moment and continued to persuade, "Evan is not the same as those Dark wizards. Even if he is studying black magic, he just wants knowledge. I believe in him!"
"But…"
"If you don't feel at ease, we can talk to Evan. Whatever he is doing, he will certainly tell us."
"Ask him if he is doing evil black magic research, and who he's going to sacrifice. That's an interesting topic," Ron whispered.
The atmosphere was awkward. Both of them did not talk about it anymore, but the seeds of distrust slowly grew invisibly and sprouted.
Harry and Ron didn't go to the library to disturb Evan, or dare to disturb Hermione, who seemed a little irritable, and they both ended up asking Sirius to help them finish their paper on the Undetectable Poisons.
Although Potions was not Sirius's forte, the third-year assignment was too simple for him. He gave Harry and Ron a lot of useful advice.
To be fair, with the help of Sirius, Harry's paper should at least be good enough, but Snape gave him a bad appraisal. Harry didn't care. He had expected such a result.
As long as he had a good relationship with Sirius, his after-school assignments and the Potions he made would never be appreciated by Snape.
Evan was probably the only exception, because he had studied all of Snape's layouts and the magic potions required for the second-year wizards, and had come up with the best recipes and cooking methods. Even if Snape was seeking faults, he wouldn't find them.
Snape tried several times and even asked Evan to complete an Ordinary Wizarding Level exam before dealing with difficult potions.
But Evan could finish it smoothly every time, and the process was more perfect than the textbooks.
As he grew gloomier and more frightening to the other students, Snape's attitude toward Evan returned to its former state of indifference.
When he had to shout his name, he used "Mr. Know it All" instead.
In the Potions class, Evan was the only Gryffindor student who could get Snape to refrain from criticizing him or deducting points, which made others envy him.