Hermione didn't sleep well that night.
As soon as she returned to the common room, she eagerly began reading the parchment Mrs. Spett had given her, staying up all night in the process.
The knowledge within was so novel and fascinating that she was completely engrossed, unable to tear herself away.
By the time dawn broke, Hermione had practically memorized every word on the parchment, even trying out some of the techniques in small doses. The mana manipulation recorded there was a bit challenging, but she was confident she could master it before meeting Mrs. Spett again next Monday.
She was determined to surprise her next time they met!
However, despite her excitement, reality hit hard.
After staying up all night, Hermione struggled to focus during the day's lessons. Her eyelids drooped, and everything around her gradually blurred.
She would close her eyes for a few seconds, then fight against her body's need for sleep, forcing herself to open them again and try to look like she was just blinking—though it was more of a long pause, really, and not actual sleep.
Occasionally, Hermione would yawn. Each time, as she expelled a large amount of carbon dioxide, she'd feel a brief moment of clarity before being overtaken by drowsiness again.
Professor Sprout, who was teaching Herbology, noticed Hermione's drowsy state. The usually kind and gentle witch, however, was uncharacteristically irritable today, her expression tinged with anger. The sharp students quickly guessed that it had something to do with the bandage wrapped around her arm.
In fact, just a few hours earlier, Professor Sprout had experienced one of the most terrifying moments of her life!
When Harry and Ron were flying the enchanted car to Hogwarts, it lost power as they approached the castle, preventing them from landing safely on the flat lawn in front of the castle. Instead, they crashed into a large, ancient tree known as the Whomping Willow in the Forbidden Forest.
While the two young wizards were unharmed, the Whomping Willow suffered significant damage, which required Professor Sprout's expertise.
As Hogwarts' resident Herbology master, she was highly skilled in healing plants, even rare ones like the Whomping Willow.
Normally, she would have been able to heal the tree with a few simple spells. Unfortunately, she caught the attention of Gilderoy Lockhart.
Upon learning that the Whomping Willow was a historic and extremely valuable tree, Lockhart immediately approached Professor Sprout, insisting that he accompany her to help heal it.
He proudly claimed that he could solve the Willow's problem in "just a second."
Then...
Sprout made a decision she would regret for the rest of her life: she brought Lockhart along.
At first, Professor Sprout thought Lockhart was a decent person. But as she pressed the Whomping Willow's "pause button" to treat the tree from underneath, Lockhart cast a Reparo charm, which reactivated the Willow.
Before Sprout could even process what had happened, she was flung into the air by the tree.
Had she not been so skilled, she might have met her end under that tree!
After escaping the range of the Whomping Willow's attacks, even the normally kind and patient Professor Sprout couldn't take Lockhart any longer. She angrily scolded him and told him to stay far away from her. Lockhart, without protest, immediately stepped back several paces, but judging by his expression, he had no idea how much trouble he had just caused and was still smiling.
Seeing Lockhart's clueless face nearly made Professor Sprout explode with rage. However, there wasn't much she could do about him.
At most, she could write a complaint letter to Dumbledore, but even that wouldn't achieve much. So, she kept the fury bottled up inside, and even after teaching an entire class, the anger still hadn't subsided.
At that moment, when Professor Sprout noticed Hermione Granger looking like she was about to fall asleep, her anger flared up.
She knew it wasn't right to take out her frustrations on a student, but she couldn't help it—especially since Hermione happened to be in the same house as Lockhart!
"Miss Granger, Miss Granger!" Professor Sprout called several times before Hermione finally responded.
"What did I just say?" Sprout's gaze fell on Hermione's dark circles.
Hermione stammered, "Uh..."
"Five points from Ravenclaw. I was just talking about how Mandrakes can be used to create a powerful restorative potion, which is used to return people who have been transfigured, petrified, or cursed back to their original state."
Hermione lowered her head, trying hard to suppress the urge to yawn.
"Now that summer vacation is over, you need to shake off that sluggishness!" Professor Sprout warned the students before continuing the lesson.
"Oh?"
Rhys noticed Hermione, who was struggling to stay awake and looked like she could doze off at any moment.
After a moment of thought, he took a small bottle from his pocket and used magic to send it flying toward her.
"A potion to help you stay alert. But make sure to get to bed early tonight."
"Thank you," Hermione said, grateful, as she gestured for the bottle to fly into her hand.
Rhys: ?!
What on earth?
Hermione had just used mana manipulation to "pull" the bottle into her hand!
Was it a coincidence, or...?
Rhys stared at Hermione, recalling the crystal ball that Ravenclaw had given to Daphne last term.
After that, the entire Herbology lesson felt dull and uninteresting.
The potion Rhys had given Hermione worked quite well. After drinking it, she felt like she'd just had a large gulp of ice-cold mint lemonade. Her drowsiness vanished instantly, and she didn't yawn for the rest of the class.
After class, Rhys approached Hermione.
"Hermione, about that bottle just now—"
"Thanks for the potion, but I've got to go!" Hermione quickly shoved the empty bottle into Rhys' hand and dashed off.
She hadn't thought much about it; she just wanted to get back and practice controlling her magic. During the Herbology class, she had, as if by instinct, successfully used her magic to pull Rhys' potion bottle into her hand.
A personal breakthrough!
Now she wanted to take advantage of the momentum and practice more back at the castle.
Though he didn't get much out of the brief conversation, Rhys had a strong sense that he was onto something.
Rhys' mood lifted as he thought to himself, So, the old woman is making moves again... This pleasant feeling lasted until that afternoon's Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
Lockhart, after giving a long-winded introduction to the students from Slytherin and Ravenclaw, pulled out a stack of papers from beneath the podium.
"Before we start today's lesson, I'd like to begin with a little quiz. Don't worry, it's just to see where your knowledge level is at," he said as he handed out the papers.
Hearing that Lockhart wanted to begin with a pre-lesson quiz, Rhys perked up. This is actually a brilliant teaching method—an efficient way to assess the students' abilities so that lessons can be tailored to their needs. Could it be that...
However...
The moment Rhys saw the first question on the paper, he immediately felt like the world had gone dark.
The first question on the quiz read:
1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?
__________
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