I Was So Foolish Back Then

Witchers really did exist, and their history was incredibly ancient—ancient enough to be mentioned in the same breath as Merlin.

As for whether there had ever been a Witcher named Geralt among them, Noah had no idea.

At least, Noah had not found that name in the limited information available to him, which left him rather disappointed.

The Three-headed dog was still asleep, but it was already showing signs of waking. Noah was not about to wait for it to wake up and then go through the trouble of dealing with it.

It might have looked impressive, but it was also incredibly stupid. Why make things flashy when they could be handled easily?

"Drowsiness!"

Noah's wand immediately gave off threads of silver light, and his magic flowed through it directly into the Three-headed dog's brain.

The creature that had just begun to wake up immediately fell back into a deep sleep, even letting out a series of snores.

"See? It's that simple."

After taking care of everything, Noah shrugged at the still-dazed Harry and Ron, then patted them. "Wake up, guys. Shouldn't you move this thing's legs? They're blocking the door."

"Huh?" Harry and Ron snapped back to their senses, but Ron quickly muttered in dissatisfaction, "Why do we have to move its legs?"

"Were we supposed to expect you two to do anything else?" Noah glanced at Ron indifferently. "Like waking it up and having you deal with it?"

"But—"

"Fine, fine, I get it."

Looking at the terrifying giant dog, Ron swallowed and instantly lost all interest in arguing with Noah.

Wake it up, then have him and Harry deal with it? What a joke. He and Harry were not monsters like those people who seemed to know everything, much less someone like Noah, who had even mastered spells suspected to be Dark magic!

So they could only obediently do as they were told. It had to be said that the giant dog was truly filthy. No wonder it smelled so awful.

Harry and Ron seemed to understand why Noah had not wanted to do it himself. He simply did not want to touch the dog!

"This is absolutely awful! If I could, I'd give it a bubble bath. At least then it wouldn't smell so bad."

Ron complained as he shifted the Three-headed dog's leg.

Though the dog was heavy, its legs were not as difficult to move as they had imagined. Before long, the two of them had pushed its legs aside, revealing a wooden door that looked like the entrance to a basement.

When they opened the wooden door, the inside was pitch-black. They could not see what was down there at all.

Harry found this troubling, but he quickly decided to go down first and take a look. Noah and the others had already dealt with the Three-headed dog; he did not want to have done nothing himself.

"I'll go down and take a look first. If there's a problem, I can warn you."

"There's actually no need—"

"No, leave this to me!"

"Uh, suit yourself."

Seeing Harry's unusually stubborn attitude, Noah rubbed his chin and finally nodded carelessly.

The bottom was full of Devil's Snare. Jumping down from here would not be a problem, but anyone unfamiliar with Devil's Snare's traits would be in serious trouble.

But since Harry insisted, Noah could not be bothered to stop him.

If he liked face-checking the bushes, then off he went. Noah was not his babysitter; why would he take care of him in every possible way?

Even Dumbledore did not take care of him in every possible way, did he?

"Will he be all right, Noah? He's just jumping down like that?" Hermione asked worriedly as she watched Harry's actions.

"He should be fine, but if I were him, I'd cast an illumination spell down there first. At least then I could see what was happening instead of—"

"Oh! Damn it!"

Noah spread his hands, but before he could finish speaking, a scream came from below.

Ron immediately wanted to jump down after him, while Kate and the others walked over to see what had happened underneath.

"Lumos."

Evan crouched at the edge of the opening, pulled out his wand, and cast a spell downward.

The tip of his wand immediately lit up, and the glow grew brighter and brighter. Soon, they could clearly see what was happening below.

Harry was sitting painfully on a patch of Devil's Snare, already completely entangled by it!

He could not move at all, and the more he struggled, the tighter it wrapped around him. He seemed to be suffocating.

"Seriously, Harry, if I were you, I absolutely wouldn't move. I'd slowly relax instead. Good God, this is Devil's Snare. Didn't you listen in class?" Evan was left rather speechless by the sight.

"Relax? Damn your relaxing! Can't you see this thing is about to kill Harry?" Ron became extremely agitated at Evan's words. As far as he was concerned, how could someone relax when they were about to die?

"Looks like you're an idiot too. Forget it, I can't be bothered talking to you. You knew it was dark down there, yet you didn't even know to use an illumination spell. You really aren't afraid of dying." Evan glanced at Ron, immediately losing interest.

Just then, Hermione pulled out her wand, and magic quickly gathered around it.

After training for so long, her magic had steadily improved. She was far stronger now than she had been in the original story.

"Bright as Day!"

As she spoke the incantation, brilliant sunlight-like radiance instantly burst forth.

The Devil's Snare wrapped around Harry, which had nearly killed him, scattered as though it had encountered its natural enemy. In an instant, an empty patch appeared amid the Devil's Snare below, and Harry fell to the ground.

"Devil's Snare is also called the killing net. The harder you struggle, the more it will try to kill you! If you relax, it won't harm you too much. And Devil's Snare fears sunlight. This is all basic Herbology knowledge."

Hermione explained calmly as she quietly put away her wand.

To her, these really were the most basic things. Knowing them was nothing to be proud of. As for whether Ron and the others listened, that was none of her concern.

She could sense that the so-called The Boy Who Lived and his friends really were quite far behind Noah and the others.

She even began to wonder whether this so-called The Boy Who Lived was nothing but a lie.

Of course, Hermione was not foolish enough to say such things aloud.

Whether it was a lie had nothing to do with her, not even in the slightest. She was just a student, and all she needed to do was study new knowledge properly.

The rest truly had nothing to do with her. Even if it did, that was a matter for the future.

"It seems I really was foolish back then. I really should have listened to the Sorting Hat's advice and gone to Ravenclaw."