A Sinful Mess!

"Wallerup —sir, let's recall, at the end of the last class, I clearly told everyone present...the next class, which is now, will be about brewing Underwater Visual Potion, remember?" Snape's eyes were cold, and the ends of his greasy hair swept back and forth across Sean's collar.

Because he had almost pressed his face against Sean's.

"Uh, I remember, Professor," Sean replied awkwardly.

"Then can you tell me where the most important ingredient in the Underwater Visual Potion, the fresh eyes of the Rhinoceros Horn Flounder, went?" Snape picked up the empty glass bowl in front of Sean, which should have contained a pair of fresh eyes.

"Maybe, possibly, probably, it... uh, was stolen by someone?" Sean replied guiltily.

Snape sneered, then slammed the glass bowl down hard in front of Sean. "Bang!"

"Yes, yes, let's go ask the others who stole Mr. Wallop's Potions ingredients—" Snape casually picked up a book, moved a chair, and even flipped Sean's Cauldron over. "Was it you, Mr. Book, who followed the wrong master? Was it you, Mr. Chair, who was always being pushed to the ground by idiots? Or was it you, Mr. Cauldron, who will never know the taste of the right Potions?"

This time it wasn't just mockery; Snape was genuinely angry...

The experienced Sean immediately stood up straight and quickly admitted his mistake. "I'm sorry, Professor, I lost it by accident."

Snape raised his head and looked down at him, his voice laced with sarcasm. "Mr. Wallop, aside from your terrible Potions talent and your appalling brewing technique, I thought you at least understood the principle of 'the early bird catches the worm'—and now you can't even keep the ingredients safe? Haven't I told you that carelessness is the greatest enemy of Potions- making?"

"Yes, Professor, I'm sorry." Knowing the old bat's personality well, Sean had no intention of arguing back, but simply bowed his head and admitted his mistake.

Snape gave him a disgusted look, and with a flick of his long sleeve, said, "You'll stand and sit in on this class. Ravenclaw will lose five points. Come back to me for your materials after your weekend detention."

Sean breathed a sigh of relief; at least he still had the ingredients to brew the potion. Rhinoceros flounder eyes weren't hard to come by, but fresh ones were difficult to obtain. The ingredients the students used to brew the Potions were obtained by Snape through personal channels—he probably had a long-standing business relationship with some dealer.

Snape, who had turned to leave, paused, then turned back and added coldly, "If you dare to daydream in class, I will teach you a lesson—don't doubt me, I'll know whether you're paying attention or not when you're brewing the potion."

"Of course, Professor." Sean nodded obediently.

Snape then returned to the podium and began explaining how to prepare the Underwater Visual Potion.

"Sigh..." Sean sighed almost imperceptibly. He moved a little closer to Hermione beside him. He wouldn't be able to get hands-on practice in this class, and could only hope that he would remember the correct steps.

"Karma..." Hermione muttered almost inaudibly, turning her body to the side as if she didn't want to talk to Sean.

"What a mess..." Sean sighed inwardly, no longer daring to provoke Hermione.

It's all the fault of those two bastards Fred and George!

Although last night's little incident was awkward, the atmosphere among the group remained fine afterward—the problem lay with Fred and George.

After the dinner, Sean was planning to find a place to talk to the Aero-Wing Bird, at least to make sure it wouldn't come out of his clothes when there were many people around—during dinner, it suddenly stuck out its head and snatched the fish fillet from Sean's plate, luckily no one saw it.

Hermione went to the library to help him find information, while Daisy accompanied Sean.

They had only gone halfway when they ran into Fred and George, the two mischievous twins who were always eager to stir things up.

The two brothers are currently running a poll, an incredibly stupid poll, which Sean sees as a way for the twins to make money.

The High Mountain Flower of Hogwarts! — That was the title they came up with.

Fred and George collected photos of all the pretty girls from Hogwarts Year 1 to Year 7, and then invited all the faculty and staff to vote for their favorite girl...

What started as just a playful fight between students turned into something unexpected. Fred and George somehow got in touch with the fashion editor of The Witch Weekly, who agreed that the winner would get a small feature in The Witch Weekly.

The boys egged them on, and the girls were vain; Fred and George actually made the event quite a spectacle.

That wasn't all; the twins then introduced a new rule—the voting would last for two weeks, with each person having one vote and faculty members having two votes.

Seemingly a normal vote? No, no, no, the twins directly announced that in this "High Mountain Flower" selection process, the judges have ten votes!

The selection of judges was naturally decided by Fred and George, the organizers... Sponsoring five Silver Sickle grant one the status of a judge—and you could even buy them repeatedly!

"This isn't sponsorship, it's an attitude. Being willing to sponsor Silver Sickle shows this person's sincerity, and such generosity shows he must have an eye for beauty!"

That's what Fred said.

At first, Hermione confidently asserted that only a fool would fall for such a stupid activity—but by the next day, more than twenty fools had already bought judgeships.

Some vain girls ask their friends to buy votes for them, some boys buy votes for the girls they are pursuing, and some rich guys like Malfoy do so—partly to show off, and partly to maintain their image of being generous.

Not long after the voting began, Malfoy bought two hundred votes and cast them for Slytherin's Pansy Parkinson.

The Weasley twins, who have made a fortune, are overjoyed. Lately, whenever they have free time, they take photos of the girls and the ballot box and wander around the castle.

Sean, a wealthy man, was naturally one of their targets for persuasion.

"Sean, aren't you going to vote for the pretty girl next to you?" Fred and George winked at Sean.

"You two have a knack for making money," Sean said, speechless.

Daisy and Hermione were naturally on the list, but neither received many votes. After all, as beautiful as they were, no one wanted to win their favor—they were always inseparable from Sean.

George put his arm around Sean's shoulder and patted the ballot box on his chest, with silvery-white mist swirling around the ballot opening. "Time-limited magic, once it's in, it won't change. The magic will only be lifted after the voting ends—I went to great lengths to get Professor Flitwick to help me with this, all for the sake of fairness and impartiality!"

Sean tapped the panel on Fred's chest, which displayed the vote counts for all the candidates. "One Sickle, two votes. You guys are really ruthless."

Fred raised an eyebrow at him smugly. "Is this for selling tickets? No, it's to prove you have an eye for beauty."

Sean was utterly speechless. He glanced at Daisy beside him, Little White Flower looked perfectly normal and even shook her head at Sean, indicating that he shouldn't waste money.

Sigh, it's like a little girl trying to sell roses on a date. Is it worth it? Definitely not! But should you buy them? You can't escape it...

Sean pulled out two Galleon. Seventeen Silver Sickle were equivalent to one Galleon, so two Galleon were enough to buy sixty tickets with four Silver Sickle left over.

"Here, Daisy has thirty, Hermione has thirty, and the remaining four Sickle for you. Don't come looking for me again."

Fred and George grinned from ear to ear as they pulled out little slips of paper they had prepared beforehand and threw them into the ballot box—the slips were even enchanted, automatically adding thirty votes to the names of Daisy and Hermione after they were thrown in.

"As expected of the generous Mr. Wallop!"

"That's magnanimity, that's vision!"

On the vote count board, Daisy and Hermione's votes have both risen, and they have moved into the top ranks. Little White Flower is in a significant lead, after all, her usual image is more endearing, and she is more popular than Hermione.

Of course, the current top vote-getter is still Pansy Parkinson; Malfoy's financial power is still quite considerable.

Just when Sean thought he could get rid of Fred and George's entanglement peacefully, he unfortunately ran into Snape on his way back to the office after dinner.

Fred and George naturally didn't dare to go up and let Snape vote; they just wanted to make a quick getaway. But Snape walked right over.

Given Snape's personality, Fred and George's ballot boxes would probably be confiscated and they'd each be put in solitary confinement, but Daisy just happened to be there...

As the menacing Snape approached, he noticed Daisy standing to the side. Although his face remained stiff and his expression still gloomy, he swallowed back the words he was about to say.

"Hello, Professor Snape," Daisy greeted softly.

"Hmm," Snape replied stiffly.

He then glanced coldly at the vote count board and said, "Hogwarts doesn't object to students' leisure activities, but if they affect their studies, I will come to find you two personally."

"Of course, Professor!" Fred and George nodded vigorously.

Just when Sean thought the matter was over, Snape suddenly turned to look at him.

"Wallerup, do you understand the Potions you asked me about after the last class?"

Huh? I didn't ask that... Sean was taken aback at first, then he saw Snape's deep eyes.

He could only awkwardly reply, "It's alright, I can barely understand it...?"

"There's no such thing as Potions, only failure and success," Snape said stiffly. "Come to my office after class tomorrow, and I'll demonstrate it for you myself."

Demonstrating, and then casually sending me two bottles of 'useless' Potions to take back and study, right...? Sean suddenly realized.

Damn, this old bat is worried about his image being ruined, so he won't vote and wants me, his tool, to help him.

"Uh, okay, no problem, Professor," he quickly replied.

"Hmm." Snape responded coldly, but he didn't move, only staring indifferently at Sean.

"Does it have to be delivered on the spot?" Sean muttered to himself, then pulled out ten Galleon.

"Fred, give Daisy another three hundred and forty tickets."

"Sean?!" Daisy covered her mouth in surprise.

Fred glanced at Snape, who was frowning, then winked at Sean: "Boss, are you sure?"

"Add more votes." Sean handed over the money directly.

"Alright!" Although Snape was putting a lot of pressure on them, money was more important than anything else. The twins readily accepted the money and then started counting the votes.

Daisy frowned, took Sean's hand, and whispered, "Isn't that a bit much, Sean?"

Don't grab my hand, don't grab my hand, that old bat Snape is watching... Sean was trembling with anxiety. He quickly and discreetly pulled his hand away, his face full of righteous indignation. "This is to bring glory to our Ravenclaw!"

Snape snorted heavily, "Playing with toys is a waste of time!"

Then he strode away.

Sean: "..."

Shameless! Utterly arrogant! I'm speechless...

However, Snape is actually a very generous person. Go see him tomorrow, and the potion he gives you can be sold for at least twenty Galleon. Of course, for Sean, a potion made by Potion Master like Snape is much more valuable Galleon.

Once Snape was out of sight, Sean said to Daisy, "We Ravenclaw can't let Slytherin lose face, can we?"

"That's right, that's right!" Fred and George, who were still counting the votes, didn't even look up.

"Oh, I see." Although it wasn't the answer she wanted, and although she felt that Sean shouldn't have wasted so much money on her, Little White Flower's beautiful eyes still couldn't help but curve into crescent moons.

Fred and George finally finished counting the votes, and a large number of slips of paper were thrown in. Daisy's votes suddenly jumped to the top.

Before leaving, the twins, who had made a killing, didn't forget to tip their hats to Sean in gratitude. "Great job, boss!"

Sean initially thought the matter was over, but he realized he had forgotten something when he returned to the Common Room.

He didn't tell Fred and George, those two big mouths...

The power of Big Mouth was beyond imagination; Sean was surrounded by Ravenclaw classmates as soon as he entered the door.

"Sean, you're amazing! Rich, talented, and handsome!" Terry Boot patted him on the shoulder, his tone full of admiration, though he carefully concealed any hint of Envy.

"Yeah, Daisy got almost four hundred votes in one go, wow, looks like the final winner is our Ravenclaw." another classmate said.

Of course, that's not the key point. Some nosy boys and gossipy girls have already started to tease him, "Wow, Sean, you've really gone all out for Daisy."

"As expected of you, I just wonder what Malfoy's expression will be when he finds out."

Amid the students' jeers, no matter how Sean explained, it was to no avail. Meanwhile, in his usual corner, Hermione was reading a book by herself.

He only looked up and glanced at her indifferently as he helplessly explained.

"I just don't want Slytherin to win," Sean tried to explain.

Then someone tugged at his sleeve and whispered, "You can't say that in front of Daisy, there are so many people here..."

Sean looked up blankly, and sure enough, Daisy had been beside Hermione just moments before, was now sitting next to her.

"This is fucking..."