An Unusual Weekend

Saturday morning.

Because Hermione went to bed early last night, her other roommates were still fast asleep when she woke up.

After slipping on her slippers, Hermione went to the dormitory window, pulled open the cold brass sill, and quickly pulled her hands back to press them against her fluffy pajamas, letting them gradually warm up. The fresh, cool air filled her nostrils, making her feel her mind gradually clear.

The good weather that had lasted since the heavy rain at the start of the school year has finally come to an end. The clear sky is now dotted with visible dark clouds that are constantly changing shape in the autumn wind. The light ink-colored clouds are accumulating moisture, but it's unclear when the rain will finally fall.

Looking into the distance, you can see the Whomping Willow outside the school. Its sparse leaves are gradually turning red. When the leaves on the branches are completely red, it will suddenly shake off all the leaves on its body, which means that the day of snow is coming soon.

"Hermione, cold—"

Hearing Parvati's dazed murmurs, Hermione quickly closed the window, leaving only a small crack for ventilation.

After washing up and changing clothes, Hermione took a break because it was the weekend and didn't bother with her hair.

Go downstairs.

In the Common Room, Loren lay on the sofa. Since he didn't have to attend class, he wasn't wearing his magic robe, but rather a beige hoodie and casual pants.

"New clothes, probably bought for him by Grandpa Bates, "Hermione thought to herself.

Crookshanks, looking tired and listless, lay on his lap.

Whenever Crookshanks closes its eyes, the man would rub its belly. Crookshanks, annoyed, would open its mouth and lunge at his hand, as if to bite. Loren wasn't afraid at all; instead, he reached out his hand himself. Crookshanks, however, shut its mouth, and a human-like helplessness appeared on its persimmon-like cat face.

Hermione was speechless. He often did this during the summer vacation, calling it "keeping the cats awake." He would say things like, "If people don't keep the cats awake during the day, the cats will keep people awake at night."

I really don't know why Crookshanks is still willing to be so close to him.

Hearing footsteps on the stairs, Loren looked up and smiled involuntarily when he saw the girl, "Good morning, Hermione."

"Good morning."

Sitting down beside him, Hermione rescued Crookshanks from his clutches and placed it in the corner of the sofa so it could sleep peacefully. Looking up, she asked in surprise, "Why are you up so early too? It's the weekend!"

"Last night I was lying in bed thinking, and I fell asleep. But when I woke up this morning I couldn't fall back asleep, I'm so energetic." Loren sighed, feigning sadness. "Going to bed early cost me my precious nap."

As he spoke, he lazily leaned back on the sofa, exuding a decadent, lazy vibe. "I really envy Crookshanks. He can sleep as long as he wants. He's such a lazy cat."

"You're the lazy cat." Hermione rolled her eyes, too lazy to talk to him anymore. "Let's go, have breakfast first, then we'll go to the Library to do our homework."

"Huh? Weekends are all about homework? What's the difference between that and not having a holiday?" Loren looked at her defiantly. "I'm not going!"

"Isn't the next part going to be me trying to persuade you, you refusing, me trying again, you refusing again... to see who gives up first?" Hermione said calmly, she had plenty of experience in this kind of struggle.

"You're so cold-hearted, you have absolutely no sense of humor," Loren complained.

"Get up!" Hermione tugged at him.

This guy is so lazy he's completely unmotivated; there's no way to get him to cooperate.

"If you don't get up, I'll just leave!" Hermione threatened fiercely.

Because of two extra elective courses, she had a lot of homework to do. Including the review and preview materials, she also wanted to discuss some issues with Professor Bubage, who Muggle Studies, in the afternoon. Her weekend was very busy.

Loren blinked at the girl. Her fluffy, messy curly hair was very voluminous, making the girl, who was pretending to be fierce, look like a long-haired cat with its fur standing on end, cute and fierce, with a touch of sloppiness.

"Wait a minute..." Loren patted the seat next to him, "Come sit here, I'll smooth your hair."

Hermione's fierce expression froze, and she blinked blankly a couple of times. After a few seconds, as if under Imperius Curse, she slowly sat down next to Loren, quiet and obedient.

Loren kicked off his shoes and stepped onto the sofa. He sat cross-legged behind the girl, took a wooden comb from his pendant, and began to gently comb her hair.

"You have so much hair! How come you don't go bald despite studying so much?"

"It's definitely not the right time yet. You'll start going bald when you're an adult."

"Wendell is a bit bald, and you have that gene."

"..."

He kept rambling on, and Hermione remained strangely quiet, offering no rebuttal.

Loren didn't understand those complicated hairstyles; he just tried to make Hermione's curly hair as neat as possible, so that the stubble wouldn't stick out and make the girl look like she had a mop head.

Hermione doesn't suit hairstyles that are too close to her scalp; they make her look older. Letting her brown curly hair fall naturally with some bangs on her forehead looks much better, giving her a fresh and slightly playful look.

"It just doesn't feel smooth enough; it's too curly."

"If you find it troublesome to comb your hair every day, you can get it permed a little, but don't touch your bangs, they look better as they are."

Hermione lowered her eyes, something inside her trembling.

Actually, it's possible to do a good job if you spend time on it. She usually does a simple combing in the morning, but it would take at least an hour to do it properly. She prefers to spend her time on more useful things.

The wooden comb teeth slid into my long brown hair, the soft rustling sound traveling along my scalp into my ears, making my eardrums itch and my heart itch a little too.

This person clearly doesn't know how to comb a girl's hair. Sometimes, when some curly hair gets tangled in the comb and can't be untangled, he will observe her reaction, then quietly grab the front section and forcefully pull it off.

He probably thought that if he wasn't in pain, he wouldn't notice.

Hermione counted how many hairs of hers had been pulled out.

1...

5...

9...

"How much hair are you planning to rip out of me?" Hermione's voice was cold.

"Ahem." Loren coughed twice. "This is normal wear and tear; everyone naturally loses hair every day..."

Looking into Hermione's eyes, Loren's excuses became less and less convincing. He finally muttered under his breath, "She's not very good at it yet. She can practice more in the future."

Hermione glanced at him, but let him go gently. She tidied her hair that had fallen on the sofa, got up, and walked out. "Remember your words."

"Huh? Oh!"

Loren was stunned for a moment, then happily followed.

In the morning, Hermione forced Loren to finish a week's worth of homework. In the afternoon, Hermione went to see Professor Bubage, Muggle Studies, to discuss and ask him some questions, and the two parted ways.

I went straight up to the 8th floor, circled around the tapestry opposite the one Troll Beating Silly Barnaby Tapestry, and entered the Room of Requirement. It was a room resembling Potions Classroom, with an empty space in the middle.

Loren retrieved the materials for the [Wolfsbane Potion - Rafflesia Modified] given to him by Snape. The pendant box containing the materials was made of black chestnut wood, intricately carved with ouroboros patterns, and inlaid with gold thread, demonstrating exquisite craftsmanship.

"Tsk, the Untraceable Extension Charm was used rather poorly. I wonder if Snape made it himself. Seeing the locket reminds me of an acquaintance... Oh well, I'll find a chance to give Old Dumbledore a clue later." Loren muttered, lifting the locket lid and taking out one of the ten documents.

"Let me see... goosefoot resin... Full Moon dew..."

After being simulated by the Fantasy Book, even though Loren had memorized the ingredient dosages and cooking process, he still took out the list and checked the ingredients one by one according to the list.

"Finally, this is Rafflesia extract."

Loren looked at the glass bottle in front of him, which was smaller than a finger, and a hint of hesitation flashed in his eyes. There was a hint of curiosity in his hesitation, and a hint of eagerness in his curiosity.

The Rafflesia, with its incredibly foul odor resembling rotting corpse, is widely considered the world's smelliest flower. Its extract is the essence of the Rafflesia; if even a single drop gets on a sofa, it's ruined.

Although we know this stuff smells terrible and is incredibly potent, and should be handled with extreme care and caution.

However, when the actual object appeared in front of him, he still wanted to open it and take a look.

I didn't mean anything by it, I just wanted to clear my nasal passages.

Mwah~

The moment Loren opened the bottle, his eyes felt a burning pain.

A strong odor enveloped the entire virtual Potions Classroom. The fermented stench violently assaulted the brain from the nasal cavity, and every breath caused the stomach to spasm, churn, and convulse uncontrollably.

Approximately thirty seconds later.

Loren stood expressionless opposite the tapestry depicting the troll beating Silly Barnaby, facing the door of the Room of Requirement he had closed himself.

A thought popped into his head: go find Hermione now, use the Time-Turner to travel back a minute, and give that Loren a big beating.

Knowing it smells bad, why would you open it? Are you stupid?

Loren used [Whizbangs] to get rid of the smell and stood outside for a while to calm down.

Fortunately, the Room of Requirement of Requirement was a magical room. After walking around in circles a few times, when I re-entered the Potions Master classroom-style room, the smell had dissipated.

This time, he was single-minded. He set up the crucible, lit the fire, and began to brew the Potions.

The preparation of the Wolfsbane Potion takes about a week. During this period, the heat needs to be adjusted every day at sunrise and sunset, based on the phase of the moon and the weather.

If there is no thunderstorm, the extract of Rafflesia should be added about three days later, when the brewing process is in its later stages.

The dosage of Rafflesia extract was slightly excessive, as prescribed by Snape.

I still plan to add some Rue; it won't affect the medicinal effect anyway, and it will at least have Qidian effect.

Once the potion in the crucible had stabilized, Loren got up, stretched, sniffed, and slowly left the virtual room.

"I still feel like there's something about me... Damn Snape, I have to make him smell it too..."

"Get a gas mask when we need to use the extract."

The charcoal fire burned beneath the crucible, flames licking its bottom. A few unburned particles clung to the crucible, leaving wisps of black coal ash, like dark clouds gathering and dispersing outside Castle ...

Stepping out of the Room of Requirement, the Silly Barnaby in the tapestry has stopped being beaten, and the trolls are now dancing again.

Loren paused. Since he was already here, there was no reason not to check the room where the things were hidden. He paced back and forth in the same spot again, and after three times, he opened the door to the Room of Requirement and went inside.

In a spacious room that resembled a cathedral, beams of light shone through the high windows, illuminating the room. The items that Hogwarts had hidden in the house over the generations were piled up like small mountains, with dilapidated furniture piled up on both sides of the mountain path.

Some broken bottles contained solidified Potions, along with hats, jewelry, cloaks, things that looked like Fire Dragon Egg, and some magical items from who-knows-how-many years ago that still retained the glow of Magic Power.

Even though Loren and Hermione took away a lot, there are still thousands of books here: banned books, scribbled books, books stolen from the Library; besides these useful books, there are also many useless piles of old papers, which have been oxidized and decayed over the long years, and will turn into part of the dust in this room at the slightest touch.

To Loren's surprise, the dust on the floor had added some new footprints.

He knew that Hogwarts House-elf sometimes hid things in this room, that Professor Trelawney hid empty Sherry in it, and that Dumbledore knew about this room as well, which was not surprising.

But their footprints certainly wouldn't be like those of a rat, especially since one of the rat's front paws was missing a part.

Suppressing his excitement, Loren crouched down and examined the row of footprints closely.

A thin layer of dust had accumulated on them, indicating that these footprints had been there for some time. It must have been a few days before school started when Wormtail entered the Room of Requirement. The absence of fresh footprints meant he hadn't returned after that one visit.

Has he achieved his goal, so he's not coming back?

Or has his goal completely failed?

Loren had a vague idea in his mind. He followed the footprints of the lame rat, turned right, passed a giant specimen, ran a short distance, passed a large cabinet with a bubbly surface as if it had been splashed with strong acid, walked past a broken half-body statue of an old male wizard, and finally stopped in front of a suit of armor.

Seeing the familiar armor, with its empty top, Loren smiled slightly.

At this moment, Voldemort's plan, Wormtail Peter's infiltration, and Bellatrix's lingering seemed to be connected by an invisible thread.

Wormtail returned to Hogwarts not because of Voldemort's empty promises, but to retrieve the Diadem Horcrux. The reason, presumably, was that Loren destroyed his notebook, making him aware of the Horcrux.

Using his Animagus rat form, Wormtail Peter, lurking in the Castle, could easily steal Ravenclaw's Diadem. Bellatrix was waiting outside the Secret Passages passage of Honeydukes to provide cover.

However, they did not expect that Ravenclaw's Diadem had been reported to Dumbledore by Loren as early as their first year, and had been taken away long ago.

The rat's footprints were a jumbled mess here, and Loren could guess Wormtail's panic at that moment. What Voldemort was looking for had disappeared, and how was this lowly rat going to explain himself?