Package

Tierra was thrilled by such a bold idea. Although he was not yet capable of carrying out such a daring experiment, he increasingly felt that sacrificing the little finger on his left hand had been worth it.

Because Tierra's Wizard Robe was one size too large, its wide sleeves perfectly concealed his left hand.

So far, aside from Harry, no one had noticed that Tierra had always worn a flesh-colored glove on his left hand.

When Harry asked about it, Tierra answered, "I have a very, very ugly burn scar on this hand, so I always wear a glove. I hope you won't tell anyone, Harry."

Although Tierra's little finger had lost its flesh, for some unknown reason, it could still move freely with only the bone remaining. Therefore, Harry did not doubt his explanation and even comforted him. "You're so good at Potions. You'll definitely find a potion to heal the scar on your hand someday."

No amount of diligent revision could help Harry escape Snape's clutches.

After learning that all of Harry's previous answers had come from Tierra's help rather than from Harry genuinely liking Potions, Snape stopped questioning students at the start of class. Instead, while Harry was brewing potions, he fixed his attention on Harry and Ron, mocking them relentlessly.

"Heh. It seems Mr. Potter can't even chop potion ingredients without his little sidekick. If we threw Snake Fetus Grass to a group of crabs, they'd chop it better than you!"

"Mr. Potter, this is Potions class, not a kitchen. Please stop treating it like Pumpkin Juice!"

"Mr. Potter, are you trying to blow up your classmates? Warm up the Rola Juice before adding it!"

"Mr. Potter..."

Although Snape often targeted him, he seemed especially irritable today. He deducted more than twenty points from Gryffindor in a row, nearly wiping out all the points Hermione had earned in other classes.

Hermione, who was paired with Tierra, ground her teeth with a series of "grind, grind" noises.

As a result, Hermione did not pay much attention to Ron and Harry after class.

After being scolded by Snape for an entire lesson, Harry could not help arguing with the Little Witch when she began lecturing him.

The Little Witch immediately spun around and stormed off in anger.

"Come on, Tierra. Let's go to the library." Hermione huffily tried to pull Tierra along.

"Uh... no, not today," Tierra said. "Harry has Quidditch practice today. I... I want to watch."

"Quidditch? Quidditch!" Hermione nearly screamed. "Don't you dislike Quidditch?"

"Uh... yes, I don't like riding a broom myself, but watching Harry ride one is still enjoyable," Tierra said somewhat guiltily. He simply did not want to be around Hermione.

Hermione was smart, but honestly, at this age, she was a little annoying. She was always putting on the air of a little adult while lecturing Harry and Ron.

She also loved chattering beside Tierra about meaningless topics, which annoyed him somewhat.

"Fine, fine, fine!" Hermione shot Tierra a glare. "Go watch your Quidditch."

With that, she turned and stomped toward the stairs.

Tierra, Harry, and Ron all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Phew. I'm telling you, Hermione has definitely gone stupid from studying too much," Ron said.

Harry silently nodded in agreement.

Tierra, however, said indifferently, "Your potion-brewing techniques really do have some problems. You can't blame Snape entirely for deducting points."

Hermione was still young, so it was understandable that she was a little hot-headed. A proud Little Witch like her put a lot of pressure on herself, so it was understandable that she had become somewhat short-tempered.

Hermione did not sit with them at dinner that evening. Instead, she sat alone at the other end of the long table, reading a thick book while eating dinner.

Tierra could tell that Hermione was very irritated. Her movements as she cut her steak with knife and fork were much rougher than usual.

Near the end of dinner, a flock of owls flew in from outside the Great Hall, dropping letter after letter and package after package.

Malfoy received the most of them.

Tierra noticed that when Malfoy opened one of the packages, he cast a smug glance in Tierra's direction. However, he did not take out what was inside. Instead, he quickly wrapped it up again.

Looks like Malfoy is cooking up another bad idea...

After Tierra had defeated Malfoy head-on in an unofficial duel, Malfoy had kept quiet for a while. Whenever he saw Tierra, he avoided him like a mouse avoiding a cat.

But clearly, as long as there was life, there would be no end to courting death. It seemed Malfoy had asked his family for some outside help... or at the very least, gotten hold of some Magical Items.

After all, his family had close ties with Borgin and Burkes Dark Magic Shop.

This time, Tierra had received a package as well. It had been delivered by his pet raven, Raven.

After more than two months of Tierra's careful care, Raven was now no different from a fully grown raven. Clutching a package in his claws, he landed lightly on Tierra's table.

"Caw, caw," Raven called to Tierra.

This was his first time carrying something on a long-distance flight.

"All right, all right, I know you worked hard." Tierra gently scratched Raven's little head with one hand while taking out a small bowl and pouring a little warm milk from his cup.

"House-elves, could you bring me a few slices of raw lamb? My little raven is starving," Tierra said to the empty aisle of the Great Hall.

A few minutes later, a small dish of diced lamb appeared before Raven.

"Caw!" Raven cried happily and lowered his head to eat the lamb.

Tierra used a dinner knife to cut open his package.

Inside was a cardboard box twenty centimeters long, ten centimeters wide, and ten centimeters high. When he opened it, he found bundles of herbs carefully wrapped in pale yellow oiled paper.

Through an older student... namely George Weasley and Fred Weasley, Tierra had established contact with Slug & Jiggers Apothecary. Posing as a junior of the Weasley Twins, he had Raven deliver a letter and deposit to Diagon Alley.

The Weasley Twins needed large quantities of magical materials to make prank products, and most of those materials could be found in apothecaries.

As a result, the apothecary owner was already very familiar with the Weasley Twins.

Therefore, when Tierra asked the apothecary owner for some rare but not particularly valuable medicinal ingredients as a junior of the Weasley Twins, Slug & Jiggers Apothecary readily sent them to him.

It was perfectly normal for young Hogwarts wizards to experiment with potions on their own or practice brewing potions before their final Potions examinations.

Tierra had only bought one hundred and eighty grams of Desert Thorn Flower—a plant already cultivated on a large scale by the Ministry of Magic—along with two hundred grams of Goblin Wing, as well as two ounces each of Scorpion Serpent Gall and Silver Shell of a Feathered Serpent placed at the bottom of the package.

Aside from those, the rest were materials needed to brew Huris Potion.

Now, Tierra only lacked two Ministry of Magic-controlled ingredients, Death's Head Moth Chrysalis and African Tree Snake Skin, before he could learn Parseltongue.