What Kind of Friends Can Men and Women Be?

"Oh." Veratia's expression suddenly turned strange. "Well, why didn't you remind me sooner—"

But Harry thought Veratia was doing it on purpose, since her Crystal Ball was the latest version and could see right around Harry.

He refused to believe that Veratia couldn't tell he was in the Headmaster's Office, since a large portion of those jingling silver items had been taken from Veratia's treasure trove.

It was Gellert who got it.

It means that Gellert is Veratia's younger brother; otherwise, even a hundred lives wouldn't be enough to beat him up.

Veratia quickly hung up the phone in embarrassment, leaving Harry in an awkward situation.

But Dumbledore didn't seem embarrassed at all. He smiled and looked at Harry, asking, "So, Veratia means to come to Hogwarts after dinner?"

"Yes, Professor," Harry nodded, then tentatively asked, "If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving now, Professor—I have Potions Class later."

Dumbledore did not keep him in the office any longer, and nodded to indicate that he could leave.

At 2 PM, the Potions Class officially began.

Ron also chose Potions Class, and his grades were barely passing—this was thanks to Snape's special training.

In Professor Snape's words, "Your ink-grinding technique is poor, your stirring motion is weak, and you don't control the heat properly. You think you can attend my advanced class? You're dreaming!"

But Ron was determined to prove himself, even if it meant losing the bun. After a period of intensive training, he successfully entered the Potions Class class.

Unfortunately, he regretted it as soon as he successfully registered.

Damn it, why work so hard?

If I slack off, will I avoid seeing that awful Professor Snape this year?

Unfortunately, there's no going back in life.

"Professor," Harry raised his hand somewhat awkwardly, "I forgot to bring my textbooks—" Professor Snape gave Harry a cold look and pointed to the old bookshelf next to him.

"There are some old books in there, go and pick one at random."

Harry stepped forward as if he had been saved, and after some picking and choosing, selected an old textbook.

What he didn't notice was a line of small print on the back of the book's cover.

"This book belongs to the Half-Blood Prince."

During Potions Class, Professor Snape seemed to be at odds with Ron. After assigning the task, he went to Ron's side and watched the entire process of Ron making potions.

Harry's Potions -making speed was always un-magical, and Snape didn't bother to watch him, lest his moral compass crumble.

Without Professor Snape's death stare, he was happy to have some free time and started reading the old book.

He discovered that the previous owner of the textbook had scribbled all over the book, making the blank spaces on each page Fang Yi where medicine had been printed.

The handwriting was messy, and Harry had to struggle to decipher the instructions from the textbook's previous owner's scribbled writing. For some reason, the old man disagreed with the book's instruction to slice the Sopophorous Bean, and instead wrote a separate instruction:

Squeezing with the side of a silver dagger makes it easier to extract juice than slicing.

Why don't you give it a try?

Harry took out the silver knife and squeezed the Sopophorous Bean with the side.

To my surprise, the beans immediately released a lot of juice. It's hard to imagine that such dry beans could have so much moisture.

Where does this water come from?

This guy seems pretty skilled!

Harry decided he had to give the book to Ron so he could study it carefully.

After class, Harry handed the book to Ron, who had a sullen look on his face.

"Hey buddy," he said, "I found something good. You should take a look and learn from it."

"What good stuff?"

Ron took the book, and the two walked side by side toward the Gryffindor Common Room.

He casually flipped through them, then said curiously, "Isn't this just a used book? What's so good about it?"

"I've discovered that the original owner of this book was quite something," Harry said, patting Ron on the shoulder. "Look, it's full of his own unique methods. I tested two of them, like squeezing Sopophorous Bean with the side of a silver knife, and those dry beans immediately ooze out a lot of juice—you might as well study this textbook thoroughly, and maybe you won't be bothered by it anymore."

As for who was bothering him, Harry didn't mention it at all.

He was worried about what would happen if Snape suddenly appeared behind him.

Ron was indeed intrigued. He flipped through the book and noticed a line of small print.

"This book belongs to Half-Blood Prince?" He chuckled. "Who on earth is so childish as to call himself Half-Blood Prince? Hahaha, it's hard to believe he's already a sixth-year wizard."

"Really?" Harry also moved closer to Ron with great interest and saw the familiar handwriting.

"Anyway, thank you." Ron saw Hermione walking towards him, and he put away the textbook. "Man, I really have to thank you. This has really saved my life—I feel like I'm at least saved this year."

Harry didn't say anything, he just gave a thumbs up and a wink.

After receiving the textbook, Ron did not show it off to Hermione, but secretly hid it in his dormitory to avoid being discovered by Hermione.

He knew that something similar had happened in Slytherin before, when Voldemort disguised his Notebook as Cassandra Malfoy's and caused trouble in Slytherin— he had no doubt that Hermione would immediately confiscate the Notebook of unknown origin.

It started pouring rain outside while we were having dinner.

The magical sky on the Great Hall ceiling also became incredibly gloomy, as if a storm was about to break out at any moment.

Occasionally, one could see dragons and snakes moving across the ceiling, with purple lightning accompanied by rumbling sounds crawling through the clouds.

Suddenly, the Great Hall doors were opened.

"Harry," Hermione whispered, her voice trembling with excitement, "It's Veratia!"

Harry turned around and, sure enough, saw Veratia, dressed in a navy blue suit, walking in through the front door, followed by her new secretary, Ms. Rosier.

As Veratia passed Harry, she stopped and whispered "Wait for me" to him, and then walked to the faculty and staff seats under the watchful eyes of everyone.

"My God, who is she?" the freshmen asked one after another. Those freshmen who had never seen Ms. Grindelwald were extremely curious and wanted to know who this super beautiful older sister was.

"This is our Slytherin's senior!" Pansy Slytherin Parkinson, puffing out her chest, proudly introduced her to her first- and second-year students. "She graduated from Hogwarts in 1994, and in just one year, she became the Minister for Magic!"

"Merlin!" a freshman whispered, "Could she be Ms. Grindelwald?"

"Yes," Pansy said with pride.

All the professors sitting in the faculty and staff seats stood up to welcome Veratia's arrival.

Even though she was once a student at Hogwarts, her status is different now, and she should naturally show the Minister for Magic the appropriate respect.

"This is how a wizard should be!" a freshman with a red ponytail remarked from the Slytherin's long table.

Veratia chatted briefly with Headmaster Dumbledore before taking her seat in the High Table.

Her secretary, Ms. Rosier, stood behind her like a lackey.

Harry saw that Professor Slughorn was very happy and was even chatting with Veratia across Professor Snape.

Professor Snape, caught in the middle, remained expressionless, as if none of this concerned him at all.

After dinner, Harry was told to stay.

He patted Ron on the shoulder and walked toward the High Table.

"I've brought some new stuff developed by the Ministry of Magic," Veratia said with a smile. "We'll get the results in a bit when we go to the Headmaster's Office. Based on my deduction, Voldemort probably placed the curse in the Headmaster's Office."

"Really?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so sure?"

Veratia reached out and gently tapped Harry's head.

"Silly," she scolded, "Didn't we see it in Voldemort's memories?"

They followed Dumbledore all the way to the Headmaster's Office on the Seventh Floor.

On the way, Veratia kept asking Harry how his classes were going and whether he was busy, just like a nagging old mother.

At least Dumbledore was walking ahead, had this kind of déjà vu.

Upon arriving at the Headmaster's Office, Phineas, whose right hand was raised at a 45-degree angle and hung on the wall, greeted his two most outstanding students.

"This gesture is forbidden in the Germany Muggle World," Veratia warned Phineas. "Make sure the Germany Muggle don't see it."

"Oh, okay." Phineas actually nodded in agreement.

Then, we got down to business.

Ms. Rosier took a soft, transparent sphere from a small Lady and placed it on the ground. Immediately afterward, the Headmaster's Office began to darken.

Soon after, black lines began to wriggle on the ground, rushing straight towards the transparent, soft sphere.

Not long after, the ball changed from transparent to pitch black.

"Alright," Ms. Rosier said, "That's about it—this is the latest alchemical product developed by the Greater German Ministry of Magic, used to absorb various curses."

"Is it really that simple?" Dumbledore asked.

"It's that simple," Ms. Rosier said proudly.

Dumbledore suddenly felt a sense of vigilance.

It has to be said, this sister-in-law is more than ten orders of magnitude above Gellert in terms of skill level.

Now that the British wizarding world is exhausted, if they were to face the rising power of the Greater German Ministry of Magic, would they really have a chance of winning?

Dumbledore hesitated to think further, fearing he might come up with some unsolvable problem—

After breaking the curse of the Defense Against the Dark Arts, Veratia took Ms. Rosier and left Hogwarts.

According to Veratia, there are still some things to deal with in Vienna. It is said that several Ministry of Magic in the Scandinavia Islands are also going to be merged into the Greater German Ministry of Magic.

"I think you might as well just change it to the European Ministry of Magic." Harry's face darkened; he increasingly felt that Veratia might be planning to unify Europe in the Magical World.

Judging from her appearance, success seems to be just around the corner. Currently, in Western Europe and Central Europe, only Spain, Portugal, and France have not yet been incorporated into the Greater German Ministry of Magic.

"That's a good suggestion," Veratia said with a smile. She did indeed think Harry's suggestion was good.

After Veratia left, everything seemed to return to normal.

Professor Slughorn, the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, often said that the chill in his neck had disappeared, and the dark cloud hanging over Hogwarts seemed to have truly vanished.

As the days went by, just as Hermione had Prophecy, the time off in sixth grade was not the relaxing break Ron had hoped for. Instead, it was spent working hard to complete a large amount of homework assigned by the teachers.

They not only studied as hard as if they were taking an exam every day, but the lessons themselves were also much more difficult than before.

Ron couldn't understand about half of what Professor McGonagall was teaching these days, and even Hermione had to ask Professor McGonagall to repeat what she was saying once or twice before she could understand it.

Incredibly, Ron's best subject suddenly became Potions, thanks to that Half-Blood Prince.

Hermione found this change incredible, but she figured it must be the result of the Extra Lesson Professor Snape had given Ron.

"Well done, Ron." Hermione was genuinely happy for Ron, after all, they were good friends now.

Yes, good friend.

Harry thought the two of them were just fooling themselves. What good friends?

As Gellert aptly put it, what kind of friendship do men and women have? They just end up getting to know each other and becoming friends.

However, Harry felt that this only applied to people like Ron and Hermione who were mutually attracted but unaware of each other's feelings, and not to someone as innocent as him.

Now, they are being required to use Silencing Charm in class, not only in Defense Against the Dark Arts Class, but also in Charms Class and Transfiguration Class.

Harry often saw his classmates with flushed faces, secretly competing with themselves, as if they had taken an overdose of constipation pills, when they were in the Common Room or at meals.

But he knew that they were actually practicing how to make magic work without saying the incantation aloud.

Only when they reached the Greenhouse outside did everyone breathe a sigh of relief. The plants they dealt with in Herbology Class were now more dangerous than before, but at least they could still chant spells loudly when the Venomous Tentacula of Mandrake suddenly grabbed them from behind.

"I feel like things are getting worse and worse," Pansy from Slytherin complained loudly.

But Draco, contrary to his usual behavior, did not join Pansy in complaining.

Because he was one of the first people to join Harry in the Dueling Club, he had already learned the art of Silent Spell from Harry back in his third year.

The current Dueling Club is an advanced training class; they even get to experience high-level techniques like Wandless Magic when the Dueling Club is running events.

Of course, no one has succeeded so far, except for Ron, who can make the wand twitch, but only twitch once.