Slytherin's Little Secret

In recent days, the teachers at Hogwarts have noticed that the Slytherin students are often dozing off during class.

It's one thing to doze off in the History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, but someone actually dozed off in Snape's Potions Class, and even knocked over the cauldron while kowtowing, causing quite a bit of an accident.

Professor Snape, furious to the extreme, turned pale. He never expected that a Slytherin student would dare to doze off in class under his pressure.

The result was obvious: even someone as stingy as Grandet was when it came to House Points, Snape still deducted between five and twenty points from each person, depending on the severity of the offense.

The person who lost 20 points was because he was dozing off and spilled the Potions from the cauldron onto the student in front of him.

Gryffindor takes Potions Class together with Slytherin. Slytherin suffers, and Gryffindor naturally suffers too. But at least the Gryffindor students try their best to restrain themselves, so even if Snape picks on them, they don't lose many points.

Even Harry was affected, because he stirred the mixture a tiny bit too fast and Snape deducted a point from Snape.

Under Snape's visible manipulation, Gryffindor's and Slytherin's scores steadily declined, falling from first and second to third and fourth respectively, while the top-ranked school was...

"It's Hufflepuff!" the Slytherin students stomped their feet and cursed.

That's not even the most outrageous part. Joseph Rowle, a second-year Slytherin student, actually fell asleep on his broomstick during Flying Lesson.

"Good heavens, you can really doze off, can you, Nearly Headless Nick?" his classmates mocked.

Joe is Joseph's nickname.

Nearly Headless Nick didn't care about his classmates' ridicule; it was just a small deal with the learned Miss Merope.

but...

Miss Merope is so pretty...

Why wasn't she the teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts?

The professors of other courses also noticed this problem, but the Slytherin students performed exceptionally well in class, except when they were dozing off. They could master any Charms almost instantly, as if they had practiced it many times before.

Faced with this situation, the professors could only attribute it to the Slytherin students' diligence and hard work, reminding them to take care of their health in addition to their studies, and didn't think much of it.

Given that Slytherin were consistently winning points in other classes, Snape decided to turn a blind eye as well.

He has more important things to do.

So every evening after dinner, Draco would stand guard in front of the dormitory, looking around with a small notebook in his hand, noting down the names of the people in line.

When the students with dark circles under their eyes and unsteady gait emerged from the dormitory, Draco would call out the next person's name according to the established order.

Before going to bed at night, Merope would, as promised, share a portion of his energy with Draco.

Draco only went to the Chamber of Secrets, but he doesn't remember what happened Chamber of Secrets.

However, Merope that, Merope never asked him to take the notes to the Chamber of Secrets again, but instead stayed in the Slytherin Common Room, showing no intention of leaving.

Draco assumed she had retrieved the "Merlin's Treasure" and didn't say much, since the profit sharing was quite good now.

Everything was proceeding normally in Gryffindor. After dinner on Friday, Harry, Neville, and Seamus arrived at the Room of Requirement with their new recruits Neville and Seamus.

Ron was in charge of teaching Seamus, while Hermione was in charge of teaching Neville. Harry tried to practice the Disarming Charm chain and also offered suggestions on their shortcomings.

After trying to use the Disarming Charm more than ten times, only to have it blown up into his hands each time, Harry stepped forward and interrupted Seamus, who was still trying.

"Listen to me, Seamus," Harry said to the dejected Seamus, "I think I see another way through you..."

"Another way?" Seamus looked up.

"Among wizards, there are those with natural talent—like Cassandra Malfoy in the books, she was a born master of the Stunning Spell." Harry placed his hand on Seamus's shoulder and said softly, "All her Charms have the property of causing a stun..."

"Which book did you read it in?" Hermione asked, walking over with interest.

"The Restricted Section, I forgot which one," Harry replied casually.

But a glimmer of hope appeared in Seamus's eyes. "Really? Harry, you mean... I..."

"Yes, Seamus," Harry said firmly, "Just like that Mrs. Malfoy, and you, my friend, are a natural-born master of Explosion Charm. Perhaps we can try to skip over your Disarming Charm and learn some explosive spells."

"Great!" Seamus said eagerly.

"Look, wave your wand like this and point it at the dummy in front of you," Harry instructed Seamus, waving his hand and casting a spell.

"Confringo!"

A beam of orange-red light shot out from Harry's wand, and a dazzling light shone from the dummy that was hit.

"Bang!"

The dummy, Explosion Curse, was blown apart, its limbs flying and scattered across the dueling arena conjured by the Room of Requirement, turning into sand and disappearing without a trace.

"Cool!" Seamus's eyes lit up.

Although his mother was a witch, his father was a Muggle who didn't know magic. When he was a child, he often watched TV with his father, and he was especially interested in scenes of war.

Which man could resist the temptation to detonate a howitzer and blast the enemy to pieces?

But Seamus hesitated again; his recent unsuccessful attempt at practicing the Charms had made him doubt himself.

"Um, Harry, can I really do this?" Seamus scratched his head and said, "I've seen this spell in a book, but it's only for sixth graders. I'm just a first-year student right now..."

"Trust me," Harry said earnestly, his green eyes full of encouragement, "You can do it."

Seamus felt a warmth in his heart and nodded heavily.

He walked a short distance from the dummy and raised his wand.

Harry suddenly had a flash of inspiration and a bad feeling rose in his heart.

Sure enough, Seamus raised his wand, pointed it at the dummy, and roared, "Confringo!"

A beam of red light shot out and struck the dummy, producing an explosion even louder than the one Harry had just used to cast the Charms.

Harry only had time to put on a Shield Charm to protect himself.

Hermione and Ron crouched down with their heads in perfect unison, their movements perfectly synchronized.

The dummy was blown apart, its parts flying everywhere. One of its arms arced through the air and landed precisely on Neville's head with a thud.

"Why am I always the one who's unlucky?" Neville asked, covering his head with tears in his eyes.