My Teacher, My Classmate's Mother, and My Headmaster's Sister

Friday at Hogwarts was a grim day for Gryffindor's first-years.

The older Gryffindor students looked at their younger schoolmates with eyes full of sympathy.

Puzzled, Harry pulled Ron aside and asked, "Why are Fred and George looking at us like that?"

"Today, we have two Potions classes with the Slytherin students," Ron answered. "Professor Snape, who teaches it, is Slytherin's Head of House. I've heard he favors Slytherin students and targets Gryffindor students. I don't know if it's true."

Then Ron and Harry glanced at Horatio, who was eating breakfast. What kind of sparks would fly when a troublemaker met a professor who loved targeting Gryffindors?

During breakfast, Harry received a letter delivered by Hedwig. It was an invitation from Hagrid, asking him to visit Hagrid's hut that afternoon.

Looking forward to having tea with Hagrid, Harry pulled Ron along to the Potions classroom in the Hogwarts dungeons.

"Put away your Magic Wands. There will be no foolish wand-waving in my class." An Old Bat with greasy hair, a hooked nose, sallow skin, and cold eyes entered the classroom.

"I do not expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes and delicate scents. You will not truly understand the subtle power of liquids that flow through people's veins, bewitching the mind and clouding the will... I can teach you how to increase your fame, brew glory, and even stop death." After finishing his brief opening speech, Snape swept his sharp gaze over the young wizards below.

At last, his gaze settled on Harry Potter. "It seems we have welcomed a celebrity this year."

"Potter." Snape suddenly asked, "What would I get if I added powdered asphodel root to an infusion of wormwood?"

Hermione, sitting beside Horatio, raised her hand high, wanting to answer Snape's question.

Harry Potter's mind went blank. "I don't know, sir."

Ignoring Hermione's raised hand, Snape continued, "If I asked you to fetch me a Bezoar, where would you look?"

"I don't know, sir."

"What is the difference between Aconitum napellus and Wolfsbane?"

"I don't know, sir."

"It seems fame does not equal ability." Snape sneered at Harry.

"I think Hermione knows the answer. Why don't you ask her?" Harry said quietly.

Snape shot Hermione a glance and barked, "Put your hand down."

Then he looked at Horatio, who was sitting stiffly beside Hermione, and asked, "Horatio, what about you? Do you know the answers?"

"I don't know, Professor," Horatio answered solemnly.

"Tsk. Although you have shown astonishing talent in Herbology, it seems you only know how to grow them, not how to use them. How pathetic." Snape shook his head as he mocked him.

"Let me tell you. Powdered asphodel root and wormwood make a powerful sleeping potion called the Draught of Living Death.

A Bezoar is a stone taken from a goat's stomach.

As for Aconitum napellus and Wolfsbane, they are the same plant, collectively known as aconite.

Why aren't you writing all this down?"

As Feather quills scraped across parchment, the Gryffindor students were astonished to discover that Horatio was honestly taking notes. It was stranger than Mars crashing into Earth.

"Potter, Horatio, because you talked back to a teacher, your Houses will each lose two points." Snape snorted and walked up to the podium.

Hermione looked at Horatio beside her and touched his forehead. "You're not sick. You were mocked like that, and you didn't cause trouble?"

Horatio ignored Hermione and continued staring at the blackboard as he took notes seriously.

"I must be dreaming." Hermione pinched her arm and, only after feeling the pain, had no choice but to accept that Horatio really was listening attentively.

Professor Snape split the young wizards into pairs and instructed them to brew a simple potion for treating boils. When dealing with Gryffindor students, Snape turned into a Remington M870, and every little lion was hit by Snape's verbal shotgun blasts.

Especially when he faced Harry and Horatio's group, Snape's mouth fired as fast as a close-in defense cannon. Even the Slytherin students worried that their Head of House might get hit by one of Horatio's Avada Kedavras.

Malfoy had initially been delighted to see Harry Potter getting sprayed with insults, but when he saw Horatio getting dragged into it as well, he obediently shut his mouth, not daring to provoke Horatio.

At last, Harry and Horatio finished brewing their potion. When Snape saw the jar of purple potion radiating an eerie aura, the corner of his mouth twitched. "Hah? This is what you produced after working for an hour? Why don't you drink it?"

Harry hurriedly shook his head in refusal. Snape was just about to mock him when Horatio ignored the heat of the cauldron, lifted the entire jar of potion to his mouth, and drank it in one gulp.

The young wizards present were stunned. Snape was dumbfounded. "Idiot." He was just about to help Horatio when he saw him fall apart in full view of everyone.

Horatio's head rolled to Seamus's feet, frightening him into dropping the unprocessed porcupine quills into his potion. The potion instantly exploded, and every young wizard around them was caught in the blast, breaking out in swollen red boils.

"Idiots!" Snape roared at the surviving young wizards. "Why aren't you taking them to the hospital?"

After directing the young wizards away, Snape turned back to look at Horatio's disassembled body—or, more accurately, an alchemical body made of metal and wooden blocks.

"HORATIO!" Snape's roar echoed throughout Hogwarts, loud enough for even Dumbledore in the Headmaster's office to hear.

"Gryffindor loses ten thousand points."

Professor Snape dismissed class immediately, then hurried out of the Potions classroom carrying the alchemical body.

He left behind a group of young wizards still trembling with fear.

Upon reaching the Headmaster's office, Snape directly threw the alchemical body in front of Dumbledore.

"Look at your fine student. I've taught Potions class for so many years, and I've never encountered such an outrageous incident." Snape complained to Dumbledore. "He actually sent a puppet to class. Such behavior is utterly unacceptable. He must be expelled."

Dumbledore's head began to ache as he looked at the alchemical body, while Professor McGonagall, who had rushed over after hearing the news, nearly blacked out.

Can't find the book by its title? Try searching for the author instead; perhaps it was simply renamed!

"We'll discuss Horatio Quibble's punishment later. First, we need to find out where he is." Dumbledore sensed the location of the Phoenix Tail Feather he had previously given Horatio.

"I know where he is." Dumbledore led Snape and Professor McGonagall to the Room of Requirement on the Seventh Floor.

Using his Headmaster's authority, Dumbledore opened the doors to the Room of Requirement. Once inside, they witnessed a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

The area near the classroom windows was piled with all kinds of torture devices: iron maidens, electric chairs, knee crushers, and torture pears, among others.

In the center of the classroom stood a huge cross. Peeves was tied to it, with a ball stuffed in his mouth. A mass of Fiendfyre burned beneath the cross, and Peeves struggled on it in constant agony.

At the far end of the classroom sat a table, where Horatio was fiddling with a lantern-like device.

Behind Horatio was a bed, upon which lay a female Alchemy Golem.

Snape froze when he saw the female Alchemy Golem. His eyes turned red as he murmured, "Lily."

Then he glared furiously at Horatio. "How dare you?" As he spoke, he reached for his magic wand, intending to give Horatio something vicious.

Dumbledore stopped Snape and told him to calm down. Then he looked at Horatio and asked, "Child, what are you doing?"

Horatio stopped what he was doing, looked up at the three professors, and said, "Huh? Professors, why are you here?"

Dumbledore said nothing. He merely displayed a severely damaged Alchemy Golem.

"How did Substitute No. 1 get damaged so badly? It looks like it was corroded by some kind of liquid. The material strength must not be enough. No, I need to improve No. 2." With that, Horatio turned and walked toward the female Alchemy Golem behind him.

Dumbledore had Professor McGonagall hold back Snape, who was no longer able to endure it, then said to Horatio, "Child, how did you know what Lily looked like? I mean, what did you use as a reference to make this Alchemy Golem?"

Horatio turned back. "Oh, speaking of that, Headmaster, don't you think there are a few too many souls residing in our school? Quirrell has one in him, Harry has two, and even Fawkes has one."

"You mean Fawkes has a soul inside her too?"

"Yes. It looks like this." Horatio took out a portrait and handed it to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore froze after looking at it. "Ariana..."

Dumbledore and Snape rushed to Horatio's side, each grabbing one of his shoulders as they urgently asked, "Is what you said true? Do you have a way to extract those souls?"

Horatio winced in pain and patted the hands on his shoulders. "Let go. You're hurting me."

Dumbledore and Snape released him.

"Hmm... The one inside Quirrell is easy to deal with. This will do." Horatio picked up a scythe from the table. "This only harms souls, not flesh. I made it based on the principle of the Killing Curse."

"The extracted soul can be imprisoned in this lantern. The flames inside are both an instrument for torturing souls and a tonic that replenishes them."

Dumbledore and Snape exchanged a glance, then turned to Horatio and said, "No."

Horatio spread his hands. "Then there's nothing I can do. To preserve souls long-term, either turn them into ghosts, or find ancient jade that can hold souls.

Ghosts are not so easily created. Not only must the dead possess a powerful soul in life, they also need an intense obsession. That is the conclusion I reached from studying Peeves.

Ancient jade capable of carrying souls is not easy to find either, and it must be constantly soaked in soul-nourishing potions to prevent the soul inside from dispersing.

Or you can sacrifice a living person's life. Life energy and soul energy have some sort of connection, but the souls preserved this way—tsk, tsk—will be filled with madness and decay, just like the dark soul in Harry's body."

"And." Horatio yawned. "The soul inside Harry is not easy to deal with. That dark soul has a certain connection to Harry Potter's soul. I could perform surgery to strip it away, but there is a small chance of failure, in which case Harry and it would die together. More likely, Harry Potter would become an idiot.

The other woman's soul is even more troublesome. An Ancient Magic fueled by her soul energy is protecting Harry, but it probably cannot last much longer. I estimate it has another six years. To extract her, I would first have to remove that Ancient Magic, but when it comes to Ancient Magic, I understand nine out of ten openings—I don't understand a single one.

Fawkes's case is the most absurd. First, she is not in the same time and space as us, so saving her would require mastery of time-space magic. Second, she is wrapped in an oily substance that seems to be an Obscurus. How to separate her soul from the Obscurus body is a difficult problem."

Horatio waved his hand. "Based on the above conclusions, my suggestion is to give up. It's too troublesome and not worth the time I would have to invest in research.

Making an Alchemy Golem is simple and efficient. I'm planning to give this No. 2 unit to Harry as a Christmas present. Headmaster, do you need me to make one for you?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "A fake is still a fake. No matter how similar it looks, it can never replace the real her."

Horatio rubbed his chin. "I understand. By the way, what are they to you two? Why are you so nervous?"

Dumbledore said, "She is my sister."

"Oh." Horatio turned to look at the silent Snape. "And you? That woman should be Harry's mother, but I remember that you don't seem to be Harry's father."

Snape was silent for a while before finally saying, "She is the regret I will never forget for the rest of my life."

Horatio's eyes lit up. "Now that's some juicy gossip. Tell me what happened. Maybe if I'm in a good mood, I'll help you bring that woman back to life."

Dumbledore and Snape cried out, "You can resurrect them?"

"More or less. I have a rough idea of the relationship between souls and bodies. I only need to run a few experiments.

The body is easy to solve, but what about the soul? In the end, we've come back to the same problem: how do we save their souls?"

Horatio stretched. "Researching Ancient Magic, time-space magic, and Obscurus is too troublesome. The cost-effectiveness is extremely low, and there is nothing in it for me.

Unless you can offer a price I cannot refuse."

Horatio put on a pair of gold-rimmed glasses identical to those worn by capitalists, pulled out a contract that looked like a deed of sale, and spoke in a voice like a demon's. "Come, sign this contract. Think about it: you will have the chance to make up for your past regrets. As long as you sign this contract, I will do everything in my power to help you make up for this regret. I cannot guarantee success, but at least there is some hope, isn't there?"

Horatio did not tell them that he could definitely succeed. They should not forget his sudden inspiration talent, and even if that failed, there was still the Philosopher's Stone. He said it that way so he could extort them more easily in the future.

With Dumbledore and Snape's signatures, Horatio gained two powerful, high-ranking house-elves.

"I won't pursue the matter of you using an Alchemy Golem to attend class." Snape looked at Horatio with a complicated expression. "I'll restore the points deducted from your House."

"??? How can that be allowed? Deduct points—deduct them ruthlessly. Our Professor McGonagall can afford to lose."

Professor McGonagall: "???!!!"