Professor, You Might Need a Loan

Charles thought about how Voldemort dug through the tunnels all night, and continued to ponder it the next day, to the point where he seemed a bit absent-minded.

During breakfast, Dumbledore saw his appearance with some curiosity, wondering if the little fellow was in a prophetic state, and if so, what he had seen.

If he had known what Charles was thinking at that moment, he would have been greatly shocked.

After breakfast, Charles instinctively walked with his classmates through the first-floor hall of the castle, into the first-floor basement, heading towards the gloomy Potions classroom.

This class was taken with the Slytherin students. Harry was talking with Ron when he heard someone say sarcastically, "Oh... here comes our famous Savior Harry Potter, why aren't you all getting out of the way?"

Needless to say, it was Malfoy causing trouble.

Before Harry could reply, Ron asked Malfoy, "Has your house been repaired yet?"

Malfoy's face immediately darkened. His house had inexplicably exploded. The financial loss was secondary; the main thing was that he had lost a lot of face, becoming a laughingstock among wizards.

More importantly, Ron asked the next question, "I heard the Aurors found something related to dark magic in your house. Are you using any evil magic at home?"

Ron's question wasn't random. The Daily Prophet had an article that suggested this, written by Rita Skeeter.

Although Lucius Malfoy refuted this baseless and absurd nonsense in the newspaper the next day, he had a Death Eater record, so many people didn't believe him.

The Gryffindors looked at Malfoy with changed eyes.

Malfoy roared in exasperation, "There is absolutely no dark magic-related stuff in my house, that's slander!"

A dreamlike voice floated from the corridor, "Lying will make you bald."

Malfoy gritted his teeth in anger. He looked in the direction of the voice and saw Charles. He immediately chickened out.

This guy said his house exploded, and then his house really exploded. If...

Malfoy subconsciously touched his hair.

This action made everyone think he had lied just now.

Malfoy also realized his action was problematic. He stopped talking, just snorted coldly and walked into the Potions classroom.

Charles ignored him, wondering if the old man had dealt with Voldemort's diary. If he had, he could slack off next year.

He was thinking about Voldemort and the Basilisk, and the tunnel, when Snape had already finished taking attendance and his opening remarks, and started to pick on Harry.

"Potter!" Snape stared at Harry and asked, "If I add Asphodel root powder to Wormwood infusion, what will I get?"

Harry hadn't memorized the entire textbook. He looked around. Ron was stunned, Charles was spacing out, and Hermione, next to Charles, had her hand raised high.

He could only say, "I don't know."

It was then that Charles snapped out of his daze, realizing it was Snape picking on Harry, and stopped spacing out to watch the show.

Snape began to look down on Harry. If he knew Chinese, he would have definitely carved "all brawn and no brain" onto Harry's father's face.

Then Snape asked Harry again where to find an Ox-gall, and the difference between Wolfsbane and Monkshood.

Harry naturally didn't know these questions. Although he had flipped through the textbook, he didn't have Hermione's ability to memorize everything.

Harry said softly, "I don't know. I think Hermione knows the answer, why don't you ask her?"

Hermione was still eagerly raising her hand, subconsciously stood up, and looked at Snape with anticipation, hoping the professor would call on her to answer.

However, Snape was determined to pick on Harry, so even if Hermione could recite the book backward and raise her hand to the ceiling, it was useless, a waste of effort.

"Sit down!"

Snape suddenly roared at Hermione, startling the little girl into sitting down on her chair with a "bang."

In the week since school started, Hermione had been able to answer questions in almost every class, receiving praise from professors and adding points to Gryffindor. So she subconsciously assumed Snape was the same as other professors.

The huge contrast and the unprovoked roar made her feel wronged, and her nose tingled.

Charles narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze unfriendly.

From a public perspective, Snape's actions were ugly. If there were a governing education board, he would have been kicked out of the teaching profession long ago.

From a private perspective, due to his psychological age, Charles had always treated Harry, Hermione, and the others as juniors. Now that Snape was provoking the younger ones, the elder would naturally step in.

Charles certainly wouldn't confront Snape directly. If he had the power of money and didn't use it, would he let it fester?

However, Charles was sitting between Harry and Hermione, and Snape's gaze inevitably met his.

Snape saw the anger in Charles's eyes and, seeing him sitting between Harry and Hermione, his anger intensified. He sneered and said, "Mr. Smith is no longer spacing out? Perhaps the Sorting Hat was right, you should have gone straight to Azkaban. I can't imagine what kind of idiot could raise such an idiot."

"Do you also want to experience the feeling of being in the spotlight like Potter? Then I'll give you a chance. You answer the previous question for Potter."

Charles stood up, his comical face making Snape's heart skip a beat.

He calmly replied, "Asphodel is a plant of the lily family. Its root powder, when added to Wormwood, can prepare the Draught of Living Death, which induces sleep..."

Charles emphasized certain keywords, making Snape's expression extremely strange, as if his heart had been squeezed.

In this situation, Ox-gall and Monkshood were no longer that important.

Snape couldn't tell if Charles's actions were intentional or unintentional. After a few seconds of his cold gaze meeting Charles's comical one, he told Harry to sit down. Finally, he deducted five points from Gryffindor for Harry's insubordination.

Potions class continued, and the students began to brew potions in pairs.

During this time, Neville made a mistake, spilling a highly corrosive potion.

Charles and Hermione were being scrutinized by Snape with a fine-tooth comb, and were focused on brewing the potion, having forgotten about this. It wasn't until the green smoke appeared that Charles remembered.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

At the last second, Charles cast the Levitation Charm on Neville, making him float in the air and dodge the potion that was about to be splashed on him.

"Protego!"

Charles cast spells continuously in a short period, saving his classmates around him from having their shoes burned through.

"[Hogwarts Swear Word]!"

Snape roared and rushed over, glaring at Neville on the ceiling and shouting, "Yours didn't even take the cauldron off the heat before you put porcupine quills in it!"

Neville nodded with a pale face.

Seeing Harry and Ron next to Neville, Snape angrily said to Harry, "Potter, why didn't you tell him not to add porcupine quills? Does it make you look good when he makes a mistake? Gryffindor loses five points because of you again."

Harry's fists were already clenched, and Ron quickly pulled him back.

Snape turned to Charles at the table behind Neville and said with a cold smile, "Smith, your spells are very good, so you'll be responsible for cleaning up these potions. You can't leave the classroom until they're clean. I don't think that's difficult, do you?"

Charles smiled and took out a few empty Happy Water bottles from his Bag of Holding. He tested them to make sure they wouldn't be corroded, then used the Accio Charm to collect all the corrosive potions on the ground into them. He tightened the caps and put them away.

Potions that can melt cauldrons are good stuff. Maybe they'll come in handy someday.

Snape's father was a Muggle, and he grew up in Muggle society. Naturally, he recognized the Happy Water and the bottles, and his mouth twitched involuntarily.

After Potions class ended, Snape found an excuse to keep Charles behind to clean the classroom and organize all the materials.

Charles quickly finished the work and asked Snape with a smile, "Professor, have you paid off your mortgage?"

Snape was stunned and subconsciously replied, "My family doesn't have a mortgage."

Charles said calmly, "Perhaps you should consider taking out a loan to build a new house. I was spacing out during roll call just now because I saw you spacing out next to a bombed-out house, just like I saw the Malfoy house get bombed."

Damn it, calling me an idiot is one thing, but to call the old man an idiot too? The fact that your house is only left with foundations is thanks to the old man accumulating good karma.

Snape's cold face instantly turned dark.

The bombing of the Malfoy house had caused a huge stir, and the only useful clue so far was that Charles had "seen" something before.

Snape immediately left the classroom and asked Dumbledore for leave.