Charles had spent the whole night trying to figure out how Voldemort had tunneled underground, but he couldn't come up with anything. He continued thinking about it the next day, to the point that he looked a little absent-minded.
While eating breakfast, Dumbledore became curious when he saw Charles like this. He wondered whether the little fellow was currently in a prophetic state, and if so, what he had seen.
If he knew what Charles was thinking about at that moment, he definitely would have been given quite a fright.
After breakfast, Charles instinctively passed through the hall on the castle's first floor with his classmates. They arrived at the basement and headed toward the gloomy Potions Class classroom.
The class was taken together with the Slytherin students. Harry was talking with Ron when someone said sarcastically, "Oh... our illustrious savior, His Excellency Harry Potter, has arrived. Why aren't you making way for him?"
Needless to say, Malfoy was behind it.
Before Harry could respond, Ron asked Malfoy, "Has your house been repaired?"
Malfoy's face instantly darkened. His family home had inexplicably exploded. The financial losses were secondary; more importantly, he had suffered a huge blow to his pride and had become the laughingstock of the wizarding world for a while.
More importantly, Ron asked his next question: "I heard the Aurors found some things related to Dark Magic in your house. Was your family using some kind of evil magic?"
Ron wasn't asking this randomly. The Daily Prophet had published an article making that very claim, and its author was named Rita Skeeter.
Although Lucius Malfoy had refuted the baseless, ridiculous nonsense in the newspaper the very next day, he had a history as a Death Eater, so many people didn't believe him.
The Gryffindor students' looks at Malfoy changed.
Malfoy shouted furiously, "There is absolutely nothing related to Dark Magic in my house! That's slander!"
A dreamy voice drifted through the corridor overhead: "Lying makes you go bald."
Malfoy ground his teeth in anger and looked toward the source of the voice. When he saw it was Charles, he immediately backed down.
This fellow had said that his house would explode, and then it really had. What if...
Malfoy instinctively reached up and touched his hair.
As a result, this action made everyone think he had been lying just now.
Malfoy also realized that his action had been suspicious. He said nothing more, merely snorted and walked into the Potions Class classroom.
Charles ignored him. He just didn't know whether the Old Man had dealt with Voldemort's notebook. If he had, Charles could coast through the next year.
He was thinking about Voldemort, the Basilisk, and the matter of tunneling underground when Snape had already finished taking attendance and delivering his opening speech. He began picking on Harry.
"Potter!" Snape stared at Harry and asked, "What will I get if I add Asphodel root powder to Wormwood infusion?"
Harry hadn't memorized the entire textbook. He looked to either side. Ron was dumbfounded, Charles was spacing out, and Hermione, sitting beside Charles, had her hand raised high.
He could only say, "I don't know."
Charles came back to himself and realized that it was already the scene where Snape picked on Harry. He stopped spacing out and began watching the show.
Snape began sneering at Harry. If he knew Chinese, he would definitely have carved the words all reputation and no substance onto Harry's face, which looked just like his father's.
Snape then asked Harry where he should look if he needed a bezoar, and what the difference was between monkshood and wolfsbane.
Harry naturally didn't know the answers. He had flipped through the entire textbook, but he didn't possess Hermione's ability to memorize all of it.
Harry said quietly, "I don't know. I think Hermione knows the answers. Why don't you ask her?"
Hermione was still eagerly holding up her hand. She stood up subconsciously and looked at Snape expectantly, hoping that 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 would be useless. She was only wasting her effort.
"Sit down!"
Snape suddenly roared at Hermione, frightening the girl into dropping into her chair with a bang.
During the week since the start of term, Hermione had been able to answer questions in almost every class and had received praise from the professors, earning points for Gryffindor. She had therefore subconsciously assumed that Snape was like the other professors.
The enormous contrast and the unprovoked shout made her feel aggrieved, and her nose began to sting.
Charles narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze turning unfriendly.
From a public standpoint, what Snape had done was disgraceful. If there had been an education board in charge, the man would have been kicked out of the teaching profession long ago.
From a personal standpoint, because of his psychological age, Charles had always regarded Harry, Hermione, and the others as younger generations. Now that Snape had picked on one of the younger ones, the elder naturally had to be summoned.
Charles naturally wasn't going to confront Snape head-on. Why leave his ability to spend money unused until it grew mold?
However, Charles was sitting between Harry and Hermione, so Snape's gaze inevitably met his.
Snape saw the anger in Charles's eyes, then noticed him sitting between Harry and Hermione. His anger piled up. After giving a cold laugh, he said, "Is Mr. Smith 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 an idiot like you."
"Do you also want to experience the taste of being the center of attention like Potter? Then I'll give you a chance. You can answer the question I asked Potter."
Charles stood up, and his comical face made Snape's heart jump.
He answered calmly, "Asphodel is a plant in the lily family. Its root powder, combined with Wormwood, can be used to brew the Draught of Living Death..."
Charles emphasized the pronunciation of several key words, making Snape's expression instantly turn extremely strange, as though someone had squeezed his heart.
Under these circumstances, the questions about bezoars and monkshood were no longer important.
Snape couldn't tell whether Charles had done it intentionally or not. After their cold and comical gazes met for several seconds, he told Charles and Harry to sit down. In the end, he deducted five points from Gryffindor on the grounds that Harry had talked back to a professor.
Potions Class continued, and the students began brewing potions in pairs.
During the lesson, Neville made a mistake while working, and a highly corrosive potion spilled out.
Charles and Hermione were currently being harassed by Snape, who was picking faults with them as though searching for bones in an egg. They were concentrating on brewing their potion, so Charles had forgotten that this was about to happen. He only remembered when the green smoke appeared.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
At the critical moment, Charles used the Levitation Charm on Neville, making him float in the air and dodge the potion that was about to splash onto him.
"Protego!"
Charles cast another spell in quick succession, sparing the students around them the pain of having holes burned through their shoes.
"[Hogwarts profanity]!"
Snape roared as he charged over. He glared furiously at Neville, who was floating against the ceiling, and shouted, "You still put in the Porcupine Quills without taking the cauldron off the fire!"
Neville nodded pale-faced.
Snape saw Harry and Ron right beside Neville's group and angrily said to Harry, "Potter, why didn't you tell him not to add the Porcupine Quills? Did you think letting him make a mistake would make you look good? Gryffindor has lost another five points because of you."
Harry's fists had already clenched, and Ron hurriedly held him back.
Snape turned to look at Charles, whose table was behind Neville's group. He sneered and said to Charles, "Smith, your spellwork is excellent, so you can clean up all this potion. You can't leave the classroom until it's clean. I assume that won't be difficult?"
Charles smiled and took several empty Happy Water bottles from his Bag of Holding. After testing that they wouldn't be corroded, he used the Accio Charm to draw all the corrosive potion on the floor into them, tightened the caps, and put them away.
A potion capable of ruining a cauldron was valuable stuff. He might be able to use it sometime.
Snape's father was an ordinary man, and Snape had grown up in ordinary society, so he naturally recognized Happy Water and its bottles. The corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.
When Potions Class ended, Snape found an excuse to make Charles stay behind to clean the classroom and sort and put away all the materials.
Charles briskly finished the work, then asked Snape with a smile, "Professor, have you paid off your mortgage?"
Snape froze and answered instinctively, "My family doesn't need a mortgage."
Charles said calmly, "You may need to consider taking out a loan to build a new house. I was spacing out during attendance just now because I saw you standing absent-mindedly beside a house that had been blown up, just like I saw Malfoy's house get blown up."
For goodness' sake. Calling me an idiot would at most get you stuffed into a sack and beaten in an alley. But you even called the Old Man an idiot. The fact that your family still has a foundation left is the Old Man accumulating virtue.
Snape's cold face instantly turned black.
Malfoy's house being blown up had caused a huge commotion. At present, the only useful lead was that Charles had previously "seen" it.
Snape immediately left the classroom to ask Dumbledore for leave.
Before you continue