The Audience Stand Exploded

The Audience Stand Exploded

On Saturday morning, the first-year Gryffindor students discovered that Charles's face was even gloomier than yesterday.

Harry was forcing himself to eat as much breakfast as possible. Full of confidence, he said to Charles, "There's a Quidditch match today. Just watch me win it."

Charles said absentmindedly, "Good luck... Watch your footwork and don't let it get sloppy. Keep your eyes on your opponent's movements, and watch out for feints..."

Harry said with a dark look, "It's a Quidditch match, not a boxing match!"

Charles still looked the same as he said to him, "Oh... Be careful not to fall off your broom."

Harry was instantly speechless. His head full of question marks, he asked, "What's wrong with you? Did you get dumped?"

Charles turned his head and stared coldly at the boy, frightening Harry into carrying his half-eaten breakfast to the other end of the long table.

Hermione on the other side wasn't afraid that he would hit her, and asked him curiously as well, "Did you really get dumped?"

Charles said calmly, "I'll write to Mr. Granger and tell him you eat a lot of candy every day."

Hermione immediately cowered. Not to mention his daughter—even when Dumbledore had come to their house to explain Hogwarts and brought out several kinds of magical candy, saying that he often ate them, her father had tricked him onto a dentist's examination bed and checked him for half an hour.

After breakfast, Charles stepped across the frost on the grass and arrived at the Second Greenhouse.

Professor Sprout was just about to move the flowerpots that had been burned yesterday and frozen overnight back into the greenhouse. When she saw Charles approaching, she asked in surprise, "Aren't you going to watch the Quidditch match?"

Today was the match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, and the students from both Houses had gone to watch it.

Charles merely shook his head and helped the professor make the flowerpots grow legs so they could walk back into the greenhouse on their own. It was much easier than making pineapples tap-dance.

It was just that the weather was too cold, and the legs that grew from the flowerpots were trembling.

"Professor," Charles suddenly asked, "could someone have deliberately thrown those insects into the greenhouse?"

Professor Sprout frowned and said, "Who could be so vile? If that's really what happened, I'll tie myself to the Whomping Willow!"

Charles had no evidence and was only guessing, so he said nothing more. After finishing moving the flowerpots, he helped carry the Dragon Dung compost back inside.

The Quidditch pitch was not far from the greenhouse. They could clearly hear the commentary and cheers from the field, and even see Harry high in the air, nearly thrown off by his furious flying broom.

Charles didn't notice what was happening on the Quidditch pitch. Instead, he made an unexpected discovery outside the greenhouse.

"Professor!" he shouted. "Come quickly!"

Professor Sprout hurried over at once. Following the direction Charles pointed, she discovered footprints in the cheap medicinal herbs planted in the vacant lot beside the greenhouse.

The herbs came up to their calves and had already withered. They would not grow green shoots until next year. At present, a trail of them had been trampled and broken from the roadside all the way to the greenhouse.

Professor Sprout went over to inspect the area and found that the glass at that spot in the greenhouse had been removed before and merely set loosely back in place.

"Could someone really have thrown insects inside?" Professor Sprout's gaze sharpened. "Or stolen the herbs to secretly brew some kind of potion?"

Charles thought for a moment before saying to the professor, "I have an idea. We could say that the herbs in the greenhouse were sprayed with Muggle pesticides a few days ago. Anyone who secretly used them to brew potions would suffer chronic poisoning. It would be difficult to notice at first, but they would suddenly drop dead after a month."

If the person had only stolen herbs, it would not be a big deal. But if they had deliberately thrown in insects to spread something, then they were in serious trouble.

At that moment, a burst of astonished cries came from the Quidditch pitch. Everyone had seen Harry in the sky nearly thrown off his flying broom several times.

In the Gryffindor stands, Hermione snatched Hagrid's binoculars and searched the spectator stands for Snape.

Sure enough, she saw Snape staring intently at Harry in the sky and muttering under his breath.

"It really is Snape. Look." Hermione angrily shoved the binoculars at Ron.

Seamus, who had not heard very clearly from beside them, asked curiously, "What's going on?"

Harry had not told many people about the Philosopher's Stone and Snape. Seamus had a wide circle of friends and did not often stay with the three of them anymore, while Charles was busy with his own affairs, so he naturally had never heard about it.

Hermione had no time to explain to him and turned to leave the stands.

In the sky, Fred and George tried to grab Harry, but the moment they got close, the Nimbus 2000 shot rapidly upward by a large margin. The brothers could only prepare below to catch Harry when he fell.

After much difficulty, Hermione reached the back of the stands where Snape was. She slipped underneath the stands and arrived behind Snape's position, with Quirrell's feet directly above her head.

She took out her wand, thought for a moment, then took out a lipstick and opened both its inner and outer caps. She first poured a little potion onto Snape's robes, then pointed her wand at the hem and cast a spell.

Blue Flames sprang from the tip of her wand and instantly set the robes alight.

Hermione ran as soon as she started the fire. Nearly half a minute later, after she had run some distance away, she suddenly heard a tremendous bang behind her.

Through the binoculars, Ron stared dumbfounded as Snape seemed to have been kicked viciously in the backside by someone. His entire body flew up, nearly landing on the pitch, before he caught on the railing.

Quirrell behind Snape fared no better. He seemed to have taken an uppercut, his whole body flying backward until the back of his head slammed heavily into a flagpole, stopping him from flying out of the pitch.

The students nearby were just as unlucky. One older boy was sent flying as well, crashing into Malfoy and knocking him unconscious.

The stands immediately descended into chaos. Snape was pulled down from the railing, and his originally icy face was now filled with bewilderment.

At that moment, Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick arrived at the scene. Seeing that Snape was not seriously hurt, they breathed a sigh of relief.

They directed the students to carry out the students who had been knocked unconscious and sent them, along with the other injured students, to the Hospital Wing.

Quirrell did not wait for the students to help him. He fled, scrambling and rolling away.

Harry discovered that his flying broom had returned to normal and hurried back into the match.

In the end, Harry caught the Golden Snitch. Gryffindor won the match, and even from the greenhouse they could hear the Gryffindor students cheering.

That evening, Charles and Seamus were summoned to the Headmaster's Office. One of them had Exploding Liquid, while the other had exceptional talent for blowing things up, so Snape quickly suspected them.

Seamus said with an innocent look, "I was in the stands at the time. I saw that Harry was about to fall, and I was so nervous that I even ended up clinging to Dean."

He vaguely suspected that Hermione was connected to the incident, so when he mentioned witnesses, he only named Dean, who had been sitting on the other side, along with Lavender and Parvati, who had been sitting in front and had not seen Hermione leave.

Dumbledore summoned the witnesses and confirmed it repeatedly. Seamus had indeed been in the Gryffindor stands at the time, and in his nervousness he had accidentally kicked Parvati in the back.

Charles's case was simpler. Professor Sprout testified that he had been with her in the greenhouse at the time.

The matter ended without consequence and became an unsolved case.

Before long, a rumor spread through Hogwarts that Professor Snape had developed a potion that could make a person fly into the sky after drinking it and passing gas. He had apparently been trying to fly up and rescue Harry, but had failed to judge the angle properly.

When Charles was preparing to return to the Common Room, Harry, Ron, and Hermione stopped him in the corridor and led him into an abandoned classroom.