Helping Hand

The castle hall was filled with laughter as everyone celebrated the successful conclusion of the Wizard Card Competition.

Hermione and Ron sat in the crowd, sipping Butterbeer and discussing the match they had just played.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked, noticing that Harry had disappeared.

"I saw him leave the hall in a hurry just now," Neville replied to Hermione.

Hermione and Ron exchanged glances, put down their glasses, and walked out of the hall.

They found Harry quickly; the savior was lurking around the corner, seemingly up to no avail.

Ron and Hermione walked over together, Ron patted Harry on the shoulder, and asked with a puzzled look, "Harry, what are you doing here?"

Harry was startled, but when he turned around and saw Hermione and Ron, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong?"

Hermione craned her neck to look around the corner, but saw nothing, and her face grew even more puzzled.

"Shh!" Harry quickly made a shushing gesture, pointed to a classroom not far away, and explained, "I suspect Snape is pressuring Professor Quirrell Professor Quirrell, trying to get him to tell him the mechanism Protect the Philosopher's Stone."

"You mean..." Ron's face showed a shocked expression.

"What are you going to do?" Hermione looked uneasy as well.

"We have to do something!" Harry said firmly.

"But... what should we do?" Ron couldn't come up with any good ideas either.

"Perhaps we should interrupt them," Hermione suggested.

"If we do that, Snape will definitely find a chance to deduct Gryffindor." Harry hadn't forgotten that Snape had just deducted ten points from Gryffindor.

"But we can't just do nothing," Hermione said, frowning. "If Professor Quirrell can't hold on..."

"You're right," Harry said through gritted teeth. "We can't let Professor Quirrell bear Snape's burden alone; we must support him..."

"This is truly a..."

"A terrible decision, isn't it, Potter?" A calm voice sounded from behind them. "You're going to get us penalized with a lot of points, and I bet the others won't be happy about it."

The three of them were startled by the sudden sound and quickly turned around to look in the direction from which the sound came, only to see Albert appear behind them at some point.

"When will you..."

Hermione was interrupted by Albert raising his hand before she could finish speaking.

"When Potter was about to rush in and cause trouble," Albert said gently, "It was courageous, but also reckless and foolish."

"Then what do you suggest we do!" Harry felt inexplicably irritated; he knew he needed to act quickly. Ron nudged Harry with his elbow, not wanting his friend to have a falling out with Albert.

Albert is a very easy person to get along with.

Of course, if you have a sour face, don't expect the other person to give you a friendly look.

"Here, take this!"

Albert took out the Transfiguration Lizard Skin and pulled out a rat-like object from it.

"Pull its tail, and it will start moving on its own. After about fifteen seconds, it will make a loud noise. Good luck." Albert handed Harry the Bait Mouse he had recently tested.

"Remember to cover your ears."

As he spoke, he made a gesture of covering his ears and said mysteriously, "Remember to keep it a secret."

Harry looked at the toy mouse in his hand with some skepticism, then looked up at Albert who had turned and walked away. As he met Hermione and Ron's gaze, Hermione had already snatched the Bait Mouse from his hand, pulled its tail, and thrown it to the ground.

That thing really was like a mouse, constantly running forward, and finally sneaking into the classroom where Snape and Quirrell were.

A few seconds later, a piercing sound accompanied by a choking smoke came from the classroom, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all stunned by what they saw.

Finally, Hermione was the first to come to her senses and quickly pulled Harry and Ron away.

No sooner had the three left than an angry curse erupted from the classroom where Snape and Quirrell were. The two rushed out of the classroom, looking around to find the culprit who had caused all this.

However, they gained nothing.

Snape realized that the two sides could not reach an agreement. Watching Quirrell's departing figure, he returned to the classroom to examine the crime scene and look for traces left by the murderer.

A few minutes later, Snape discovered the culprit behind all this: a tattered Bait Mouse that really looked like a rat.

As Snape grabbed the rat by the tail and picked it up from the ground, the rat's few remaining intact heads suddenly exploded, and black smoke enveloped Snape, covering him in dust and making him look extremely disheveled.

"Damn it, if I find out who did this, I'll fire him!" Snape coughed and cursed as he walked out of the classroom.

When Harry, Ron, and Hermione saw Snape's disheveled figure leaving, they were all stunned by the effect of Albert's joke prop.

Harry was so shocked he couldn't close his mouth; it was the first time he had ever seen Snape so disheveled.

"That's great." Ron finally couldn't help but burst out laughing after Snape disappeared around the corner.

"I wonder if Albert still has this," Harry muttered.

"Forget about it. Even if it existed, we'd definitely have to pay for it." Hermione hadn't forgotten about the Communication Bookmark.

"Oh, I hope this isn't too expensive," Harry muttered. He still had a lot of Galleons left from the last time Harry got Galleon from Gringotts.

Ron opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

Albert had no idea he had a new customer. He was checking his task panel, and the "Helpful Hand" task was already 1/5 complete.

Sure enough, I was able to get missions from the trio.

Albert was in a very good mood. When he looked up, he happened to meet Isobel's gaze. He smiled and shrugged, "Well, I admit it, I don't really like Snape. It would be even better if he could cause some trouble for our Potions Professor."

"Snape can Legilimency," Isobel kindly reminded him. "Harry Potter and his two friends don't have Occlumency. If Snape were to intentionally peer into their minds, your secret would definitely be exposed."

"I know, but so what? It's not like Snape has caused me trouble before." Albert's tone was calm. He really didn't like Snape, and this matter involved a mission, so he didn't mind giving Snape some unexpected surprises.

Although the reward for the "Helping Hand" mission is not high, completing it can effectively increase the trio's favorability by 15 points, which is beneficial to his future plans.

After the two entered the Room of Requirement, Isobel suddenly said, "I have a feeling you're plotting something!"

I'm investing in the future. You probably don't know, but I once wanted to be a...

"Alright, we've known each other for a long time," Isobel interrupted. "I think you're doing something very dangerous."

Why do you think that way?

"Harry Potter is a savior," Isobel said, looking into Albert's eyes. "He represents trouble, especially when he's associated with Potter. I don't think it's a pure coincidence that the treasure in the Fourth Floor Forbidden Area was there."

"Hmm, as expected of Isobel." Albert admired Isobel's keen intuition.

"Let's not talk about that," Isobel said with a smile. "I won the Wizard Card Competition and also helped promote Wizard Card for you, shouldn't you give me some reward?"

"What award do you want..." Albert hadn't finished speaking when his mouth was covered.