Scott prefers to strike first

"Y... yes, Jasmine."

Scott heard Caitlin Rowle's voice trembling, laced with palpable fear.

"I... I will do as you say."

From her tone, Scott could tell she was struggling to overcome her own emotions to appease Jasmine Travers.

"Very good, Caitlin." Jasmine Travers spoke with gentle praise, "Thank you. You will always be my best friend; it is truly my luck to have met you."

Caitlin Rowle's voice immediately turned joyful, "You're welcome, Jasmine! We are indeed best friends!"

Listening to her excited voice, Scott felt like his eyes had been opened today.

Isn't this just the legendary PUA?

And Travers uses this routine so smoothly! She has already firmly held Caitlin Rowle in the palm of her hand.

"It's so good to have Caitlin's help; I feel much more at ease," Jasmine Travers said, stringing together sweet words, "but it's getting late now. You need to get some good rest. Let's head back."

"Okay, be careful on your way back, Jasmine."

"Don't worry..."

Hearing this, Scott knew he had to leave.

He was standing on the only path the two girls could take to leave, and if he stayed too close, he might be discovered.

He wasn't afraid of these two young witches, but he enjoyed the feeling of being the mastermind behind the scenes and didn't want to reveal his hand just yet.

As the two girls said their goodbyes, he turned and walked in the other direction.

Although it was a pity not to hear any key information, knowing that the other party intended to target him in secret was enough.

Afterward, Scott silently arrived in a corridor near Ravenclaw Tower, standing in the shadows beneath a pillar, watching the two girls emerge from the dark corner behind the tower.

Watching them bid each other goodnight once more, Caitlin Rowle stood at the tower's main entrance, eagerly watching Jasmine Travers walk toward the Slytherin common room.

Not until Jasmine Travers was out of her sight did Caitlin Rowle turn and enter the tower.

But neither of them noticed that a small, weightless black bat was currently gripping the back of Jasmine Travers's sleeve tightly with its tiny claws, swaying gently as she walked.

Scott did not choose to return to the common room; he followed closely behind Caitlin Rowle the moment she walked into the tower.

His body blended into the tower, his footsteps silent.

Caitlin Rowle had no idea that the person she and Jasmine Travers wanted to target was following right behind her, only a few steps away.

Scott was not the type to wait until he was attacked to retaliate. On the contrary, he was accustomed to striking first.

Walking up the spiral staircase behind Caitlin Rowle, Scott smiled silently.

The best way to deal with danger is, of course, to make the danger disappear directly, or to resolve the person trying to bring danger to you first.

Of course, he wasn't prepared to directly harm anyone. In this magical castle, he didn't yet have the ability to escape an investigation after hurting someone.

Who knew to what extent their great headmaster controlled the castle?

He was simply going to let this girl who tried to harm him get "naturally" sick for a while.

He couldn't use spells or potions on her, as those could potentially be traced afterward. He never underestimated the influence those pure-blood families had on Hogwarts.

Of course, the biggest reason for this was that their great headmaster was a person who strictly followed the rules. This could be seen from the "original work," where this century's most powerful wizard would be repeatedly constrained by a bunch of clowns.

Scott pulled a small, sealed glass vial from the Moke Skin Pouch at his waist.

He held the half-finger-long transparent glass vial up to his eyes, shook it gently, and confirmed its contents at close range.

Inside the glass vial lay a lonely syringe needle.

If you want to make someone sick, using spells or potions might be discovered. But what if he used a virus that wizards had never understood?

Scott smiled again, carefully opened the sealed glass vial and pinched it with his fingers, while his other hand pulled out his wand and waved it, pointing through the air.

Accompanied by a faint fluctuation of magic, the metal needle inside the glass vial turned into a black mosquito.

This Aedes aegypti flapped its transparent wings and flew out of the glass vial, heading straight for Caitlin Rowle on the spiral staircase above.

A few seconds later, Scott heard the soft cry of surprise he had hoped for.

He stood quietly in place, waiting for the mosquito to fly back, turn back into a needle, and fall into the glass vial.

Listening to Caitlin Rowle's footsteps continuing upward, he tucked his wand back into the holster inside his robe, resealed the glass vial, and turned to walk down the stairs.

Next, he traveled unimpeded to the edge of the Black Lake, crouched down to place the glass vial on the ground, and waved his wand once more.

"Evanesco."

Under the effect of the magic, the glass vial containing the needle vanished completely, and Scott stood up.

Afterward, as he walked along the shore of the Black Lake, he calculated in his mind the approximate location of the Slytherin dormitories beneath the lake.

15 minutes later, he stopped again.

He stepped into the lake water, took off one of his shoes, placed it on the surface, and waved his wand to turn the leather shoe into a small boat before it could sink.

"It just smells a bit like feet."

Climbing onto the boat, Scott muttered softly and began to row with the oars made from his shoelaces. Ripples spread across the calm, deep lake as the rather fragrant little boat slowly sailed forward.

Five minutes later, Scott stopped his movements, letting the small boat drift on the surface of the lake.

At this moment, he had re-established the "connection" with the bat that had followed Jasmine Travers back to the Slytherin common room.

Without hesitation, he waved his wand, transforming his robes into a suit of iron armor that encased his entire body. He then cast a Bubble-Head Charm and flipped over, diving into the cold water of the lake at night.

Scott sank rapidly at a high speed, and soon he saw the warm light filtering out from the rows of windows belonging to the Slytherin common room and student dormitories deep within the lake.

The timing was perfect; thanks to the complex routes inside Hogwarts castle, Jasmine Travers had also just returned to her dormitory.

"Jasmine, you're finally back!"

Scott heard the voice of an unfamiliar girl in his ears. He waved his wand again to turn the armor back into robes, then swam closer to the glass window of that dormitory, hiding himself among the lush aquatic plants.

"I was worried about you just now. If Professor Snape found out..."

"Don't worry, Morgan. I wouldn't get caught by a disgusting thing like Filch." After returning to the dormitory, Jasmine Travers's voice returned to normal, lacking that soothing, gentle quality from before.