A Certain Scientific Harry Potter 37

"What... did you say?!"

Hermione was just about to express her surprise when a violent commotion erupted across the stadium; Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor captain and Keeper, was seen falling helplessly from the air along with his broomstick.

Opposite him, Marcus Flint, the Slytherin captain, had just handed his bat back to a Beater teammate.

Harry was not surprised by this result at all, for Quidditch was a sport that pushed foul tactics to the extreme; otherwise, busybodies wouldn't have bothered to compile a list of over seven hundred ways to cheat.

There were two major loopholes in the Quidditch rulebook: first, no matter how one fouled, no one would ever be sent off the pitch; second, any player forced to leave due to injury could not be replaced!

With these two rules combined, a Quidditch match could turn into a large-scale brawl at any moment, and it was truly nothing to be surprised about.

However, what Harry found ridiculous was that the people who drafted the Quidditch rules would rather issue hundreds of consecutive bans to stop various on-field disputes than ever think to solve these two root problems.

But that had nothing to do with Harry; he didn't play Quidditch anyway, and the ones currently being screwed over by the rules were just Gryffindor.

Ever since Oliver Wood left the field, the area in front of the Gryffindor goalposts had been under constant bombardment, getting shot at to their hearts' content by the fierce and aggressive players of Slytherin House.

Yet during this time, the remaining six Gryffindor players could only watch and fret from the sidelines... because Quidditch had another bizarre rule: when the opposing team was shooting, no one on the defending side could touch the ball except for the Keeper.

Well, well, even though the Keeper had left the field, the rule still remained in effect~

"At this rate, won't Slytherin just win?" In the stands, Hermione frowned, clearly unwilling to accept this outcome.

Although her favorability toward both Gryffindor and Slytherin was quite average, she had previously been in a group fight with the snake house, so by comparison, Hermione still hoped for Gryffindor to win.

"If Gryffindor wants to win, they have to catch the Golden Snitch as quickly as possible before the score gap widens to 150 points! Otherwise, it won't just be a simple loss; they'll all end up leaving the field injured!"

"Is... is it that serious?" Hermione couldn't help but be shocked upon hearing this.

She was still too naive to see the situation on the field clearly, but Harry understood it perfectly.

Marcus, the Slytherin captain, was a ruthless man; from the very beginning, his plan had been to use fouls to keep Gryffindor's numbers dwindling.

The Slytherin Seeker hadn't made a move, which indicated they didn't want to end the game that way at all.

For a Quidditch match to end, it required either the agreement of both team captains or the capture of the Golden Snitch. Now that the Gryffindor captain Wood was out with an injury, if the Gryffindor Seeker couldn't catch the Golden Snitch, they wouldn't even be able to forfeit the game!

As for the Golden Snitch... Harry estimated that the Gryffindor Seeker had no hope.

Sitting in the spectator stands, Harry could clearly hear the sound of the Golden Snitch; it should be hovering about five meters above the Gryffindor Seeker's head right now, yet the guy was completely oblivious to it.

Subconsciously looking up, Harry found that his judgment was indeed correct; wasn't that little thing right... wait!

Why could he see it?

Harry squinted in confusion, only to find that he could indeed roughly lock onto the position of the Golden Snitch, and he was taken aback!

Although he and Hermione were sitting in the first row of the stands, they were at least several dozen meters away from the pitch. The Golden Snitch was only the size of a walnut, and its flight path was extremely complex; how could he, a nearsighted person, see it so clearly?!

Could it be... that this was also an effect of looking into the Mirror of Erised?

Let's give it a try.

Harry gripped his Space Ring and silently recited Clear Mirror Still Water in his heart. In an instant, not only did the sounds of the world become clearer, but the scenery before his eyes also became much more vivid!

He finally confirmed that ever since he looked into the Mirror of Erised, which had elevated his magic and mental power to a new level, his eyes, like his ears, had undergone some kind of special change!

It seemed that having Professor Snape help him keep the mirror for himself was indeed the right choice.

Looking up, the frequency of the Golden Snitch's wing vibrations seemed to slow down; even at a distance of several dozen meters, Harry could capture its movement trajectory more clearly.

And not far from it, a pitch-black iron ball was whistling toward him at a speed that exceeded the limit!

"This is... a Bludger?!"

Harry's pupils instantly shrank to pinpricks; that Bludger... it seemed to be heading straight for him!!

"Hermione, get behind me." Facing the unforeseen event he had predicted, Harry alertly stood up to shield Hermione.

Although the balls used in Quidditch were all enchanted to prevent them from leaving the pitch, Harry no longer trusted these 'common sense' facts of the wizarding world!

This ball made him feel danger, so even if it meant disrupting the entire match, he had to prioritize ensuring the safety of Hermione and himself!

However, just as Harry was tensed up, a Gryffindor Beater suddenly appeared in front of Harry on his broomstick and swung his bat, knocking the Bludger away.

"Hey, Harry, were you scared?" The Weasley, whether it was Fred or George, turned back and smiled at Harry. "Quidditch is just that exciting sometimes, but don't worry, a Bludger won't..."

BANG!!

Before the Weasley twin could finish his sentence, another Bludger suddenly struck, slamming directly into his stomach!!

Chapter 69: The Bludger is Controlled by a Third Person (2/10)

"Weasley?!"

What happened in that split second was so sudden that even Harry hadn't been able to react in time!

The violent Bludger carried the Weasley's body forward, finally slamming him into the spectator stands, landing right in front of Harry!

"This... oh no!"

The impact of the Bludger was exceptionally vicious. Harry, having regained his senses, hurried to check the Weasley's injuries, only to find that blood was already seeping from the boy's nose and mouth!

"George!!"

At this moment, the other Weasley twin also cried out in concern, and only then did Harry realize that it was George who was injured.

"Hagrid, take him to Madam Pomfrey as fast as you can. Try to avoid any jolting on the way, and tell her George was hit in the abdomen by a Bludger, causing multiple internal organ ruptures; he needs immediate treatment!!"

After quickly confirming George's injuries, Harry immediately handed him over to Hagrid, who was standing behind him.

He was injured too severely; simple first aid on the sidelines would be completely useless!

"I'm going right now!!" Hagrid trusted Harry absolutely, and upon hearing this, he immediately scooped up George, pushed through the crowd of onlookers, and strode toward the school hospital.

"Harry, that Bludger... it stopped?!"

At the same time, Hermione suddenly screamed and pointed in front of Harry, only to find that the Bludger, which had returned for another pass, was strangely frozen in mid-air.

Bang!!

Another Bludger struck at the same time, slamming hard into the first one. However, although the two balls joined forces to try and close in on Harry, they seemed to be held firmly in place by someone, struggling violently but unable to move.

"These two Bludgers are being controlled! Is it... Snape?!" Beside Harry, Hermione began to search carefully with her binoculars. When she spotted the Bat Professor hidden in a corner of the stands, muttering incantations without blinking, she couldn't help but be stunned.

Harry had said before that after giving Snape that injection, the two of them had "talked quite happily." Why were they now clashing from a distance?

"He should be helping me."

Harry certainly knew that Snape couldn't possibly want to harm him, but he felt the current situation was a bit strange.

If he remembered correctly, in the original story, when Quirrell cast a spell on his broomstick, Snape had mumbled the counter-curse until he tripped over his words, failing to produce any effect.

If it hadn't been for Hermione setting his robes on fire, which incidentally distracted Quirrell behind him, the Harry of the original story would likely have been thrown off his broom long ago.

From this, it could be seen that Snape's magical prowess shouldn't be higher than that of Quirrell after being possessed by Voldemort.

Now that the target of control had changed from a Flying Broomstick to a Bludger, could Snape really be evenly matched with Quirrell?

So... there might be a third person controlling the Bludgers right now!

And they should also be helping him!!

Having figured this out, Harry slowly raised both hands, his eyes shifting from their original emerald green to a deathly pale!

The Obscurus erupted. Thousands of sharp wind blades were suddenly released from the invisible black mist, completely enveloping both Bludgers before the entire audience could even react!

Screech~

A teeth-grinding sound of metal friction instantly echoed throughout the arena, immediately drawing the attention of all the spectators.

Yet, everyone only saw a cluster of black mist quietly dissipate, followed by the astonished realization that the two solid iron Bludgers used for the match had strangely turned into two piles of shapeless debris, drifting and scattering in the air!!

"Match suspended!!"

Because of the sudden situation, Madam Hooch, acting as the referee, had to blow the whistle to stop the match immediately.

Come to think of it, the rules of Quidditch were quite something. Wood and George had been injured by Bludgers like that without a single suspension, yet the match was immediately halted because two dangerous Bludgers had been destroyed.

"The Bludgers... how exactly did they break?"

Madam Hooch's hawk-like eyes stared fixedly at Harry, but she couldn't find a single flaw on his face.

Although the incident with the Bludgers happened very close to Harry, and Harry was indeed recognized by the whole school as the most troublesome student, Madam Hooch could not use this as evidence to penalize Harry, who was merely a spectator.

This was the heaven-defying aspect of the Obscurus: it was hidden, swift, and silent. Aside from a cluster of black mist and a gust of wind, there were no other signs of its existence.

Therefore, when the eyes of the entire audience were focused on those two Bludgers, almost no one noticed that the faint "black mist" had been released by Harry.

"Hermione, I want to leave. Do you want to come with me?" Harry ignored Madam Hooch's scrutinizing gaze and turned to look at Hermione with a relaxed expression.

"Okay~" Hermione naturally sensed Harry's lack of interest and decisively chose to leave the stands with him.

In any case, the outcome of this match was already a foregone conclusion.

So far, Gryffindor had lost their Keeper, one Chaser, and one Beater... For Gryffindor House to win, their Seeker would need to be riding a Nimbus 2000 and be named Harry Potter.

"Harry, where are you going?" After leaving the pitch, Harry's pace was very hurried, which made Hermione sense that something was wrong.

"To find Professor Snape. He should have already started moving."

Harry was very certain that with Snape's intelligence, whatever he could think of, Snape would definitely have thought of as well.

That third person controlling the Bludgers must, like Snape, be watching Harry at all times, but that person could absolutely not be Dumbledore.

Because if the old man had intervened directly, there was no reason for him to let the two balls just freeze in the air like that, attracting excessive attention!

Therefore, the person who helped Snape fight against Quirrell might just be him~

Taking advantage of the time when others were still watching the match, Harry and Hermione searched the castle for a long time, finally finding Snape, dressed in black robes with a cold expression, in the rarely visited Fifth Underground Classroom.

At the same time, they saw for the first time the small figure that Snape had hung upside down from the ceiling with an unknown spell, struggling incessantly.

"Hey, the layout of Hogwarts is really complicated, it took us quite a while to find this place." Seeing this, Harry smiled and walked over. "Professor Snape, could you please let him down first?"

The Fifth Underground Classroom at Hogwarts was also a room used for Potions classes, but Harry had never been here before.

He had only roughly estimated that if Snape had caught that House-elf, he would have brought it down to the castle dungeons, so he had come over to try his luck, not expecting to actually find it.

And Snape had cooperated with him with absolute tacit understanding; the moment he unleashed the Obscurus to tear apart the Bludgers, Snape had reacted to catch the culprit, and he had actually succeeded!

(p.s. When checking the information, I roughly looked at the description of Quidditch rules in the original book. My feeling is that if there is a malicious foul on the field, such as bumping, pulling, or attacking with a wand, the match should be suspended for a penalty shot; but if a player is forced to retire after being hit by a Bludger, the match will not be suspended for that reason, that's all~)

Chapter 70: Dobby is Truly Pitiful (3/10)

"Granger, if you really want to learn about those messy secret passages, just go ask Filch. He is the one who knows the layout of this castle best." Snape glanced at Harry indifferently. "As for it... do you know how much effort I spent to control it? Now, if I let it go, aren't you worried it will Apparate and escape?"

To prevent this House-elf from escaping, Snape had been on high alert. Not only did he use a special spell to hang it upside down, but he also kept his wand pointed at its head, monitoring any possible movement!

At this moment, the small creature with bat-like ears was staring at Harry with wide, terrified green eyes the size of tennis balls, looking utterly pathetic.

"House-elf, you should know who I am, right?" Harry leaned in, promising with a solemn tone, "I swear on my own name that I only want to meet you and talk; I will absolutely not hurt you! So... when Professor Snape lifts the binding on you, could you please not run away immediately?"

Harry was incredibly patient with this House-elf who had once helped him.

"..." Upon hearing Harry's words, the panic on the creature's face subsided slightly. He stared at Harry for a long time, finally giving a reluctant nod to show his agreement.

"Professor, release him."

"Golden Bell Landing." Snape flicked his robes, decisively lifting the spell.

He was only here to help, after all; if Harry wanted to be naive enough to trust this House-elf, it had nothing to do with him, and he wouldn't bother catching him again if he ran.

"Ouch~"

Falling headfirst from the air, the House-elf only had time to protect his head before crashing directly onto the ground.

Yet he only let out a soft groan, then curled his body into a ball, trembling.

"Don't... please don't!!"

As Harry walked toward him, he raised his scarred hands in fear, as if terrified of being abused by Harry.

However, a moment later, he felt a sensation he had never experienced before.

It was the warmth from a palm, not a vicious beating!