Soon, news of their victory over the troll spread throughout Hogwarts.
Almost everyone kept chasing down the people involved to ask them questions.
Ron was enthusiastic about the attention from his classmates. He often talked at length about what had happened, adding plenty of embellishments.
He even described the troll as a monster as big as a castle, with claws bared and fangs flashing!
Harry, on the other hand, was completely different. The title of "The Boy Who Lived" already drew plenty of attention to him, and now that this had happened, people were paying even more attention. It left him feeling rather bothered.
The most obvious example came during Potions Class.
Professor Snape seemed to think they hadn't done anything, yet Gryffindor had still been awarded points, and he clearly had a problem with that.
So during class, he paid even more attention to Harry.
Whenever there was a difficult question, he'd ignore Hermione's raised hand and throw it at Harry instead.
If Harry failed to answer, he was sure to get a sarcastic remark, followed by the snickering of Malfoy and his two sidekicks.
As for Hermione, after that day, she had come to terms with things.
She had adjusted her place in the group a little. She wasn't so eager to lecture everyone anymore, and she no longer cared so much about people breaking school rules. That had made her a little more popular.
As one of the people involved in the troll incident, her relationship with Harry and Ron had also thawed. They could now be considered friends.
Every now and then, Glenn would hear Hermione complain in the library: "There's so much time, but they still wait until the last day to say, 'Hermione, please let me look at your homework...'"
He had to admit, in that regard, he admired her.
Hermione wouldn't let anyone copy her homework. Instead, she made them finish their own work first, then helped check it over.
Clearly, not everyone had the ability or patience to mark and correct every mistake on a sheet of paper covered in errors.
Glenn had only glanced at Ron's essay before feeling the urge to throw it in the bin.
If he hadn't known that its author had spent only ten minutes writing that stream of nonsense, he would have had to respect every patient's right to write and call St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries to come collect one...
Of course, that was just a joke. Glenn would never actually do that.
After all, Ron had taken most of the pressure off him. Whenever someone wanted to ask about the details of the troll incident, Glenn sent them to Ron Weasley—and Ron was more than happy to oblige.
Besides that, there was something else worth paying attention to.
Dittany had bloomed!
On an unremarkable morning, Anthony from Ravenclaw came over, beaming.
"Goldstein, I don't think bringing a flowerpot into the dining hall first thing in the morning is very polite. Is that how all Ravenclaws behave?" Malfoy sneered.
"Sorry, it's mine."
"Oh. Come to think of it, this flower smells pretty good," Malfoy said casually.
That didn't mean Draco Malfoy had approved of Glenn.
But until the Quidditch team tryouts, all personal grudges could be set aside.
He was just one step away from earning a spot on the Slytherin Quidditch team ahead of schedule—he was already close to being good enough to beat the previous Slytherin Seeker.
He absolutely couldn't let Glenn take part in the tryouts, especially after seeing his flying skills in Flying Lesson.
At the sight of such a swift change of attitude, Anthony resisted the urge to roll his eyes and set the flowerpot down on an empty table.
"I saw it when I got up this morning."
The pot held a plant about eight inches tall, with lush, deep-green leaves.
Several clusters of small, pale-purple flowers adorned its top. Leaning closer, he caught a crisp, cooling scent, like crushed fresh mint wrapped in the dry sharpness of rosemary.
Glenn rubbed one of the leaves between his fingers. It felt soft and cool.
"It's mature."
Anthony grinned. He looked even happier than Glenn, the plant's owner.
That meant all those moonlit nights had paid off!
It had matured a full two weeks earlier than the book said it would!
That proved that even ordinary moonlight, not just a full moon, could speed up Dittany's growth.
He could write a paper about it and explain what he had discovered. Professor Sprout would definitely award them points... Ahem, she'd be very pleased.
"When the time comes, I'll put both our names on the paper."
But unexpectedly, Glenn waved away the suggestion.
"No need. Just put your name on it."
Anthony was a little confused.
"I've earned a few too many points lately. I should take a break," Glenn said calmly, leaving Anthony at a loss.
"I'm joking," Glenn said with a smile. After all, a paper was worth a fixed number of points. If Professor Sprout awarded points to two people, they'd have to split them.
"I didn't do anything. I just lent you the Dittany to study. You did the work, so you deserve the credit."
Hearing this, Anthony instinctively wanted to refuse.
But then he remembered the House Points he'd seen posted in the Great Hall. Ravenclaw was simply too far behind.
"All right, I appreciate the kindness," Anthony said sincerely.
"If you ever need help with anything, just ask."
After that, when Padma and the others called to him from nearby, he returned to the Ravenclaw table.
"If you ever need help with anything, just ask~" Malfoy said sarcastically. "But I can't imagine what Slytherin can't handle on its own that would require help from another house."
"Lots of things, Draco." Glenn ran his fingers over Dittany's leaves, in good spirits.
"Like this pot of Dittany."
Malfoy frowned at the sudden mention of his name.
"But I could buy a few pots."
Glenn only smiled. Professor Sprout wouldn't let him grow dangerous plants at Hogwarts just because he'd bought a few pots of Dittany.
Never mind whether a restricted, dangerous magical plant like Biting Cabbage could even be brought into Hogwarts.
If Malfoy asked his father to buy him a few Biting Cabbages, his father would probably be more worried about them biting his head off than about the price...
"What a pity. If it were me, I'd have them put their names on it too..." Pansy said from the next table.
Her remark drew sighs of regret from the Slytherins around them. They all thought Glenn should have taken Anthony up on his offer and added another name to the paper.
Blaise, who had watched the whole thing, set down his coffee and, as usual, offered no opinion.
But he gave Glenn, who was fiddling with the Dittany, a long look.
Compared to his still-naive classmates, Blaise had learned early, under his mother's influence, how to stay out of trouble amid complicated social entanglements.
He didn't share his opinions or take sides.
He believed taking sides might bring greater rewards, but if you stayed out of the fray, you couldn't lose.
With that detached outlook, Blaise could see through a lot of people.
But... so far, Glenn Howard remained like a ball of fog. Blaise still couldn't tell what he was thinking.
Was he doing this to turn the points into a favor for Slytherin? he wondered.
Glenn paid no attention to the increasingly lively discussion around him. There was nothing wrong with it; it was only human nature.
If this had happened at the start of term, they'd probably have been discussing how to force Anthony to cross his name out so they could keep all the points for themselves... This was already progress.
But there was no reason to regret that, either. If someone had put in both time and effort, then they deserved a fair reward when the work paid off. Otherwise, why would anyone help?
Glenn had a pretty clear view of that.
More important than all this was figuring out how many seeds the Dittany could produce that were suitable for planting. After all, growing several pots at once would certainly be faster than growing them one at a time.
There's no room left in the dormitory. Looks like it's time to find somewhere to plant it, Glenn thought, looking at the vivid purple flowers atop the Dittany.
Before you continue