A Little Linguistic Trick

Sure enough, after Anthony compiled his recorded White Fresh growth journal into a paper and showed it to Professor Sprout, the Herbology professor was absolutely delighted.

On the spot, she awarded Ravenclaw ten points!

As a result, in that class, the Ravenclaw students were buzzing with excitement.

The pent-up atmosphere of suppression finally burst forth.

Here was a house meant to represent wisdom, yet whenever they shared a class with Gryffindor, they could always be overshadowed by Hermione alone.

In every single lesson, no sooner had a professor posed a question than Hermione's hand shot up, ready to answer, which infuriated the Ravenclaws so much that sometimes they had to take turns keeping a sharp eye on the professors' movements—if there was even a hint that a question was coming, they'd preemptively raise their hands.

Among them, their head of house, Flitwick, was the worst!

Because he would always be lecturing along, then pretend he wanted a student to answer, only to pivot and answer his own question, finally chuckling as he signaled the Ravenclaws to put their raised hands down.

If competing with Gryffindor was a duel of speed.

Then facing Slytherin, they truly had no solution.

To be precise, they had no solution at all for Glen Howard.

Because he didn't bother racing them to raise his hand; he always politely let them answer first.

Then, after the professors had already acknowledged their answers, he'd slowly raise his hand and deliver an answer that made the professors' eyes light up—naturally, the points never fell to them.

Caught in this double whammy of back-and-forth, the Ravenclaws were left numb, reduced to counting on their fingers how many joint classes they still had with Hufflepuff.

But it had to be said, the result was that the once-mediocre relationship between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff had miraculously improved quite a bit.

Sometimes they'd even visit each other's common rooms to discuss topics of mutual interest, like Herbology.

In a sense, this also explained why, a hundred years ago at Hogwarts, the four houses had been so united.

Headmaster Phineas Black deserved the credit—he'd successfully made every house regard him equally as an external pressure...

After this Herbology class ended, Glen didn't rush to leave.

When he brought a pot of blooming White Fresh to Professor Sprout, she was so delighted she nearly lost her battered old hat.

"Oh! This is much faster than I expected!" She crouched down, carefully examining the White Fresh before her.

"The blooming period of White Fresh is when its magic is at its peak, and also the best time for it to be used in potions." Professor Sprout stroked the leaves. "Smooth, thick, glossy, healthy condition, and the petals are vibrant enough."

"Congratulations, Glen! You've cultivated your first qualified herb."

"Thank you."

Looking at the thriving White Fresh on the table, Professor Sprout nodded, then drew her wand and tapped it lightly.

"There, I've marked your work. This counts as your first submitted White Fresh."

"As for what comes next, since White Fresh is a hermaphroditic magical plant, once this blooming period passes and pollination is complete, you'll get its fruit, which contains seeds you can use to plant more..."

After explaining more cultivation techniques for White Fresh, Professor Sprout shifted topics. "If you'd like, you can take it to your Potions professor. I think Professor Snape would also be very willing to teach you how to brew a healing potion."

At that, she added with some regret, "It's a shame you're not one of my Hufflepuff students. With your talent in Herbology, I think with hard work and time, you could definitely become an excellent herbalist."

But no sooner had she said it than Professor Sprout regretted it. She realized such words were inappropriate.

For a student, it wasn't just hard to answer—it was practically a trap, the kind where no response was suitable. So she quickly added, "But the Sorting Hat must have its reasons for placing you where it did."

Glen didn't answer immediately. After a moment's thought, he said honestly, "But I am still your student."

Hearing this, Professor Sprout froze for a moment, then her smile grew even warmer.

"Yes, that's right."

Perhaps because Glen had so quickly cultivated a pot of White Fresh suitable for potion-making, as he left, Professor Sprout generously provided some soil and fertilizer for his next planting.

She also said that if he needed anything, he could come to the greenhouse anytime.

The greenhouse she referred to was Greenhouse One, Hogwarts' dedicated Herbology teaching site for lower-year students.

Most of the magical plants there were basic and low-risk, and the fertilizers were all standard, with no magical properties.

So Glen still had to rely on his own Herbology knowledge to accelerate the White Fresh's growth as much as possible.

That wasn't to say Professor Sprout's help was useless—at least the soil was more than enough.

Otherwise, if he wanted to plant several pots at once, he'd have to mix his own soil suitable for White Fresh, which would be far too troublesome.

Back in the Slytherin common room, Glen picked and chose, cutting off all the leaves from the White Fresh except those essential for growth.

This wasn't abuse.

As Professor Sprout had said, these leaves during the blooming period were at their peak magical potency.

Once the White Fresh completed pollination and prepared to bear fruit, it would massively drain the magic from the leaves.

From the White Fresh's perspective, seeds produced this way would have stronger resistance, improving survival odds in the wild... but this wasn't the wild, and such robust survival ability wasn't needed.

Wizards cultivated it precisely to extract its juice and mix it with Horklump Juice to brew healing potions.

If they sacrificed higher potency for the White Fresh's reproduction, that would be putting the cart before the horse.

What? You don't know what Horklump Juice is?

Well, that's actually a good question.

Because it doesn't matter—all you need to know is that it's called a Horklump, a magical creature that looks like a pink mushroom and lives in damp, dark places like caves.

Objectively speaking, as a magical animal that resembles a mushroom, it's quite suited for catching small prey to feed on.

But at the same time, a mushroom shape—whether for wizards or non-magical folk—is a standard food form.

It's the kind of thing that, poisonous or not, people will find ways to cook and eat in every possible style...

The juice extracted from its body is called Horklump Juice, easy enough to remember.

But there's no way Glenn could run off to various caves right now to find Horklumps and squeeze them for juice.

Of course, if he were allowed into the Forbidden Forest, that wouldn't be out of the question.

But as Professor Sprout said, as the Potions teacher, Professor Snape would likely be happy to provide his students with some ready-made Horklump Juice.

Thinking this, Glenn stacked the trimmed White Fresh leaves neatly into the wooden box he had prepared earlier.

This would be a decent Potions lesson—even if the content within it was something he had repeated countless times.