The wandering toad

All of Gryffindor was celebrating their first victory of the year-and a victory over Slytherin at that.

If anyone on the team was happiest, it had to be Wood!

Although a dirty move by Slytherin had knocked him out of the match, leaving him unable to play the rest of it, Ron's performance afterward had outshone even his own. That made him happier than any personal triumph could have.

Since he had joined the Quidditch team, Gryffindor had not won the annual championship even once. That was his greatest regret. Now that he was in his fifth year, he did not have many chances left. In his eyes, the current team had a real shot. Even if they were still a little green this year, their chances next year would be excellent.

"Ron, give it another go next match. If you can keep playing this well, I'll be your substitute from now on!" Wood had said that to Ron in a burst of excitement after the match, once he learned how brilliantly Ron had performed.

Compared with Wood and the other excited players, Harry and Ron were not quite so thrilled.

That was not to say they were unhappy about winning. In fact, they were very happy.

But things Harry had noticed on the pitch and Hermione had discovered in the stands had put a damper on their spirits.

"I saw it with my own eyes. Snape was staring right at you, and his lips were moving. He was definitely casting a spell-a jinx!" Hermione said with absolute certainty.

"Harry, we've read that book. When you cast a jinx, you have to keep your eyes fixed on the target. You can't break eye contact. Snape wasn't even blinking!"

Before this, Hermione had never liked Snape much, but she had not loathed him the way Ron and the others did. After this incident, however, her opinion of him had plummeted.

Young Hermione simply could not accept that a professor would jinx a player from a rival house just to win a match. And if he had done it for some other reason, such as hating Harry-which he had made perfectly clear in their very first lesson-then it was even worse.

Harry nodded too. He had stolen a hurried glance during the match, and although he had not seen clearly, he had spotted the black layer of magic around Snape and the projection of his soul.

And those ripples of magic had clearly come from Snape, aimed straight at Harry.

Harry had tried hard to break the jinx at the time, but with little success. Fortunately, that was also when Hermione had crept over and set Snape's robes on fire. After that, Harry's broom had returned to normal!

That was further proof of everything.

"I told you ages ago, he's a bad person." Before Harry could say anything, Ron was already getting worked up.

Compared with Harry, whom Snape treated as though he did not exist in potions class, Ron actually had a harder time. Snape's constant mockery and deliberate targeting made his life miserable. Unfortunately, he lacked Harry's courage to snap back at Snape-he was afraid his parents would be called in...

"Should we tell a professor?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"Tell a professor..." Hermione considered it uncertainly, then finally shook her head. "I don't think it would help. The professors probably wouldn't believe us. We don't have any evidence, after all."

"What if we add that he tried to get past the Three-Headed Dog and steal whatever he's guarding?" Ron offered a new angle.

"That would be difficult. We still have no evidence." Hermione shook her head again. "We don't actually know for certain that the Three-Headed Dog injured Snape's leg, and the injury has healed now anyway. We can't be sure he was the one who left those marks on the rabies page in Can Muggle diseases affect wizards?, either. All we know is that he borrowed the book... I doubt the professors would accept our deductions as direct evidence."

It had to be said that Hermione's reasoning was quite rigorous-at least more rigorous than that of the two little darlings, Harry and Ron. For a moment, neither boy had anything to say.

If only I knew how to cast curses too. I'd make Snape pay, Harry thought viciously.

Unfortunately, neither Hogwarts nor Neil's memories contained the sort of vicious curse he wanted.

The three exchanged helpless looks for quite a while before Harry ventured, "How about we go and talk it over with Hagrid?"

Harry and Ron often visited Hagrid, and they frequently ran into Ron's twin brothers there. Sometimes they also helped Hagrid look after strange and unusual animals.

Hermione had only started visiting Hagrid with them after Halloween, but Hagrid really liked the clever girl. Hermione, in turn, had gradually grown fond of Hagrid, who looked a little frightening but was actually rather endearingly bumbling.

Unlike the professors, Hagrid was not all that stern with them, even though he was an adult too. He was more like a friend.

The other two immediately agreed to Harry's suggestion.

The match had been held on Saturday, so with no classes to attend, the three immediately thundered out of the Castle and made their way to the door of Hagrid's very large hut.

Hagrid was not inside. It was Neville who opened the door, which rather surprised all three of them.

"Ha-Harry, brilliant match." At the sight of Harry and the others, Neville broke into a huge smile. "And Ron, you were amazing in the second half. Even Kudes Rooney couldn't have done better, could he?"

Ron's grin immediately stretched from ear to ear.

Rooney had been the Chudley Cannons' keeper in their heyday, a member of the league's Hall of Fame and one of the finest keepers in the league.

"Neville, what are you doing here?" Hermione had not played in the match, so she did not share Harry and Ron's intense delight. Instead, she was curious about why Neville was here. Not long ago, they had been together in the stands, anxiously watching Harry get tossed about by his broom like a rodeo rider.