Snape's Summons

More than half of Slytherin's students came from Pureblood Noble families, with House-elves serving them at home. Naturally, they were unaccustomed to many things and would not do them themselves. Thus, Slytherin students mastered the method of summoning Hogwarts House-elves in their first year.

That was not to say people from the other Houses could not summon House-elves. They could as well; they simply did not treat summoning Hogwarts House-elves as an ordinary part of daily life the way Slytherin did.

Blaise did not follow them in, choosing to remain outside for the time being.

In Sean's room, he, Samuel, and Ilina sat together, each holding the tea the House-elves had brought. They drank tea and chatted. Their conversation had nothing to do with the Duel just now, nor with investments, but every topic they discussed carried implications related to investment.

"It's getting late, so we won't stay any longer. If you need anything in the future, you can come to us. If it's within our power to help, we won't refuse."

"Then thank you both."

"No need to thank us. This is how Slytherin works—we help each other. One day, we may seek your help as well. I trust you won't refuse us then."

"Of course!" Sean nodded firmly. With that, their relationship was established. In the future, both at Hogwarts and beyond it, Samuel and Ilina would offer Sean a certain degree of help. If Sean grew stronger in the future, he would also have to shoulder certain responsibilities. Should they ask something of him, Sean would need to offer something in return. This was Slytherin investment.

After seeing Samuel and Ilina off, Sean noticed that Blaise had vanished. He did not go looking for him, instead returning to his own room, closing the door, opening the panel, and checking what he had gained from defeating Janson.

Duel victory. Randomly drawing one ability from the Duel opponent.

Drawing...

Drawing complete. Obtained: Protego LV1

Protego!

And it was LV1 Protego, not the basic LV0...

At that moment, Sean discovered another hidden rule of the panel: when drawing abilities, it did not merely grant the basic LV0 version. Instead, it was determined by the person from whom the ability was drawn.

In that case, the stronger Sean's Duel opponent was, the stronger the ability he could draw would be. That was a good thing, but if he wanted to defeat a powerful Duel opponent, Sean himself could not be too weak. In other words, defeating a powerful enemy while weak and drawing one of their powerful abilities to strengthen himself was practically impossible.

Unless he first weakened a powerful Duel target and then fought them. In that case, the drawn ability would not become weaker simply because the target was in a weakened state.

That said, Protego was a spell Sean had not encountered yet. After the Duel just now, Sean had realized that Protego was extremely useful in a Duel. If he had known how to use Protego during that fight, he could have chosen a safer battle plan with a higher chance of success.

Knock, knock...

Sean knew Blaise had arrived just from the sound of the knocking.

After calling for him to come in, he saw Blaise push open the door and walk in.

Seeing the faint lipstick mark on Blaise's cheek, Sean said helplessly, "You managed to find that second-year girl even in such a short time?"

"Who said it was that second-year girl?"

Sean paused, then looked Blaise up and down. "Seriously? Another older girl?"

"That's right. This time, she's a third-year girl. I met her before dinner, when you hadn't arrived yet. She's a very passionate person."

Sean had not known that his friend had the makings of such a playboy. Shaking his head with a laugh, he asked again, "Then what about that second-year girl from before?"

"Ah, we only went on one date. We realized we weren't a good match, so we parted ways."

Blaise made it sound easy, but Sean felt something was off and pressed him, "What happened? Don't lie to me!"

Sitting in a chair, Blaise scratched his head and said, "That second-year girl was on pretty good terms with Janson. She thought Janson was sure to win, so she didn't mind telling me about it. But Janson lost, and she thought it was my fault, because I told you about it in advance. So we broke up."

Hearing Blaise's words, Sean was genuinely stunned. He truly had not expected there to be something like this behind it all.

After hesitating for a moment, Sean reached out and patted Blaise. "I owe you for this one."

Blaise brushed Sean's hand away and said unhappily, "Owe me for what? I wasn't that into that second-year girl anyway. Even without this, I wasn't planning to keep seeing her...

"But if you really feel bad about it, why not let me look over your homework? I've been going on dates with girls so often lately that I haven't had time to write any of that stuff."

Sean laughed and cursed at Blaise, then packed up all his homework and shoved it into his hands.

Blaise was a Slytherin too. He would not copy homework word for word; he used it more as a reference.

After the Pureblood Duel ended, Sean's situation in Slytherin did not seem to improve, but no one used point deductions as an excuse to cause him trouble anymore. Sometimes, people even greeted him when they ran into him. In Slytherin, strength, like bloodline, was hard currency.

Time passed bit by bit, and more than a month went by in the blink of an eye.

Over that month, Millicent became much more low-key, as if he had not been the one who asked Janson to issue Sean a Pureblood Duel before.

Snape picked up the burn ointment Sean had just brewed, smelled it, then poured a tiny drop onto his hand and observed it briefly. The corner of his mouth curved into an almost imperceptible smile, making Harry and Ron feel as though they had seen a ghost.

"A very perfect burn ointment..." After giving this brief evaluation, Snape looked at Sean and nodded slightly. Clearly satisfied, he said, "This is the highest-quality potion you have brewed in Potions Class. Apparently, the clumsy and useless Mr. Zabini did not get in your way."

At this point, Snape paused in thought before speaking again. "One point to Slytherin!"

After returning the potion to Sean, Snape turned and went back to the lectern, ending that day's Potions Class.

Just as Sean and Blaise were preparing to leave together, Snape unexpectedly called Sean to a stop.

"Sean, come with me."

Without waiting for Sean to respond, Snape took the lead, his constantly billowing robes trailing behind him as he left the Potions Class classroom.

Sean said something to Blaise and hurried after him, arriving at Snape's office, which was also located in the dungeons.

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