Herman sat there, his hands still moving, but he felt a sense of relief, thinking that he had been behaving much better lately and Harry hadn't caused any trouble, so Snape had probably forgotten about targeting him.
In reality, it was Herman's beating of Quirrell in class that had the desired effect, reducing Snape's interest in disciplining him and shifting his attention more to Harry.
Snape's favoritism towards Harry remained unchanged.
The potion Harry brewed was a clear, bright color. Snape paused as he passed by, then said, "Miss Harry, very well done. Slytherin, ten points." His tone was still calm, but he added the points without hesitation.
Even though Snape thought he had done it discreetly, some observant students noticed it. Perhaps only Draco was unaware, still believing that Harry was benefiting from his fame.
Draco, sitting next to Herman, glanced up when she heard about the extra points, then lowered her voice and said to Herman, " Head of House Snape really gave me face. My father put in a good word for me. Harry got the extra points because of me."
Herman didn't dare to reply, quickly turning his gaze back to the Potions in front of him that was already finished, as if he hadn't heard anything. After the Potions was brewed, he took the cauldron off the fire, tidied up the table, and waited for the bell to ring.
The quiet of a free afternoon is a rare treat.
Herman went to the library alone, intending to take out and read those basic books on Alchemy Materials Science.
He walked along the aisles between the bookshelves, passing several rows of bookshelves filled with Charms textbooks, then a row of bookshelves labeled " History of Magic - Modern Volume," and finally stopped in the inner part of the library, where there were several rows of shelves specifically for books on Alchemy.
He stood in front of the bookshelf for a while, his gaze sweeping across the spines of the books, his fingertips tracing the edges of the spines, and finally pulling out a book titled " Basic Identification of Alchemical Materials." The cover depicted several metal fragments of different colors, arranged neatly, making it look like a proper introductory book.
He was just about to find a place to sit down and flip through a few pages when he suddenly caught a glimpse of three figures sitting at a table in the far corner.
Herman paused, recognized the silhouettes of the three people, and walked over with the book tucked under his arm.
Neville sat at the back of the table, with two thick books open in front of him. The pages were yellowed and brittle, as if they had been turned many times.
Hugo sat next to him, holding a quill pen in her hand, the parchment in front of her covered with densely packed small characters.
Ron sat opposite her, a book open in front of her, but her gaze wasn't on the pages; instead, she was glancing around as if she were taking a break.
The three of them didn't notice Herman as he approached, which clearly showed that Ron's lookout duties were inadequate.
Neville was looking down at the book, turning the pages and muttering to himself. Hugo was scribbling something down on a piece of paper. Ron's gaze swept across the bookshelf, then across the doorway, and finally back to Neville, where it met Herman's eyes.
Ron froze for a moment, then sat bolt upright as if sprang from a spring, her face turning bright red, and she almost dropped the book in her hand.
" Herman!" Her voice was at least two octaves higher than usual, startling the two people next to her who were engrossed in their studies, causing them to look up simultaneously.
When Neville saw Herman, he instinctively reached out to close the book in front of him, but then felt that it was too obvious, so he opened it again and closed it again, his movements as awkward as an owl that couldn't find a place to land.
Hugo didn't panic, but the quill pen left a long ink mark on the parchment. He glanced down at it, then casually put the pen away.
Herman, seeing the three of them looking so wary, put the book on the table. "What are you investigating here? You're acting so suspiciously."
He glanced down at the book in front of Ron. The cover had a line of gold lettering that read " Anecdotes of Wizards of the Middle Ages." It looked like a proper biography, not a novel by Liu Bei. So why was he blushing?
Herman realized something; it must be like " The Lady of the Camellias "—the title sounds respectable, making one think it's about the working class picking tea, but the content is actually quite substantial.
Like the Muggle author Alexandre Dumas fils, the author appears to be writing a serious biography of a wizard, but there might be something interesting hidden inside. This is how medieval novels were written; a serious title often conceals something unserious.
The image of the blonde witch on the cover of the magazine he had seen at Flourish and Blotts involuntarily flashed into his mind.
It's a pity that minors can't buy that stuff, otherwise, the days I spent in the dorm with a sore shoulder and unable to go out wouldn't have been so unbearable.
Especially when Ron's face turned bright red as if she had been caught cheating, Herman became even more suspicious.
Herman snapped out of his thoughts, looked at the three of them, and asked again, "What are you doing? Homework?"
Hugo nodded quickly. "Yes, homework! Homework for the Transfiguration!"
Herman glanced down at the book on the table; the cover read " Anecdotes of Wizards," and it didn't look like a textbook related to Transfiguration at all. "Does the Transfiguration assignment require researching medieval anecdotes?"
Hugo opened his mouth, as if the words were about to come out but then changed direction. He opened his mouth again and closed it, finally saying vaguely, "This... this book is a supplementary reference, mainly for... understanding the background!"
Herman looked at him for two seconds but didn't say anything.
Hugo wanted to continue making things up, but Neville stopped him, looking up at Herman: " Herman, where are your friends Harry and Draco? Why aren't they with you?"
Herman sat down in the empty chair next to him. " Draco went to the Dean's office, and I don't know where Harry is."
Neville nodded, paused for a moment, then looked at him seriously. "Do you remember the three-headed dog Hagrid mentioned? He said Dumbledore borrowed it and left it on the third-floor corridor to guard Nicolas Flamel's things."
Herman thought to himself, "Seriously? You guys are still investigating this?" He had thought the novelty of the three of them working on this for a week would have worn off, but it turned out they were still going in circles. No wonder it's been so quiet lately.
Look at Draco and Harry, they've already forgotten about it. Herman's lost interest too, after all, he has a lot to do, researching innate spellcasting, alchemy, and now he has a mutated right hand.
However, he remained outwardly calm and nodded. "I remember, what's wrong?"
Neville lowered his voice. "Cerberus is in the third-floor corridor, the place the headmaster forbids students from entering. We saw Quirrell try to go in, but nobody believed us. Now, if we find out who Nicolas Flamel is and what that thing is, we might be able to prove Quirrell is the problem."
He spoke earnestly, his tone carrying a sense of certainty that he had finally found his direction.
Seeing that she no longer needed to make up an excuse, Hugo's expression returned to normal. "We've been investigating who Nicolas Flamel is all this time, going through many biographies and historical records, but we haven't found any clues."
Herman thought he couldn't find it. Who writes biographies of living people? Nicolas Flamel was still alive. Even if there were books specifically recording Alchemy, they wouldn't dare to write them casually. Did they really think Alchemy were so good-natured?
Moreover, they haven't been active outside for hundreds of years, so information about them is indeed not easy to find.