Cedric Gets Cuckolded

The Room of Requirement.

After Hermione finished eating the food William had brought, she stretched, rested her elbows on the table, propped her head up with her palms, and looked up at William's profile.

William was looking through the transcribed instructions for Wolfsbane Potion.

"Isn't that strange, William?" Hermione stared for a while, then suddenly narrowed her eyes and said:

"Professor Snape has no reason to teach you Wolfsbane Potion; it's clearly beyond his comprehension. I have a feeling he's deliberately hinting at something."

"What do you mean?" William glanced at Hermione.

"What I mean is, he certainly can't expect everyone to succeed in brewing it, yet he keeps mentioning Werewolf."

Is he implying that there are Werewolf among us, and that we should be on guard?

"Who knows, but he helped us a lot."

William sketched out several steps with a quill pen, exclaiming:

"Professor Snape is a genius! The mixture of Trappus juice and laurel leaves effectively solves the problem of it being difficult to solidify."

"Hmm, I'll try this tonight," Hermione said happily. "But does Mormont really need so much Wolfsbane Potion?"

"It's necessary. With this, she can gather a large group of Werewolf. You know, without the Wolfsbane Potion, Werewolf actually suffer a lot on the night of the full moon."

Instead of following William to the United Kingdom, Mormont gathered some Werewolf on the island and formed a new force.

William and Hermione brewed Wolfsbane Potion, keeping not a single drop for themselves, and sent it all to France to Mormont.

As for keeping some to sell Wolfsbane Potion... forget it. If you want to make money from that, you might as well set up a street stall!

The process of Wolfsbane Potion is complicated and expensive. Werewolf are discriminated against by wizards, and most of them are too poor to afford it.

"William, why are you helping Mormont?" Hermione asked hesitantly.

"Hermione, it's less that we're helping her, and more that she's helping us," William said calmly, turning a page of his book.

"Voldemort's resurrection is inevitable. Once he's back, his first step will be to gather the Death Eaters, followed by the dark forces. The Werewolf are one of them."

Their attacks on Muggle and young wizards caused more panic and intimidation than most dark creatures.

"If we have one of our own infiltrated the Werewolf, or even with our help, Mormont could become the Werewolf leader, it would be a great asset to us in the future."

Dumbledore had his own plans, but William couldn't just do nothing either; he also had to start developing his own power.

Mormont was just a pawn played on a whim.

William didn't expect this seemingly insignificant move to necessarily slay the dragon, but even if it only provided intelligence, it was still a useful investment!

Similarly, Werewolf are far too dangerous, as evidenced by our trip to France.

Just like stray dogs in the city, they need to be effectively controlled from any perspective.

Continuing to let them run rampant will only cause more young wizards to suffer.

However, very few Werewolf register at the Ministry of Magic's Werewolf Registry. This makes it impossible for the Ministry of Magic to conduct effective surveillance on the night of the full moon.

William wanted to reduce the cost of Wolfsbane Potion while also registering Werewolf.

Reducing costs is naturally the job of Potions Master like Professor Snape, but the registration list... external forces won't work, so we can only rely on Werewolf to deal with Werewolf.

Effectively resolving the Werewolf problem is even more significant than gathering this force to deal with Voldemort!

This would be a glorious political achievement, whether William helps Hermione or someone else on his own side to become Minister for Magic.

William has already begun paving the way for the future. And his goal is to personally train the youngest Minister for Magic.

This is far more fulfilling than being a minister myself.

Hermione rubbed her cheeks hard to clear her head, then started doing her Transfiguration homework again.

During her lunch break, the girl had already finished her homework for all three subjects.

So she was too busy to go to the Great Hall at noon, and William brought her lunch.

Hermione only wrote half of it before stretching out her legs, letting her arms hang limply at her sides, and leaning forward, resting half of her face on the textbook, looking completely unmotivated.

She looked to the side, then couldn't help but stare blankly at William's profile.

William raised his hand and touched Hermione's forehead. "You don't have a fever."

I'm just a little sleepy.

Hermione yawned, curled up her bangs, and gently wrapped them around William's fingers, tying them into a knot very carefully.

William had no choice but to keep his left hand on Hermione's forehead, close his notebook with his right hand, and, like her, lean his cheek against the table.

The two stared at each other, wide-eyed.

They stared at each other.

"You must be tired. You had so many classes this morning. If you think about it, you've already had a whole day. You can go to bed now," William said.

But I don't want to sleep.

Hermione seemed to find the table too hard, so she slightly raised her head and took William's hand to place under her face.

How are Hagrid's classes?

"It's alright, but he was too hasty." William quickly recounted what had happened in class.

"That's not Hagrid's fault!"

"It's not his fault, but riding a sea monster on Black Lake is indeed very dangerous."

Where's Dahei?

"I left it at Hagrid's Hut when school let out at noon. He said he'd bring it to Fluffy that evening..."

William's voice grew softer as Hermione's eyelids drooped, and she drifted off to sleep.

William gently lifted Hermione's head with his left hand, pulling her into a half-embrace.

Hermione hummed softly through her nose, turned her head, and found a more comfortable position.

William held the girl in his arms and closed his eyes.

He planned to take a short nap as well.

Just a little while!

then...

William and Hermione are late!

When William walked through the damp vegetable patch and arrived at Greenhouse Three, class had already started for twenty minutes.

Everyone stared at William, William pretended nothing was wrong and walked towards Qiu. It was as if he wasn't late, but rather that everyone else had arrived... a little early.

"Hurry up, Mr. Stark," Professor Sprout said gently. "You're the only one missing."

She was just explaining how dangerous the creatures in Black Lake are, urging everyone to cherish life and stay away from Black Lake.

She also talked about what happened that morning, thinking that the Merpeople had gone too far.

"The Merpeople not only attack young wizards, but they also eat precious magical seaweed plants."

I think this behavior is wrong. They can just eat meat; there are so many fish in Black Lake!

Listen to this... is this even human language?

"Why are you late?" Qiu asked in a low voice.

"Anne has been looking for you all morning. She said you and Hermione are missing, and everyone thinks Hermione killed you and dumped your body in the Black Lake."

"..."

"Don't listen to her nonsense. Hermione and I were studying very seriously at noon," William explained.

Qiu clearly didn't believe it. She squinted at William, looking as if she had seen through everything.

"You must have gone to see the Merpeople Mermaid. I'm going to tell Hermione that you've been flirting with Merpeople behind her back... What a jerk!"

Luckily I don't have a younger sister, otherwise I would definitely tell her to stay away from you.

"What the hell?!" William was utterly bewildered. Had he become so desperate after just one afternoon that he was trying to seduce the Merpeople?

That's clearly Cedric's fiancée!

William is definitely cheating on him!

Professor Sprout finally finished criticizing the Merpeople and began leading everyone to observe a very ugly plant.

They didn't look like plants; they were more like big, black, slimy slugs that crawled out of the dark grass.

These plants were still slowly swaying, giving off a somewhat Mongolia Death Worm vibe.

"The Bubotuber," Professor Sprout cheerfully told everyone, "You need to squeeze it by hand to collect its pus."

"Oh! How disgusting," Marietta complained.

"Learn to appreciate it, children," Professor Sprout said loudly. "This pus has extremely high value, so don't waste it."

You must collect them in a bottle, leaving not a single drop, squeeze them all dry!

William put on a pair of Dragonhide Gloves; the undiluted Bubotuber Pus would cause unusual damage to the skin.

The process of squeezing out tubers is disgusting, yet it also produces a strange sense of satisfaction.

Each time a bulge is burst, it sprays out a large amount of viscous, yellowish-green liquid, emitting a pungent gasoline smell.

The techniques William had taught them that morning came in handy, and everyone was frantically "plucking the tubers."

"Madam Pomfrey will be pleased now."

Professor Sprout plugged all the bottles and said, "The pus from the Bubotuber is the best medicine for treating stubborn pimples and acne."

Everyone thought of Eloise, whose face was covered in acne.

It seems she's about to embark on her path to a comeback.

Indeed, every acne sufferer has potential before their face is ruined!

(Thanks to "Yes, I read it backwards" and "Daoyou Qing Liubu You" for their generous donations.)