Chapter 525 Undercurrent
Chapter 525 Undercurrent
On the last day before the end of November, Mianlong Society received good news.
The research on growth-promoting agents has finally been completed.
Under the watchful eyes of all the core cadres, Murray carefully took out a bottle of green potion with an eerie luster and slowly poured it into the container, where a Devil's Snare seed lay quietly.
As soon as the potion came into contact, the seed began to tremble violently, followed by a subtle and rapid "sizzling" sound, as if it was boiling. In just a few seconds, the seed suddenly cracked, and a dark green vine instantly sprang out, rapidly growing into a bunch of hideous mature devil's nets, waving the vines wildly, trying to entangle everyone present.
Xie Lin's eyes condensed, and he lightly snapped his fingers. In an instant, a blazing white fireball silently floated in the air, emitting a heart-pounding high temperature. The Devil's Snare seemed to be greatly threatened, and the wildly twisting vines instantly shrank back, huddled into a ball, and dared not move again.
"Well done, Murray and Qiu." Xie Lin looked at the two women and gave them his praise.
"This is all thanks to Mr. Tutz's research notes, otherwise the research would not have produced results so quickly." Zhang Qiu said shyly with a red face.
"Luna," Sherin said.
"I'm here."
"From now on, the Dragon Wing Team will be divided into two teams. One team will be responsible for cultivating magical animals and magical plants, and the other team will begin training on the use of magical plants in actual combat. The two teams will take turns to exchange responsibilities--" Xie Lin said in a serious voice.
"Yes, I know."
"Devil's Snare, Mandrake, Poison Tentacles, and Knotty Ivy are just the basics. I also want all members to master more advanced and ferocious magical plant species. I will let Sharfu give you more assistance. She has a deeper understanding and knowledge of the habits of these dangerous dark plants."
"Shelin, I will do my best to assist Miss Lovegood." Sharf said in a cold voice.
Xie Ling's dark laboratory has always been managed by Sharf. With her assisting Luna, there shouldn't be any problems, and Xie Ling is quite relieved.
Then, Xie Ling nodded, but still reminded: "Be careful with everything. Those... things are still quite dangerous for young wizards."
The magical plants in the dark laboratory are much more dangerous than those publicly known to the magical world. Compared with them, the Devil's Snare is like a cute little baby.
For example, the alien species "Man-eating Vine" of the Devil's Snare likes to feed on human flesh and blood. It is not afraid of fire and cannot be cut by ordinary cutting spells.
Another example is the hybrid of Chinese biting cabbage and poisonous geranium, the "poisonous cabbage", which not only contains deadly poison in its sharp teeth and saliva, but can also self-destruct when attacked by magic, and the poisonous gas it sprays is enough to cover an area of three meters.
The "nightmare flower", a hybrid plant of the sleepy flower and the self-pollinating shrub, is no less powerful. The flowers can be controlled to bloom at a specific moment, spewing out an astonishing amount of sleepy pollen. If the position and wind direction are arranged properly, the amount is enough to knock down hundreds of wizards.
Once the members of the Dragon Wing Team master the practical applications of these dangerous plants, their combat power will be quite terrifying.
……
December brought more snow and an avalanche of homework for the 5th graders.
As Christmas approaches, the prefects' workload becomes increasingly heavy. They are responsible for supervising the decoration of the castle, keeping an eye on the first and second years who are staying indoors during the cold break, and taking turns patrolling the corridors with Filch, who suspects that fighting may increase during the holidays.
Of course, Ron and Hermione were the most miserable, because Peeves always caused trouble for them, and many senior Gryffindor students, under the protection of McLaggen, simply did not listen to any instructions from them, refused to cooperate in many things, and sometimes deliberately made trouble.
Ron and Hermione had gone to McLaggen for consultation many times, but they could never come to a conclusion. McLaggen would always put them off with various reasons, or directly ask them to go to Filch or Umbridge, obviously convinced that the two would never dare to do so.
Harry's situation was not much better.
He was banned from Quidditch for life, lost his favorite activity, and could only watch other players training in the sky with envy every day. He also had to worry about Hagrid being kept on probation and was afraid that Hagrid would be expelled.
He hated Hogwarts.
His only hope was the activities of Dumbledore's Army. However, the situation of this activity was becoming increasingly difficult.
McLaggen had become Umbridge's spies and lackeys, patrolling the corridors frequently, looking for any students who might be partying in violation of school rules.
As for Harry himself, it was no surprise that he became the focus of his attention. For some reason, he seemed to be certain that Harry was holding some kind of secret meeting in violation of school rules, and he kept sending more people to follow and monitor him, even Hermione and Ron, the two prefects, were no exception, which made him feel extremely anxious and impatient.
McLaggen, with Umbridge's secret support, became more and more powerful. The original five followers quickly grew to 5 people, and many of them were well-known figures in Hogwarts, such as Alfred Cattermole, the seventh-year male head of Ravenclaw, Schuyler Fawcett, the seventh-year female head of Ravenclaw, and her boyfriend Stebbins in Hufflepuff.
This made McLaggen's attitude even more arrogant and disrespectful.
Apart from Harry Potter and his companions, he liked to make trouble for Slytherin students the most, especially the young wizards who had a good relationship with Schelling. It seemed that he was still holding a grudge against Schelling for humiliating him on the train.
But Xie Ling's identity, family background, and reputation were there. He didn't dare to cause trouble for Xie Ling, so he could only vent his anger on the people around him.
At this moment, Shaylin did not want to tear his face with Umbridge so quickly, so he strictly ordered all members of the Dragon Society to avoid any conflict with McLaggen's forces. If they were entangled by the Justice Pickets, they should directly find Shaylin, Daphne, Murray, Susan, and the other four Slytherin prefects to deal with them.
They were all prefects, with the same power and status as McLaggen, and with Snape backing Shailling, at the current stage, Umbridge's control over Hogwarts was still insufficient, and McLaggen did not dare to do too much.
Of course, although they will not cause any substantial harm to the Mianlong Society, annoying flies are always annoying.
Although Schelling would not attack McLaggen, there would occasionally be "accidents" where Kenneth Toller would be knocked unconscious and his head would be stuffed into the toilet.
There was also the "accident" in which Marcos Belby accidentally replaced Sneezeweed with Flameweed during Potions class, and was sent to the school hospital due to a shocking explosion.
After several accidents, no matter how dumb McLaggen was, he knew that someone was targeting him. However, he had already made too many enemies at this time, and most of the students in Hogwarts were suspected of this, so he had no idea where to start.
This made him suspicious, more impatient, and more overbearing, almost crossing the professors' line.
Simply put, the campus life of Hogwarts has entered a turbulent stage, with different accidents happening and different news spreading every day.
