Chapter 238 Potential Potion

"You got Severus' office, Horace, what new subject are you working on now?"

Slughorn got his wish and continued to use the office on the third floor of the castle where the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor used it. It was brightly lit and not at all dark and damp like the cellar.

"You really don't beat around the bush, Pomona." Slughorn handed over a glass of mead. "Shouldn't we catch up on old times before we start talking about work?"

"I'm busy, and there's a forest spider waiting to be dealt with." She paused and asked, "You and Neville are not happy working together?"

"He's very good, and he cares about magic plants, but unfortunately he doesn't know much about potions, so we lost a lot of conversation." Slughorn took a sip of his wine, "Neville is very repulsive to potions, I I heard he didn't have a good relationship with Severus before."

"Neville's Boggart is Severus," she laughed.

"I'm not like him, you know," said Horace Slughorn. "I prefer to motivate students with rewards rather than punishment. He's too harsh, Pomona, for the likes of Neville Longbottom." Students need more patience, and that's what he lacks."

Pomona glanced at his hourglass, the sand in it was passing fast now.

"At least have a drink for the old days, we used to have a great time working together."

Pomona drank the glass of mead as if she hadn't, she wasn't afraid of him being poisoned at all, why did he drink it?

"Since you're talking about business, let's talk. Do you know where there is magic smelling grass in the Forbidden Forest?"

"Phantom weed?" Pomona exclaimed in surprise. "I thought it was extinct."

"No, it is extremely precious, but it is not extinct. One day when I was walking, I met a snuffer by the edge of the forbidden forest. It was injured. I rescued it. I found a snuffer in its pocket. Leaves of grass."

Scenting grass was traded as copper coins before the Middle Ages. There are not many people who study the smelling grass, but it is one of the raw materials for making potential potions.

"I've been to your greenhouse, and there is no such herb in it, but I found a large amphora field in the Forbidden Forest. It was obviously planted by people. What else did you secretly plant in the Forbidden Forest?"

"That's a big forest, Horace." Pomona said with a smile, "Maybe some kind of intelligent creature likes to eat amphora, so he planted it himself. What evidence do you have that I planted it?"

"I'm old, Pomona, and I'm tired and I don't have the strength to play with you anymore." Slughorn said wearily, "That boy, Neville Longbottom, why did you ask him to take your place?" , obviously there is someone better than him who can be the professor of herbal medicine."

"Because he is a student I brought out, I trust him." Pomona put away her smirk, and yelled like a female badger protecting her cubs, "I hate people like Lockhart, and Tooze happens to be like him All the way, if he can concentrate on herbal medicine, he shouldn’t be broadcasting, he is not focused enough, I can’t give him my students and my greenhouse.”

"It's that simple?"

"That's right!"

"Well, I thought even you had something to do with Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter is famous for using Polyjuice Potion to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic, I know Severus must have joined his plan, I don't want to involve you in it."

"We don't know each other very well. He doesn't usually go to the staff lounge. We basically don't have much contact with each other except for the medicinal materials he needs. After the war, I went out to avoid it for a few years. I'm different from you. I don't like it. Show off."

"Relax, relax girl." Slughorn said repeatedly, "I understand that cautious wizards try not to show their faces these days, and you don't have to join the Order of the Phoenix to teach at Hogwarts. I, Felius, Now add that you, and most of the staff are not members of the Order of the Phoenix, but the truth is what can't stand other people's scribbles, I'm not a pure blood, and I don't support learning Muggles, it's not right to be neutral now Relax, I heard you attended the Malfoy's party on Halloween, can you tell me what you think?"

"I just don't want them to wipe out the pure-blood nobles. The power of blood is magical. The mysterious man is the descendant of Slytherin. His strength is obvious to all. They can't be like Muggles because they don't have that kind of magical power. It is believed that blood inheritance has no effect."

"Someone has put you on the side of the Death Eaters, Dean Sprout, and you've put yourself in a very dangerous situation."

"Horace, this is not the first time I have done this. When the mysterious man was in power, I also confronted Snape and the Carrow brothers and sisters at school. The mysterious man did not deal with me. Could it be that the current politicians have heard the voice of opposition? Are you going to deal with me?"

"Although they won't let a python eat you like the Mysterious Man, they can ruin your reputation. Just think of Sirius Black, just a piece of news, he led the escape from Azkaban, and the public Believe it, his reputation was not restored until after the war, those reporters can easily ruin a public figure, now you show up at school with Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, what are you thinking? Pommer Na?"

"Malfoy's father did not participate in those murders and tortures. He is not a completely innocent person. Now he wants to atone for his crimes. Why can't he be given a chance?"

"Let me give you some advice. I know you want to be a fair and just person, but you are just asking for trouble. Lucius Malfoy once publicly declared that he does not support the intermarriage of wizards and Muggles. I heard that Hannah Albert also went to that party, how can you confirm that the murderer who killed her mother was not Malfoy?"

"Oh my God, Horace, do you really think Malfoy the Peacock can kill?" Pomona laughed.

"Even if it wasn't him, he could have ordered someone to do it. There is also the son of the Death Eater family that Neville Longbottom embraced. How is his situation now?"

"You're influencing me, aren't you, Professor?" Pomona calmed down, looking into Slughorn's green eyes. "You think you can control the situation by doing this?"

"You are a temptation, Pomona. Every potion researcher wishes to have an assistant like you. Although you are not as talented in potions as Lily, you can give me what I want in time. Get ready, even if it is a plant on the other side of the earth, you can make it fresh in front of me. Dumbledore knows what I like, and he invited me to teach at Hogwarts again. Using Harry Potter, I I made a choice that I thought was smart. I became the teacher of the savior, and he became the most shining collection on my cabinet, but when I appeared in public, I was inevitably whispered, and everyone was talking about me. The teacher of the mysterious man, my secret, oh, hell, I really shouldn't have told him impulsively at that time."

"What secret?" Pomona asked inexplicably.

"I want to live in peace. Haven't I been through enough turmoil in my life?" Slughorn said grumpily. "I hate spiders."

Although I don't know the detailed process, Slughorn's disclosure of the Horcrux secret to Harry is indeed related to the eight-eyed spider Aragog, and the exciting life is really not suitable for the elderly.

"As long as Dumbledore was Headmaster, the staff were safer than most, and then he died, and I couldn't be indifferent to the death of Carrie Tibbage, and I'm terrified now, yes, I'm an old man dying But I’m still very afraid of death, I haven’t contacted anyone outside the school for two years.” He sighed, “You have already withdrawn, why did you jump into this right and wrong circle again?”

"I have no choice." Pomona said, touching the turquoise bracelet on her wrist. "I think my fate is cursed, Horace."