#131 - Section 131

"That's not necessarily true. Aren't there plenty of young wizards at Hogwarts who are afraid of Snape?"

"However, if it were us, we'd most likely turn into our mum!"

Fred and George exchanged a look. Their biggest fear was their own mother.

Ever since they were little, their pranks had been dealt with severely. Percy used to like to tattle, constantly writing letters home about the twins' misdeeds at school, which meant they never had a good few days before going home for the holidays.

"It's good you have some self-awareness. By the way, what's going on with Ron's rat? Do you know anything about it?"

Ethan still wanted to test the two, after all, Ron had indeed suffered a setback.

"Don't know. Haven't seen Scabbers for the past few days, but I don't think it's dead yet, otherwise Ron would have been yelling and screaming by now."

Fred shrugged, speaking indifferently.

They weren't Ron; why would they pay attention to a rat all the time?

"Alright!"

It seemed they really didn't know what had happened to Ron, not even the Boggart-transformed Scabbers incident today.

As he left, George slipped a photograph into Ethan's hand.

"We brought this for you; it's quite the collector's item."

Ethan didn't refuse, glanced at it, and then slipped it into his pocket.

After parting ways with the twins, Ethan went straight to the Ravenclaw table.

However, upon arriving, many people were still discussing the third-year Defense Against the Dark Arts class that afternoon, with Ethan being the focus of their discussion.

After eating a rather silent dinner, Ethan went directly to the Slytherin table, called Cassandra out, and led her all the way to the open space outside Hogwarts Castle.

Holding Cassandra's hand, the two walked together on the path outside.

Couples on dates weren't uncommon here, so Ethan and Cassandra didn't stand out.

If it were a little later, the nearby woods would be even more lively.

"What you're worried about won't happen."

Ethan hadn't expected that what Cassandra was most worried about was this. Such a proud personality, yet so insecure.

It was completely beyond Ethan's expectations.

"Yeah, I know!"

Cassandra just worried sometimes, especially when she was idle, she tended to overthink things, especially since Ethan was such a flirt.

Even before today, she didn't know that this was what she feared most.

"It's good that you know. You won't escape me in this lifetime."

Saying that, Ethan directly pressed Cassandra against a tree trunk and kissed her.

It was a full three minutes before Ethan looked up and wiped the corner of Cassandra's mouth.

"I want to know, why did you think it would be funny to put me in women's clothes back then? Do you know how much trouble that caused me?"

After dusting off the back of Cassandra's robe, Ethan led her to stroll along the path again, with an indescribable entanglement in his tone.

"Heh, pfft!"

Cassandra laughed out loud: "I thought it was very suitable!"

At that time, she was also in a hurry to stop the Boggart-transformed Ethan from saying the following words, so she hastily cast the spell, without even realizing what she was thinking... .

Chapter 166: Learning to be an Animagus

The next day, all the students who had Potions class were trembling. Snape was in a low-pressure state from the moment he appeared until the end of class.

With the rumors spreading so wildly, how could he not know?

While mentally adding another strike against Lupin, he also butted heads with Gryffindor again.

Two classes in one day, and he deducted more than sixty points from Gryffindor, directly bottoming out Gryffindor's hourglass.

After class that day, many Gryffindor students were discussing whether this year would be even lower than the House points from the year before last.

And by the second week, everyone realized that Professor Snape had been especially gentle during Potions class last Friday.

This week, Snape went on a rampage, not letting go of any of the four Houses.

Yes, including Slytherin!

It's just that Gryffindor was still the main target.

The reason, of course, was that he discovered that his photo in women's clothing was being spread everywhere, and even some Slytherin students were buying it.

And Neville and Ron, as the culprits, were naturally the focus of Snape's attention.

In Potions class, Snape directly criticized them as being completely useless, and they stood for the entire class, being scolded at the slightest mistake.

In this class, even Harry couldn't draw fire for the two of them, which allowed Harry to have a relatively comfortable Potions class for once.

Moreover, on that day, the two of them deducted all of Gryffindor's House points, or rather, it wasn't enough to deduct, and they ran out in less than half a class, and after that, it was purely being scolded.

This time, Snape didn't have the idea of saving face for Professor McGonagall.

His own face was completely lost, so who else's face should he save?

At the same time, Lupin, who had already been written down several times, was added to again.

It was estimated that until these two graduated, Snape would still be at Hogwarts for a day, and their lives wouldn't be easy.

However, even while being scolded, Ron didn't have any frustrated expression on his face.

This time, he had made a killing. He had never possessed so many Galleons since he was born. If he were to choose again.

Ron would still choose to record Snape in women's clothing and sell his photo.

Only Neville had a bitter face, and his whole person was somewhat despondent.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts class in the second week was also good. The third year was about how to deal with ghouls.

It was also a practical class, and Professor Lupin personally brought the ghouls.

And in his classroom, he never hesitated to give points, adding to all four Houses, but still somewhat biased towards Gryffindor.

This also made many young wizards look forward to his class very much.

In just two short weeks, Lupin directly gave his reputation a big reversal.

He jumped to become the most popular Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in recent years.

And as a new professor who joined this school year, Hagrid was much worse off.

In the Care of Magical Creatures class last week, he was still introducing the Hippogriff to everyone, and there was also a riding project.

Although it caused a lot of problems at first, it was considered a reversal of reputation later on.

But this week, the Care of Magical Creatures class directly changed from tense and exciting to dull and boring.

Hagrid was actually teaching the young wizards how to take care of Flobberworms. It was hard to imagine anyone liking these worms, and Hagrid's reputation took a nosedive.

Everyone's expectations for the upcoming Care of Magical Creatures classes were pretty much gone.

Taking care of a Flobberworm? They'd seen enough of those things in Potions class.

Some potions required Flobberworms, and they even had to be sliced up before being added to the potion to brew. You ask them to kill and slice them, and they'd do it in a heartbeat, but taking care of them? They really didn't know how, nor did they want to learn.

After the class, Ethan went to chat with Hagrid again, directly telling him that any other magical creature would be fine, just not these weird things.

If it really couldn't be helped, he could cancel the hands-on teaching method and just bring the magical creatures over to introduce them and then release them. That way, you could bring any other magical creature.

The premise was that you had to be sure you could control it and prevent it from going berserk.

As for whether Hagrid listened, Ethan didn't know and could only judge next week during class.

Besides Ancient Runes, which made Ethan a little sleepy, the other courses were basically no different from his previous two years.

… …

The third week of September, night!

Ethan walked out of Hogwarts Castle and looked up at the sky. Today was a full moon.

He placed the Mandrake leaf he had prepared in advance in his mouth. This was a necessary step in practicing to become an Animagus.

For an entire month, he had to continuously keep a single leaf of Mandrake in his mouth.

This month had to be from one full moon to the next full moon. It had to be this time period; simply going from the beginning to the end of the month wouldn't work.

Besides that, the Mandrake leaf had to be kept in the mouth and not swallowed or spat out at any time. If that happened, he would have to start this step all over again.

A month later, at the time of the full moon, he would take the leaf out of his mouth, fill a small crystal vial with saliva, and soak the leaf in it, allowing it to receive pure moonlight.

If it was cloudy that night, the leaf would be ruined, and a month of time would be wasted, and everything would have to start all over again.

If there was moonlight, he would need to add a strand of hair and a teaspoon of dew to the crystal vial illuminated by the moonlight.

This dew had to be collected from a place that had not been exposed to sunlight or human contact for a full seven days.

After completing this step, he would add a Death's-head Hawk Moth chrysalis.

After doing this step, the rest was up to time. He would place the mixture in a quiet, dark place and not look at it or disturb it until the next thunderstorm.

At this point, the potion part was complete, and what was needed next was the Transfiguration part.

He really didn't know which genius invented the Animagus transformation.

And under what state of mind they came up with these methods.

Anyway, Ethan was very unaccustomed to having a Mandrake leaf in his mouth now, and he didn't know if he would unconsciously spit it out while sleeping.

This was also why, even though Ethan's Transfiguration level was good enough last school year, he didn't learn Animagus transformation. There were too many steps, and the time span was too long.

Ethan also thought about his own Animagus form and felt that it would most likely be a five-headed dragon.

The Patronus and Animagus forms are generally related.

For example, Professor McGonagall, her Animagus form and Patronus image are both cats.

James Potter's two images are both deer.

And Peter Pettigrew, when he was a test subject in Ethan's hands, had already said that his Patronus image was also a rat.

Ethan only knew this much. Rita Skeeter's Animagus form is a beetle, but she doesn't know the Patronus Charm at all.

The animal image of the Patronus Charm is generally the animal that best suits oneself.

And this image can be explained as an Animagus. Coupled with the previous examples, Ethan can basically judge his idea this time.

He just didn't know if Dumbledore's Animagus form was a phoenix. He was a Transfiguration professor, and Ethan certainly didn't believe he couldn't do Animagus.

But Ethan couldn't ask this question.

Suddenly, Ethan transformed into a shadow and disappeared from the spot.

He came out today not only to see if it was a full moon and if he needed to keep the Mandrake leaf in his mouth.

But also to kidnap a few Dementors.

Today during the day, Ethan went to Hogsmeade Village and took the Boggarts that Dennis had prepared. Due to the time crunch, there were only thirty or so. He would need to contact them again later.

Now that he had the Boggarts, Ethan didn't want to use the ones under his control first. After all, these still needed to accompany Penelope and the others to practice the Patronus Charm.

In addition, since they had successfully helped him cast the Patronus last time, these Dementors had made a bit of a contribution, so he wouldn't use them for experiments. He would experiment on them after he had results.

Arriving at an intersection and seeing a few Dementors, Ethan continued to maintain his shadow sneak state and directly pulled them in with Nibelungen.

After going to three intersections in a row and kidnapping seventeen Dementors, Ethan was ready to retreat.

As for what the Ministry of Magic would do, Ethan couldn't care less. Anyway, there were no surveillance cameras outside Hogwarts, and Ethan himself had the ability to cast spells without being seen, so the Ministry of Magic could turn the world upside down, and they still wouldn't be able to find out that Ethan was the one who did it.

As for suspicion, with no grievances or hatred, why would I, Ethan, go and cause trouble for the Dementors?

You can't say that having the ability is the target of suspicion. If that's the case, Dumbledore should be suspected first, not Ethan.

"Today should be a full moon, right!"

"Yeah, Sid!"

Ethan nodded affirmatively. It was just that speaking was a bit strange, and he still wasn't used to speaking with a leaf in his mouth.

"Ethan, you're really funny when you talk now."