[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]
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In the Gryffindor common room, Ron was telling the story of how he, Harry, and the others fought a troll for the thirteenth time. The reason it's called a story and not an account is that the content of his narration, back then, underwent radical changes compared to what actually happened.
At one point, he threw a wooden board, which he described as a continuous barrage of wood chips, landing constant hits, including critical ones, that distracted the troll's attention.
Neville pulled Hermione and ran, describing it as rolling and dodging between the swinging troll's clubs.
Harry's three spells, one of which failed, were described by Ron as a magical baptism, like a violent storm, smashing the troll and making it stagger.
Hermione's freezing spell actually only froze the puddles of water on the ground, causing the troll to slip, but Ron described it as if the entire troll had turned into an ice sculpture.
To sum it up, Ron exaggerated the danger of the situation tenfold and optimized everyone's performance twentyfold.
Harry and Hermione were getting a little tired of it.
At least when Ron was exaggerating, he wasn't only inflating his own role; he also exaggerated Harry's and the others' roles, so he had a bit of moral integrity.
Did the Gryffindor lions know Ron was bragging? Of course, they did.
Most students had heard more than one version. But that didn't affect their enthusiasm for hearing the story. Because no matter how exaggerated Ron made the situation sound, the end result was still that the four of them had taken down a full-grown troll.
This was definitely no small feat for first-year students, or even for most students below the sixth or seventh year.
Halloween was over, which meant November had arrived.
The first half of the semester was already halfway through. The weather was getting colder, but the atmosphere at school was getting warmer. The reason was simple: the Quidditch House Cup was about to begin.
Harry and Ron had already participated in several training sessions, but they always played as substitute chasers, since the practice matches didn't involve the Golden Snitch.
The Gryffindor practice games were almost always against Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, and rarely against Slytherin, at least not in any game Harry had been a part of.
And Hufflepuff never had a practice match against Slytherin.
Wood said that the house that most often trained with Slytherin was Ravenclaw. Harry figured this was probably because many of the Ravenclaw students came from wizarding families, or even from the so-called twenty-eight pureblood families.
Many students from those two houses had known each other long before starting at Hogwarts.
But things had changed this year. More than half of Ravenclaw's players this year were girls, and Slytherin's playing style had become a bit rougher over the last two years, so Ravenclaw wasn't too eager to play against Slytherin.
As the competition approached, there were more practices and training sessions. This greatly reduced the amount of homework Harry and Ron had to do.
Ron was grateful more than once for the improvement in his relationship with Hermione over time. Otherwise, it would have been hard for Padma to handle both of them at the same time, especially when Padma's attention was more on Harry.
…
Two days before the competition, Harry was so nervous that he couldn't even enjoy his meals.
This seemed very strange to Harry because he had played many games in elementary school, including soccer, basketball, and baseball, but had never felt nervous.
But now he was extremely anxious. After studying with Ron for a while, Harry came up with a reason he wasn't ready to admit, he was a little worried about falling off the broom.
Influenced by Harry, Ron, who originally didn't have to play, he was just a substitute, along with Hermione and Neville, became a bit nervous as well.
Hermione even went to the library to find a book on Quidditch, Quidditch Through the Ages, which recorded all the rules of the game and many interesting stories from its history.
Even Ron, a seasoned Quidditch fan, only found out at that point that there were more than 700 types of fouls in Quidditch.
But Ron assured Harry that even referees in international matches wouldn't be able to remember so many rules.
In fact, in many games he had watched, the players committed fouls listed in the book, but the referees never reacted at all.
Harry only skimmed through two pages of the book and said he couldn't read any more of it, so he returned it.
But what surprised him a little was seeing an unexpected name on the library loan register: Snape.
The book he had borrowed was "Do Muggle Diseases Affect Wizards?"
Harry noticed this and subtly reminded Hermione. When Hermione saw it, she was clearly surprised.
By this time, Harry, Hermione, and the others had become very good friends, after all, they were friends for life and death. Hermione understood what Harry was implying and borrowed the book.
Hermione borrowed many books, and they were of great variety, but Madam Pince had no problem with it.
"Why would Snape borrow a book like this?" Ron looked at another large book borrowed by Harry and his friends with a confused expression on his face. After learning the reason, he became even more confused.
Neville was also puzzled and shook his head. "I heard from my grandmother that most Muggle diseases don't affect wizards..."
Harry and Hermione knew this too, not only because wizarding potions can handle most diseases, but also because a magically-powered body has a strong resistance to most germs.
The Black Plague and smallpox, which once terrorized Europe, had no adverse effects on wizards. A very serious viral cold, if it happened to a wizard, would likely only result in a runny nose for two days.
Harry had a very clear sense of this. From childhood to adulthood, big Dudley got sick once or twice a year, and that was after playing with Harry. The number of other children the same age was much greater than that.
But Harry had only been sick once since he could remember, and that was when Old Neil attacked him.
In fact, not only diseases, but even some physical injuries are hard to inflict on wizards. Of course, only adult wizards with certain magical powers are exempt from this.
Young wizards, however, are still quite easy to hurt.
Speaking of which, Harry found a very interesting figure in A History of Magic.
During the time when Muggles were hunting witches and wizards, he became so incredibly bored that he was captured by Muggles on purpose. Back then, Muggles would burn witches at the stake.
However, regular fire was useless against adult wizards. So, after being captured, this man pretended to scream in the fire to provoke the Muggles.
He performed this trick forty-seven times.
But if you're often near water, how can you avoid getting your shoes wet? When this strange wizard was caught for the 48th time, he encountered a Dark wizard hiding among the Muggles.
And then, he didn't get a 49th chance.
In general, many things that are dangerous to Muggles aren't dangerous to wizards. The more powerful the wizard, the less vulnerable they are to harm.
Although Harry hated Snape, since he could be the head of Slytherin, he felt that Snape must be quite capable, Harry wouldn't dare use his magical senses to spy on teachers who weren't Professor Flitwick. After all, the dazzling light at that time had blinded his eyes and left some lasting effects.
Not only that, but Snape was also a master of Potions, and that wasn't just a compliment, but a title among wizards. It was said that there were fewer than five wizards with such a title in all of Britain.
With such abilities, why would Snape need to consult books about Muggle diseases?
With these questions in mind, Harry and his friends flipped through the book, trying to find clues.
The clues were easy to find.
There was a relatively new crease on one of the pages of the book: Rabies!
"Rabies is one of the few Muggle diseases that can harm wizards. Its symptoms, especially the injuries caused by certain dogs in the wizarding world are more dangerous. The wizarding world currently doesn't have a specific cure for rabies, but aconite may play a role when rabies strikes. Muggles have more effective antiviral drugs…"
Hermione read the page aloud and looked up. Harry and Ron also looked up at the same time, and the three exchanged glances. From each other's faces, they knew they were probably thinking the same thing.
"Three-headed dog?" Harry whispered.
"The corridor on the fourth floor?" Ron also lowered his voice. "Did you see that day? Snape's leg was injured! It must have been hurt by the three-headed dog. No wonder it hasn't healed after all this time. The three-headed dog is a powerful magical creature. The damage it caused isn't so easy to recover from."
Hermione tilted her head, not entirely agreeing with Harry and Ron's theories. "Are you thinking too much? Why would Snape get hurt by the three-headed dog?"
"No, Hermione, you don't know!" Harry shook his head. "On Halloween night, when we were looking for you, we found Snape. He was running up the stairs at the time, and that staircase just happened to lead to the corridor on the fourth floor."
Ron nodded beside him. "And when he showed up in the bathroom again, his leg was already injured!"
When Hermione heard this, she also felt it was possible. But she was still a bit hesitant: "But why would Snape go to the three-headed dog? He's a professor at the school; he must know it's dangerous there. Why would he go…"
"Remember, there was a trapdoor under the feet of the three-headed dog!" Harry looked at Hermione and Ron with eager eyes and told Hermione about going to Gringotts with Hagrid to retrieve some things and finding newspapers in Hagrid's room.
Everything clicked in Harry's mind.
Snape wanted to steal the treasure Hagrid had taken from Gringotts under the trapdoor guarded by the three-headed dog!
"I... I still can't believe it." Judging by her expression, Hermione was a little shaken, but she still couldn't fully accept it.
"Although Professor Snape isn't very friendly and especially mean to us, I still don't believe he would steal from Dumbledore."
"Honestly, Hermione, do you think all the professors are saints?" Ron said.
Hermione was an excellent student, so Snape couldn't really target her, at most, he might be a little strange with her. Therefore, Hermione's feelings weren't as strong as Ron's, who was a poor student.
Ron could clearly feel Snape's malice. "I agree with Harry. I think Snape is capable of anything. I heard that when he first became a professor, he used to give magical corporal punishment to students."
Hermione was speechless because she had also heard about that.
"But what's this? What would be worth Snape stealing?" Harry muttered, confused.
What could make someone break into Gringotts and have Dumbledore use a three-headed dog to guard it?
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