In the evening, when Hagrid t with Lupin, Wade also arrived at the Umbrella House.
After entering the third-year, the increased coursework had significantly heightened everyone's academic pressure. To complete their assignnts smoothly, they gathered in the Umbrella room almost every night.
Although Hermione did not allow everyone to copy each other's howork, discussing with friends made the previously daunting essays much easier to write.
Among them, Neville, being slow to react and having a poor mory, was always the last to finish his work, making him usually the most diligent and hardworking one.
But tonight, Wade noticed that Neville wasn't doing his howork at all. He hadn't even opened his books. Instead, he was in the practice room, repeatedly casting spells at a wooden target.
"Expelliarmus! Stupefy! Incendio! Stupefy!" (Disarming Charm, Stunning Spell, Fire-Making Spell, Stunning Spell)
The light of the spells flew out, and the standing target now bore several cracks, but Neville didn't stop.
He was sweating profusely and was leaning on his knees to catch his breath for a mont. And then he raised his wand again.
Padma peeked in secretly, imdiately pulled her head back, and shook her head at everyone.
Hermione sighed, and Harry also looked helpless.
Wade asked in confusion, "What's wrong with Neville today? Did he have another argunt with Malfoy?"
"No, it's Snape!" Harry said angrily, "He's always had it in for us!"
"What happened?" Wade asked.
"Let explain," Hermione put down her book and said softly:
"In today's Potions class, we were supposed to brew a Shrinking Solution. Neville accidentally added too much rat spleen... To compensate, he added a few extra drops of leech juice..."
"Then Snape got really angry. He said he would feed Neville's potion to Trevor at the end of class, and if he made a mistake, Trevor would be poisoned..." Harry added.
Trevor is Neville's pet toad. Although this pet is quite ugly and often ran away, Neville cherished it deeply.
"And then?" Wade, thinking of Neville's current bitter and resentful appearance, asked, "Did Trevor die?"
"No," Harry shook his head and said, "Hermione helped out, the potion was successful, but after we ca back, Neville just..."
He gestured for Wade to look at Neville's seat—
On Neville's desk, there was now a shallow basin containing so soil and a small bowl of water. Trevor the toad was lying in the basin with its belly puffing up and down.
It looked quite dull.
Wade subtly took a step back and asked, "Wasn't the Shrinking Solution used? Why does it still look like an adult?"
"It originally turned into a tadpole. But before the class ended, Professor Snape dripped a few drops of potion on it, and it changed back," Hermione explained.
"So that's how it is..."
Wade pondered thoughtfully.
He suddenly realized that most of his potion reserves were poisons, antidotes, Polyjuice Potions, and the like. But in fact, the Shrinking Solution was also quite useful.
Having just one bottle is too little; I should stock up on more.
In a way, it could produce effects akin to turning back ti.
In reality, the Shrinking Solution could sotis make the drinker younger, while other tis it could physically "shrink" them.
There were many legends about the Shrinking Solution—
The potion's inventor, Zygmunt Budge, once gave the Shrinking Solution to a pair of brothers, only to shrink them both to the size of beetles. To avoid being eaten by their own cat, the unfortunate brothers hid under a cupboard for several days until the potion wore off.
Later, there was a man nad Samuel Plunkett who, after being persecuted by villagers in a Muggle town, poured the Shrinking Solution into the village well and then chased the shrunken villagers while wearing hobnailed boots.
Even when brewed with the sa ingredients and following the sa steps, resulting in the sa bright green color, the effects of this potion could be entirely different.
The specific effect of the Shrinking Solution couldn't be determined until it was consud, not even by the wizard who brewed it, which was particularly frustrating.
However, for Wade, either effect would neutralize the drinker's combat ability, making it equally useful.
"Expelliarmus! Expelliarmus!" (Disarming Charm)
After resting for a while, Neville started again.
Using spells so frequently not only drained a lot of physical energy but also overusing magic was detrintal to his future. Everyone was worried but didn't know how to dissuade him.
—Trevor has already recovered, hasn't he?
Moreover, Snape targeting Neville wasn't a new thing. In the past, he would usually bounce back quickly after class. Everyone was puzzled as to why he was reacting so strongly this ti.
Wade casually patted Harry on the shoulder and said, "I'll go check on him. You guys carry on."
When Wade entered the practice room, he saw Neville silently picking up the shattered target and trying to repair it with a spell.
But perhaps the damage from the spells was too severe. After several attempts, the target still split apart each ti the spell's light flashed.
Kneeling on the ground, he futilely repeated:
"Reparo! Reparo! Reparo!!"
Sweat dripped down his cheeks, making it look as though he was crying.
Wade suddenly understood sothing. Standing at the entrance, his feet felt as if they were nailed to the ground, and his chest felt tight.
After several minutes and countless attempts, Neville finally gave up. He rested his head against the target, and his sturdy back was hunched as if he had shrunk into a ball.
Wade hesitated for a mont before walking over: "Neville."
Neville looked up, and Wade thought he might be crying, but he wasn't.
His face was pale, his forehead covered in a dense layer of sweat, and his eyes were sowhat hollow and dazed, he looked utterly exhausted.
"Wade."
Neville paused for a while before calling out Wade's na.
He wiped the stains off the target with his sleeve, and lowered his head as he said:
"I'm sorry... I ruined the wooden target that Ryan made."
Wade didn't say "it's okay." Instead, he simply sat down on the floor beside him and asked, "Is that all you want to say?"
Neville blinked slowly, then said:
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lost my temper like that today. Hermione has been helping all along, and I haven't even thanked her..."
"Stop apologizing. You don't need to apologize for anything."
Wade interrupted him, and then reached out to put his hand on Neville's shoulders and pulled to his side.
Neville was caught off guard and braced himself against the ground, and his calm expression broke as he opened his mouth in shock.
"If you're really hurting, just cry it out," Wade said. "It's okay. I'm here with you—I know how much pain you're in right now."
After a while, harsh, rasping sobs began to break out intermittently.
Wade knew that watching his pet being forced to take the potion had likely reminded Neville of the past when his parents were tortured by Death Eaters.
Why was he so fixated on repairing the broken target? It was probably because it reminded him of the shattered ntal state of the Longbottoms.
He couldn't protect them, and he couldn't fix them.
The toad was still by his side, but his parents were at St. Mungo's.
Wade gently patted Neville's shoulder and sighed silently.
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⭐Harry Potter: Becoming a Study God (HP:BSG)- 235 Chapters
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