The Silent Witch of Hogwarts

Chapter 94 The Silent Witch and Snape

Chapter 94 The Silent Witch and Snape (Part 1)

Late at night, the basement of Hogwarts was quiet, with only the slight crackling of burning and the occasional popping of bubbles in the cauldron.

Ah—. Ning·.

Without the daytime clamor, Snape stood quietly beside the cauldron, tossing herbs into the pot while a faint smile appeared on his face.

This was the only time he could feel happy since twelve years ago—when he was quietly concocting medicine alone, his incredible skill captivating everyone. "Bang bang bang."

Suddenly, a somewhat abrupt knocking sound broke the silence and made Snape take a deep breath.

"Who?"

His voice was drawn out and his tone was unusually low.

"I—. am me—"

I?

Snape snorted. The stammering answer had already given him the guest's name, but he shook his head with slight disgust.

"I?"

Snape repeated the answer: "I don't know anyone I know—" someone named me. He made no attempt to hide his disgust and displeasure.

"Hmm!"

As expected, he heard the girl's exclamation outside the door.

But then came the sound of rummaging through drawers and cabinets, the clattering noises driving away the last vestiges of the night's tranquility.

"Sorry—sorry!" After a long while, the girl's trembling voice came from outside the door: "I accidentally—I accidentally bumped into—".

"What did you bump into?" Snape took a deep breath and waved his wand to open the locked door.

Then he saw the girl, her clothes disheveled and her face pale.

She was rubbing her wand with her head down, and behind her, Snape saw a statue lying on the ground.

It was obvious that she had bumped into the statue while backing up.

"Very good, very good." Snape tried his best not to unleash any dark magic or unforgivable curse the moment he opened his mouth, but his voice was magic to Roy.

"Remember!"

The girl shuddered, then instinctively began to apologize.

"I'm sorry—yes—I'm sorry! I'll fix it—"

"Enough." Snape frowned, looking at the girl's expression. Could someone who didn't look like a professor really be a professor? Especially a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?

Oh·····

"What do you want?" Snape didn't want to waste any more words with her; his current level of disgust for Miss Hamilton was probably second only to Mr. Pott.

"Ah—, um, I'm here to deliver something to you—" Her voice trailed off, but Snape's expression grew increasingly strange.

"Give me something?" Snape dragged out each word as he slowly walked to the door and looked down at Miss Hamilton.

"Are you finally going to offer your ear to me for alchemy?"

"Ah! No...—no!"

Seeing her cover her ears and back away, Snape sneered, "I doubt you have that kind of awareness or intelligence."

After saying that, he tried to close the door. He didn't think Miss Hamilton, who was penniless and whose salary depended on advance payments, could come up with anything that would satisfy him.

Except for her own ears.

"Wait! Please—please wait a moment!"

Surprisingly, Miss Hamilton was unusually insistent this time; she reached out and pulled the door shut.

Snape's lips twitched, but he ultimately gave up on the idea of ​​slamming the door shut and trapping Miss Hamilton, even though he really wanted to.

"I—this—" Miss Hamilton stammered as she pulled the door shut.

"Ah!" She seemed unable to bear her appearance any longer and suddenly let out a long breath, taking the thing out of her left hand.

It was a small necklace that seemed to be in the shape of a flower. Snape frowned slightly and looked up when he saw it. He would never wear such a thing in his life.

"What is this?"

After a few seconds, knowing that Miss Hamilton probably had no intention of introducing herself, Snape slowly asked, "Is this a gift you gave to your schoolgirl friend?"

"Ah, no!" Miss Hamilton suddenly looked up, a little serious, and bit her lip as she asked, "You—"

Do you want to know?

"?"

Snape felt his face must have turned incredibly dark. If I didn't want to know, you wouldn't tell me, would you?

"Oh."

He responded with a cold laugh and immediately slammed the door shut.

Unfortunately, Miss Hamilton reacted quickly; she gripped her wand and used a spell to hold the door shut.

"I—I know—I know!" Miss Hamilton said quickly. "It's—it's a magic circle prop."

"Oh?" Snape became slightly interested. He had heard Dumbledore mention that this Miss Hamilton was a master of magic arrays, and that she seemed to have created a spatial expansion book with a huge space and a wristband that could communicate.

So what is this?

Seeing Snape's interest, Miss Hamilton gave a somewhat pale and awkward smile, and then said, "This is a necklace I made using an energy storage array, a weather array, and a perception array."

"To ensure its continued operation, I used dragon blood as the dye for drawing the magic circle, and also added Veela blood..."

Dragon blood is such an expensive alchemical material used to create magic array items, but it does provide good stability in alchemy. Veela blood is also uncommon—well, Miss Hamilton should have some, though at a lower concentration—

"Um?"

Suddenly, Miss Hamilton stopped. She carefully looked up at Snape and was surprised to find that the somewhat serious professor was seriously thinking about something.

"What's wrong?" Snape frowned slightly, noticing that Miss Hamilton was looking at him.

"Oh, I'm talking about things that nobody's interested in again," Miss Hamilton said, bowing her head. "I'm so sorry!"

"Heh." Snape sneered. "Compared to what you said before, this is at least—"

Or rather, it's still somewhat audible.

"Huh?" Miss Hamilton looked up at Snape in surprise. Seeing the incredulous look in her eyes, Snape snorted coldly.

"So, what's it used for?"

"Ah—it, it can predict the weather."

"What?" Snape frowned immediately.

I said—it can be borrowed in advance—

"I heard what you said," Snape slammed his hand on the door. "So, Miss Hamilton, you made a necklace out of expensive dragon blood that can tell you whether it will rain tomorrow?"

"Ah—strictly speaking, it can also tell whether it's snowing—"

"Haha, what a genius has arrived at Hogwarts!" Snape chuckled and shook his head. "She's crafted a necklace using expensive potion-making materials that can tell when it's raining and snowing."

"I'm a little curious, Miss Hamilton," Snape said, flicking his sleeve and gripping his wand. "Do you usually carry a wand?"

"Of course, of course I'll bring it. Ah—." Seemingly oblivious to Snape's sarcasm, Miss Hamilton blushed slightly and lowered her head.

"Then, Miss Hamilton," Snape paused, and said, "do you know how to use a wand to open an umbrella?"

"Yes, I will!"

"So, what's the use of this necklace?" Snape asked coldly, feeling numb, rendered speechless by Miss Hamilton's whimsical ideas.

"I know. Has it rained or not?" Miss Hamilton muttered, seemingly realizing something was amiss: "I—"

"And you know what?" Snape continued, "The Daily Prophet reports tomorrow's weather every day."

Don't you read the newspaper?

"I really don't—I don't look." Miss Hamilton's voice trailed off: because I'm not British. Snape nodded knowingly and said with a cold laugh, "I suppose German wizards prefer to see Lockhart's smile in the Witch Weekly, don't they?"

Then he suddenly lowered his voice: "Miss Hamilton, thank you for the gift, but I feel you are more suited to it."

"Because I am a British wizard."

"And I can afford the Daily Prophet."