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Chapter 341: Vold: Cry if You're Sad
Chapter 341: Vold: Cry if You're Sad
In the evening, as Hagrid met with Lupin, Vold also arrived at the Umbrella Tent.
After advancing to the third year, the increased course load had intensified everyone's study pressure. To complete their homework smoothly, almost every night, they gathered in the Umbrella Tent.
Although Hermione didn't allow them to copy each other's homework, discussing with friends made the originally perplexing essays much easier to write.
Among them, Neville, being slow to react and forgetful, was always the last to finish his work. Therefore, he was usually the most diligent and hardworking.
However, tonight, Vold noticed that Neville wasn't doing his homework at all. He hadn't even opened his book but was in the practice room, repeatedly casting spells at a wooden target.
"Disarm! Stupefy! Incendio! Stupefy!"
The light of the spells flew out, and the target standing there already had several cracks, but Neville didn't stop.
He was sweating profusely and panting, leaning on his knees for a moment before raising his wand again.
Padma secretly peeked out, then immediately retracted her head and shook her head at the group.
Hermione sighed, and Harry also looked helpless.
Vold asked curiously, "What's wrong with Neville today? Did he argue with Malfoy again?"
"No, it's Snape!" Harry said angrily. "He's always had it in for us!"
"What happened?" Vold asked.
"Let me explain." Hermione put down her book and said softly, "Today in Potions class, we were brewing the Shrinking Potion. Neville accidentally added too much rat spleen..."
"To compensate, he added a few more drops of leech juice..." Hermione continued.
"Then Snape got very angry," Harry added. "He said that at the end of class, he would feed Neville's potion to Le Frogs. If Neville made a mistake, Le Frogs would be poisoned to death..."
Le Frogs was Neville's pet toad. Although it was quite ugly and often went missing, Neville cherished it.
"And then?" Vold asked, thinking of Neville's current bitter and resentful expression.
"No," Harry shook his head and said, "Hermione helped, and the potion was successful. But after returning, Neville..."
He gestured for Vold to look at Neville's seat—
On Neville's desk, there was now a shallow bowl with some soil and a shallow bowl of water. Le Frogs, Neville's toad, was lying in the bowl, its belly rising and falling.
It looked rather dazed.
Vold discreetly took a step back and asked, "Didn't you use the Shrinking Potion? Why is it still in its adult form?"
"It was originally supposed to turn into a tadpole," Hermione explained. "But before class ended, Professor Snape dripped a few drops of the potion onto it, and it transformed back."
"I see..."
Vold appeared deep in thought.
He suddenly realized that most of his potion reserves were poisons, antidotes, and compound potions. However, the Shrinking Potion was also very useful, and one bottle was too little; he should stock up on more.
To some extent, it could produce an effect akin to reversing time.
In fact, the Shrinking Potion sometimes made the drinker younger, and at other times, it physically "shrank" them.
There were many legends about the Shrinking Potion—
The potion master who invented this potion, Zigmund Barch, gave the Shrinking Potion to a pair of brothers, but it shrank them to the size of beetles. To avoid being eaten by their own cat, the unfortunate brothers hid under a bowl cabinet for several days before the potion wore off.
Later, there was also a guy named Samuel Prunkett who, after being persecuted by the villagers of a Muggle village, poured the Shrinking Potion into the village well and then chased the shrunken villagers while wearing hobnail boots.
And with this potion, even if the same ingredients were used, and the same steps followed, resulting in the same fresh green color, the effects could be completely different.
The exact effect of the Shrinking Potion was unknown even to the wizard who brewed it, making it particularly frustrating.
However, for Vold, any effect would weaken the drinker's fighting ability, making it equally useful.
"Disarm! Disarm!"
Neville rested for a while before starting again.
Such frequent use of spells not only exhausted his physical strength but also excessively depleted his magic, which wasn't beneficial for the future. Everyone was concerned but didn't know how to stop him.
—Le Frogs had already recovered, hadn't he?
And Snape had been targeting Neville for more than just a day or two. In the past, he would quickly adjust himself after class, but this time, no one understood why he was reacting so strongly.
Vold patted Harry's shoulder as he walked by. "I'll go check, you guys continue."
When Vold entered the practice room, he saw Neville silently propping up the shattered target and then using the Restoration Spell to fix it.
But perhaps the damage caused by the spell was too severe. Neville tried several times, and after the spell's glow faded, the target still cracked.
He knelt on the ground, futilely chanting over and over:
"Restoration Spell! Restoration Spell! Restoration Spell!"
Sweat dripped down his cheeks, looking like he was crying.
Suddenly, Vold understood. He stood at the entrance, his feet feeling nailed to the ground, and his chest felt stifled.
After several minutes, Neville, who had tried countless times, finally gave up. He leaned his head against the target, his sturdy back hunched over, as if he had shrunk into a ball.
Vold hesitated for a moment before walking over. "Neville."
Neville lifted his head, and Vold thought he had cried, but he hadn't.
His face was deathly pale, his forehead covered in sweat, and his eyes were empty and dazed, looking exhausted.
"Vold."
Neville paused for a moment before calling out Vold's name.
He wiped the stains on the target with his sleeve and said, with his head lowered, "I'm sorry... I broke the wooden target Ryan made."
Vold didn't say, "It's okay," but instead sat down on the ground next to him and asked, "Is that all you want to say?"
Neville slowly blinked a few times and then said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lost my temper today. Hermione has been helping me, and I haven't even thanked her..."
"Don't apologize. You have nothing to apologize for."
Vold interrupted him, reaching out to embrace Neville's shoulders and pulling him closer.
Neville, caught off guard, braced himself against the ground, and his calm expression broke. His mouth hung open in astonishment.
"If it's really hard, just cry it out," Vold said. "It's okay, I'll be with you—I know you're in a lot of pain right now."
After a while, a harsh, hoarse cry echoed intermittently.
Vold knew that watching his partner being forced to drink the potion reminded Neville of his parents' torture by the Death Eaters.
Why was he so obsessed with fixing the target? Perhaps it was also because he was reminded of the Lombarts' shattered mental state.
He couldn't protect them, and he couldn't fix them either.
The toad was still by his side, but his parents were at St. Mungo's.
Vold gently patted Neville's shoulder and sighed silently.
(End of Chapter)
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