HP: For a better world

The door of the Potions Office quietly opened a crack, and a black head popped out from behind it.

Winster glanced inside guiltily.

The office was quiet, and the rustling sound of students correcting homework had disappeared.

The potion was still boiling in the crucible, with bubbles popping out from time to time. Winster breathed a sigh of relief and walked to the crucible to look at his potion.

The door closed automatically as he entered the room.

The different potion ingredients had been added to the cauldron, and it was entering the next stage of brewing. Their color and temperature were perfect, and Winston felt that no further adjustments were needed. It must be that Snape had specially looked after the potion before leaving.

Winster walked to the fireplace, felt the remaining heat with his hand, and scraped some ash off the wall tiles.

The ashes in the stove are still somewhat warm, the teacher may have just left here---

Winster felt a thump on his back, turned his head, and his heart stopped.

A pair of black eyes were staring at him quietly.

A huge portrait in the office was half-opened, and Snape was wearing a custom-made wizard robe with black patterns. He put one hand on the frame and looked over with a smile.

"3 minutes and 22 seconds late."

The portrait had always been cleverly concealed by a pile of shelves and covered with a white cloth. Winster had always thought it was just an ordinary portrait, or some special one that was not convenient to display, like the "Screaming Attack" at the Blake mansion (Winster only remembered that the portrait was screaming).

——Who would have known that he placed a portrait covered with a white cloth next to the potion ingredients and lived in the storage room every day, yet he could still have his African brush snake skin stolen by a second-grade student!

Winster myocardial infarction.

Fishing for law enforcement! Fishing for law enforcement!

"…3 minutes and 22 seconds late." Snape sneered, "Have you finished touching the fireplace?"

Winster quickly pulled his hand back as if he had been scalded and wiped the ashes off his hand.

"I didn't expect your teacher to be still here, did he?"

Snape walked out of the picture frame, raised his wand, and the picture frame closed automatically. The white cloth obediently covered the blank portrait.

Winster secretly spied on Snape's expression.

"Unfortunately, the meeting was cancelled. So your teacher has to work hard to clean up the mess after being contradicted by his new student - ah, I forgot." Snape showed a fake smile, "In order to let you fully experience the surprise of your teacher, I specially left an illusion magic for your cauldron, so that it maintains the time you were supposed to arrive - there are still 3 seconds.

3,

2,

1——”

Wait – what?

Winster was stunned.

Snape activated the magic callously.

"Boom!"

There was a loud bang of bubbles bursting.

Winster immediately turned around and looked at Crucible No. 8, which was at the end of a row of crucibles - the tin crucible assigned to him among Crucibles No. 5-8, which he used specifically to experiment with inspiration.

——The crucible roared with two huge bubbles, and Winster, who was watching from afar, felt terrified, fearing that the crucible would explode directly.

But the potion simply churned violently, its effects fighting fiercely inside the crucible, but all that was visible to the naked eye was the calm color of the potion.

A gorgeous red color leaped out from the bottom and penetrated into the quiet green, as if the forest was on fire. Bubbles rolled up wildly and flames spread to every inch of the treetops.

Then Winster heard an ominous "hissing" sound from the crucible - the tin crucible could not withstand the violent reaction of the potion and was corroded into a crack - the potion quickly leaked out.

Red greedily licked the escaping green liquid, and when he saw a piece of green was about to escape, he jumped up from the ground like a living thing and stopped the spreading green potion. In the end, only a scorch mark was left on Winster, and a few scorch marks even splashed precariously next to the fireplace.

Only a trace of dark liquid mixed from red and green remained at the bottom of the crucible.

Fortunately, the cauldrons were spaced far enough apart that Snape could rescue the others.

Good, Winston thought desperately, now he knew why Snape hadn't left and had turned off the fireplace.

He now felt as if he had worked hard for several days to save the game file, but suddenly was told that there was a virus and "all the save files were gone", and his eyes went dark.

He spent a month in the crucible—

Winster couldn't help but think back to the past month when he spent his time happily tinkering with some strange materials in the crucible after class. He even asked his owl Summer to help him purchase a new batch of herbs for experiments...

"ell."

His dear, "kind" teacher, who had dealt him a heavy blow thoughtfully, sighed three times in succession in different tones.

"What a surprise, isn't it, White."

Snape walked over to the cauldron and waved crisply.

The few drops of dark liquid automatically separated from the remains of the crucible and fell into an empty bottle nearby.

"I deliberately waited until it had completed the entire process of corroding the crucible and was about to react with the fireplace fire before I stopped recording. I just wanted to leave you some precious memories." Snape's voice rose happily.

Snape lifted his robes and sat back on his "throne".

"Given that I've heard about your wonderful imagination on the Boggart - although I don't know where you learned about the Mirror of Erised, I think it's necessary to add some more bricks to your imagination."

"I guess the cauldron explosion will be more impressive than your teacher's smile."

Who the hell is spreading this rumor, Winster thought inwardly, it must have reached my ears!

Winster covered his miserable heart, stretched out his hand weakly, and tried to argue: "But, but my crucible——"

The Crucible is innocent!!!

"Look at the facts. You absent-mindedly stirred it half a turn more this morning." Snape said in a long and malicious tone.

Winster looked at him blankly.

So you just stood there and watched me stir that extra half circle?

"This is to teach you not to interfere with your teacher's teaching plan casually-"

You are just taking revenge on me! Winster looked at him accusingly.

Snape responded with a merciless "what else?"

"Messing with my Boomslang skin, talking back to the teacher in public..." Snape slowly counted the "good things" Winster had done in the past few days.

"I really feel sorry for thinking you can be so obedient. Also, Mr. White, maybe you really need some memory potion to help your empty brain remember the principle of not putting the potion materials away casually after using them--" Snape sneered again, spitting out his snake tongue softly.

With "finished" written on his left eye and "bad" written on his right eye, Winster had no choice but to follow Snape's direction and obediently put the can of small wheatgrass powder back on the shelf.

Snape watched Winster put the things back in place before he stretched out his voice and continued to review the accounts:

"Oh, by the way, I heard from Malfoy that someone was very kind, gentle and generous and forgave the hippogriff that almost hurt him... Oh, why didn't you go to Hufflepuff, White? I think you and Longbottom are a good match."

Snape said sarcastically.

"Tell me - you're not really just showing off the Hufflepuff blood in you?" Snape narrowed his eyes and looked at him suspiciously.

"Of course not -" Winster opened his eyes wide, his round blue eyes full of exasperation: "I am a Slytherin -"

Slytherin is not synonymous with generosity, selflessness, and repaying evil with kindness.

"I'm so glad you remember that, White." Snape said mercilessly, his face almost saying 'I doubt I've recruited a brainless Gryffindor'

"Then don't take it as your fault if you are controlled to do something!"

Winster looked up at him suddenly.

Snape said impatiently, "If there is no evidence, it's not you, understand?"

"You must remember Gilderoy Lockhart, whom you met at St. Mungo's," Snape said suddenly.

Winster was stunned for a moment, then remembered Lockhart who ran out to ask people for autographs, and nodded.

Snape said calmly, "Shortly after you started school, St. Mungo's invited me to help treat Lockhart."

Winster looked at him in surprise.

"Your situation is similar to Lockhart's, but the damage Lockhart suffered was caused by the backfire of magic after the Oblivion Charm failed."

"As far as the two of you were concerned, you were very lucky, White," Snape said emphatically.

"Very."

"He is neither completely disabled nor has he forgotten his identity. He is able to continue studying at Hogwarts and has also regained his ability to cast spells—"

Snape said this with a calm glance at Winster.

For some reason, Winster felt a little guilty.

"Lockhart will never encounter a major technological breakthrough in his lifetime. He will be treated by a therapist until he is able to survive on his own - but you must know that the therapist can only know him as he is known to others." Snape's condescending eyes revealed a hint of pity. He said lightly: "He will be instilled with the habits and responsibilities that the therapist knows -"

"If he is a hero, teach him responsibility. If he is a villain, encourage him to steal. If he is a husband, get along with his wife."

"And then they were discharged..."

"In the past, patients with permanent memory damage who were able to be discharged from the hospital were considered to have recovered well. Yes, even though they would never remember their true selves for the rest of their lives, people were happy about their recovery. However, they themselves would never know that it was the cause of their recovery that enabled them to form their original self."

Winster shuddered.

"Think about why Lockhart has not been retaliated against so far. He deceived more than just ordinary wizards. Although St. Mungo's is in a detached position and does not allow anyone to spread hatred towards it, there are too many ways to retaliate against him.

"Winster... why do you think they all chose to remain silent tacitly? Even now, Lockhart's true identity is only known by a handful of people?"

"They, they," Winster swallowed, "They concealed Lockhart's true identity, so the therapist could only learn about him from his books, but he is a liar... The heroes who live in the books are patchwork heroes."

"...Then you should understand that if one person possesses the thoughts of four people..."

"Then he will split." Winster murmured, continuing Snape's thoughts.

"Yes, even if those people imagined the worst outcome, the therapist in charge of Lockhart guided him patiently and gently, without fully affirming the four tendencies he showed in the book-"

Snape said softly.

"—then he would be considered a hero, taught courage and responsibility...but it would only lead to his death when he is discharged from the hospital."

Snape clapped softly, his voice low and clear: "Yes, that's right. But it is more likely that he will be treated as a special baby in St. Mungo's all his life." A smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Winster stared at him intently.

"So you can see why I told you about Lockhart - don't let people who tell you they are your friends shape you, unless you are sure that the choices you make are genuine. Let yourself choose to change, not be changed by the perception of others."

——————After being moved——————

Snape: "So how's your Hufflepuff blood display going?"

Winster: “…”

Winster (unhappy): "I went to build a good relationship with Hagrid - Teacher, you yourself are also envious of the many herbs and magical animals in the Forbidden Forest!"

Snape (raising an eyebrow): "Yeah - so what have you got now?"

Winster (reserved): "Well, I'm not sure yet. I have to find a chance to go over and take a look. If it succeeds, you will definitely like it, teacher."

Snape (snorted coldly): "I hope so. Just don't get yourself into the hospital wing again. Take care of your potion yourself. By the way, remember to analyze the reasons for your failure other than the number of stirring cycles when you go back."

Winster (collecting the remaining liquid in the crucible): "Yes, yes, I understand."

Winster (handling materials): "Teacher, can't you see it?"

Snape (sneers): "Can I put what I saw into your head? Learn to analyze it yourself!"

Winster shut up.

After a while,

Winster (setting up the crucible): "By the way, teacher, how did you know that I wasn't involved?"

Snape (holding a newspaper) (casually): "Lucius Malfoy failed to ask for Hagrid's expulsion at the board meeting, so he asked the Ministry of Magic to chop off the Hippogriff to make up for it."

(Winster stirs the potion)

Snape (snorting): "Two hippogriffs have dangerous tendencies, but only one has been identified with sufficient evidence. Do you think Malfoy is a good person and still keep one?"

Snape (looking up): "--right here, stir less half a turn."

Winster: "Then why are you sure it was me who said that?"

Snape (continues to flip through the newspaper): "Lucius worries about his naive son every day. Little Malfoy's thoughts are written on his face, and it's easy to trick him into believing something."

Winster (accusing): "Teacher, you are still trying to trick a child."

Snape (lazily): "I am an unscrupulous Slytherin."

(The bottle floats quietly)

Snape (alert): "Stop! Don't think I can't see you touching my boomslang just because you used a silencing spell -"

Winster (disappointed): "Oh——"