HP: For a better world

Snape glanced at Winster and said calmly, "What do you want to ask?"

Winster took a look at the pile of rat corpses in the office and could see that the rats in the office had been completely eliminated by the rat-killing potion.

"Teacher, you can obviously use rat-killing potion to kill rats, so why do you need to catch a Kneazle to catch rats?"

Snape waved his wand and directed the carpet to scoop up the pile of mouse corpses on the ground, wrap them up into a ball, throw them outside the door, and instruct Filch to throw the mice outside the castle and bury them, so as not to let the students' pets eat them by mistake. Then he dispersed the faint smell of potion in the office, and said impatiently: "You should cut the splendens infected by Potter in your brain, White. Are you going to use those dead mice to contaminate my precious materials? Use your rusty brain, don't let me think that you accidentally ate the dried leaves of sneezeweed today. The rat-killing potion will affect the efficacy of those precious potions. Do you want to destroy all my treasures?"

Winster chuckled.

Snape frowned and opened the sealing spell of the potion storage room. As soon as he pushed open the door, a long, furry black rat ran along the wall frantically trying to rush out.

But Winster was quick to cast a petrification spell and froze him in place.

Snape raised his wand and pointed it at the storage room, and let out a faint snort from his nose, as if to confirm that Winston's brain was stupid but his reaction was still there.

"Hold your cat," he said, and walked inside, holding his wand steadily.

Winster couldn't help sneezing again and followed carefully behind.

The potion storage room was full of rats. Some of the bottles of potion placed near the ground had even been twisted open by a few rats. Now, as if drunk, they were lying on their backs next to the overturned evidence, sleeping soundly with their bellies bulging, right at people's feet.

Winster saw a vein popping out on Snape's head, and he seemed to want to hit the fat damn mice a few times, but he took a deep breath and walked forward with his wand. He walked to the cabinet where the dragon blood and phoenix feathers were stored, checked the situation, and found that the things that had been stored in advance were intact in the cabinet and were not damaged by the mice.

He counted them one by one, forcing himself to ignore the daring mice that were trying to bite open the corks. Suddenly he stopped and took out a bottle of steaming potion from the cupboard.

"Look at the good luck of our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor," Snape said in a contemptuous tone, turning around and holding it up to Winston, "It seems that our furry professor has a good relationship with those dirty little animals, but he is the only one who has mercy on him."

Snape's unhappy mood just now actually subtly improved.

"However," Snape said slowly, with a hint of gloating in his tone, "that's all. I think Lupin may have a hard time this Christmas. Remember to express my regret for this force majeure to him when you deliver the medicine for me, White."

He shook the potion in the small potion bottle, and only a sip of the potion rippled happily in the bottle.

Winster laughed dryly.

"I'll remember that, Sensei, Cat."

Winster lifted Crookshanks up to Snape.

"Wait." Snape said, glancing at Crookshanks' flat cat face, "You communicate with this cat first so that it can catch all the mice." He ordered, putting the bottle in his pocket and directing Winster to communicate with the cat from a distance, while he stayed in the storage room to reinforce and protect all the bottles and jars.

Winston stepped out, put Crookshanks on the ground, turned his head to look at Snape who was busy, and whispered to Crookshanks: "You understand what I'm saying, right, Crookshanks?"

"Meow." Crookshanks licked his paw.

"When you go to catch the mouse later, pay attention to that inside," Winster glanced back secretly, and a mouse jumped past Snape's feet, causing him to glare at him angrily.

"Is there Scabbers? You know him, right? Ron's pet mouse." Winster stroked the cat's head and whispered, "Leave it here and bring it to me, understand?"

"Meow."

"White." Snape called out.

"It's up to you, Crookshanks," Winster whispered, then patted it and raised his voice: "Go, Crookshanks."

Snape came out and watched the cat trot in to set up a protective shell to keep all the animals in the storage room.

Winster stood up from the ground.

"Teacher, why don't you try the rat repelling charm?"

"It was a short spell, and the rats came back quickly. I tried it," Snape replied briefly. "Also, I still think you should stay away from Lupin during this period. You don't have to bring him medicine during this holiday, White. I'll have the house elf bring it to him." He said, calling out, "Lalo."

"Dear Professor Snape," With a bang, the elf that I had seen before Quidditch appeared in the office. It bent down deeply, with its pointed nose pressed to the ground. Its sleeves were replaced with a tea towel with the Hogwarts emblem printed on it, and it had a chain-toothed pattern, but if you looked closely, it was covered with tiny, chewed holes.

"Lalo is happy to serve you," it called. "May I ask what you may do for me?"

"You go and give this bottle of potion to Professor Lupin's elf, and then come back to deal with the mouse that the cat caught. In the meantime, I order you to follow the instructions of this student."

Lalo glanced at Winster and bowed his head respectfully: "Lalo understands, Lalo knows Mr. Winster White!" It screamed, "Mr. White is the professor's student."

Snape hummed, pulling the potion from his pocket and handing it to the house-elf.

The elf took it, and then disappeared on the spot with a "bang".

"Teacher? Then what are you going to do?" Winster interrupted in confusion. He looked back at Crookshanks, who was cleverly throwing out the dead mouse, and looked back again.

Are we just going to leave the potion storeroom alone?

Snape frowned and ordered: "I need to visit Professor McGonagall. I have repaired the hole where the rat drilled. Lock the door when you are done. I will take inventory when I come back." After that, he left Winster alone in the office and hurried away.

……

Minerva McGonagall was hastily woken up by the house-elf today.

"…Are you saying there are rats in the kitchen?"

The house-elf who was sent to make an urgent report put his nose to the ground in fear.

"Yes, Professor McGonagall." It said in a trembling voice, "As soon as we woke up from sleep and prepared to prepare breakfast for professors and students and pack up the dirty clothes, we found that rats had mixed into the stored food! We have urgently processed the food and replaced it with clean ingredients, but the rats are still there - still in the kitchen!"

Its sound gradually became more rapid.

"Dog is not good at offensive magic! Dog can't repel rats! I was sent to report and had to wake up the respected Professor McGonagall! But today's breakfast is not ready yet! Dog is useless! Dog is bad Dog, Dog is bad Dog!" It screamed, and tried madly to bang its head into the embers of the fire next to it.

There was still some scorching heat in the burnt-out fireplace; if you stuck your head in there it would surely burn a piece of your skin.

"Oh no, stop, your name is Dogger, right?... This name is terrible - I mean Dogger! Stop!" Professor McGonagall supported her head, which was still a little sleepy, and seeing that the house-elf was about to punish her again, she quickly gave a serious order.

Doge turned back with a sad face.

"It's only seven o'clock now, and it's still early for breakfast at nine o'clock. I will inform the students that the breakfast time will be extended during today's holiday, and you still have enough time to prepare breakfast." Professor McGonagall said tiredly. She had to deal with these emergencies before she had time to change out of her nightgown.

"How did mice get into the kitchen?" she asked seriously. "Didn't I tell you to pay attention to the recent increase in mice?"

Doc hung his head in frustration, and said in a sharp voice with regret: "We have been very careful. There has never been a mouse in the kitchen before today! But when Doc woke up today, he found that the kitchen door had been opened at night. The mouse might have been let in at that time!"

"...these disobedient children." Professor McGonagall sighed.

"Knock knock."

At this moment, Professor McGonagall heard a knock on the door.

"Who?" she asked loudly.

Snape's voice came in low, "It's me, Minerva."

"Oh," Professor McGonagall glanced at the purple nightgown she was wearing, "Dog, go open the door for Professor Snape." As she spoke, she pulled a set of wizard robes from the hanger next to her and put them on.

Doc ran over and opened the door.

The door opened.

As Snape stepped over the threshold, he said in a low voice: "I'm sorry to bother you so early, Minerva, but I'm afraid I have to tell you bad news..."

Professor McGonagall sighed, "What is it? Severus, I just received a report from the house elf about the rat plague."

She turned and looked at Severus Snape, who looked exhausted.

Snape saw Professor McGonagall, who was only wearing a robe over her pajamas, and turned his eyes away to look at the fireplace beside him. "It seems that what I want to tell you is related to this... The potion materials in the Potions classroom and my office have been destroyed by rats. I checked and found that almost nothing is usable. I'm afraid I have to notify the board of directors to allocate new funds for us."

Professor McGonagall gathered her robes with a headache, her eyes serious, "I see, thank you for your notice, Severus. I will deal with this matter as soon as possible." She paused, "By the way, can you help me inform the students of something? Breakfast today will be delayed to nine o'clock."

"I will," Snape replied.

"I hope Hagrid can find the reason... it doesn't make sense why there's a sudden plague of rats."

……

[AM: 8:30]

There was a loud noise from the doorway of the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Will you please stop bothering me? Please--" Harry shouted as he stepped into the common room.

There were few students in the lounge, most of them were in their dormitories packing their bags and getting ready to leave.

"But Harry, you can't really run to find Black, don't do anything stupid, you're going to die!" Hermione's voice shouted anxiously behind him.

"Yeah, Harry, I don't agree with you going to Black either. It's not worth dying for Black." Ron followed him back to the common room and said.

"I just couldn't sleep so I got up and walked around! I've made up my mind." Harry said unhappily to the two people following him.

"Don't do this, Harry, I don't want to see you go to die!" Hermione said worriedly, "The Ministry of Magic is still chasing him, there is no need, Harry."

"Yeah, Harry, there are Dementors trying to get him, he can't get away from them," said Ron. They walked over to the fireplace that was burning in the middle of the lounge.

They had just received a notice from the Deans that today's breakfast would be postponed, so they had to go back to the common room. On the way, Hermione and Ron ran into Harry, who had to get up and walk because he hadn't slept all night.

"Brother, I don't want to see you get blown up by that lunatic Black like Peter, leaving only one finger - that would be the worst." Ron advised.

"Yes, that's the only time a coward has courage, and I can't even compare to him? The people who were killed were my parents!" Harry said angrily.

"But Harry, you can't find him now, can you? You have no idea where he might be hiding in the school!" Hermione said rationally.

"So I don't plan to go find him. He will come after me. He escaped just to kill me for his master." Harry said, calming down a little. He grabbed a biscuit in the lounge and took a bite.

"If you're scared, just stay away from me. Let me face it on my own."

"What are you talking about, Harry? Of course we will stand with you." Hermione and Ron looked at each other and said.

Ron nodded, took the seat next to Harry and grabbed a handful of biscuits. Harry glanced at him.

"Dementors are a special attack bonus to those who have been in Azkaban. Don't worry too much, Harry. Black will definitely be caught."

"Yeah, Harry, he deserves it," said Hermione, sitting down as well, picking up the teapot of scented tea next to her and pouring a glass of water for all three of them.

Harry took a sip of the scented tea and swallowed the biscuits. He had come back too late last night and had not eaten yet.

"I keep hearing my mother's voice when the Dementors are near me," he suddenly confided.

Hermione and Ron looked at him worriedly. "What did you hear, Harry?" Hermione asked slowly.

"My mother's screams, as she begged Voldemort to kill her for my life. If any of you had heard your mother scream like that, right before someone killed you, you would never forget it. If you had discovered that someone, who everyone thought was her friend, had betrayed her and sent Voldemort after her -"[1]

"Don't say any more, Harry," Hermione cried. "Don't say any more...we all understand...we understand."

Harry was about to say that you didn't understand, but he swallowed the words back, took a bite of the biscuit dully, and said incoherently: "That's it."

He said in a depressed tone.

He held the biscuit in his palm, and the biscuit crumbs covered his sweaty hands.

"But you know Black is not an ordinary wizard, and Dark wizards are not affected by Dementors, right?" said Harry.

Ron frowned. Hermione shouted, "If that were the case, he would have escaped long ago, Harry. He was the first wizard to escape from Azkaban. But he must have been affected in some way. If he hadn't been affected, wouldn't it have been easier for him to escape earlier and kill you?"

"But I was staying at my aunt's house before and it's a Muggle neighborhood. I don't think he would be able to find me," Harry replied unhappily.

"But you may not have beaten him, Harry!" Ron pointed out sharply, "He blew up a whole street, remember what the newspaper said? Who among us could do such a thing?"

"Winster can," said Harry.

"Oh yeah, watching his friend go to die without trying to stop him!" Hermione screamed sharply, "I should have said something to him in Hogsmeade. I'm going to have to talk to him about this sooner or later! Not everyone is as powerful as him."

"Oh come on, Hermione," Ron retorted, as if he had been stung. "He's not strong either, is he? Look at his fragile body. He just - just has more magic power."

"Okay, stop arguing in front of me, okay?" Harry interrupted them impatiently: "After breakfast, I'm going to go see Hagrid. Ask him why he talked so much about my parents but never mentioned Black to me."

"Harry...you can't--"

Ron interrupted Hermione, "That's it, Harry. We're together."

Harry nodded hastily.