HP: I beat the otome game at Hogwarts

Leila noticed that her dog was still sneaking out to play as often as usual, but seeing that it accepted the halved food without any resistance, and thinking that more exercise would help the dog lose weight, she didn't ask the dog where it was going every day.

Lyra's mind was now entirely focused on how to successfully feed the restorative potion to the large black dog.

Knight was incredibly clever. She suspected that this intelligent dog was even smarter than her younger schoolmate Neville. At least Neville would eat the twins' prank candies without any suspicion, but Knight always managed to accurately pick out the cakes smeared with potions, the potions that had been switched, and she always managed to detect when pumpkin juice was secretly replaced with potions.

Leila tried everything to coax the big dog into eating the tonic, but to no avail. This only fueled her rebellious and competitive spirit. Leila was determined to find a way to make the big dog willingly take the tonic himself.

Lyra set her sights on improving the taste of potions. She'd overheard Madam Pomfrey mention at the school hospital that sometimes the doctors at St. Mungo's would make children's potions brighter in color and milder in taste to help sick toddlers drink them more easily—

Unlike Professor Snape of Hogwarts, who provided potions for the school hospital that were increasingly bizarre in color and increasingly disgusting in taste, as if he wanted to deter students from getting sick or injured by using their terrible smells.

Unfortunately, Lyra failed several times in her private experiments, which is quite normal, as improving potions is never simple. Even minor changes in the formula, the amount of ingredients, or the slightest variations can affect the potion's effectiveness.

Lyra had no choice but to muster her courage and continue to fleece the youngest Potions Master in the wizarding world. After all, Professor Snape was the Potions Master at Hogwarts, and it was just too convenient and delicious to be near her. Even the most rational rabbit couldn't resist.

However, this time Leila didn't dare to ask questions after class.

She was tricked—no, given a small tuft of horned beetle tail hair by Hagrid. Although it wasn't as valuable as a unicorn's tail hair, it was still quite rare and was used in some unorthodox potion recipes.

Lyra planned to use the tuft of horned beetle tail hair as a gift to please Professor Snape first, and then take the opportunity to ask him how to improve the flavor of the potion.

Unfortunately, they ran into Professor Snape while he was brewing a complicated potion. He had no patience for dealing with the Gryffindor's annoying, advanced questions and showed absolutely no sportsmanship.

"go out!"

"Professor, I just wanted to ask..."

"Disturbing the professor's private time, Gryffindor deducts five points!"

"What about the venomous horned beast's tail hair...?"

"Confiscate all dangerous potion ingredients!"

"..."

Leila left the cellar with tears in her eyes, realizing what it meant to try to steal a chicken but lose the rice instead.

*

With a large bag of pan-fried cod in her left hand and a swallow-tailed dog in her right, Leila walked happily toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

This time, she plans to introduce her puppy to the large black dog. If the two puppies can become friends, her chances of successfully adopting the larger dog will be much higher.

Although Lyra sensed that the big dog preferred freedom and might have difficulty accepting an owner, she couldn't bear to let him continue living a life of hunger and cold, a life of uncertainty as a stray—and now she could feed Knight, but what would happen when school was out for holidays?

"Woof woof woof!" the swallow-tailed dog in Leila's arms suddenly barked.

A rustling sound came from the bushes, and a large black dog and a ginger cat jumped out.

"Nate~ Crookshan~" Lyra greeted warmly, then soothed her dog, "Bell, this is a new friend, don't bark!"

"Woof woof woof!" But for some reason, the usually obedient swallowtail dog bared its sharp teeth fiercely at the large black dog.

“Bell, what’s wrong? Look, this is Crook Mountain,” Lyra said, a little puzzled. “Haven’t you seen it before?”

The swallowtail dog continued barking incessantly, with almost the same intensity as the day it encountered the Dementors on the train.

“Bell, are you afraid of big dogs? Don’t be afraid, this is Knight, my new friend,” Lyra continued, trying to comfort the puppy. “He’s very gentle and won’t hurt you—”

Despite the swallowtail dog's wary attitude, the ginger cat didn't take it seriously, and the large black dog didn't seem to want to attack the barking, provocative puppy. It simply walked away a bit and didn't approach again.

In the end, Lyra had no choice but to leave the food she brought for the big dog, and she took the puppy back first—the swallowtail dog was completely unwilling to accept this new friend and was showing off in a completely hostile manner.

“Maybe it’s the possessiveness of a pet towards its owner?” Ron said, sitting by the fireplace in the common room. “I remember when Bill was a kid, he adopted a stray cat and wanted to take it to Hogwarts as a pet. But one day it saw Bill feeding other stray cats, got angry, fought with another cat on the spot, and then walked away.”

Ron recalled with relish: "In the end, Bill didn't keep either of the cats—both stray cats ran away."

“Or maybe the other dog was too big and made Bell feel threatened,” Hermione said, taking a good spot by the fireplace to warm herself. “From your description, the big dog was about the size of a small bear. It’s normal for a swallowtail to be scared, given its small size.”

“New notice—” Percy entered with an air of superiority and posted a new notice on the bulletin board.

"Great!" Fred and George were the first to chime in. "Hogsmeade weekend is finally here, I need to get some more dung balls at Zonko's shop."

“I’ll say it again—” Percy was standing right behind Fred and heard him clearly, “No throwing dung balls in school!”

Unfortunately, the twins completely ignored the warning from the male student council president, and if he happened to be their older brother, they would be even less likely to heed it.

"What happened?" Harry followed the twins into the common room; they had all just finished their Quidditch practice for the day.

“The first Hogsmeade weekend,” Ron pointed to the bulletin board for Harry, who hadn’t noticed the notice, “late October, before Halloween.”

“Harry, I dare say you’ll be able to go next time,” Hermione said, seeing through Harry’s frustration at not being able to go to Hogsmeade. “They’ll definitely catch Black soon.”

“Dude, you could ask Professor McGonagall,” Ron suggested, “otherwise, who knows when the next opportunity will come—”

Hermione was about to retort when Crookshank suddenly slipped into the lounge from outside the door, jumped onto her lap, and fixed his yellow eyes on Ron.

Lyra's little dog, Belle, ran in from outside and obediently sat down beside Lyra. Suddenly, the dog sniffed and its black eyes fixed on Ron's direction.