But just as Dawn was about to look for the staircase—
Boom!
A violent explosion suddenly erupted somewhere inside the castle, sounding almost exactly like a powerful bomb detonating in the Muggle world.
What happened?
The sudden noise startled even Dawn. He walked over to the window and looked outside, but there was nothing unusual to be seen from the surface.
The young wizards around him immediately became restless as well.
"Whoa! Run! Someone's attacked the castle! It must be... the Dark Lord!"
One young wizard blurted out what was really on his mind, but halfway through his sentence, he caught sight of someone nearby and hurriedly changed his wording.
Dawn turned his head and stared expressionlessly at the boy who had spoken.
He kept staring until the boy nervously shrank his head back, only then turning his gaze away with some satisfaction.
After that, he didn't waste any more time.
Dawn climbed out through the window and floated toward the direction from which the noise had come, intending to investigate.
Before long—
Following the lingering echoes and several smaller rumbles that came afterward, Dawn arrived at a dimly lit staircase leading directly down into the dungeons.
I remember the Potions office and classroom are down here.
Was that explosion caused by Snape?
Dawn muttered to himself, his interest growing.
He followed the staircase downward and soon found himself in a cold, gloomy corridor.
There were already people in the dungeon.
One by one, students emerged from the nearby Potions classroom, poking their heads out and looking toward the direction of the earlier explosion.
Among them, Dawn spotted Harry, Ron, and Hermione, as well as the platinum-blond young master of the Malfoy family.
Were they waiting for Potions class?
Dawn glanced into the classroom.
Various animal specimens were suspended in jars, while the teacher's desk at the front remained empty, with no professor in sight.
This made him even more certain that the commotion had something to do with Snape.
He raised an eyebrow with interest.
Rather than deliberately revealing himself, he simply followed behind the group, tagging along with several of the bolder young wizards until they reached the door of the Potions office.
The door was tightly shut.
Boom!
Another sound came from inside.
The young wizards looked at one another.
Remembering Snape's fearsome reputation, most of them were somewhat apprehensive.
But several Gryffindors were practically itching to find out what was happening.
They began playing rock-paper-scissors, apparently intending to select a loser who would be forced to investigate.
"This isn't a good idea, Ron."
Harry grabbed his friend, who was eager to compete with the others.
"I think we should do what Hermione did and just keep waiting in the classroom."
"Hmph! What's there to be afraid of? Snape can only take a few points from us.
Is it like we haven't lost enough house points to him already?"
With Snape safely out of sight, Ron was remarkably bold.
He pushed Harry's hand away.
"He's going to deduct points anyway, so we might as well see what Snape's doing.
Maybe he's up to something he doesn't want anyone to know about. At least then we'll be prepared."
He spoke with absolute confidence, making no attempt to conceal his prejudice against Snape.
Then he turned around and began playing another hand game with the person beside him.
Hearing this, Malfoy folded his arms and gave a cold snort.
"Hmph! Weasley, I'll make sure to repeat those exact words to Professor Snape."
"Ha! You can only run to the teacher. You're so childish!"
Harry couldn't help stepping forward to defend his friend.
The three immediately began trading insults again, though they kept their voices much lower than usual because they were standing outside the office.
Draco was holding his own against the two of them.
But just as he had thought of another particularly nasty remark, before he could even say it, he suddenly felt someone grab him and fling him aside.
Who was it?!
The young master angrily widened his eyes.
After steadying himself, he turned around to see who had dared to treat him like that.
Then he saw a pair of crimson eyes.
"Cough—cough, cough!"
He immediately fell silent.
The words he had been about to say were swallowed so quickly that they went down the wrong way, leaving him coughing violently.
He hunched his shoulders and retreated into the crowd.
After thinking about it, he even forced himself to swallow his pride and drag his two foolish followers back with him.
Draco still remembered what had happened to him before the press conference, as well as his father's stern warning.
He had absolutely no desire, nor the courage, to provoke Dawn again.
These past few days, he had avoided Dawn whenever possible.
Don't see me.
Don't see me.
The young master stood stiffly in place, secretly resolving that he absolutely had to learn the Disillusionment Charm as soon as possible.
But Dawn had no time to care about Draco's complicated thoughts.
He simply couldn't be bothered to wait for these people to finish their childish game.
He pushed his way through the crowd, ignoring the sudden silence behind him.
After casting Alohomora, he grasped the handle and pushed the door open.
Creak...
The lock mechanism scraped against itself.
And the instant the door opened, clouds of colorful mist suddenly burst out of the office!
They looked almost like several different colors of spray paint exploding into the corridor.
A complicated mixture of smells accompanied them, filling the entire passageway.
Dawn frowned.
With the protection of his phoenix trait, he wasn't particularly afraid of poisons.
Still, after a moment's thought, he cast the Bubble-Head Charm to isolate himself from the outside air before stepping into the office.
"Who?!"
Snape immediately turned around from the cauldron.
Dark circles surrounded his eyes, blood vessels covered his whites, and his pale face was framed by his black robes. His expression was so gloomy that he looked positively terrifying.
"Idiots! Who told you to come in?! Has no one ever taught you to knock before entering an office?!"
He first barked the reprimand.
Then, through the multicolored mist, he finally saw Dawn's face.
His words abruptly stopped.
His brows furrowed in disgust. "You. What are you doing here?"
"Ah~ Just taking a look around."
Dawn shrugged.
"Professor Snape, I think you may have forgotten that, as the castle's safety inspector, I have the authority to supervise any potential safety hazards."
He turned his head and casually examined the room as though he were inspecting his own territory, his curiosity completely natural.
The Potions office was decorated quite simply.
Most of what could be seen were shelves of various kinds.
Through the glass doors, Dawn could see numerous herbs, specimens, and crystal bottles filled with potions.
Farther inside stood a large table, with cauldrons, stands, and various other utensils used for brewing potions arranged around it.
Dawn quickly swept his gaze across the room and identified the source of the explosions and multicolored mist.
It came from the viscous liquid bubbling continuously inside the cauldron as flames licked beneath it.
But—
That wasn't what attracted Dawn's attention most.
He only glanced at the cauldron before abruptly turning his head and staring at the enormous rat on a nearby table.
Its body had been cut away, leaving only its head and a short section of spinal cord.
The rat should clearly have been dead.
Yet its head was still moving back and forth, and vivid emotion could even be seen within its eyes.
Every so often, it would pick up a sunflower seed with its mouth and swallow it.
After chewing for a moment, the seed would tumble back onto the table through its bloody, mangled throat.
Dawn's eyebrows rose slightly.
The scene was certainly bizarre enough to make one's skin crawl.
But he showed no disgust or revulsion.
After all, he had conducted no small number of strange experiments himself.
"Are you researching a potion that can resurrect the dead?"
Dawn muttered.
Looking at the lively rat's head and making a connection with Snape's personal obsession, it was not difficult to deduce his purpose.
No wonder I'd hardly seen this fellow these past few days.
He'd probably been buried in potion research the entire time.
Could it be that Snape was still influenced by my press conference?
Dawn's expression became rather strange as he considered the possibility.
"Get out!"
Snape's voice came coldly through clenched teeth.
The veins on the back of his hand throbbed.
He clearly wanted to attack, but when he saw the other young wizards poking their heads into the office from outside, he forcibly suppressed the impulse.
Dawn naturally ignored him.
His attention remained fixed on the rat's head.
Perhaps because it had been treated with the potion, there was a sufficiently dense concentration of magical mist around the rat's head for its special pattern to be clearly visible.
Very quickly—
Dawn figured out what the potion Snape had used on the poor little creature actually did.
"A potion that increases and strengthens the user's vitality?"
Dawn stroked his chin.
He suddenly remembered the Golden Disc of Aten from the pyramid's burial chamber and couldn't help marveling at Snape's talent.
The effects of the two were indeed remarkably similar.
Both could make the user extremely difficult to kill through physical injury.
Just like Harris, who had insects building nests inside his body yet somehow remained alive.
And just like this lively rat's head.
Having satisfied his curiosity, Dawn lost interest in staring at Snape's unpleasant face.
He shrugged and turned to leave.
This potion was of little use to him.
With Dawn's current understanding of the special patterns governing the physical body, he could easily achieve the same result by transforming the pattern itself.
Still—
Following the principle that one should never leave empty-handed, Dawn deliberately memorized the special pattern of the viscous potion inside the cauldron before leaving.
Come to think of it—
After discovering that he could use pattern transformation to reproduce a person, Dawn had realized that he could probably use the same method to transform something else directly into a potion.
For example—
Turning a piece of wood into Felix Felicis.
Of course—
Since this was something that had to be swallowed, and Slughorn was already helping him brew his potions, such an experiment would be rather unnecessary.
As he contemplated the limits of his abilities, Dawn reached out and once again grabbed Ron, who was blocking the doorway, and tossed him aside.
He ignored Ron's reddening, furious expression and strode away from the crowd.
However, he wasn't in a hurry to leave the dungeons.
Since he'd already come here, he might as well explore the area thoroughly.
But soon—
Dawn returned disappointed.
The dungeons of Hogwarts had originally served as the castle's prison.
Although there were quite a few magical circuits here, most of their runic structures were highly similar and primarily served the purpose of binding and restraining.
They had nothing to do with what Dawn was looking for.
He touched his now-cold wizarding robes and shook his head.
He was about to leave and go enjoy some proper sunlight.
By the time he returned, the crowd outside the office had already dispersed.
Snape and the other young wizards had returned to the classroom and begun their lesson.
Dawn only glanced inside casually.
But—
Just as he had passed the Potions classroom, Snape's indistinct voice drifted out from inside, causing Dawn to stop in his tracks.
"Miss Granger, if I remember correctly, you signed up for every elective course this term, didn't you?"
"Ah... yes, Professor Snape."
Hermione's confused voice followed.
"But after the school year started, Dumbledore said there wasn't enough time to fit everything into my schedule, so he told me to drop several of them."
"Is that so... There isn't enough time to fit them in?"
Snape said those words slowly.
After that, the voice coming from the classroom returned to the ordinary sound of a teacher conducting a lesson.
Dawn slowly narrowed his eyes.
He found it strange that Snape would ask Hermione such a question.
But if he combined it with what he had seen inside the office earlier—
"Could he be thinking about the Time-Turner?"
Perhaps after discovering how difficult it was to develop a potion capable of resurrection, Snape wanted to take this "shortcut" instead?
Dawn frowned.
He had only recently dealt with the matter of changing the past.
Naturally, the possibility made him particularly wary.
He remained silent for a long time.
Forget it.
I'll observe for now.
Dawn committed the matter to memory.
Finally, he glanced at the Invisibility Cloak beneath his robes before continuing toward the exit of the dungeons.
___________
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