The scream was so loud that even the students in the Great Hall heard it clearly.
Justin Finchley, the Muggle-born student napping at the Hufflepuff table, suddenly opened his eyes.
Whose cat is that?
Outside the Great Hall, Professor Quirrell was repeatedly pounding at the biting cabbage clinging to the back of his head, his painful howls echoing throughout the castle.
"Professor Quirrell?"
Professor McGonagall hurried over from a distance, accompanied by Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout.
Seeing the cabbage still refusing to let go, Professor Sprout hurried forward and, using some unknown method, made the cabbage obediently release its bite. It twisted its round body and jumped into her arms.
"Professor Quirrell, are you alright?" Professor Sprout asked with concern, "Do you need to visit the school hospital?"
Professor Quirrell, lying in the snow, watched the trembling cabbage in Professor Sprout's arms with fear, backing away in panic.
The pain from its bites was secondary; if it angered that person...
Thinking about how meddling with Potter's broom during the last Quidditch match led to several days of severe punishment from that person made him shudder.
The experience was truly unbearable...
"I... I'm... I'm fine." Professor Quirrell stammered as blood oozed from the back of his head.
The dark red blood seeped into his large turban, turning it even darker. As he spoke, a few blood-stained cloves of garlic fell to the ground.
"I'll go back... and handle it... sorry." Professor Quirrell said, stammering, pressing the turban tightly to his head, and hurriedly making his escape.
Harry noticed Quirrell's unusual behavior. Instead of being angry at such a prank from a student, which even a Flubber Worm would be, why did Professor Quirrell's first reaction seem to be finding an excuse to leave?
Could it be... there's really an unspeakable secret under that turban?
"Mr. Weasley?" Professor McGonagall noticed the twins sneaking back into the Great Hall and sternly questioned them, "Why are you two here? I don't want to hear that the biting cabbage was your prank."
"Sorry, Professor." Having come to his senses, Harry interjected, "That biting cabbage was given to me by Professor Sprout. When I woke up today, I found something was off with it, so I planned to bring it to the Great Hall for Professor Sprout to have a look."
"Really?" Professor McGonagall scrutinized Harry.
The Weasley Twins breathed a sigh of relief behind him and secretly gave Harry a thumbs-up.
This little brother, he's loyal!
Harry quickly nodded: "Yes, Professor."
"Indeed, that's the case, Minerva." Professor Sprout chimed in, "I did give Mr. Potter that biting cabbage."
"Then what's wrong with it?" Professor McGonagall asked, still slightly skeptical.
"It's been a bit listless." Harry replied.
Just as Harry said this, the biting cabbage opened and closed its large mouth twice, making a chomping noise, as if it hadn't bitten enough.
"You call this listless?" Professor McGonagall's eyes sharpened.
For a moment, Professor McGonagall thought she saw James.
Then she firmly pushed the image of James out of her mind. Merlin, how could it be? Mr. Potter was like his mother, how could he be like his father in causing trouble?
It must be a misconception!
"Sorry, Professor, it really was like this this morning," Harry put on a pitiful expression, looking at Professor McGonagall with his green, watery eyes: "It's my fault, I wasn't steady on my feet, fell down, and flung the cabbage out. I didn't expect it to..."
Professor McGonagall's heart softened.
Yes, Lily was so kind; how could her child intentionally harm a professor?
It must be an accident!
Her expression softened and she said to Harry: "Since you didn't do this on purpose, I won't impose additional punishment on you, but Gryffindor will still lose ten points because of you."
"As for you two..." Professor McGonagall turned to the Weasley Twins.
"Professor, we..." Fred and George attempted to argue.
But Professor McGonagall already saw through everything. She said coldly: "The snowball grenades behind the bushes... was that your doing?"
"Yes, Professor." The two answered in unison.
"You two will serve detention in my office after the holidays!" Professor McGonagall gave no room for objection and delivered her judgment directly.
"Yes, Professor." The twins hung their heads together. In the angle unseen by Professor McGonagall, a trace of relief flashed in their eyes.
Wow, we thought we'd lose points, or get another kind of punishment, but it's just detention—
Once Professor McGonagall left, the twins extended a hand each to drape over Harry's shoulders.
"Lion King, you're a real friend." The two chimed in, "Yes, not ratting us out."
Harry shrugged and whispered to them: "Now I'm even more curious about what's under Professor Quirrell's turban—just think, even after being hit on the head with a snowball and bitten by biting cabbage, Professor Quirrell wouldn't take off his turban. There surely is an unspeakable secret underneath."
"Yeah, yeah." Fred continued, "You must have seen it, he'd rather let us off, pretend nothing happened, than expose the secret under the turban. That's abnormal in itself."
"Could there be something on the back of his head?" George wondered aloud, "Like a malignant tumor or... could it be dragon pox?!"
"If it were dragon pox, there'd be marks on his face and hands too, it couldn't only be on his head," Harry shook his head in denial.
After a pause, he added: "I don't think it's some kind of disease. Maybe Professor Quirrell is researching some form of dark magic and doesn't want it exposed."
"Dark magic?!" The twins exclaimed in unison, "Isn't he supposed to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Why would he study dark magic?"
"Oh, as the saying goes, 'know your enemy to defeat them,'" Harry spread his hands, "Anyone accomplished in Defense Against the Dark Arts would also have considerable knowledge of dark magic, otherwise, how could they defend against it?"
"You're making sense." The twins said in unison, "So Harry, why are you so certain?"
"Well, it's easy to understand. If it were an illness, even if it was dragon pox, there's nothing you can't see a doctor for." Harry began to analyze: "But he'd rather swallow his pride to hide the secret under his turban. Aside from dark magic, I can't think of any other explanation."
The twins' eyes lit up.
"So what should we do?" they asked in unison.