Chapter 155 - 154 — Borrowing a Book from Snape

Chapter 155: Chapter 154 — Borrowing a Book from Snape

Chapter 154 — Borrowing a Book from Snape

Vesey knew they had reached the first step in brewing the Polyjuice Potion: getting Lockhart’s signature so they could borrow the necessary book.

Her first thought was to ask Hermione to get Lockhart’s signature, but after thinking about Hermione’s usual behavior in Lockhart’s class, she quickly abandoned the idea.

But this wasn’t difficult for her.

She thought for a moment and said, "Why don’t we go find Professor Snape? He’s always been very gentle and good-tempered. Usually, as long as we have a question, he’ll help us."

Hermione and the others immediately fell silent.

There was really no way they could tell Vesey that their relationship with Snape was even worse than their relationship with Lockhart.

But Vesey had already dragged them outside Snape’s office without giving them a chance to object.

"It’s all right. I just need to discuss something with the professor."

Harry and the others were already thinking about running away when they saw Vesey knock on Snape’s office door.

Snape opened the door himself.

There was a smile on his face.

But the moment he saw Harry and the others, that smile turned cold.

"What do you want?"

he asked icily.

And that was only because Vesey was there.

If she hadn’t been there, he would definitely have deducted a pile of points from Harry and the others before slamming the door in their faces.

But before Harry and the others could say anything, Vesey had already spoken.

"Professor, I want to help my brother and the others borrow a book. It’s called..."

She apparently didn’t know the title yet, so she turned around and looked at Hermione.

Hermione quickly said, "Powerful Potions. I found a formula while studying Wandering with Vampires, and I want to study it carefully."

Vesey’s face immediately filled with admiration.

"Hermione is amazing! Professor, please lend it to us!"

Harry and the others shook their heads helplessly.

They were certain Snape would refuse.

Vesey hadn’t even asked in a particularly pleading tone.

Harry and Ron had practically begged Snape before, and they had never once seen him show them any mercy.

Even though Snape was kind to Vesey, there was no way he would agree to this.

But the next second, they froze.

Because Snape barely objected at all.

He snorted, took out a piece of parchment, and quickly wrote:

I, Severus Snape, grant Miss Hermione Granger permission to borrow the book Powerful Potions.

Hermione waited until they had walked all the way out of the office before suddenly screaming, "I gave him the wrong title!"

Harry and Ron looked at her in horror.

They absolutely did not want to go back to Snape.

They were afraid he would tear them apart.

When they had left just now, they had clearly seen Snape ordering them to get out.

Snape had kept Vesey behind.

As they walked away, they could hear Snape discussing advanced potion-making theories with Vesey, and just listening to them made Harry and Ron’s heads spin.

"You have to go back by yourself. We’re never—"

Ron looked warily at Hermione.

Hermione glared angrily at him and Harry.

"What use are you two? I really don’t understand why I seem to be the only one who cares about this!"

Harry felt a little guilty.

He knew Hermione was doing this to help him, and he shouldn’t be acting like this.

"I really don’t dare go back in there. You didn’t see the look in his eyes. He looked like he wanted to kill me!"

Harry said desperately.

Hermione’s expression softened.

She looked at the note and let out a breath.

"It should be fine. I just remembered that Wandering with Vampires didn’t say anything about potions.

"It was Walking with Ghouls that mentioned them. I really hope Snape doesn’t know that... He probably doesn’t, right?"

Hermione scratched her hair nervously.

But Harry and Ron thought it was fine.

As long as they could borrow the book, everything else was a minor problem.

"Actually, we only need ten minutes. Lend me the book, let me copy down the ingredients, and then we can return it.

"If he gets angry, he can just take the book back!"

A smile appeared on Hermione’s face.

"Then what we need to do now is hurry up and borrow the book!"

They quickened their pace and started running.

They ran all the way to the library.

Madam Pince looked at the note in their hands with an expression of disbelief.

She looked carefully at Hermione and the others several times before finally asking, "How did you find the courage to ask Professor Snape?"

Harry’s mouth twitched.

If Vesey hadn’t dragged them there, they wouldn’t have gone to Snape even if someone had pushed them off a cliff.

"Just tell us whether the note is valid!"

Ron didn’t want to waste any more time with Madam Pince and asked directly.

Madam Pince reluctantly nodded.

She led them to the Restricted Section and handed them Powerful Potions.

The moment Hermione got the book, she immediately dragged Harry and Ron into a corner.

She found the page about Polyjuice Potion and began copying it down.

Harry and Ron looked at the book.

Now they understood why it was kept in the Restricted Section.

Many of the potions described inside were particularly frightening.

Take the Polyjuice Potion, for example.

Several faces were drawn on the page. They all had agonized expressions, and then their faces gradually transformed into completely different ones.

Harry sincerely hoped drinking it wouldn’t be quite that painful.

"This is the most complicated recipe I’ve ever seen. Lacewing flies, leeches... We can get some of these from the students’ supply cupboards. We can just go and collect them.

"But African tree snake skin and powdered bicorn horn... I really don’t know where we’re going to find those.

"Oh, and we also need something belonging to the person we want to transform into..."

Ron nearly screamed.

"We have to eat pieces of other people? Why does it have to be so disgusting?!"

Harry was equally horrified.

"And there’s African tree snake skin. Where are we supposed to get that? Go out and buy it? Ask someone for it? We can’t exactly steal it from Snape’s cabinet, can we?"

Hermione’s eyes lit up.

"Good idea! We should go to Snape’s cabinet and steal the ingredients. The potion shops don’t sell African tree snake skin, so getting it will take some luck!"

Harry and Ron’s jaws nearly dropped.

"Steal from Snape?! Are you crazy, or are we crazy?"

It was practically like digging a hole beneath a tiger’s head or dancing inside a giant snake’s mouth.

"I already told you this is complicated. We’ll have to break more than fifty school rules.

"If you’re afraid, then don’t participate.

"I really don’t understand. What good ideas do you two have? If you have any, tell me instead of just making me do all the thinking!"

Harry and Ron were speechless.

They had no ideas of their own.

All they wanted was to find out whether Malfoy had done it.

"All right. If you really insist, then go ahead. But I’m telling you right now, I don’t want to eat that person’s toenails... I definitely don’t!"

Ron shouted.

Hermione ignored him and continued copying the contents of the book.

Once she had finished, she immediately returned it to Madam Pince.

Then she told Ron and Harry that she didn’t want Vesey to be dragged into this or be punished by Snape.

She hoped Vesey wouldn’t get implicated in their plan.