Chapter 64 - Sixty-Four: What Can We Do to Him?

Chapter 64: Chapter Sixty-Four: What Can We Do to Him?

Chapter Sixty-Four: What Can We Do to Him?

After November arrived, the air gradually grew colder.

Vesey had always liked the dungeons, but now she had begun to dislike them.

Because they were cold.

The weather here was comparable to the northernmost place she had once lived. Once the temperature dropped, it became bitterly cold.

The mountains surrounding the school were covered in layers of snow.

Every morning, Hagrid had to put on a thick moleskin coat and clear the frost from the Quidditch pitch and the brooms.

Vesey now tried not to stay in the dungeons whenever possible, running over to Gryffindor Tower whenever she had the chance.

At first, she thought her behavior might make the Slytherins unhappy.

But to her surprise, none of the Slytherin students ever mentioned it to her.

Even Cassandra didn’t seem to care much about Vesey going to look for Harry.

This made Vesey very comfortable.

Now that she had Hermione as a friend, she couldn’t bear to be separated from her.

Especially since Hermione had started hugging and kissing her from time to time, Vesey was even happier.

I wish I could move my dormitory to Gryffindor too.

Harry didn’t really care about Hermione’s affectionate behavior toward Vesey. He hadn’t yet realized that there were plenty of things two girls could do together.

Instead, he simply looked suspiciously at all the boys around Vesey.

Recently, he had also been spending a lot of time training on the Quidditch pitch. After several weeks of practice, Harry was now ready to participate in the next match.

This Saturday would be the match between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

Whenever Harry trained, he would complain to Wood and the others that it was a good thing Vesey was afraid of heights. Otherwise, if she had become a member of the Slytherin team, he wouldn’t have been able to bear beating her.

And that wasn’t all.

Harry had also discovered that even among the Gryffindor boys, quite a few people liked Vesey.

Sometimes Vesey would bring him water. Whenever she appeared, the entire Quidditch team would immediately look in her direction.

Harry strongly suspected that if Vesey really had joined the Slytherin team, no one except Wood would actually want her to lose.

After all, in the two months since the start of term, Vesey’s sweetness and cuteness had already become deeply ingrained in everyone’s minds.

Only then did Harry vaguely realize that Snape really did seem to like Vesey.

But that was normal.

Apart from Peeves and perhaps the Slytherins, hardly anyone at Hogwarts disliked Vesey.

What Harry didn’t know was that quite a few Slytherins actually liked her too.

It was just that many Slytherin families had connections to Death Eaters, so they couldn’t get too close to Vesey.

Pansy was a good example. She would sometimes secretly say a few words to Vesey.

Most of the time, however, she would stand beside Malfoy with an exaggerated lovestruck expression and shout, "Young Master Malfoy!"

In reality, there was far more teasing than genuine affection in her performance.

Malfoy seemed to understand what she was doing and never stopped her from putting on the act. Sometimes he would even cooperate with Pansy so that she could show off in front of the other girls.

In short, the Slytherins were simply better at pretending to be indifferent.

The upbringing they had received since childhood was different from that of ordinary students.

They could like Vesey without showing it.

They were afraid that if they weren’t careful, news that some Death Eater’s child actually liked the Savior’s sister would spread throughout Hogwarts.

That was no laughing matter.

Of course, Harry knew nothing about any of this.

The fact that he could tell Snape genuinely seemed to like Vesey was already a revelation to him.

It might also have been because Snape never bothered to hide it around Harry.

For example, during their last Potions lesson, Snape had specially brought a pair of pink, furry gloves for Vesey.

By now, even Harry could no longer ignore Snape’s favoritism toward her.

What he still couldn’t understand was this: if Snape liked Vesey so much, why didn’t he try to win over Vesey’s brother?

Wasn’t Snape worried that Harry might say something bad about him and make Vesey stay away from him?

Harry was extremely puzzled.

But it wasn’t really important.

After all, it was much better for Vesey to be liked than disliked.

Besides, Harry was a little too busy dealing with his own problems.

Wood had originally kept Harry’s identity as Gryffindor’s new Seeker a secret, but somehow the news had still gotten out.

Now, whenever people saw him, they looked him over with curious and appraising expressions.

Many students even joked that when he played, Vesey should bring a mattress onto the Quidditch pitch so she could catch him if he fell and save him from dying.

Harry became irritated every time he heard something like that.

He really hated it when people dragged Vesey into their jokes about him.

What does this have to do with Vesey?

Sometimes, when he heard such comments, Harry genuinely wanted to fight them.

But Vesey always pulled him back.

"All right, Brother. I believe you’ll definitely win. And when you do, they’ll have to shut up!"

Vesey’s smile was sweet, and Harry immediately felt better.

Of course, Harry was also very happy that he and Ron had finally become good friends with Hermione.

Having Hermione around saved him a lot of trouble.

For one thing, Hermione would do homework with Vesey and read together with her.

Whenever Harry and Ron played with their brooms, they had always worried that Vesey would be lonely.

Now that Hermione was there, she took good care of Vesey.

Hermione had also become less concerned about following every school rule since Vesey and the others had rescued her from the troll.

Just like now.

Hermione had lit a small fire in a little pot, allowing the three of them to stand in a corner of the courtyard with their backs to it, warming themselves while enjoying the scenery outside the castle.

But almost as soon as they had settled down, they saw Snape limping toward them.

Vesey immediately ran over.

Harry and the others hurriedly squeezed together to hide the little pot behind them.

They all knew that although Snape liked Vesey very much, he disliked them even more.

Especially after Halloween, Snape had started treating them like his personal enemies.

As long as Vesey wasn’t paying attention, he would always find some excuse to deduct points from them.

This time was no different.

Snape’s eyes immediately settled on Harry while Vesey examined him anxiously, checking whether he was injured.

Snape was in a particularly bad mood today, so he had intended to find some inspiration for deducting points by targeting Harry.

When he spotted the small pot behind Hermione and the others, he initially wanted to point it out immediately and deduct points.

But when he saw Vesey looking at him so eagerly, his mood improved slightly.

He decided not to mention it.

Instead, he continued staring at Harry.

"What are you holding in your hand?"

Harry confidently pulled out his book.

"The Origins of Quidditch."

It was a book from the library.

There had never been a rule saying students weren’t allowed to read outside the castle.

Harry even smiled proudly.

What can Snape possibly do to me?