Chapter 3001 The Ghost in the Distance (6)

“We can go to Hogsmeade next semester. Don’t forget to ask your parents to sign the application form this summer.”

During the herbal medicine class in the greenhouse, Pomona heard Tonks telling Tulip that they were changing the soil for valerian.

“How could I forget?” Tupri said with a smirk, “We can go to Zuko then and see what props we can use to trick that annoying librarian.”

Pomona glanced at Irina, the first-year student in their group. She was engrossed in weighing dragon manure on a scale and seemed not to have heard the conversation between Tonks and Tulip.

Elena’s goal for the next semester is to prepare for the Potion Championship. Old Bat feels that she should not continue to hang around in the first grade, but Elena obviously did not find a reassuring study partner in the second grade.

 “How are you doing?” Pomona said with a sweet smile.

"That's almost it," Tonks said generously, showing off the fertilizer she had just fertilized with the valerian.

 “Did you loosen it?” Pomona asked.

"Of course." Tonks said, "I just don't have to weigh each fertilizer one by one like her."

Elena was a little annoyed and said angrily, "You just rely on your feelings. No wonder your potions always have problems."

"This is an herbal medicine class. First of all, we need to figure out what the plants need, rather than follow the formula." Tonks said with a playful smile.

“I have a question,” Pomona said before the girls could argue. “Which of the following potions does not require a sprig of valerian? a. Polyjuice Potion, b. Sleeping Potion, c. Oblivion Potion.”

"I thought finals would be a few weeks away," Tonks said with a pout.

 “You just don’t know the answer.” Elena gloated.

 “I guess it’s a,” Tupri said cheerfully.

"You guessed it right." Pomona kept smiling. "But next time I hope you don't guess it right. Five points for Hufflepuff."

“Polyjuice potion will not be learned until the senior year. We have already learned the other two. I don’t think there is anything to guess.” Elena said coldly.

Pomona felt that Elena was becoming more and more like Snape, so humorless, but fortunately, they no longer discussed how to tease the teacher or quarreled in the following lessons.

 When the bell rang again, the day's classes were finally over. The students simply cleaned up the workbench. Next, Pomona had to clean the greenhouse.

 She used a floating spell to float the flower pot to the warehouse of Greenhouse No. 3. As soon as she put the flower pot down, she heard some movement.

 She looked over following the sound and found a clump of arrowroot swaying.

Even if it grows in a greenhouse in the magical world, it is still an ordinary plant that cannot move, not to mention there is no wind.

She walked over cautiously, and the shaking slowly stopped, as if something hiding behind noticed her.

 “Who’s there?” Pomona asked.

No one answered, and after a while, just when she thought she had an illusion, she seemed to hear a "bang", and then a werewolf stood up from behind the Flying Arrowroot.

Pomona was startled, and then she remembered that today was not a full moon night, and the werewolf had not yet transformed.

The defensive magic of Hogwarts will also protect against werewolves. It is impossible for werewolves to enter the school, but she still remembers the scene of "raining" in the auditorium not long ago...

“Riddikulus.” She heard someone shout from behind her, and then the werewolf transformed into a stuffed wolf doll.

"Are you okay, professor?" Pomona looked back at the man, and the first thing she saw was red hair.

 “Charlie?” Pomona asked.

 “Why is there a Boggart in the greenhouse?” asked Charlie Weasley.

Pomona subconsciously wanted to cast a memory-erasing spell so that no one would know what she was most afraid of.

"I don't know, kid, maybe it's because the school's defensive magic has weakened." Pomona said weakly. "Let's get it out of here."

 “Where to take it?” asked Charlie.

Before Pomona could say anything, the Boggart that turned into a stuffed toy transformed again and quickly escaped into the preparation room, and then got into the closet.

"I guess it found a place for itself." Pomona said, then looked at Charlie. "Where did you learn this spell? I remember your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor didn't teach you how to deal with boggarts." .”

"Hagrid taught me this. He said that in the Forbidden Forest, you might encounter..."

 At this point, Charlie suddenly shut up.

She knew that Charlie would not be home for Christmas, and staying with Hagrid was not just for training hippogriffs.

“Thank you Hagrid for me, you’re going to his place, right?” Pomona said with a smile.

"There is a plan, but..." Charlie looked at the cabinet containing the Boggart, which was shaking constantly.

 “This is left to me, you go ahead,” said Pomona.

"Okay, Professor," Charlie said, turning away as if he was afraid she would regret it.

 After he left, Pomona looked back at the closet.

 Learning from the experience of the Mirror of Erised last time, Pomona does not plan to place it where students may go, even if the greenhouse is full of dangerous poisonous tentacles.

In contrast, the teachers' lounge was a place where students would never go, so she cast a levitating spell on the cabinet and walked towards the castle with it.

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In the works of William Blake, there is such a work, a "man" who looks half human and half beast, holding an empty bowl in his hand, standing in front of a window, with a starry sky outside the window, and a shooting star flying by.

This painting is called The Ghost of a Flea (theghostofflea). Legend has it that Blake painted it after seeing a hallucination. As we all know, fleas feed on blood, but there is no red in the entire painting, and the main tone is gold.

According to Blake's own description, this "ghost"'s thirst for blood is manifested in its flicking tongue. He believed that the souls of bloodthirsty people would live in the bodies of fleas, and only in insects. If they were as big as horses, then Humans will become their food, and soon there will be no more supply. The half-man, half-animal figure is actually a damaged ghost, although it has the same muscular body as the red dragon.

 After returning to the bedroom, Severus took a box of cookies from the chest of drawers and sat on the bed.

He looked like a child, and Pomona sat on the edge of the bed to see what he was going to do.

 Then he opened the cookie box, which was filled with various marbles.

"This belongs to my mother. She used to be a Gobstone master." Severus stared at the beautiful marbles, then looked at Pomona. "She won these."

"It's beautiful." Pomona said, picking up one of the Gobstones. It was transparent, like a crystal ball, and shone with golden light in the warm candlelight.

 “Do you like it?” Severus asked suddenly.

 Pomona looked at him.

  She once lied to him, saying that Eileen used to be on the Quidditch team.

 She felt that this would cultivate his "masculinity". After all, Gobstone was too quiet compared to riding a broom. He needed more strength in a school that required him to fight back.

“I don’t know how to play.” Pomona put the marble back.

 “I can teach you.” He said enthusiastically.

 “Didn’t you say you were sleeping?” Pomona said coldly.

“Playing this will not affect your sleep.”

Now Pomona knows what happened to that cup of black tea.

“Okay.” Pomona said patiently, like a child who couldn’t fall asleep after listening to a bedtime story and kept yelling, “Tell me one more.”

Severus then explained the child's game in his deep and mature voice.

The strange thing is that she actually finds it interesting. Even if she doesn't drink black tea to refresh herself, she can feel a hundred times more energetic. Maybe she can play with it until dawn.

 In fact, sometimes it’s nice to not be so “adult” and be like a child, just like the box of Gobstones. They are not valuable jewelry, but they can still bring happiness to people.

Sometimes people who are opposite each other will appreciate each other. This may be the feeling of meeting an opponent in chess.

 (End of this chapter)