Chapter 145: Actor (Edited)

The fire in the Forbidden Forest, and the moon shower that followed, did not go unnoticed by others, for at Hogwarts there are always naughty students staying up at night, not to mention Filch and the ghosts that patrol the grounds every night.

The only explanation given was that the forest fire had started by accident, and that the school had used some rather unusual magic to put it out.

So after a few days of talking about it, it calmed down, after all, with the final exam in a fortnight, they didn't have much time for small talk.

That day, Harry and the rest of the class flanked Fish as usual as they entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where the Ravenclaw students were already waiting.

"Hello~ Fish~!"

The Ravenclaw students greeted Fish.

"Hi~" (●ΦωΦ●)?

After greeting them politely, Fish made his way to his seat and then reverted back to his kitten form and slipped into the table as usual.

"Fish," Hermione reminded, "You forgot to use the bubble head spell."

"Meow?"⊙ω⊙

Fish, huddled in the crate, froze, remembering that the others didn't know Stinky Guy was gone-Fish hadn't been around when Quirrell had burned to death. In his perception, Quirrell had done something wrong and fled.

Even Dumbledore thought so.... After all, Quirrell had been charred by the fire, and it was a bit difficult to find any trace of his existence.

Fish was going to ignore it, but on second thought, he promised the mean old man and Minerva that he would keep his secret, so he turned one of his paws back into a wand hand and pushed it against his head.

"Miay~" (? ΦωΦ?) つ━☆? *.

After casting a bubble head spell on himself, Fish turned his head back to the drawer and fell asleep.

Harry and Ron, along with some of the other students, expertly pulled out nose plugs and shoved them into his nostrils.

Just then, the classroom door burst open again and Snape, with an indifferent face, walked in like a black cloud.

"Why is it Snape? isn't this Defense Against the Dark Arts class?!" muttered Ron to Harry under his breath, his eyes wide.

"How should I know?"

Harry smiled bitterly, as Snape's main target, he was more surprised than Ron.

"Didn't Professor McGonagall ever teach you to be quiet in class?" Snape's gaze swept over the pair whispering, "Five points off for Gryffindor."

"Professor, are you in the wrong classroom?"

One of the blond Ravenclaw's Anthony asked cautiously as he raised his hand.

Snape curved his mouth slightly in a sour smile, "Unfortunately, no."

He glanced around the classroom, making the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws sit up straight, before nodding in satisfaction.

As for Fish, who was asleep at his desk, he ignored him magnificently.

Snape then explained to the crowd, "Professor Quirrell has had a small incident and has resigned from Hogwarts and left the school..."

As he said this, a strange smile appeared on Snape's face, as if he was amused, but he also looked rather scornful.

There was a pause before he continued, "For the next two weeks, I will be the acting Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, so, are there any other questions, Goldstein?"

Snape rested his hands on the podium and leaned forward to look at the blond boy who had just asked the question with an oppressive gaze.

"No, Professor."

Anthony Goldstein was terrified, and shook his head like a rattle.

"Very well," Snape said in a slightly gloating tone as he straightened up, flipping nonchalantly through the textbooks on the lectern, "Because Professor Quirrell 'left' in such a hurry, there was no record left of what you were taught..."

"Sorry, Professor, we learned about the Crup, the Bowtruckle, the Gusarajo, the Goblins and the Augurey," Hermione answered his question very quickly, "And the last lesson about the fire crabs, but Professor Quirrell hasn't finished yet..."

"Quiet, I have no questions." Snape interrupted Hermione coolly, "There's no point in learning things that pose no threat to wizards over the age of five."

"So I'm going to teach you something practical..." Snape had that strange grin on his face again, "Like, for example, the sudden intrusion into the school on Halloween.... Trolls."

"Thud!"

Harry's textbook fell to the floor with a thud.

"Sorry, Professor," Harry said dryly, "I'll pick it up right now."

"Hm, the famous Harry Potter, can't even hold a book when he hears the name of a Troll?"

Snape scoffed and sneered, and strangely... did not deduct House points from Harry.

"Now, turn the book to page 347." Snape stopped looking at Harry's pale face, and instead swept the class, and once again ignored Fish, who was asleep at his desk, "Everyone! Quickly!"

Everyone didn't dare squeal in the face of Snape's authority and flipped through their textbooks in silence.

Hermione, who had been on the verge of arguing with Snape about the curriculum, calmed down with a cringe in her heart when she heard him say Trolls and thought of Harry at the same time.

"Which one of you is going to tell me, how many kinds of Trolls are there?" asked Snape suddenly.

No one said a word, even the Ravenclaw students, who like to answer questions, huddled in silence, weakening their presence.

Anyway, Snape won't give extra points for answering correctly, so why get their attention?

Snape didn't care, his eyes still roamed over Harry, Ron and Neville, enjoying the way they trembled under his gaze.

Suddenly, he noticed that Miss Smarty-pants wasn't raising her hands as high as she usually did this time.

"Granger, answer the question."

Snape curved his lips and pronounced Hermione's name in a very odd way.

Hermione, who was thinking about the Philosopher's Stone and the giant Halloween monster, froze slightly before answering confidently, "There are three, Professor, the Mountain Troll, the Forest Troll, and the River Troll."

Snape curbed his smile and said coldly, "Correct answer, one point off for Gryffindor, and you get distracted in class."

Even Hermione, at that moment, had the idea to throw a curse at Snape.

...

"Quirrell must have been expelled by Snape!"

Harry Potter dragged Ron and Hermione into a secluded corner after a very difficult Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, and excitedly analyzed.

"What's more, there's a good chance he killed Quirrell! He must have pushed to solve Quirrell's little secret trick."

"Exactly!" Ron agreed with equal excitement, after all, it was so obvious what Snape had just done in class.

"Did you see the look on Snape's face when he mentioned Quirrell and the trolls? That smirk."

They were both so eager for this, it was as if Snape was going to steal the Philosopher's Stone the next moment.

Luckily, there was a calm Hermione in their midst, who said, "Don't worry, there's still Fluffy, right? And Dumbledore is still at school, he can't steal the Philosopher's Stone."

At Hermione's reminder, Harry and Ron calmed down a little, but still looked worried.

"What if he's also found a way to get past Fluffy? After all, the way is quite simple, just put on some music."

Ron rubbed his red hair frantically, looking very anxious.

"Why don't we go inform Professor Dumbledore?" Harry said suddenly.

Hermione echoed this thought, nodding her head.

"But we don't have any proof!" Harry said, "Quirrell has disappeared, he can't even come forward to testify on our behalf! It's no secret that we hate Snape, Dumbledore will think we're making it up to get him fired."

"And, don't forget, we're not supposed to know anything about the Philosopher's Stone or Fluffy, that would be too complicated to explain."

Harry spread his hands helplessly, he had no hope with Hagrid's example in front of him.

"What if we snoop around and gather some evidence?"

Ron offered a solution, which Hermione rejected.

"Gentlemen, don't forget that we have final exams in less than ten days!"

Apparently, in Hermione's eyes, the Philosopher's Stone was less important than the exams.

"How can you still be worried about final exams right now?!" Ron didn't understand this.

"We're only first years!" Hermione wrinkled her nose and reminded him in disgust, "Studying hard and getting good grades, that's what we should be worried about, as for the Philosopher's Stone and Snape, that's what Professor Dumbledore and the others should be worried about."

"Y..." She asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest, "What do we care if Snape gets the Philosopher's Stone and gets untold amounts of money and life expectancy?"

Ron opened his mouth, at a loss for words, but soon found a reason, "Snape tried to kill Harry! If he gets the Philosopher's Stone, he'll probably be the next one to go after Harry."

"No! After stealing the Philosopher's Stone, the best thing Snape can do is run away from Hogwarts and find a place to hide." Hermione replied without hesitation, "Unless he wants Dumbledore to catch him in the act."

After refuting Ron to the point of speechlessness, Hermione changed the subject, "But you're right, Snape is likely to go after Harry in the future, so it's okay to keep an eye on him for a bit while you continue your review."

With that, she nodded condescendingly to Harry and Ron and walked away.

"Why is she getting so worked up?!" grumbled Ron to Harry, his eyes wide with annoyance.

Harry laughed dryly, intellectually he agreed with Hermione, but emotionally, he wanted to stop Snape himself.

It wasn't because he was a boy who had survived a catastrophe or wanted to put on a show....

Well, maybe a little.

But the main driving force, was his hatred of Snape, and the traditional Gryffindor adventurous spirit.