Chapter 268: Fireproof, Theft-proof, and Peeves-proof

At the end of January, there was no sign of the weather warming up.

In the morning, the sky remained gray and occasional snowflakes drifted down. Walking towards the Great Hall, Albert listened to Fred and George's casual conversation, and he had a sense that something bad was about to happen.

Albert was eating bread with corn chowder, chatting with Lee Jordan about the sign-up for the Wizarding Cards match. Suddenly, he saw Charlie hurrying over, clearly looking for Fred and George, who had been put in detention multiple times.

"You've missed several Quidditch practices already," Charlie scolded, glaring at his younger brothers, and reminded, "There's not much time left until the next Quidditch match. We lost one match already, and if we lose again, we'll be completely out of the running for this year's..."

"Charlie, it's not like we did it on purpose," George put down his spoon and looked up at Charlie, a helpless expression on his face.

"We had no choice," Fred chimed in quickly, "If we had a choice, we'd much rather be on the Quidditch pitch training than facing Snape."

For some reason, that explanation sounded quite convincing.

"Fine, but you can't miss the next practice," Charlie was persuaded by the two.

Not many students were willing to be put in detention by Snape, even Slytherins faced great pressure when dealing with their Head of House.

"We'll train properly next time," Fred and George said in unison.

"Guys, you'll never guess what I saw just now," Wood came running over, out of breath, ready to share an interesting piece of news.

"What did you see?"

"I ran into Marcus Flint just now. His lips were swollen like sausages for some unknown reason. You should have seen him, he was covering his mouth with his hand, looking like he had no face to show. Oh, I can't hold it in, let me laugh."

"Where is he?" Charlie also wanted to go and have a look, to see the miserable state of their old rival.

"He ran to the hospital wing, covering his lips," Wood finally stopped laughing, gesturing towards everyone, and vividly describing Marcus Flint's unfortunate state.

There's nothing more enjoyable than seeing someone you dislike suffering a mishap.

Just then, the surrounding area suddenly fell silent. Following everyone's gaze, Albert saw a Hufflepuff girl quickly leaving the Great Hall, covering her lips with her hand.

After the brief laughter, people started whispering and discussing who might be behind the prank.

Albert finished his meat pie, glanced at the expressionless George sitting opposite him, and the latter seemed to sense Albert's gaze. George shrugged innocently, indicating that they weren't responsible for this.

"You guys actually succeeded?" Albert was curious how Fred and George managed to sneak the ingredient into Marcus Flint's food.

"It was Peeves, not us!" Fred put on an innocent expression, insisting that they were not responsible for this and that they didn't have the capability.

"You managed to convince Peeves?" Albert raised an eyebrow.

"We promised to provide Peeves with some interesting pranks," Fred blinked innocently, "After all, pranking students is the same no matter who you're pranking, right?"

Albert was left speechless; the logic was undeniable. For Peeves, Hogwarts students were all the same regardless of their houses – they were all just students.

As proven by events, Albert's thinking was correct. Over the next few days, many people at the Great Hall found their lips mysteriously swelling into comical sausage-like shapes while eating.

Unable to find the cause, unease spread among Hogwarts students. Everyone feared that one day it might suddenly be their turn to suffer.

Professor Sprout even inspected the school kitchen but found that it wasn't the fault of the house-elves.

One day, the reason behind the strange phenomenon was finally discovered.

There was no other way to put it – Peeves had been humming a peculiar tune while sprinkling strange seasonings onto their meat dishes.

Many witnesses saw students who had eaten the seasoned meat develop swollen lips resembling sausages in no time.

Then the situation escalated entirely.

People started condemning Peeves, but it proved ineffective – Peeves had pulled pranks like this more than once or twice.

Flich thought about using this opportunity to finally drive Peeves out of Hogwarts, given how Peeves often opposed him, but he ultimately failed.

Throughout Hogwarts history, there had been numerous caretakers who wanted to get rid of Peeves, yet not a single one succeeded, and Flich, who couldn't use magic, had even less chance.

"How much of that stuff did you give Peeves?" Albert glanced at Fred, who had fallen victim again, and whispered when others weren't paying attention.

He had fallen victim as well.

Fortunately, after noticing many others falling victim, Albert had prepared a stockpile of swelling-diminishing potion in advance, promptly nipping the problem in the bud.

"Just that bottle, it's almost used up," George uncertainly replied.

"We didn't expect that bottle of seasoning to last this long," Fred grumbled. Over the past few days, he had accidentally eaten food with the added ingredient several times.

It was entirely self-inflicted.

Peeves's antics were driving everyone mad.

"Don't forget, according to our agreement, you still need to provide Peeves with a bag of dung bombs," Lee Jordan reminded them dejectedly; his lips were also swollen.

"Aren't you worried that the professors will investigate who provided Peeves with that bottle of seasoning?" Albert asked with some exasperation, looking at the twins. Now, Peeves's pranks had become even more cunning and difficult to prevent.

However, as it turned out, Albert's worries were completely unnecessary.

Hogwarts students never suspected that another student was behind this. They were nearly driven to madness by Peeves. Whenever they ate, they had to be cautious to avoid eating anything seasoned by Peeves.

Madame Pomfrey was similarly driven to the brink. Students with swollen lips kept showing up at the hospital wing one after another. The matron deserved a commendation from Professor Snape for preparing a large supply of swelling-diminishing potion. She specifically reminded everyone that if they encountered this problem, they should come to the hospital wing to get the potion.

Now, everyone knew that to get rid of sausage lips and avoid embarrassment, they just needed to use a small amount of the swelling-diminishing potion when they noticed they'd been pranked. They no longer needed to guard against Peeves's pranks.

The hospital wing naturally had a good supply of the potion, but it could only be used after someone had fallen victim. Wizards who could brew this potion were not few in number, but many of them had average potion-making skills – their reluctance to drink potions they brewed themselves was telling.

Thus, swelling-diminishing potion suddenly became a hot commodity on the Hogwarts black market.

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(End of this chapter)