Chapter 242: Multijuice Potion (Edited)

Despite the long Christmas vacations, Fish was going to the Forbidden Forest less often.

Because the weather was so cold!

The kitten preferred to sleep with Fawkes by the fireplace in the Common Room instead of moving around.

Occasionally he would take Fawkes to meet Uroboros.

Since it was a vacation, Dumbledore could not watch Fish around the clock, and with Fawkes by his side, he did not watch him as much, so before Fawkes returned, Dumbledore did not know that Fish went to the Chamber of Secrets regularly.

Fawkes had been watching Ginny Weasley, who Fish had said had been in the Chamber of Secrets recently, and had seen no sign of her going there, and as heir to the Chamber of Secrets, it didn't make sense that Fish was allowed to come and go as he pleased.

So Fawkes had been trying to get information from Fish for a while, but the kitten's approach was always unusual, and all he got from Fish was "that basilisk molt doesn't taste right", "there's nothing inside the statue", "Kanaloa has known Uroboros for a long time", "every now and then something strange is found in the pipes", etc., which didn't seem very helpful.

Time passed so leisurely that when Fawkes grew to the size of a chicken, Christmas finally arrived this year.

Just like last year, Fish opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by boxes of presents, and then Harry and the others sat down to help Fish open them, just like last year.

Then the Weasley twins, Percy and Lee Jordan, who also didn't return home, joined in. Hermione poked her head out of his dormitory door, winked at Ron and Harry, and ran out.

Ron and Harry looked at each other not knowing what she wanted to express, so they shrugged, sat down and continued to help Fish open Christmas presents.

This year's gifts were still mostly food, but many of them were foreign specialties, some of which Fish had already eaten and some of which he had never seen before.

And the Hufflepuff students, like last year, gave a lot of potted plants, probably because they knew Fawkes needed herbs.

Then the Gryffindor girls, mostly, sent science books... which Fish tossed aside.

Fish's new friend Luna also sent newspapers, she sent all the magazines from "The Quibbler" from the first issue to the last issue, a thick stack of newspapers that made Fish's head spin just looking at them, so he ignored them.

Hermione Granger, the scheming girl, gave him a photo album of the felines she had photographed at various zoos over the summer and turned them into moving pictures using a magic potion.

She then kept the album at the bottom of her suitcase until Christmas, when she gave it away.

Mrs. Weasley gave Fish a sweater in the same style as the entire Weasley family, the same color as Fish's, black and white striped, with a cute embroidered cat head in the center and a fish in its mouth.... From the looks of it, it was obvious that more thought had gone into Fish's sweater.

But Ron and the others were used to it, not only Fish, but since last year, Harry's sweaters were better than theirs as well.

The only unfortunate thing was that the sweater...that Mrs. Weasley had sent was tailored for Fish for the summer, and now it didn't fit him.

"It's a shame...it's a lovely sweater."

Ron sighed regretfully as he held up Fish's sweater, this year his sweater was back to purple, Ron didn't understand why his mother kept making him purple clothes when he had repeatedly said he didn't like that color.

"It's okay, I can use it as a mattress nya."

Fish was fine with that, he could still adjust its size with a spell if necessary, but it had grown with great difficulty, so there was no reason to make it any shorter, so it was a good idea to use it for a cat's nest.

Other than that, the most unusual gifts were from Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall gave Fish a complete set of automatic grooming tools, which included a variety of combs, brushes, and rollers for grooming and massage.

Dumbledore's gift was a bag of feline hair, but the bag contained hair from non-magical creatures, such as leopards and tigers, as he wasn't sure if there would be any problems with using hair from magical animals.

It took the group all morning to work together and finish opening the 400 or so gifts in the room.

They then opened Harry and Ron's Christmas presents, but other than the Vernon's chopsticks and Mrs. Weasley's sweater, there were no special gifts.

Ron's sweater was still purple this year, by the way, which made for a stinky face as he made his way to the Great Dining Room for the Christmas party.

"What took you so long?"

Harry and Ron had just entered the Great Dining Hall when Hermione dragged them into the foyer and growled at them as if she was interrogating them.

"That's over four hundred gift boxes!" Ron's eyes widened as he retorted, "We've had a hard enough time opening them all in the morning!"

"Didn't I tell you to find an excuse to get out as soon as possible?!"

Hermione looked furious, as she was the one doing all the planning, so she was still under a lot of pressure.

It took Harry and Ron a few moments to realize that Hermione's reminder was the withering, unspoken look she had given them at their dormitory door this morning.

"..."

They both looked at Hermione wordlessly.

Unfortunately, Hermione, who was in a state of excitement, ignored their silent protest, and first checked Fish's position, who was being coddled by Professor McGonagall, and then told them in a very low, quick voice, "Anyway, the Multijuice Potion is almost ready, and the operation is tonight, so you should get whatever it is from Crabbe and Goyle as soon as possible."

Harry and Ron, who had barely heard what Hermione had just said, were still confused.

It was so sudden, how were they going to have time to pull Crabbe and Goyle's hair out?

"We can't go fight them both, can we?" said Ron with an incredulous look on his face, holding out his hands.

"I've got it all planned out." Hermione said with a confident look, "I've prepared ordinary hypnotics for you, just wait until tonight, and you'll have the food mixed with the medicine... cake or something else, just let the two of them find out."

"Uh... I don't think..."

Harry, who didn't think the plan was that sound, weakly opened his mouth to say something, only to be cut off by Hermione's overbearing hand gesture, who ignored Harry and Ron's unsure looks and continued speaking in subtle, rapid-fire tones about her plan.

"You should know how greedy they both are. As soon as they're both asleep, pluck a few hairs from them and hide them in the broom closet."

"Hermione, I don't think..."

Harry and Ron tried to struggle, but Hermione held them tightly.

"Without Crabbe and Goyle's hair, the potion won't work." She glared at the pair with an oppressive look and said without hesitation, "You're trying to get information from Malfoy, aren't you?"

In fact, Harry was tempted to tell Hermione that the attack hadn't happened in so long anyway, it didn't matter that they didn't get any information from Malfoy....

But he opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to say anything because of Hermione's aggressive stare.

Besides, Hermione had worked hard for over a month to make the Multijuice Potion, at that point, he and Ron would be hung from the Gryffindor tower by Hermione's magic spell if he and Ron didn't cooperate.

For his own and Ron's safety, Harry swallowed hard and nodded.

"I know..."