Potions

In a dark dungeon below Hogwarts, the students of Gryffindor and Slytherin sat in their seats whispering to each other while waiting for potions class to start. Students were still filing in and it didn't take long for the troublesome duo to plop down near Pro.

Pro quietly continued to stare at his potions book, but in truth he was grinding XP by reading the books for a different class in his system interface. As for whether he would fail in potions class, let's just say it's too difficult to succeed in the face of the biased Snape.

"Bloody hell, Pro, what did you do to her? Why does she keep staring at you like you owe her a thousand galleons?" Ron's soft voice drew Pro's attention away from his system interface.

With a sweep of his eyes, Pro easily locked onto Hermione who was glaring at him like usual, but she immediately looked away when he looked over. Pro seriously doesn't know what he did to offend her, but this girl just won't let go. She is obsessed with him, but not in a good way nor is it budding love.

"Ron, I honestly dunno," Pro meekly replied under the curious stares of Harry and Ron.

"Blimey, it's probably just her. I heard she doesn't got any friends, and is always sitting alone. Weird," Ron muttered.

Glancing back over at Hermione's back, Pro felt a bit of pity, but he knew she would befriend the duo sooner or later. Still, he might need to go resolve whatever misunderstandings they had sooner or later, and perhaps make another friend.

As for who is Pro's first friend? Well, it turned out to be gullible Ron Weasley. He was still cold towards Pro for stealing Harry not long ago, but he suddenly recognized Pro as his friend through a trifling event. Pro was also surprised when he easily became chummy with him.

It happened not long ago when Pro was digging through his trunk. He accidentally found his Agrippa chocolate frog card. He was about to casually throw it away when Ron saw the card and came up to him in excitement while telling him that he was missing that card in his collection. So, Pro simply gave him the card and ended up with a clingy friend.

Not only that, gaining Ron's recognition actually unlocked a new button in the system interface, the friend list button. Currently, there wasn't much functions in the friend list interface besides showing the name of friends and whether they are offline or online.

In R*nescape, an offline friend means they aren't currently playing. On the other hand, an offline friend in Hogscape means the friend is outside of the mini-map range. Friends also show up as a green dot on the mini-map, so Pro was able to determine which friends are nearby through a collaboration of the mini-map and friend list.

The unfortunate fact is that you obviously can't add or delete friends. Hence, Harry is still not Pro's friend while Ron is stuck as his friend. Fortunately, Ron still clings onto Harry more, probably because Harry is a celebrity and he is not.

Although Pro originally decided to stay away from the trouble-making trio before coming to Hogwarts, in the end, he decided tag along as a self insert background character in order to complete the First Year Adventure quest. It will have the lowest risk of sending him to the principal's office if he had Harry drawing the attention of Dumbledore.

Of course, that doesn't mean that he would do nothing to change the plot. For example, he did get a new quest once he heard Harry and Ron discussing how Snape favors Slytherin.

[No Favors in Potions] Complete a potions class without losing more than 5 house points.

Although the task seemed easy at first, but knowing Snape's love for Potter, Pro knew it would be an almost impossible task. Pro only hopes that the answers he had prepared for Harry to memorize beforehand will save enough points to be above the 5 points mark.

Swish! Swish! Swish! The already dark dungeons was turned even darker as the curtains were shut with a couple flicks of Snape's wand. Snape solemnly strolled to the front of the classroom and surveyed the room with his eyes, especially Potter. Then, roll call began, and as expected, Snape paused on Harry's name.

"Ah, Yes, Harry Potter. Our new ... celebrity." he said softly before dropping a solemn explanation and the possibilities of his class.

After the tension built up with a moment of silence, Snape then snarkily called out, "Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry fell into a daze for a while, but then he suddenly looked over at Pro. Pro stared straight forward as if he did not notice.

"Sir ... is it Draught of Living Death?" Harry whispered with a hint of anxiety.

Not expecting the answer, Snape's face stiffened. It didn't take long for Snape to recover. Thinking it was a fluke, Snape then asked once more, "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

A bit more confident this time, Harry answered, "Stomach of a goat, sir."

Snape fell silent amidst the whispers of some students in the room. With squinting eyes, Snape looked into Harry's eyes with a frown. Seeing this, Pro had an ominous hunch.

Snape suddenly sneered as he coldly stated, "Thought you would open a book before coming, Potter, but it seems there is someone else feeding you the answers."

Snape's head then swished over to glare at Pro who was calmly staring forward.

"Smith! What is the ingredients for the Forgetfullness Potion?"

Oh sh*t! The flames has spread over to me?! Pro inwardly sweated as he hurriedly flipped through the 'Magical Drafts and Potions' book in his system interface. Meanwhile, Hermione was already standing up and stretching her hands into the sky while she happily glanced at the silent Pro.

Hearing no response, Snape sneered as he began, "Why? Don't-"

"2 drops of lethe river water, 2 valerian sprigs, 2 measures of standard, and 4 mistletoe berries, sir," Pro rapidly read out the formula while inwardly breathing a sigh of relief.

Snape stared at Pro in the eyes as well, and to Pro's relief, it seemed that he wasn't able to notice the system interface as expected. Snape frowned as he looked back and forth between Pro and Harry before he snapped at the deflated Hermione, "Sit down."

Then, he glanced at the rest of the class as he stated, "Well, why aren't you all copying that down?"

Phew. Pro secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It was a close call. Pro felt a light tap on his arm, and turned over to see Harry whispering, "Thanks Pro."

"A point will be taken from Gryffindor House for disturbing other students, Potter," Snape snapped to Harry's surprise, but Harry didn't snap back as Pro had already warned him beforehand.

As expected, potions class continued with Snape wandering around to intimidate the students into making a mistake and taking points from Harry as much as possible. Snape even took the extra effort to stand longer behind Pro to put pressure on him.

Fortunately, Pro had steady hands and the system assist during brewing. For potions that he had unlocked with his Herblore level, which happens to include the cure boils potion he is currently brewing, Pro can launch a potions brewing interface that did not exist in the R*nescape game.

This potions brewing interface was an auxillary system to support Pro during the brewing of a certain potion. It comes with a complete set of timers, ingredient list, and step-by-step instructions telling exactly when certain motions must be done or which ingredient must be added.

Additionally, an alert will pop up when the time comes to perform a certain action and there would even be a hand motion display to guide Pro. It's hard to go wrong with this support system, but it can only be booted up for potions that he had unlocked.

Then there was the fact that Pro's partner was also not a dunce like Neville that could affect him. Pro didn't know if Snape considered him to be the same type, but Snape somehow decided his partner to be Hermione, to her dismay.

Hermione still held a grudge against him and Pro had long wanted to resolve it, but ever since that time where he introduced himself, Hermione had avoided him like a plague. Although she still glared at him from afar, she made no attempts to talk to him or come closer. Hence, Pro had no chance to resolve any misunderstandings at all. After Snape had decided to leave the duo alone, Pro finally had the time to schedule a meeting with Hermione.

"Hermione, mind if we talk after class?" Pro leaned in a bit and whispered, causing Hermione to tremble and almost make a mistake.

Receiving a glare from her as a response, Pro cheekily said, "Then, I'll take it that you agree. I'll wait for you."

Hermione bit her lips and returned to brewing her potions in silence. Pro also continued to brew his potion carefully lest he makes a mistake. Although it was difficult to brew the potion perfectly, it wasn't too hard to successfully brew it. Pro was not as clumsy as Neville, who got sent to the hospital.

Potions class ended on a good note as Pro didn't fail even though he didn't excel. What truly made Pro happy was that he gained enough XP from the completion of the potion to increase his Herblore level from 2 to 4! If possible, Pro would be willing to grind potions for XP all day, but the ingredients are too expensive to be wasted in grinding. On a side note, Pro had also barely complete his quest as 4 points were deducted.

[Congratulations! You have completed No Favors in Potions Quest. You are awarded: 1 Quest Point, 250 Herblore XP]

With the XP boost from quest completion, Pro's Herblore level jumped up to level 7! It was a very rewarding quest, but it may have been a quest that may be impossible to complete until the sixth year, where Snape is switched out of potions class, if Pro did not complete it now.

After packing his school supplies, Pro glanced over at Hermione who was slowly packing her supplies while avoiding his gaze, not knowing what she was thinking. Not wanting to stay in the potions class for too long lest Snape deducted his points, Pro whispered to Hermione, "I'll wait for you outside."

Hermione stiffened a bit and bit her lips before continuing to pack up. Strolling out of the classroom, Pro found Harry and Ron waiting for him.

"Blimey, what took you so long Pro? We've been waiting for ages ... you said you will go visit Hagrid together with us," Ron mumbled.

"Ah! Sorry, I should have told you two to not wait for me. You two go first, I've got something to do," Pro politely replied.

"What are you going to do?" Ron asked as he glanced at Pro and inside the potions classroom with a strange face, "You ... are you waiting for HER?"

Pro nodded. Ron reeled back in shock as he exclaimed, "Blimey, what are you waiting for her for? No one talks to her Pro, what do you want to do with someone like her?"

"Remember Ron? She has been staring at me for a while now, I just wanted to know why. I will go talk to her alone, so don't worry about me," Pro replied with a polite smile, "I'll see you later Harry, Ron."

"Let's go, Ron," Harry nodded and tugged the insensitive Ron away before he could retort.

It didn't take long for Hermione to silently appear behind Pro. Glancing at the young girl who bit her lips and stared at the floor like she was wronged by him, Pro did his best to put on a cheerful smile as he suggested, "Let's go find somewhere more private shall we?"

Pro then led the way, making sure that Hermione followed him. It was time for him to unravel the secret behind the female protagonist's obsession over him. Why is Hermione targeting him? What was his past with her?