Hogwarts Advanced Guide

Chapter 436 The Honey Wine Murder Incident

"Just informed, but Molly and Arthur may take some time, but Fred and George happen to be in Hogsmeade, and they should be here in a while." Professor McGonagall said, brows full of worry.

"I think you'd better pick them up at the school gate. Alastor may not allow them in." Hera rubbed her temples and said, "I will stay here."

Professor McGonagall nodded and left.

"Hera, is Professor Moody at school?" Harry asked quietly.

"Ah, he, that's right, he's at the school. He's in charge of guarding the castle." Hera nodded, and Snape had rushed into the bed curtain to check on Ron's condition with Madam Pomfrey.

"Then why have I never seen him?"

"If you all see him, he's not doing his job," Hera said quickly.

Penello got off the hospital bed, and she stood beside Hera worriedly, holding Hera's hand tightly in private.

"By the way, how is your health? What did Madam Pomfrey say?" Hera asked with concern. He didn't see Penello in the auditorium during dinner, and he was a little worried.

Penello just shook his head and said softly: "It's nothing, let's talk about it after we finish our work."

"Yeah." Hera nodded.

The school hospital is very quiet, very quiet, with the curtains drawn and the lights on.It was ten past eight, and Fred and George rushed into the school hospital in a panic.

"How is Ron?" George looked around with concern, and he asked Hera anxiously.

Fred also asked nervously, "How did Ron become like this?"

"I think the specific situation needs to be explained by Harry." Hera said with a sigh, and he patted George and Fred on the shoulders.

It didn't take Harry long to explain everything.

After the twin brothers finished listening, they stood aside blankly, looking at the hospital bed blocked by the bed curtain.

"So, all in all, Ron had a bad birthday," said Fred.

"We didn't expect to give gifts like this." George said gloomily, placing a large gift bag on Ron's bedside cabinet, and continued to stare at the hospital bed with worried eyes.

"We're still in Hogsmeade, waiting to surprise him—" said George.

"Why are you in Hogsmeade?" Hera asked softly, they obviously shouldn't be there.

"We'd like to buy Zocco's storefront," said Fred despondently, "and set up a Hogsmeade branch. But if the students can't go shopping on the weekends, that store will be useful. But let's not talk about it."

"Well, let's wait and see what Madam Pomfrey has to say, but it's still thanks to Harry, if he hadn't thought of the bezoar." Hera happily said that if the death of students really happened in the school, it may only be a matter of time before the school is closed.To make matters worse, it was the Weasley children who died.Although Arthur and Molly would not blame Hera, I am afraid that Hera would have no face to face them again.

"Well, the poison is in the wine, isn't it?" Fred asked softly. ,

"Yes," said Harry quickly, "Slughorn took it from—"

"Penello, why don't you go back to rest first, it may last until very late." Hera interrupted Harry, and patted Penello on the back lightly.

"Yeah." Penello nodded, glanced at Ron worriedly, and kissed Hera on the cheek, "I'll wait for you in the office."

"No, just sleep first. Your body"

"Ah."

Penello left, and under everyone's gaze, they didn't talk much in the process.But Hera immediately apologized the moment Penello left the ward:

"Sorry, Penello is not very clear about these things, I don't want to worry her."

"It's okay, this matter has nothing to do with you, but Slughorn, we think he is very suspicious." Fred and George said in unison.

Hera was silent, in fact he had no suspicion of Slughorn.Because he really has no possibility of attacking the students, if his target is Hera, then there is no need for him to give the poisoned wine to Ron.It would expose him, and Slughorn was definitely not that stupid.

And it's completely unnecessary, Slughorn would gain absolutely nothing by poisoning a student.

Ginny raised her doubts first.

"But why did he ask to poison Ron?"

"I don't know," Fred frowned. "Do you think it's possible that he mixed up the quilt to harm Harry?"

"But why did Slughorn poison Harry?" Ginny continued.

"I don't know," said Fred, "but there must be a lot of people trying to poison Harry, aren't they? The savior."

"You think Slughorn is a Death Eater?" Ginny said.

At this time, they all set their sights on Hera. It seemed that only Hera could explain this question clearly.

Hera hugged her shoulders in thought for a while, and he pulled a chair and sat down.

"Actually, I don't doubt Professor Slughorn that much. I don't think Professor Slughorn may be a Death Eater." Hera said softly.

"He's probably under the Imperius Curse," put in George.

"He should be innocent," Hera said. "Someone has been secretly protecting the castle. If Professor Slughorn falls under the Imperius Curse, we will definitely get the news."

"Could it be Polyjuice Potion?" Harry asked. "Like the fake Professor Moody before."

"With all due respect, since Barty Jr.'s incident, we have stepped up inspections on professors." Hera frowned and said, "I think it is possible that someone wanted to kill Professor Slughorn."

"Who would want to kill Professor Slughorn?"

"Maybe the You-Know-Who wants to get rid of him," Harry said suddenly. "Slughorn had been hiding for a year before coming to Hogwarts. Maybe the You-Know-Who thinks he might be valuable to us."

"This possibility is not ruled out." Hera nodded, but he still couldn't figure it out.What did the Dark Lord do to get rid of Slughorn?Was it the fear that Slughorn would reveal the secret of his immortality?
Probably.

"But you just said that Slughorn planned to give the bottle of wine to the headmaster as a Christmas present," Ginny reminded, "so the poisoner may have targeted Hera as well."

"Then he probably doesn't know much about Slughorn." Hera said, shaking his head lightly. "Anyone who knows Slughorn knows that he probably keeps all the delicious things for himself—wait a minute, is that bottle of mead?"

"Right." Harry nodded.

"Penello and I received an unnamed gift at Christmas, which happened to be a bottle of mead, aged in oak." Hera groped her chin and said in a deep voice, "I think, maybe the poisoner wants to kill—me."

Now the air in the ward became icy cold, and everyone fell silent, looking at Hera worriedly.Hermione's face went pale, and she looked at Hera nervously.

Hera smiled and said, "Don't worry, we didn't open it, and we didn't figure out where it came from, did we? It's still on the cabinet. I'll let Professor Snape check it carefully."

Ron suddenly yelled hoarsely, but he couldn't hear what he was saying. After muttering something that everyone couldn't understand, he snored again.

"Okay, I think you can come in and see him." Madam Pomfrey lifted the curtain of the bed weakly and walked out, "But he still needs to rest, at least stay here for a week or two, and continue to take rue essence." She saw the crowd walking towards the hospital bed, and she quickly added: "But no more than six people."

"There's exactly six of us here," said Harry.

Madam Pomfrey nodded and stepped aside.At this moment, the door of the ward opened suddenly, and they were all startled. Hagrid strode in with rain on his hair, his bearskin coat flapping behind him, and with a crossbow in his hand, he made muddy footprints as big as dolphins on the ground.

"Been in the woods all day," he gasped, "that poor unicorn, he's dying, I can feel his life slipping away - just got back to the castle for dinner, and Professor Sprout told me about Ron, how is he?"

"Fortunately," Hera patted Hagrid's belly, he could only go so far, "Madam Pomfrey will cure him, it just takes some time. But his life is saved."

"That's good, that's good." Hagrid breathed a sigh of relief, and he wanted to rush to the hospital bed to check on Ron's condition.

"Up to six people at a time," Madam Pomfrey said hastily.

Oh, there are 7 people here now.

"I want Hagrid and you guys to go in first. I have plenty of time to check on Ron's situation. I still need to go to Professor Snape to find out about the situation." Seeing everyone's difficulties, Hera immediately said.

They entered under the curtain of the bed, and Hera helped Madam Pomfrey clean up the huge muddy footprints Hagrid had made.Madam Pomfrey was so tired that she could hardly lift her wand, she had to repeat the Healing Charm to Ron to make sure Ron could hold on for a while longer.

"Thanks to Severus, his potions are always reassuring," Madam Pomfrey panted as she sat on her chair.

Hera put away her wand, looked up at her, and asked softly, "What poison is it?"

"I don't know, in fact, I can't help much. It's all up to Severus—" Madam Pomfrey wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, "I've never seen such a poison, but there is no doubt that it is deadly." Her tone became firm, "Hera, you must ensure the safety of the castle, and this kind of thing cannot be allowed to happen again,"

"I will try my best." Hera said with lowered eyes. He had no confidence at all, and such indiscriminate murder made him clueless.

"How long can Hogwarts continue to run after children have accidents like this one after another? Isn't this like a chamber of secrets incident? It will cause panic, parents take their children out of the school, and then the board of directors"

"We can't take orders from the board of directors, Bobby." Hera looked up at Madam Pomfrey, it was the first time he called Madam Pomfrey by her Christian name.

"What do you mean?"

"The vast majority of the members of the school board have fallen to our enemy, Bobby, this is a fact." Hera said in a low voice, "I don't want this to be heard by the students, you understand."

"But—but without their sponsorship, what will happen next semester? What about the freshmen?" Madam Pomfrey asked blankly.

Hera smiled wryly, "In this special period, we can only think of a way. In fact, if the current situation develops, I'm not even sure whether Hogwarts can survive this semester."

Madam Pomfrey was silent.

After a while, just as Hera was about to leave, she suddenly said, "Mr. Principal, no matter what, I am a member of Hogwarts. As long as Hogwarts still needs me, I will always stand by Hogwarts' side."

Hera's heart was touched for a moment. He seemed to have a lot to say, but he couldn't say a word because of a stuck in his throat.

Finally, just whisper a word.

"Thank you."

Madam Pomfrey just leaned on her palm resting on the armrest and waved her hand lightly.

Hera sighed and closed the door gently.

Principal's office.

"How's Weasley? He's out of danger, right?" Penello sat on the chair with one hand resting lightly on his stomach and the other holding a glass of warm water.

"Yeah." Hera nodded, "Penello, I think I know the bottle of mead, it's the one that came over for Christmas."

"Ah!" Penello covered his mouth in surprise, "You mean, that bottle of wine is also poisonous? Someone wants to harm us?"

"That's right." Hera sighed, walked to the side cabinet, and found the bottle of mead without much effort.

He held it in his hand, shook the bottle, and watched the vortex of the clear yellow wine inside.

"But who is going to kill us?" Penello asked worriedly, she stood up and walked to Hera.

Hera shook her head, then nodded again, "I don't know, but I have suspicions. It is very likely that it is the same murderer as the opal necklace."

"You mean Draco Malfoy?"

"It's just a suspicion, but I think there is a connection between these two things." Hera said softly, "First, both times should have been fatal, but they didn't, although it was pure luck. Second, neither the poison nor the necklace harmed the intended person—that is, me."

Penello's pupils dilated in fright.

"Maybe we should kick him out of school! It's for the good of everyone." Penello said firmly, looking into Hera's eyes.

Hera took a deep breath, "But if we drive him out of the castle, the Dark Lord will send more difficult enemies over." He spread his hands helplessly, "At least for Malfoy, we can control it very well, but if it is someone else—such as Fenrir Greyback."

Penello pursed his lips and looked at Hera worriedly.

"So, what are you going to do?"

(End of this chapter)