Hogwarts: From Squibs to Greatness

Chapter 44 Helping Neville
Except for Hermione, Harry and Ron never visited the library again after telling Harry about Nick Flamel.

Harry is because the Quidditch match is approaching, and Wood, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, is training them with devils.

Ron, on the other hand, didn't want to read the book for the time being, so he either accompanied Harry to the team training, or found someone to play wizard chess in the dormitory.

After the class ended this afternoon, John walked out of the classroom to go back to the dormitory to get his notebook, and then went to the library to continue his studies.

Just as he was walking down a staircase, he vaguely heard a suppressed cry from the opposite corridor, and a few people's suppressed laughter.

These voices were so familiar, John couldn't help but frowned, and walked over there without hesitation.

As John got closer, those cries and laughter became clearer, and John recognized who the owner of these voices was.

"Woooooo, let me go, I didn't provoke you either."

"Shut up, you idiot, stand up for me obediently, it's an honor for you to be the target of this young master's magic experiment!"

"Wait, forgive me..."

Probe slightly, and the result of John's judgment is the same, it is indeed Malfoy, Goyle and Crabbe who are bullying Neville.

At this moment, the three of them had cornered Neville in a corner. Judging by his attire, Neville should have just returned from the greenhouse, and he was constantly begging for mercy.

But Malfoy didn't care at all, raised his hand and pointed his wand at Neville's pale face, and said the spell with a smug smile on his face.

"Frozen legs stop dead"

The tip of the wand flashed, and Neville's legs were instantly brought together and stuck together. The sudden change made Neville jump.

He subconsciously wanted to run away, but because his legs were glued together, he lost his balance and fell straight to one side.

Malfoy, Goyle, and Crabbe couldn't help smiling when they saw this scene, but the smile soon froze on their faces.

Because at this critical moment, a voice that was so familiar and even terrified came from behind.

"Wingardim Leviosa"

The invisible force turned into a big hand and grabbed Neville who was about to make close contact with the ground with his face, allowing him to regain his standing posture, and taking advantage of the opportunity, he also lifted the leg lock spell.

The three of Malfoy looked back stiffly, and saw John standing not far behind them, looking at them with a sneer.

"What's so fun about bullying Neville, do you want to play with me? Master Malfoy"

John approached slowly, every step seemed to step on their hearts, and unspeakable coercion poured down on them.

The three of Malfoy backed away tremblingly, and soon they were clinging to the wall with their backs like Neville, unable to retreat.

Subconsciously, Malfoy raised his wand and cast a leg-locking spell on John.

The wand fell into John's hand silently, and John blocked the magic with just a slight raise of his hand.

"Destroying Weapons"

The violent impact fell on Malfoy with the magic, causing him to slam into Goyle hard. Both of them wailed in pain at the same time, and the wand in their hands fell out of their hands and fell into John's other hand.

Stepping forward slowly, the sharp tip of the staff rested on Malfoy's neck, and his face became paler with pain and fear.

Goyle and Crabbe both curled up their huge bodies as much as possible, minimizing their sense of presence.

John paid no attention to this, looking into Malfoy's terrified eyes.

"I recently invented a new spell, may I ask if Master Malfoy is honored to be my test subject?"

"me……"

Malfoy tried his best to raise his head, trying to avoid the wand that terrified him. He couldn't help but think of the scene on the train back then, and he was as powerless as he is now.

Just as Malfoy resigned himself to waiting for the next spell, he heard a timid voice.

"Jo... John, let them go! I think they know they're wrong."

Malfoy looked in the direction of the voice in shock, and saw Neville trying to stand up straight, looking at John and said firmly

Looking at the person he had bullied just now, and helping him regardless of previous suspicions, Malfoy didn't know how he felt now.

John turned his head to look into Neville's eyes. Although he dodged a little at first, Neville soon insisted on looking at him.

Finally John nodded, retracting his wand from Malfoy's neck.

Malfoy took a deep breath like a drowning man suddenly regaining his breath, and then his legs went limp and he sat directly on the ground, his slightly trembling body seemed to be telling how scared he was just now.

"Come on," John said.

Neville quickly followed John, but looked back at Malfoy who was still slumped on the ground from time to time, and finally he didn't say anything, and John and he disappeared from their sight.

On the way to the Gryffindor common room, Neville watched John want to open his mouth several times but didn't know how to say it

John naturally saw what Neville was thinking, and said nonchalantly, "There's no need to feel sorry, Neville, there's nothing wrong with being kind, there's no bottom line."

"Yeah." Neville said softly, bowing his head.
The two quickly walked to the portrait of the fat lady, and John stopped.

"Thank you, John, I really don't know how to thank you, the club was like this before, and it's like this now..." Neville whispered

John reached out and patted Neville's shoulder: "You don't need to thank me, we are friends, aren't we? I will naturally help my friend when he is in trouble, won't you help me when I am in trouble?"

"Of course not, I will definitely help you!" Neville said loudly with his eyes wide open.

John smiled and patted Neville on the shoulder again: "So you don't need to thank you, do you?"

Neville nodded, then turned around and read the command. Just as he lowered his head to get in, he heard John speak again behind him.
"Neville, you have to remember that hard work pays off, everyone in the world can look down on you, but you can't, you have to believe in yourself."

Neville turned his head to look at John with a serious face, nodded, and then disappeared into the passage.

Greeting goodbye to the fat lady, John turned and returned to the dormitory.

After that day, maybe they were frightened by John, and now the three of Malfoy took a detour when they saw John.

At the same time, Malfoy's attitude towards Neville, who opened his mouth to save him, was much better. He would not laugh at Neville because of his performance in class, nor would he bully him for no reason.

Harry and the others were also surprised by Malfoy's performance.

But soon they stopped thinking about these things, because the Quidditch match was about to start.

On the day of the game, Harry changed into his team uniform and sat with his teammates who were going to compete with him later. He was shaking nervously now.

The reason is that he learned from Wood that it is very likely that Snape will be the referee in this Quidditch match.

According to what Hermione said, the accident with his broom in the last match was probably caused by Snape, and now he also knew that the other party wanted to steal the Philosopher's Stone, so Harry didn't like the old bat even more.

He would rather not use magic to be in the same room with Quirrell, and he would not be close to Snape, let alone Snape might be the referee in the game now.

But it wasn't clear if it was just Harry's carelessness, or the fact that he seemed to run into Snape wherever he went.

At times, he even suspected that Snape was stalking him, trying to catch him alone, and he often had the horrible feeling that Snape could read other people's minds.

However, Harry did not choose to avoid the game because of his illness.

"I have to play," Harry had said to Ron and Hermione at the time, "and if I quit, the Slytherins will think I'm too scared to face Snape. I'm going to show them... If we win, it wipes the smug smile off their faces."

"As long as we don't lift you off the field."

Harry remembered Hermione saying that, and it eased his nerves a little.

While Harry was still thinking about how to avoid Snape's persecution, Wood pulled him aside.

"Not trying to put pressure on you, Potter, but today more than ever we need to catch the Snitch as quickly as possible. We want to do it quickly before Snape has time to favor Hufflepuff too much."

Just then, Harry heard cheers coming from outside, and then he heard Fred peeping out the door, saying, "My God!Dumbledore came to the game too! "

Suddenly, Harry rushed to the door and looked out, and then he saw the familiar silver-white hair and beard.

All of a sudden, Harry was relieved, his heart sank back into his stomach, and his body felt relaxed for an instant, and he almost couldn't help laughing out loud.

Harry knew he was in no danger, and Snape would never have dared to hurt him if Dumbledore had been watching the match.

Perhaps it was because of this that Harry could clearly see the annoyance on Snape's face as the others lined up to the field.

Seemingly because of the sense of security that Dumbledore brought, it took only 5 minutes to catch the Snitch.

Harry set the record for the fastest Quidditch match in Hogwarts history!No Seeker has ever caught a Snitch so quickly!

The little wizards couldn't be more excited about this, and everyone stood up and cheered for this moment!
John was not included among them. At this moment, when the whole school was watching Quidditch, John was looking for Quirrell in the Forbidden Forest.

The reason is that before John entered the stadium, he learned from Tom that Quirrell did not go to the stadium, but went in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

It seems that the weak Voldemort is still eager to live in another way by sucking the blood of the unicorn and obtaining the curse.

Although John promised Dumbledore not to kill Quirrell now and leave it to Harry, it doesn't mean that John will sit back and watch the other party kill the unicorn.

After searching for a long time, John didn't find Quirrell. Just when he was about to give up, a target suddenly appeared in the exploration technique.

John immediately rushed in that direction, and soon he saw Quirrell standing in an open space as if waiting for someone.

However, unlike what John thought, the other party was not wearing the black robe that day to cover his figure at this moment, but was wearing normal clothes.

Seeing this, John immediately took out the Raven Staff, and simply drew a concealment circle on the ground to hide his figure.

Soon John saw a man in a black robe and a hood coming here. The hood was lifted to reveal his face. It was Snape.

Then the two started talking.

"...no...don't know why you...should...choose to meet here, Severus...

"Oh, I don't think it's appropriate to go public," said Snape, his voice icy. "After all, students aren't supposed to know about the Philosopher's Stone."

John raised his head slightly and noticed that there was an extra figure on a tall beech tree not far from here. Looking at the red Gryffindor uniform and the scar, it was obviously Harry.

"Have you figured out how to get past Hagrid's monster?"

"But...but...but, Severus, I..."

"You don't want me to be your enemy, Quirrell," said Snape, taking a step closer to him.

"I... I don't know... I know you..."

"You know exactly what I mean."

An owl hooted loudly, and John saw that Harry seemed startled, nearly fell from the tree, and barely steadied himself,
Just in time to hear Snape say, "Your secret little trick. I'll wait."

"But...but, I don't...no...no..."

"Very well." Snape interrupted him. "We'll talk again soon, after you've had time to think it over and decide who you're going to serve."

He put the cloak over his head and strode out of the clearing, and soon Snape disappeared completely into the woods.

But Harry could still see Quirrell standing there motionless, like a clay sculpture.

And John waited until both Quirrell and Harry left here, and finally followed Quirrell for a while, seeing him return to the castle before returning to the dormitory.

(End of this chapter)