The Lonely Dragon of Hogwarts

Life in Snape's office was far happier than John imagined.

Practicing [Occlumency] is something that requires a combination of work and rest.

Not everyone can achieve long-term and high-intensity concentration.

It is also very taxing on the body.

Only when the body and mind are in optimal condition can practicing [Occlumency] achieve twice the result with half the effort.

If the condition is not good, let alone making progress, it may even go astray and directly aggravate John's condition.

In order to avoid this situation, Snape strictly set John's training time and brought John's magic suitcase.

This directly caused John's plan to study [Occlumency] like an ascetic to be shattered.

Under Snape's control, John can now only practice Occlumency for about five hours a day.

The rest of the time was like lying down, making some potions to drink, cooking some side dishes to eat, looking at Snape's collection of books, and then exchanging strange yin and yang with Snape for a while.

To be honest, this kind of life is so exciting.

The main reason is that he can use the materials in Snape's warehouse for free. Snape's book collection is also very high, and many books on potions are unique.

In just a few days, although John has not yet fully mastered [Occlumency], his magic talent has increased a lot because he almost drank potions as water, and his potion science has also made great progress.

Snape also authorized Draco, Michelle and Pansy to 'visit' John on Christmas Day.

Of course, this must be done under his watchful eye.

John had made a serious protest to Snape about this, saying that Snape was treating him as a prisoner and a 'mental patient with strong violent tendencies'.

Upon hearing this, Snape said in an extremely contemptuous tone:

"You think you are not? If I hadn't begged you, you should have been imprisoned in Azkaban, or just because of your previous behavior of going crazy in the auditorium and indiscriminately using offensive spells on everyone around you. It’s time to go to St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Maladies and become neighbors with Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom!”

John became silent for a moment. Although he was depressed, he could only accept Snape's arrangement.

Fortunately, this depression dissipated on Christmas Day.

Because Draco and Michelle came to give John Christmas gifts.

"This is a gift from Goyle and Crabbe to you. This is from Senior Sister Taylor. This is..."

As soon as they met, Draco took out a lot of gifts and counted them for John one by one.

John was not polite and unboxed them on the spot.

The result was not what he expected. Goyle and Crabbe sent a bunch of snacks as usual. Senior Taylor was more sincere and sent a box of exquisite pastries that she made using John's magical cooking techniques.

Most of the other Slytherins sent various small gifts and greeting cards.

Finally, Draco mysteriously stuffed a large gift box into John's arms.

"Open it and take a look! This is the gift I prepared specially for you!"

When John opened it, he discovered that there was actually a large bucket of dragon blood inside!

Each vial of fire dragon blood sells for 12 galleons, and a rough estimate is that there must be at least 45 vials in this barrel!

The most important thing is that after Dumbledore discovered twelve uses for fire dragon blood, it has become a hard currency in the wizarding world. It does not require additional sales like other materials, and only requires a small handling fee. This fire dragon blood can be directly exchanged for Galleons at Gringotts!

In other words, Draco gave him more than 500 Galleons in disguise!

John beamed instantly, patted Draco on the shoulder and said:

"You still understand me! Draco! You are truly my good brother!"

Draco was shaken left and right by John's pat, but he still said proudly on his face:

"My dad was originally going to ask me to give you something else. Don't be so direct. It's like giving money. It's so rude! But I know very well that what you hate the most are those flashy but useless things! To use what you said before, it’s a consumption trap!”

John praised:

"That's right! I just like it direct! You'd better send me galleons directly next time, so that I don't have to pay any more handling fees!"

Draco nodded repeatedly and promised to do it next time.

At this time, Michelle also came over, shouting "There's me too" while piling gifts from Harry, Hermione, Ron and others in front of John.

There are also some things like books and greeting cards inside.

This made Draco very happy.

Now it seems that among all John's friends, he gave the most expensive gifts.

In the end, Michelle also took out the gift she gave.

John did not dare to treat this gift lightly.

He still remembered last year when Michelle gave him a bag full of cockroaches.

He was unprepared at the time, and those cockroaches crawled on his hand, which made him sick.

John then took out his wand and used magic to open the gift box bit by bit.

Then, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Because what Michelle sent was just a whole box of Sizzling Honey Candies.

"John, do you like it?"

Michelle said excitedly, "This is a very popular candy! It is not only delicious, but also fun! It can make people float when they eat it!"

John was speechless.

Although he is good at cooking, he is not a foodie like Michelle.

But looking at Michelle's big shining eyes, John still nodded and praised her.

After all, no matter what, it was a big improvement that Michelle didn't give him a pile of cockroaches this year.

This proves that his education to Michelle in the past year has been fruitful.

"I also sent a big box to Professor Snape!"

Michelle asked Snape again, "Have you tried it? How does it taste? Do you like it?"

Snape nodded extremely seriously:

“Love it a lot!”

Hearing this, Michelle cheered happily.

John curled his lips.

This is pure nonsense.

As far as he knew, Snape was a pure salty person, and he had complained more than once that Dumbledore, an old bee, simply had pica.

There’s something about Snape who would love a sweet honey candy like Bee’s!

But of course John would not tell the truth at this time.

After all, Snape gave him a gift too.

It was a wallet made of deformed lizard skin.

This kind of wallet shrinks when a stranger approaches, like a deformed lizard, making it difficult to find and open, and is extremely secure.

Due to this property, anamorphic lizard skin is extremely expensive.

The wallet that Snape gave him alone was worth no less than Draco's dragon's blood.

In addition, Snape also asked someone to cast a traceless expansion charm on the wallet, which expanded an additional one cubic meter of space.

This space is not large, but it is enough to hold some gadgets and coins that need to be carried with you.

'Just think of it as hush money! '

Thinking this way, John happily threw himself into the conversation with Michelle and others.

But while there was joy in the Potions office, the Harry trio were in gloom and gloom.