"Couldn't this potion be a little more palatable?" Lawrence's mouth was filled with the bitter smell of potions, and although he had drunk them for many days during the holidays, in addition to not liking the taste, what made him even more difficult to accept was the urge to regurgitate after swallowing potions, which would make him lose all his appetite for food.

"You can drink it with some sweets," Snape replied coldly, and with a wave of his wand, he guided a glass jar on the cupboard to Lawrence, "but I personally don't recommend that you do that, if you cut the effect, you'll have to drink it for a few more days."

"No, thanks." Lawrence replied briefly, he recognized the apricot nectar in the glass bottle, which was the fructose that Selwyn gave Snape to add to the flavor of the hot tea before Snape spoke out about the reason for protecting Harry.

"Keep it for yourself," Lawrence thought for a moment and added, which darkened Snape's face even more, "I'll just have to drink two more weeks anyway."

"Whatever you want, Rovander, I'll find a way to make it even harder," Snape scoffed, "You'll be glad you only have two weeks left to drink."

"I'm glad indeed, Professor," Lawrence said sarcastically, "I guess you won't have been teaching Harry the Mind Locking technique for only two weeks, are you still happy with Professor Dumbledore's arrangement?"

"There's nothing to be dissatisfied with, Rovande, that's a stupid question, I agree that Potter needs to learn the Mind Locking Technique, but I think it's a pure waste of time—" Snape replied coldly, "I don't need to teach him to know that he's just like his arrogant father, and he doesn't have the talent to learn such magic."

"I don't see how arrogant Harry is, but I've heard that Harry is a lot like his mother—" Lawrence met Snape's blank eyes, "I saw a film of the Potters in the student council president's office, they were a natural pair, right?"

「…… It has nothing to do with me, Rovande," Snape responded, but Lawrence knew he had guessed right, and Snape's eyes were no longer so godless, "Who cares about that—what about the witch and Potter?"

"That's not what I heard, Professor," Lawrence said, "I heard that you and Lily . . . Potter, once a friend?"

An image flashed into Lawrence's mind, the afternoon sun, a familiar hairy beech tree, four teenagers under the tree, led by a boy with messy hair and glasses, in front of them was a pale boy with greasy straight hair, a girl with crimson hair was talking to them, there were many people around, people were talking, but Lawrence couldn't hear what they were saying,

The image was gone, Snape's dark eyes were still blank and cold, but a trace of horror flashed in his eyes, and then he quickly looked away from Lawrence,

"You—" Snape's expression wasn't as calm as his slow tone, and it was a long time before Snape continued to ask, "...... You...... How many do you see?"

"Just a few snippets - why didn't you mention you and Lily. Potter was a friend?" Lawrence felt like he was about to burst the bubble of truth, "Sirius said you broke up because you were a reserve member of the Death Eaters, and you used to be very good—"

"You killed your former friend, so you're atoning for your sins? No—it doesn't make sense, why do you want atonement when you're broken?" Lawrence sensed something else he didn't know, "Something seems to be missing—"

"That's enough." Snape's voice was as cold as the wind and snow outside, his face distorted and gray, and he took a deep breath and twisted his thin white fingers clenching his wand,

"I don't understand what you're talking about, Rovander." Snape continued, his eyes narrowed, and Lawrence didn't speak,

"You should go to the herb school, right?" Snape pointed to the office door and kicked Lawrence out,

Lawrence walked in the corridors of the dungeon, he felt that he was close to discovering the truth, the real reason why Snape protected Harry had something to do with Harry's mother, but he was a little hesitant, and his intuition told him that the reason behind this was the deepest privacy in Snape's heart,

He stopped, standing beside a stone wall, and he needed to think intently, because of Snape's unexpected leak, he seemed to have felt at some point

"Never say that word in front of me." (Note 1)

「…… The Chamber of Secrets, facing Tom. Riddle, Snape said this with the same emotion as before." Lawrence thought,

Unless Snape had been guarding Lawrence since a few years ago, this was almost unlikely, but in this way, although Lawrence still did not know the real reason for Snape's protection of Harry, Snape's performance had almost won Lawrence's trust, which Lawrence did not expect, and he felt that he might not continue to explore the reasons behind it,

While Lawrence was thinking, a stone door appeared from the stone wall behind him, startling Lawrence,

"A Gryffindor standing in front of our saloon, huh?" Rose. Selwyn stepped out of the stone gate,

「…… Just passing by."

"Oh?" Selwyn couldn't deny it, the stone door vanished behind her, and she walked past Lawrence, "Don't forget this weekend's student council meeting – don't miss it for the sake of the students."

"What are you talking about?" Lawrence looked sharply at Selwyn, the corners of her mouth hooked, but there was no smile,

"Herbalism has begun, Mr. Rovande." Selwyn said, "We're late now, are you sure you're here to talk to me about student council?"

"No, I mean your last sentence." Lawrence asked in a deep voice, "What does that mean?"

"The student council is naturally for the good of the students—isn't it?" Selwyn chuckled, Lawrence knew he couldn't ask anything else but to look at the end of the corridor where Selwyn's back had disappeared,

Lawrence didn't believe it was a coincidence, the phrase was too similar to what the duelist he met in Diagon Alley said,

Professor Dumbledore had said that Mr. Focos had gone into hiding after leaving the hospital, and that Selwyn could have gotten information from within the Ministry or—from the attacker,

Lawrence returned to Snape's office, intending to relay the news from Snape to Professor Dumbledore, but the door to the office was locked, and Lawrence frowned, only to remember that Snape would have a fifth-year Potions class,

Lawrence returned in vain, he could only put down this matter first and walk to the greenhouse of herbology,

The next morning, Lawrence drank the potion and told Snape the news.

"I said so, 'Stay away from Selwyn.'" , but apparently you didn't pay attention to me." Snape said coldly,

"I think I misunderstood you, Professor." Lawrence replied, and his eyes were drawn to the Daily Prophet spread out on Snape's desk,

"The Great Escape of Azkaban"

"Go out and see." With a wave of Snape's hand, the newspaper flew up, and Lawrence took the refolded newspaper in the air, shrugged and muttered, and turned to leave the office,

This front-page report is the most authentic piece of Voldemort-related news since Fudge's efforts to manipulate the Daily Prophet, and it also shows that Fudge can't suppress this incident anymore anyway.

Ten of Voldemort's most loyal servants escaped from the wizarding prison, and under the ten black-and-white photographs, there were small notes on what kind of crime they were imprisoned for,

But Lawrence believed that the vast majority of the horrendous acts they committed were not recorded in the newspapers, but that the crimes that were recorded alone were enough to be horrified.

And the way the Ministry of Magic responded this time also made people feel that something was wrong, Sirius a few years ago. Blake's prison break, the Dementors were sent to Hogwarts in large numbers to track down Blake, but this time there was no news about it.

After noon that day, even the students who had not read the Daily Prophet knew the news clearly, and the aftermath of the whole thing spread through the school, the most obvious thing was that the atmosphere among the students had changed.

In addition to the fear of these fugitives, most of the students were previously reserved or distrustful of the fact that Dumbledore, Lawrence and Harry claimed the return of Voldemort, but after this incident, more and more people turned to believe in this fact.

The day after the news came out, Umbridge issued the "Education Ordinance 26" - prohibiting teachers and staff from providing any information that is not related to schoolwork.

Obviously, Umbridge did not restrain himself because of the big mistake in the Ministry of Magic, but strengthened the clamp on Hogwarts even more angrily.

Now, whenever Umbridge is empty, she comes to the class of divination or magical creature conservation with a clipboard, and she seems determined to fire either Trelawney or Hagrid to assert her authority as the High Inquisitor at Hogwarts.

But Lawrence didn't pay much attention to these things, and this weekend, after the student council meeting, Lawrence was deliberately the last to go, and he waited for a short time, because almost all the prefects attended this meeting, which may be because of the mistakes of the Ministry of Magic, along with Umbridge's authority, and his status in the hearts of the students dropped a lot,

Selwyn looked at Lawrence from the podium, she raised her somewhat cold eyebrows, and then she glanced at the prefects who had not yet left, and were looking over curiously,

The people who were glanced at by her shivered, and hurriedly left the conference room with a quick companion, and closed the door by the way before leaving.

"The principle of exchange, Rovander." Selwyn seemed to have guessed that Lawrence would find her after the meeting,

"What?" Lawrence asked,

"Interest, Rovande," Selwyn said impatiently, "you help me with these boring student council affairs first, and I'll tell you what you want to know."

"You know what I want to ask you?" Lawrence Temptation,

"Ah, of course I do," Selwyn looked inexplicable, "'For the eternal good'—"

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Note 1: This book [Chamber of Secrets] 015.