The student council was in a much worse state than Lawrence had imagined, and the second student meeting of the month, which was held at one o'clock on Saturday afternoon, was only half as attendant.

Although all Gryffindors were present, only four Hufflepuffs came, Ravenclaw only two, and Slytherin did not show up except for Selwyn, who was the female president of the student government.

Lawrence was almost certain that the Slytherin prefects had been co-opted by Umbridge, which was not a surprise, but something that could be detected from the last meeting, after all, power has a lot of attraction for Slytherins,

And the two absent prefects of Hufflepuff, from Diggory's vague hints, they seem to be under pressure from home, and the four Ravenclaws are using their studies as an excuse, but Lawrence knows very well that in the next meeting, there may not be any Ravenclaw attendees.

The atmosphere of the meeting was dreary until Lawrence and Selwyn announced the adjournment of the meeting, and the oppressive and dreary atmosphere was slightly dispelled by the movement of people getting up and the sound of quiet talking.

Hermione woke up Ron who had fallen asleep on the table, Ron had only finished Gryffindor Quidditch practice in the morning, and he hadn't slept well lately in order to practice and catch up with his homework.

Diggory and Lawrence looked at each other, Diggory looked like he wanted to speak, but he didn't step forward to speak, but nodded to Lawrence and said hello before leaving,

Hermione looked at the podium with some apprehension, but left the room at Ron's urging, they were the last prefects to leave the room, Selwyn waved his wand, and the parchment scrolls scattered in various places flew in front of her,

"Ravenclaw won't show up at the next meeting, will he?" Selwyn said in a cold voice that there was a great possibility, and they each took a part of the file back to the small office next to it, ready to do the finishing work after the meeting,

"I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't show up next time." Lawrence replied,

"Somebody always has to come and hear what you're doing here, right?" After hearing this, Selwyn said with an elusive smile,

"Umbridge won't be content to co-opt Slytherin and force Ravenclaw to remain silent," Selwyn continued, "and she's always going to target those of you who don't control her, or who aren't loyal to him."

Although they kept talking, they kept getting the work done, the files had been sorted and put on the shelves, Lawrence wrote on the blackboard when the next month's meeting would be, and what should be done during that time, and checked the wastebasket to make sure that the confiscated contraband that should have been handed over to Filch had been cleared.

Selwyn handed Lawrence the minutes of the meeting that had just been written, and Lawrence confirmed it, signed his name next to Selwyn's signature, opened the drawer to put away the minutes, and then ended their work for the day.

After leaving the doors of the Students' Union office and conference room, they parted ways at the end of the hallway, Lawrence to Gryffindor Tower, Selwyn to the Slytherin dungeon, and two crisp footsteps faded away in the quiet castle of the weekend.

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For weeks until the end of September, Lawrence always tried to catch Snape after the Potions super-witch test, but the hem of Snape's pitch-black robes seemed to have wings, and he always disappeared into the classroom door in an instant.

I have to admit that the irresponsible rumors that have been widely circulated at Hogwarts are not unreasonable, and Lawrence really began to doubt that Snape could turn into a big bat.

In addition to the end of class, Snape always turned a blind eye to Lawrence's forced gaze in class, and his almost emotionless expression made Lawrence unable to tell whether Snape was really busy or was delaying telling him the reason.

After the Potions class on this day, Lawrence couldn't bear to pull out his wand, and finally used the armor that suddenly collapsed in the dungeon corridor to stop Snape, who was about to disappear into the corner of the dungeon.

Lawrence put his wand into his sleeve without a trace, and Snape also turned around expressionlessly, staring at Lawrence with a deliberately surprised expression,

"Why did the armor fall, Professor?" Lawrence tilted his head harmlessly and asked,

"Come to my office this weekend to work, Rovander." A phrase floated out of Snape's lips, and then strode over the innocently fallen armor, a barely audible whisper drifting into Lawrence's ear, "...... I'll tell you what you want to know."

The corners of Lawrence's mouth twitched, he was now sure that Snape's actions in the past few weeks were a ploy to delay telling him the reason, but it also made him more curious about this reason, what was the reason for Snape to do such awkward behavior?

However, Snape agreed to inform Lawrence of the reason for protecting Harry, which was one of the few good news in the past few weeks, but it may not be the case for Harry, Hermione, and Ron, who waited a long time in the Gryffindor saloon after dinner to stop Lawrence and the twins, because they had a party this weekend that they wanted Lawrence to attend.

"Is there really no way to participate?" Hermione asked wistfully, "It's the Defence Against the Dark Arts that we mentioned earlier...... Belch...... Reading Club."

"Don't be stupid, Hermione, it's the old bat's labor service." Ron said dejectedly that Harry's face was not very good-looking, because if Lawrence didn't come, Hermione would probably ask him to be a teacher, but he really didn't have any confidence,

"What the hell did you do that Snape actually punished you for your labor?" George scratched his head in confusion, he hadn't been able to practice Potions, so he turned his gaze to Fred, hoping for an answer,

"I don't know." Fred and George looked at Lawrence together, who shrugged innocently and did not answer,

"But what kind of labor service is going to Snape's office?" Ron frowned and asked, "I never went in when I was sentenced to labor service by Snape."

"It's just a bunch of potions-related chores that would normally be used in your grade level Potions class," Fred replied with an experienced experience, "A lot of potion materials are cumbersome to prepare, and Snape wants to leave them to Lawrence."

"I thought you must know," said George, surprised, "isn't your class very good at potions?"

"Who told you good?" Harry frowned in displeasure,

"Didn't you teach life and death water in the first grade? (Note 1)" Fred showed the same surprised expression as George, "This is super-hard content."

"We only taught potions, and I said it was the first class in the first year," Hermione corrected, "and I think that's the problem Snape used to embarrass Harry."

"Anyway, I can't go." Lawrence spreads his hands,

"That...... Fred, George, will you come?" Hermione turned to the twins,

"Let me make sure first, are you sure it's not the kind of recruitment ceremony of the 'House-Elf Fujin Association', which requires a group of us to weave scarves together?" Fred asked, and Ron laughed when he heard it, but was glared at by Hermione,

"I think we'll participate." George smiled and said to Hermione, "Where's the meeting place?"

"Hog's Head Bar." Hermione's answer caused Fred and George to whistle, and they and Lawrence walked up the stairs to the boys' dormitory, while Harry, Hermione, and Ron continued to stay in the saloon to write their homework.

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On the first weekend of early October, people with different minds began the day's itinerary, and Lawrence and the twins had breakfast and headed in their respective directions at the entrance of the hall.

Lawrence turned to Snape's office in the dungeon, and the twins walked to the gate to Hogwarts, where there was a long queue of students who were going to Hogsmeade, and they were to be checked by Filch at the gate.

Lawrence came to the door of Snape's office, knocked on the cold door, the door opened, and Selwyn looked out unhappily, and when he saw that it was Lawrence, he took a step back and let him in.

The air was filled with a variety of different aromas, a teapot was smoking on the desk, and the magic flame at the bottom of the teapot was slowly burning.

Snape's face was terrible, I don't know if it was because his desk was occupied by a teapot, or if the various non-"Snape" scents in the air made him feel uncomfortable.

"Tea is almost ready." Selwyn completely ignored Snape's attempt to kill, and she smelled the scent of the teapot spout as Lawrence pondered whether he should quickly escape the office before Snape broke out.

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Note 1: Chapter 002 of this volume.