The Castle corridor.
Lucien was heading toward the underground Potions office, planning to ask Professor Snape for advice on improving a potion.
Just as he turned a corner, several young witches and wizards walked past him, chatting excitedly.
"...I'm telling you, I heard the cauldron exploded!"
"Wow, Professor Snape must have been furious. How could something like that happen to a Potions Master..."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a pity I didn't see it myself..."
What was that?
Lucien paused and subconsciously slowed his pace.
The cauldron exploded?
What had happened to the old bat?
Cauldron explosions weren't exactly rare at Hogwarts, especially among younger students. Every year, there were always a few unlucky people who added the wrong ingredient, stirred in the wrong direction, or simply forgot that fire had to be controlled.
But why were these students specifically mentioning Snape?
He was just about to catch up and ask when he saw several familiar figures approaching.
Ron was the most conspicuous. Not only was he gesticulating wildly, but his face was as red as his hair, and he looked incredibly excited.
Harry walked beside him, his lips pressed tightly together as he desperately tried to suppress his laughter, occasionally reaching up to straighten his crooked glasses.
Hermione followed behind them, shaking her head helplessly.
Judging from their expressions alone, something extraordinary had clearly happened.
Hermione was the first to notice Lucien and was about to greet him when the red-haired figure beside her suddenly rushed forward.
"Lucien!" Ron hurried over, his excitement practically overflowing. "Guess what happened in Potions just now?!"
Lucien was startled by Ron's abrupt question, but combining the chatter he had just overheard with Ron's obvious excitement, he immediately had a guess.
"During Potions... someone's cauldron exploded again?"
He paused after saying it.
Why had he said "again"?
Perhaps because, where Seamus Finnigan was concerned, explosions had long since become less of an accident and more of a recurring phenomenon.
Ron immediately burst out laughing and clapped his hands hard.
"Haha, Lucien, you guessed it! Snape went to the Hospital Wing!"
Lucien blinked.
What did he mean, Snape went to the Hospital Wing?
The cauldron exploded, and then Snape went to the Hospital Wing?
Those two events didn't normally connect unless something had gone very wrong.
He looked at Harry, who was trying so hard to hold back his laughter that the corners of his mouth kept twitching upward, making it difficult for him to speak.
Then Lucien looked back at Ron.
This guy was purely enjoying the spectacle, and the satisfaction was written all over his face.
Ron disliked Snape immensely because he was constantly being singled out and ridiculed in class.
He couldn't memorise Potions knowledge as fluently as Hermione, nor did he have Harry's ability to fight back with his eyes.
Aside from Neville, Ron probably received the most of Snape's daily venom.
"Let me explain." Hermione sighed and walked over, her tone clearly saying, I'm really tired of this. "During Potions, Seamus's cauldron exploded."
"Seamus again?" Lucien's mouth twitched slightly.
That somehow made the entire situation much easier to believe.
"The important part," Hermione continued, "is that the explosion sent the cauldron flying at an extremely high speed."
She paused, seeming to choose her words carefully.
"Unfortunately," Hermione said, with a faint trace of sympathy in her voice, "the cauldron hit Professor Snape squarely in the back of the head."
Lucien: "..."
For a few seconds, his mind simply stopped.
"Professor Snape was supervising the other students' potions at the time, with his back to Seamus's group," Hermione added. "And the cauldron flew too fast. There was almost no time to react."
Lucien fell silent for a moment.
A scene automatically formed in his mind.
Snape was inspecting a student's cauldron with a gloomy expression, his black robes billowing behind him even though there was no wind.
Perhaps he was criticising someone's ingredient preparation or telling another unfortunate student that their potion looked like sewage.
Then, without warning, a spinning cauldron came whistling from behind and struck him squarely in the back of the head with a loud bang.
The esteemed Potions Master, the youngest Potions authority of his generation, had been knocked unconscious by one of his own students with a cauldron.
Lucien had to admit that the image was difficult to process.
"So he's still in the Hospital Wing?" Lucien asked.
"Madam Pomfrey said he might have a mild concussion and needs to be observed for a while," Hermione replied.
Ron, standing beside them, couldn't stop laughing.
"You should've seen it. The whole classroom went dead silent! Seamus's face turned completely pale. I bet if Snape had still been conscious, he would've turned him into potion ingredients on the spot!"
Ron seemed almost disappointed that Snape hadn't remained awake long enough to react.
Harry finally couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.
"His expression before he fainted... I've never seen Snape look that bewildered."
Lucien's mouth twitched.
Seamus Finnigan, the explosion genius, was as consistent as ever.
No, his skills had actually improved.
Before this, exploding cauldrons had only injured himself or affected his deskmate.
This time, he'd gone big.
Was he trying to solo-kill the Potions professor with a cauldron?
If this continued, perhaps Seamus would eventually develop an entirely new branch of offensive magic based purely around explosive Potions equipment.
Interesting.
Why was the old bat having such terrible luck?
Uh...
Could it be because he'd taught Defence Against the Dark Arts for several months and the curse had started taking effect?
Lucien's expression became thoughtful.
The Defence Against the Dark Arts position did have an unusually terrible record.
Even if this incident had absolutely nothing to do with the curse, the timing was suspicious enough to be amusing.
"All right, I'll go to the Hospital Wing first."
Lucien waved goodbye to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, then turned and quickly headed toward the Hospital Wing.
Behind him, Ron was still laughing.
Hermione, meanwhile, was already telling him that laughing at an injured professor was inappropriate.
Harry didn't seem particularly convinced.
Hurrying to the entrance of the Hospital Wing, Lucien saw a familiar pale-blond figure pacing back and forth.
Malfoy.
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