"Oh no!"
Ron's horrified scream echoed throughout the dormitory.
"My god, what's happening to Scabbers?!"
The moment he noticed the rat convulsing violently on the table, Ron completely forgot about Quidditch. He leapt off Logan's bed and rushed towards his beloved pet in panic.
Meanwhile, Logan silently observed Peter Pettigrew twitching uncontrollably on the tabletop while a slightly alarming thought crossed his mind.
The Red Dung Fruit wouldn't actually kill someone… right?
If Peter died now, things could become troublesome very quickly.
Trying his best to maintain a calm expression, Logan followed Ron over to the table to continue observing the "experiment."
Ron carefully picked up the spasming rat with a grief-stricken expression.
"Scabbers!" he cried helplessly. "What happened to you?!"
The rat's tiny limbs kept jerking wildly while yellowish-brown liquid dribbled from the corner of its mouth.
Ron looked completely devastated.
"It's never been like this before!" he said desperately before turning towards Logan. "Logan, what do we do?"
At this moment, Ron genuinely had no idea how to handle the situation.
Scabbers was his only pet. Even if the rat had originally been handed down to him because nobody else in the Weasley family wanted it anymore, Ron had still raised him for years.
Of course he cared.
And naturally, the only person he could turn to for help was the terrifyingly reliable friend standing beside him.
Logan stared at Ron for several seconds.
What exactly was he supposed to say?
Technically speaking, he was the criminal responsible for this disaster.
If this were a detective mystery, he would already be caught and confessing dramatically before the first commercial break.
Unfortunately for justice, this was Hogwarts.
"Ron," Logan said calmly, "try to stay calm first. Let's analyse the situation logically."
He crouched beside the table while examining Peter with the seriousness of an experienced detective.
"First, Scabbers' limbs are twitching continuously, but he didn't die immediately."
Ron nodded nervously.
"Second, there's some yellow-brown liquid around his mouth accompanied by a very strange smell."
Ron looked increasingly alarmed.
"And third," Logan continued smoothly, "when I entered the dormitory earlier, Scabbers was still running around energetically."
Logan folded his arms thoughtfully.
"So based on all that, I'm fairly certain he accidentally ate something bad while wandering around the castle, and the poison only activated afterwards."
Ron's eyes widened instantly.
The more he thought about it, the more Logan's explanation sounded completely reasonable.
The strange liquid.
The horrible smell.
The sudden collapse.
Everything matched perfectly.
But then Ron hesitated.
"Would Scabbers really eat random things?" he muttered suspiciously. "What if someone fed it to him deliberately?"
Ron looked at Logan seriously.
"Maybe someone poisoned him."
Logan almost choked.
Holy hell.
Ron accidentally reached the correct answer immediately.
Unfortunately, the culprit currently stood directly beside him.
Naturally, Logan absolutely could not allow Ron's thoughts to continue in that direction.
"I think you're overthinking things," Logan replied immediately. "Why would someone deliberately target you?"
He pointed towards the convulsing rat.
"And technically speaking, they'd be targeting Scabbers, not you. Poisoning someone's pet rat seems like an incredibly weird revenge plan."
Ron reluctantly considered the point.
"I still think it's possible," he insisted. "Maybe somebody had a motive."
Logan sighed internally.
Fine.
If Ron wanted suspects so badly, surely he couldn't possibly—
"I've already thought of two suspects," Ron declared dramatically.
Logan blinked.
"Who?"
Ron leaned closer and whispered into his ear like he was revealing government secrets.
"Snape."
He paused heavily.
"Or Malfoy."
Logan nearly stopped breathing.
What?
How did this conversation somehow become Snape and Malfoy's fault?!
The logic was absolutely incomprehensible.
Ron, however, looked incredibly confident.
Seeing Logan's stunned expression, he immediately began explaining his reasoning.
"Snape obviously has a motive," Ron whispered fiercely. "He's always targeting Harry and me, and he's the Potions professor. Making weird poisons would be completely normal for him."
Logan felt a deep sense of sympathy for Snape's future blood pressure.
"And Malfoy's suspicious too," Ron continued confidently. "He's always causing trouble for us."
Ron crossed his arms triumphantly.
"Plus his family's rich. Rich people can definitely buy illegal poison."
Logan was speechless.
The logic was flawless.
Utterly insane.
But somehow flawless.
Because Snape disliked them, he automatically became suspect number one.
Because Malfoy bullied Ron and possessed money, he automatically became suspect number two.
What had those two ever done to deserve this level of slander?
Ron, meanwhile, looked like a genius detective who had solved a legendary criminal case.
He even angrily swore towards the ceiling that one day he would make Snape and Malfoy repay Scabbers' suffering a hundredfold.
Logan quietly decided not to interfere anymore.
Clearly, he and Ron existed on completely different wavelengths.
If Ron wanted to blame Snape and Malfoy for magical rat poisoning, then so be it.
Let them carry the burden for a while longer.
...
Ten minutes later, inside the hospital wing, Ron paced anxiously while waiting for news.
Because Logan had absolutely no intention of admitting the truth behind Scabbers' condition, Ron had no choice but to bring the rat directly to Madam Pomfrey for treatment.
Naturally, Logan came along too.
After all, he also wanted to understand exactly how horrifying the Red Dung Fruit's weakening effect actually was from a professional medical perspective.
Several minutes later, Madam Pomfrey finally emerged from behind the curtains surrounding the bed.
Her expression looked deeply troubled.
"What exactly did this rat eat?" she demanded immediately.
Ron froze nervously.
Madam Pomfrey continued seriously, "I've worked in magical medicine for many years, and I've honestly never seen symptoms like this before."
Ron looked horrified.
"The creature's limbs are twitching uncontrollably," she explained. "Its body has entered a severe weakened state, the bones appear strangely softened, and it's experiencing intense nausea without being able to vomit."
Her expression grew increasingly strange.
"Most concerning of all… there's some sort of magical turbulence occurring inside its body."
Madam Pomfrey genuinely couldn't understand what she was seeing.
Why was magical energy fluctuating inside an ordinary rat?
Still, as a healer, the cause mattered less than the treatment itself.
Her duty was to save lives first.
.....
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