Unexpectedly, the "cry" of the mandrake turned out to be an attack on the mind!
If that was the case, Ted actually had some confidence in resisting it.
Psions were masters of mental defense, after all.
Seeing Hermione already stuffing her struggling mandrake into a larger pot, Ted moved to do the same.
But his mandrake was far less cooperative.
It had hated being pulled out, and now it hated being stuffed back in just as much.
Its root-like limbs braced against the rim of the pot, refusing to go in.
In the process, it even kicked over the smaller pot it had been in, shattering it on the ground.
Ted narrowed his eyes. "Oh, so that's how it is? You wanna fight? Fine!"
With a swift motion, he gave the mandrake two solid knocks on the head with his knuckles.
Stunned, it momentarily stopped struggling, and Ted seized the opportunity to shove it into the pot, burying it beneath a thick layer of humus.
Professor Sprout hurried over, motioning for the class to remove their earmuffs. She looked at Ted with concern.
"Are you alright, dear? This mandrake of yours seems a bit… a troublemaker."
Ted glanced at it, noticing that it was indeed larger than Hermione's.
"Nothing I couldn't handle," he assured her.
Satisfied that he was unharmed, Sprout moved on.
Hermione leaned in, whispering, "Ted, are you sure you're okay? I thought I heard a little bit of its cry even with the earmuffs on!"
"I'm fine," Ted reassured her.
"I gave it a couple of taps, and it shut up. If I didn't care about school property, I'd have tossed it straight into the dragon dung pile."
At the mention of dragon dung, Hermione wrinkled her nose, waving a hand as if to dispel the phantom smell.
Ted, meanwhile, was intrigued by the mandrakes.
Not only were they a useful ingredient in potions, but they could also serve as mental attack weapons.
That alone made them worth studying.
Oh, and he had apparently completed a task in the process.
[Ding! [Hidden Task Completed: "Disobedient? Get Smacked!" (White)] – Reward: 120 experience points.]
—
Later that night, in the Ravenclaw girls' dormitory, Hermione was stretching on a blanket laid out on the floor, performing a series of unusual movements.
Her roommates watched in bafflement.
Padma Patil, who had been combing her hair, turned to look and hesitated before saying, "Wait… is that yoga?"
Sue Li, sitting cross-legged on her bed with a book in hand, raised an eyebrow. "I've read about it before. It's meant to improve focus and flexibility, isn't it?"
Hermione lowered her leg from behind her head and nodded. "That's right! It's a form of exercise meant to relax the body and mind."
She had picked it up over the summer from Ted, who had a knack for stumbling across all sorts of knowledge.
Among the various books he had collected was one on yoga.
While it wasn't magical in itself, it helped with mental clarity, focus, and physical flexibility—something Hermione had found beneficial.
Ted, for his part, had quipped about other benefits, but Hermione had ignored him.
—
Meanwhile, Ted himself was sneaking through the castle under the cover of an invisibility spell.
Anzu flew ahead, scouting the corridors, while Parker, trotted beside him, ears perked for any sign of movement.
For nearly a week, he had been searching the castle for one specific thing: Advanced Potion-Making, the old textbook Snape had used as a student.
He wasn't particularly interested in the potion notes—though they were useful—but Sectumsempra? That was a spell worth learning.
Last year, he had played it safe.
He was a newcomer to Hogwarts, still growing into his abilities, and had too many things to study at once.
But this year? It was time to get serious.
The problem was, the book was rumored to be in a cabinet in one of the potion classrooms in the dungeons.
But which one? There were at least seven or eight.
In the canon, Harry had found it in his sixth year, when Slughorn was teaching.
The classroom setup had likely changed since then, making the search trickier.
But Ted was nothing if not persistent. And after several nights of searching, he had already ruled out more than half the rooms.
Ted's eyes widened with excitement as he skimmed through the dense, handwritten notes crammed between the lines of the old textbook.
His heart pounded in his chest—'This was it!'
He had finally found the original notes. It felt just as exhilarating as discovering a legendary spellbook hidden within the depths of the Hogwarts Library.
He couldn't wait to dive in.
Instead of heading back to his dormitory, he rushed to the Room of Requirement and then to the Ravenclaw Secret Room.
If he was going to study this properly, he needed solitude.
The notebook was a relic from Snape's school days, filled with meticulous records of potions, innovative ideas, modifications, and unconventional approaches to herbal medicine.
Ted devoured each page, his curiosity growing with every revelation.
Snape's mother was the last heir of the Prince family, one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight.
His father, on the other hand, was a Muggle.
That heritage was the reason behind his self-proclaimed title:
The Half-Blood Prince.
The notes, penned during Snape's sixth year, contained advanced potion formulas and unconventional theories—far beyond what any textbook offered.
Ted suspected that Snape had inherited some deep-rooted magical knowledge from the Prince family.
According to the original accounts, even Sirius and Lupin had admitted that Snape, from his first year at Hogwarts, had already mastered spells beyond what senior students knew.
His education clearly began long before stepping foot into Hogwarts.
Ted's breath hitched as he stumbled upon Snape's research into the Dark Arts.
Among his own creations, one stood out: Sectumsempra!
Snape was only sixteen, yet his knowledge of the Dark Arts was staggering.
Between the lines, Ted deduced that Snape had likely mastered dozens, if not hundreds, of dark spells before even graduating.
It was through this relentless pursuit that he eventually developed a spell as lethal as Sectumsempra.
Though Snape was known as a Potions Master, Ted could tell that his true passion lay elsewhere.
His exceptional talent in potions was undeniable, but his real obsession was the Dark Arts.
He had even lost his closest friend because of it.
After all, this was the same man who created Sectumsempra at sixteen, yet never invented a single groundbreaking potion formula.
His priorities were clear.
But everything changed when Lily Evans died.
Her death shattered him, tearing away any desire to continue his research into the Dark Arts.
His entire mindset shifted, to the point where even his Patronus transformed into a doe—an eternal tribute to her memory.
Ted, however, wasn't interested in Snape's tragic past.
His focus was on Sectumsempra.
Dark, brutal, and almost unstoppable, it was a spell designed to end fights instantly.
A true killing curse in the right hands!
Just then, a familiar chime echoed in his mind:
[Ding~ You have carefully studied the valuable notes left behind by a senior at Hogwarts and gained significant experience: +124 XP!]
Ted blinked in surprise. "Well, that's a nice bonus."
He had read countless books and notes before, but the highest XP he had ever earned from them was barely 100.
This proved just how invaluable Snape's research was!
Even the ancient tomes left behind by Rowena Ravenclaw hadn't rewarded him with experience points—at least, not yet. He still had plenty left to uncover from it after all...