Chapter 141. Sapling
Before leaving, a flicker of worry flashed in the Grey Lady's silver eyes: "Please be sure to keep the diadem safe. Don't let it fall into the hands of those with ill intentions."
"I promise." Wesson nodded solemnly.
On his way back to his office, Wesson ran into Harry and Ron in the corridor. Ron's robes were splashed with water. Because of the earlier brawl on the Quidditch pitch, almost every student involved—Gryffindor or Slytherin alike—had been punished with half a month of detention.
Of course, although Harry and Ron had been given detention, they weren't upset.
After all, they had had the upper hand there.
Malfoy had been taught a lesson, too—he hadn't written home about it, probably because he was afraid of disgracing himself; besides, he wasn't in the right.
When Snape learned that Malfoy had called someone "Mudblood," he personally arranged Malfoy's detention.
In the past few days, Harry had been delighted to see that Malfoy looked much more haggard; he must have suffered quite a bit in Snape's detention.
There were many forms of detention at Hogwarts, including—but not limited to—helping professors with their work and other physical labour.
One could foresee that, over the next few days, Hogwarts' lavatories would be much cleaner.
At this moment, Harry and Ron had just finished scrubbing the boys' lavatory and were heading for the Gryffindor common room.
"I still have to go polish the trophies tonight… how awful." Ron pulled a face and complained.
Harry shot him a look. "You could swap with me."
"No way."
Ron hurriedly waved him off, because Harry's job that evening was to help Lockhart write letters, replying to his ardent fans.
He had already been doing this for three days in a row, yet the letters still formed a small mountain, with no sign of dwindling. He might not finish them even by the end of his detention.
Thinking of this, Harry sighed.
He'd rather scour the lavatories a hundred more times than do that job—the syrupy stuff in those letters made him feel physically unwell.
"You could think of a way to get Professor Wesson to take over your detention," Ron suggested. "He definitely wouldn't torment you the way Lockhart does—at least he wouldn't make you write replies."
"I don't want to bother Profe—" Harry broke off mid-sentence, suddenly spotting Wesson walking towards them.
"Good morning, sir!" He waved at Wesson.
"It's you, Harry," Wesson nodded. "Good morning."
At once, Ron hurried forward and vividly recounted to Wesson the tragic details of his and Harry's detentions, adding that Harry would have to answer Lockhart's letters that night, and hoping Wesson could help.
"Ah, that reminds me," Wesson said after listening, giving Harry a playful wink. "I have a whole crowd of Nifflers that need someone to groom their fur. What should I do about that… it's really a headache… if only someone could lend a hand!"
Under Ron's expectant gaze, Wesson continued with a smile: "I'll speak to Professor McGonagall and have you transferred to me—I do indeed need two helpers."
On this, Wesson was willing.
Helping Lockhart reply to letters was of no use to Harry at all; better to have him help care for the Nifflers—he could even learn a bit about them.
After Wesson left,
Ron nudged Harry excitedly with his elbow. "See? Professor Wesson agreed. He's always looking out for you. Feels good to have someone backing you up, doesn't it?"
"Don't talk nonsense," Harry sighed. "I didn't want to trouble Professor Wesson in the first place."
"Oh, please," Ron curled his lip. "If you'd rather go back to replying to Lockhart's mail, you can ask Professor Wesson to transfer you back."
"That won't be necessary."
When Wesson mentioned to Professor McGonagall that he wanted to borrow Harry and Ron, Professor McGonagall readily agreed.
In truth, while fighting was a serious violation of school rules,
she didn't think Ron had committed any fundamental wrong—after all, compared with fighting, calling someone "Mudblood" was, in her view, far more serious.
So she wasn't severe with the punishments for these students; even the point deductions were more a matter of form.
As for Malfoy… hopefully Snape's detention would teach him a lesson.
That evening, Harry and Ron arrived in Wesson's office.
To be honest, grooming Nifflers was a tedious task, but in any case it was far more interesting than doing cleaning or replying to Lockhart's letters.
Moreover, these little thieves were all quite docile.
Although one Niffler stole a silver Sickle from Harry's pocket, he didn't mind at all.
As for Ron—he didn't have a single bronze Knut in his pocket, so the Nifflers could do nothing with him.
He even found a gold Galleon in one Niffler's pouch, although it was quickly snatched back by the Niffler.
Halfway through the work, Ron looked around and realised Wesson's figure had disappeared.
"Where's Professor Wesson?" he asked Harry.
"I don't know—he probably had something else to take care of," Harry said, brushing the sole of a Niffler's paw with a brush. "But he said that when the time's up, we can lock the Nifflers back in their cages and then leave."
Ron shrugged. If all detention were like today's, that'd be perfect.
Meanwhile, in the plantation, Wesson was in Greenhouse No. 2.
The little apple sapling with the "Purification" trait, which had previously been planted in Greenhouse No. 3, had already been transplanted here.
What he hadn't expected was that this sapling—still not as tall as a person—had actually borne fruit!
Such a small sapling producing fruit was clearly against common sense.
However, this was the wizarding world.
At that thought, Wesson relaxed at once—anything could happen in a magical world.
He suspected it had borne fruit because he had poured too much Growth Potion into it, causing certain changes.
What surprised him even more was that the fruit had taken only a single hour to go through the entire process from flowering to fruiting.
That was rather quick.
Of course, everything came at a price: this quick-ripened fruit was much smaller than a normal apple.
Wesson held the apple—no bigger than half his fist—in his hand and examined it closely.
"Eldra."
[Name: Apple]
[Trait: Purification]
[Status: Ripe]
Since the information given by the Tree of Wisdom was no different from before, the effect should be the same.
Wesson immediately went to the storeroom and fetched the leftover materials from the last time he made a golden apple.
The ritual proceeded smoothly. An hour later, a small golden apple had appeared in Wesson's hand.
It seemed everything had gone well.
Next, he only had to brew this apple into a Purification Potion.
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