Chapter 317: The 24th Educational Decree

Luo En showed a kind of stubborn disdain for Harry's comfort, and just as Harry was preparing to pay closer attention to his friend's progress, several things came to him one after another, so that he had to temporarily move his attention away from emotional gossip.

"Harry, I know you're busy, but I sincerely hope you can participate in Quidditch training," early the next morning, before he went out, he was blocked in the common room by Angelina.

"Jin Ni is still too young. It's okay to bully the physically weak Greengrass, but the Hufflepuff Seeker—judging from previous games, he should have at least 60% of Cedric's level."

"70%," Jin Ni said timidly. "I don't have the confidence to beat him... I mean, unless he catches a cold."

"In short, we still hope you can take action," Angelina said very politely. "Or, at least help Jin Ni."

"I'll keep it in mind. When is our game?" Harry felt some pressure, but still chose to agree without thinking.

"February. We still have time," Angelina glanced at Luo En. "But judging from the current state, to be honest, I don't have much confidence."

"I will also work hard," Luo En said guiltily.

Harry added an unavoidable thing to his to-do list, then walked to the Great Hall for breakfast with a little bit of worry.

After a sleepy History of Magic class, they welcomed Professor Slughorn's first Potions class. This little old man seemed to have very rich teaching experience, and although he took over halfway, he grasped the rhythm of the class very well, even Luo En showed an expression of understanding.

"I never found that Potions class could actually be so simple," Luo En praised the new professor while not forgetting to step on the old one. "Snape is really harmful."

"Don't say that. Professor Slughorn is clearly Snape's good friend, or at least on the same front," Harry said. "It's just that his teaching level is very high, and Snape happened to invite a master."

"Harry, my child," Slughorn approached them quickly. His big belly almost burst the buttons of his robe. "This is Mr. Weasley, right? It's really nice to see you."

"Uh, yes, Professor," Harry couldn't help but stop what he was doing.

Slughorn leaned over slightly, looking as if he was going to give them some pointers. But in fact, he just left two thin invitations on the table.

"Harry: If you are willing to participate in the party in the room at the far west of the first-floor corridor at six o'clock tonight, I will be very happy."

Luo En naturally opened the invitation the professor handed him, and then revealed a confused expression.

"No matter what he's preparing to do," Harry looked at Professor Slughorn's back, and he stopped by Hermione's side for a while, seemingly sending another invitation. "I think it's necessary to go and see."

After lunch, Harry received a new notification that Snape was looking for him.

Before Harry walked into the Headmaster's office, he glanced at his watch. The lunch break had just begun.

"I have to ask you, Potter," Snape said gently. "Do you intend to continue watching the fun, or are you preparing to do something?"

"Ah, you mean—"

"I think Padfoot might be quite anxious too. He hasn't done anything useful in half a year." He deliberately emphasized the word "useful."

Harry lowered his head embarrassedly. He knew Snape was right.

"If doing things requires waiting for a good opportunity, but you might have already made plans, right?" He revealed a faint sneer. "For all possible crises, do you have a contingency plan? If Bellatrix raids and grabs the ring, or, William finds out Greymane's true identity."

Harry's heart tightened. He had to admit that he had never seriously considered these shocking possibilities.

"Even, the most imminent one, if Slughorn happens to know the real Regulus, and I need to take him to attend a Death Eater meeting—" Snape deliberately paused here, observing Harry's expression.

"I might..." Harry tried to find a way to make up for it powerlessly.

"It doesn't matter, Harry, it's not too late," Snape said flatly. "Although your performance in the first half wasn't outstanding, at least I can be sure that your learning ability is very strong."

"So, if you still want to continue sitting at that table, you must learn Occlumency."

"Uh, is it necessary?" Harry hesitated. "Didn't you say that you only need to keep calm..."

"For what we are going to do, you must keep calm at the same time, and you also need to learn Occlumency," Snape interrupted Harry without doubt.

"Okay, I'll learn," Harry agreed. He didn't need to think for a long time. Clearly, regarding "eliminating the Death Eaters," Snape seemed to be making better progress, so Harry was willing to listen to his arrangements for the time being. Moreover, Occlumency should also be a relatively practical skill. As the saying goes, having more skills doesn't weigh you down.

"Is six o'clock on Tuesday and Thursday nights okay?" Snape said. "You can wait for me in the Potions classroom, pretending it's a Potions make-up class... Many people know that you perform well in Potions, which will be a good enough cover."

"Ah?" Harry didn't turn the corner for a while. "But in the eyes of Bella or Lucius, even if it's a Potions class, we shouldn't be walking too close, right?"

"You can ask this question, heh." Snape sneered, didn't answer again, just waved his hand.

Harry was slightly dissatisfied with his attitude, but still left obediently. After all, continuing to consume his own lunch break was not worth it.

On the way back to the dormitory, Harry didn't figure out what would happen if the Death Eaters found out he and Snape were close. He didn't think it was because he was stupid, but attributed it to the road from the Headmaster's office to the Gryffindor dormitory being too short.

"Go to sleep for a while," Neville said.

"It doesn't matter if you oversleep; Muggle Studies isn't worth taking anyway," Luo En muttered.

When Harry lay on his bed, closed his eyes, and hoped to recover some spirit before the afternoon class, he suddenly figured out the question just now.

At first, he just thought of this time last year, using his nap to spy on Voldemort's meeting. Then he thought of something Voldemort kept emphasizing at the meeting: "You must not hurt Harry; instead, you can try to be friendly to him."

Now it seems that Voldemort should have already discovered that Harry was a Horcrux, so he gave that kind of instruction. But for the Death Eaters, even if they knew Voldemort had the behavior of creating Horcruxes, they couldn't guess that Harry was also a Horcrux, so they naturally couldn't understand why Voldemort wanted to treat Harry kindly. Moreover, Voldemort himself had never made an explanation for this.

With this background, Snape "suspecting that Harry had something special" and trying to approach Harry was not an alternative loyalty to the Dark Lord. Of course, thinking of the current situation, peace talks were imminent, and the Death Eaters might also think that Snape was preparing to use Harry to gain some benefits. In short, the so-called Potions make-up class was an excuse to fool the bystanders, but the Death Eaters wouldn't guess that Snape wasn't one of them because they saw through this. Instead, they would deviate further from the truth because they believed more in the conclusions they brain-filled themselves.

After Harry woke up, he added another thing to his to-do list, which was to go to Snape to learn Occlumency every Tuesday and Thursday.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Arnold introduced his idea of organizing a club and setting up a mock defense court, which was scheduled for activities on Wednesday afternoon. Students who performed well in the mock defense would have the opportunity to visit and intern at the Ministry of Magic on Friday afternoon. For this, he specifically found Professor Flitwick and persuaded him to change Friday's Charms class to the morning.

Harry originally thought these house-playing things had nothing to do with him, but first Arnold privately proposed that Harry could freely participate in the visit and internship on Friday afternoon, and secondly, he saw a new educational decree at dinner.

"Educational Decree No. 24": Stipulates that every Hogwarts student must have participated in three or more different clubs before the fifth grade, otherwise the O. W. L. certificate will not be issued.

"Is this difficult?" Reading the educational decree, Lu Na said happily, "Tiresias Arcane Society, Torchwood, and Deng Buliduo's Army—"

"Shh!" Harry stopped her. "No, we can't treat Torchwood and Deng Buliduo's Army as clubs. And the Tiresias Arcane Society is essentially established by Eagle House students to deal with dueling competitions, which belongs to part of the Dueling Club."

"Oh." Lu Na's voice sounded a bit lost, but she soon became happy again. "We still have S. P. E. W., I just need to find one more gathering, for example, that mock court."

"Yes, three clubs, it's quite easy to gather," Luo En said disapprovingly.

"You and I are not in the Dueling Club," Harry said helplessly. "Did you forget? We spent the whole of last year at Beauxbatons."

"Then S. P. E. W., uh right, that's a girls' club," Luo En revealed a hint of panic. "But we are still on the team, aren't we?"

"So we only participated in one club," Harry sighed. He knew that Occlumency tutoring couldn't be counted as a club, and the Order of the Phoenix couldn't be either. "We'd better find two clubs quickly, for example, the mock trial court—I even suspect that this educational decree is just a small means for Arnold to induce us to go to him."

"And you have to take his bait, mate," Luo En also sighed. "O. W. L. certificate, can't not take it to heart."