"That's very nice, Harry..."

In the Potions class after Halloween, Slughorn looked at the cauldron in front of Harry with a look of surprise on his face.

"The color is perfect, and the taste is impeccable. I guarantee that even someone as irritable as a fire dragon will become calmer after taking three drops of the soothing potion you brewed."

"Thank you for the compliment, sir." Harry couldn't hide his excitement and asked, "So, am I qualified?"

"Pass? Are you kidding me?" Slughorn said in an exaggerated voice, "This is a perfect potion. Without a doubt, Gryffindor gets ten points!"

Harry almost jumped up with excitement. This was the first time in six years that he got extra points in Potions class. For a moment, he felt that Slughorn looked much more pleasing to the eye.

"I've known for a long time that you must have inherited your mother's excellent talent for potions, but Severus just didn't help you discover it." Slughorn said with a smile, "Keep working hard, I look forward to your performance in the next class."

Harry nodded heavily.

Hermione next to her snorted coldly.

Her potion was also finished, though a lighter color than Harry's.

Originally this was not a problem, but after the comparison, her insignificant little shortcoming was infinitely magnified.

Slughorn glanced at her cauldron, said it was good, and left without any comment.

This made Hermione even angrier.

"You're cheating!" Hermione said stiffly after class, "You shouldn't continue looking at that notebook."

"It's just a notebook, how can it be considered cheating..." Harry retorted: "And it turns out that there is nothing wrong with the steps above."

“But you didn’t do that on your own.”

"But you also read the textbook, what difference does it make?" Ron also spoke up for Harry.

"Think about Connor Prince, the youngest member of the Extraordinary Pharmacist Association. How could there be any problem with the notes that even she agrees with?"

"But..." Hermione wanted to say something.

"Wait Hermione, you're not jealous of Kyle, are you?" Ron's voice rose slightly.

"Why should I be jealous of him!" Hermione couldn't help but say loudly.

"Of course I'm jealous that his grades are better than yours, and that he discovered so many little tricks that you don't know about."

Seeing Hermione's reaction, Ron was more certain of his guess. "I think you should give it a try. After all, the content in the book was written by other wizards. Maybe in a few years, these little tricks will appear in the book.

"Remember what Kyle said before? Advanced Potion Making has not been revised for a long time, and many of the steps in it are outdated."

Hermione took a few deep breaths and said nothing.

Ron thought she just knew she was in the wrong, so he didn't care and continued to discuss the contents of the notes with Harry.

"It's really weird. I'm clearly following the instructions in my notes, so why aren't the results as good as yours?"

"That's because you weren't paying enough attention," said Harry. "The size of the flame when brewing the potion is also very important. I remember you poured the moonstone powder into the crucible and went to chat with Seamus. You completely forgot to turn down the flame."

"It seems to be the case...but why didn't you remind me at the time?"

“I just realized it.”

"Forget it, it's just a small problem." Ron smiled and said, "Tell me, if I continue to brew potions according to the contents of the notes, will Professor Slughorn invite me to his party at Christmas?"

"I'm sure it will," said Harry.

Although his intuition told him that one or two excellent results in Potions class would not change Slughorn's opinion of Ron, his intuition told him that it would be better not to spoil Ron's fun at this time.

After getting Harry's affirmative answer, Ron became even more excited and couldn't help but raise his voice a lot.

"Are you happy, Weasley? Do you think that getting an invitation from Slughorn means you are also a celebrity?"

A cold voice came from behind them, "You can give yourself a stupid scar on your head, maybe you can be as popular as Potter among the scar-head fanatics."

There was a burst of laughter all around.

"We don't think we've spoken to you, Malfoy," said Harry grimly. "I noticed you weren't at the last ball. What? You weren't invited?"

"It could also be that Professor Slughorn doesn't know any Malfoy family," Ron added.

"Do you think you are so funny?" Malfoy's face turned cold in an instant. "Even if he wanted to invite me, I would not go to his stupid and boring dance."

"You are just envious of us." Ron curled his lips, "You must be jealous to death."

"I envy you?"

Malfoy seemed insulted and said viciously: "You probably don't know, Weasley, but we hold a dance every Christmas at home...

"Oh, I forgot. You definitely don't know this because the guests we invite are all upper-class people. It's impossible for a pure-blooded scum like your family to receive an invitation."

Malfoy turned his gaze to Hermione again, "Of course, there is no way a mudblood can set foot in my house..."

"Shut up, you bastard!" Harry clenched his fists and was about to rush over to beat Malfoy, but was held tightly by Hermione behind him.

"Don't do this Harry, you will be expelled if the professor sees you!" Hermione urged loudly.

"I don't care!" Harry waved his fist, "Let me go Hermione, I will beat him up today!"

Hermione turned a deaf ear and continued to pull him.

On the other side, Ron was also stopped by several other Gryffindor students, preventing him from running over.

It’s not that they don’t dare to cause trouble, the main reason is that Malfoy is not alone now, he has Crabbe and Goyle by his side.

Those two big guys looked like young trolls. Ron would definitely be in trouble if he went over there.

Malfoy on the other side sneered after seeing this scene. Now that Crabbe and Goyle were there, and there were a group of Slytherins around, he was not afraid at all.

However, just as Malfoy was about to make another mockery, a balloon filled with liquid suddenly fell from the sky and hit him directly on the head.

The carefully groomed hair was soaked in an instant, and dark brown liquid dripped down his hair, accompanied by a strong sour smell.

"This is vinegar..."

The people around him subconsciously covered their noses and moved away from him. Even Crabbe and Goyle took a small step back.

Malfoy was completely stunned, standing there in a daze.

"Hehehe... Do you like this new hairstyle... Hehehe..."

At this moment, a shrill laugh came from the air, and Peeves covered his stomach and laughed so hard that he fell backwards.

"Well done, Peeves!" Harry shouted from below.

He had thought yesterday that Peeves had been caught by the angry Slughorn, but now it seemed that was not the case.

And not only did he not get caught, he also gave himself such a big surprise.

A balloon filled with vinegar was thrown directly at Malfoy's head. This behavior was even more satisfying than beating him up. If Hermione hadn't been holding his arm, he would have wanted to applaud.

Malfoy on the other side obviously didn't think so. He smelled the strong sour smell emanating from his body and was almost furious.

"Peeves, I'm going to kill you!" he roared angrily, but a few drops of vinegar just happened to fall into his mouth through his hair, making Malfoy's face turn even paler in an instant.

He didn't dare to speak, he kept his mouth tightly shut, took out his wand and was about to teach Peeves a lesson.

Everyone thought that Peeves would just run away like he did before, but what they didn't expect was that instead of doing that, Peeves took out a bigger vinegar balloon and threw it down while Malfoy was taking out his wand.

I don’t know if it was a coincidence, but the balloon happened to fall on Malfoy’s outstretched wand and was immediately popped.

Another large amount of vinegar gushed out and splashed everywhere on the ground.

What’s even more horrifying is that this time something else was added to the vinegar, making it not only sour, but also smelly!

"Ugh!" Malfoy subconsciously covered his stomach and dry-heaved.

The next second, he felt his hands were empty and his wand was snatched away.

"Stop right there, Peeves!"

Now Malfoy no longer cared about the complex smell on his body, and quickly chased after the fleeing Peeves.

No one expected things to turn out like this. By the time they reacted, Malfoy had already chased Peeves away.

"Draco..." Crabbe and Goyle hurriedly trotted after him.

"Hahaha, did you see that, Harry? Malfoy was so funny just now." Ron laughed and said, "Good job, Peeves!"

As he said this, he glared at the Slytherins around him provocatively.

After Malfoy and the others left, there were now more Gryffindors, and he was not afraid at all.

"Okay Ron, let's get out of here." Hermione frowned and said, "It smells terrible."

Ron took a breath subconsciously and almost exhaled.

"Peeves must have put dung eggs in the vinegar..." he said confidently. "I thought no one would do that after Fred and George graduated."

As they talked, they quickened their pace and left the corridor. The smell would soon attract Filch, and they would have no way to explain themselves if they were caught.

The three of them walked towards the common room together, preparing to change their clothes before going to the auditorium for dinner.

"Do you think Malfoy can get his wand back?" Harry asked curiously as they went upstairs.

"I hope he doesn't get it back," said Ron. "It would be best if Peeves could hide his wand somewhere no one can find it, or just break it."

"That's impossible." Hermione said, "Don't forget that this is a school. The professors won't let Peeves take away the students' wands. They will definitely help them later.

"Peeves is afraid of the professor, so he won't dare to go too far."

"That's a shame," Ron said softly.

This was what Harry thought too.

…

At the same time, Malfoy had chased Peeves to the second floor.

Although he ran very fast, Peeves could fly, and he was able to dodge flexibly every time he was about to be caught up...or maybe Peeves did it on purpose, just to play a trick on Malfoy.

But extreme anger diluted Malfoy's rationality, and he didn't think so much at all. He just wanted to catch up with Peeves and get his wand back.

The two ran from the sixth floor to the second floor, and the distance between them was getting farther and farther.

"You can't run anymore? Tsk, how boring." Looking at Malfoy who was so tired and out of breath, Peeves suddenly lost interest.

"I'll give it back to you." He threw the wand aside, turned a corner and disappeared.

"I must tell Professor Snape... and have him kick you out of school!" Malfoy threatened behind the scenes, but got no response at all.

Apparently Peeves had run away.

Malfoy cursed for a while longer, searching back and forth on the ground, and soon found his wand at the door of a storage room at the end of the corridor.

For some reason, the closet was not locked, but the door was ajar, and Malfoy touched it lightly as he picked up his wand, and the door creaked open.

Malfoy didn't care at first, but when he stood up and prepared to wipe his wand, he suddenly saw a cabinet in the storage room.

The cabinet is placed right at the door and can be seen at a glance.

Malfoy suddenly became nervous and pushed the door open excitedly.

Now he could see more clearly. It was a cabinet about one meter tall, with golden patterns on the surface.

A huge feeling of joy washed over Malfoy's heart... He had been looking for something for several days, but he didn't expect it to be here!

"Draco!"

At this time, Crabbe and Goyle also ran over panting.

"Where's that... damn... ghost..."

"Never mind the ghosts," said Malfoy. "You two, take this cabinet away."

Crabbe and Goyle looked in the direction of Malfoy's finger, their faces full of confusion.

"Draco...are you so angry that you're stupid?" Goyle whispered, "It's just a broken cabinet. If you want it, can't you just buy a new one?"

"What do you know? It's a treasure," said Malfoy.

"Baby?" Crabbe frowned, pointed at a broken cabinet and said it was a baby. It seemed that Malfoy was really angry.

"You two idiots, just do as I say." Malfoy was too lazy to say more to them. He reached out and gently stroked the golden patterns on the cabinet.

This was the disappearing cabinet he had seen in his memory, there was no doubt about it.

That should have been when he was in first grade. He found the map of Hogwarts very interesting after getting it, so he wandered around the castle during the weekend and accidentally came to a storage room.

Because it was too dark inside, he couldn't see the road clearly and bumped into the cabinet, scratching his forehead.

He was worried for a long time at that time, afraid that he would become a scarred person like Potter, so he remembered it very clearly.

But at that time he just thought it was an ordinary cabinet. It was not until he saw another identical cabinet with golden patterns in Borgin and Burke not long ago that he realized that what he had bumped into was a disappearing cabinet.

And those two cabinets are most likely a pair.

But when Malfoy came to school excitedly to look for it, he found that the cabinet was suddenly gone.

He searched for it for a long time, thinking that someone had taken it away, but he didn't expect it to be here. Now he thinks he must have remembered the wrong location.

After all, that happened five years ago, so it's normal that the memory is a little fuzzy.

Malfoy didn't think much about it and immediately ordered Crabbe and Goyle to move the cabinet away.

"Be gentle," he said seriously, "This cabinet is very important. It concerns... that person... If you break it, you will be punished!"

Crabbe and Goyle were a little dissatisfied, but seeing that Malfoy had moved the Dark Lord out, they did not dare to refute. They could only lower their heads and move the cabinet out of the storage room with great effort.

Malfoy looked in the direction where Peeves disappeared and suddenly burst into laughter.

"Draco, what are you laughing at?" Crabbe asked in confusion.

"I laughed at Peeves," said Malfoy. "He thought he had played a trick on me, but in fact he had done me a great favor. If my guess was correct, that person could easily enter Hogwarts."

At this point, Malfoy suddenly became excited, "I will be the biggest contributor then, I must kill Peeves!"

Just with a broken cabinet, could that person be allowed to enter Hogwarts?

And, killing a ghost? Crabbe and Goyle looked at Malfoy, who smelled of vinegar and stench, and then looked at each other.

They both saw the same idea in each other's eyes...

Malfoy was so angry that he started talking nonsense.

(End of this chapter)