Chapter 35 Diversion (Patreon)

Charlie notified Ron that he would have a few friends meet him on the highest tower of Hogwarts late at night to pick up the baby dragon. After that, Ron specifically ran to the library to inform Maca and asked if he wanted to join them later that evening.

But not long after, Maca saw Ron with a pale face in Hagrid's house.

He slumped onto Hagrid's sofa, his hand swollen like a ball, with a faint greenish hue around the wound.

"Dragon venom," Maca looked at his hand and said, "Did it bite you?"

"Oh—I don't think Norbert meant to do it, it was just a bit scared..." Hagrid looked apologetic.

"I bet it was painful." Harry also had a lingering expression of fear.

"Not only my hand," Ron whispered, "although it hurts like it's about to break. What's worse is that when class ended just now, Malfoy took the opportunity to mock me and pretended to borrow a book, deliberately bumping into my wound."

Harry and Hermione tried to calm Ron down.

"It'll all be over by midnight on Saturday," Hermione said, but it didn't comfort Ron at all. On the contrary, he suddenly stood up from the sofa, sweating profusely.

"Midnight on Saturday!" he hoarsely exclaimed, "Oh no! Oh no—I just remembered, Charlie's letter was in the book Malfoy took. He must know that we're planning to take Norbert away!"

"It's too late to change the plan," Harry said to Hermione, "We don't have time to send an owl to find Charlie, and this is probably our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We have to take a risk."

"We have the Invisibility Cloak! Malfoy doesn't know about it."

"No problem, I can go without it. Ron, you better go to the hospital wing before your hand starts rotting," Maca said with a smile, "Or I can prepare a potion to treat the dragon venom for you."

A week passed quickly.

But on that night, when Maca stood in the corridor and saw Harry and the others emerge from under the Invisibility Cloak, he saw Harry looking at him with a somewhat embarrassed expression.

"Sorry, Maca," he said, "I mean, I don't think there's enough room for you in the Invisibility Cloak."

"Oh, no need," Maca said with a smile, "I can be invisible without the cloak. Let's go! But I can't talk while I'm invisible, so just ignore me, I'll be by your side."

With that, he took out a vial of the Disillusionment Potion and drank from it. Instantly, Harry realized that he couldn't even tell how Maca disappeared, as if there was no one there in the first place.

That's the most prominent advantage of the Disillusionment Potion—it allows a person to disappear from others' sight in the most inconspicuous way possible.

"Well, let's go!" Harry scratched his head, put on the Invisibility Cloak again, and concealed everyone's bodies.

It was a dark, cloudy night. By the time they arrived at Hagrid's hut, it was already quite late because Peeves was playing tennis against the wall in the entrance hall, so they had to wait for him to leave.

It wasn't until they had laboriously carried the large crate containing the baby dragon, Norbert, close to the top of the tower that they suddenly heard a noise ahead.

The young lions were so frightened that they almost dropped the crate from their hands. In a moment of panic, they seemed to forget they were invisible and all squeezed into the shadow of the stairs.

Maca had to step aside a few steps because he almost got bumped into.

He saw two dark figures wrestling about ten steps away from them. A lamp flickered in the darkness.

One of them appeared to be Professor McGonagall.

She was wearing plaid pajamas and a hairnet, angrily pulling Malfoy's ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "Slytherin loses twenty points! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you—"

Malfoy hurriedly argued, "You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter is coming—he's bringing a dragon!"

"Complete nonsense! How dare you make up such lies! Come on—I want to see how Professor Snape will deal with you this time, Malfoy!"

Professor McGonagall left with Malfoy, and as she walked past Maca, she glanced with interest at Malfoy's slightly flushed face.

After getting rid of Malfoy, the steep, winding staircase to the tower was unobstructed for them. Harry and the others made it to the cold night air before removing their invisibility cloaks.

As they waited, they chuckled and taunted Malfoy, while Norbert continued to stir violently in the crate.

"Where's Maca? Are you still following?"

Suddenly, Harry remembered Maca and looked back, but there was no movement at all. Hermione became somewhat worried upon seeing this.

About ten minutes later, four broomsticks descended from the darkness.

Charlie's friends were cheerful individuals. They showed Harry and Hermione the makeshift ropes they had tied so they could hang Norbert between them.

The four of them worked together to secure Norbert safely to the ropes. Then, Harry and Hermione shook their hands and expressed their gratitude.

Finally, they watched as the four individuals with the crate disappeared into the night sky.

They quietly descended the spiral staircase, finally relieved of the heavy burden of Norbert. Even their steps became much lighter.

The dragon was gone, Malfoy would be in detention—was there anything more delightful than this?

There truly was nothing that brought greater joy. However, there were clearly many things worse than this.

As soon as they stepped into the corridor, Filch's face suddenly emerged from the darkness.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," Harry whispered, "we're in trouble."

In their moment of excessive happiness, they had forgotten their invisibility cloaks on the top of the tower. Just as they were becoming extremely worried, a thin object suddenly covered their heads.

"Maca?" Hermione exclaimed in a low voice.

Maca gave them a wry smile because it was too late. In the instant the cloak was just covered, Filch had already seen him.

"Hermione, you have good observation skills." He and Filch locked eyes, but he didn't hesitate to make a joke.

That's precisely the biggest drawback of the Disillusionment Potion. As long as you willingly let someone see you, the effect of invisibility is completely gone. Even though Maca had hidden in the shadow behind them just now, Hermione still spotted him right away.

"Oh, yes, Mr. McClain!" Filch looked at him with a menacing glare and said gruffly, "I think I should hand you over to Professor McGonagall—Professor Sprout is too lenient with students."

Under the Invisibility Cloak, with Harry and the others anxiously watching, Maca followed in Filch's footsteps. He even had time to discreetly wave at them, signaling the three little lions not to be too impulsive.

When Filch led Maca to Professor McGonagall's study on the second floor, they found that Professor McGonagall wasn't there. After waiting for a while, Maca noticed that behind Professor McGonagall was a short and chubby, timid little boy - Neville Longbottom from Gryffindor.

"Maca!" Neville exclaimed as soon as he saw him, stuttering in his speech, "What are you doing here? Malfoy said he was coming to catch-"

"Neville," Maca immediately interrupted him, "I believe Malfoy must have intentionally tried to frame me, but that's not important. Also, thank you for your concern."

With that, he turned to Professor McGonagall, apologizing with a remorseful expression, "Professor, I'm truly sorry. But please allow me to explain."

Professor McGonagall was obviously angry, as she had once again found Maca in such a situation.

"Before you explain, shouldn't you first tell me where Mr. Potter and Miss Granger are now?"

Maca could tell without even thinking that Neville, being reckless and unaware of the situation, had blurted it out.

Without looking at Neville, Maca calmly looked at Professor McGonagall and said, "Well, you see, Mr. Malfoy had some animosity towards Harry before, so when we were discussing dragon-related knowledge, he overheard us. I think Mr. Malfoy mistakenly believed that we actually had a dragon, but that's impossible, of course."

"As for tonight's incident, I apologize; it was indeed my fault," Maca said, placing a bottle of potion on Professor McGonagall's desk. "I unintentionally mentioned to Harry and the others about a new type of potion I had developed, which I planned to test tonight. They seemed interested in it."

"A new type of potion?" Professor McGonagall's anger on her face suddenly disappeared, replaced by a look of astonishment. "You mean to say you invented this potion?"

"Yes, Professor," Maca continued apologetically, "Harry and the others had wanted to come find me, but I persuaded them to go back early. Perhaps they got sidetracked with Neville."

Seeing Neville's confused expression, Maca couldn't help but sigh inwardly - despite Neville usually lacking courage, he was remarkably brave and reckless when it mattered, truly worthy of being a Gryffindor student.

Meanwhile, it seemed that Professor McGonagall hadn't been paying much attention; she still wore an incredulous expression!

"Mr. McClain, I would like to know what effects this potion you invented has," Professor McGonagall cautiously picked up the potion bottle on the desk and asked earnestly.

After Maca explained in detail the uses and advantages and disadvantages of the Concealment Elixir, Professor McGonagall immediately decided to inform Dumbledore and Severus Snape about this good news overnight. Although Maca had expected it, he couldn't help but feel moved by Professor McGonagall's spirit of caring for students and the school.

"So, you're saying you invented this?" Severus Snape sniffed the Concealment Elixir once again, resealing the bottle cap and showing a rare expression of surprise on his face.