A certain weekend morning, inside the Great Hall of Hogwarts.
"Arthur, where do you usually hide your private stuff?" Harry asked casually as he ate breakfast.
"The most dangerous place is often the safest," Arthur replied between bites of his meat bun. "So, I usually keep them on me."
What he actually meant was inside his system inventory. Indeed, a portable storage space was an essential tool for any transmigrator—too convenient not to have.
Harry's eyes lit up at the answer. He reached into his robes and excitedly pulled out a massive book.
Arthur cast a glance at it—nice!
"Powerful Potions."
Definitely something from the Restricted Section. Most likely, Harry had borrowed it under his Invisibility Cloak.
Not bad—Hermione had only assigned him that task a few days ago, and he'd already gotten the book.
"You're just… taking that out in the open like it's nothing?" Arthur asked, baffled.
All around them, students were still eating breakfast. Was Harry not afraid of being seen?
"Didn't you say it yourself? The most dangerous place is the safest place."
Harry quoted Arthur word-for-word.
Arthur's mood could be summed up in one phrase—Holy crap!
He hadn't expected Harry to take his nonsense advice that seriously.
Hermione took the book and quickly flipped to the section she wanted.
"Here—Polyjuice Potion. If brewed correctly, it can temporarily transform the drinker into someone else."
"Perfect! We can turn into Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy won't suspect a thing," Ron said happily.
Arthur, however, could only shake his head.
How naïve. Even if Malfoy were the Heir of Slytherin, what reason would he have to tell his lackeys such a secret?
That's Slytherin's legacy they were talking about! Who'd announce something like that just to invite disaster?
As if the heavens themselves wanted to dampen their excitement, Hermione delivered a dose of bad news.
"Yes, but the potion is extremely complex. It'll take at least a month to brew."
Harry's eyes widened. "A month? In a month, Malfoy could've gotten half the Muggle-borns expelled—or worse."
"I'll just say this," Arthur added, finishing his soy milk, "that's if Malfoy really is the Heir."
"But this is the only lead we've got—unless someone prefers to stand by making snide remarks instead of helping," Hermione said sharply, glaring at him.
No one needed to ask who she meant. Harry and Ron both turned to look at Arthur as well.
Unbothered, Arthur rose from his seat, motioning to Ranni, who had just finished her breakfast.
"Come, my little princess. Time to visit the brothels and enjoy some fine music."
The last part he said in Chinese.
In truth, he was planning to take Ranni to watch a movie. But since Hermione knew a bit of Chinese—and recognized the word "movie"—he opted for a more obscure phrase.
Ranni had recently expressed an interest in learning about Muggle films, so Arthur had sent one of his avatars to the Muggle world to buy all the necessary equipment and a large selection of movies.
Everything was now set up in the Zen Garden, and the two of them were ready for a peaceful weekend together.
To avoid interruptions, he used Chinese—and deliberately made it sound mysterious.
No one except Ranni, who shared his fascination with Eastern culture and was fluent in the language, understood what he said.
And as for why he didn't invite Hermione? Well, she tended to get too emotionally invested in films—talking nonstop during certain scenes.
He caught the looks Hermione and the others were giving him but ignored them.
He'd told her before—she'd understand in due time.
Once he captured the Basilisk, Hermione could study it however she liked.
For now, though, let them busy themselves with their plans.
He vaguely remembered in the original story that Hermione had accidentally added a cat hair instead of a human hair into her Polyjuice Potion—and turned herself into a catgirl.
He'd already "sampled" Cat-Hermione before, but Catgirl-Hermione? That was something new.
Would she make the same mistake this time?
If not… he'd miss his chance to see Catgirl Hermione!
No, he couldn't let that happen.
He decided to nudge events along a little—just enough to "make sure" they safely got their ingredients from Snape.
Definitely not to tamper with the materials.
As Arthur and Ranni left, Ron muttered, "I'll never understand how he can say 'little princess' with a straight face. Gives me goosebumps every time."
Harry and Hermione nodded in agreement.
But Harry was still thinking about that last Chinese sentence. It had to mean something.
If Arthur knew what Harry was thinking, he'd probably laugh for a week.
"Do you know what he said?" Harry asked Hermione.
Hermione sighed. "No idea."
She remembered being present when Ranni was learning Chinese and had tried studying with her.
After two weeks, Ranni was already fluent. Hermione, meanwhile, had barely grasped basic phrases.
How was that even humanly possible?
Utterly disheartened, she gave up on learning the language.
Some things just couldn't be compared—mortal vs. demigoddess, for example.
But now, she decided she'd pick it up again later.
"For now," she said, "it looks like we'll have to handle this ourselves."
Harry sighed. "Right…"
He trusted Arthur deeply—especially since Arthur had helped him over the summer—but with him gone, Harry couldn't help but feel uneasy.
That night, uneasy or not, their plan went ahead.
Under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry and Ron snuck out of the dormitory.
They were going to collect ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion.
Why bring Ron? Partly to keep watch… and partly because Harry didn't want Ron sitting out all the hard work while he and Hermione did everything.
In truth, he was also nervous. Their destination was Snape's office, and if anything went wrong… at least he wouldn't die alone.
Unbeknownst to them, Snape was already nearby.
"So, you dragged me out here in the middle of the night… to show off your new toy?" Snape said quietly to the man beside him.
Indeed—Arthur, who had spent the whole day watching movies with Ranni, was now here too. He was the one who'd summoned Snape.
He adjusted a strange-looking pair of goggles, then handed them over.
"Try them on."
Though skeptical, Snape put them on. Instantly, his vision turned green-tinted, and Arthur appeared as a glowing orange-red figure before him.
It was a custom-made reconnaissance device—part night-vision goggle, part thermal imager.
"That's it? Some color-changing Muggle gimmick?" Snape muttered.
"Don't look at me. Look that way." Arthur pointed.
Through the goggles, the "empty" corridor suddenly revealed two orange-red human silhouettes.
Snape instantly recognized one—Harry Potter.
"Two students sneaking around at night… You didn't bring me here just to catch them, did you?"
"Of course not," Arthur said with a smirk. "Guess what they're up to?"
Snape just glared at him.
Arthur sighed. "Fine, I'll tell you. They're trying to steal ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion."
The moment he finished, Snape moved to intervene—
"Hey, hey, relax! I called you out to watch the show, not end it early."
"Easy for you to say! You're not the one being robbed!" Snape snapped.
"I get it, you're mad—but hear me out."
Arthur laid out his plan.
"When their potion wears off, you show up right then—catch them red-handed. Just imagine the look on their faces."
Snape paused, then smirked. "You really are a Slytherin at heart. I still don't know how the Hat ever put you in Gryffindor."
Arthur waved it off. "Doesn't matter which House I'm in—as long as I can have fun. And anyway, you do know you can choose your House, right?"
That made Snape's eye twitch. He did know—but only after he'd become a teacher.
Sometimes he couldn't help wondering… if he'd been brave enough to choose Gryffindor back then, would everything have turned out differently?
He shook off the thought and turned back to the boys rummaging through his office.
"Whatever damage they cause—you're paying for it," Snape said flatly.
Now it was Arthur's turn to grimace.
He could only hope Harry and Ron didn't break anything expensive.
But no such luck.
Harry, in his cleverness, decided to grab extra ingredients to throw Snape off the trail—many of which were rare collectibles Snape had kept for years.
Hermione had once mentioned that the two boys should pay for their earlier Quidditch brawl with Slytherin, and Arthur suddenly suspected this was all part of her plan.
In a twist of irony, Arthur's face darkened while Snape's lit up.
Those "extra" ingredients were old, mostly useless—but valuable as curiosities.
Now Snape had every reason to make Arthur pay for replacements.
For once, Snape looked positively cheerful.
The next day, Harry proudly handed Hermione a pile of potion ingredients.
Arthur took one look at the heap, his face turning black as thunder. Without a word, he grabbed Ranni and left.
Harry blinked. "What's his problem?"
"No idea. Maybe it's that time of the month for him," Hermione said absently.
It was a joke she'd learned from Arthur himself.
During the summer, when her period had started, she'd complained about how unfair it was that boys didn't have to deal with it.
Arthur had replied, "Actually, guys have their own 'monthly phase' too—usually marked by random irritability. When that happens, a man can be so mad he might even punch himself."
Perfectly normal in modern times, but in 1990s Hogwarts, it had been enough to make Hermione laugh out loud—and remember it ever since.
Poor Harry, however, had no idea what "that time of the month" even meant.
Seeing his confused face, Hermione decided not to explain and changed the subject.
"All right. Leave the brewing to me."
"Sure. I trust you'll do great," Harry said, trying to sound encouraging, though he was still tired from staying up all night.
Hermione misread his tone, assuming he doubted her skills, and silently added another mark to the growing list of Harry's "debts."
And so, unknowingly, Harry had managed to get himself simultaneously targeted by both Arthur and Hermione.
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