Homecoming from Hogwarts

The sun was shining outside, but the Potions classroom was still hot and humid. A slight breeze swayed the curtains, and the dim light hit Harry's cold face like water waves.

"No."

Harry said coldly that ever since Sirius cleared his name and recognized him, he was no longer surprised why Snape was so keen on targeting him in Potions class.

When Snape was at Hogwarts, he was at loggerheads with his father and Sirius's gang, and they hated each other to death.

"No?"

The Potions classroom fell into its usual depressing atmosphere. No little wizard spoke, only Hermione and Ron winked at Harry.

"Ten points to Gryffindor, Potter -"

Snape's dark eyes, as empty as the abyss, looked at Harry with disgust.

"Because you were skipping out on my class."

Snape said in a softer and more sinister voice,
"I'm giving you a friendly reminder, Potter. If you continue to waste materials with those stupid operations in my class, you will find that Gryffindor may lose all the points by the end of this class."

Harry wanted to say that Snape was bluffing. He would never dare to deduct all the points from Gryffindor. If he did that, Professor McGonagall would definitely ask about it. But the sight of Hermione frowning and looking thoughtful that Harry caught out of the corner of his eye distracted him a little.

When he came to his senses, Snape had returned to the podium and quickly wrote on the blackboard a potion called "Intelligence Enhancer" that they needed to try to prepare in this class.

"You will need to work together to complete this potion—"

Snape's cold eyes swept across the classroom, pausing specifically on Harry and Neville, smiling maliciously.

"Four people complete one. Each group will hand in the potion you brewed after class. If any group cannot finish, they will have the honor of going to the Forbidden Forest after dark to collect leech mucus for us."

Soon, Hermione took the materials needed to brew the intelligence-enhancing potion from the raw material storage cabinet used by students. Under Hermione's command, several people began to divide the work. Ron was responsible for slicing the ginger root, Neville crushed the dried scarab beetles into powder, Harry was assigned to dilute the armadillo bile, and Hermione squinted her eyes and wrote down the brewing steps and precautions written by Snape on the blackboard.

"This punishment is quite new—"

The classroom was filled with the sounds of hammering and rustling. Ron quickly glanced at Snape, who was walking around in a cloak, and said with a pale face,

"Where did he get such a brilliant new idea to have students collect leech slime in the Forbidden Forest?"

"That's not a difficult thing--"

Neville worked hard to grind those scarabs.

"If you have helped Snape deal with frog entrails, then when did he start learning from Professor Brain to let students work in teams? This has never happened before."

"To save on materials, I suppose."

Hermione lit the alcohol lamp and set up the crucible, saying expressionlessly,
"I just observed when I took something out of the locker. The scarabs prepared by Professor Snape are not enough for each of the young wizards. You know, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw still need to go to class, so he asked four people to complete one--"

Hermione looked at the stunned Harry meaningfully.

"Since first year, Harry, when has Professor Snape ever warned you in class not to waste materials?"

Harry opened his mouth, followed Hermione's words and began to think about the various criticisms and targeting he had suffered in Potions class during his four years at Hogwarts, and found that the truth was indeed as Hermione said.

"what do you mean?"

Harry recalled the two kind house-elves who brought him food last night, and the much lower standard of breakfast this morning and Professor McGonagall's sad expression when she looked at the little wizard, and he had a vague guess in his mind. "Hogwarts is out of money."

Hermione said calmly, pouring Harry's diluted armadillo bile into the cauldron first, then stirring it carefully with her wand. It was almost time for the third game, and she didn't want to waste time going to the Forbidden Forest to deal with leeches.

After stirring ten times clockwise, Hermione reached out to Ron and asked for the ginger root slices. After a long while, she didn't get a response, so she looked up at Ron and found that the three people around the table were staring at her in amazement.

"No money at Hogwarts?"

Ron repeated, and from his expression it looked as if this was the first time he had realised that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry needed money.

Hermione unhappily picked up the unevenly-thick ginger slices on Ron's chopping board and threw them into the crucible, carefully observing the bubbling of the armadillo's bile.
"Is there anything you can't understand, Ron?" Hermione sighed, and her breath made the orange-red flame of the alcohol lamp sway.
"In this school, professors need to get paid, young wizards need to eat, supplies for magic courses, and the castle needs to be maintained and repaired. Each of these items requires money. Hagrid's vegetable garden can only grow pumpkins, not gold. Neville, don't stop. I need more scarab powder."

Hermione said urgently.

Perhaps because no one wanted to go into the Forbidden Forest to deal with leeches, or perhaps because it was the first time they worked together in the Potions class, most people were working very hard. However, Draco, Snape's former favorite, seemed a little absent-minded. He spilled half of the beetle powder that Nott had worked so hard to make.

The three boys around Hermione kept silent. It was not because all their doubts had been answered, but because they were shocked that they had never realized this problem.

Hogwarts needs money
Harry's frozen thoughts began to turn, and he recalled when he first knew about the wizarding world and Hogwarts. When he was led into the wizarding world by Hagrid, he was worried that he would not be able to pay the tuition, but this worry was soon washed away by the gold his parents left for him in the underground vault of Gringotts.

Thinking about it now, Harry suddenly realized that Hogwarts did not charge tuition for young wizards.

Their wands, wizard robes, cauldrons, telescopes, wizard robes, and even teaching materials used in class are all provided by Hogwarts. They buy them themselves, and they do not pay even a bronze Knut to Hogwarts.

However, their expenses were not small.

Just as Hermione said, nearly a thousand little wizards need to eat every day. When they are learning magic, they will consume a lot of magic materials. Even if Harry is not clear about the actual value of those materials, over the years, it will definitely not be a small number.

"Where does Hogwarts get the money?"

Ron, with a pale face, seemed to have figured it out. It was already difficult for his parents to support him, his brothers and his sister to go to school. Many of his things had to be second-hand. Hogwarts had to "raise" nearly a thousand children. Just thinking about how much money it would cost made Ron's scalp tingle!
"Oh!"

Before Hermione could answer this question, a painful cry suddenly came from the Slytherin students. All the young wizards looked over there and found that the scream came from Pansy Parkinson. Her hands were covered with boils from the scalding potion, and she was looking at the culprit - Draco Malfoy - with grievance and tears in her eyes.

"You take Miss Parkinson up to the infirmary, Malfoy -"

Snape's eyebrows twitched twice, he walked over quickly and waved his wand to make the potions that continued to explode slightly disappear, then said to Draco who had a dull expression,
"Also, you all need to go to the Forbidden Forest with me after school today."

Malfoy was obviously surprised that Snape was so ruthless as to let him go to the Forbidden Forest to catch leeches, but his painful Parkinson's disease left him no time to wonder about it. He could only angrily pick up his schoolbag, kick away the bench, and help Pansy out of the classroom.

"I see. It's the Board of Directors—"

Neville, who had been watching Malfoy and Pankinson leave, suddenly said, Harry and Ron looked at Neville and saw that he was staring at Malfoy's back with anger in his eyes.

"If the Board of Governors suspends funding for Hogwarts."

(End of this chapter)