"You want the plant to take revenge for me?"
Ron Weasley looked down at the jack-o'-lantern in his arms, baffled. He didn't know what a blood grape was, so naturally he had no idea how terrifying that plant really was.
"Just watch."
The shadow let out a laugh like a night owl's cry, and the darkness coiled around Ron Weasley's feet began to boil.
Inside the greenhouse, Leonard, wearing dragon-hide gloves, dragged out the preserved flesh piled in the corner and stacked it beneath the blood grape's roots.
Blood grapes were carnivorous. In the wild, they released a scent to lure beasts close, then parasitized them to draw nourishment.
The blood grape in the greenhouse obviously had no way to lure in wild animals, so its appetite could only be satisfied by manual feeding.
That was exactly what Leonard was doing now, and taking care of the blood grape was a task Professor Sprout had specifically entrusted to him.
Beside him, Filch looked thoroughly impatient. He had already delivered the message, so he was planning to leave.
"Don't forget, Professor Sprout specifically told me to remind you," Filch said as he turned to go, but the moment he did, he felt a chilly gust blow straight into his face.
Leonard, who had been carrying fresh flesh, suddenly stopped. His calm gaze turned sharp in an instant, and without the slightest hesitation, he lunged toward Filch and shoved him aside.
His magical vision opened, and more than a dozen snake-like shadows appeared in front of him.
What are those things?
Leonard was full of doubt, but his hands did not slow in the slightest. With a flick of his wand, more than a dozen magical bolts rained down and struck every one of the shadows with perfect accuracy.
Outside the greenhouse, the shadow, having abruptly lost most of its power, let out a faint scream, and the flames inside the jack-o'-lantern dimmed noticeably.
Ron Weasley jumped in fright. Instinctively clutching the jack-o'-lantern tighter, he turned and ran for the castle.
Leonard chased after him, but the complicated layout of the greenhouses prevented him from even catching sight of the fleeing figure's back. All he saw was a fleeting trail of magical flow in his magical vision.
"A magical flow I've never seen before. Was that even human?" Leonard frowned as he recalled that brief glimpse, half wondering whether he had seen it wrong.
When Ron Weasley fled with the jack-o'-lantern in his arms, the traces of their magical flow overlapped, and because of that Leonard was unable to identify him.
Still, Leonard had not come away empty-handed. At the very least, he had noticed something while blocking those strange shadows.
"That power felt familiar..."
Leonard murmured to himself.
"...Help..."
Just as Leonard was trying to remember where that sense of familiarity came from, Filch's cautious voice sounded from behind him.
Leonard turned around and only then realized that after being shoved aside by him, Filch had accidentally landed on the pile of flesh used to cultivate the blood grape.
A blood grape would never refuse living prey delivered right to it. Crimson roots wrapped around Filch almost instantly, and the sharp tips pierced into his body, sucking at his flesh and blood.
Fortunately, when dealing with living creatures, blood grapes did not drain them dry the way they did dead flesh. It deliberately slowed the rate at which it fed on Filch and focused more on parasitizing him.
That was simply the blood grape's nature. After all, it relied on living, mobile hosts to help it capture even more prey.
Filch looked dazed. As a Squib, he had no wizard's magic. He was a little better off than a Muggle, but only barely. Faced with a magical plant, he had no ability to resist at all, and the blood grape had nearly drained him into unconsciousness.
That cry for help had only come out because of his instinct to survive.
"Tsk. Your luck really is terrible." Looking at Filch's miserable state, Leonard shook his head, turned, picked up an opened bottle of wine from a nearby table, added a little dittany extract to it, and walked over to Filch.
Blood grapes were savage plants that attacked any nearby living thing without discrimination, but in front of Leonard, that ferocious man-eating monster became as docile as a cat.
Even when Leonard tried to take away its prey, it showed no resistance at all. Instead, it wound its tender shoots around Leonard's fingers in a coaxing, ingratiating way.
That was the strength of his Friend of Nature talent. No matter how vicious a magical plant was, in front of Leonard it could not muster the slightest malicious intent.
Leonard had no time to indulge the blood grape's attempts to curry favor. If he did not get Filch free soon, the man was going to die.
He rudely jammed the bottle into Filch's mouth and forced the wine mixed with dittany extract down his throat.
A large amount of liquid poured into Filch's stomach. Under the effect of the dittany extract, Filch's blood began flowing faster. At first, that only let the blood grape drink its fill, but soon the blood mixed with alcohol made it uncomfortable, and in disgust it withdrew the shoots parasitizing Filch's body.
Then the dittany extract took effect again. Its powerful healing properties rapidly closed the wounds left by the parasite's feeding. But Filch's deathly pale face did not recover. Instead, it turned a sickly bluish gray.
The healing effect of dittany extract worked by stimulating a wizard's magic to close wounds. For a Squib with almost no magic at all, it still worked fairly well, but it also damaged the body.
To be safe, Leonard conjured a stretcher, tossed Filch onto it, and levitated him off to the hospital wing.
In the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey carefully tended to the weakened Filch. Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Sprout arrived in a hurry after hearing what had happened.
"What exactly happened?" Professor Sprout spoke first the moment she arrived. She had already noticed Filch's condition, which was obviously the result of a blood grape attack. "Leonard, how could you make a mistake like this?"
She was anxious. The blood grape had been cultivated under her instructions, and if something had happened at the school because of it, she would certainly bear primary responsibility.
More importantly, Leonard was the talented student she had deliberately nurtured. If he were punished by the school or even by the Ministry of Magic over this, she would have a hard time protecting him.
But as Leonard's professor, she wanted to speak for him, so she made the first move, in case Professor McGonagall got angry and passed judgment on Leonard straight away.
Since Professor Sprout had spoken first, Professor McGonagall could not very well cut in. She could only fix Leonard with a stern gaze.
"It was an accident," Leonard said honestly. "When Mr. Filch came to find me, he was attacked. I pushed him away to protect him, and he accidentally came into contact with the blood grape."
"Attacked? You mean inside the greenhouse?" Professor McGonagall asked sternly. "Mr. William, you should understand that lying about something like this is a very serious matter."
...
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