The strength of this vine tree stump is really too great, Harry felt like his arm was about to be bitten off.
Neville reacted quickly, grabbing some vines that were trying to wrap around Harry's arm and shouted to Hermione and Ron, "Don't just stand there! Come and help!"
The two of them reached out to pull the remaining vines, and after a while, they finally forced the stump to open its mouth again.
Harry finally managed to wrestle his arm out, holding an orange-sized pod.
Immediately, all those prickly vines shrank inside, and the knotty stump lay there quietly, like a lifeless piece of wood.
"Ugh, when I have my own house in the future, I definitely don't want to plant these things in my garden," Ron said as he pushed his protective goggles to his forehead and wiped the sweat off his face.
Harry reached over for a bowl and placed the pod, still pulsing like a heart, into it.
"Whoa," Hermione looked uneasily, "It really looks like a heart, doesn't it? I bet it's still alive—"
"That's just your imagination, Hermione," Harry replied, "It only looks like a beating heart, actually..."
"Don't be timid, squeeze the juice out while it's fresh, that's when the quality is best!" Professor Sprout suddenly shouted, interrupting Harry.
"Let me do it," Neville suggested, with his dragon skin gloved hand pressing on the pod. Somehow, he pierced the pod with scissors and seemed to use some technique, extracting all the juice directly into the bowl.
The juice from the pod looked quite disgusting; if you looked closely in the bowl, the light green juice was full of wriggling little bumps, resembling caterpillars.
"So gross," Hermione commented sharply again, "I regret choosing Herbology as a compulsory course; I knew I'd face all sorts of weird plants, just like Professor Scamander's Magical Creatures."
"Speaking of which, Newt was quite sad," Harry shrugged and said, "Because we didn't choose the Magical Creatures Protection class, he even wrote a letter to Pabi complaining about it..."
"How come I didn't know this?" Ron said, reaching into the stump and taking out another pod, passing it to Neville.
"It's good you didn't know," Harry shook his head and said, "Making someone as honest as Newt feel sad is absolutely our fault..."
"So are you planning to choose the Magical Creatures Protection class?" Hermione slanted her eyes and asked.
"Oh, not really," Harry handed the scissors to Neville, watching him pierce the pod and squeeze out the disgusting juice, "Honestly, I don't really want to take that course too; I remember the Exploding Snail that he and Hagrid concocted seemed to become a favorite of the Ministry of Magic. Sirius even specially approved part of the funding for them to breed the Exploding Snail; supposedly it has great potential in some direction."
"Exploding Snail?" Ron's expression turned bad as soon as he heard the name.
He remembered the unique stench of the Exploding Snail that lingered forever when the wind blew; it was torturous.
"What, you like Exploding Snail?" Hermione turned her head.
"No, I don't like it," Ron stifled the urge to gag, "I just remembered the awful stink of the Exploding Snail... remember those days when Professor Scamander was away? Hagrid actually had us take care of that thing, and I definitely don't want to relive that again!"
Hearing Ron say this, Hermione immediately expressed deep agreement.
Before the class ended, they earned five points for Gryffindor.
Hermione had something to do at the library, and Neville was going to the Owl Shed to send a letter to his grandmother, so only Ron and Harry were left to return to the Gryffindor Common Room.
But when they reached the third floor, they suddenly saw Ginny and Dean Thomas in the distance hugging each other passionately, still kissing heatedly.
Harry turned his head and glanced at Ron, noticing Ron was already turning red.
Seeing his sister hugging another man was inherently a frustrating thing for a brother.
Ron wasn't a controlling brother, just that the gossip around school about Ginny was simply too much lately.
"Hey!" He yelled indignantly.
The two immediately separated, looking around, and spotting Ron, Ginny was somewhat dissatisfied.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
Ron said angrily, "I don't want to see my own sister hugging and kissing others in broad daylight!"
"This corridor was empty; you barged in yourself!" Ginny said indifferently.
Dean also felt a bit awkward; he smiled at Ron and Harry, and Harry gave him a smile back, but Ron wasn't friendly, glaring at him harshly.
"Well... let's go, Ginny," Dean said, "Let's go back to the Common Room."
"You go on!" Ginny said, "I want to say a few words to my dear brother!"
Dean slinked away, seemingly eager to leave the place.
After all, with Ron glaring at him, even if he wanted to do something, he had to consider the mindset of his girlfriend's brother.
After Dean left, Ginny finally exploded.
"Alright," she said, tossing her long red hair off her face, angrily glaring at Ron, "Let's get things clear right now, Ron, who I like and what I do with them is none of your business—"