Side Story — Betsy Greengrass 4
The Potter cub was strong.
Betsy had to admit that.
But she also had to admit that Potter cubs seemed to have a talent for getting themselves into trouble.
During the first week of school, he left the Slytherin table together with Harry Potter. When Betsy watched the Potter cub walk away, she was completely stunned.
Was this Potter cub crazy?
Obviously, it wasn't Kassandra who had stopped him! Didn't he have any sense of self-preservation at all?
Betsy frowned as she watched Potter cub's every move.
She believed quite a few other people were doing the same.
After all, they all wanted to know what this guy, who had so blatantly violated the rules of his own house, was planning to do.
But in the end, the two of them simply started chatting?
Of course, they talked about Potter's life.
Both Harry Potter's and Darren Potter's.
Betsy heard the cub say that he had grown up in an orphanage, and that alone was enough to stir complicated feelings in her heart.
Also...
The guy was so skinny. It was only natural if he had grown up in a place like that.
She suddenly felt that Dumbledore really was useless. How had he managed to lose him?
Then she was called away by the Head of House.
What?
He wanted her to teach the Potter cub the Drill Curse?
No way!
There was no way she could do that.
She couldn't do anything about it either.
But although the Head of House had said that, his exaggerated reaction and the way he deliberately fell down made her understand something.
The Head of House liked that guy too.
That made sense.
She had also heard that the little cub's talent in Potions was first-rate. The Head of House cherished talented students, so there was nothing strange about it.
When the punishment was carried out, Betsy looked at the Potter cub's dazed and conflicted expression and almost burst out laughing.
That brat deserved to be punished a little.
Well, this screaming curse really did suit him quite well.
Yet only ten minutes later, she was already feeling distressed.
After everyone else had left, she hurried over and helped him up.
Seeing how embarrassed and conflicted he was as he tried to hide what had happened from Cassandra, Betsy felt a strange warmth bloom in her chest.
However, as she left the Slytherin common room, she saw Byrd.
He looked at her with a playful expression.
It was obviously a teasing look, but Betsy understood what he meant.
Byrd was telling her that she could either accept his threat and put on an act with him, or stay away from the Potter cub.
His tricks weren't exactly difficult to see through.
It was just that none of them wanted to expose her.
Or perhaps...
They were giving her a chance to make amends.
Right.
Yes!
How had she gotten so close to the Potter cub in the first place?
She was a sixteen-year-old witch, not a child like Kassandra. She had to have some self-control.
That was it.
Then that was that!
Her, Betsy Greengrass, was no longer a child. Where in the world was there any love?
She turned around and left.
Her back looked gloomy.
This year, she was very busy.
Busy studying.
Busy looking into what kind of work she could do after graduation.
Until she found the Potter cub again.
It was at the end of the semester.
She had been working too hard and needed to come over and take a break. Then she saw Dumbledore carrying two Potters into the hospital wing.
The Potter cub was placed on the bed beside hers.
She heard Madam Pomfrey's furious roar.
"Cruciatus Curse! Half an hour of the Cruciatus Curse!"
Looking at Potter's pale, paper-like face, Betsy buried her face beneath the covers.
When she poked her head out again, Madam Pomfrey was still beside the Potter cub, treating him.
Bottle after bottle of potion was poured down Potter cub's throat.
Betsy sighed softly again and again.
Finally, Madam Pomfrey finished treating him and went back to rest.
Only then did Betsy climb out of bed and quietly slip over to Potter cub's bedside.
She reached out and touched Potter cub's face with her fingers.
It was icy cold.
Completely bloodless.
"Fool. Running around on adventures with Harry Potter all day!"
Betsy scolded him with a smile.
But after that brief moment of amusement, silence returned.
What did any of this have to do with her?
The Potter cub had nothing to do with her, Betsy Greengrass!
She thought indifferently.
She tried to turn away, but in the end, she looked back at him.
She lowered her head and gently touched his forehead with her lips.
"Take better care of yourself. Harry Potter isn't the one suffering as much as you are!"
...
The Potter cub in his second year caused even more trouble.
On the very first day of school, he ended up in the hospital wing because of a magical outburst.
Betsy watched everything unfold from a distance, from beginning to end.
She silently raised her cup and clinked it against Birdside's.
"So, Happy New Year!"
Byrd was in his seventh year now and was even busier.
His final-year examinations would affect his future.
He had to make sure he got through them with high marks.
And just when she was working hard toward that goal...
She discovered that, in everyone's eyes, the Potter cub had become the Heir of Slytherin.
???
What a ridiculous joke.
Would Slytherin really choose someone like that as its heir?
Still, the successive petrification incidents caught her attention.
Especially after hearing that Colin Creevey of Gryffindor had seen Harry Potter before being petrified, she became even more worried deep down.
So she went to see the Head of House.
When she arrived, she found Kassandra there as well.
She stopped outside the Head of House's office.
She sighed softly.
What right did she have to ask?
Besides, Potter had only just gone out to calm down.
But why couldn't she find him at the table?
Betsy immediately informed the professor.
Soon, all the students at Hogwarts were mobilized.
Because she was a prefect, she was allowed to leave the castle to search for the Potter cub.
When Headmaster Dumbledore found him in the grass outside the castle, she was there too.
It was just that no one noticed her.
She watched as the Potter cub, covered in blood, was carried away by Professor McGonagall.
After a long silence, a smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
She nodded toward Headmaster Dumbledore and left gracefully.
She returned to the Slytherin common room.
"Betsy, what happened to that Potter?"
Byrd's tone seemed teasing, but there was also a hint of concern.
Betsy pursed her lips.
Then she smiled gracefully.
"He suffered some injuries, but he's still alive."
Oh, yes.
As long as he was alive, it wasn't over.
"Why aren't you sad at all? Have you really let him go?"
Byrd looked at her suspiciously.
Betsy pouted, deliberately putting on an expression of complete indifference.
"What is there to let go of? Before, I only gave him a little face because he saved me."
"Don't say things like that in the future. People will think there's something going on between us!"
"I'm different from you. I'm not an old cow eating young grass!"
Wasn't he just a little boy?
She had already forgotten about him.
Forgotten him completely.
She couldn't even bring herself to cry along with those little girls, so how could she possibly still like him?
By the way...
She could write to Dad and ask him whether he could use this incident to make the Ministry of Magic pay a little price.
Dad should like doing something like that, right?