Support the story & read ahead:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/bond501
Most people at Hogwarts are quite friendly.
At least that's how everyone he knows so far is.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, the Weasley twins, and several upperclassmen from Ravenclaw.
He dared to say that he had gradually come to like this magical school.
...
In the days that followed, Morris's life became a regular routine, going back and forth between the classroom, the library, and his dormitory.
One minor incident involved him hearing that the twins had been caught and severely scolded by Professor McGonagall for loitering in the right-hand corridor on the fourth floor of the castle.
He also remembered what Headmaster Dumbledore had said at the start of the semester: "Anyone who does not wish to suffer an accidental and painful death should not enter the right-hand corridor on the fourth floor."
It seems that place does indeed hold some secret.
When Maurice asked the twins what they had discovered, they said they hadn't seen anything yet when Professor McGonagall caught them red-handed.
George also complained that Fred hadn't looked at the "map" properly.
Because of this incident, they had to undergo "labor reflection" again, cleaning the second-floor washroom on weekends.
Of course, the twins showed no remorse whatsoever; instead, they urged Maurice to join them on a nighttime outing to find out what was going on.
Morris naturally refused.
Although he was a little curious, he wasn't at the point where he absolutely had to know.
If you absolutely must go out at night, why not go to the restricted section of the library?
The allure there is far greater than that of a corridor that could lead to a horrific death.
...
Chapter 45 Sincerity is the Greatest Weapon
The first Saturday in mid-October.
After a long-awaited sunny day, Morris took his cat, a can of cat food, for a walk on campus.
That's the downside of the weather in Britain; there are always more rainy days than sunny ones.
It's strange, really. It's normal for living people to like sunny days, but it's unexpected that a canned creature, an undead being, would also have a fondness for sunlight.
He had assumed that undead creatures only liked dark, damp environments.
In retrospect, this was just a stereotype.
A person and a cat strolled slowly along the lakeside, enjoying a leisurely morning.
Although Morris loves learning, he also needs to relax occasionally.
Along the way, many people greeted Maurice, and Maurice responded to each one.
Most of them were Ravenclaw students.
His unintentional display of learning ability seems to have earned him a certain degree of fame within his own academy.
He was not averse to this.
He doesn't deliberately hide his abilities.
Of course, he couldn't reveal that he was a necromancer.
The name doesn't sound very prestigious to outsiders.
He was aware of this.
Around noon, Maurice walked into the garden in the center of the castle. He ran into Harry and Ron in the adjacent corridor.
Harry and Ron seem to have become very good friends, and he usually sees them together whenever he meets them.
Incidentally, Maurice also had a good relationship with both of them.
Ron, in particular, had been trying to get Maurice to help him overcome his fear of spiders after hearing that Maurice kept spiders as pets.
Ron has a severe arachnophobia; he would tremble with fear even at the sight of a spider the size of a fingernail.
Morris had no solution to this.
He tried using Transfiguration to create a spider the size of a fist.
As a result, Ron, who didn't know any spells at the time, was so terrified that he actually shot out a powerful beam of light with his wand, instantly blasting the spider to pieces.
To make matters worse, they were doing the experiment in the garden, and the beam of light bounced off other students' butts, causing them to burst open.
By the way, that unfortunate kid's name is Neville, the one who lost the toad on the train.
"Hey! Maurice, come over here." Ron, with his sharp eyes, waved to Maurice from afar.
"Hello." Maurice stopped, lazily raising his chin as if to greet you, "Where are you headed?"
"The library," Ron shrugged, then, as if remembering something, quickly asked, "By the way, Morris, what's your potions homework this week? Is it the same as ours?"
"Write down the appearance and uses of some basic materials," Morris replied, "daisy root, fig peel, porcupine quills, ginger root, sleep peas…"
"Alright, alright," Ron interrupted immediately, saying with a slight headache, "It's amazing you still remember so many material names. But thankfully, your assignment is the same as ours. I think you've already finished it."
"It's finished." Morris nodded.
Seeing the mixture of expectation and guilt on Ron's face, he immediately understood what the other man meant.
They're trying to steal his homework.
Sure enough, Ron's eyes lit up.
He took a step closer, lowered his voice, and put on a slightly ingratiating smile. "Could you lend it to us for reference? You'll help Harry and me, right? I think we should be friends now."
Harry's expression was somewhat subtle, but he did not stop it.
Because he also needs this "reference material".
Morris laughed. "I'll lend it to you to copy, don't worry."
He didn't seem to care about that.
Ron breathed a sigh of relief, but stubbornly insisted, "How can this be considered plagiarism? It's just borrowing!"
Morris had no choice but to comply, "Whatever you say, just don't let Snape find out."
"Don't worry, absolutely not!" Ron said confidently, but then realized something and turned to his friend beside him, "Harry, you might need to be more careful. You know, Snape clearly has a problem with you… well, a really big problem. He'll definitely nitpick your homework."
Harry's expression immediately turned somewhat depressed and helpless.
The whole house now knows about what Snape did to him.
To this day, he still doesn't know the reason.
"I don't understand," he said, his voice trembling with frustration. "I've never done anything to him. From the very first class, he's acted like he really dislikes me. But I've never even seen him before!"
"Maybe it's because you're the savior," Maurice shrugged and said casually, "or maybe some relative or elder of yours has a grudge against him, but you don't know it."
He was not familiar with the events in the original work, so he could only offer speculation.
"Unbelievable." Harry sighed. "This is the first time I've ever… hated someone so much, especially a professor."
"Me too." Ron nodded vigorously.
As Harry's friend, he received a lot of help from Snape.
"I think Professor Snape is alright," Morris said honestly.
"What?"
"What!?"
Harry and Ron exclaimed in unison, their eyes widening in shock as they stared at Maurice.
They didn't expect Maurice to speak well of Snape.
For a fleeting moment, Harry even felt a bit of dislike for the guy in front of him.
But he wanted the other person to lend him their homework to copy.
Yes, he chose to forgive.
"Professor Snape's lectures are actually very well-organized," Morris said calmly. "Just look at the processing steps, principles, and key points of those potion ingredients; he explains them very clearly and precisely."
Harry and Ron looked at each other in bewilderment.
"And," Morris continued, "I quite admire Professor Snape. I found some of his earlier papers in the library, I think they were published during his student days, and the content was…"
"Alright, alright."
Looking into Maurice's clear eyes, Ron waved his hand with a slight headache. "But that doesn't change the fact that he's a jerk, right, Harry?"
Harry opened his mouth, looking at Maurice's matter-of-fact expression, and suddenly felt that his anger and grievances had nowhere to go.
He certainly knew that Snape was very capable—he was no mediocre person to have become a dean and a professor.
But that's not the reason why Snape treated him so differently!
Seeing Harry's constantly changing expressions, Maurice suggested, "Snape's attitude towards you is very special, there's no doubt about that. Why don't you... go and ask him yourself why he hates you so much?"
Sometimes, sincerity is the most powerful weapon.
Perhaps asking in person could clear up the misunderstanding.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Enjoying the story?
Read advanced chapters on Patreon (early access available)
https://www.patreon.com/cw/bond501
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━