Chapter 110: Office Conversation
Under the dim green light of the Potions Office, Della skillfully cast a spell on a cage of tree lizards, took out a strip and placed it on a wooden board, then raised her sharp knife and cut it open.
First, she would cut open the tree lizard's belly at the location that would cause the least bleeding, pick out useful parts such as the heart, liver, and lungs, then peel off the entire skin, and finally chop off the meaty tail with neither too much nor too little effort.
When Della handled it for the first time, her knife skills were not very good and there were a lot of blood spots on her body. However, the tree lizard was not a rare material, and Snape might have deliberately tortured his new adopted daughter. After several attempts, Della was able to keep her body clean.
When they were just dealing with the 30th item, there was a restrained knock on the door. Della raised her head with her eyes slightly narrowed. Like Snape before her, she simply said "Come in".
Nott's thin figure squeezed in. After closing the door, he looked at the processing table in the office filled with materials and bottles and jars, frowned slightly, and didn't know where to go.
"Cut some chrysanthemum roots," Della put down the sharp knife. She raised her hand with a thin glove and pointed to her left. "It should be the length of a finger."
"Okay," Nott walked over and started working very neatly. While cutting, he watched Della skinning and pulling out the tendons of the tree lizard and raised his eyebrows, "You are really skilled."
"I guess what you want to say is cold-blooded?" Della replied with a smile, and another complete skin was born under her hands.
"If Potions class asked us to do this, the whole classroom would scream." Nott also laughed, "Professor Snape really has high expectations of you."
"Yes, he is doing his best to train me." Della dragged out the tone of the sentence.
"..." Nott's eyes moved towards Della, looked at the girl's serious profile without any abnormality, then moved his eyes back. He did not answer and continued to cut the materials in his hand.
Nott was more patient than Della had imagined. It seemed that he was not the kind of person who would reveal all his secrets right away.
But he did hint that he wanted to be alone...
Is it because she hasn't mentioned the key point yet?
Della frowned and pondered secretly. She looked at the tree lizard in front of her, whose flesh she had cut open, and then at the wings of the red butterfly and the swamp mud not far from her. Her eyebrows moved and she slowly formed a plan in her mind.
She waited patiently, chatting with Nott from time to time, and asked Nott to deal with each item one by one in the order of the photosensitive drugs. When Nott was stratifying the silt, Della happened to be next to him drying the tree lizard's tail.
"Huh?" Although the burning swamp mud in the crucible showed no signs of splashing out, it was still steaming with a fishy smell. As soon as Nott's hand touched it, a few black spots slowly appeared on his slender fingers.
"Huh?" Della pretended to be surprised. She waved her wand to put out the fire under the crucible and led Nott to Snape's desk, where the light was the brightest. "I guess some of the materials reacted."
Nott raised his hand and let Della come closer to look at his hand with black spots on it. He looked at Della who was looking at it carefully, then looked at his own hand, and a smile appeared on his face. "Are you kidding me?"
"I think you're joking." Della raised her eyes and glanced at Nott. She opened a drawer under the table, took out a bottle of transparent potion, opened it and poured it on Nott's hand, motioning him to rub it himself.
"What kind of potion is this?" Nott asked while rubbing his hands.
"It's not a specific potion. Professor Snape made it himself. It can wash away the grass juice and dry ash on your hands. You just got them on your hands, so it's just the right time to use it." Della watched the black spots on his hands slowly fade away.
"What a coincidence." Nott nodded, with a smile still on his face.
"You should be thankful that this isn't something you can't get rid of once you get it on you." Della smiled and shook her head at Nott.
"......" Nott was silent for a moment, then the smile on his face gradually widened, with a hint of mystery, "If something sticks to you, it's not necessarily a bad thing."
"Some people like to have marks on their bodies. As long as they are hidden and not seen by others, it is up to personal preference," Della met Nott's eyes and hinted at her position. "My adoptive father has one hidden on his arm."
"Not only Dean Snape, my father also has one." In response to Della's gaze, Nott lowered his voice, "and I like that too."
"Go on, Nott." Della half-smiled, her dark eyes still staring at Nott, but the aura around her became less approachable at this moment.
"I found this at home," Nott took out a well-sealed old photo from his robe and handed it to Della. "I should have mentioned you to my father first."
Della took the photo and immediately saw Tom Riddle, whom she had seen in Myrtle's memory. He was surrounded by a group of Hogwarts students and had a noble smile on his face. Then she saw a boy who looked very similar to Nott in the corner of the crowd.
She turned the photo over again, and on the back were two lines of words written in a flamboyant style:
—Tom Marvolo Riddle
—I am Voldemort
It seems that Voldemort is indeed Tom Riddle. Della immediately understood Voldemort's letter game.
"I'm not one of those people who gets things done on a first-come, first-served basis." Della handed the photo back and didn't ask any further questions. She just said this in a simple manner.
"I didn't tell my father either. I brought this out secretly." Nott glanced at the young man in the photo who looked very similar to Della, and carefully put the photo away. "He has his own pursuits. I also want to try it myself, Riddle."
"How can you be so sure that I will make a career? I'm not as good as the guy back then." Della looked away from Nott and walked towards the potion table.
"Because I think you have such character," Nott chased after Della, he continued, "I know the Dark Lord has Slytherin blood, plus the blood letter of the previous heir, I know you must have inherited the will of your family."
Since Nott said this, it means that he thought Della was the one who did what happened on Halloween night.
Della turned her eyes away, but did not deny it. She just lit the fire for the crucible that Nott had just processed. "Even my family can't explain my own affairs clearly, but you can see clearly."
"Of course it will only be a supporting position," Nott handed the wooden spoon used for stirring to Della, "It will only be the cornerstone of your career, Miss Riddle."
"..." Della turned her head and watched Nott moving up and down. She reached out to take the wooden spoon without saying a word, just accepting it.
Seeing Della like this, Nott's usually cold face showed a bit of joy, and he continued to work under Della's instructions.
Della kept him until ten o'clock, then handed the note Snape had written early in the morning to Nott, whose hands were already sore.
"Well done, Theodore. Remember to keep it a secret." When seeing Nott off, Della returned to her usual polite and gentle self.
"Of course, I also hope to have more opportunities to handle the materials." Theodore Nott put his hands on his chest, bent slightly like he did in the previous class, and left with a faint smile.
Della retreated back into the office and just as she closed the door, Snape, who had been hiding in the corner from the beginning, appeared.
"You really have a talent for manipulating people." Her sarcastic adoptive father said bluntly.
"I didn't admit it in front of him, Professor." Della smiled and walked to the potion table, sorting out the materials for Nott to handle one by one. "Besides, we have achieved our goal. The heir is not him."
"It's not like a second-grade kid to be able to do things so flawlessly," Snape glanced at Della and walked towards him. "What are you going to do next?"
"Nothing, Professor," Della labeled a glass jar, "It's too dangerous to let second-years test young wizards."
Snape's eyebrows twitched, and he obviously sneered at Della's words. "What are you going to do after the next attack? How cruel."
"In murder cases, those who die first are often those who are curious and a little clever, Professor," Della said what she had read in the Muggle world detective novels. She looked at Snape and said, "I think I should temporarily promote the Slytherin's character of self-preservation."
"So you want me to investigate Aidan Royer and Big Malfoy?" Snape knocked on the table.
"I don't think we can get anything out of that male president. We can just give him more things to do. Maybe he'll reveal some clues," Della suggested to Snape. She blinked her slightly shining eyes. "As for Malfoy, that's up to you, Professor."
"You do think that the male president is suspicious, right?" Snape felt that there was a moment of strangeness in Della's eyes, so he asked an additional question.
"After all, he is a capable outsider. I think he is a suspicious person." Della said obediently, carrying out her harmless little frame-up. She just wanted to vent her anger for her little snake.
"I'll think about it." Snape lowered his eyes and thought, and his voice became even lower. "After you pack everything, you can go back today, Miss Riddle."