It was the traditional two-person group again. Snape checked everyone's work, and except for a very small number of people, most were thoroughly chewed out.
The Neville and Seamus group was the worst. Predictably, Seamus set the cauldron on fire again. Predictably, the cauldron exploded again. Predictably, Seamus was conveniently not there, and Neville was unfortunately caught in the blast again. It was almost as if he had an aura of screwing over his teammates. It was quite strange; whenever they were in a two-person group, an accident was bound to happen, and Seamus was always fine. The frequency of these accidents and his ability to escape unharmed each time made it hard to imagine it wasn't intentional. Whether it was or not, only he knew.
Snape waved his wand again to clear the table, and as usual, he got a bottle of potion from Dudley and poured it down Neville's throat. The way Neville closed his eyes and drank the potion was so practiced it was heartbreaking.
"Gryffindor, absolutely dreadful. Loses one point," Snape said coldly.
Seamus acted as if nothing had happened, completely unfazed. Anyway, someone would add the point back. He even winked at the surrounding Gryffindor students when Snape turned around, while Neville shrank his neck, feeling sad that he had lost points for his House, and feeling even more afraid of Snape.
"Look, Weasley and Potter weren't even yelled at by Professor Snape."
A sharp-eyed Gryffindor noticed that Snape had only paused briefly at Harry and Ron's group before moving on, a rare instance of not launching into a tirade. Perhaps it was because Potter actually did well this time. With Dudley's guidance, Harry's potions skills, while not the best, were certainly among the top for first-year students. But they were definitely far from Snape's standards. That's why Snape liked to pick on Harry when he had nothing better to do. Even if Potter did better than most people, especially when they were in a two-person group and Harry had the dead weight of Ron, the probability of being yelled at increased greatly. However, most people just found it a bit strange and didn't pay much attention.
Today was a double Potions class. The first class was brewing potions in pairs, and the second class was individual work. The potion brewed this time was a little more difficult than the one in the previous class, but Snape's standards hadn't dropped at all.
Snape picked up Ron's potion, looked at it, and uttered a faint 'Good,' without adding points, just silently putting it back.
"That Weasley wasn't yelled at by Professor Snape again!"
The Gryffindors were like they had discovered a new continent. Before, it was understandable since they were in a pair, and you could explain it away by saying he was riding on Potter's coattails. But now it was individual work, and the difficulty was even greater than last time. The number of people in the entire classroom who hadn't been yelled at by Snape was few and far between; even Slytherin had a large number. Besides Ron, the only Gryffindors who hadn't been yelled at were Hermione and Harry. Hermione was understandable; after all, she hadn't been yelled at since the start of the school year. Harry... Harry was automatically ignored by them. But why wasn't a mere Weasley being yelled at? If Ron's Potions grades had been good before, then everyone could understand, but the problem was that Ron's Potions grades were in the lower-middle range.
"Look, the equipment on Weasley's desk is different from ours."
The sharp-eyed young wizards had already discovered the key to the problem and pointed at Ron's desk, shouting. For this, he was again deducted a point from Gryffindor by Snape for disrupting classroom order. The young wizards saw that on Ron's desk, there were many unknown instruments, which were clearly not common tools used in Potions class.
"Harry has some too..." Another 'blind monk' discovered the key point.
"Granger has some too!"
"Wait... Look, Malfoy has some too!"
Even being deducted points couldn't stop the young wizards' curiosity. They whispered and discussed in hushed tones among themselves, and even the Slytherins were talking in small groups. No one liked being yelled at, even if it was their Head of House. Snape often favored Slytherin in many situations, but when it came to Potions, if you didn't do well, you were going to get yelled at. Goyle and Crabbe were typical examples, almost being singled out for criticism in every class. But there was nothing they could do; they were genuinely bad. They were supposed to be brewing an antidote, but the concoction in their cauldron looked like poison.
So when this matter was brought up, it immediately got the attention of all the young wizards. New Potions equipment? Who gave it to them? Two questions hung in everyone's minds, but because they were in Snape's class, no matter how curious they were, they didn't dare to go over and ask. They could only bury the questions in their hearts and wait until after class to find out for sure.
"Dursley, good..."
Snape walked up to Dudley and very skillfully picked up the potion he had brewed. Through the glass bottle, you could see the crystal-clear liquid inside.
'Perfect!'
Snape nodded and put the bottle of potion in his pocket. "Slytherin, add one point." Then he walked away.
The two classes gave Ron his moment in the spotlight. He thoroughly enjoyed the envious looks from the young wizards. Great, absolutely great. He had never felt so relaxed and happy in Potions class. Even Snape's gloomy face didn't seem so annoying anymore. This was all thanks to the equipment Harry had given him, and thanks to that, Mr. Dursley.
The moment Snape finished assigning homework and announced the end of class, walking out of the classroom, the surrounding young wizards immediately crowded around. Undoubtedly, among those who used the equipment, Ron was the easiest one to get answers from. Of course, this was limited to the Gryffindor side; the Slytherins were gathered around Malfoy.
Ron was a little overwhelmed by being the center of attention like this. He suddenly felt that today might be his lucky day. After the young wizards repeatedly and earnestly questioned him, he cleared his throat and slowly said in an increasingly proud tone: "You know, my Potions skills are worse than many of you here. To be honest, I'm not good at Potions. I thought my Potions grades would be failing for the rest of my life... Until today, after I used these things, it's amazing!"
A lot of blah blah blah nonsense, until the young wizards were about to lose patience, he finally got to the point.
"This was given to me by Harry's cousin, Mr. Dursley, a product of the new era."
"It can greatly improve Potions skills. You've seen the effect, it's fantastic. Even Professor Snape said it was good."
With that exaggerated tone, Harry silently gave him a thumbs down in his heart. It was even more awkward than a shopping infomercial on TV. But the young wizards didn't notice. On the other side, Malfoy also spoke to the surrounding Slytherins in the same tone.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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