"It doesn't matter who it was, Miss Prince."
Snape's expression remained unchanged as he frowned and said, "Although irregular cuts might make it more effective, it's just a Boil Potion. Doing so is a complete waste of time.
However, due to your serious attitude... Hufflepuff gets five points."
All the students turned to look in shock, their eyes wide with disbelief.
Some young Hufflepuffs were vigorously patting their ears, suspecting their hearing was faulty.
Though only half the class had passed, they had already fully experienced the harshness of this Professor of Potions.
Just like the Prefects said, in his class, the only house that ever gets points is Slytherin. The other three houses can only hope to lose as few points as possible.
Take those two earlier, the little wizards from Slytherin who nearly blew up the Magic Potion Classroom.
Even though the enraged Snape had given them detention—in the Dungeon, no less—he didn't dock a single house point.
But what did they just hear?
Snape actually gave Conna five points!
My god, this is surely going to cause a sensation throughout Hogwarts!
...
If Hufflepuff was shocked, then Slytherin was at a loss; they looked at their Head of House with a face full of grievance, nearly breaking into tears.
Why? Points were supposed to be their exclusive privilege. Why Hufflepuff...?
The Head had changed. He wasn't like this before.
However, none of this had anything to do with Snape. He put down the Porcupine Quill in his hand and said blandly, "Don't do such unnecessary things next time."
"Okay, I understand... Professor," Conna said meekly.
"Hmm."
Snape nodded, then turned his gaze to Kael, and his expression instantly became one of disdain: "Look at others and then look at yourself. It's taken you this long just to cut a little bit—do you borrow a Troll's brain?
What a waste of time, Hufflepuff loses five points!"
Kael: "..."
What is this?
What did he do to deserve this? Just because he was a bit slow in cutting, he got penalized five points?
Is there no school regulation or humanity left?
In fact, no one really cared.
Even among the young wizards in the classroom, there were few who would sympathize with Kael's feelings. They all let out a long sigh of relief, especially the little snakes of Slytherin, who hugged each other, crying tears of joy.
Everything is back. Everything is back to normal.
This is the real Snape—the previous one must have been a fake.
Perhaps Dumbledore didn't want Slytherin to win the House Cup for a sixth consecutive year and secretly used the Imperio Curse to control him.
The cursed old bee!
The little snakes comforted themselves like this.
...
After this, Snape rarely approached Kael again.
Until just before the end of class, he began his customary check on the young wizards' brewed potions.
As expected, the Boil Potion of both Kael and Conna was very successful.
Pink smoke slowly rose from their Cauldron, and even Snape couldn't find any fault with it.
"Five points for Hufflepuff."
Snape glanced at Kael, then walked away in disdain.
This was already the second time Snape had awarded points to Hufflepuff. Although he deducted these five points again a second later, the event still spread throughout all of Hogwarts by dinnertime.
Conna once again became the center of attention.
Unlike the few new students from the last Transfiguration Class, this time, almost all of Hogwarts' students were curious about who this first-year little witch was who could even change Snape's infamous partiality.
"Thank goodness, Kael, you finally came out of that cursed common room."
During dinner, Fred and George risked double detention to come over to the Hufflepuff table again.
They really didn't look so good; not only did they both have deep dark circles under their eyes, but they were also barely able to hold their knives and forks, nearly turning a perfectly good pork chop into dumpling stuffing.
"What happened to you guys?" Kael asked, looking at the sickly twins with grave concern, "Although you're still young, you should also practice moderation, or else your bodies won't be able to take it."
"Yeah, but there's no choice," George sighed. "This detention is too horrible. Do you know how thick that book is?
It's a full fifteen inches high, taller than a wand when placed there. Professor McGonagall actually made us copy it within a week. Does she want to kill us?"
"Alright, let's not talk about it," Fred patted his brother's shoulder. "At least before we've finished copying that cursed book, Professor McGonagall definitely won't stand by and watch us work ourselves to death."
What happens after it's copied... the twins didn't say, and Kael tactfully didn't ask.
"Geez, you distracted me, and I almost forgot the main objective."
George suddenly smacked his head and looked around the table eagerly:
"Which one is the hero called Conna? Hurry and introduce her to us; I'm waiting for her autograph."
"Yeah, yeah," Fred nodded repeatedly. "A Hufflepuff earning ten points from Snape—it's a miracle."
George chimed in, "Dumbledore should give her a special contribution award because she cured Snape's bias.
This honor is way more glorious than anything that book records."
"Looking for Conna? You guys will probably be disappointed," Kael shrugged, "She didn't come to the Auditorium for dinner today."
According to Conna's roommates, she went into the dormitory right after the Potions class and refused to see anyone.
"Didn't come?" George asked in surprise, "So she won't eat dinner?"
"Just didn't come to the Auditorium," Kael gave him a strange look. "Don't forget, our common room is right next to the kitchen; we can get whatever we want anytime."
"Oh, right, how did I forget that," George said, smacking his forehead. "Damn, my head is so full of different names; it's just terrible."
"Looks like we won't get that autograph today," Fred said regretfully. "Too bad we still have to serve detention tonight; otherwise, waiting in the kitchen wouldn't be a bad idea."
Kael opened his mouth; he felt Conna probably didn't want to give them an autograph.
Not getting the desired outcome, Fred and George quickly scooped a few bites of dinner in and left.
Before they left, they even filled a bag full of roasted potatoes, saying it's for after their detention ends.
Kael asked why they didn't go to the kitchen for something hot, only to receive a synchronized roll of the eyes from the twins.
"Two in the morning..." Fred said bitterly, "We'd be lucky just to make it back to the dorms alive."