"It's the same for everyone, Miss Prince." Snape's expression remained unchanged as he frowned and said, "Though irregular cuts might improve the effect somewhat, this is merely a Boil Cure Potion. Doing this is a complete waste of time. However, given your diligent attitude... five points to Hufflepuff."
The students turned to look in shock, their eyes widening in disbelief.
Several Hufflepuff students rubbed their ears, doubting their hearing.
Though only halfway through the class, they had already experienced the Potions professor's unpleasant nature firsthand. Just as the prefects had warned, in his class, only Slytherin ever earned points — the other houses could merely try to lose as few as possible.
Earlier, two Slytherin students had nearly blown up the Potions classroom. Though Snape had angrily assigned them detention in the dungeons, he hadn't deducted any house points.
But now Snape had given Kanna five points!
This would cause a sensation throughout Hogwarts!
While Hufflepuff was shocked, Slytherin was outraged. They stared at their Head of House with resentful expressions, nearly in tears.
How could this be? Point-giving was their exclusive privilege — how could Hufflepuff... Their Head of House had changed; this wasn't like him at all.
Snape remained indifferent. He set down the porcupine quills and said flatly, "Don't do such unnecessary things again."
"Yes... yes, Professor." Kanna replied timidly.
"Hmm." Snape nodded, then turned to Kyle with disgust, "Look at the others, then look at yourself. Taking so long just to cut this little bit. Can't even handle such a simple task — did you borrow your brain from a troll? What a waste of time. Five points from Hufflepuff!"
Kyle: "..."
What had he done wrong? He'd only cut a bit slowly — was that worth losing five points?
Were there no school rules anymore? No humanity left? When a professor showed such obvious bias, was there no oversight at Hogwarts?
In truth, there wasn't.
The other students barely seemed to care about Kyle's feelings. They all sighed with relief, while the Slytherins hugged each other, tears of joy in their eyes.
He's back, he's really back. This was the real Snape — the earlier one must have been an impostor.
Perhaps Headmaster Dumbledore didn't want Slytherin to win the House Cup for the sixth consecutive time, so he had secretly used the Imperius Curse on Snape earlier.
That despicable old bee!
The little snakes consoled themselves thus.
✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭
After this, Snape avoided Kyle's workstation.
That is, until the end of class, when he conducted his usual inspection of the students' potions.
As expected, Kyle and Kanna's Boil Cure Potion turned out perfectly. Pink smoke rose languidly from their cauldron, and even Snape couldn't find fault with it.
"Five points to Hufflepuff." He shot Kyle a disgusted look before walking away.
This marked the second time Snape had awarded points to Hufflepuff, though he'd taken those five points back moments later. By dinnertime, the news had spread throughout Hogwarts.
Once again, Kanna became the center of attention.
Unlike the previous Transfiguration class with just a few first-years present, now almost every student at Hogwarts wondered about this first-year witch who had earned special consideration from the notorious Professor Snape.
✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭
"Thank heavens, Kyle, you've finally emerged from that cursed common room."
At dinner, Fred and George approached the Hufflepuff table, despite risking doubled detention.
They weren't looking well — both had dark circles under their eyes and could barely hold their utensils steady. They nearly reduced a perfectly good pork chop to mince.
"What happened to you two?" Kyle eyed the sickly twins with concern, "Even at your age, you need to practice moderation. Your bodies can't handle this."
"We've got no choice." George sighed, "This detention is brutal. The book we're copying is fifteen inches tall — taller than a wand standing up — and Professor McGonagall wants us to copy it all in one week. Is she trying to kill us?"
"Let's not discuss it anymore." Fred patted his brother's shoulder, "At least until we finish copying that cursed book, Professor McGonagall won't let us die from exhaustion."
What would happen after they finished... The twins didn't say, and Kyle was tactful enough not to ask.
"Oh right, you almost made me forget the important thing." George suddenly slapped his forehead and looked around the dining table, "Which one is this hero called Kanna? Quick, introduce us! I need her autograph."
"Yeah, yeah." Fred nodded eagerly, "A Hufflepuff actually getting ten points from Snape — it's practically a miracle."
George chimed in, "Dumbledore should give her a Special Award for Services to the School for curing Snape's bias. That honor would be far more glorious than anything in that stupid book."
"Looking for Kanna? You'll probably be disappointed." Kyle shrugged, "She didn't come to the Great Hall for dinner today."
According to her roommate, she had gone straight to the dormitory after Potions class and was refusing to see anyone.
"Didn't come?" George asked in surprise, "So she's not eating dinner?"
"She's just not coming to the Great Hall." Kyle gave him an odd look, "Don't forget our common room is right next to the kitchen — we can get food whenever we want."
"Oh yeah, how could I forget that." George smacked his forehead, "Damn, my head is so full of different names right now, it feels awful."
"Looks like no autograph today." Fred said regretfully, "Too bad we still have detention tonight, otherwise we could've waited in the kitchen."
Kyle opened his mouth, thinking Kanna probably wouldn't want to give them autographs anyway.
Not getting what they wanted, Fred and George quickly wolfed down two bites of dinner before leaving. They stuffed a whole bag full of roasted potatoes, claiming they were saving them for after detention.
When Kyle asked why they didn't just go to the kitchen for something hot to eat, the twins gave him matching glares.
"Two in the morning..." Fred said indignantly, "We'll be lucky if we can even make it back to the dormitory alive!"
✭✭✭
T/N: If you want more chapters like this, check out my Patreon! Take a look at my other translations too, you might like them!
For just $1.50 you can access all the extra content, and descriptive images, costs only $2!
That's it and happy reading! (-‿◦)
https://www.patreon.com/collection/1305453