Harry and Ron flying to school in a car had become news, but even with Ron being scolded by Molly's Howler at the House table, it still could not compare to the sensation Lockhart had caused.
Snape, radiating terrifying magical pressure, fiddled with a Whomping Willow branch, trying to put it into a jar.
"What if you use Petrificus Totalus and turn it to stone? You'll never get the lid on like that," Pomona said. She had picked up the branch from beneath the Whomping Willow while treating its injuries.
Snape suddenly looked up at her with a terrifying expression.
She felt as though she had been petrified on the spot.
Later, he finally forced the Whomping Willow branch into the jar by brute strength. Then he began gathering the fallen leaves. At least they were like ordinary leaves and had no attack power.
Only then did she feel her heart pounding, and she instinctively patted her chest twice.
"The great Salvator Mundi and his friend clearly did not come to school to absorb the nourishment of knowledge," Snape said as he ground the leaves to bits in a mortar. "They only love showing off, just like his father."
She rolled her eyes. If it had not been for that Ford Anglia, Harry and Ron would not have landed in the tree, much less "happened" to knock down so many branches and leaves.
The leaves of ordinary trees, including most magical plants, fell off on their own. The Whomping Willow, however, held tightly onto every leaf until it decided the "time had come," at which point all the leaves would fall at once, leaving it completely bare.
She watched him seriously working on the leaves. Though his black hair was greasy and swayed about like curtains, she found it amusing