"Your performance is unacceptable."
Just as Pomona was about to knock on the Potions classroom door, Snape's voice came from inside.
"Were you trying to blow up my classroom? I'd very much like to know where you got the absurd idea that these ingredients should be mixed together," he said sternly.
Pomona withdrew her hand from the door and quietly prepared to leave.
"I'm sorry, Professor, I just..."
"Don't give me any of that 'I'm sorry, Professor,'" Snape cut the student off. "You have no remorse whatsoever for what you did. Do you even have the capacity to learn? I doubt it. You should never have been in my class. Next term..."
Pomona pushed open the door. The student and Snape both looked at her.
"Get out," Pomona told the student.
He did not obey at once, instead looking fearfully at the Potions professor.
"I need to speak with Professor Snape."
The student hesitated for a moment, then left like a puppet on strings.
"Close the door," Pomona said.
The child did as she said.
"Do you realize that your classes directly affect the students' employment prospects?" Pomona said, hands on her hips.
"I think the Ministry of Magic ought to award me a medal," he said with a sarcastic smile. "To put it another way, I have prevented others from having to bear the consequences of someone's negligence."
She sighed, wondering how she could change his mind.
"Is that all you wanted to say?" Snape asked.
"Do you want me to leave too?" Pomona asked.
"Put those ingredients away properly," Snape said.
"You want me to do it?" she asked in disbelief.
"If you had not interfered, that work would have been done by that 'genius' just now," he continued sarcastically.
Pomona absolutely would not do it. Once she