Snape's Shock

"Th-this is Principles of Transfiguration for upper-year students!?" Percy exclaimed after taking the notes.

"Principles of Transfiguration?" Hermione squeezed over as well, but all she saw in Tierra's notes was a jumble of symbols, formulas, and geometric diagrams that made her head spin.

"This isn't something you need to study at your age. What are you planning to do, take your O.W.L.s?" Percy demanded sternly. He thought Tierra had conspired with his two younger brothers to deliberately stump him with the extremely difficult Principles of Transfiguration.

Having lived with his two younger brothers since childhood, and having attended school only a few years apart from them, Percy had been tormented into PTSD by those two troublemakers.

"No, Prefect. I just want to make Magical Items," Tierra said.

Tierra understood. Whenever he studied, he always learned the theory first and then conducted experiments. That was the normal process of education in China.

Books like Principles of Potions and A Brief Discussion of Transfiguration were only chosen by upper-year students who had passed their O.W.L.s and wanted to go further along the path of magic.

Other than a rare few wizards—such as the young Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Voldemort, and Snape—only Tierra and Hermione would be reading these books at their age.

Hogwarts, however, took the opposite approach: practice first, lots of practice to master the techniques, and then... then... then practice made perfect.

As a result, Hogwarts' young wizards, including some who had already graduated, might never read these books in their entire lives. Even so, they could still use Transfiguration with great proficiency.

"You only need to learn what is appropriate for your age. Don't bite off more than you can chew," Percy lectured sternly, as though the mention of Magical Items had struck a sore spot.

With that, Percy stormed off.

Tierra and Hermione looked at each other.

Hermione could not quite understand why a perfectly good academic discussion had ended like this.

Tierra had some guesses, though. Thinking of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes from the books, the twins had probably already begun researching their prank products.

Their early explorations must not have gone smoothly, since Tierra had just seen an expression of utter hatred on Percy's face.

Not long after Percy left, Harry and Ron arrived at the Great Hall.

"Tierra, we'll be relying on you in Potions later," Ron said.

"Even if you drink the Calming Draught," Hermione said loudly, lifting her chin, "even with Tierra's Calming Draught, Snape will still deduct points if your work is substandard. So I suggest you hurry up and look over Tierra's Potions notes again."

"Look over Tierra's Potions notes again!" Ron repeated in an exaggerated imitation of Hermione. "You say that like you fancy Tierra."

"You!" A flush crossed Hermione's face, and she shot Ron a vicious glare. "You're impossible!"

With that, Hermione slammed her book shut and moved to another seat.

"She's the impossible one!" Ron said to Harry and Tierra after Hermione had gone far enough away.

Harry silently nodded.

Tierra, however, objected. "Don't always talk about her like that."

"She... does like lecturing a bit too much, and she can be annoying, but she means well."

And she'll be your wife someday, Tierra silently added.

But Hermione turned out to be right.

After drinking the Calming Draught, Harry and Ron really were much more focused. At the very least, they did not make any more mistakes like knocking things over in Snape's Potions class.

But that still could not change their predicament.

In the eyes of Potions master Snape, their work was riddled with flaws.

Harry and Ron were still mocked for the entire lesson.

Fortunately, Gryffindor only lost fifteen points that class.

And thanks to the Calming Draught, Harry and Ron were able to block out Snape's taunts and genuinely learn something from the lesson.

That slightly eased Hermione's foul mood, which had lasted all morning.

"Your classmates have all left. What are you still doing here, our genius Mr. Wu?"

After everyone else had gone, only Tierra remained, holding a glass bottle filled with a red potion.

After Snape had caught him helping Harry cheat last time, Snape's opinion of him had plummeted.

Tierra felt that Snape had probably begun seeing Tierra and The Trio as a new group of Marauders.

It had likely reminded him of some unpleasant memories.

"It's like this, Professor Snape." Tierra put on the expression of an eager young wizard thirsting for knowledge.

"This... this is a Calming Draught I brewed, but for some reason, it's different from the pale purple described in the book... It's a dark red, spicy potion instead. Could I trouble you to take a look?" Tierra offered the glass bottle he had been holding with both hands.

"Hmph!" Snape gave a mocking snort. "It seems our genius young wizard wants to improve a potion himself!"

Though he said that, Snape still gestured for Tierra to place the potion on the desk at the front, then waved his wand and cast an unfamiliar spell.

"The Potion Identification Charm," Snape said. "Page eighty-nine of Potions Explained. Next time, you can do this your—"

Halfway through his sentence, Snape's eyes suddenly widened, as though he had seen something unbelievable.

Although the Potion Identification Charm worked on potions, only the caster could know its exact result. If one wanted to show it to others, one had to cast a Flashback Charm after the identification was complete.

After staring blankly for a moment, Snape cast the Potion Identification Charm again.

After apparently receiving some result, Snape picked up the potion, turned around, and returned to his own small potions room.

He left Tierra standing there completely ignored.

"Th-this..." Tierra did not know whether he should leave or stay, so he could only stand there anxiously.

Tierra had brought the potion to Snape for identification in order to verify the results of his studies in Potions. Only then could he feel safe drinking the Hydra Poison he was about to brew.

That was a derivative poison from the Blood-Cursed Orc, and with Tierra's current strength, the Curse Worm might not necessarily be able to remove such a high-level curse from his body.

If anything went wrong, it would be too late for regrets.

But he had not expected Snape to react so strongly to this potion.

By Tierra's estimate, even if his improved potion was much stronger than an ordinary Calming Draught, it should not have caused Snape to lose his composure like this, should it?

Hadn't the old man often enjoyed improving potions himself when he was young?