Tactical Potions and the Half-Blood Prince's Potions Textbook

That afternoon, Irina, Harry, and the others arrived outside the underground classroom for the advanced Potions class.

Unlike Defense Against the Dark Arts, not many young wizards had earned high marks in Potions on their O.W.L. exams. Across all four Houses, there were only a little over twenty students who had met the standard to attend the advanced Potions class.

Among them were four Slytherin students, nine Ravenclaw students, three Hufflepuff students, and twelve Gryffindor students.

Even so, the number of students attending advanced Potions was already more than double that of the original story.

Since there were not many students in the advanced Potions class, the students from all four Houses were combined into a single class.

In Irina's view, Professor Snape bore some responsibility for Potions having such a low pass rate.

Even though Professor Snape was serious and responsible, Irina could not agree with his teaching methods.

Being strict was a good thing, but forcibly pressuring students and acting like some sort of pressure fiend was going too far.

Once all the students in the advanced class had arrived, the door to the underground classroom opened. Slughorn had not even appeared yet, but his belly came protruding out first.

Everyone filed into the classroom in an orderly manner. Slughorn greeted each of them with a smile, his walrus mustache trembling above his beaming mouth. He was especially enthusiastic when greeting Irina, Harry, and the others.

Particularly when he greeted Irina, his eyes held both a treasure-like fervor and a measure of reverence for a Demon King level wizard.

Unlike the dungeon-like classroom of previous years, which had been lifeless and dreary, the underground classroom was now filled with steam and all sorts of strange smells.

The group passed a row of cauldrons, lightly sniffing the scents of