Professor Snape Was Actually Very Nice

Harry and Ron finally saw Eliana just as lunch was about to vanish from their plates.

"Hey, girl, you're hard to catch." Ron spoke indistinctly around a mouthful of chicken leg.

"Wait, wait, just a second."

Eliana dropped into a seat at the table and hurriedly served herself two steaks, a piece of lamb, and a big heap of pea shoots. After a long gulp of Pumpkin Juice, she finally caught her breath and asked, "What is it?"

Ron nudged Harry with his elbow. "Hey, you wanted to ask her. Well, here she is."

Eliana took a bite of steak and turned to Harry.

Her eyes were beautiful, their black pupils like obsidian in sunlight. She gazed at him without blinking, as though she were delighted to be looking at her favorite treasure.

"Well," Harry began, growing shy under her gaze. "Hagrid invited me to his hut for tea this afternoon. Do you want to come with me?"

"This afternoon?" Eliana swallowed her food and shook her head regretfully. "Sorry, Harry. I can't. I've got class."

"Huh? I thought we didn't have classes this afternoon. Did I miss something?!" Ron hastily pulled out his timetable. "No, we really don't."

He let out a huge sigh of relief, then gave her a suspicious look.

"Oh, no. I'm taking Potions Class again with Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. They have it this afternoon."

"What??!!"

"I only got an E in Potions, so I need to work on my weak points. I only started learning Potions recently, after all. I'd better not practice alone without a professor watching. Just think of Longbottom. Luckily, Professor Snape is really nice, and he agreed."

"An E? A weak point??"

"Snape is nice???"

The two boys' cries of disbelief overlapped. They looked as though lightning had struck them.

Boys their age were so easily startled. Eliana shook her head with worldly composure and ate a mouthful of pea shoots.

She had no idea where she had picked it up, but she always felt that eating some green vegetables with every meal was healthier.

Ron's mouth hung open wide enough to fit a chicken leg upright. It took him a long time to recover. "Did you forget he took a point off you in class? Did Snape drug you while you were cleaning? Ow!"

Eliana smacked him on his big head. "Don't talk about Professor Snape like that! I was standing on the teacher's platform, so I was in the wrong. Talented people are allowed to have a temper!"

She stuffed the last piece of steak into her mouth, snatched a treacle tart from the table, and stormed off.

The two boys stared blankly at each other.

Rubbing his reddened forehead, Ron muttered, "Talented people have tempers... She got that right. She's got quite a temper herself."

But he soon put it out of his mind. "Hey, I've never been to Hagrid's Hut. When are we leaving?"

Eliana did not return to the Gryffindor Common Room. Instead, she found an empty classroom near the Potions Classroom and practiced Transfiguration on her own.

After a week of practice, she had made great progress. She could now turn a stone into a rough little house.

It was very rough, admittedly, like something built by a caveman who had only just learned to use his hands. But it had a roof and walls. That counted as progress, didn't it?

At this rate, by Thanksgiving at the latest, she would be able to make the sort of finely crafted miniatures she had seen in Chinatown.

The year's walnuts would be ready by then, too. If she got two free from the kitchen every day and transformed them, she would have fifty or sixty by Christmas break. Then she could take them all to London and sell them!

It was a brilliant business venture with no costs and nothing but profit.

Goodness, was there anyone in the world as clever as she was?

Eliana hugged herself in delight.

Her little scheme was coming together beautifully.

Oh, right. She needed to find the kitchen sometime.

Eliana added it to her to-do list.

After practicing Transfiguration, she slept for a while with her head on a classroom desk. It was already 1:55 when she woke, but the Potions Classroom was right next door, so she was in no hurry.

There were still five minutes before class, but everyone was already seated. Apparently, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students did not like cutting it close.

She was only there to sit in on the class, so she ought to know her place. Eliana furtively chose a seat off to the side, even though the prime seat in the middle of the front row, closest to Snape, was still empty.

She looked wistfully at that throne, then set up her cauldron.

Snape, standing at the front, paid her no attention.

The familiar lecture before class was still exciting the second time around, and then came the familiar practical work. Eliana looked over her notes from that morning and Snape's advice, then set to work with confidence.

This time, the result was excellent. The potion was clear and transparent, with the lovely sky-blue color and hint of emerald green described in the textbook.

Delighted, she poured the potion into a bottle, then held it up as she turned toward Snape.

Snape gave a cold sneer, but before he could speak, the familiar hissing filled the classroom. Familiar thick green smoke rose, and then—

Boom!!!

The familiar sound of the floor sizzling as it corroded. The familiar screams and cries.

Eliana leaped onto a desk again, then saw Snape's expression, which had been fairly calm a moment ago, turn furious.

"Again! Every year, every class is different, and yet there are always the same fools!!"

"Mr. Finnegan, perhaps you'd care to open those eyes of yours and look at the blackboard. Did I not write, perfectly clearly, 'Remove the cauldron from the heat before adding the Porcupine Quills'? I even marked it specially because of Longbottom, who was every bit as foolish as you, this morning!"

Eliana could almost see a snake spraying venom in every direction, driven mad with anger.

Then came the familiar routine: sending someone to the Hospital Wing, cleaning up the mess, and deducting points.

For some reason, looking at Snape's face now that it had returned to its usual blank expression, Eliana thought he had a hard lot in life.

When class ended, the shaken little eagles and badgers filed out of the underground classroom. Eliana approached Snape with her potion bottle held high. "Professor Snape, this should earn an O, right?"

"If you couldn't manage the simplest Scabbers Potion after attending the same class twice, Miss Richie, you needn't come to the next lesson. You could go to the Hospital Wing with Mr. Longbottom and have your brains examined."

Snape delivered his customary dose of venom, but Eliana saw him mark an O beside her name.

"Your class grade is still an E," he said coldly.

Eliana nodded in understanding. This was her second lesson, after all. It would be unfair to everyone else if her grade were based on this attempt.

Besides, Eliana had no interest in coming first that way.

Her E was already the highest grade in their class anyway. Only Hermione and Malfoy had matched it.

"The Potions Classroom does not serve dinner. How much longer do you intend to stand there staring into space?" Snape said impatiently.

Eliana grinned and raised the rag in her hand. "Professor, I'll help you clean! Thank you for spending extra time teaching me!"

In the end, Eliana did not clean the whole classroom with the rag.

Fifteen minutes later, she walked out with a newly learned spell: the Scouring Charm.

See? Professor Snape really was quite nice!