[Congratulations, Your Majesty! You defied authority and showed no respect for your elders. Tyrant Points +30!] [Congratulations, Your Majesty! You humiliated a teacher and showed disrespect to your elders. Tyrant Points +20!] [Congratulations, Your Majesty! You shifted the blame and disrupted class. Tyrant Points +10!]
"What? Thirty thousand points?" Ron sprang to his feet, knocking over his chair.
"Professor, Charlie's in Hufflepuff House!"
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Snape froze.
He'd been so angry he'd lost his head.
But how could someone like that be in Hufflepuff? Had the Sorting Hat been knocked silly by the Sword of Gryffindor?
"Shut up, Weasley!" Snape glared at Ron, furious and humiliated.
"For talking back to a professor, Gryffindor loses five points!"
Then he pointed his Wand at Charlie and ground out, "Hufflepuff loses fifty points!"
The thirty thousand points he'd taken earlier had clearly been a rash decision, but fifty points was still a lot to deduct for talking back to a teacher.
Just then, the doors to the Potions Classroom suddenly burst open with a bang.
Professor McGonagall rushed in, her hair disheveled.
She'd just happened to be passing the hourglasses that tracked House Points when she saw Gryffindor had lost thirty thousand points.
It wasn't hard to guess who'd taken them!
Had Snape gone mad?
"Severus!" Professor McGonagall panted.
"What happened? Why has Gryffindor lost thirty thousand points?"
Snape's gaze began to wander. He looked a little embarrassed to answer.
Usually, the most he ever took off at once was ten or twenty points. This time, he really had gone too far.
"Er..." Snape cleared his throat.
"It was just a little misunderstanding."
Hermione raised her hand and spoke in her usual know-it-all tone.
"Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape mistook Charlie for a Gryffindor student and took the points from Gryffindor."
Professor McGonagall turned to look at Charlie, her eyes full of weariness. She felt utterly exhausted.
This black-haired boy was even more trouble than the Gryffindors.
"Why did Mr. White lose so many points—thirty thousand?" Professor McGonagall asked sternly.
Hermione immediately began recounting what had happened.
"Professor Snape asked Charlie three questions, and Charlie answered that he didn't know each time. Then Professor Snape said Charlie was incredibly stupid and called him a fool. Charlie argued that there was something wrong with Professor Snape's questions, and finally asked if Professor Snape's head was full of shit."
The students in the classroom couldn't help laughing again. Hermione really did tell it like it was.
Professor McGonagall pressed her lips together and looked at Charlie, her face so dark it seemed ready to rain.
"Mr. White, you shouldn't talk back to a professor."
Her voice was calm, but Charlie could hear the anger beneath it.
Charlie respected this stern but upright professor, so he immediately sobered up.
"I'm sorry, Professor McGonagall. I won't do it again."
Professor McGonagall nodded, then turned to Snape, her gaze growing even sterner.
"Severus, I understand that you have high expectations of your students, but you can't simply insult them," Professor McGonagall said severely.
"Remember, you're a professor."
Snape's expression darkened further.
Being reprimanded by a colleague in front of his students made him feel deeply humiliated.
"I was simply correcting a student's misconduct," Snape said coldly.
"Correcting a student doesn't mean you can make personal attacks," Professor McGonagall said, standing her ground.
"As professors, we should set a good example."
Snape gave a cold snort and said nothing more.
Professor McGonagall swiftly waved her Wand and restored the thirty thousand points wrongly taken from Gryffindor.
"Severus, I hope this sort of misunderstanding won't happen again."
"And Charlie, come to my office after dinner."
With that, Professor McGonagall left the classroom, looking exhausted.
She felt as if every day at Hogwarts was spent dealing with one crisis after another. It was enough to make her hair fall out.
The classroom fell quiet again, and Snape returned to the front of the room with a gloomy expression.
His black robes billowed behind him, and he gave off a dangerous air.
"Now, let's continue the lesson," Snape said, his voice even colder than before.
"Today, we'll be learning how to make the Cure for Boils Potion."
He began writing the recipe on the blackboard.
"The recipe is simple, but I warn you: one mistake at any step will leave your faces uglier than a Troll."
Charlie noticed Snape's gaze sweeping over him from time to time.
"Mr. White," Snape called out suddenly.
"Since you were so knowledgeable just now, tell me, when should the Porcupine Quills be added?"
Charlie glanced at the recipe on the blackboard. The Porcupine Quills were listed in the fourth step.
This was insulting. It was an open-book test. How could anyone get it wrong?
"The fourth step, Professor."
"Wrong!" Snape immediately retorted.
"They should be added after you take the cauldron off the heat. Otherwise, the potion will explode. Hufflepuff loses one point!"
Charlie's eyes widened. Damn it, wasn't the fourth step after taking it off the heat?
Was Snape the type who had to contradict everything?
Harry muttered under his breath, "He's just targeting you."
"Mr. Potter!" Snape's voice rang out suddenly.
"Since you care so much about your classmate, you can answer this: what do slug slime do?"
Harry froze. He had no idea.
"I...I don't know, Professor."
"Foolish! Slug slime neutralizes the poison in Porcupine Quills. Gryffindor loses two points!"
The rest of the lesson was a nightmare.
Snape was like a rabid dog, picking on Charlie and Harry at every turn.
"Mr. White, your chopping is absolutely appalling!"
"Mr. Potter, you're stirring in the wrong direction!"
"You two are a disgrace to the world of Potions!"
Charlie and Ernie worked together to brew the potion. Their finished product looked fairly normal, a pale green liquid bubbling gently in the cauldron.
Ernie carefully stirred the potion. "It looks all right, doesn't it?"
Charlie nodded. At least it hadn't exploded. Given how Snape had been spewing venom at them, that counted as a success.
Snape walked over and scooped up a little potion with a silver spoon, examining it closely.
"Too dark, too thick, completely unacceptable," he said coldly.
"Hufflepuff loses two points."
Ernie stared at his work, feeling wronged. It looked about the same as the potion at the next table. Why were they the only ones losing points?
At last, the bell rang, and the students gathered their things with a collective sigh of relief.
Charlie and Ernie walked out with Justin, while Harry and Ron followed close behind.
"That old bat is insane!" Ron said angrily.
"He picked a fight with us first. Why should he take so many points from us?"
"Exactly. It's completely unfair," Harry said, just as unhappy.
"Our potion was perfectly good."
Ernie shook his head. "Professor Snape has always favored Slytherin. He's strict with all the other houses."
"Honestly," Justin said quietly,
"I think there might really be something wrong with Professor Snape. A normal teacher wouldn't target students like this."
"In the Muggle world, a teacher like that would be considered a pervert."
"I heard he used to be a Death Eater," Ernie added in a low voice.
"Dumbledore trusts him, but who knows what he's really thinking?"
Harry walked beside Charlie, feeling conflicted.
Charlie had been targeted because he'd slept before class and insulted Snape, but Harry couldn't understand why Snape had targeted him.
Still, it was a good thing Charlie was there. Facing Snape alone would have been enough to make anyone want to die.
Just then, Hermione hurried up to them, looking worried.
"You shouldn't antagonize Professor Snape!" she said with a frown.
"He can take points off whenever he wants. You can't handle him."
Ron rolled his eyes. "He picked the fight! We didn't do anything wrong."
"But you did talk back to a professor."
"Whatever else, he's still a teacher. We should respect him."
Charlie could tell Hermione was genuinely concerned for them and didn't want them to lose too many points.
But her self-righteous tone was certainly unpleasant.
"Hermione, I know you mean well," Charlie said, softening his tone.
"But sometimes, constantly giving in only encourages the other person to go too far."
"But..." Hermione started to say.
"Enough, enough. Stop nagging," Ron said, waving a hand.
"Let's get to the Great Hall and eat. I'm starving."
Hermione followed behind them, fuming.
She'd only been trying to help her classmates. Why didn't any of them understand?
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