Professor McGonagall Crashes Potions Class

[Congratulations, Your Majesty! Defying authority, showing no respect for elders, Tyrant Points +30!]

[Congratulations, Your Majesty! Insulting a teacher, showing disrespect to elders, Tyrant Points +20!]

[Congratulations, Your Majesty! Shifting blame, disrupting the class, Tyrant Points +10!]

"What? Thirty thousand points?" Ron shot up instantly, knocking over his chair.

"Professor, Charlie is in Hufflepuff!"

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Snape froze.

He had been blinded by rage too.

But someone like this was actually in Hufflepuff? Had the Sorting Hat been stabbed in the head by the Sword of Gryffindor?

"Shut up, Weasley!" Snape glared at Ron, humiliated and furious.

"Talking back to a professor, Gryffindor loses five points!"

Then he pointed his wand at Charlie and ground out through clenched teeth, "Hufflepuff loses fifty points!"

The thirty thousand from earlier was clearly an impulse, but fifty points was still a lot for talking back to a teacher.

Just then, the Potions classroom door suddenly burst open with a bang.

Professor McGonagall rushed in, her hair disheveled.

She had just passed by the house point hourglasses and seen Gryffindor docked thirty thousand points.

Who could have done that? Hard to guess!

Had Severus gone mad?

"Severus!" McGonagall panted heavily.

"What's going on? How did Gryffindor lose thirty thousand points?"

Snape's gaze began to wander, too embarrassed to answer.

Usually, he deducted at most ten or twenty points at a time. This time, he had indeed gone too far.

"Er..." Snape cleared his throat.

"Just a small misunderstanding."

Hermione raised her hand at that moment, speaking in that tone of hers that suggested she knew everything.

"Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape deducted points from Charlie thinking he was a Gryffindor student."

McGonagall turned to look at Charlie, her eyes filled with deep exhaustion. She felt so weary.

This dark-haired boy was even better at causing trouble than Gryffindor.

"Mr. White, why were you deducted thirty thousand points?" McGonagall asked sternly.

Hermione immediately began recounting what had just happened.

"Professor Snape asked Charlie three questions, and Charlie answered that he didn't know any of them. Then Professor Snape said Charlie was utterly stupid and called him a fool. Charlie retorted that Professor Snape's questions were flawed and finally asked if Professor Snape's head was filled with crap."

The students in the classroom couldn't help laughing again. Hermione was truly honest.

McGonagall pursed her lips as she looked at Charlie, her face dark enough to drip water.

"Mr. White, you should not have talked back to the professor."

McGonagall's voice was calm, but Charlie could hear the anger in it.

Charlie had great respect for this stern but upright professor, so he immediately straightened up:

"I'm sorry, Professor McGonagall. I won't do it again."

McGonagall nodded, then turned to Snape, her gaze growing even sharper.

"Severus, I understand you have high standards for your students, but you cannot insult them at will." McGonagall's tone was very serious.

"Remember, you are a professor."

Snape's face grew even more unpleasant.

Being scolded by a colleague in front of students made him feel deeply humiliated.

"I was merely correcting a student's wrong behavior," Snape said coldly.

"Correcting mistakes does not equal personal attacks." McGonagall did not back down.

"As professors, we should lead by example."

Snape let out a cold snort and, with a dark face, stopped responding.

McGonagall quickly waved her wand, restoring the thirty thousand points that had been mistakenly deducted from Gryffindor.

"Severus, I hope this kind of misunderstanding doesn't happen again."

"And Charlie, after dinner, come to my office."

Leaving those words behind, McGonagall left the classroom, looking exhausted.

She felt like every day at Hogwarts was spent dealing with one crisis after another—she was about to lose all her hair from worry.

The classroom fell silent again, and Snape walked back to the podium with a grim face.

His black robes billowed behind him, radiating an aura of danger.

"Now, back to class." Snape's voice was even colder than before.

"Today, we will be brewing a potion to treat boils."

He began writing the recipe on the blackboard.

"The recipe is simple, but I warn you—any mistake in the steps will leave your face uglier than a troll's."

Charlie felt Snape's gaze sweep toward him from time to time.

"Mr. White." Snape called out suddenly.

"Since you were so knowledgeable earlier, tell me—when should the porcupine quills be added?"

Charlie glanced at the recipe on the board; the porcupine quills were listed in step four.

This was a bit insulting—an open-book test, and he still got it wrong?

"Step four, Professor."

"Wrong!" Snape immediately retorted.

"They should be added after removing from the fire, or the potion will explode. Five points from Hufflepuff!"

Charlie's eyes went wide. Damn it, step four literally said after removing from the fire.

You're just a contrarian personality type, aren't you?

Harry muttered beside him, "He's totally targeting you."

"Mr. Potter!" Snape's voice rang out suddenly.

"Since you're so concerned about your classmate, you answer—what is the function of slug slime?"

Harry froze; he had no idea.

"I... I don't know, Professor."

"Foolish! Slug slime neutralizes the toxicity of porcupine quills. Ten points from Gryffindor!"

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 technique is absolutely appalling!"

"Mr. Potter, you're stirring in the wrong direction!"

"The two of you are a disaster to the art of potion-making!"

Charlie and Ernie worked together to brew the potion, and the final product looked passable—a pale green liquid bubbling in the cauldron.

Ernie stirred carefully. "Looks decent, right?"

Charlie nodded. At least it hadn't exploded; enduring Snape's venomous spray while still succeeding was an achievement.

Snape walked over to them, dipped a silver ladle into the potion, and examined it closely.

"Too dark in color, too thick in consistency—completely unacceptable." He said coldly.

"Five points from Hufflepuff."

Ernie stared at his work in frustration. It looked almost identical to the potion at the next table—why were they the only ones getting points docked?

Finally, the bell rang, and all the students packed up with relief.

Charlie, Ernie, and Justin walked out of the classroom together, with Harry and Ron close behind.

"That old bat is insane!" Ron said angrily.

"He started the fight, so why are we the ones losing all these points?"

"Exactly, it's so unfair," Harry grumbled.

"Our potion was perfectly fine."

Ernie shook his head. "Professor Snape has always favored Slytherin and been strict with the other houses."

"Honestly," Justin whispered.

"I think Professor Snape might really have issues. A normal teacher wouldn't target students like this."

"In Muggle society, a teacher like that would be considered a creep."

"I heard he used to be a Death Eater," Ernie said in a low voice.

"Even though Dumbledore trusts him, who knows what he's really thinking?"

Harry walked beside Charlie, his feelings mixed.

Charlie was being targeted because he fell asleep before class and insulted Snape, but why he was being targeted was baffling.

Still, at least Charlie was there. If he had to face Snape alone, it would be absolutely unbearable.

Just then, Hermione hurried up to them, her face etched with worry.

"You shouldn't be picking fights with Professor Snape!" she frowned.

"He can deduct points however he wants—you can't handle him."

Ron rolled his eyes. "He started it. We didn't do anything wrong."

"But you did talk back to a professor."

"No matter what, he's still a teacher. We should respect him."

Charlie could see that Hermione genuinely cared about them and didn't want them to lose too many points.

But her self-righteous tone was really grating.

"Hermione, I know you mean well," Charlie said, softening his tone.

"But sometimes, just giving in only makes the other person push harder."

"But—" Hermione tried to argue.

"Alright, alright, stop nagging," Ron waved a hand.

"Let's just get to the Great Hall for dinner—I'm starving."

Hermione trailed behind them, fuming.

She only wanted to help her classmates—why couldn't they understand that?