The Exchange Program

At lunchtime at Hogwarts, the Great Hall was filled with the tempting aromas of roast beef, meat soup, and fresh bread.

Students gathered in groups of three or five, especially the new students, who shared stories and complaints about their morning classes.

Yulian carried his plate over and sat down at a table with Edgar and Kayson. As soon as he sat down, he noticed a commotion at the next table.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Seamus sat together, their faces showing a mix of anger, hurt, and disbelief. The marks from the boils on Neville's face were still clearly visible.

Harry was savagely stabbing the mashed potatoes on his plate with his fork, as if they were some unforgivable enemy. Ron was gesticulating wildly as he explained something, nearly spitting all over Hermione across from him. Hermione, usually an honor student who valued logic and facts above all else, had her brows furrowed, a rare anger flashing in her eyes.

"Hey, Yulian!" Harry spotted him first and immediately waved. "Come over! You have to hear what that old bat Snape did!"

Yulian smiled and greeted his roommates, then picked up his plate and went over.

As soon as he sat down, Ron grabbed his arm as if he'd found a kindred spirit, speaking so fast his words came tumbling out. "Yulian, you won't believe it! That Snape was picking on Harry the whole time!"

"What happened?" Yulian set down his plate and asked quietly with concern, glancing around to make sure the old bat Ron was talking about wasn't in the dining hall.

"It was Potions class this morning!" Hermione took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice calm, but the slight tremble of her fingertips betrayed her agitation.

"We were learning how to make a Boil-Curing Potion. The recipe was simple, and the steps were clear. I'd read them several times in Beginner Potion Making. But..."

"Harry actually did really well," Neville interjected softly, a note of admiration in his voice. "Much better than I did. I blew up my cauldron."

"Actually, I'm to blame too. I blow things up wherever I go," Seamus said, comforting Neville.

Yulian nodded, remembering Seamus's talent. Suddenly, a ding sounded in his mind, followed by Murphy's notification: <On the Rational Application of Magical Explosive Talent> generated.

"Exactly," Ron chimed in indignantly. "That old bat was picking on Harry. During the roll call, he said things like 'fame can't be everything' and so on."

Ron paused to catch his breath and took a sip of Pumpkin Juice. "Then he asked Harry all sorts of weird questions, like what you'd get if you put asphodel into an infusion of wormwood. How were you supposed to know that?"

Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "You'd know if you'd read ahead in the textbook, but yes, it was covered later. Even so, he had no right to make those sarcastic remarks."

"And later, when we were brewing the potion, I saw Harry following the instructions in the book. He didn't make a single mistake. But that Snape kept hovering around Harry's cauldron like a ghost that wouldn't go away, twitching his nose as if he smelled something foul."

Harry looked up. The lightning-shaped scar on his forehead seemed to redden slightly with his agitation. "Then he started asking questions," Harry said, his voice low and strained. "Questions that weren't even in the book, about how Moonstone Powder and Porcupine Quills reacted at different temperatures. Of course I couldn't answer."

"That was deliberate harassment!" Ron slammed his fist on the table, making the plates clatter. "That was N.E.W.T.-level material, way beyond the syllabus! He was just looking for an excuse!"

"That really was unfair," Neville agreed, riled up despite his usual mildness. "Harry would lose five points even if his hand so much as trembled. In the end, he even blamed my mistake on Harry."

Yulian's eyebrows rose slightly at that. Snape's hostility toward Harry was far more naked and direct than Yulian remembered from his previous life. It was more than mere prejudice; it seemed like deep-seated hatred.

"And the worst part," Hermione said, her voice suddenly rising and drawing glances from several nearby Gryffindor students, "was that he kept calling Harry 'careless' and 'arrogant' throughout the entire class."

Ron's face flushed with anger. "Tell me, where's the justice in that?"

Harry lowered his head in dejection and mashed his potatoes into a lump with his fork. "I think he disliked me from the start. He kept staring at me during the Sorting Ceremony, and my scar hurt like crazy."

Seeing Harry so dejected only stoked Hermione's anger. She'd thought Snape was merely eccentric and demanding, but now it was clear that his malice toward Harry was real and deliberate.

She turned to Yulian, a hint of pleading in her eyes. "Yulian, what do you think? You think he's picking on Harry too, right?"

Yulian didn't answer right away. He chose his words carefully, then said slowly, "Professor Snape... is certainly strict. But I don't think he's picking on Harry alone."

"What do you mean?" Harry looked up at him, puzzled.

"That's right. He's always finding fault with us Gryffindors," said Padma, one of the Patil sisters, from a nearby seat. "Lavender and I only made the potion in our cauldrons a little too dark, and he called us 'talentless wastes of space.'"

"Meanwhile, Malfoy's potion was bubbling a suspicious green, but he just nodded and said, 'Not bad, Malfoy.'"

Lavender Brown, sitting nearby, chimed in in agreement. "Yulian's right! He's biased! He only sees the Slytherin students. With us Gryffindors, especially Harry, he's always nitpicking!"

Yulian nodded and continued his seemingly serious analysis. "Maybe he didn't ask Harry those questions to test his knowledge at all. Maybe he wanted to prove Harry was 'not all he was cracked up to be.' He wanted to rip the shine off the 'Savior' in front of everyone."

Harry turned even paler. He'd never looked at it that way before. So Snape's goal was to humiliate him in front of everyone.

Hermione's expression grew grave too. She'd always thought that if she worked hard enough, she could earn her professors' approval.

But Snape's behavior showed her that, in the face of prejudice, facts and effort counted for nothing. "Then what should we do? Just let it go?" she asked helplessly, sounding uncertain for the first time.

"What should we do?" Ron sneered. "What else can we do? Stay out of his way! From now on, I won't say a word in his classes, so he can't pick on me."

"That won't solve anything, Ron," Hermione retorted. "We can't give up learning just because a professor is biased. Potions is important!"

"Then what's your bright idea?" Ron shot back irritably.

Hermione was at a loss for words. She was usually good at solving problems with knowledge, but faced with this kind of purely personal attack, she felt powerless.

Yulian knew about the feud between Snape and Harry's father, James Potter, and understood Snape's complicated feelings for Lily. But revealing the truth now would only leave Harry more hurt and confused.

"This is beyond what we students can resolve. Maybe," Yulian said casually as he slowly cut into a piece of roast beef, "you should tell your Head of House, Professor McGonagall, or even Headmaster Dumbledore how you feel. I'm sure every Gryffindor would be willing to speak up for Harry."

Hermione's eyes lit up. She realized she'd only been complaining like a child. "I'm in the upper years already!!" She should handle this like an adult.

"Fine, I'll write a letter demanding that Professor Snape improve his teaching attitude and treat every student fairly! You'll all sign it, right?"

"I will!" Ron was the first to volunteer.

"I'm in too!"

Seeing Hermione take the first step toward becoming Minister for Magic, Yulian quietly returned to his own table, having accomplished his part and made his exit.