A dry, foolish grin
After Potions Class ended, the next class was Herbology.
The Herbology professor at Hogwarts was also the head of Hufflepuff House: the short woman with flowing gray hair, a thick, heavily patched hat, and dirt on her clothes more often than not. She was cheerful and compassionate, kind to her students, and very popular among them: Professor Pomona Sprout.
If Hogwarts students secretly rated every professor out of five stars to see who was the most popular, Professor Pomona Sprout would undoubtedly be the one most likely to earn a perfect score. There was no question about it.
Though she openly favored students from her own House most of the time, she was ultimately a kind and cheerful person, as well as a compassionate and fairly just Witch. Even when faced with struggling students who had no talent for Herbology, she would patiently explain things to them, encourage them, and offer guidance.
By contrast, the head of Slytherin House—the Potions professor Severus Snape, who readily bellowed at, mocked, or laughed at struggling students—could earn at most one star. No more.
They said that even in Slytherin House, not many students liked their head of House. And if one star hadn't been the minimum, he might have scored even lower.
Of course, none of that mattered!
What mattered was that, for Annie, Herbology was really, really boring!
Since the class was held in a greenhouse, there were no chairs or desks to doze off at like in a classroom. And since Professor Pomona Sprout was teaching first-years, she did nothing but go over basic information about herbs.
For example, the main classifications of medicinal plants, the categories used to indicate what herbs were used for, the divisions based on their growing environments, and various relatively interesting tales