Snape's Potions Class

"Finally, I must emphasize one point," Dumbledore said to the students. "Although we do not know the specific cause of the illness affecting those three students, healers from St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries have tested it and confirmed that this disease is not contagious between people."

That is a given, Scott thought.

If this virus could spread from person to person, things would have blown up completely and attracted far more attention, which did not align with his expectations.

As it stands, who would ever guess that this is a Muggle-world virus that can only be transmitted through specific types of mosquitoes?

At this moment, upon hearing the conclusion that it would not spread between people, the students all wore smiles on their faces.

But just as they were preparing to cheer again, Dumbledore issued another warning: "This means we have not yet found the specific transmission route for this disease. Therefore, I believe students should still remain vigilant."

The students who had just been about to jump up and cheer fell silent, their high spirits instantly dampened.

"Moving forward, we will make every effort to prevent the disease from appearing again."

Dumbledore smiled reassuringly at the students once more.

"First, our respected matron Madam Pomfrey, as well as your Potions master Professor Snape, will conduct research into this illness. I believe they will soon be able to invent targeted treatments and potions."

At this, both Madam Pomfrey and Professor Snape nodded.

"Very good, I have faith in their abilities."

Dumbledore offered them encouragement before continuing: "Next, our castle caretaker Mr. Filch, along with our gamekeeper Hagrid, will clean the Hogwarts castle and its surroundings, dealing with insects, rats, and other small animals that might spread the disease..."

Dumbledore methodically made arrangements for cleaning the campus, but Scott was no longer listening.

As the mastermind behind this incident, he certainly wasn't worried about any disease. On the contrary, for him, most of the dangers directed at him had been successfully eliminated, leaving only one final matter.

Scott turned his head to look at Jacob Kent, who was sitting at the end of the long table.

He still remembered that Jasmine Travers had once mentioned "letting him finish that thing," though he didn't know what she would have asked Jacob to do, or whether the kid would still go through with it now.

Seemingly sensing Scott's gaze, Jacob, who had been keeping his head down, looked up and met Scott's eyes.

Scott curled the corners of his mouth slightly, giving Jacob an imperceptible smile.

Jacob's eyes flickered, and he lowered his head once more.

Scott stared at him for a few more seconds before withdrawing his gaze.

It was a pity, but he could no longer take action against this boy. After all, every path taken leaves a trace; the more one does, the easier it is to be exposed.

However, Scott was not worried. He could discern much from a wizard's magical state, and Jacob was undoubtedly a smart person. Things having reached this point, he shouldn't dare to do anything else.

When Dumbledore's speech concluded, Scott and the others were finally able to eat breakfast.

After breakfast, the three Heads of House other than Professor McGonagall called some students away from their respective house groups.

Although the stated reason was that they had been in close contact with the three patients recently and needed a physical check-up, Scott keenly noticed that most of the students called away were young witches from the lower years.

Sure enough, the professors had already discovered Travers's little clique.

Scott's roommates had also discovered this fact.

[I told you so!]

Eddie winked at Scott and the others, wearing a smug expression.

The three of them ignored him, parted ways with Eddie, and arrived at the Potions classroom located in the castle dungeons.

Ravenclaw was still attending this Potions class alongside Hufflepuff. The students sat in their usual groups, and since Professor Snape had not yet arrived, everyone was enthusiastically discussing Dumbledore's speech from that morning.

Scott sat with Milton. Roger had somehow gotten to know a Hufflepuff girl again, and they were sitting in the row in front of Scott and Milton, huddled together whispering.

Meanwhile, sitting on the other side, Roger's ex-girlfriend, that Miss Mill, kept turning her head to glare at the two of them.

"We are supposed to try and brew an antidote today," Milton said, opening his textbook. "I must look over the steps one more time."

"I recall you've already previewed them three times, Milton." Scott was busy placing his potion-making tools in an accessible position.

Milton didn't even look up. "It's no use. Every time Professor Snape stands next to me, my memory fails, and I forget what I'm supposed to do next."

"I think that has nothing to do with memory," Scott said helplessly. "You're just too prone to nervousness. Don't worry about Professor Snape; remember we're a team, and I'll give you prompts."

Milton looked at him gratefully. "Oh, thank you, Scott! But I still need to look at it one more time."

Scott had nothing to say. Because it was always like this. Whenever he was paired with Milton in Potions class, Scott always had to constantly save the day.

This was because Snape was always gliding around the classroom, staring at every student with a gloomy face. Students with weaker nerves found it hard not to make mistakes under his gaze.

For instance, Milton.

And whenever someone made a mistake, Snape would curl his upper lip and begin spraying venom in his unique, drawling tone—which often made the offending student even more flustered.

And any student who made a mistake would inevitably have points deducted by Snape.

Scott seriously suspected that Snape was deliberately using this method to find opportunities to drain house points from the other three houses, leaving only Slytherin's intact.

Incidentally, Milton was one of Snape's primary targets for scrutiny in class.

However, because Scott always stepped in to save the day, Snape rarely managed to deduct points from Milton. Scott felt that this was the reason Snape didn't like him.

As for Scott's own Potions grades, one could only say they were neither good nor bad. He was simply at the level of being able to brew strictly according to the steps in the textbook.

"Rigid! Lacking any creativity!"

That was Snape's assessment of him.

Scott always took things in stride.

He had no intention of delving deeply into the study of Potions, nor did he hold himself to such high standards.

He felt that being able to successfully brew according to existing recipes was more than enough.

"Quiet!"

Snape suddenly pushed open the classroom door and strode toward the podium. His voluminous black robes billowed behind him like a gathering cloud of black smoke.

"Open your textbooks."

His dark, hollow eyes swept across the classroom, and the students all lowered their heads; no one wanted to meet his gaze.

"Antidotes. I trust you have all previewed the content in your textbooks," he said. "Now! One student from each pair, come forward and collect your potion ingredients!"