A Major Event at Hogwarts (Seeking Collection, Seeking Recommendations)

"It makes no difference who it is, Miss Prince."

Snape's expression remained unchanged as he frowned. "While irregular cuts might improve the efficacy slightly, this is merely a Boil-Cure Potion. Doing so is a complete waste of time. However, given your diligent attitude... five points to Hufflepuff."

Every student looked over in shock, their eyes wide with disbelief.

Some Hufflepuff students rubbed their ears vigorously, momentarily doubting if their hearing had failed them.

Although only half the lesson had passed, they had already fully experienced the malice of this Potions professor.

Just as the prefects had said, in his class, only Slytherin ever received points; the other three houses could only hope to lose as few as possible.

Take those two Slytherin students from earlier, for instance, who had nearly blown up the Potions classroom.

Although a furious Snape had given them detention in the dungeons, not a single house point had been deducted.

Yet, what had they just heard?

Snape had actually awarded Kanna five points!

Good heavens, this would surely cause a sensation throughout Hogwarts!

If Hufflepuff was shocked, Slytherin was unable to accept it; they looked at their Head of House with such resentment they nearly burst into tears.

Why? Earning points was a privilege reserved for them; how could Hufflepuff...

The professor had changed; he clearly wasn't like this before.

However, none of this concerned Snape. He set down the porcupine quills and said indifferently, "Do not do such unnecessary things again."

"Y-yes, Professor," Kanna replied timidly.

"Hmm."

Snape nodded, then turned his gaze toward Kyle, his expression instantly shifting to one of disdain. "Look at others, then look at yourself. It has taken you this long to cut so little. You can't even handle such a trivial task—is your brain borrowed from a troll? Truly a waste of time. Five points from Hufflepuff!"

Kyle: "..."

What kind of nonsense was this?

Who had he offended? Was it just because he cut a bit slowly? He was losing five points for that?

Was there no school regulation left? Was there no humanity?

With the professor being this biased, was there no one at Hogwarts to keep him in check?

In fact, there was truly no one.

Even the students in the classroom hardly cared about Kyle's feelings; they let out long sighs of relief, and the little snakes of Slytherin even hugged each other, weeping with joy.

He was back, everything was back to normal.

This was the real Snape; the one from just a moment ago must have been an impostor.

Perhaps Headmaster Dumbledore didn't want Slytherin to win the House Cup for a seventh consecutive year and had secretly used the Imperius Curse to control him.

That wretched old honey-bee!

The little snakes comforted themselves with this thought.

After that, Snape rarely came near Kyle's side again.

It wasn't until near the end of the lesson that he began his customary inspection of the potions brewed by the students.

Unsurprisingly, the Boil-Cure Potions of Kyle and Kanna were a great success.

Pink smoke rose slowly from the cauldrons, and even Snape could find no fault with them.

"Five points to Hufflepuff."

Snape glanced at Kyle and walked away with a look of utter disdain.

This was the second time Snape had awarded points to Hufflepuff, and although he deducted those five points a second later, the news still spread throughout Hogwarts before dinner.

Kanna had once again become the center of everyone's attention.

Unlike the few first-years from the Transfiguration Class, this time, almost every student in Hogwarts was curious about who this first-year witch was, to have even the notorious Snape look at her differently.

"Thank goodness, Kyle. You've finally emerged from that damn common room."

At dinner, Fred and George risked doubling their detention to come to the Hufflepuff table once more.

However, they looked in terrible shape; not only did they have deep dark circles under their eyes, but they could barely hold their cutlery, nearly turning a perfectly good pork chop into minced meat for dumplings.

"What happened to you two?" Kyle looked at the sickly twins and said earnestly, "Even though you are still young, you must practice moderation. If you keep going like this, your bodies won't be able to take it."

"Yeah, but we have no choice," George sighed. "This detention is terrifying. Do you know how thick that book is? It's a full fifteen inches; it's taller than a wand when stood up. Professor McGonagall wants us to copy it within a week—is she trying to kill us?"

"Forget it, let's not talk about that," Fred patted his brother on the shoulder. "At least until we finish copying that damn book, Professor McGonagall certainly won't stand by and watch us work ourselves to death."

They didn't say what would happen after the copying was finished, and Kyle was sensible enough not to ask.

"Good grief, you distracted me so much I almost forgot the main point."

George suddenly slapped his forehead, peered cautiously around the dining table, and said:

"Which one is that hero named Kanna? Hurry up and introduce her to us; I'm still waiting to get her autograph."

"Yeah, yeah," Fred nodded repeatedly. "A Hufflepuff actually managing to get ten points from Snape—that's nothing short of a miracle."

George chimed in from the side, "Dumbledore should award her a Special Contribution Award for curing Snape of his bias.

That honor would be far more glorious than anything recorded in that dusty old book."

"Looking for Kanna? You're likely going to be disappointed," Kyle shrugged. "She didn't come to the Great Hall for dinner today."

According to Kanna's roommate, she had ducked into her dormitory shortly after Potions class ended and had refused to see anyone since.

"She didn't come?" George asked in surprise. "So she's not eating dinner?"

"She's just not coming to the Great Hall," Kyle gave him a strange look. "Don't forget that our common room is right next to the kitchens; we can go grab whatever we want to eat at any time."

"Oh, right, how could I have forgotten that?" George patted his own forehead. "Damn, my head is so full of different names right now, this feeling is absolutely terrible."

"Looks like we won't be getting that autograph today," Fred said regretfully. "It's a pity we still have detention tonight, otherwise, waiting by the kitchens would have been a decent option."

Kyle opened his mouth, though he felt Kanna probably wouldn't want to give them an autograph anyway.

Having failed to get the result they wanted, Fred and George hurriedly shoveled down a few bites of dinner and left.

Before they departed, they even stuffed their pockets full of roasted potatoes, claiming they were for after detention.

When Kyle asked why they didn't just go to the kitchens to eat something hot, he was met with a synchronized eye-roll from the twins.

"Two in the morning..." Fred said indignantly. "It'll be hard enough just managing to walk back to the dormitory alive!"