The Professor's Strange Behavior

"Kanna, listen to me, if you have time, you should take Snape to the Hospital Wing to see Madam Pomfrey. I suspect he might have drunk the wrong Potions."

In the Hufflepuff Common Room that evening, Kyle was earnestly trying to persuade Kanna to pay more attention to Snape's situation.

But his good intentions went unanswered. Kanna just kept doing her homework and didn't say a word... Sometimes, when she got annoyed, she would even glare at Kyle.

"I'm serious," Kyle said.

He had been at Hogwarts for five years, from his first year until now, and Snape had only ever deducted points from his grades, every single class, without exception.

To be honest, Kyle was initially relieved that he had only lost one point. It wasn't until he left the classroom and saw the Slytherin ' resentful glares that he realized Snape hadn't meant a deduction, but rather an addition...

Snape, who was addicted to deducting points, actually gave him points for the first time ever?

Kyle's first reaction was disbelief; such abnormal behavior couldn't be anything other than drinking the wrong Potions.

That's why he wanted to persuade Kanna to take Snape to the Hospital Wing. After all, Snape was Kanna's only family member, and even if he didn't like him, he couldn't just stand by and do nothing.

But Kanna doesn't think so.

"What's wrong with getting extra points for completing the professor's requirements excellently?" Seeing Kyle still rambling on, Kanna looked up helplessly. "Professor Snape is just a little stricter in his usual teaching style, but this is an advanced class, the difficulty has increased significantly, so it's normal to give you extra points, okay?"

"No, no, no!" Kyle shook his head frantically, inwardly cursing:

"This wouldn't be a problem if it happened to any other professor, but with Snape, everything about him seems strange."

Of course, he wouldn't dare say that directly.

And that's not all the strange things happened.

The next day, Professor McGonagall again gave him an extra thirty points in the Transfiguration Class, which was also quite unusual.

Although Professor McGonagall was fair, she usually only added a maximum of ten points in her classes to ensure that the scores of the different colleges did not differ too much.

This score only increases when learning particularly difficult new content, but even then, a score of thirty is quite rare.

With these points added to Umbridge's score, Hufflepuff jumped to first place in the House Points in less than a month, leading Slytherin by more than twenty points.

"Incredible." Cedric exclaimed, looking at the gems in the Great Hall in the Great Hall. "I really hope this ranking lasts until the end of the school year, so that we Hufflepuff can break Slytherin's record and become six-time champions."

Cedric's eyes held a hint of anticipation. He would be graduating next year, so he really wanted to see Hufflepuff achieve great success and do something to commemorate it.

For example, leading the team to win this year's Quidditch Cup...

If he can do that, he will not only get a lot of House Points, but also win five consecutive Quidditch Cup titles, which is a win-win situation.

"Hurry up, training's starting!" Thinking this, Cedric felt a surge of excitement and shouted back, "We only have three hours to use the field, grab your brooms and head to the court!"

After saying that, he rushed out of the Great Hall, completely ignoring the light rain outside.

"Seriously, I feel like Cedric is becoming more and more like Oliver Wood back in the day," Fred said, patting Kyle on the shoulder as he tried to suppress a laugh.

"Yeah, the pressure of being the leader is always immense," George said. "Oliver Wood was way crazier before he graduated; he practically wanted us on the court every night, but Professor McGonagall wouldn't allow it."

"But you still lost," Kyle said with a smile.

Their faces immediately darkened, and they glared at Kyle through gritted teeth.

It must be said that although Kyle's words sounded harsh, they couldn't refute them, and it was Hufflepuff shattered their hopes of winning the championship.

"That's enough. You won't have that kind of luck again this year."

"Harry won't fall for it a second time!"

We'll see.

Although they were very good friends, when it comes to Quidditch, there are only winners and losers, not friends.

"Are you guys still playing Quidditch this year?" Kyle asked curiously. "As far as I know, haven't you been busy preparing for the Weasleys' Joke Shop?"

"Developing products, stocking inventory, choosing store locations... these all require a lot of time and effort."

"Ah, yeah, but it's alright. If it's just three training sessions a week, I can manage." Fred rubbed his head.

Opening a joke shop was their dream, but when they started to realize it, they found it to be incredibly complicated.

First, there's the issue of goods. Although they've made quite a few inventions, the quantity is still rather meager for a single shop.

So they have to rack their brains to research more gadgets, whether they're popular or not, they just have to have them.

Zonko's's joke shop has nearly two hundred different products, so they can't be too far off, can they?

Another issue is the store location, which is the most troublesome part.

Sirius had offered to help with the shop, but he's currently preoccupied with the Ministry of Magic and can't afford to be distracted by this.

So the two of them wanted to handle it themselves.

They chose Diagon Alley, but the rent there was outrageously high.

Although they are now wealthy enough to rent two rooms without any problem, those rooms cost a fortune in Galleon, so they still need to save money wherever possible.

They've been discussing this recently, trying to find a shop in a good location that's also relatively inexpensive... but the results haven't been ideal.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. If such a good place really existed, it would probably have been taken by someone else long ago. How could they possibly get it?

So they plan to add a little more start-up capital, which will make it more suitable.

It was a shop that sold owl nuts, but nowadays most people buy a small treat when they buy a pet, so their business isn't doing very well, and they're planning to move elsewhere.

However, the location is excellent, at 93 Diagon Alley, right next to Gringotts.

After collecting their money, the young wizards always spent lavishly... especially in the days leading up to the start of school.

So the two of them have been hesitating lately.

Fortunately, they still have a year before graduation, so they have plenty of time to consider things.

Kyle, noticing the sudden worried looks on Fred and George's faces, asked, "Do you need my help?"

"Ah, no need, we can handle it ourselves." Fred shook his head, then seemed to realize something and said warily, "Don't try to use any tricks to get us to go easy on you, it won't work."

"Yeah," George raised an eyebrow. "No matter what, we're not going to let Hufflepuff win the Quidditch Cup this year!"

"I should be the one saying that," Kyle said with a smile, without pressing further.

Just then, most of the other team members had already left the Great Hall with their brooms. Mikel from outside the Great Hall, and Kyle quickly followed.