"This is such a simple task, it hardly even deserves to be called brewing Potions. How many points do you want to award? Mr. Alexander, when did your judgment of Potions get so poor?!"
Snape was like a savage wolf defending its territory.
His black eyes fixed on Devero.
"Professor, that's not what I meant."
Devero wasn't intimidated by Snape's presence at all.
Or rather,
he'd more or less grown immune to it.
After all, they'd lived together for over a year.
This sort of glare-and-snarl routine was nothing new.
"I mean, you forgot to give Neville points."
Devero rested a hand on the sturdy young man beside him.
But he felt him trembling.
Snape glanced sideways.
Neville's face was bright red.
His body was even trembling uncontrollably.
He looked as if he wanted to crawl right under the table.
The students around them all turned to look at Neville, too.
"Neville helped me sort the herbs. He's very quick at handling them, and I couldn't have finished brewing so quickly without his help."
Devero stood his ground.
And what he said was true.
When Neville had tried to put a Porcupine Quill into the cauldron ahead of time,
Devero had stopped him from touching it.
And reality had proven that was an excellent decision.
Once he no longer had to deal with the cauldron, which he found extremely unpredictable,
Neville's nerves had settled considerably.
He was able to sort the herbs that needed to go into the cauldron in an orderly way,
and help Devero with the preparations.
He was so methodical that Devero couldn't help but see him in a new light.
For the first time, he took a proper look at Neville's stats.
[Name: Neville Longbottom]
[Age: 11]
[Spell Library: None]
[Traits: Herbology Talent (Purple), Brave Heart (Purple), Magic Ability (Blue)]
[Herbology Talent (Purple): You have a remarkable gift for Herbology and an innate ability to identify and sense all kinds of magical plants. You may achieve impressive results in Herbology.]
[Brave Heart (Purple): Courage is the foundation of your character. When someone crosses your line, your courage will surge forth, making you a leader among the crowd!]
[Magic Ability (Blue): You have the potential to become a wizard.]
Hmm!
That really was an impressive set of traits!
Neville actually had two Purple traits!?
Devero had never expected that.
Mostly because when he'd first met Neville on the train,
the boy had been sobbing so much that Devero had gotten a rather poor first impression of him.
He'd completely overlooked this future Sword Saint of Gryffindor!
The Brave Heart trait seemed like an especially perfect fit for Gryffindor.
If Devero wanted to get his hands on the Sword of Gryffindor someday,
this trait might be worth considering.
With that thought,
Devero added the trait to his shopping cart.
He began to wonder
how he could borrow the Sorting Hat from Dumbledore.
"Neville helped me a great deal. I think it's only fair to award him points."
Snape stared intently at Neville.
Neville could feel that snake-like gaze on him.
His head was lowered so far it was almost in the drawer.
By now, it wasn't only the Slytherin students who admired Devero.
Quite a few Gryffindors had begun to look up to him, too.
After all,
their two Houses were bitter rivals!
And now Devero was standing up for a Gryffindor student, openly challenging his own Head of House, Snape.
That took a tremendous amount of courage!
(Devero was actually used to it by now.)
They couldn't help thinking
that Devero was the true Gryffindor!
He was so brave!
Harry and Ron gazed at him with admiration.
Out of the corner of his eye, Devero even saw Ron give him a thumbs-up.
Snape shifted his gaze to Devero.
"Mr. Alexander, are you quite sure?"
Devero stood tall,
looking straight into Snape's eyes.
"Professor, absolutely!"
Snape's expression darkened further.
Devero could barely see his lips move.
He heard only a faint sound slip through Snape's clenched teeth.
"One point to Gryffindor."
In almost an instant,
all the Gryffindor students seemed to have won a great victory.
Excited smiles spread across every face.
They had just earned points from Snape!
In the week since the start of term,
not even the Gryffindors in the other years had managed such a feat!
At once,
Devero's standing in their eyes rose even higher!
He'd become the diplomatic ambassador between Slytherin and Gryffindor!
He'd brought about a reconciliation the two Houses hadn't seen in decades!
Devero happily patted Neville on the shoulder, too.
"Neville, you just won a point for your House!"
Neville looked up.
His face was still bright red.
He was happy, too.
He even seemed to forget how frightening Professor Snape was as he smiled.
During his first week at school,
he hadn't earned a single point for his House.
What had happened today made him incredibly happy.
But seeing the Gryffindors so pleased only made Snape more determined to act.
Snape strode to the table with a dark expression.
He spotted the leftover ingredients Devero and Neville had used.
In a low voice, he said,
"Longbottom! Why are you keeping all these ingredients? Are you planning to stuff them in your pockets and take them back to your dormitory?"
The sharp question
drained the color from Neville's face.
Devero had just started to rise to explain.
"For wasting ingredients, Gryffindor loses three points! And you, Alexander, sit down!"
With that,
Snape abruptly turned to Harry.
"Potter! Weasley! What were you signaling about just now?"
Snape's robes barely seemed to move.
He glided over to Harry and Ron.
"Or do you think a lesson is just a game? For your disrespectful behavior, Gryffindor loses another point!"
Then
he swept his sharp gaze across the room.
"What are you looking at? Have you all finished brewing?"
Everyone hurriedly lowered their heads
and got back to making their Potions.
Devero didn't stand up to argue with Snape this time.
Clearly, Snape had lost his temper.
Devero didn't want to provoke him at a moment like this.
All he could do was pat Neville's back
and try to comfort him.
Poor kid.
He'd just earned the first point of his school career,
only to have it taken back.
And then he'd lost two more on top of that.
Devero could only offer him his deepest sympathy.
Neville, though, wasn't as fragile as Devero had imagined.
He turned and gave Devero a weak smile.
His eyes were watery,
but he held back his tears.
Just then,
a cloud of acidic green smoke suddenly billowed through the underground classroom.
A loud hissing sound rang out.
"Ah!!!"
Everyone whipped around.
Malfoy was drenched in potion.
His arms and legs were covered in swollen boils,
and he cried out in pain.
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