For the students, Hogwarts truly could be called "the safest place in the wizarding world" this school year.
As of the Halloween that had just passed, the greatest hardship Hogwarts students had suffered was probably Snape assigning them to copy out Magical Tuning: Beginner Potions as punishment.
What Snape actually demanded was not merely copying out Magical Tuning: Beginner Potions; they also had to be able to recite the entire book from memory.
If he checked them and found a passage they could not recite, they had to continue copying it as punishment until they could answer his questions with ease.
To achieve that, quite a few students had no choice but to risk using Baruffio's Brain Elixir.
This alerted Madam Pomfrey, who personally went to Snape's office to negotiate with him.
After some discussion, Snape ultimately chose to lower his standards.
Students unable to memorize the whole book only needed to copy Magical Tuning: Beginner Potions one more time to be exempt from the same punishment for the next month.
Michael Corner ladled out a bowl of oatmeal and set it in front of Anthony Goldstein.
"I just heard Ernie and the others say that Professor Snape loosened the punishment requirements..." he asked eagerly. "Anthony, when you were patrolling the dungeons the night before last, did you hear anything?"
Anthony asked in confusion, "You can already recite that book. Why are you asking so much?"
"Can't I be curious?!" Michael urged righteously. "Come on, tell me!"
With Michael starting things off, their dormmates all pricked up their ears, wanting to know what had happened the night before last as well.
"It's hard to say..." Anthony shrugged. "Anyway, while I was on patrol, all I saw was the wall by the office shaking, along with some really loud noises."
"They