"Potter!"
"Why didn't you follow the book's instructions and clean the slugs first before dealing with the rest of the problem?"
During Potions, Snape stood before Harry, waving his long black robes. "Do you think you've surpassed the textbook in Potions?"
"Professor," Harry retorted, "If you remembered what you said five minutes ago, you wouldn't be asking me this."
"You're the one who told us to handle this directly," Ron muttered quietly beside him.
"Ha!" Snape let out a strange laugh from his snort. "If you were really so obedient, you shouldn't have ignored Professor Dumbledore's warning and gone to the room at the end of the Third Floor Corridor."
"Or are you deliberately breaking school rules just to become famous?"
"No, sir..."
"Hermione went too," Ron muttered. "Why didn't you mention her?"
Hermione, caught in the crossfire, turned and glared at Ron, wondering if his brain was filled with slugs.
Would bringing in another person make it easier for Snape to lose points?
"Shut up!" Snape glared at Ron. "Miss Granger was clearly bewitched by you. Instead of following Miss Granger around, why don't you go and use slugs to fill your brains?"
"Gryffindor loses 5 points because of your stupidity and arrogance."
Snape uttered a curt, nonsensical remark, tossed his robes, and walked over to Silan and Hermione.
He glanced into their crucible and nodded in satisfaction.
"Well done, add 5 points each."
One increases, one decreases, and the remainder remains unchanged.
"What on earth is Snape doing? Is he messing with us?" Ron angrily tossed the slug into the cauldron, shaking the slime off his hands. "He's targeting Gryffindor."
Harry quickly covered his face with his textbook to prevent Ron's sticky liquid from flying onto his face.
"I don't think so." Harry glanced at Snape, who Accio around the classroom like a bat, then quickly looked away and whispered to Ron, "I initially thought he was targeting all Gryffindor students as well."
"But you see Hermione gets extra points in his class too, so I feel like he might be targeting the two of us," Harry said, offering his speculation.
"Damn it, what did we do to offend him?"
To this question, Harry could only shake his head and sigh, "I don't know."
Thanks to Snape's nitpicking, the Potions finally came to a difficult end.
This is the last class before the final exams.
"There will be no more classes starting tomorrow." Snape stood on the podium, tossing his hair. "But don't forget the final assignment."
Snape waved his wand, and several assignments on the podium floated up and flew toward the students.
"This is a recent model assignment; it's very well written, and you should all strive to meet this standard."
Harry watched as several model assignments flew past him; the names and handwriting on them all looked familiar.
"Silan Prewett, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy..."
"Malfoy? He can be a model student?"
Hearing this, Snape turned to Harry and Ron, chuckled, and waved his wand again, sending two more assignments flying out.
"Of course, there's also some utterly nonsensical garbage."
The two assignments were written in large, sparse characters, and contained many spelling errors. The names were also clearly written on them.
"Harry Potter ... Ron Weasley ..."
Malfoy gave Harry a provocative smile, feeling incredibly pleased with himself.
For his recent assignments, he's been using the Spell-Checking Quill Silan sold him.
Because he improved his writing efficiency, he used the time and energy he saved to improve the quality of his assignments.
That is precisely why it can become a model assignment.
This made him very proud.
Seeing Harry looking at the quill in his hand with envy, Malfoy became even more smug.
"Even if Potter tried his best, he still couldn't fight against himself."
The Augurey pen he had was given to Slytherin first; even if Potter wanted it, he couldn't buy it for the time being.
This is a complete victory for me!
"Prewett is such a kind and honest man," Malfoy thought to himself.
A quill pen that costs 50 Galleon has this effect; it's incredibly cheap.
Because of his recent relentless promotion and sales efforts, the students in Slytherin have become increasingly eager to buy these quill pens.
Every time Silan makes a new quill pen, it sells out instantly.
Many of them were willing to pay extra to get the quill pens as quickly as possible.
In just a few days, Silan earned several hundred Galleon.
George and Fred's main customer base consists of repeat customers who have bought maps before.
Although a quill pen only sold for one Galleon, they still made a considerable profit.
"I'm giving you one last warning: if you don't pass the exams, your summer vacation might not be very pleasant." Although he said "you," Snape's eyes remained fixed on Harry and Ron.
The two of them completely ignored Snape's words, only glancing at the smug Malfoy.
"Will this really work?" Ron asked.
Harry whispered, "I don't know, but George and Fred said they'd give me a quill if I did."
"Huh? They clearly told me they'd give me a feather, but I'm their own brother!"
Ron was somewhat angry.
Snape left the classroom and headed towards the professors' meeting room.
With final exams approaching, the professors had many things to discuss.
As Snape rounded the corner and approached the professor's meeting room, he heard McGonagall's voice coming from inside.
"Good heavens, Professor Flitwick, your hair..."
"Oh... it's alright, Professor McGonagall... it was just a little wizard's Spells."
As soon as Snape pushed open the door, he saw that Professor Flitwick's already sparse hair had a hole burned in it, as if it had been gnawed by a rat.
"What's wrong?" Snape asked.
"Final exams are coming up soon, and many students in the castle practice Spells while walking. Sometimes they accidentally recite them, and I get accidentally injured." Professor Flitwick sat in his chair, swinging his two short legs.
"It seems we need to give them a warning," Professor McGonagall said, her lips pressed tightly together. "Tell them to keep their wands in check."
The other professors nodded in agreement.
"Please sit down, Professor Snape." Professor McGonagall looked at Snape and nodded to him.
As the vice-principal, Professor McGonagall was in charge of all affairs at the school when Dumbledore was away.
She also chaired the professors' meeting regarding the final exams.
Professor McGonagall sat at the head of the table, her gaze sweeping over the professors around her. An invisible pressure instantly silenced the meeting room.
"Let's begin now."