The Different Reactions Caused by a Cold (V)

Snape walked over to the last group and stopped in front of the girl wearing glasses. Several pages of her notebook were already densely covered in data. Snape lowered his head and looked for a while, discovering that she had recorded not only the formula and effects of each potion, but also the room temperature, humidity, and even the atmospheric pressure that day. "What use are these data?" he asked.

The girl raised her head and pushed up her glasses. "Standard potion formulas are tested in laboratories with constant temperature and humidity, but conditions can vary wildly in actual combat. I want to know whether the same potion has different effects under different levels of humidity." She pointed at a column of numbers in her notebook. "So far, it looks like the higher the humidity, the slower the Revitalizing Potion takes effect. But the sample size is still too small to draw a conclusion."

Snape looked at her. His black eyes seemed less cold in the lamplight. "What's your name?"

"Lisa Dupin."

"Miss Dupin," Snape said slowly, "this line of thinking is stronger than that of some adult wizards." He paused. "Keep going. You might consider applying for an independent research project next term."

Lisa's eyes lit up, but she did not smile. She merely nodded and lowered her head to continue recording data. Snape turned and walked back to the center of the classroom, his gaze sweeping over each group. The students were all focused on their own work. No one was looking around, and no one was whispering to anyone else. The classroom held only the bubbling of cauldrons, the faint scrape of glass rods stirring, and the occasional rustle of turning notebook pages. This was a Ravenclaw classroom—there was no need to maintain order, because order already