Never mind Malfoy getting all lovestruck. For now, Harry had better hurry up and take notes.
Professor Snape taught far too quickly. Unless Harry put all his effort into listening and understanding, he could not keep up at all.
So during Potions Class, Harry really did have little time to spare for Malfoy...
Of course, although Professor Snape spoke very quickly, he skimmed over many things without explaining them in any detail.
But for Harry, Professor Snape's teaching method was actually just right.
He had the basic knowledge in the textbook as his foundation.
With Snape's efficient explanations, he could not only reach a complete understanding more quickly.
Harry could even hear plenty of things that could not be learned from the textbook!
This was fantastic!
What Harry did not know was that there was a reason Professor Snape's lessons felt outrageously fast yet remained just within his ability to follow.
It was purely because Professor Snape had specifically adjusted this pace to suit how Harry was learning...
Because of the questions earlier, and the way he had stood up for Malfoy.
Together with those eyes of his, almost identical to Lily's, Harry had completely occupied the one soft spot in Professor Snape's heart...
As a result, the more Snape watched Harry study, the more he thought Harry resembled Lily.
What could he do when the boy grew more pleasing to his eyes by the moment?
Teach him a little more, then. He couldn't let Lily's child fall behind in his studies...
If he failed to make sure Harry studied properly, or failed to protect him, surely Lily would find it hard to rest in peace?
With such thoughts in mind.
Professor Snape sped up his teaching while continually watching Harry out of the corner of his eye.
As long as Harry could take it in, he would keep picking up the pace.
After all, since Harry could grasp and understand this material so quickly, he must have digested the original textbook content very well.
If there was nothing in particular to add, Snape did not want to waste time on these basics. He could simply skip over them and teach other material.
If Harry began to struggle at any point, or even found something rather difficult to take in.
Then he would slow down a little and let Harry absorb it properly.
Based on Professor Snape's observations, the knowledge in these sections was problematic purely because of that damned textbook!
What antiquated era had this textbook come from?
A problem that could be solved by stirring counterclockwise three times had to involve such a roundabout process, and even required licorice as a catalyst. Utterly idiotic!
It was perfectly normal for Potter not to understand. The textbook was wrong; it wasn't his fault.
All he needed to do was explain these points properly so Potter could understand them better.
Once the boy had more or less absorbed them, he could move on to the next points without delaying anything. Just right.
Of course, if Harry paused over a particular question and sank into thought about it.
Snape would even deliberately halt the lesson's progress and launch into a lengthy academic analysis from his own perspective, addressing the question Harry did not understand...
Since these points raised questions, they generally were not particularly basic knowledge. In fact, first-year young wizards found many procedures difficult to understand because their grounding in spells was insufficient.
These required a little more understanding of spells, or perhaps they would understand once they became seasoned students in the upper years.
If Potter wanted to learn a principle ahead of time, he was happy to teach it.
Whatever the boy still didn't know could wait for their evening tutoring. After all, class time was limited. More in-depth exchanges could be left for their private time that evening!
In short, ever since Snape's impression of Harry had shifted from James Potter to Lily.
His behavior now was even more outrageous than Professor Snape's already outrageous original teaching style!
How was this a first-year Potions Class at Hogwarts?!
This was clearly specialized one-on-one instruction for Harry!
Never mind what sort of teacher acted like this.
Professor Snape's position was that he had so many classes every week, and still had to work for Dumbledore.
You should count yourselves lucky he taught you this much. Stop whining!
Of course, Snape's one-on-one instruction for Harry was not that obvious yet. For the moment, it was fairly subtle...
The young wizards could not see Harry's textbook, nor did they know exactly which points Harry was pondering.
Naturally, they could not work out why Professor Snape's teaching pace was so strange, speeding up and slowing down...
If they could not figure it out, they might as well leave it that way, lest discovering it give them a heart attack or something.
Throughout his many years of teaching, Professor Snape had always done whatever he pleased. When had he ever taken the young wizards' feelings into account?
Unfortunately, the other first-year young wizards were having a truly miserable time in Potions Class...
What was this lightning-fast teaching pace?!!!
They hadn't even finished taking notes on the last point before they were forced to start reading the next passage?
Wait, Professor, would you look at this? This was an entire page of ant-sized print!
What sort of superhuman could finish reading this many English characters in less than ten seconds?
Was he seriously turning the page this quickly?
And another thing.
They had clearly finished taking notes and were ready to record something new, so they would have something to review after they returned.
After all, under such intense note-taking conditions, the young wizards had no attention to spare for reviewing or understanding. They could only write things down first, then take their time studying them afterward.
Yet Snape simply stopped making progress, broke the rhythm of the lesson, and began analyzing the details of one particular point...
Fine, they could listen to the analysis. It couldn't hurt.
Although they did not know why he had suddenly begun analyzing this, the young wizards still forced themselves to switch gears and tried their best to keep up with Professor Snape.
Then, for some unknown reason, halfway through the analysis, Snape stopped talking about it and resumed teaching as though racing to cover the material...
Wait, Professor, you were just analyzing that!
Why were you suddenly flipping through the book at flying speed again?
Besides, the analysis they had just heard left them utterly bewildered. They could not understand it at all!
Well, there it was.
Whether it was the Slytherins, who all seemed more or less calculating, or the Ravenclaws, who were reputed to be the most learned students at Hogwarts.
Not one of them could understand what on earth was going on with Professor Snape's teaching pace...
All right, Professor Snape now had another black mark against him!
His lessons had no logic whatsoever. He simply said whatever came to mind...
Before you continue