Draco continued what he was doing, trying to speak as calmly and sincerely as possible:
"Professor, I never questioned your meaning."
"Since you've entrusted me with the task of supervising the whole class, I must make sure everyone understands the safety precautions so no one gets hurt, and I won't let you down."
"Oh--?"
Snape drew out his words, his tone mocking, "Afraid of disappointing me..."
He deliberately paused, letting this utterly absurd statement, in his eyes, slowly ferment in the deathly silent classroom.
"What... touching... loyalty."
"Then tell me, when did this sudden passion for teaching arise in you?"
"Was it before or after I criticized Potter?"
"Is this 'good intention' directed at the whole class, or is it specifically tailored for your... famous friend?"
A frustrated Draco finally stopped stirring and blurted out, "I give up, Professor."
Draco resigned himself to his fate; he really shouldn't have tried to reason with Snape.
In his eyes, any student he disliked was wrong no matter what they said or did.
There was no way I could persuade him, much less get him to let go of his prejudices.
Snape was slightly taken aback, clearly somewhat surprised.
He had assumed that Draco, that troublemaker, would continue to talk back, argue, and stall him.
Then, give him more fun by making things difficult for him, and to everyone's surprise, Draco bowed down and "submitted" so quickly.
"You're convinced?"
Snape immediately mimicked Draco's calm and helpless tone.
With a condescending sneer, he said, "Are you submitting to my authority, or to the fact that you can't get away with that pathetic sophistry?"
Draco, no longer wanting to argue or put on an act, simply and directly replied in the same calm and even tone, "I submit to your authority, Professor."
Snape stared intently at Draco with his dark eyes for a few seconds, as if trying to see through his expression and discern his true thoughts.
Draco's face showed only obedience, without a trace of resistance, and certainly not the anger and embarrassment he had expected.
A moment later, Snape finally straightened up slowly, flicked his black robe, and with a cold, triumphant air, slid back to the podium, leaving the room filled with a stifling silence.
Hermione secretly breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the standoff was finally over, but also feeling sorry for Draco who was forced to back down.
The blatant double standards she just witnessed completely woke Hermione up.
She leaned closer to Draco, lowered her voice, and said with a mix of anger and helplessness:
"Now I really understand why you said, 'Don't try to reason with Snape,' because he's completely unreasonable."
Draco immediately raised a finger and gently shushed her, signaling her not to say anything more.
Hermione immediately shut her mouth, glancing nervously at the podium before daring not to utter another sound.
Draco glanced back at the students in the back row who hadn't received the instructions yet, and gave them a helpless look that said, "Good luck to you guys."
Although Draco couldn't help everyone, they looked at him as if he were a hero who had stepped forward.
Thanks to Draco's quiet reminder, Neville had proceeded steadily and flawlessly, without any sign of making a mistake.
As expected, Draco, the demolition genius Seamus was most worried about, still managed to cause a commotion.
He completely lost control of the flame from the very beginning; the crucible was like a restless little volcano.
The medicine sprayed out steam and brown liquid erratically, splashing himself and his classmates all over.
The entire preparation process was teetering on the brink of explosion at any moment.
Draco silently prayed: Seamus is three tables away from me, surely he can't be considered part of my supervision range too?
As it turned out, exactly what I feared came to pass.
Snape's venomous eyes were fixed on him once again.
"Oh, look who's here? Our volunteer safety supervisor."
"Excuse me, while you are busy... guiding the great cause of others, why do you turn a blind eye to this obvious disaster right under your nose?"
Draco knew that further explanation would only lead to worse consequences, so he simply bowed his head and admitted defeat.
"It was my fault, Professor! I shouldn't have been so arrogant as to take on responsibilities I couldn't handle."
Snape scoffed and said, "Finally learned to shut up and accept reality."
"Because Mr. Malfoy demonstrated extreme negligence and incompetence after assuming 'informal duties,' severely disrupting classroom order, he should have been deducted fifty points."
"But considering that you repented early enough, you've finally gained a little pathetic self-awareness—"
I'll only deduct twenty points from your score.
Hermione's heart clenched again, and she cursed Snape's favoritism countless times in her mind.
Draco outwardly showed no emotion, was inwardly cursing: Should I be grateful and thank you properly for showing mercy?
Snape, too lazy to look at Draco any longer, turned his cold gaze to Seamus, who was practically boiling the cauldron dry.
" Mr. Finnigan, for your innate affinity for chaos— Gryffindor, deduct ten points."
Seamus hung his head, looking aggrieved, but dared not utter a single word in rebuttal after being penalized.
But even after that, this Potions Class "explosives genius" didn't stop making mistakes.
Either the fire was too high, or the wrong ingredients were added; the crucible was making popping noises, and there was a risk of it exploding at any moment.
Fortunately, Snape did at least mention some basic principles.
Instead of repeatedly penalizing Seamus for misbehaving, this troublemaker managed to escape being kicked out of the classroom.
Draco breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that this targeting was finally coming to an end.
But then, the most outrageous thing happened next.
In the twenty-sixth minute, Draco had completely finished brewing the Cure for Boils.
The finished product is thick, with a deep and uniform color, and the heat rises steadily without bubbling or splashing on the surface, representing a textbook-level stable state.
Just then, a loud explosion suddenly rang out, drawing the attention of the entire class.
Draco turned his head and saw that it was Goyle.
His subordinate's mistake caused a small-scale commotion.
He himself was not injured, but several innocent classmates nearby were scalded by the splashed medicine and cursed loudly in pain.
Draco felt a sense of relief; at least no one was hurt.
Having been assigned to two different houses for so long, I almost forgot that I still have two underlings in Slytherin.
Snape rushed over and growled sternly at Goyle alone:
"Stop your pathetic show-off behavior and strictly follow the steps on the blackboard."
Immediately afterwards, he raised his voice slightly, deliberately making sure the whole class could hear, but his words were clearly aimed at Gryffindor:
"If your crucible malfunctions, stop using it immediately. Don't let me see this kind of foolish accident again."