The underground Potions classroom fell completely silent after Leo finished answering Snape's final question. The only sounds that remained were the soft crackling of candle flames and the faint bubbling of potion ingredients simmering in nearby cauldrons.
Snape swept his gaze across the room.
"You all heard that," he said coldly. "So why is nobody writing it down? Or are your tiny brains already too full to remember basic information?"
The students immediately scrambled for their quills.
With a dramatic swirl of his robes, Snape turned back toward the front of the classroom, naturally refusing to miss an opportunity to deduct points from Gryffindor.
"Potter," he said lazily, "for attempting to seek assistance while answering a question, Gryffindor loses two points."
Harry clenched his jaw but remained silent.
"And," Snape continued smoothly, "for answering correctly, Slytherin gains five points."
The Slytherins looked pleased.
The Gryffindors looked miserable.
Leo glanced toward Harry, who was still standing awkwardly beside his desk. For a brief moment, he wondered whether he should help Harry somehow—or perhaps help Snape instead. After all, Draco and Carlo were both watching everything carefully, and this sort of conflict seemed impossible to avoid forever.
One thing had become a little clearer to him.
Even if one troublemaker disappeared, another would eventually appear in their place.
People like Carlo would always exist.
Forget it.
I'll deal with those problems when I'm stronger. Right now, surviving my own corner of the world is difficult enough.
With that thought, Leo calmly sat back down. He had answered the question correctly, so there was no reason to remain standing like Harry.
Meanwhile, Snape began writing the lesson instructions across the blackboard in sharp, precise strokes. Dense lines of ingredients, measurements, and brewing steps quickly covered the surface.
Most students hurriedly copied everything down in panic.
Memorize all of that already?
Please.
Aside from a few academic monsters like Hermione and Leo, nearly everyone had been too distracted by the earlier interrogation to remember anything useful. Most students could barely recall a handful of ingredient names, let alone the proper stirring order and exact brewing times.
"Pay attention," Snape said sharply. "You will follow the instructions exactly as written. One mistake can ruin the potion completely."
Then his eyes flicked back toward Harry, who apparently still hadn't sat down.
Snape frowned.
"Potter," he drawled, "do you intend to stand there for the entirety of my class, or shall I arrange a permanent position for you beside the wall?"
Harry hurriedly dropped into his seat.
The rest of the students had already learned an important lesson.
Staring too openly at Snape while he tormented Harry Potter was dangerous.
Most of them immediately lowered their heads and pretended to focus entirely on their notes.
"You will work in pairs," Snape announced. "Brew the Cure for Boils exactly as shown on the board. If any of you do something catastrophically stupid, do not bother waving your wand afterward. Begin."
The dungeon instantly erupted into activity.
Cauldrons were lit.
Ingredients were unpacked.
Nervous first-years fumbled through jars of dried nettles and crushed snake fangs while desperately trying not to embarrass themselves.
Snape drifted through the classroom like a giant black bat, his robes trailing behind him as he inspected everyone's progress. His expression suggested he was personally offended by the existence of incompetent students.
The Cure for Boils.
The exact same potion Leo had just described moments earlier.
Apparently, Snape's questioning hadn't simply been a test—it had also served as today's lesson introduction.
On one side of the room, Gryffindors struggled to measure nettles correctly while the Slytherins noisily crushed snake fangs.
Nearby, Carlo glanced toward Harry and immediately smirked.
"Well, look at that," he whispered mockingly to the boy beside him. "The famous Harry Potter can't even survive a basic Potions lesson."
His voice dripped with ridicule.
A few nearby Slytherins snickered quietly behind their hands.
Draco noticed it too.
Snape was being unusually harsh toward Harry today.
While the professor had always favored Slytherin and enjoyed deducting points from Gryffindor, this felt different.
Personal.
Draco frowned slightly as he worked beside Leo.
If this had been the old Draco, he would have laughed right alongside Carlo without hesitation. But after spending time with Leo—and after being dragged into endless library sessions with Harry and Hermione—his attitude had gradually begun to change.
At the very least, he no longer found humiliation quite as entertaining as he once had.
As they prepared ingredients together, Draco leaned closer and lowered his voice.
"Why is Professor Snape targeting Potter so much today?"
Leo calmly sorted ingredients while answering quietly enough that only Draco could hear.
"I'm guessing," he said, "but I heard Snape and Harry's parents attended Hogwarts together. Maybe Harry's father and Snape had some kind of conflict back then."
Leo intentionally kept the explanation vague.
Information like that wasn't especially difficult to uncover anyway. Given enough curiosity—and enough gossip from certain wealthy pure-blood families—Draco would probably learn most of it sooner or later.
Draco considered that for a moment.
"Really?" he muttered. "I've never heard Father mention it before. Still... Professor Snape has never liked Gryffindor much. Maybe Potter reminds him of something unpleasant from school."
"Maybe."
Leo shrugged.
"Either way, we should focus on not blowing ourselves up."
Then he added dryly, "Unless you want Professor Snape to replace your head with a troll's."
Draco visibly stiffened.
Despite occasionally seeing Snape speaking privately with Lucius Malfoy at Malfoy Manor, Draco had never interacted with the professor much outside formal occasions. That only made Snape seem even more intimidating.
As a result, he became noticeably more serious about the potion in front of him.
To his surprise, things were actually going smoothly.
"Not bad."
Snape's voice suddenly appeared directly behind them like a ghost.
Draco nearly jumped out of his skin.
Snape carefully examined their cauldron. The ingredients had been prepared properly, the brewing process was clean, and the timing was nearly flawless.
"It seems Mr. Nicholas possesses more than simple memorization skills," Snape said slowly.
Then his gaze shifted toward Draco.
"And apparently Lucius Malfoy's son is not entirely hopeless either."
Coming from Snape, that practically counted as extravagant praise.
Especially considering he had spent the previous ten minutes verbally skinning nearly every other student alive.
"Tsk."
Leo dropped a measured portion of powdered ingredients into the bubbling mixture.
"Brewing potions really is just cooking with extra steps."
Draco blinked.
"What?"
Leo stared thoughtfully into the steaming cauldron.
"Think about it. Ingredients, heat, timing. It's basically cooking."
The potion released a small puff of pink smoke.
"Honestly, using these cauldrons for actual food would be horrifying."
Draco looked genuinely confused.
"Why?"
Leo gave him a strange look.
"Imagine biting into a perfect apple. Fresh, sweet, exactly what you wanted."
Draco nodded.
"Then imagine that same apple falling into a bucket of filthy water."
Draco immediately grimaced.
"Even if you wash it afterward," Leo continued, "you still know where it's been. You keep telling yourself it's clean, but every time you look at it, part of you feels disgusted."
The potion bubbled gently.
"That's why I'd never cook with potion equipment," Leo concluded seriously. "No matter how thoroughly it was cleaned."
Draco stared at him for several long seconds.
"...Why are you thinking about food at a time like this?"
Before Leo could answer, a furious roar exploded across the dungeon.
"Idiot boy!" Snape thundered.
....
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