If there was anyone present who truly understood Snape, it was undoubtedly Draco, his godson.
Harry Potter might count as half of one.
In any case.
Others might not have noticed. After all, Snape was already regarded as gloomy by most wizards, so nothing about his demeanor seemed out of the ordinary. But Draco alone picked up on it...
At this very moment, Snape was standing right on the edge of an explosive rage.
It wasn't obvious, but Draco clearly saw it. Whenever Snape looked at Umbridge, the hostility and anger in his expression and eyes were completely undisguised.
"If this weren't the wrong setting, our High Inquisitor might already be beaten to death right here."
The thought slipped out of Draco's mouth, making Pansy, who overheard him, glance at Professor Snape with a rather subtle expression. He looked no different from usual.
"Beaten to death? You mean... Snape would actually do that?"
"Maybe our Head of Slytherin isn't very pleased that a certain wizard was subjected to inhumane treatment?"
"Huh?"
Draco didn't bother responding to Pansy's tilted head and puzzled look. Instead, he casually glanced toward Harry Potter in the distance, and at the hand hidden beneath the desk, trembling slightly, probably reacting instinctively to the sight of a certain wizard.
So this is what they mean by "only I'm allowed to bully him," huh?
Ahem...
It was also worth mentioning that Hermione, who was still sulking, wasn't sitting beside Draco as usual.
Instead, she was unusually seated among the Gryffindor girls. Otherwise, she would definitely have been intrigued by Draco's comment and spent time digging into it.
After all, any wizard who could draw this kind of attention from Snape was fascinating in its own right.
Just as Draco and Pansy were whispering to each other, Snape cut Umbridge off before she could speak.
"You will all notice that we have a guest today."
His low, mocking tone was accompanied by a casual point of his finger, entirely devoid of even the most basic wizarding courtesy.
Between the gesture and the delivery, an uninformed observer might have thought Snape was referring to a large pile of unsanitary rubbish dumped in the corner of the classroom.
Faced with Snape's open provocation, Umbridge's smile didn't waver in the slightest. She simply added a few more notes to her pink notebook. Perhaps she was writing something along the lines of: Severus Snape is unfit to continue serving as a professor.
Was it because he had shown disrespect toward the Ministry's High Inquisitor?
Or perhaps because Snape was not aligned with the Ministry's faction at all...
...
For the Gryffindor lions, the two wizards they detested most were both present in the Potions classroom today.
From the initial anticipation when they first entered the room, to the excitement now that the two had finally come face-to-face, they were eager to see what kind of clash would unfold.
Naturally, the best outcome would be both of them taking each other down...
"My, this class seems to be covering quite advanced material," Umbridge said as she stood and walked over to Harry Potter's desk, glancing at the potion ingredients with a syrupy, cheerful tone.
Hit by the dizzying scent of her magical perfume, Harry Potter's already trembling hand seemed to shake even more violently.
Whether it was just his imagination or not, Snape's expression appeared to darken further...
After giving Harry Potter a narrow-eyed look, Umbridge withdrew her gaze and turned to Snape.
"However, I do question whether it's appropriate to teach students such powerful potions. I imagine the Ministry will be removing this from the curriculum."
"..."
To everyone's surprise, Snape didn't say a word. He simply stared at Umbridge with a gaze that looked ready to kill.
Umbridge, seemingly oblivious, edged even closer to Harry Potter.
"So," she said, lifting her quill, suddenly changing the subject, "how long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?"
"Fourteen years."
"You first applied for the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, did you not?"
"That's correct."
"But you were unsuccessful. Dumbledore didn't approve, it seems?"
"Obviously."
Throughout the exchange, Snape's expression remained unreadable. His calm, even tone made the students feel as though they were looking at a fake version of Professor Snape.
After all, this was the Potions classroom, not an interrogation room, and this was Snape, who was notoriously short-tempered.
Draco, on the other hand, found the situation rather amusing and shot a few interested glances at Harry Potter, whose expression had grown slightly stiff.
As for Ron Weasley, he kept his head down, clearly trying not to draw any attention to himself...
…
Just as Umbridge was growing tireless and clearly preparing to ask a few more questions, the door to the Potions classroom was suddenly pushed open.
The familiar scene made Draco think back to what had happened before in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, where something very similar had occurred.
Only this time, the person who arrived wasn't Dumbledore, but the Head of Gryffindor, Minerva McGonagall.
Professor McGonagall's appearance snapped Snape, who had been acting somewhat off just moments earlier, back to his usual self.
"I don't recall inviting you to attend my Potions class."
"No, Severus. Since you've returned to the school, I'm no longer serving as the acting Potions professor."
"And what then?" Snape shot back. "Are you planning to interrogate me as though I were some Azkaban prisoner?"
Professor McGonagall paused, momentarily taken aback. But when she saw Umbridge gesturing toward her, everything immediately became clear.
She shook her head. A trace of sarcasm appeared on her normally severe expression before she straightened and looked back at Snape.
"Dumbledore would like to see you after class."
After delivering that single sentence, the decisive Professor McGonagall turned and left the Potions classroom at once, as if she had come here for no other reason than to pass along that message.
Yet that alone revealed quite a lot...
Something must have happened. Otherwise, there would have been no need for Professor McGonagall to make a trip here herself.
Unless... it was something extremely urgent, perhaps even serious.
Draco glanced at Snape's tightly furrowed brow. Several thoughts flashed through his mind as he rubbed his chin.
The next moment, almost as if moved by the same unspoken impulse, Draco suddenly looked in Hermione's direction.
What he saw was a small head turning away in a hurry, along with a pair of eyes filled with faint annoyance from their brief meeting just moments earlier...
...
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