Harry, of course, didn't know what Snape was thinking; if he did, he'd surely decide to wear a mask in the next Magic Potion Class.
This way, he could cover his face to avoid being seen by Snape and suffering some unwarranted disaster.
Sometimes Harry also wondered if repaying a father's debts was a necessary experience in life.
"Gryffindor…"
Snape's greasy voice sounded, pausing for quite a while. It was uncertain whether it was due to some of his wicked fun or whether he intended to use the pause to slowly provoke the nerves of the Gryffindor students.
"Will have ten points deducted because of you two chatting in class."
After speaking, Snape turned elegantly and briskly to the podium and picked up the stack of assignments.
"If you submit something like this for your OWLs exams, the grade I'm giving you now is what you'll end up getting," Snape said sarcastically, quickly walking among the students while handing back their homework, "This should make you clearly aware of what will appear in the exams."
He strode to the front of the classroom, turned around, and leaned on the podium with his elbow, facing the students.
"The overall level of this homework is abysmal—if this were an exam, the majority of you would fail. I hope you'll put more effort into this week's paper on various types of antidotes; otherwise, I'll have to keep those fools who got 'D' in detention."
As he spoke, his gaze was fixed intently on Ron.
As for Neville?
Ha, he'd given up on treatment long ago.
In his eyes, Weasley was in the category of "slightly above Giant".
During the remaining class time, Ron strained every nerve to brew the potion, and with Hermione's help, he barely managed to get the enhancer to a not-so-clear bright green.
Watching from the side, Snape gave an unsatisfied snort upon seeing Ron's potion color and turned to leave.
Only then did Ron breathe a sigh of relief.
After class, he walked beside Harry and whispered, "Thanks to Hermione; otherwise, Professor Snape would have killed me today."
"That's unlikely, mate," Harry relaxedly patted Ron's back, "Professor Snape, after all, is a school professor; if he wanted to kill you, he'd wait until after graduation—besides, didn't he get mad at you before and still didn't kill you?"
"When I say 'kill me'..." Ron gestured for a while, "I don't mean physically kill me, but he might target me, and target me very particularly."
"Oh, your worry is a bit excessive," Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "When hasn't Professor Snape targeted Gryffindor? He targets every Gryffindor equally, okay?"
"That's true." Ron nodded, acknowledging Hermione's words.
"Actually, the situation now is okay, isn't it? It's not as bad as last week, right?" Hermione said, as they left the underground classroom, climbed the steps, and crossed the hall to have lunch, "Homework isn't too bad, right?"
"Indeed it is," Harry nodded in agreement.
Anyway, he didn't do homework; he left it all to Annie.
Thinking of Annie, he turned around, and sure enough, he saw her following him holding a book, step by step.
Noticing Harry turning to look at her, Annie raised her face and gave a gentle smile.
"Let's go eat," Harry said to Annie, "We'll all go to Gryffindor's long table to eat."
Anyway, it wasn't the first time a Slytherin ate at Gryffindor's long table; Gryffindor students were already used to it.
Besides, this Slytherin girl seemed bewildered and wasn't one to cause trouble.
They sat together next to Gryffindor's table.
"Needless to say, if I get an 'O (outstanding),' I'd be thrilled—" Seamus said, waving his fork on the side.
"I got a 'P (poor),'" Ron said as he scooped soup into his bowl, "Happy now?"
"Well, there's nothing to be ashamed of," Fred said, he had just come to the table with George and Lee Jordan, sitting on Harry's right, "A healthy and spirited 'P,' nothing wrong with that."
"But," Hermione said, "'P' doesn't stand for..."
"'Poor,' that's right," Lee Jordan said, "But it's still better than 'D (dreadful),' right? 'Dreadful'?"
"The highest grade, 'O,' stands for 'Outstanding,'" Hermione started asking the elders, "Then there's 'A (Acceptable),' right—"
"No, it's 'E,'" George corrected her, "'E' represents 'Exceeds Expectations,' actually I always feel that George and I should get 'E' in every subject, because attending the exams already exceeded expectations."
At this, they all laughed, except Hermione didn't laugh.
Although she didn't like how the twins treated study as a joke, she held back from lecturing.
This was quite an improvement; in her past attitude, she would've insisted on setting the twins straight.
She took a bite of sausage, then asked, "Then, after 'E' comes 'A,' standing for 'Acceptable' — that's the lowest passing grade, isn't it?"
"Correct." Fred replied cheerfully, dipping the entire bread roll in his soup, stuffing it into his mouth, and swallowing it whole.
"Then 'P' is 'Poor'—" Ron raised his arms, pretending to celebrate, "—then it's 'D,' dreadful, right? Should be the worst one, no?"