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'Nice!'
At that, Malfoy almost burst out laughing.
'So it's not that his potion was too good… it must have been terrible. Just wait, Professor Snape is going to tear him apart.'
Hermione and Harry were a little concerned about Dudley, but under Snape's intimidating presence, they had no choice but to leave the classroom.
Once everyone had left, only Snape and Dudley remained.
To be honest, being alone with Snape was already stressful enough.
Especially inside a classroom filled with rare potion ingredients—it was almost torture.
After a brief silence, Snape spoke first.
"Have you made this potion before?"
Snape took out the vial containing the perfectly brewed Boil-Cure Potion.
"No." Dudley shook his head. "This is the first time I've brewed this particular potion."
Dudley had said this particular potion, not that it was the first potion he had ever brewed.
Snape immediately caught that subtle distinction.
"So you've brewed other potions before?"
"Yes." Dudley nodded, answering honestly. "Minor Magic Enhancement Potion, Slowing Potion, Strengthening Tonic, Skele-Gro, Essence of Dittany, and Blood-Replenishing Potion..."
As Dudley listed the potion names as if reading from a menu, Snape's expression gradually shifted from calm to something more complicated.
"Show me."
Snape extended a hand.
Without saying anything, Dudley opened the small pouch at his waist and took out several vials, lining the finished potions neatly in front of Snape.
"Without your guidance, the quality must be quite limited."
Snape picked up one of the vials and examined it closely.
"Indeed, they're quite poor. Perhaps slightly better than the work of a farm goblin."
The blunt assessment made Dudley choke for a moment.
Although those potions had been brewed before he obtained the Data Magic Eye, he had still been fairly satisfied with the results.
Calling them limited had merely been modesty.
Modesty, you know?
What Dudley didn't realize was that, despite the disdain on Snape's face, he was genuinely surprised.
In terms of brewing skill, Dudley was still far below both Lily and himself.
But in terms of variety?
Neither he nor Lily had known this many potion formulas when they were first-years.
And Dudley had only just arrived at Hogwarts.
He was clearly self-taught.
He had talent for potions.
Or more precisely, talent for brewing.
Just like his mother.
'Only slightly below Lily.'
Snape was one of the few true Potion Masters in the wizarding world.
He could recognize talent at a glance.
It reminded him of the few times he had visited the Evans home when he was younger and tasted Petunia's cooking.
It had been genuinely good.
In some ways, brewing potions was quite similar to cooking.
"Your brewing method is very similar to your mother's," Snape suddenly said.
"You know my mother?" Dudley asked.
Snape's expression stiffened slightly.
"We had some acquaintance. We were neighbors when we were young."
Petunia had never been particularly friendly toward Lily's wizarding friends.
She had even called him a freak once.
Any interaction between them had only existed because of Lily.
After that incident in fifth year, all contact had been completely cut off.
He had never imagined that Petunia's son would end up studying at Hogwarts.
Much less that he would possess such remarkable talent for potions.
He had always assumed her entire family were simply Muggles by nature.
"Then… are you the Severus my mother once mentioned?"
At Hogwarts, professors usually didn't introduce themselves by their full names.
In their first class, they only gave their surnames.
So students typically knew the professors only by their last names.
Their first names were rarely mentioned.
"She… mentioned me?"
Snape clearly paused for a moment.
He had not expected Petunia to have spoken about him to Dudley.
"Before Harry and I came to Hogwarts, my mother told us many things about the wizarding world."
"Including stories from when she and my Aunt Lily were children… and the people who were part of their lives back then."
"In fact, she always admired Hogwarts."
"And she valued my aunt's friends very much."
Petunia had already let go of her old resentments.
To help Dudley and Harry adjust to life at Hogwarts, she told them everything she knew about the wizarding world.
Even though many of those memories were from twenty years ago.
But in reality, the wizarding world had not changed all that much.
When Dudley mentioned Aunt Lily, he noticed a slight tremor run through Snape's body.
Suddenly, Snape seemed to reach a conclusion.
He lifted his head abruptly and fixed his hollow, dark eyes on Dudley.
The stare was so intense that even Dudley began to feel uncomfortable.
'I see now…'
'The reason Petunia's son is so talented must be because he inherited Lily's talent.'
From a scientific standpoint, this could be explained through genetics.
But that would involve complex concepts of heredity.
If potion talent were a recessive gene—call it gene X—then both Petunia and Lily could carry it.
Petunia, lacking magic, never activated it.
But Dudley, being a wizard, had activated that hidden gene.
Of course, Dudley preferred to believe his talent had more to do with being reincarnated into this world than with genetics.
But what Dudley believed didn't matter.
What Snape believed did.
He was convinced this was a sign from Lily.
Just look at it.
The boy inherited Lily's talent for potions.
A Gryffindor and a Slytherin bound by childhood ties.
It was almost a reflection of what he and Lily once had.
Too many coincidences.
Although… he's a bit more muscular than I was back then.
When Snape was a student, he had been rather thin.
Wizards were strange in that regard.
They didn't believe much in science.
They believed in fate.
They believed in prophecy.
Even immensely powerful wizards like Voldemort and Dumbledore took prophecy very seriously.
Voldemort killed the Potter family because of a prophecy.
And in the end, he was destroyed exactly as it foretold.
Dudley was different.
He didn't believe in prophecy.
He believed in muscles.
"You…"
Snape stared at Dudley with a serious expression, dragging the word out for several seconds.
Dudley was already considering punching him just to make him finish the sentence.
"…would you like to study Potions with me?"
In truth, Snape had long intended to pass down everything he knew to someone.
But he had never found a suitable candidate.
The pride of a Potion Master made his standards extremely high.
To study under him, one would need at least half of Lily's talent.
And in Snape's mind, Lily's talent was infinite.
Half of infinity was still infinity.
Now he believed he had been guided by Lily to make this offer.
If Dudley refused…
Or if Snape ever stopped believing that…
This opportunity would simply disappear.
And even then, it was only an opportunity.
If Dudley proved incapable of meeting the standard, he would still be discarded.
The wizarding world did not have the tradition of lifelong master-disciple relationships.
"Of course."
"It would be my honor, Professor Snape."
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