Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 776 Classroom Routine in Seventh Grade

Tuesday, 9:00 AM.

Potions class.

Students in the higher grades must meet certain academic standards to be eligible to take the Potions course.

Professor Snape originally set the academic standard as "excellent" in the OWL exams, but Professor Slughorn took over the class in the second half of the fifth year. When the sixth-year students were sorted into elective classes, Slughorn lowered the admission standards for the advanced classes and admitted more students.

In the first few weeks of the school year, students who only achieved "good" grades were a little nervous, worried that Professor Snape would investigate and expel them. There were even rumors in the class that there would be a placement test, which made everyone nervous in class, wishing they could write down everything the professor said.

If I hadn't entered the advanced class in the first place and hadn't put in the effort for the ultimate wizard level exam, I probably wouldn't be so anxious about gains and losses.

A month had passed since the start of the school year, and the students gradually breathed a sigh of relief when they realized that Professor Snape didn't seem to have any intention of checking the classes.

A few perceptive students even made an unexpected discovery: Professor Snape, who returned two years after leaving his post, seemed much gentler than before. Although he still occasionally mocked students who made mistakes and would still stand behind them during practical exercises, his eyes were no longer so gloomy. The students who were being watched would no longer be flustered or make frequent mistakes when they were doing the exercises.

In the dimly lit underground classroom, Professor Snape would occasionally mention things outside of Potions, such as the students' futures after graduation, what jobs students who loved Potions should pursue, and which country offered better pay...

His tone remained calm and composed, yet he subtly exuded the air of a vice principal.

If anything hasn't changed, it's probably that Professor Snape often picks Harry up to answer questions, whether out of favoritism or to target him.

"Mr. Potter, please tell me, if your friend drank a pint of poison mixed with half a dose of aphrodisiac, half a dose of Hellfire Potion, and two doses of swelling potion, how would you prepare the antidote?"

Professor Snape's face seemed a little gentler. He wore a dark green robe and stood tall and straight. He was neither young nor old, but his eyes were sharp and his expressionless face always gave people a sense of pressure. However, this pressure was different from Professor McGonagall's sternness. In short, it had been a long time since a female student had called him "Old Bat."

Some female students, even among the new students, have praised the Slytherin Headmaster.

"I think we can use dung bezoars."

Harry stood up and answered seriously.

"A pointless display of cleverness."

Snape glanced at him indifferently, his face expressionless, his tone calm: "The fact that dungstone can be used as a general antidote doesn't mean it can deal with all types of poisons; otherwise, the toxicology ward at St. Mungo's Hospital could be demolished."

"..."

Harry remained silent, silently cursing the old bat in his heart.

Snape scanned the classroom, his gaze sharp and imposing: "In a few months, we'll be facing NEWT's proctors. As a key part of the Potions Advanced Course, these deductive reasoning questions are designed to test your understanding and mastery of Gobalot's Third Law. If you encounter a similar question in the practical exam, are you going to just rummage through the potion cabinet and hand it to the proctor?"

The vast majority of students silently lowered their heads, avoiding the professor's gaze.

Only Loren met his gaze and indicated with his eyes that using dung stones as the main ingredient to brew an antidote, with auxiliary ingredients to enhance its effects, was a viable solution.

"..."

Snape ignored him and turned to Harry again: "Potter, recite Gobarlot's Third Law and answer my question again."

Harry curled his lip: "The antidote for a mixed poison isn't simply a mixture of antidotes for individual poisons. The number of components in a mixed poison's antidote must be greater than or equal to the sum of the components in the antidote for each individual poison. Contact with a mixed poison requires first using Scapin's Revealing Charm to correctly analyze the potion's components, identify the main poison, analyze the proportions of the additional poisons, and then, through a process almost like alchemy, transform and combine various unrelated components..."

"A standard, conventional answer."

Snape nodded slightly, his expression still blank: "For stopping your cleverness at the right time, Gryffindor gets five points."

"!!"

The students in the classroom all looked up, their faces showing disbelief.

When exactly was I poisoned? I'm even hallucinating now!

Merlin above, they actually heard Professor Snape giving Gryffindor extra points!

Harry still won the bonus points!

"Continue the lesson."

Snape's gaze swept over their astonished faces. He lowered his head and opened his lesson plan, concealing a hint of pleasure in his eyes. "For reasons we all know, I don't know your grades. The materials left by Professor Slughorn only mention the overall teaching progress and lack individual assessments. So, over the past few weeks, I've reviewed the material covered in the advanced class and have gained a preliminary understanding of you."

"..."

The students in the front row seemed a little nervous.

"Perhaps it's Professor Slughorn's ample teaching experience that's effective. Overall, you have a very solid grasp of the basics, but this has also stifled your thinking and made you inflexible. NEWT and OWLs are different; rote memorization of textbooks will only get you a passing grade, at best a good one. To get excellent grades, you must truly understand the knowledge, digest it, and apply it flexibly..."

Snape paced slowly across the platform, his tone calm and composed, like the depths of a black lake.

The quill pen moved across the notebook, releasing the scent of ink that mingled with the lingering, strange smell of medicine in the classroom.

"You don't have enough time now, or you'll have even more after graduation. I know many of you will never grasp the deeper mysteries of Potions. Over the past few years, you've seen countless scenes of simmering potions in a cauldron, white smoke rising, and strange aromas wafting out, but only a few have truly understood its beauty. The fact that so many of you are still sitting here already surprises me. Whether your motivation is to explore Potions or to obtain that certificate for your future, I hope you can remain focused..."

Loren put down his pen, looked up at the professor on the stage, and seemed slightly dazed.

Not only Loren, but many other students were also stunned into thought.

I still remember when I first entered the first year of high school, the proud Professor Snape stood on the podium, claiming that Potions could increase reputation, brew glory, and even prevent death.

There are moments when students suddenly detach themselves from the classroom and observe the professor from a perspective that transcends their own bodies, feeling that he seems to have changed a lot, yet also that nothing has changed.

Thoughts flashed by quickly, then consciousness returned to the classroom, forgetting the strange ideas from before, and once again gripped the quill pen to record key points.

The bell rang, signaling the end of get out of class.

Snape slammed his lesson plan shut, picked up his textbook, and headed out without a second thought.

"Help me organize this; I need to speak with the professor."

Loren quickly shoved the books and notes into Hermione's hands and hurried after her, soon catching up with the professor. The two walked side by side toward the office.

"Being promoted to vice principal really makes a difference; even the professors' teaching styles are different now."

"..."

Snape glanced at him sideways, too lazy to pay him any attention, quickened his pace back to his office, pushed open the door, and attempted to lock him out.

Loren squeezed in before the door closed completely: "Professor, I have a question for you."

"You have five minutes. I need to see the principal to review this year's budget."

"Tsk..."

Loren grinned, about to make a joke, but noticing the professor was about to get up and leave, he immediately became serious: "It's about the precise control of the Philosopher's Stone's magic. I'd like to know, Professor, how you controlled the dosage of the Philosopher's Stone powder so that the powerful magic would just meet the needs of the ritual and potion, without being interfered with by the strong magic."

Why are you asking this?

"I'm designing a new type of spatial teleportation device. Long-distance teleportation consumes a lot of magic. As you know, Professor, spatial teleportation is more difficult than potions. The greater the distance, the greater the deviation caused by even the slightest error. So I'd like to ask for your experience in debugging it back then."

"Philosopher's Stone Magic Adjustment... This is my experimental record of designing rituals and potions. I hope it will be helpful to you."

Snape handed over several thick stacks of books: "Personal potion brewing and ritual design mainly rely on trial and error. With enough experience, you can naturally control the dosage. I'm not very familiar with the alchemical refining process, but this kind of standardized facility is affected by various factors depending on its installation location, such as astrology, tides, and climate. The adjustment details will also be different. You probably don't want to rely on trial and error to adjust it every time you install it. This kind of experience that cannot be quantified cannot be promoted."

"Emmm..." Loren looked at the booklet on the table, which was taller than him, and hesitated.

"I recommend you go see Professor Baburin; she is the expert in runes and alchemy."

"I see."

Loren put away the booklet, pondered for a moment, and left the office.

Listening to the footsteps fading away in the corridor outside, Snape leaned back in his chair, his fingers slowly tapping the financial statements on the table, a thoughtful expression on his face.

A new type of spatial teleportation device... judging from the name, it's something that's meant to be promoted throughout the entire magical world.

When did this guy become so enthusiastic?

……

Four o'clock in the afternoon, the main building of the castle.

Ancient Rune classroom.

The students gathered in small groups, following their group leaders' assignments to analyze some of the products being sold using the runes they had learned over the past few years. Each group chose one item, submitted their reports in advance, and the professor reviewed them, prohibiting duplicates.

There's no such thing as copyright protection in the wizarding world. Once you've analyzed it, it's a secret recipe that can be turned into money. You can make and sell it anywhere else. If you really can't bring yourself to do it, you can just go to another country. Nobody will mess with Galleons.

Everyone was having a lively discussion.

Students who have taken Ancient Runes into seventh grade without dropping out are generally top performers. By extension, even excluding Ancient Runes, their OWL scores are generally excellent, and they are expected to have eight or nine certificates on average for the upcoming NEWT exams. They are truly outstanding students.

Therefore, the discussions were generally substantial. The runic characters on the parchment were constantly added to and subtracted from, and the designs were getting closer and closer to the originals. In some cases, the items chosen by the groups were too simple or outdated, and the students' designs even surpassed the originals.

The group led by Ms. Granger was moving too fast. Despite it being this week's homework, they had already finished the first draft before get out of class was even over and handed it directly to Professor Babling. Ignoring the professor's helpless expression, they stood around and chattered on and on about their design ideas.

Only one person mixed in was slacking off.

Loren sat in the back row of the classroom, his head resting on his arm, looking at the podium in the distance. His mind was filled with runes, all about the design of a new type of spatial teleportation device.

The main design is basically complete, but the actual refining and testing is still a long way off.

Stable power supply, interconnection, installation and commissioning... every step is predictably difficult.

Loren roughly estimated the workload and felt that the problem of a stable power supply could be solved smoothly before graduation. The remaining two issues could only be further improved and perfected after the production of physical products.

The time required for those parts is currently immeasurable, and it will require the cooperation of pure-blood families and the Ministry of Magic. This is truly a huge business, one that will gather countless human and material resources.

"Loren".

A group of people in the back of the classroom suddenly turned around and looked at him expectantly: "This is the Weasley's Scrabble board. The puppets and the spelling parts are very stable, but they crack when put together. Can you help us see what's missing?"

"..."

Loren stared at the scrawled characters on the parchment, pondered for a moment, and then began to explain.

The students in the ancient Runewen elective class generally knew Loren; even if they didn't recognize his face, they had heard of his name. Whenever Professor Barbling assigned a difficult problem, and the whole class was at a loss, Miss Granger would step forward to provide a solution, offering reasoned, detailed, and thorough explanations.

Then the whole class will hear Professor Babling say, "Although you didn't answer that question, considering your boyfriend is also a Gryffindor, Gryffindor gets five points."

"..."

It's difficult to evaluate.

Once you start, you'll have something to do with it. After answering the question in this discussion group, other discussion groups came up to you with questions about runes and alchemy.

Most discussion groups chose Weasley's Trick Room merchandise, which is truly a tribute to the senior. I wonder if George and Fred would be happy to know this.

Loren didn't find it annoying at all. He accepted all comers without giving them direct answers. Instead, he patiently helped them troubleshoot the problems and guided them to find suitable runes.

What does it mean to be tireless in one's efforts?

What does it mean to patiently guide and persuade?

Loren leaned back slightly in his chair, feeling like a dutiful ancient rune teaching assistant. He looked up at Professor Babling on the podium, who looked helpless. The professor even took a moment to smile at him, which Loren found quite touching.

There's no need for gratitude; it's the mutual help and support that makes friendships last.

When the bell rang, the other students walked out of the classroom in groups, chattering about the design on the parchment. Miss Granger's group also stepped down from the podium to discuss how to improve their design.

Loren stood up and moved closer to the podium: "My turn, my turn, Professor Babling, I also have a question to ask you."

"??"

(End of this chapter)