Eda did not agree to the twins' plan.
Such actions would attract too much resentment. While she could disregard others' opinions, the twins couldn't. They had parents and siblings.
The cringy romantic atmosphere of Valentine's Day lingered and showed no signs of dissipating by Thursday.
However, this romance did nothing to save the first-year Gryffindors on Friday. In front of Snape, these romantic feelings didn't make even a ripple.
In this Potions class, Eda performed exceptionally well, giving Snape no reason to deduct points.
She had now figured out a few tricks to deal with Snape, leading to fewer and fewer points being taken away.
Snape roamed the classroom, nitpicking the Gryffindors, and even the Slytherins didn't escape his clutches. This class was torturous for everyone, except for Eda, who seemed to have escaped unscathed.
Eda diligently brewed her potion at her station, following all the steps exactly as Snape had instructed, even though his methods differed from those in the book.
Initially, Eda followed Snape's instructions just to avoid giving him any reason to criticize her. However, she later discovered that using Snape's method yielded greater proficiency than the book's instructions.
Thus, Eda shifted from merely avoiding criticism to willingly following his instructions, finding them surprisingly effective.
The potion in her cauldron gradually took on a silver sheen, indicating it was nearing completion. Eda patiently stood by the cauldron, waiting for the right moment to perform the final step.
Snape, ghosting around the classroom, naturally noticed Eda's cauldron. Despite finding fault with other students, he kept an eye on Eda. His foul mood today wasn't solely due to Eda's successful evasion of his challenges; there was another reason.
Snape had noticed that Eda, besides being restless at night, also wandered around the castle during the day.
Others might not have realized what Eda was doing, but Snape certainly did. Despite Eda scrambling everything and even planning new routes, her attempts to deceive were futile against Snape.
Snape had been closely monitoring Benedict Fawley's movements, so he naturally knew she was "copying" Foley's actions of night at day. Her little tricks were immediately seen through, making Eda appear as naive as a little white rabbit before Snape.
"A smug fool," and "A self-righteous idiot," were the evaluations Snape gave in front of Dumbledore, and predictably, his workload increased once more!
It was all just a personal request from an old man, without any additional compensation.
Snape slowly approached Eda's cauldron and said, "Miss Twist, don't you think your foolish operations will ruin a perfect potion?"
"Professor, I followed your method exactly, and it's almost done," Eda replied, not noticing Snape's tone. She was feeling a bit overconfident today.
"Arrogance, is that a Gryffindor tradition?" Snape's tone carried a hint of disdain.
Eda understood that Snape intended to continue finding fault, but aside from enduring it, there wasn't much she could do, well, despite wanting more than once to throw the cauldron at him.
Seeing the silent, pitiful Eda didn't change Snape's emotions. He said, "When will you realize your own shortcomings and the gap between yourself and others?"
"What should I do then?" Eda could only pretend to be humble, listening to Snape's teachings. Not to boast, but when it came to potion-making, no one in this room was as competent, except Snape.
"Your laziness astonishes me, Miss Twist," Snape said as he took out his wand. With it, he emptied all the potion from Eda's cauldron.
Eda was momentarily stunned by this move. This was just too blatant, wasn't he concerned about his reputation at all?
"Professor, this..."
"Now you need to remake it and reflect during the process," Snape's tone was exceptionally annoying. "Complete it before the end of class."
"But professor..."
Looking at her empty cauldron, Eda felt a bit crushed.
Though there was still some time left before the end of class, she only had a ten to twenty percent chance of finishing a new batch on time.
"Finish it before class ends and submit it in a glass vial," Snape said, looking at Eda. "If you can't finish, you'll have to stay behind, Miss Twist."
Eda didn't struggle further because Snape's face clearly read: "Say one more word, and I'll deduct points, points, points."
She could only fetch the materials again, putting all her effort into the potion-making process, hoping not to make any mistakes, complete all the steps in one go, and finish before class ended. This way, she wouldn't have to stay alone with the annoying Snape.
But this time, Merlin didn't seem to be on Eda's side.
When the end-of-class bell rang, she still had one last step to complete; she hadn't finished.
"Bring some food back to the common room for me," Eda whispered to Fred and George.
"Your potion is almost done; it shouldn't take too long, right?" Fred asked. There was still a long time until Hogwarts' dinner time, and he thought Eda would have enough time to eat.
"I have a bad feeling, a very strong one," Eda said, full of worry. It wasn't that she thought there was any danger being with Snape; she just felt she might end up going hungry.
The students gradually left, leaving only Eda and Snape in the classroom.
Eda stared at her cauldron without speaking, and Snape was very satisfied with her awareness. He simply sat at his desk without moving.
After a while, Eda's potion was finally completed, and she never realized silver could look so beautiful. She filled a glass vial with the finished product and walked over to Snape. "Professor, I finished," she said.
Snape took the vial without saying a word.
"Professor, may I go now?" Eda asked, hoping Snape would show some mercy.
"Who said you could leave after finishing your potion?"
Snape said slowly. (A/N: S....U..S(?))
Indeed, he had said earlier that she would stay if she didn't finish, but he never mentioned when she could leave. No problem there.
Snape walked to the storage cabinet and took out a pile of ingredients needed for potion-making. These ingredients were all unprocessed.
"Process these," Snape ordered, placing the materials on the workbench.
"Professor, can I leave after processing these?" Eda asked, wanting a clear answer and not wanting to continue playing word games with Snape.
Snape glanced at her and then said, "Depends on my mood."
'I knew it, I knew my premonition was right!' Eda thought to herself. She walked to the workbench, put on dragon-hide gloves, and began processing the materials.
'Just consider it an opportunity to increase your skills; opportunities like this are rare, and I can't afford to buy potion ingredients myself.'
Eda silently comforted herself, but voluntarily practicing and being forced to practice were entirely different experiences, incomparable.
While Eda worked diligently, Snape didn't remain idle. He walked over to Eda's unused cauldron and decided to brew a potion.
The sounds Snape made naturally caught Eda's attention. As the price for using her cauldron, Eda decided to learn by observing, even though she didn't know what Snape was making.
Snape noticed Eda's frequent glances but paid no mind to her attempts to learn from him. He didn't believe that Eda, with her "dim-witted" brain, could successfully learn by watching.
If Eda somehow managed it, he might even see her in a different light.
Time ticked by, and whenever Eda finished processing a batch of ingredients, Snape would give her more, using her as free labor. Eda diligently noted down Snape's potion-making process.
In the dim underground classroom, Eda had no idea how many ingredients she had processed. She even felt these were enough for first and second-year classes. She was very hungry, and her stomach kept growling.
Snape finished his potion, which wasn't a complicated one, at least not for him. He bottled the potion and seemed to have plans for it.
He walked over to Eda, watching her handle the ingredients. The long-silent underground classroom finally echoed with his voice, "Is it because you have too little coursework that you have time to wander around aimlessly?"
Eda's movements paused for a moment before continuing. She said, "I wasn't wandering aimlessly, Professor. I really like the castle, so I can't help but want to look around."
She didn't think these words would fool Snape, but she couldn't directly reveal her true thoughts. She believed Snape wouldn't harm her as a student, but that didn't mean she could fully trust him.
One should always be cautious in conversation.
'Obstinate fool,' Snape added another mental note about Eda. "You may leave now. The remaining materials will be for next time. I will inform you of the time later."
Eda, in her attempt to resist Snape's tyranny, ultimately failed. She became his unpaid laborer; in fact, without pay, she didn't even qualify as child labor.
Feeling dejected, Eda returned to the common room. Dinner time had long passed, so she could only hope the twins had brought her some food. In the common room, an exhausted Eda sat in an armchair, eating the food the twins had brought back. She finally felt alive again.
"Eda, something happened at school again!" Fred said.
"What could be more important than eating?" Eda said as she ate her cake.
"A thief appeared in the school!" George shouted from the side.
________
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