Harry Potter: The Gryffindor Warrior - HP / Hogwarts

[Chapter Size: 1700 Words.]

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The first-year students of Gryffindor and Slytherin seemed surprised. Malfoy's reaction was the most exaggerated, his mouth opened so wide that Harry suspected he could fit his entire fist inside it.

Harry and Hermione weren't the only ones who had prepared their textbooks in advance, especially the young Slytherins, since the head of their house was a highly respected professor.

However, it was surprising that a Gryffindor could answer that question, as it was clearly not in the textbook.

"So…" After a brief hesitation, Snape spoke again. "One last question, Mr. Potter. What is the formula for the Polyjuice Potion?"

At that moment, Harry was absolutely certain, Snape was just trying to make things difficult for him.

The Polyjuice Potion recipe was nowhere to be found in the standard textbooks. It wasn't something taught to first-years, nor was it likely to be covered in their curriculum at all. This was a potion capable of altering a person's appearance, a restricted substance.

Although classified as a restricted potion, brewing it wouldn't result in direct punishment from the Ministry of Magic. However, using it for fraudulent purposes was strictly prohibited by wizarding law, punishable by fines or even imprisonment.

By sheer coincidence, Harry had overheard the Weasley twins mention the potion before. Just last night, he had come across a book titled Moste Potente Potions in the library and discovered its recipe within its pages.

A tricky question indeed!

Curious, Harry had memorized the formula. He had an excellent memory and had even written it down. But he was certain that even if he recalled the ingredients and brewing methods perfectly, his chances of successfully making the potion himself were slim, perhaps one in ten at best.

Even if he wasn't confident in brewing it, he still knew the formula.

"The fluxweed must be picked during a full moon, the bicorn horn…"

"Silence!" Snape cut Harry off with a sharp rebuke, a clear trace of malice flashing across his face. "Twenty points from Gryffindor. Mr. Potter has been studying restricted potions without authorization. Sit down at once!"

Hermione: "???"

Ron: "???"

Other Gryffindor students: "???"

All the young Gryffindors were stunned. If they could swear, they certainly would have. Is this even real?!

Not only did he not receive extra points for answering a difficult question, he lost points instead?!

They had always known that the Potions professor was unfair, but none of them had expected him to be this unfair.

The Slytherins were momentarily surprised as well, but soon, suppressed laughter spread among them. Malfoy, in particular, was laughing so hard he nearly slammed his hand on the desk. Snape, however, remained completely indifferent to their amusement.

Harry's expression darkened, and he felt a surge of irritation.

Back in the Muggle world, he had always been popular in school, his good grades and looks earned him favor from both teachers and classmates alike. The same had happened when he arrived at Hogwarts. Most of the professors treated him fairly, and his fellow students seemed to enjoy talking to him.

Some older girls had even expressed a rather obvious interest in him, in more ways than one.

And now, being treated so unfairly, so shamelessly, by Snape made Harry's temper flare. He didn't sit down. Instead, he stared coldly at Snape.

"I said, sit down, Potter."

Seeing Harry's strikingly handsome face contorted into a rebellious expression only fueled Snape's irritation. He glared at Harry as if he were some heinous criminal.

"Professor Snape," Harry's voice was as cold as Snape's, but its slightly raspy tone made it sound even harsher. His gaze was just as icy, and when he looked at Snape, it was as if he were staring at a pile of garbage.

Snape frowned slightly, waiting for Harry's next words.

But Harry's response was completely unexpected. In a calm tone, he asked, "Did you forget to take your medicine today?"

"Take my medicine?" Snape was momentarily stunned. Though he had spent his childhood in the Muggle world, he had rarely interacted with non-magical people since coming to Hogwarts. It took him a moment to register the insult.

Even if Snape didn't understand immediately, several Gryffindor students, those familiar with Muggle culture, caught on right away. Hermione, for instance, was now staring at Harry in horror.

Harry maintained a serious expression and continued, "Yes. The one for your brain condition."

"Ah!" Hermione gasped before quickly covering her mouth. Several other students reacted similarly.

The classroom fell into absolute silence.

You could hear a pin drop.

"What did you just say?"

Snape's cold expression twisted with fury, making his already unpleasant face look even more grotesque. Clearly, he hadn't expected a student to dare say such things to him.

"Aren't you the Potions professor? You should be good at potions." Harry remained unfazed by Snape's furious glare. His face was still serious, but his words were laced with mockery:

"Or is it that wizard medicine isn't very effective for mental disorders? In that case, I suggest you visit a Muggle hospital. Do you know what a psychiatric hospital is? You should make an appointment as soon as possible."

"You, you dare insult a professor?! Thirty points from Gryffindor!" Snape roared, his voice filled with barely controlled rage.

"You're so casual about it." Harry didn't care in the slightest and even scoffed.

"With a professor like you, who clearly has a mental disorder, house points don't mean much. From now on, I won't answer any more of your questions. Do whatever you want."

After saying that, Harry completely ignored Snape's reaction, sat down, opened his book, and started reading on his own.

Snape stood there, and surprisingly, his face showed little expression. He simply remained silent.

No one in the class dared to speak. No one dared to breathe too loudly. No one dared to move.

For a moment, the only sound in the classroom was the rustling of pages as Harry turned them.

Two full minutes passed.

These were probably the longest two minutes of the students' lives.

Finally, Snape spoke again.

"Open your books to page seven. Today, you will learn how to brew a Boil-Cure Potion. Work in pairs and follow the instructions in the book. Start now. What are you all staring at? Move!"

Harry didn't even lift his head, as if he weren't paying attention at all.

The other students, however, lacked his courage, and everyone quickly paired up without hesitation.

Ron had originally wanted to partner with Harry, but Snape forced him to pair with Lavender Brown, the Gryffindor girl he had accidentally run into during the Sorting Ceremony.

But since there were ten students in each house, if no one paired with Harry, one person would inevitably be left without a partner.

That person was Neville.

Neville's performance in the few lessons they'd had this week had been explosive.

And not in a good way.

To be fair, "explosive" might not even be the best word, because there was a Gryffindor named Seamus Finnigan who was truly exceptional in that regard.

Neville hesitated for a moment, watching the other students get started, then cautiously approached Harry.

"Harry…" he murmured hesitantly.

"Come on, let's weigh the nettles first." Harry smiled at Neville, grabbed the scale from the table, and began measuring out the potion ingredients.

Harry felt like he had a knack for Potions. For some reason, whenever he saw an ingredient listed in the book, he could instinctively find it among the materials on the table without needing to check the illustrations. Seven or eight times out of ten, he got it right.

On top of that, he felt oddly comfortable using scales, tongs, and various other tools for handling potion ingredients.

"That's interesting." he thought.

Throughout the classroom, only two groups seemed to be keeping up with the pace, Hermione's group and Draco's group. The rest of the students were lagging behind.

But what surprised Harry the most was that Neville was actually doing quite well.

Before this, Neville's performance in nearly every subject had been subpar. In fact, up until today, he hadn't successfully cast a single spell in class.

This had made Neville, who was already naturally shy, even more anxious, causing him to second-guess everything he did. And more often than not, the more cautious he was, the more mistakes he made.

But in Potions class, Neville was performing exceptionally well.

Even though he wasn't as organized as Harry or Hermione, who had prepared for their lessons in advance, he was still doing significantly better than in other subjects.

In particular, Harry noticed that Neville seemed to have a strong intuition for medicinal herbs, easily identifying them with accuracy. His hands were steady, and he was surprisingly skilled at chopping and grinding ingredients, better than Harry, even.

Come to think of it, Neville did seem to do well in Herbology, didn't he? It was just that Hermione's brilliance often overshadowed him.

As Harry observed Neville, Snape stalked through the classroom.

He criticized nearly every Gryffindor, especially Ron's group. At one point, he loomed over Ron and suddenly sneered at him, scaring Ron so badly that he almost knocked over his cauldron. Fortunately, Lavender reacted quickly and stabilized it just in time.

The only two groups that Snape didn't criticize were Hermione's and Harry's.

Hermione's group had probably done everything perfectly. After all, this was a simple, low-level potion, and as long as they followed the book exactly, there was no way to mess it up. That was hardly a challenge for Hermione, who had already memorized the entire textbook.

As for Harry's group, they had no idea if they were making mistakes or not, because Snape hadn't even come near them.

It would be a lie to say that Harry wasn't nervous. But at this point, there was absolutely no way he was going to back down.

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