Eda did not agree to the twins' pn.

  Such as would attrauch rese. While she could disregard others' opinions, the twins couldn't. They had parents and siblings.

  The gy 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 Shese romantic feelings didn't make even a ripple.

  In this Potions css, 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 , nitpig the Gryffindors, and even the Slytherins didn't escape his clutches. This css 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 instrus just to avoid giving him any reason to criticize her. However, she ter discovered that using Snape's method yielded greater proficy than the book's instrus.

  Thus, Eda shifted from merely avoiding criticism to willingly following his instrus, finding them surprisingly effective.

  The potion in her cauldron gradually took on a silver sheen, indig it was nearing pletion. Eda patiently stood by the cauldron, waiting for the right moment to perform the final step.

  Snape, ghosting around the , naturally noticed Eda's cauldroe 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 challehere was another reason.

  Snape had noticed that Eda, besides beiless 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 pnning new routes, her attempts to deceive were futile against Snape.

  Snape had been closely monit Be Fawley's movements, so he naturally knew she was "copying" Foley's as 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 pensation.

  Snape sloroached 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 notig Sone. She was feeling a bit overfident today.

  "Arrogance, is that a Gryffindor tradition?" Sone carried a hint of disdain.

  Eda uood that Seo tinue finding fault, but aside from enduring it, there wasn't much she could do, well, despite wanting more than oo throw the cauldron at him.

  Seeing the silent, pitiful Eda didn't ge Snape's emotions. He said, "When will you realize your own shortings and the gap between yourself and others?"

  "What should I do then?" Eda could only pretend to be humble, listening to Seags. Not to boast, but when it came to potion-making, no one in this room was as petent, except Snape.

  "Your ziness 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 btant, wasn't he ed about his reputation at all?

  "Professor, this..."

  "Now you o remake it and reflect during the process," Sone was exceptionally annoying. "plete it before the end of css."

  "But professor..."

  Looking at her empty cauldron, Eda felt a bit crushed.

  Though there was still some time left before the end of css, she only had a ten to twenty pert ce of finishing a new bat time.

  "Finish it before css ends and submit it in a gss vial," Snape said, looking at Eda. "If you '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, plete all the steps in one go, and finish before css ehis way, she wouldn't have to stay aloh the annoying Snape.

  But this time, Merlin didn't seem to be on Eda's side.

  When the end-of-css bell rang, she still had o step to plete; she hadn't finished.

  "Bring some food back to the on room for me," Eda whispered to Fred and Gee.

  "Your potion is almost do shouldn't take too long, right?" Fred asked. There was still a long time until Hogwarts' diime, ahought 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 .

  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 pleted, and she never realized silver could look so beautiful. She filled a gss vial with the finished produd walked over to Snape. "Professor, I finished," she said.

  Sook 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 ste et and took out a pile of ingredients needed for potion-making. These ingredients were all unprocessed.

  "Process these," Snape ordered, pg the materials on the workbench.

  "Professor, I leave after processing these?" Eda asked, wanting a clear answer and not wanting to tinue pying wames with Snape.

  Snape g her and then said, "Depends on my mood."

  'I k, I knew my premonition was right!' Eda thought to herself. She walked to the workbench, put on-hide gloves, and began processing the materials.

  'Just sider it an opportunity to increase your skills; opportunities like this are rare, and I 't afford to buy potion ingredients myself.'

  Eda silently forted herself, but voluntarily practig and being forced to practice were entirely different experiences, inparable.

  While Eda worked diligently, Snape didn't remain idle. He walked over to Eda's unused cauldron and decided to breotion.

  The sounds Snape made naturally caught Eda's attention. As the price for using her cauldron, Eda decided to learn by , even though she didn't know what Snape was making.

  Siced Eda's frequent gnces 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 watg.

  If Eda somehow ma, 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 bor. Eda diligently noted down Snape's potion-making process.

  In the dim underground , Eda had no idea how many ingredients she had processed. She evehese were enough for first and sed-year csses. She was very hungry, aomach kept growling.

  Snape finished his potion, which wasn't a plicated o least not for him. He bottled the potion and seemed to have pns for it.

  He walked over to Eda, watg her hahe ingredients. The long-silent underground 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 tinuing. She said, "I wasn't wandering aimlessly, Professor. I really like the castle, so I '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 versation.

  'Obstinate fool,' Snape added another mental note about Eda. "You may leave now. The remaining materials will be for ime. I will inform you of the time ter."

  Eda, itempt to resist Syranny, ultimately failed. She became his unpaid borer; in fact, without pay, she didn't even qualify as child bor.

  Feelied, Eda returo the on room. Diime had long passed, so she could only hope the twins had brought her some food. In the on room, an exhausted Eda sat in an armchair, eating the food the twins had brought back. She finally felt alive again.

  "Eda, something happe school again!" Fred said.

  "What could be more important thaing?" Eda said as she ate her cake.

  "A thief appeared in the school!" Gee shouted from the side.

  ________

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