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At this moment… The night had grown darker still.
The moonlight was nowhere to be seen, thoroughly hidden behind thick, ominous clouds. It was as if the very sky was foreshadowing that something momentous was about to happen tonight.
However, over at Hogwarts, everything still appeared perfectly calm.
"Mr. Weasley, you truly are a most impolite brat I have ever had the misfortune of encountering."
Snape suddenly stopped his pacing, his wand tilting sharply upward, pressing right under Ron's chin and forcing him to lift his head and meet Snape's gaze.
"Did your mother never teach you that when you lie, you should look the person in the eyes?"
Snape's tone dripped with pure disdain, his black eyes filled with contempt so thick it was almost tangible.
The faint light from the lantern illuminated Ron's pale, freckled face...Making him look utterly pitiful, almost fragile.
"I… I don't know what you're talking about."
Even after Snape's cruel rebuke, Ron couldn't suppress his instincts; his eyes still kept darting away, avoiding direct contact. How should one put it… It wasn't that he didn't want to learn. It was just that the psychological pressure of looking Snape in the eye was too much to bear.
It wasn't the kind of pressure a first-year wizard could handle. After all, he hadn't caught Snape doing anything wrong; instead, Snape had caught him.
Even if he wanted to talk back, he didn't have the courage or the moral footing to do so.
"What a pathetic performance!"
The "old bat's" pitch-black eyes glinted with icy fury. He could clearly feel Ron trying to treat him like a complete fool.
"Mr. Weasley, just how arrogant must you be… to think I wouldn't notice this?"
As he spoke, Snape suddenly thrust out a hand, his thin, claw-like fingers diving straight into Neville's pocket.
With perfect, malicious precision, he yanked out the dozing Trevor.
The unfortunate toad began croaking wildly as it dangled upside down in Snape's grip, kicking its hind legs in panic… But it was completely useless.
It seemed Trevor was fated to suffer the most tonight.
First, the Forbidden Forest, and now this humiliation.
The fact that he hadn't dropped dead on the spot could already be considered a testament to Neville's enduring love and loyalty toward his pet.
"Breaking school rules and then lying about it."
Snape held the toad right up to Ron's nose. A drop of sticky toad mucus dripped down, landing right on Ron's skin… triggering his mild allergy almost immediately.
Clearly, Snape did it on purpose.
As a Potions Master, he knew perfectly well that Ron had mild allergies to all kinds of common substances. In short… Snape was being deliberately petty.
But then again, Ron had just tried to lie to him.
"You foolish, arrogant little brat… how dare you think you could deceive me? Do you take me for your indulgent father?"
Snape despised stupidity in his presence… and Ron was being exceptionally stupid tonight.
And to make it worse, he was a Gryffindor student.
That fact alone made Snape feel as though Ron was deliberately mocking him.
The toad croaked miserably one last time before Snape suddenly tossed it carelessly toward Neville, who caught it with trembling hands. His face was ghostly pale, his lips quivering; he didn't even dare to comfort his own pet, too terrified to make a sound.
Hermione twisted the hem of her robe nervously, her brain spinning at full speed yet coming up with absolutely nothing useful.
As for Ron… he stood there like a rooster being strangled, unable to utter a single coherent word.
He was, without a doubt, the most miserable one of the three.
Ron's confused little brain couldn't figure out why Snape only targeted him… while his two friends might as well have been invisible.
"Out after curfew, breaking school rules, and when caught… still daring to lie to a professor." Snape's voice dropped dangerously, each word ground out through clenched teeth, dripping with cold fury.
"It seems you lot won't learn any manners unless I give you a proper lesson! I'll make you understand that at Hogwarts, any attempt to challenge authority will come at a painful price!"
"You need a special kind of punishment to teach you insolent brats a lesson. For example… the school's cesspits are long overdue to be cleaned." His chilling gaze swept over the three of them.
"Of course, I could simply have you expelled. Students who can't follow the rules don't deserve to attend Hogwarts… perhaps living on the streets would satisfy your thirst for 'adventure.'" Snape's tone was vicious; his threats were cruel-sounding, but he justified them as necessary to leave a deep impression on the pupils.
In reality, very few students ever get expelled.
Even he had never successfully expelled a Gryffindor he disliked; the last student to be expelled hadn't only broken school rules but also violated Ministry law.
Hogwarts was actually quite lenient with students, not like those supposedly strict schools in the Muggle world. Of course, this wasn't something Hermione knew… nor did Ron or Neville.
Neville's face had gone paler than the moon; Ron's freckles stood out starkly on his ashen skin.
"Professor, you can't take revenge!" Ron blurted out, the word escaping him before he could stop it, and he immediately regretted it. He wasn't completely stupid… he knew shouting that accusation would only enrage Snape.
Sure enough.
The muscles in Snape's face tightened at once; the air around them seemed to freeze solid. He turned slowly, the faint moonlight casting his twisted features into a hideous, high-contrast mask, like a demon from Hell.
"Revenge? You think I'm that sort of professor? Very well, Mr. Weasley… as you wish. I guarantee the punishment I mete out to you will be a 'pleasant' memory you'll never forget."
"Beginning tomorrow, for a full week, from ten o'clock at night to two in the morning, you will come to my office and be responsible for cleaning every cauldron. If you don't clean them properly, you will clean them with your tongue."
"Pray I don't refine Veritaserum and force you to reveal your innermost thoughts in front of your classmates." It must be said: Snape knew exactly how to threaten these students.
Ron's lips instantly drained of color; his legs went weak and he nearly sank to the ground. Like a rooster with its throat pinched, he shut up and no longer dared show any defiance.
The atmosphere grew heavier, suffocating them.
In this sudden, paralyzing tension…
"It's all our fault, Professor! We shouldn't have been out at night, we shouldn't have entered the Forbidden Forest…" Hermione seemed to have come to a desperate conclusion; her voice was urgent, shaking with strain.
"Hm?"
Snape's robes stirred as if an invisible force moved through them. He stared at Hermione, and the pitch of his voice suddenly rose.
"You actually went into the Forbidden Forest by yourselves?"
That was clearly unexpected to Snape.
After all...Under normal circumstances, First-year Gryffindors were not quite bold enough to do something that monumentally stupid.
(To Be Continued…)