There are no wrong nicknames—only names wrongly chosen.
Snape had truly transformed into a giant bat, drifting through the classroom.
No one ever knew whose back he'd appear behind next.
"Bones, what's wrong with your eyes? Can't read the words 'snake fangs'? What are you doing with boar tusks!"
"You there—Carter! What are you laughing at? Don't know what it means to grind into powder? Are the powders in your house as big as peas?"
Hannah, who was partnered with Wayne, trembled and quietly reprocessed the powdered snake fangs.
"Miss Patil, might I suggest sending a letter home and asking them to bring your brain back before attending class again."
"I wrote very clearly—add Flobberworm mucus. You tossed the whole worm in. What did you think this was, cooking?"
"Tch, what's the difference with cooking anyway?" Wayne muttered under his breath.
Weren't they just processing ingredients here?
Add them into the cauldron in order, high heat to low heat, then back to high heat to thicken it.
And voila—a fresh pot of green slime, served hot!
"Hannah, what are you doing?! Don't add that!"
Wayne quickly stopped Hannah just as she was about to throw something into the cauldron.
"What's that?"
"Porcupine quills!" said the pigtailed witch with a look of innocent ignorance untainted by education.
Wayne's forehead twitched. "Porcupine quills come last, right before the potion is done. We're nowhere near that stage yet."
"And also... weren't we supposed to cut them into 3 centimeters? Are these even 3 millimeters?"
On the brass tray, the black-brown porcupine quills had been reduced to shreds.
Wayne was beginning to understand why Snape had such a foul temper.
Facing students like this every day—how could anyone stay in a good mood?
"Ah?" Hannah's mouth formed a perfect 'O'.
She quickly glanced at the blackboard and turned completely pale—
Sure enough, it said "3 centimeters."
"What do I do, Wayne? That was my only set of ingredients!"
Recalling what Snape had just said—that any wasted ingredients would have to be eaten—
Hannah looked at Wayne with tearful eyes.
"Help me, Wayne! I don't want to be poisoned!"
Wayne sighed. "Keep stirring. You keep an eye on the professor. Let me know when he moves farther away."
He didn't dare let Hannah handle anything else. He pulled all the ingredients to his side and took over.
Snape continued spraying venomous sarcasm across the room—but, honestly, none of it was wrong.
When Snape finally walked to the far side of the classroom,
Hannah quickly gave Wayne the signal.
Wayne looked up. Seeing Snape's back turned, he immediately drew his wand.
"Accio porcupine quills!"
A few porcupine quills flew out from the cupboard,
swooping over the young wizards' heads and landing in front of Wayne.
Everyone else was too focused on brewing to notice.
Snape seemed to sense something. He suddenly turned around—
But finding nothing suspicious, he turned back and continued lecturing Toby and Norman.
"Your skills pose no threat to me academically,
but in the field of education, you're damaging my reputation.
Two points from Hufflepuff!"
"So cool!" Hannah wasn't nervous anymore. Her eyes sparkled with stars.
"That was Accio! That's a fifth-year spell!"
"You could learn it too if you practiced more often."
"I don't have time for that," Hannah shook her head, her braided pigtails swinging. "I still need to go to the kitchen to learn cooking from the house-elves. They know so much."
Hannah had mentioned that her dream was to take over her family's Leaky Cauldron pub and change the centuries-old menu that hadn't been updated in over a hundred years.
So whenever she had free time, she would sneak into the kitchens and learn signature dishes from the house-elves.
You could say that Hufflepuff doesn't raise slackers.
The young wizards, aside from studying hard, were busy with all sorts of things.
By the end of class, besides Wayne and Hannah's pair, only Lisa Turpin and Padma Patil from Ravenclaw received a barely acceptable evaluation from Snape.
Padma Patil was a high-caste Indian Brahmin girl who had a twin sister, Parvati, in Gryffindor.
It was quite rare to see twin sisters sorted into different houses.
"Finally over."
Walking out of the Potions classroom, Wayne stretched lazily with relief.
The week's classes were done, and now came a two-day weekend.
Oh right—along with the mountain of essays that totaled several dozen inches in length, from every subject.
Thinking about it, Wayne frowned and headed toward the Great Hall.
While those assignments didn't take much brainpower, they definitely took a lot of time.
He'd rather take a walk by the Black Lake or get more familiar with Hogwarts' layout. Anything would be more meaningful than writing those dull papers.
"Wayne, I was just about to look for you."
As he entered the Great Hall, Cedric suddenly appeared and patted Wayne on the shoulder.
"What's up?"
"It's not me. The twins were looking for you." Cedric adjusted the books he was carrying—Wayne glanced over and saw that they were textbooks for Care of Magical Creatures.
As they walked together toward the long table, Wayne asked, "What are those two up to now?"
"No idea. They just said they'd find you in the common room after dinner. Didn't say anything else."
Wayne nodded. "Alright, got it."
At around seven o'clock, a student came up to Wayne—who was playing wizard's chess with Cedric—and told him the twins were waiting outside.
"I'll come with you, just in case they're planning another prank," Cedric said gallantly, taking advantage of the distraction to make a sneaky move on the board.
If he hadn't only had two pawns and a queen left, Wayne might've believed his sincerity.
Outside the common room, they were greeted by two familiar grinning faces.
Fred—or maybe George—chuckled, "Hey Wayne, why'd you bring a bodyguard?"
"He came on his own, not my idea," Wayne shrugged. "What do you two want?"
Ever since he tricked them twice last week, the twins had been running around frantically, barely touching the ground. They'd just finished copying from famous alumni and now they were back again, full of energy.
Wayne was honestly curious about what they were scheming this time.
"We're here to invite you," said George. "And since Cedric's here, he can come too."
"How about a little campus tour tomorrow?"
"You make it sound like I'm a free quill thrown in with a parchment bundle—how cheap," Cedric replied with a disdainful look.
"Besides, what's there to tour around the school?"
Fred raised an eyebrow slightly. "Aren't you even a little curious about the corridor on the fourth floor?"