"YES!"
Malfoy was thrilled, barely holding back a cheer. Looks like he didn't do a good job after all; it must have been a disaster. Just wait, Professor Snape is going to make him pay for this.
Hermione and Harry were worried for Dudley, but under Snape's stern gaze, they had no choice but to leave the classroom.
Once everyone was gone, only Snape and Dudley remained. To be honest, being alone with Snape was quite nerve-wracking, especially in a room filled with so many potion ingredients. It was torture.
After a brief, tense silence, Snape spoke first.
"Have you made this before?"
Snape held up the perfectly brewed Potion for Boils.
"No," Dudley said, shaking his head. "That's the first time I've ever brewed this specific one."
Dudley's choice of words was subtle, but Snape, ever observant, caught the detail. Dudley didn't say it was the first potion he'd ever made.
"So you've brewed other potions before?"
"Yes," Dudley nodded, answering truthfully. "I've made a Slightly Stronger Potion, a Wiggenweld Potion, a Strengthening Solution, Skele-Gro, Essence of Dittany, and a Blood-Replenishing Potion..."
As Dudley listed the names of various potions as if he were reading off a menu, Snape's expression went from calm to deeply complex.
"Let me see them," Snape demanded, holding out a hand.
Without a word, Dudley pulled one vial after another from his bag, lining up the finished potions on the table in front of Snape.
"They're not very good. They're all self-taught, so they're quite limited."
Snape grabbed a vial and held it up to the light.
"They are indeed terrible," Snape stated flatly. "You're only slightly better than a goblin."
The blunt assessment hit Dudley a little harder than he expected. While he had made most of these before he had his "data eyes," he was still quite proud of them. His comment about them being "limited" was just a bit of humility, you know?
Little did he know, despite the look of disdain on Snape's face, the Potions Master was actually quite shocked. In terms of brewing skill, Dudley was far behind both Snape and even Lily at his age. But in terms of the number of different potions he knew how to make, Dudley had them all beaten. At his age, Snape and Lily combined hadn't made as many.
Snape's point of reference was their first year, and Dudley was a complete first-year who had clearly taught himself. This showed incredible talent.
He's only slightly less gifted than Lily, Snape thought. As one of the few Potions Masters in the wizarding world, Snape could see Dudley's raw talent instantly. It reminded him of the few times he'd been to the Evans' house and tasted Petunia's cooking. It was excellent, and in a way, brewing potions was very similar to cooking.
"You have your mother's brewing technique," Snape said out of the blue.
"You knew my mother?" Dudley asked.
Snape's expression was a bit strained. "We were acquainted. We were neighbors once."
Petunia had always been unfriendly to Lily's wizard friends because she couldn't go to Hogwarts herself. She had even called Snape a "freak." Any friendship they had was purely through Lily, and after the incident in their fifth year, all ties were completely severed. He never thought Petunia's son would not only come to Hogwarts but also have a great talent for Potions. He had always assumed her family was made up of Muggles through and through.
"Are you the Mr. Snape my mother used to mention?"
It wasn't a Hogwarts custom for professors to introduce themselves by their full name. Even if it were, Snape wouldn't have done it. The students only knew his last name.
"She mentioned me?" Snape's expression was genuinely stunned. He never would have expected Petunia to speak about him to Dudley.
"Before I came to Hogwarts, Mum told Harry and me a lot about the wizarding world. She talked about some of the people and things that happened with Aunt Lily when they were kids."
"She always wished she could come here, and she cherished the friends she had because of Aunt Lily."
Petunia had finally let go of her resentment. So that Dudley and Harry would feel more at home at Hogwarts, she told them everything she had learned from Lily over the years. Most of the information was from twenty years ago, but the wizarding world hadn't changed much.
Dudley noticed a slight tremor in Snape's body when he mentioned Aunt Lily.
Snape suddenly seemed to remember something. He lifted his head, his hollow, vacant eyes boring into Dudley. He stared for so long that it made Dudley's skin crawl.
I see now. Petunia's son is so talented because he inherited Lily's gift.
While it was possible to explain it through genetics—that Petunia and Lily both carried a recessive gene for magic, but only Lily had it activated—Dudley preferred to think of it as a change he brought with him to this world, unrelated to genetics.
But what Dudley believed didn't matter. What Snape believed, did.
He was convinced that Lily was guiding him. Look at it: a student with Lily's outstanding talent for potions, a Gryffindor best friend, and a Slytherin who were childhood rivals... this was a perfect mirror of him and Lily back in the day. How could it be a coincidence?
Of course, he is a bit stronger than I was, Snape thought, recalling his own thin, wiry frame as a student.
Wizards were a strange bunch. They didn't believe in science, but they believed in fate and prophecy. Even powerful wizards like Voldemort and Dumbledore were incredibly superstitious. Voldemort had even gone after the Potters because of a prophecy, and he ended up being defeated just as the prophecy foretold.
Dudley was different. He didn't believe in prophecies. He believed in muscle.
"You..." Snape stared at Dudley intently, drawing out the word. Just as Dudley felt the urge to punch him, he finished his sentence. "...would you like to learn Potions from me?"
Snape had been wanting to pass on his knowledge for a long time, but he had never found a suitable student. As a Potions Master, his standards were incredibly high. To learn from him, a student had to have at least half of Lily's talent, and in his mind, Lily's talent was infinite. So, half of infinity was still infinite.
Right now, he believed Lily was guiding him to Dudley. If Dudley refused, or if he ever stopped believing it was destiny, the offer would be gone. This was just a chance, and if Dudley wasn't good enough to seize the opportunity, he would be cast aside without a second thought.
The wizarding world didn't have a tradition of "once a teacher, always a father" like some other places.
"Of course, Professor Snape. It would be an honor."
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