Lia's hands made a show of fiddling with some tools, pretending to be a "helper" for the good student.
But on the other side, Harry's style was entirely different.
He wasn't looking at the main text of the textbook at all. His gaze was locked onto the annotations written in scrawled ink on the edges of those old pages.
"Crush the beans with the flat of the blade to squeeze out more juice..."
"After stirring counter-clockwise seven times, add a drop of Peppermint oil to neutralize the bitterness..."
"Only an idiot stirs clockwise ten times! It should be thirteen! The person who wrote this book is worse than a Troll!"
He was completely immersed in those notes, his movements fast and decisive, carrying a blind confidence as if an invisible voice were sternly directing him from behind.
In Hermione's cauldron, the Potion was giving off pale purple steam; everything was as perfect as the textbook described.
But Harry's cauldron, at a certain moment, eerily turned into a deeper pale purple, like blackcurrant juice.
Hermione's brow furrowed.
She noticed Harry's abnormality, but with time pressing, she could only focus more on her own cauldron, striving for perfection.
The bell for the end of class rang. Slughorn walked down from the podium contentedly and began checking the students' results one by one.
"Oh... not bad, Mr. Weasley, the color is a bit dark, but it's already very good..."
"Miss Granger! Ah! Textbook perfection! Every step is beyond reproach! Very excellent!"
Slughorn praised her unsparingly, and a reserved smile finally bloomed at the corners of Hermione's lips.
Then, he walked to Harry's cauldron.
He leaned in close, took a deep sniff, and the expression on his face froze instantly, followed by an explosion of near-ecstatic amazement.
"merlins beard! This... this is too perfect! I've never seen a student do so well on their first try! The color, the consistency, the scent... impeccable! Harry! My boy! You're simply a natural Potion master!"
He excitedly announced on the spot: "The Felix Felicis! It's yours!"
Amidst the mixed looks of envy and amazement from his classmates, Harry took the vial of golden liquid luck from Slughorn, his face beaming with a joy he hadn't even anticipated.
The curve of Hermione's lips stiffened.
A faint displeasure surged in her heart, but more than that, it was the anger and unease of a top student's instinct seeing logic being brutally trampled upon.
This wasn't right.
This was absolutely not right.
After class, she quickly caught up with Harry.
"Harry, let me see your book."
Harry, however, clutched the tattered book tightly to his chest as if guarding a rare treasure, looking at her warily.
His eyes held a childish showiness and defensiveness, along with a bit of irrepressible pride.
"What for? This is my secret weapon." His tail was practically wagging in the air.
"Alright, then can I see your secret weapon?"
Hermione took a deep breath, trying to make her voice sound calm.
"I just want to see how it differs from the textbook. This is very important for my Potion research; it concerns my... understanding of Potions."
"Fine, but you have to give it back to me tomorrow night."
Harry didn't really mind; it was just a book, and he believed Hermione wouldn't keep it from him.
The victory of the Felix Felicis made him somewhat lightheadedly generous, completely failing to notice the turmoil deep within Hermione.
Back in the common room, Lia quietly jumped onto Hermione's lap, snuggling beside her.
Hermione spread the old textbook open on the table, each yellowed page carrying the secrets of years gone by.
Lia's cat paw lightly tapped on those scrawled annotations, her sky-blue eyes flashing with a cat's insight and cunning.
She recalled carefully, then leaned closer to the pages to sniff a few more times before nodding with certainty.
"The scent is correct; this is Snape's book."
Hearing this, Hermione's tense body relaxed, and with a mix of exhaustion and complex emotions, she slumped into her chair in relief.
If she lost to Professor Snape in Potions...
Even for her.
She couldn't muster even a bit of a temper.
After all, that was Snape—someone she might dislike immensely,
But whose talent and ability as a Potion master she could not deny.
[Offering a huge reward for a Cat-girl who can transform!]
[My Tangyuan always sleeps with me when I'm home.]
[The only downside is that she won't transform.]
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