Maca was the first to wake up the next morning.
He couldn't figure it out himself. He'd only drifted off to sleep late last night, yet here he was, awake so early. He figured it probably had something to do with that little girl, Luna! Whenever he stayed over at her place, he'd face all sorts of wake-up calls every morning, and that dazed little girl seemed to enjoy it. Without realizing it, he'd developed this "bad habit" of waking up on schedule.
Today, classes would begin.
Most of Hufflepuff's classes would be scheduled with Ravenclaw, and correspondingly, Gryffindor's classes would be with Slytherin. This had one advantage: without Harry Potter around, Snape would be relatively less irritable.
"Roll call will now begin..."
Snape was still that same unapproachable figure, never a smile on his face. He sternly read out the names on the roll call list one by one, not even glancing at the students. After he finished the roll call, he looked at the students with those cold, vacant black eyes. In them, Maca saw a look somewhat similar to those of the homeless people on Topoint Street who had lost their lives and dreams.
"No," Maca silently denied in his heart, "Compared to the homeless, his gaze is even more... more complete, almost like the eyes of a dead person, cold, empty, full of death."
Having lived in the shadows of Britain's magical world for so long at such a young age, Maca had always relied on his ability to deceive and understand the psychology of others. But now, he found himself unable to glean any information from Snape, which made him want to stay away from this man for the first time.
"Avoiding unknown dangers is the most effective way to protect yourself." This was a truism that always circulated in the dark world.
"Mr. McLean, do you seem to have a different opinion about my words?" Just as Maca was staring blankly into Snape's eyes, the other party seemed to have noticed something, looked at him, and then frowned.
"Oh, no, I mean, I really like this course, but the theories that it involves are very complex. I sincerely hope that Professor Snape, you can help me answer some of the questions I encountered in my preview."
In a hurry, Maca was carried away by his previous thoughts and rarely admitted defeat. But he did have a lot of questions that he wanted to get answers from an authority, so it couldn't be said that he was talking nonsense.
Yesterday, in the Hufflepuff common room, Maca had asked Senior Darren a lot of information about the various professors. As for Snape, although almost no student liked him, his achievements in both Potions and Charms were undeniable.
Just looking at his title of "Potion Master", recognized by the International Confederation of Wizards and awarded by the British Ministry of Magic, was enough to give him a place in the global magical world. In the book Advanced Potion-Making, there were many improved potion preparation methods that he had developed, although no one knew about it yet.
However, Snape did not appreciate Maca's words at all. He gave a cold smile – if that could be called a smile – and then said in a contemptuous tone: "Oh? Is that so? Then why don't you say it? But if it's just some boring questions, then Hufflepuff will probably lose some points. Let me say it again, in my class, I don't welcome students to ask questions!"
Maca swallowed hard at the words. Fortunately, the other Hufflepuff students didn't seem to care about the point deduction. Instead, they were looking at him with worried expressions. It seemed that the safety of their classmate was more important than the house points.
Maca glanced around, and as he breathed a sigh of relief, a hint of fondness for this house welled up within him. It was only now that he felt, for the first time, that "being sorted into Hufflepuff seemed pretty good."
"Ahem," he cleared his throat to steady himself, and then raised the most perplexing question he had encountered while reading Magical Drafts and Potions.
"Professor Snape, when I was previewing the section on the Sleeping Draught, I found that a quantitative constant in the formula for its proportions wasn't explicitly explained in the actual mixing process, which has left me puzzled. I'm not sure if I've made a mistake somewhere." Maca's brow furrowed as he spoke, the most obvious sign of his deep engagement.
When discussing knowledge that he cared about, he often forgot the environment and the person he was talking to, which was a bad habit of his.
Fortunately, Snape didn't show any impatience. He stared at Maca for a moment before speaking.
"I'll cover the section on the Sleeping Draught later, and you won't have to ask such questions if you listen carefully in class." Snape said coldly, then ignored Maca, turned around, tapped the blackboard with his wand, and lines of text and formulas immediately appeared.
"Sit down, you can sit down." Ernie, who was sitting next to him, tugged at Maca's sleeve and whispered, "I didn't expect that! I heard that Professor Snape is the strictest professor at Hogwarts, and the points he says he'll deduct, never get held back!"
Maca didn't feel any sense of relief. He was genuinely concerned about that question!
The two potion classes were finished in the cold, underground classroom. As soon as Professor Snape dismissed them, the students couldn't wait to leave. Besides the numerous animal organ specimens and Snape's perpetually cold demeanor, there was nothing else in the classroom. The whole room was filled with an unpleasant atmosphere.
"That constant isn't useful; it's a historical mistake." As Maca passed the door, he saw Snape standing outside. After saying this, Snape strode away.
Maca watched Snape's back. He thought the large cloak opened when he walked, like a walking bat. The image made him chuckle.
It doesn't seem as hard to communicate as I thought. Maca thought to himself.
Of course, it wasn't as simple as Maca thought. The reason Snape waited at the door and left that answer was that Maca's question was precisely one of the things that made Snape engrossed in Potions. In other words, Snape had also had this question when he was a student.
Maca couldn't have known about this not-so-coincidental coincidence at this moment.
Following the Potions class was Professor Quirrell's Defense Against the Dark Arts class, though there wasn't much to say about it. Besides Professor Quirrell himself, who reeked of garlic and stuttered when he spoke, the empty and boring content of the lessons was also quite depressing.
Maca really couldn't understand how someone could make the story of dealing with a Reanimated Zombie sound so clumsy and suspicious. He'd heard Quirrell was a decent student back in his day.
Leaving aside Potions class and the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, which taught almost nothing useful, what interested Maca the most was Professor Flitwick's Charms class. Professor Flitwick, who had Goblin ancestry, was a good professor worthy of everyone's respect.
Although the professor was short in stature due to his heritage.
In his class, there were no strict requirements, and students were even free to move around. Even if the students joked around with him, he wouldn't be displeased.
But when Professor Flitwick explained in detail to Maca the problems he'd encountered in the book Theoretical Magic, Maca immediately felt a sense of respect for the professor.
This former dueling champion was the real deal. His insights and application of techniques gave Maca a different understanding of the basic magical theories of this world. After several explanations, it was like opening a new door for Maca.
"Thank you, Professor Flitwick," Maca always had genuine respect for those who imparted knowledge to him.
Professor Flitwick smiled and patted Maca's arm – he clearly couldn't reach anyone's shoulders very easily. He said kindly, "No need to be so formal. Theory is dry; only with practical application will you have a deeper understanding. However, you are still the most in-depth student of Charms in this year's freshmen class, just like Miss Granger from Gryffindor, quite excellent."
Afterward, Maca learned some information about Hermione from Professor Flitwick. When he heard about Hermione's study scope, he couldn't help but shake his head and smile wryly – she read too many books, which wasn't necessarily beneficial for understanding and application.
In Maca's opinion, mastering the basics was the only way to lay the most solid foundation for further study and research. Even geniuses needed to take things one step at a time, not to mention he knew very well that he wasn't a genius, and Hermione probably wasn't either.
As for the remaining courses, the one Maca disliked the most wasn't the History of Magic, which most students found extremely annoying, but Astronomy on Wednesday evenings – that was the norm. In Maca's opinion, aside from the magical knowledge involved, the observation, recording, and calculation methods were far inferior to the methods used by Muggles in this area.
Most importantly, this course wasn't very useful in the current magical world, which made a pragmatist like Maca feel extremely pained.
"Hey, I heard you refuted Snape's theory in his class, is that true?"
During Herbology class, while everyone was fertilizing some harmless and gentle health-promoting plants in the first greenhouse, Ron suddenly came over and asked Maca with great interest.
Maca noticed that not far away, Hermione, holding a small trowel, seemed to have turned her attention here, and she seemed very interested in this question as well.