"Hi~" Harry looked nervously at the girl wearing the black and green school uniform before him.

Merlin above, he had never spoken so civilly to a Slytherin before.

He always felt that these Slytherins had a venomous quality about them, like they could strike and bite him at any moment.

Jane gave him a cold nod, her face expressionless.

She had already decided to minimize interaction with the protagonist to avoid getting caught up in more trouble.

But this seemed to make Harry even more uncomfortable.

"Um, I'll go get the ingredients," he mumbled hastily before heading to the supply cabinet.

This is truly terrifying, he thought.

When he finished gathering dried nettles, snake fangs, porcupine quills and horned slugs, he turned to find Jane standing right behind him, holding some ingredients he didn't recognize.

He scrambled to his feet: "Sorry, I was too slow..."

Their heads collided violently as he stood up!

That hurt!

Harry saw the girl clutching her forehead tightly, tears welling up in her eyes, and immediately panicked.

"I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" he anxiously checked on Jane's condition.

Being around the protagonist really is dangerous!

Jane thought through gritted teeth. Just one encounter and she'd already gotten a bump on her head. The protagonist's power was truly terrifying!

She lowered her hand from her forehead, waving dismissively to indicate she was fine, and returned to her seat with the ingredients.

Harry followed behind her, apologizing profusely until Jane, unable to bear his chatter any longer, made a stopping gesture that finally silenced him.

Brewing potions wasn't too different from brewing Chinese medicine in her past life. Making this boil-cure potion wasn't particularly difficult. She put on her dragon-hide gloves and crushed six snake fangs in the mortar while Harry cut the dried nettles into small pieces.

She then added four measures of crushed snake fangs and the dried nettle pieces to the cauldron, heating and stewing the horned slugs - just like steaming rice noodle rolls in her past life, she thought absently.

After heating, she removed the cauldron from the flames, added two porcupine quills, and stirred clockwise five times in one fluid motion.

But she wasn't finished yet. Before waving her wand, she added one drop of dittany essence. Pink smoke rose from the cauldron as the potion turned sky blue.

Harry watched her in amazement from the side, having done little more than hand over tools and chop ingredients.

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What an impressive brewing session! he marveled internally.

It wasn't until they were bottling the potion that he turned his stiff neck and nearly jumped out of his skin to find Professor Snape standing at their table.

They didn't know how long he'd been there, staring intently at their work with a dark expression and folded arms.

Noticing Harry's gaze, he forced out through clenched teeth:

"Idling about - one point from Gryffindor."

He then picked up the bottle of potion, removed the cork to smell it, and carefully examined its color - a crystal-clear blue, obviously of high quality.

"What made you think to add dittany essence?" His black eyes fixed on Jane.

"Tissue regeneration," she answered concisely.

Professor Snape let out a cold snort, giving her a long look: "Not following standard procedure."

He didn't deduct any more points from Slytherin, but instead tucked the small bottle into his robes and strode toward the front rows - where several students had already created chaos.

Suddenly, acid green smoke and a sharp hissing sound filled the dungeon. A cauldron had melted into a twisted blob, and the potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes.

The round-faced blonde boy - Jane now knew his name was Neville - was drenched in the potion. Angry red boils sprang up all over his exposed skin as he began to whimper in pain.

"Idiot!"

Snape snarled, clearing the spilled potion away with a wave of his wand.

"I told you to take the cauldron off the fire before adding the porcupine quills!"

He pulled out the small bottle of blue liquid - Jane's potion - from his robes and threw it at Neville:

"Apply this!"

Neville, sobbing and hiccupping, took the bottle with trembling hands, nearly dropping it under Snape's death glare.

"Weasley, why didn't you help him apply the medicine? Did you think watching a classmate's misfortune would make you look better? That's another point from Gryffindor." Snape glared at Ron fiercely.

Ron was speechless and could only take the bottle to help apply the potion on Neville.

The potion worked remarkably well. Wherever it touched, the angry red boils writhed and sealed themselves, the redness fading to reveal healthy pale skin.

Snape had to admit that even if he had brewed it himself, the results couldn't have been better.

In just an hour and a half, Gryffindor had lost 3 points, while Slytherin had lost 2.

Both snakes and lions were pale-faced as they climbed the steps out of the dungeon classroom. Even Draco didn't have the spirit to harass Harry anymore.

"Bloody hell!"

As soon as they were out, Ron immediately found Harry to vent: "Snape's completely unreasonable! He's always taking points from Fred and George. I think he equally hates everyone in the Weasley family."

Harry was also dejected: "He kept targeting me today... and Jane too."

At the mention of Jane, Ron immediately said, "It's really strange - I've never seen him target a Slytherin student like that before. They say he never used to take points from his own house."

"I don't understand either," Harry's thoughts were churning, "Her potion-making skills are clearly very high... what she made was far beyond the textbook standard, but Snape didn't give her any points either."

"Really?" Ron was shocked, "Then why did she answer 'I don't know' when Snape asked her those three questions he'd asked you?"

Harry suddenly stopped in his tracks, grabbing Ron's arm:

"I get it now."

Ron looked horrified as his best friend's face lit up with emotion.

"She did it to avoid embarrassing me... She must have known the answers, but because I couldn't answer earlier, she pretended not to know either."

Harry's heart swelled with gratitude.

When one person fails to answer a question and loses points, Gryffindors would blame them. But when a second Slytherin also can't answer, Gryffindors would only think the questions were too difficult or that Snape was being unfair.

Jane was such a considerate person! Why did she have to be sorted into Slytherin?

Harry sighed regretfully.

Ron's face contorted.

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"Uh, mate, don't you think you might be overthinking this..."

"Ron, you know what? When I was getting ingredients, I bumped into Jane's head - it swelled up but she didn't blame me. Then while brewing the potion, she completed the task meant for both of us by herself!" Harry declared firmly.

This convinced Ron.

"You have a point. She really does seem different from those snakes. No wonder she desperately didn't want to go to Slytherin - the Sorting Hat must be getting senile!"

Harry nodded in agreement: "If she'd come to Gryffindor, she wouldn't be bullied by those people."