Chapter 30: Chapter 30: The third professor
The next day Severus again got up early to do the exercise he had set out to do every morning and then went to his assigned classes along with Gwen and Freyja.
The first class of the day, Study and Properties of Magical Ingredients with Katrina Scott, flew by for Severus.
Then Severus used the time he had until the second class to analyze possible investments he would make in the Muggle and Magical world.
When 3:15 p.m. rolled around, Severus had to take a quick check on what he was doing to go to the second class of the day.
In this class, the students were going to meet the third and last teacher of the program they had yet to meet.
Freyja, Gwen, and Severus sat together at the front of the class.
Just as it was time for the class a loud bang was heard in the classroom and after a while, a large cloud of gray smoke appeared in front of the students, right where the teacher's desk was.
When the smoke dispersed all the students could see the teacher standing next to her desk looking at them.
The teacher had appeared out of nowhere after the mini-explosion with the smoke and all the students knew she was not in the classroom when they arrived.
Many were impressed with the teacher's trick as it was known that inside the Salem Witches Institute no wizard or witch could appear, so the teacher had used some other type of magic to accomplish this.
Severus had his doubts, he had not felt the magical presence of anyone other than the students, and when the professor appeared he felt her strong magical presence greater than that of all the students, which meant that somehow she had actually appeared in the classroom.
"Welcome students, new and old! I am Professor Monica Locklear and I am the official potions teacher at SCoP. I would like to start this speech by welcoming and congratulating you all for being accepted to take the SCoP summer program, all of you young wizards and witches here are the future potioneers of the magical world and I have no doubt that each of you will achieve great things" many SWI witches applauded, even Gwen to Severus' surprise.
The only person who clapped who was not an official SWI student was Freyja who only clapped to tenderly copy Gwen.
"This... Gwen, do you even know her?" Severus asked whispering in her ear.
He could understand if the other SCoP witches clapped for the teacher since she was apparently their Potions teacher.
But Gwen wasn't from SCoP, she was from SCoT, so it didn't make sense that she would also clap for her out of the blue unless she was their teacher as well, but he knew that each College in SWI had its own teachers for each subject.
"Yes, Professor Locklear is well-liked by everyone at SWI as she gives private lessons for all students no matter what College they are from who have any problems with the subject of potions" Gwen whispered back the same way he did.
"I see, that's very kind of her" Severus commented to her.
"Yes, well, Professor Locklear is very passionate about her subject, and in an Institution like ours where Potions is the subject par excellence, having a teacher like her who supports you and puts all her passion into the subject at all times, is a relief for all those who have problems in Potions or just don't like it. She's a great teacher". said Gwen surprising Severus with the respect she had for the teacher.
'Interesting' thought Severus.
"Oh, Miss Stacy, what a nice surprise to have you in my class" commented the professor causing Gwen and Severus to stop whispering to each other and turn their attention back to her.
"Thank you, Professor Locklear, but you know how my mother is" replied Gwen rolling her eyes.
"Ah, yes, I understand, with that being the reason. But despite that, you don't seem to be having a bad time, from what I can see you are already very attached to one of your classmates" said the teacher as she looked at Severus, making all the students look at them.
Gwen was a little embarrassed by the situation but said nothing, she preferred to drop the subject.
"What is your name young student?" the teacher asked Severus, making Gwen sigh at her bad luck, she already knew that she was not going to be able to avoid today's embarrassment.
"I am Severus Prince, and forgive the interruption of your speech professor."
"Oh so you are Mr. Prince," the professor said her eyes widening quite a bit at the realization that this was the young man she had heard so much about from the Dean, a unique genius in potions.
"A young Englishman, I haven't had an English student in a long time. You don't have to worry about interrupting, do you come from Hogwarts by any chance dear?" The professor did not know which school Severus came from as the Dean did not give this information to the teachers so that when it came to choosing candidates there would be no favoritism of any kind.
But the teacher guessed that Severus who had an English accent could be from Hogwarts since most of the wizards and witches in Britain studied at this school which was considered one of the best in the magical world today.
"That's right Professor" nodded Severus not knowing what else to say, he didn't want to make the situation more awkward than it already was.
"But how interesting, a Hogwarts student I never heard of was accepted into our potions program, quite a surprise," said the professor with noticeable doubt on her face.
She had first heard of him when the Dean had told them about him.
"Professor Locklear" raised her hand suddenly one of the SWI witches present in the class.
Severus and Gwen sighed and inwardly thanked the young witch for taking the professor's attention off them.
"Yes dear?" said the teacher addressing the witch who raised her hand to speak.
"You know Hogwarts students?" asked the SWI witch with intrigue.
"That's right dear, I'm actually quite close to the Potions professor at Hogwarts, Professor Horace Slughorn and I are usually in contact and he tends to tell me a lot about his brightest students, he always speaks very highly of everyone, but for some reason, he never made mention of Sir. Prince, which is strange given that to enter our summer program at SCoP he must be a brilliant student of his subject and even more knowing the capacity that Professor Slughorn has to recognize brilliant young people," commented the professor, now looking at Severus.
Due to the professor's comment, many students in the program were looking at Severus intrigued as to what could be the reason.
They all knew that only those wizards who excelled in potions could do the program and only witches had a bit more preferential treatment, but still, it was not easy for them to enter the program unless they were good at the subject.
Obviously, the professor didn't ask Severus directly the reason since it wasn't her place, but you could tell she was full of intrigue.
Just as everyone was about to give up on getting an answer since Severus wasn't responding, he was heard speaking.
"Well, that could be because I don't usually follow his teachings, Professor Slughorn is a great professional but I don't like to follow the books to the letter, so we might have our differences," said Severus knowing that in reality, the reason was that Slughorn never thought Severus had a great future since he preferred to be alone or with his classmates practicing dark arts and besides with his antisocial personality it was difficult for him to achieve great things.
'Well it could also be because I had stopped going to his Club, maybe he was offended' Severus thought amused at that, as no student would refuse to go to his Club.
"Right, that would make sense, as you say, Professor Slughorn is a great professional, but unless he is a professional he doesn't like it when they don't follow the instructions given to follow for elaborations, much less the students, a pity I must say, I have seen your work Mr. Prince and I must say it is impressive, dangerous given your age, but impressive" nodded the professor.
"Merlin how I would have loved to have you as a SCoP student along with Professor Slughorn's star pupil Lily Evans, well you must already know her as she was your classmate, a pity I must say, but I'm glad to have you, now how about we continue with the class," said the professor as she continued talking.
But Severus didn't pay attention to her after she mentioned Lily Evans' name, there was a part of him that was still weak before that name.
"Hey Prince, is something wrong, everything alright?" asked Gwen seeing Severus so lost, she had seen that he took the whole conversation quite calmly but as soon as the professor mentioned that Evans girl, Severus went blank.
"Mmmm Severus are you alright?" asked also Freyja worried seeing Severus' face, she had already seen that expression and it was almost the same one her mother put on every time her dad's wife was mentioned.
"This... yes, I just got lost for a moment, nothing out of this world, let's keep listening, lest we get noticed again," Severus said calmly to the two of them once he reacted.
Gwen and Freyja only nodded with some doubts still.
The three of them turned their attention back to the class.
"Finally you should know that you will have me as your teacher for the subjects: Magic Chemistry, Magic Physics, and Magic Metaphysics. And today I will be going over the expectations that the staff and I..." the teacher continued speaking.
Severus had to admit that he was surprised by today's Magical Chemistry class.
That was because Magical Chemistry used to be a rather exhausting and boring subject for most wizards and witches, but Professor Locklear had made the class quite a spectacle.
Instead of giving a typical lecture, she showed us all kinds of magical chemical combinations, magical matter, its properties, and its changing nature.
He explained how all magical matter is made up of simple magical chemical elements or their compounds, each with its own distinguishing characteristics.
"It is easy to say that magical chemistry is important because everything is made of magical chemicals, but what is important is to know those magical nutrients, magical medicines, and poisons, everything we do involves magical chemistry because it is a magical chemical process" the teacher had said.
"Why do you think wizards and witches are different from Muggles?" the teacher asked.
"That's obvious, wizards and witches are born with the ability to do magic, while Muggles are not" commented one of the wizards in the class.
"Correct Sir...." said the teacher.
"Ethan, Ethan Hale."
"Well, what Sir said. Hale is correct as you all will know, but it is much more complex than just that, you should know that many things that are in our environment are made of magical chemicals, and many things that we observe in the world are made of magical chemicals effects and that is the difference between a muggle and a wizard or witch. We can feel and see these magical chemicals because magical chemical reactions are taking place in our bodies that do not occur in Muggles," the professor explained.
Severus already knew this, it hadn't been explained to him in such detail but it was something he could deduce on his own since he loved the subject.
"That's the biggest difference between Muggles and us, then we are almost completely the same, if it wasn't that we have this ability to sense magic, we wouldn't be different from Muggles since our body without these magical properties would function the same as theirs" the teacher continued.
And Severus understood why at Hogwarts they never explained this in such detail.
It was because the ministry and the pureblood houses would not tolerate their children being told that we wizards and witches are not much different from Muggles, that is something unacceptable to them no matter how much it is so.
"They should know that with the help of magical chemistry, we can cure most diseases that are deadly or dangerous to Muggles, the only problem is that when the disease is magical it is much more complex to achieve this and sometimes impossible. In that case, we are the same as the Muggles too, they have diseases that they can't cure with their science and technology and we have magical things that we can't cure with our magic."
When the class was over, Severus chatted for a while with Gwen and Freyja for a while.
Freyja was excited about everything the teacher told.
While Gwen listened amused by the conversation but also looking at Severus from time to time with intrigue, she still hadn't forgotten about Severus' little detail at the beginning of the class.
After finishing the conversation Severus took the opportunity to continue analyzing the investments he would make until the History of Potions and Potioneers class began.
19:30 the class started and at 20:30 the History of Potions and Potioneers class with Professor Caroline Spilman ended.
Despite how nice the teacher was teaching the subject, all the students found it to be a rather dense and boring subject.
Even Severus had trouble paying attention.
At 21:00 Severus, Gwen and Freyja went together to the main hall for dinner.
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