A Nascent Kaleidoscope.

Chapter 701: Interlude 50, Kunou's Hogwarts Adventures 10

The Dueling Club had been a big success.

There were several reasons for that. One, it got a large number of students excited to learn the art of dueling. Dumbledore and the other teachers were always thrilled when students showed such enthusiasm for learning.

Two, the club authority seemed to be handed off perfectly to Professor Flitwick. After an…unforeseen accident with regard to Professor Lockhart and his duel against Professor Kuzuki, the former had lost…credibility.

Oh, he certainly retained his rabid fanbase.

But the students inside the dueling club seemed to not really go bright-eyed to him at this point.

And after learning that Professor Flitwick is a champion duelist, they got a lot more interested in being taught by him.

And the third, and perhaps most important, reason is that the dueling club was a rousing success with most staff.

The students seemed to forget about the whole Chamber of Secrets thing.

Sure, in another time and place, the Hogwarts whisper mill may have been bouncing off the walls with regard to all the rumors and myths surrounding the notorious hidden chamber.

But after what happened in the Dueling Club…the students had other rumors to focus on and circulate at lightning speed. Something about a certain Fox-girl summoning a demon bear.

Something about her being immune to magic.

Something, then, about sending Draco to infamy—again—after giving him a wedgie so bad that he needed a very invasive procedure to remove said underpants from certain unfortunate places.

There may or may not have been some broken bones discussed.

And perhaps a few rumors that the Great Hall was set on fire.

Though Kunou couldn't take all the credit in this regard.

For the Hogwarts rumor mill was vast and encompassing.

Professor Kuzuki also got his fair share, but they were slightly less believable due to certain prejudices regarding muggles.

Ironically, it was the Muggleborn students who had the most trouble believing some of the rumors. For many that were born and lived in the Wizarding World, Muggles were a sort of fantastical subject.

Many almost treated them as another species.

They knew as much about muggles as they did about goblins, perhaps even less.

So the rumors about how Professor Kuzuki was a ninja, or that he was some half-giant, or that he was a former assassin—that being true, actually—the Hogwarts students were split.

And when many went to ask Professor Lockhart about said rumors, well, it was hard to verify because he would go white and seemingly escape when mentions of the muggle professor were made.

But it also didn't take long for things to quiet down.

School returned to normal, for what that was worth in a school about teaching magic.

"Oh! Ginny!" Kunou called out happily.

The red-headed girl flushed slightly as everyone turned to look her way. She was always a bit on the shy side; suddenly being the center of attention could get to her easily.

"H-Hey, Kunou."

"I love having class together; isn't it great!" Kunou smiled happily.

"Yeah, great," Ginny muttered under her breath. "You don't have to deal with Snape hating you just because you're a Gryffindor."

Kunou puffed up her chest. "We'll get a good grade today; I can feel it!" She grabbed Ginny's arm and pulled her into potions class.

It was one of the few classes that they had together. Slytherin and Gryffindor houses together, that is.

It was one of the times that Kunou could also meet her other friend.

"Hey, Colin!" She enthusiastically waved.

"Hi Kunou!" He waved back just as enthusiastically.

They didn't really hang out much outside of classes, but Kunou liked knowing she could still just call him a friend.

One of her new friends!

She hadn't had much luck with making more friends yet.

It may have something to do with what's been happening at school, but who could say for sure?

Perhaps it didn't help that a significant portion of her fellow first years were sort of kind of terrified of her.

But she wasn't put off.

She was still the same bubbly and happy Kunou.

And the fact that she made as many friends as she did was already enough for her too. It was far more friends than she had back home.

And she treated Luna like her best friend – maybe they were actually best friends.

"Did you see the latest issue of Witches Weekly? Merlin, those robes were scandalous." Ginny found her own momentum after the initial shyness wore off.

"Bleh." Kunou made a face and noise. "Robes are so ugly."

Ginny gasped, mostly faking. "How dare you."

"You humans are so weird about them. Just wear normal clothes."

"Like a muggle?" Ginny made a face this time. "Da said that their clothes are all itchy and coarse."

"That's dumb." Kunou replied. "I'll show you what clothes I packed. My Auntie Rin and Artoria picked me out a lot of clothes I haven't been able to wear yet."

"From Japan?" Ginny's eyes lit up. Despite her words, she wasn't entirely serious. As a witch, she had basically been raised on robes and their extended accessories, but that didn't mean she wasn't curious or excited to see fashion from other places.

"I have some traditional things, but they're just normal clothes. You all are weird; clothes are the same everywhere. Even I know that."

"We're not weird!" Ginny harumphed. "Do you have anything in my size?"

Kunou paused, eyeing her, and then she held her hands up and pinched her stomach. "I have some things that we can make work. My aunties made sure I had some stuff I could grow into so they're a little bigger."

"Are you saying I'm fat!?""

Kunou stuck her tongue out, and Ginny stuck her tongue out back at her.

"Do you have more food? Merlin, I sound like Ron, but I really liked what you let me try last time."

"Sure do!" Kunou smiled happily. "Auntie Izzy made sure I had a lot of home-cooked meals."

"You sure have a lot of aunts." Ginny gave her a side-eye. "Your mom has that many sisters? Is that a thing with you, erm…"

"Kitsune?"

"Yeah, that?"

Kunou shook her head. "My mom doesn't have any siblings. They aren't blood-related. Most of them come from Daddy's side."

"Oh, so your dad's family." Ginny nodded in understanding.

"Well, one is." Kunou trailed off for a second. "Come on, i want the window seat." Kunou pulled Ginny over to the corner of the room.

"What window? We're in the dungeons; these windows are fake."

"But I like the fake underwater scene! I saw a whale last time." Kunou laughed.

Ginny just rolled her eyes.

"Are you okay, Ginny? Your eyes look really dark." Kunou all but pressed her face up against the other girls.

Ginny reeled back in surprise, nearly falling out of her seat. At this point though, she was sort of used to Kunou being…weird. "Yeah, just…I feel like I haven't been sleeping very well. I've been tired a lot more."

As if to prove a point, an unconscious yawn came over her that she covered with her hand.

"Do you want to see the nurse?"

"No, it's fine. Just tired." Ginny shook her head.

"Enough talking." Snape's voice carried through the room, not targeting anyone in particular, as the whole class had been chatting away.

With a wave of his hand, Snape slammed the door to the room shut.

"The art of potions requires attention, dedication, and silence." He drawled, looking around. "Now, set your books onto your tables and turn to page 47. You will be brewing your first potions."

He tapped his wand against the blackboard, and it was suddenly filled with directions.

"You will follow each step precisely. To deviate even a hair's breadth will lead to…disastrous results." The words rolled off his tongue with that same cold, calm, and almost nasally tone. "If I see one dunderhead pointing their wand at something other than their cauldron, it will be immediate detention for a month."

He paused, letting his words sink in.

"What are you waiting for, an invitation? You have until the end of class, which gives you an extra 15 minutes. Begin."

The words on the board read 'Cure for Boils' potion.

"You may ask any question, but if it is a stupid question, I will deduct points." He warned and didn't say another word.

"Alright, Ginny, do you want to crush the Snake Fangs, or do you want to heat up the Cauldron?" Kunou asked.

"Uh…how good are you at controlling the heat?"

"Pretty good; I'll heat it up first."

Ginny nodded, and she grabbed the Snake Fangs, putting them in a pestle and using the mortar to grind them up into a powder.

"Do I just add them in now?" Ginny was about to dump them into the cauldron, but Kunou stopped her.

"You need to wait until it reaches temperature first."

"What's the difference? It'll heat up anyways, right?" Ginny scrunched her nose.

"Nuh huh." She shook her head. "If you put it in too soon, it won't dissolve right at a high temperature. I think snake fangs need to be flash-fried to get rid of anything left on the outside so it doesn't mess with the potion. That's why we're doing it first."

Snape, who had been walking around the room, had been listening in, waiting for someone to make a mistake.

He stopped dead in his tracks as he listened to Kunou's explanation.

He was about to scold Ginny for being an idiot, but he held his tongue because someone else beat him to the punch.

"Despite your…terminology, you are correct…Miss Schweinorg." Snape loomed over them, finding himself surprised for even saying it.

He expects a lot more…chaos or difficulty in teaching this girl. He's had her for several classes at this point.

She was loud, belligerent, otherwise unruly. Yet also, she got her work on to an adequate degree, wasn't late for class, and never missed an assignment.

He expected a disastrous result for this first-time potion-making attempt, considering his own experience and what he'd heard from his fellow teachers.

What he did not expect was someone who apparently had previous experience in the art of potion-making.

He didn't immediately interfere even as Ginny all but cowered under his gaze. He instead took a polite step back to not hover.

"Alright, Ginny! It says to add 4 measures; I think that means the measuring spoon there." She pointed at a spoon on the table. "Add it in when I say so."

Ginny quickly used the spoon to measure out what '4 measures' entailed.

"Throw it in!"

At her beckoning, Ginny all but tossed it into the cauldron.

"Do I keep adding?" Ginny asked almost impatiently.

"It only says once on the board. Even at this heat it's taking awhile to dissolve; I don't think we should add more; it'll just build up and not dissolve right."

Snape raised an eyebrow because she was correct again.

He intentionally didn't write out every detail on the board.

He gave them enough instructions to pass if they followed them. But he left out the details that would allow them to succeed. He didn't bother to teach those who didn't have the mind to understand why the directions were as they were.

While he was a teacher, he wasn't here to hold anyone's hands.

Kunou quickly took out her wand to wave it at the pot, magically mixing everything.

"Okay, we need to let it brew for 33-45 minutes; it says on the board."

"How do we know when it's done?" Ginny asked. "That's a big window, isn't it?"

Kunou tilted her head. "I think we should be able to tell. It'll probably start bubbling or changing color if it's not an exact time."

"Oh, that's easy." Ginny let out a sigh of relief.

Snape felt his eye twitch.

Not out of anger or annoyance. Well, partly because of those, but they weren't directed at Kunou.

No, it was the fact that this random…child, a child that wasn't human, who came from Japan, of all places, could put the equation together. That is to say, she had the basic thoughts to connect the dots to understand the instructions and not just treat them like they were baking a cake.

It reaffirmed his own thoughts on the matter.

It's simply that the students here were too stupid to properly understand the art of potion-making.

But reconciling what he knew about the girl with the competency he was seeing, it didn't help that she was swishing her tails back and forth almost like she was silently dancing in the spot she was standing while the cauldron continued to brew.

"What do we do in the meantime?" Ginny asked. "Should we get everything ready?"

"Sure!" Kunou hummed. "My Aunt Jinn says that it's important to have everything ready to go when you're making a potion because it's really delicate and you can't waste time looking for something if you forgot something somewhere."

"Eww, are these slugs?" Ginny held her tongue out as she accidentally touched a bowl.

"Oh no!" Ginny lowered her head at the bowl.

"What's wrong?"

"There's something wrong with the slug." Kunou pulled one out of the bowl, holding it up for a closer look.

Snape, who was about to walk away, stopped ahead, his head all but snapping at her.

"Professor Snape! There's something wrong with my slug. Are they supposed to be dead or alive?" She waved it around, and a drop of slug juice was flung off and landed on another boy's face.

He didn't see where it came from, but he apparently smelled it and started gagging, nearly knocking something into his cauldron.

"Mr. Keenly, minus 5 points from Gryffindor for unruly class behavior." He barely spared the boy a glance as he climbed back up on his feet. "Miss Schweinorg. The slugs should be dead. Is that your only question, or would you like more points deducted?"

"But this one is alive." She wiggled it.

Snape narrowed his eyes and all but glided to her side to inspect it.

Ever so slightly, it wiggled, and Snape took out his wand, holding it up to the slug.

His lips twitched because he was indeed alive.

He couldn't blame anyone else because he meticulously prepared all ingredients for glass every day.

It was rare, but every once in a while, he overlooked or missed something.

"Ten points to Slytherin, Miss Schweinorg." He waved his wand and floated the 'living' slug to his desk, and another one flew over and landed on hers. "Your…replacement."

"What's the big deal?" Ginny whispered to Kunou.

Snape apparently heard her. "The big deal, Miss Weasley, is that—" He stopped himself; a bout of curiosity overcame him. "Miss Schweinorg, would you kindly answer her question?"

"Uh, fresh dead things are different than long dead things?" Kunou responded half-heartedly.

"...correct." Thought he would appreciate a more thorough answer. "Your Horned Slugs were dried for 7 days in cold air to prepare them. The big deal, Miss Weasley, is if you threw that living horned slug into your cauldron, it would have turned from a cure for boils into a poisonous concoction that would have severely harmed, if not killed, any who drank it."

Ginny shrunk her head back under his intense gaze.

He ignored her.

"Miss Schweinorg." His tone took on a different hue to it. Less…intense, tinged with curiosity. "Do you have previous…experience?"

"Yeah! I used to help my Aunt Jinn make potions back home! And Daddy taught me some things too. I even have my alchemy table with me! Do you want to see it?" She was quick to blurt everything out once given the opportunity.

Snape furrowed his brow, digesting what she just said. "Alchemy?"

"Oh, right. It's different here. Back home, Daddy says making potions falls under alchemy."

Snape silently evaluated her words, not sure how to feel about them. Alchemy was considered a very sought-after, prestigious, and rare art to master.

Normally, he would be offended with his potion-making getting swept up into the category of another school of thought, but in this case, it was slightly different, enough that he didn't immediately get angry.

He was about to argue the intricacies of his art and how it differed from alchemy, sheerly on principle alone, but a table suddenly flopped out onto the ground in front of him.

It wasn't large, about the size of a personal desk, but it just appeared at her beckoning.

Once more he was about to raise his words of chastisement and perhaps confusion and demand an answer, but his eyes hovered over the table itself, the glass containers, the intricately carved symbols and grooves, and the various other bits and bobs that covered it.

At first glance, one would think it looked like a mess of random stuff.

But Snape was far from some unlearned wizard.

"An ingredient age indicator?" He muttered. "And an enchanted temperature measurement? A two-by-two drip delivery flask along with harmonized stirring spellwork?"

He took out his wand and pushed it against another aspect of the table. "A magical saturation measurement enchantment too?"

Many students stopped what they were doing to stare.

Because they had never seen Snape talk with such a gleeful tone.

Granted, it was far from the excitement that most people spoke with when it was something they were passionate about.

But for Snape, it was like night and day.

"And these inlaid carvings regulate composition to disperse magical properties evenly." He wasn't talking to anyone in particular; he was simply admiring the craftsmanship. "No, yes…that would save at least two steps on average…"

He stopped, seemingly remembering where he was, and looked up with a scowl. "Are you all done with your work? Shall I grade everyone now!?"

All the people in class quickly got back to work and became too afraid to look at him again.

"Do you like the table, Professor?" Kunou asked after a while.

Snape looked up again; he had become lost in his own little world and almost forgot he was in class again. "It is...intriguing."

When he regained his sense of time, he saw that their potion was bubbling in the cauldron.

He blinked once. "Faint green with a hint of purple." His monotone, cold tone returned. "...passable." He unconsciously defaulted back to his normal method of 'praise.' "Well done."

He found himself adding that little bit at the end.

Genuine surprise on his own part.

"Woo!" Kunou held up a hand and high-fived Ginny.

Snape looked at them and rolled his eyes with a snort of disdain.

Their childish actions aside.

He didn't understand why the other teachers had trouble with her. Beyond her…enthusiasm and excitability, she appeared to be the picture-perfect student.

Of course, his newfound fondness had nothing to do with her apparent talent or experience in potion making.

Nor did it have anything to do with wanting to get his hands on an 'alchemist table' like the one she has.

He briefly wondered if he should ask Dumbledore to find out her father's owl address and ask to purchase one.

Overall, he thought that the first year, first potion-making session could have gone much worse.

That was until one of the cauldrons on the opposite side of the room exploded.

He let out a long sigh.

At the very least, he was happy he didn't have to worry about some students.

[Line Break]

A/N

Wanted to do a 'normal' class with Kunou, and Kunou showing off a little bit without being a chaotic gremlin. I thought it would be funny that Kunou is the most 'normal' in Snape's class out of everyone. While all the other teachers are talking about the chaos or insane things that happen in their classes, Snape is just sitting there like she's my best student.

Kunou also having a small bit of talent in the 'art of potion making' I thought would be fun. Something that needs heat control would vibe well with her.

If you want to read 10 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone

I also have a boosty if you can't use the above under the same name