Chapter 593: Advanced Potion Making

In the potion class, students stopped what they were doing and looked between Harry and Snape.

"What are you doing, Potter?"

"I, I'm looking at the steps." Harry stammered.

"What's that in your hand? Give it to me!"

Harry showed obvious refusal, and subconsciously hid his hand holding the parchment behind his back, but Snape came over and snatched it away. He began to read the words on it.

Harry was so angry that his teeth itched. He didn't do anything wrong, and he was not like Crabbe and Goyle who stirred the crucible with a "clang clang" sound, seriously violating the classroom discipline. Why did they bother him?

Soon, Snape's expression became suspicious. He moved between the parchment and Harry, and looked at him with a look that made Harry very uncomfortable. He subconsciously used the brain block technique.

A mocking smile came from the corner of Snape's mouth.

Harry felt a sense of relief for no reason. . . He actually began to expect Snape to pick a fight with him and ask him where these things came from, so that he could say, "I got some help from Professor Happ and the Half-Blood Prince, and to be honest, I think they teach better."

He didn't care that Snape had published many papers on the new material, the mucus of the blasting-end skrewt larvae, some time ago, and that there were newspapers that commented that he was "only one recommender away" from the Order of Merlin. He only knew that he and Snape hated each other, and every time this hatred weakened a little, Snape had a way to use one or two words, or even one or two looks to push Harry's disgust to a new high.

But Snape ignored Harry.

He walked around to the other side and reached out to take the textbook on the table. Ron and Neville groaned faintly from their throats, as if they were being strangled, but Harry shook his head at them, and they immediately felt relieved.

Hermione snorted softly from her nose.

Snape flipped through the textbook, but it was just an ordinary textbook, except that he found two more pages of parchment from it. Harry knew without even looking at it that the simplified steps for the mitigating agent and the enhancing agent were recorded there, because he had inserted them himself.

Snape read very carefully, and the only sound in the classroom was the "gurgling" sound of the boiling crucible. Soon, white steam began to fill the whole room, but the students in class seemed to have forgotten to look after their homework and stared at this place intently.

Snape put down the parchment, and his hooked nose was looming in the steam.

"I underestimated you, Potter." He said calmly: "Obviously, you have once again obtained something that does not belong to you by virtue of your unexpected fame. Maybe I should look through the list of members of the 'Harry Potter Fans Club'. The names on it may surprise me."

"This is very interesting. I will go and see it." Harry said through gritted teeth, and at the same time couldn't help thinking: Ask where the things on it came from, he can't wait...

"You should call me 'sir', or 'professor'." Snape said coldly, he turned around and penetrated through the layers of vague fog and returned to the podium. "Harry Potter, you tampered with the textbooks, violated the rules, and talked back to the teacher. How many points should I deduct from you?"

Although he couldn't see the eyes, Harry could still feel a malicious gaze falling on him.

Gryffindor students glared at Snape.

"I thought normal professors would reward strange ideas that conform to the rules!" A strangled voice echoed in the mist.

"Who!" Snape shouted angrily, but the sound disappeared. He waved his sleeves, and the window suddenly opened. The pearly white mist in the classroom was drained in the blink of an eye. The students below stared at him blankly. Harry noticed that Seamus quietly took his hand away from his throat. He was sure that there must be a wand hidden in that wide robe.

"No one admits it? Huh?" Snape said slowly. The students were immediately shocked. It was obvious that Snape was quite satisfied with the atmosphere in the class. He pulled out a piece of paper from somewhere, unfolded it, and slowly picked up the quill on the podium and dipped it in ink:

"Let me see, Gryffindor will deduct five points from each person -"

"Wait!" Harry shouted. He felt that he had to do something. Snape stopped to cooperate, and his eyes showed the sophistication and cunning of a hunter driving his prey. This made Harry know that all his struggles were useless. At this time, Harry's mind flashed, and the memory of Professor Heppe taking out this set of teaching materials jumped out. Harry shouted loudly: "You can't deny this method, unless you want to deny yourself -" As

soon as the words came out, Harry and Snape were stunned.

Hermione was also stunned. She thought of something, took a breath softly, and looked at Snape in disbelief.

"Shut up, Potter," Snape said, "Sit down - and you too, I want to see what you can hand in this class!" He no longer paid attention to Harry, but walked around the classroom, pointing out the mistakes of the students one by one.

Harry sat down dizzy and stared at his cauldron in a daze.

"You are amazing, Harry!" Ron said beside him, "We have to hurry up, there is not much time left, eh? I thought it was too watery before, but now it is just right."

Harry didn't listen much in the afternoon class. Sirius asked him what was wrong, and he said that he was upset. In the evening, he, Ron and Hermione did their homework in the library. Ron's efficiency was amazing today, and he finished his homework an hour earlier than Harry.

He even had enough energy to look through the fifth-year Potions textbook given by Professor Hepburn.

"What a pity, I can only read Professor Hepburn's handwriting, the other person's handwriting is too sloppy." Ron couldn't help muttering, his eyes almost close to the page, staring at a black ink stain.

Hermione's attitude was complicated. She just helped to organize the notes, but she was determined not to follow the contents.

"Hermione, everything Snape said in class is wrong." Ron pointed out the steps in the textbook to her.

"That's the textbook's mistake." Hermione said calmly.

"Well - what did you say?"

"If you listen carefully, you will find that Snape always displays the ingredients and preparation methods on the blackboard. You don't think that the things on it are exactly the same as the textbook, do you?"

Ron stared at her in amazement, and even Harry, who was a little depressed, stared at her.

Hermione sighed, "Harry, you can't just listen to half of what he says. Although Professor Happ hinted that Professor Snape is the Half-Blood Prince, he also said that Snape teaches the orthodox method -"

"Wait!" Ron roared, "Half-Blood Prince? Who? You mean Snape? Him?" He stared at Harry and Hermione's faces and successfully obtained some evidence. "You... all know? When did it happen? Why don't I know?"

He threw out a series of questions in one breath, but neither Harry nor Hermione answered him. Harry was in a depressed mood and didn't want to answer, while Hermione was packing up quickly, putting parchment, ink bottles, and textbooks into her schoolbag, zipping it up, and standing up swiftly.

"Where are you going?" Ron shouted.

"Of course, I'm running away. Just a reminder, Madam Pince will appear in about ten seconds." She walked away quickly.

Harry and Ron were stunned for a few seconds, and then they shouted together and packed up their things quickly. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the sinister face of Madam Pince, the librarian, appeared, her face full of anger.

"Shouting in the library! What is that? Scribbling on the books? Serious blasphemy! Despicable behavior--"

"This is my book!" Harry shouted, snatched the Potions textbook from her hand, and ran out of the library with all kinds of odds and ends, followed by a flying feather duster, and he and Ron were hit a few times.

"That's terrible. Couldn't Hermione have told us in advance?" Ron rubbed the back of his head indignantly. "It's all swollen."

When they returned to the common room, Hermione was sitting elegantly reading a book.

Ron immediately became furious and kept scolding her, which made Hermione's eyebrows jump. Although Harry also complained a little, he had other things to do, so he used the ear-blocking spell to interrupt Ron and asked, "Hermione, have you thought about the prophecy of Firenze and Luna recently?"

"You're still entangled in it." Hermione said, as if she had forgotten about it.

"Merlin's beard," Ron said excitedly, and immediately forgot his attitude just now, as if he was not the one who scolded Hermione before. "That is a prophecy pointing to the Deathly Hallows. We can even use it as evidence that the Deathly Hallows really exist!"

"Maybe." Hermione said lightly, "Remember the result of our last discussion? The Elder Wand may be real, but the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak-"

"Harry's Invisibility Cloak may be one of them." Ron said, these are all possibilities they have discussed.

"Okay, I don't want to argue with you." Hermione said, "But the Resurrection Stone." She said firmly: "There is no such thing. At most, it is some fake counterfeit that is not as effective as before. It may even be an evil weapon that can only be used to control the army of Inferi."

Harry and Ron stared at her. They were also used to hearing these truths, but unfortunately, they could not produce any evidence to refute it, just like before. So now they could only listen to Hermione repeat it again.

"First of all, in the fairy tale of the legend of the three brothers, the Resurrection Stone cannot resurrect people. Remember, the second brother who got the Resurrection Stone committed suicide in the end; secondly, all existing magical theories do not support resurrection from the dead. At most, there are some similar substitutes, such as ghosts, magic portraits, the memory of classroom 7, and even..." Hermione made a lip shape, and Harry and Ron knew she wanted to say Horcrux.

"...It's just forcibly dragging a wisp of residual soul to survive in the world."

"Does the time turner barely count?" Harry asked softly.

"But it absolutely cannot support a person who is definitely dead to return to the world - as a living person!" Hermione said firmly, "Remember Ms. Grey, as long as the dead choose to 'go on', no one can stop them."

"And finally, I don't know if you noticed that Luna's prophecy - let's just call it a prophecy, it said that she had missed the Resurrection Stone, which means that she couldn't get the Resurrection Stone in the end, or use the Resurrection Stone to fulfill her wishes."

After a silence, Harry said: "Hermione, maybe what you said is right, but it doesn't prevent Luna's prophecy from mentioning the Resurrection Stone - or something similar in the school. If that's the case, who has it now?"

"Principal Dumbledore?" Ron guessed, "Or Professor Happ!"

"That's not necessarily true," Harry said, "It's very likely that the owner himself doesn't know."

"What do you mean?"

"The appearance of the Elder Wand should be just an ordinary wand, right? If it's particularly conspicuous and you can tell at a glance that it's extraordinary, it won't become an unsolved mystery." Harry said, "The Resurrection Stone may be the same, just like - just like -" He racked his brains to give an example.

"The Philosopher's Stone?" Hermione said.

"That's right!" Harry slapped his thigh and said excitedly, "I've seen the Philosopher's Stone and touched it! Compared with its great fame, its appearance seems very ordinary. I mean, it's just a piece of red stone with a bright color, it's not even as good as the moonstone."

Ron and Hermione certainly knew what the moonstone was. It was a very useful potion material and could also be used in jewelry - with a little polishing, these stones would emit a blue or bright white halo that looked like moonlight.

"Then there's no way to find it." Ron said disappointedly.

"Honestly," Hermione looked up from the book, "Do you realize that there are less than four weeks left for the OWLs exam? Even if you can make up the exam, I doubt whether you can get enough NEWTs certificates before graduation after a year of delay."

Harry and Ron immediately became like defeated cocks, all tempers gone, and began to do their homework lazily. After a while, Hermione threw down the book in her hand, stood up and left in a victorious manner.

"Here you go, I've finished it."

As the exam was approaching, everyone was working hard to review. Although Harry yawned, he still tried to see the words on the textbook clearly. At this time, the Advanced Potion Making book left by Hermione seemed very attractive. Harry had always wanted to read the description of Polyjuice Potion in it.

"How did you do it?" He rubbed his forehead sleepily.

"What?" Ron asked. He was reading the History of Magic textbook with great interest. To Harry, this was simply incredible. If Ron didn't fall asleep after reading for five minutes, it meant that his behavior was abnormal.

"You look like you took stimulants." Harry yawned again and said while wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"What are stimulants? Never mind. It doesn't matter. But I did drink something."

Ron looked around and took out a small bottle of potion from his pocket stealthily.

Harry stared at the glass bottle in a daze. He recognized what was inside. After all, he had just seen it in today's Potions class -

"Vitality Tonic?"

"Shh! I smuggled it out of class," Ron said, handing it to Harry from under the table. Harry suddenly understood why Ron had been so energetic the whole afternoon. Ron lowered his voice and said, "We need it. It's just right for us."

Harry was suddenly excited. The function of this potion is to temporarily increase the vitality of the user and make people energetic.

"How's the effect?" Harry asked in a low voice. He felt that he had to ask this question because a few weeks ago their grades were still hovering between 'pass' and 'fail'. He really didn't have the courage to drink the potion that Ron - or himself - prepared.

It would be better if Hermione was here. Harry thought that she was absolutely trustworthy in this regard. She successfully brewed Polyjuice Potion in the second year, and the effect could last for an hour, and this was the content of the advanced class.

But on second thought, if Hermione knew, she would be more likely to immediately exercise the power of the prefect and confiscate the small bottle in his hand.

"The effect is great!" Ron pointed at himself and said.

In the next ten minutes, Ron enthusiastically promoted his potion, while Harry was hesitant - he seriously suspected that Ron's enthusiasm came from the side effects of the potion, but it was not unacceptable. He took a small sip.

"How does it taste?" Ron asked expectantly.

"Hmm... maybe not bad?" Harry answered uncertainly. He didn't feel any effect.

"Take another sip." Ron urged.

Harry took another sip, and someone tapped him on the shoulder. "I heard you had a fight with Snape, Harry?" Harry choked, and the potion stuck to his throat. He started coughing violently, and it took him a long time to recover.

"Oh, I'm really sorry," Fred said, spreading his hands. "What are you drinking? Scar remover?"

Harry rolled his eyes at him unhappily. George sat next to him and took the small glass bottle from Harry's hand and examined it carefully. The light blue liquid inside only covered the bottom of the bottle. George shook it and sniffed it again. "Vitality potion?"

"You know a lot about it." Ron pretended to praise.

"I hope you take it strictly according to the instructions." Fred suddenly said.

"What else?" Harry asked worriedly, but Fred and George's faces showed both lingering fear and gloating.

"It's nothing, but I may not be able to sleep." George said briefly.

"- A little excited." Fred said nostalgically, regardless of the two people's pale faces.

After they left, some time passed, and the last person in the common room also left. Only Harry and Ron were left, but they didn't feel like sleeping at all. "We can't go on like this, we have classes tomorrow." Harry made a prompt decision and pulled Ron back to the dormitory.

But they were completely sleepless. They tossed and turned in bed, and finally sneaked back to the common room.

"I never thought that being full of energy is also a torture." Ron said, staring at Harry with his eyes straight, almost changing his mind every three seconds. He took out the History of Magic textbook and planned to study late into the night, and then wanted to practice magic with Harry, and now he suggested going out for a walk.

"You can read with me." Harry said. He was reading the book "Advanced Potion Making" left by Hermione. The chapter titles alone were exciting enough: Living Hell Potion, Polyjuice Potion, Infatuation Water, Felicity Potion, Joy Potion...

But he was mainly reading the annotations of two people. Thinking that one of them might be from Snape in school, he felt sick.

Ron's symptoms tended to get worse. He began to become hysterical and worried. "What if I can't sleep anymore?" He said with a look of horror, "Or I can't get up after the effect of the medicine wears off?"

"That's the effect of the living hell decoction." Harry couldn't help showing off the knowledge he had just seen. "If you need it, you can make a portion yourself in the future, provided that we can attend the advanced class."

Finally, Ron made a very unreasonable request, which he would never say when he was normal.

"Knock me out." Ron said with a look of grief and anger.

"What?" Harry looked at him in surprise.

"I don't care! I want to sleep. I have classes tomorrow." Ron said, and then he began to nag, walking around in the lounge, and from time to time he came to tease Harry. Finally, Harry drew out his wand and agreed to Ron's request.

A red light flashed, and Ron fainted happily.

After Harry sent him back to the dormitory, he looked at Ron with a smile on his face, and suddenly felt a little terrified. What if he became like this in a while?

Who would knock him out?

But when he saw Neville, Seamus and Dean sleeping soundly, Harry felt relieved. If necessary, he could wake one of them up to help knock him out before he got into more trouble. Harry returned

to the common room with the small magic lamp in his hand, staring at the old textbook in a daze.

He glanced at the sky. The moon was still hanging high in the sky. The end of the forbidden forest in the distance was a gray-green. He estimated that there were still four or five hours before dawn, which meant that he had a lot of free time to do what he wanted. Maybe going out for a walk would be a good idea? He suddenly thought of Ron's idea before, and then his stomach churned.

Could the side effects of the potion have already started to take effect?

​​He murmured in a low voice: "Expecto Patronus." A stag jumped out. Its silver body was as clear as crystal, and its fur was clearly visible. Harry gently stroked the stag's antlers and head, and the touch was very real.

The uneasiness in his heart disappeared, and he continued to read the book "Advanced Potion Making".