days at Hogwarts

Chapter 253 Meet Wolfsbane Potion Again

Taking into account the mandrake blades in his mouth, Loren did not explain.

Hermione was more cautious. In order to prevent someone from getting excited and pulling them to sway together when the game was scored, she ingeniously pulled Loren to sit in the Ravenclaw viewing seat.

Compared to the noisy Gryffindor auditorium, it was quieter here. The little wizards around were discussing the principles of magic, potion formulas, the riddle of the eagle-shaped bronze door knocker, and other topics, making the auditorium even more deserted. .

"Qiu, please tell me what animal has legs but cannot walk. I couldn't answer this question last night and was almost locked out of the lounge by the bronze knocker." Padma, who has long black hair and brown skin, Patil asked the senior sister next to him.

Qiu Zhang is a very beautiful girl with long and shiny black hair. She has obvious Asian ancestry characteristics with black hair and black eyes. Her whole person looks a bit mysterious, which makes people subconsciously think of her as a girl. Look at her.

Before she could answer, Marietta Acmo shook her reddish blond ponytail proudly and showed off: "It's a kangaroo, so stupid, I couldn't even think of this. Oh, by the way, maybe you can't be blamed for this." , you come from poor India, you must have never traveled to Australia, you have no idea what a kangaroo is."

"You!" Padma was so angry that she couldn't speak.

Qiu Zhang looked at Padma, whose face turned red with anger, and felt helpless in her heart.

Marietta's mother is Mrs. Acmore of the Magical Transportation Department and Floo Network Administration. She has lived in a pampered environment since she was a child, speaking and doing things without caring about the feelings of the people around her.

But Qiu didn't think she had any bad intentions, it was just a matter of showing off and being vain.All girls have it, but Marietta has it more severely.

Qiu patted Padma's hand and explained softly: "Kangaroo is an animal that moves by beating its tail and legs. Not only kangaroos, but also frogs, dragonflies, toads... these move by flying and jumping. Moving animals count.”

"Don't pay attention to what Marietta says. That's just the way she is. She doesn't have any bad intentions."

Qiu's comfort had no effect. Padma pursed her lips and nodded, silently sitting away.

Being able to go to school in the UK from India, Padma Patil's family environment is not bad. She has a good appearance and is also Professor Flitwick's teaching assistant. As the focus of her peers, Marietta's words made her feel very uncomfortable.

Padma moved to the corner, next to Hermione and Loren. Padma felt that her sister's roommate was more of a Ravenclaw than Marietta.

At this moment, Miss Granger, who is both good in character and academics, is counting her college points on her fingers.

Hermione whispered: "Including the points we earned during the Easter holiday, we are still ahead by more than 180 points..."

She was a little surprised: "Professor Snape's points deductions during this period are much less than I thought."

Loren adjusted the position of the mandrake blades with his tongue before speaking: "Maybe he realized the shady behind the Academy Cup. With the eccentric Principal Dumbledore, Slytherin has not had a chance to win the championship in the past few years. "

"Headmaster Dumbledore is not like that!"

Padma: "..."

Padma silently changed her position again. These contents were not what she should hear.

Although the auditorium next to the Quidditch pitch is divided into seats by house, this division is not mandatory, and no one will care if you sit in seats from other houses to watch the game.

In the absence of their own teams competing, many little wizards from Ravenclaw are happy to sit in the Gryffindor auditorium, and the little wizards from the Lion House always burst out with boundless and contagious enthusiasm.

Ravenclaws strive for calmness and reason, but it is also pleasant to feel such enthusiasm occasionally.

Luna and Ginny were sitting together in the back row of the auditorium. The two little girls were holding banners cheering Harry in their hands. They were watching the players of the Gryffindor team gathered around. Captain Wood is explaining the tactics of this game.

Wood put his two hands on the shoulders of the twins and looked at the youngest Seeker in the team: "Harry, the most difficult Cedric will be left to you, as long as he doesn't let him catch the Golden Snitch first. , leave the rest to us!”

"Yeah!" Harry nodded vigorously.

He is no longer the rookie player he was last year. He will not be so nervous before the start of the game that he can't even eat bread. Now he is full of fighting spirit.

George smiled and said: "Don't worry, we are acquaintances with Cedric, and we will help you entertain him!"

Fred thought of another thing in his offline mind, and smacked his lips with regret: "It's a pity that the basilisk has been dealt with, otherwise they would not dare to stop you out of fear, because if you get too close, you will be petrified. "

This remark caused a burst of laughter in the team.

The Gryffindor players have a very relaxed mentality, and the Hufflepuff players cannot compete with them in terms of strength. The only troublesome point is finding a player who has more game experience than Harry, but Nimbus 2001 will make up for this gap.

Planning to use the Hufflepuff Quidditch team for training, Wood finally adopted the idea of ​​​​the non-staff coach Ron and let the goalkeeper take charge of the Nimbus 2000.

Well, goalkeeper Wood said this was purely for tactics and had nothing to do with captaincy.

Following Madam Hooch's loud whistle, fourteen broomsticks soared into the sky and flew into the air of the stadium.

Chaser Angelina took the lead in holding the ball with the Nimbus 2000 under her body. The other two Chasers of Gryffindor, Katie Bell and Alia Spinnet, took the lead with her as the center. The arrow formation went straight through the Hufflepuff defense.

George and Fred supported their attack and scored very neatly.

Correspondingly, it is difficult for Hufflepuff to organize an effective attack when they get the ball. It is common for their passes to be intercepted. There are only a few times when they seize the gap in the opponent's defense and pass through the midfield to shoot in front of the scoring ring. .

But the interception speed of Wood riding the Nimbus 2000 was even more desperate. In just ten minutes, the score difference was approaching 150 at an unprecedented speed.

Seeker Cedric was floating above the court, his eyebrows furrowed, his breathing gradually accelerating, and his eager eyes wandering around.

The Golden Snitch's score is only 150. If the score difference exceeds 150, it will be too late even if he catches the Golden Snitch.

Not far away, Harry stared at Cedric with a solemn expression. Only a fellow Seeker could appreciate Cedric's excellence.

Even though Gryffindor now had the advantage, even though his Nimbus 2001 was faster, Harry could never get rid of Cedric.

Occasionally, Cedric would use Nimbus 2001's excellent linear acceleration performance to distance himself, and Cedric would use a series of fake moves to confuse him, making him suspect that the Golden Snitch was near Cedric, and he had to reverse the direction of his broom and fly back.

Not only flying skills, but also competition experience, psychological games... Harry truly realized that there was still a big gap between him and this senior.

……

After the game, other players in the Hufflepuff locker room had left. Although they lost the game, they were not very depressed.Cedric stayed at the end, returning the team's broomsticks to the storage room.

At this moment, George and Fred, wearing bright red Quidditch robes, entered the dressing room next door proudly.

"How's it going? Our eagle-headed offensive formation is awesome!" George put his arm around Cedric's shoulders, his tone unable to conceal his pride.

<divclass="contentadv">Fred hugged his shoulders from the other side: "I originally planned to use this tactic against Slytherin, but you caught up."

With a helpless smile on his face, Cedric pushed away the hands of the two scoundrels, changed into the Hufflepuff canary yellow team robe, and searched for the magic robe in the cabinet: "Slytherin... the whole team They are all Nimbus 2001, your Eagle Head... offensive formation effect... will not be as good as it is today."

The tone of his speech was strange, and some of the inflections of his breath were wrong.

George and Fred looked at each other. George's eyes widened and he exclaimed, "You still have the mandrake blade in your mouth, do you?"

Fred was equally shocked: "How did you train with the leaves in your mouth?"

Putting on the magic robe, Cedric spread his hands: "I am a seeker. I don't participate much in tactical exchanges. I don't need to speak loudly on the court."

As he said this, he suddenly remembered the twins' pranks. Most of the members of the teaching class had already failed.Alerted, he quickly took a few steps back, his eyes warily guarding against the two of them.

George tried his best to make his smile look friendly: "Don't worry, no one we tease will tease you."

Cedric didn't believe a word he said, and still stared at them both warily.

Fred pulled him over and whispered softly: "We have other things to ask you for..."

"Summer homework answers?! Other grades also need answers, and they're not even on vacation yet!"

"You are actually still saving money. Do you really plan to open a magic joke shop?"

"Okay, but I want an extra 2001%. I'm going to save up money to buy a Nimbus [-]."

……

At night, the corridor in the basement of Hogwarts Castle was silent. Only the torches on both sides of the wall made the sound of crackling firewood from time to time. Sporadic sparks fell on the torch stand, making the basement seem even quieter.

Following brisk footsteps, Loren arrived at the door of the Potions office.

bang bang-

There were two knocks on the door, and Snape's voice came out through the wooden door, becoming somewhat dull and distorted: "Please come in."

Opening the door, there was nothing behind the desk. Loren closed the door skillfully and strode into the storage room.

After mastering the basic processing of medicinal materials, knowledge of medicinal properties and principles of medicinal action, he came to this office less frequently to learn about potions than before, but his gains were no less than before.

Snape, dressed in black robes, was bowing on the operating table, and the cauldron in front of him was boiling.

Loren smelled an unpleasant, disgusting and vaguely familiar smell in the air, and blurted out: "Wolfsbane Potion!?"

Snape glanced at him with a hint of approval in his eyes, but he quickly put it away and said calmly: "I had a plan before you came. If you can't remember what the potion is, I'll let you Drink the whole pot.”

Smelling the smell of fermented rotten eggs in the air, Loren quickly shook his head coldly: "It's hard to forget such a unique potion."

As he spoke, Loren's nose moved again, and he noticed something different from what he remembered. He said hesitantly: "In addition to the smell of fermented rotten eggs, there is also the smell of the corpse of giant alocasia. It's the formula. Are there any improvements?"

The approval in Snape's expression became more obvious, and the expression on his face softened a lot: "After submitting the formula to the Ministry of Magic, Belby made some improvements on the original basis.

With the addition of Giant Alocasia, the new version of the Wolfsbane potion has a weakened duration, but its properties are softer. This change will make the werewolf who takes the medicine less painful. "

"Does this mean that in order to achieve the same effect, the dosage of the new formula will be larger?" Loren peered into the crucible.

The pain subsided, the medicine was mild, and the dosage was increased, but drinking the medicine became more painful.So the weaker the pain, the stronger the pain.

Snape did not answer the dosage question. He held the stirring spoon and stirred the potion in the crucible clockwise: "The main material of wolfsbane potion is Aconitum, which is highly poisonous. One of its many mechanisms of action is to use extreme pain to target the potion." Stimulate a certain place in the brain and soul to stimulate clear reason and seal the instinctive animal nature of the werewolf."

"After communicating with Belby, I came up with a hypothesis - the stronger the pain caused by the medicine, the more obvious the effect and the longer the duration of the action."

Snape handed a parchment list to Loren, "Try to add these medicinal materials to the formula without disturbing the original medicinal properties of Wolfsbane potion. There is no need to determine the detailed dosage. Provide me with an improvement every week. The idea of ​​the recipe is good.”

Loren was very receptive to the Potions Professor's eclectic teaching methods. He took the list and started looking at it:

Rafflesia, a fleshy parasitic herbaceous plant known as saprophyte, is famous for its large flowers and foul smell...

Leopard skin flower, also known as smelly flesh flower, attracts flies for pollination through its stench...

African egret flower…

Thinking back to the giant alocasia (also known as the corpse flower) in the latest formula... Loren wiped the non-existent cold sweat from his forehead. He always felt that Snape's purpose of improving the formula was not for teaching, nor to optimize the wolfsbane potion.

"Professor, does it have to be these things?"

"If you know of any herbs with better effects, you can also add them." Snape said calmly.

"No."

"Inform the members of the Potions Club to meet in the Potions classroom tomorrow afternoon."

"Good professor!"

……

The bell rang for the Potions Club, and Professor Snape stumbled into the Potions classroom on the basement floor. When the bell ended, he happened to stand in the middle of the podium.

The dim underground classroom was very quiet, with a small number of club members sitting scattered and sparse, making the classroom seem even more empty.

Since the end of the large-scale production of rue essence, the activities of the Potions Club have only been small-scale potion brewing. Although it is not limited to primary potions, it has always been a small matter, and Professor Snape has not officially Give everyone a lecture.

This time the club activity was a bit sudden, and the members didn’t know what the professor was going to say.