Drowsy Beans and Knives

The Triltopus Family has only just established themselves in New York, so they still have a lot to do.

Scott Triltopus and Wizet exchanged a few pleasantries, removed the package from the Kneazle, and left Central Park.

Not long after, Babajide Akingbade and the others returned, their expressions remarkably similar;

Aside from his bloodshot eyes and a hint of excitement, there was also a strange sense of pleasure in his expression.

The wizards present noticed the group's unusual behavior and tentatively asked, "Are you... planning to test the medicine together?"

Akinbade nodded, a strange smile on his face, and said in a somewhat muffled voice, "Drowsy Bean are strictly controlled now, it's not easy to get your hands on them here!"

The wizard in the group mumbled something similar, "That's right! Since we're already there, we might as well get a lot more. There's no harm in testing the medicine together!"

Another wizard in the group agreed, "Look, there's a suspended bridge in the sky... it looks just like the moon. This must be my good luck; this Potions is sure to succeed!"

The other wizards were somewhat amused and exasperated. "A hallucination appearing out of nowhere... an intense sense of self-confidence... this is the effect of mature Mandrake."

Akinbade and his group behaved reasonably well, except that their expressions were somewhat out of control, their speech was a bit slurred, and their words were somewhat incoherent.

They could only take out the Mandrake leaves after the Potions was brewed.

The House-elf had left, and under Professor McGonagall's arrangement, they left behind several long tables to set up cauldrons and process materials.

Wizet did not participate. Instead, she stood aside, opened her notebook, flipped to the page where no words had been written, and wrote down the entire Potions recipe.

In addition to the process of brewing the Potions recipe, he added a lot of annotations to explain each step as clearly as possible.

When he finished doing all this, he found that the crucible was still bubbling, and the liquid inside was a deep purple color.

A wizard frowned, looked at a small bowl next to him, then picked up the bowl and threw several dried-up lumps into the crucible.

The lumps melted rapidly in the crucible, and the liquid bubbled out in regular, fish-eye-like patterns. The color also seemed to change, appearing to become deeper.

Before the wizard could even relax his brow, he saw the liquid's color grow increasingly strange, as if it had been mixed with ink, turning into a bizarre gray, almost the color of asphalt.

Wizet walked over to Luna and asked, somewhat puzzled, "What's wrong with them?"

"Some step must have gone wrong." Luna blinked. "I just looked at your notes; it seems the amount of Drowsy Bean juice wasn't enough."

"Wizet, you should help take a look..." Professor McGonagall said from the side, "Most wizards usually specialize in only one area, such as... Transfiguration."

She lowered her voice and continued, "I've seen many similar cases... because after the O.W.L. Exam, the results will determine whether you can continue studying a particular subject in the next academic year."

"If I remember correctly... the method for brewing the Living Death Potion is part of the sixth year curriculum; many of the wizards present probably only know the recipe but have never brewed this Potions themselves."

"Hogwarts was founded very early, and other Magic School were affected to some extent, adopting a similar promotion system... so they also encountered similar situations."

Just as Wizet and the others were talking, another wizard did something that caused the cauldron in front of him to explode, turning his face black with soot.

Wizet was momentarily dazed, feeling that the wizard's appearance seemed to overlap with that of one of her Gryffindor classmates...

Immediately afterwards, another crucible malfunctioned. The liquid inside turned an eerie blue and was bubbling out. The splashed liquid landed on the table and instantly corroded a hole.

This time, Wizet observed very carefully, and just as Luna had said, the problem was with the processing of the Drowsy Bean, making it difficult to obtain a sufficient amount of concentrated juice.

Wizet and Luna shook their heads in unison, their voices tinged with a hint of wistfulness. "I think I can guess what Professor Snape would say..."

To prevent the last two crucibles from malfunctioning, Wizet immediately stepped forward.

The two wizards standing in front of the cauldron looked up after hearing footsteps.

Lorenzo Flores said with a hint of helplessness, "Strange thing... I really did brew the Living Death Potion..."

Another wizard nodded in agreement, then said somewhat awkwardly, "We've all brewed Living Death Potion before, and with a pretty good success rate, which is why we decided to come out and help brew the Potions..."

"Let me take a look first..." Wizet nodded, his gaze sweeping over the materials on the table, and said unhurriedly, "We still have extra materials, so there's no need to be so nervous."

Hearing his calm words of comfort, the two wizards unconsciously responded with "okay," and seemed less flustered than before, with the helplessness between their brows dissipating considerably.

Wizet held each material in her hands to feel it, and finally picked up the knife she had used to process the Drowsy Bean. "The problem is with the knife... I was careless."

He picked up a Drowsy Bean, pressed it gently between his thumb and forefinger, and said, "The Drowsy Bean we use now are different from the Drowsy Bean we used to use."

"In the early days, wizards would usually have to plant Drowsy Bean to obtain them. Once they had taken root and sprouted, they would use fresh Drowsy Bean to make the Living Death Potion."

"Now things have changed. To make them easier to store, Drowsy Bean go through a drying process, which magically protects the skin, making it hard and difficult to handle."

"That's why silver knives are needed. Silver has the magical property of 'purifying,' which can purify the magic on the skin of the Drowsy Bean, allowing it to be cut and juiced."

Wizet raised the bronze knife in her hand. "Bronze has different magical properties than silver, so it cannot purify the magic on the Drowsy Bean's skin, making it difficult to cut..."

He put down the bronze knife and looked at the two surviving crucibles. The liquid had changed color, from dark purple to purple, indicating that it had been overcooked and its effect had weakened.

"To ensure quality, we need to clean the crucible and start brewing the Potions again..." Wizet murmured, taking his wand from his pocket. "Scourgify!"

Five crucibles flew to him and were cleaned by Scouring Charm as if they were lined up.

He set up the first crucible, snapped his fingers to reignite the flame, and then raised his wand, pointing it at the two ingredients on the table.

A glass bottle floated up first, accompanied by a series of soft crackling sounds. The cap of the bottle, which was floating in mid-air, was opened, and the Mugwort Infusion inside flew out and fell into one of the crucibles.

The Moonpetal Flower beside it also floated into the air. Wizet raised her wand and gently tapped it a few times, cutting the Moonpetal Flower into uniquely shaped pieces, which then drifted into the same cauldron...