A Part of Snape's Body

Over the next few days, Jon Hart kept thinking about the plan.

How could he obtain one of Snape's hairs, or a piece of tissue from his body?

But he rejected every plan one by one, because the risks were simply too great...

Snape was an exceptionally skilled Potions master. His understanding of Polyjuice Potion might have been even deeper than Jon imagined.

Steal a part of his body?

Strictly speaking, it was not impossible... but if he gave away even the slightest clue, Snape would likely notice and deduce the existence of Polyjuice Potion. Given Snape's relationship with Dumbledore, Jon might be summoned to Dumbledore's office for a "heart-to-heart" within an hour.

That would be a complete disaster—trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used to lure it, a total collapse.

Jon swiftly rejected every plan that came to mind.

But it was not as though there was absolutely no way!

After much consideration, Jon still had one feasible method... it was just rather troublesome.

Still, it was the safest method available.

He acted as soon as he made up his mind. Taking out some paper and a pen, he wrote a letter.

The letter was addressed to Robert Wilson, the owner of a hardware store at 21 Winchester Road, Southampton. In the name of Warian Urien, Jon asked Mr. Wilson to purchase several items for him.

And send them to Mr. Hart of Hufflepuff House, Hogwarts School.

About a week later, owls began appearing in the Great Hall every few days, struggling under large boxes before dropping them off for Jon.

"Who on earth sent you so much stuff?" Zacharias asked curiously.

"Just some little things used by people who can't do magic..." Jon answered vaguely. "A relative sent them to me!"

But whenever he received a delivery, Jon would find an opportunity to hurry to the Room of Requirement on the Eighth Floor of the castle and install the items there.

At the same time, he waited for a chance to get close to Snape.

During a Potions class in late January 1993.

Snape spent the entire afternoon teaching them how to brew a potion called Sleeping Potion.

Jon and Astoria were the first in the class to finish brewing theirs, while Snape, as usual, was the last to evaluate them... To keep the potion from evaporating, Jon had deliberately placed the lid over the cauldron.

As usual, Snape criticized nearly every student in the class.

Only near the end of the lesson did he turn his attention to Jon and Astoria in the first row.

Striding over, he reached out and lifted the lid from the cauldron.

Looking at the clear blue liquid inside, he merely gave a slight nod.

Over more than half a term of Potions class, Jon and Astoria had hardly ever made a mistake. Snape had grown used to it by now.

Without saying anything, Snape prepared to put the lid back on the cauldron...

"Professor, let me do it!" Jon quickly said, reaching out at the same time.

At that very moment, the scraper in his hand carelessly brushed lightly across the back of Snape's hand.

"I'm very sorry, Professor..." Jon said as he rose to his feet in panic.

Snape withdrew his hand with an indifferent expression. The contact had been very light; it had not even drawn blood, leaving only a faint white mark.

"Sit down!" Snape shot him a cold glance and ordered, "Mr. Hart, have I not told you that after brewing any potion, all tools must be put away?"

"I'm very sorry... I forgot just now..." Jon hurriedly sat back down and explained.

"Hufflepuff loses five points!"

"Class dismissed..."

"What were you thinking just now... I can't believe Professor Snape only took five points. I thought you were going to get detention..." The moment Snape left the classroom, Astoria hurried over, her face full of concern.

"Sorry, I was a little distracted." Jon gave a bitter smile as he carefully placed the scraper from earlier into a Crystal Vial filled with red liquid.

"Want to go to the Great Hall together?" Astoria asked quietly after glancing around.

"No, I still have something to do!" Jon hastily packed up his things and headed for the Eighth Floor of the castle.

Opposite the tapestry of the troll who was beaten silly by Barnaby on the Eighth Floor of Hogwarts Castle.

I need an ice room... I need an ice room... Jon silently repeated in his heart as he reached the location of the Room of Requirement.

After walking past that stretch of wall three times, he hurriedly pushed open the door when a brass handle appeared on the wall.

The Room of Requirement was now filled with ice... Several crates of Rum sat amid a pile of ice, making it clear that he was not the only person who had ever come here.

Jon could not help shivering before running to the left, moving aside a large block of ice, and taking out the bottles and jars hidden within:

DMEM cell culture medium;

Gibco Fetal Bovine Serum;

PBS buffer solution;

Kanamycin;

Ampicillin...

These were all reagents Jon had asked Mr. Wilson to order for him.

Jon took out one biological reagent after another, along with a box of ice.

Since openly taking part of Snape's body carried too much risk and difficulty, he could only fall back on his old profession... using laboratory methods to culture Snape's cells into tissue.

As the reagents were removed one by one, the entire Room of Requirement began undergoing an earth-shaking transformation!

The ice gradually disappeared, and the Room of Requirement became a greenhouse maintained at around 37 degrees Celsius... the most suitable temperature for cell growth.

Several instruments also appeared in the room, which Jon had ordered a few days earlier and secretly brought in.

There was a microscope, a centrifuge, an incubator... After several days of effort from Jon, the place had become a rudimentary microbiology laboratory.

There was even a small diesel generator.

Jon carefully took out Snape's epithelial cells that he had collected earlier—the cells he had secretly scraped from Snape's hand with the scraper.

The moment he collected them, he had placed them in culture medium—the liquid that had been inside the Crystal Vial.

He carefully centrifuged the culture medium at 800g, removed the supernatant, then added fresh culture medium and serum back to the cells.

Since he had no way to ensure sterility, Jon could only add antibiotics to the culture medium at a ratio of one thousandth.

After a period of simple processing...

Finally, Jon carefully placed the cell flask into the incubator.

Leaving the Room of Requirement, he could only hope that everything would go smoothly!