Go, Snape

Brewing potions first required properly handling the ingredients.

The quality of the ingredients and the way they were handled would directly affect the potion's effectiveness.

First, place six Venomous Snake Fangs into a mortar and grind them into powder. This step had to be meticulous. If there were any large particles, the finished product would contain flocculent sediment and be far less effective.

Using purified water as a base, put the snake fang powder and four portions of dried nettles into the Cauldron. Heat over a low flame for ten seconds to activate the medicinal properties and trigger a reaction.

Then wave your wand, inject Magic Power, and patiently wait for the reaction to finish.

The amount of Magic Power, the length of the wait, and even your intent when injecting Magic Power could all have an effect.

Once the solvent turned faint blue, place four boiled Tentacled Slugs into the Cauldron. After five seconds, the Slugs would melt.

Remove the Cauldron from the heat, then place two whole Porcupine Quills into it.

Once the Porcupine Quills had melted, wave your wand, inject Magic Power once more, and stir clockwise five times. When the color turned pale green, it was complete!

Ted and Hermione's potion was going very smoothly. Judging by the color, it was nearly done.

After all, Ted could be considered half an experienced hand.

Ding~ Quest: A Young Wizard's First Potion (Green) completed. Received 200 experience. Card: Neville's Failed Cure for Boils (Green).

Neville's Failed Cure for Boils (Green)

Item Card

A Cure for Boils unsuccessfully brewed by Neville. After being thrown, all contaminated targets within a five-meter radius of the landing point would become unbearably itchy and break out in boils all over their bodies.

Single-use.

Note: Be careful not to throw it at your allies!

Ah, a single-use Item Card.

Though its effect was nothing special, its range looked quite broad.

After all, the potion-brewing process had already been explained clearly. The ingredient quantities were not vague instructions like "an appropriate amount," entirely reliant on feel. The timing was precise to the second. Logically, there should not have been any problems if one simply followed the steps.

Then, bang~ Seamus's Cauldron exploded! Four or five Little Wizards around him were caught in the blast. His face was covered in soot, and two fiery red boils had sprouted on his nose! Cauldron Explosion Celestial Seamus: Back then, I stood with my hands in my pockets, not knowing what a Cauldron was.

Over seven years, he would probably spend quite a lot on Cauldrons alone.

Snape was so furious that his face had turned red! If Snape's scalp had not been tough, his soaring blood pressure would have blown the top of his head clean off!

"Idiot! Were you brewing an alchemical explosive potion? How did you even manage this with a Cure for Boils? Huh?!"

As Snape dealt with the remaining potion, he was so angry he looked ready to take off.

The moment Snape got angry, Neville immediately entered "emergency mode."

Neville was so nervous that he stammered. The more anxious he became, the clumsier he got, and he was about to toss the ingredients in his hand directly into the Cauldron.

Fortunately, Ted grabbed his hand. "You can't put the Porcupine Quills in while the Cauldron is heating!"

In the original story, Neville had made exactly that mistake. He had burned straight through the Cauldron and covered himself in boils and bumps.

Neville shakily set down the Porcupine Quills. "Th-thank you, Ted."

Snape, standing nearby, clearly could not stand such a scene of enduring friendship. "Ha! Does our Mr. Epiphany think he is qualified to teach others already? How arrogant!"

"Interfering with another student's potion brewing. Five points from Ravenclaw!" Snape wore a trace of smugness on his face.

Ted was delighted inside!

Professor, the task of deducting points is in your hands. Don't hold back. Deduct them mercilessly!

If Snape deducted his points, even Professor Flitwick would not blame him. Didn't that mean the quest had hope?

What a wonderful thing!

He wanted to seize the chance to expand his gains, so he tried to reason with him. "Professor, I never thought I was qualified to teach anyone. I was only preventing Neville from burning through his Cauldron."

Snape's face filled with a mocking smile again. "It seems you understand the consequences of such stupidity very well... Talking back to a professor. Another five points deducted!"

Professor, you're amazing~ At that moment, Neville finally could not hold it in anymore. "N-no, it's not Ted's fault. It's me, I..."

However, Snape seemed to have a special knack for targeting Neville. With just one glance, he made Neville swallow the rest of his words.

"Ha, The Boy Who Lived—Longbottom. What did you want to say? Or did you want to thank your friend with that cauldron of poison? Have my words all gone in one ear and out the other, while only Epiphany's words reach you? Not paying attention in class. Five points from Gryffindor!"

After that torrent of venom, Neville was reduced to teary eyes.

At that moment, Malfoy finally found his chance. He had been laughing when Ted lost points earlier, and now he sneered quietly, "Ha, the boy who survived by luck is a little snotball~"

Snape simply pretended not to hear.

Harriett, Ron, and the others glared furiously at the professor and student, wishing they could dump the potions from their Cauldrons over them.

Class ended, and Snape drifted away with his textbooks tucked under his arm like a great bat.

Malfoy and his two companions laughed and talked loudly while glancing at Ted's group, looking utterly pleased with themselves.

Harriett, Hermione, and the others all spoke up indignantly for Ted and Neville.

"Sirius said it long ago—Snape, that old bat, is vicious to the core! If you ask me, he did not even make Snape's viciousness sound half bad enough." Harriett was furious.

Ted looked at her. Neville is taking all this anger on your behalf!

Hermione was angry too. She deeply despised Snape for refusing to award points for correct answers and even deducting points instead.

Ron and Jerry quietly cursed Snape, wishing for his hair to fall out and leave him bald.

Neville, meanwhile, sniffled softly.

Ted patted him on the shoulder. "Neville, this world will not treat you gently just because you cry. Don't expose your weakness to others. Relatives and friends excluded."

This was the moment for a song called "Hogwarts Doesn't Believe in Tears"! "But if you really feel terrible, we'll be your most loyal listeners. And if one day we feel like crying, you'll comfort us too, right?"

Neville wiped away his tears and nodded heavily.

In short, Neville had a miserable time in this class.

Ted, on the other hand, had done quite well. Though he had not gained any points, he had lost some!

Ten points in one go! Snape alone was worth several professors~ But honestly, Snape had not targeted Harriett at all, which caught Ted's attention.

You've changed. You're no longer that sharp-tongued Snape who always targeted Potter!

Ted even felt that Snape paid rather too much attention to Harriett.

That was right. Though he had not said a single word to her, Ted keenly noticed that Snape was always paying special attention to Harriett.

So much so that Ted, Ron, and the others, who were close to Harriett and whispered in class, had drawn his attention as well.

Part of why he was being targeted was due to his "outstanding" performance, but another part might be because Harriett had implicated him.

Now that she was no longer being targeted, the targeting had been spread among her friends instead.

Sure enough, targeting did not disappear. It only shifted elsewhere~...

They went to bed late that night because there was an Astronomy class in the middle of the night.

Astronomy classes were held atop the Astronomy Tower, the tallest place in the entire castle. Just climbing the spiraling stairs had already made some students motion sick~ The Astronomy professor was Professor Aurora Sinistra, a woman who did not look very old. In the original story, she seemed to have little presence.

The Second-hand Telescope Ted had bought earlier finally came in handy.

But Ted's Second-hand Telescope truly lived up to its second-hand price. He could barely see anything through it.

Fortunately, he could borrow Hermione's Telescope.

Some might ask: was climbing a tower in the dead of night to look at stars really romantic? Why did wizards study astronomy? Did they want to develop space technology too? Actually, that was not the case. Since ancient times, humans had possessed boundless yearning for celestial bodies—Muggles and wizards alike.

Celestial bodies actually contained powerful Magic Power, and wizards had observed their movements and trajectories over long periods before putting them to use.

That part belonged to Ritual Magic, however. It was highly advanced, and the school did not teach it.

Ritual Magic could often accomplish many "miracles" with only a tiny amount of Magic Power! That was because it followed the natural course of events and borrowed existing momentum.

Advanced Ritual Magic often involved astronomy because one had to select the proper day and hour—for example, "the planets have moved into the correct positions," "a lunar eclipse or solar eclipse," "nine planets aligned," or "a comet striking the moon"~ Many human holidays had originally become holidays because they possessed unique Magic Power. Halloween, Easter, Christmas...

But after a thousand years, the original purposes of those holidays had become distorted through legends and stories.

For Ted, though, knowledge in this area was still far too obscure. It was nowhere near time for him to study it himself.

There was no need to waste energy on it now. Learning what was in the textbooks was enough.

In the blink of an eye, it was Thursday. That afternoon was Ted and the others' first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. They would be taking it together with Gryffindor.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was still highly anticipated by the Little Wizards.

Transfiguration was too obscure and difficult, with homework so hard it made one's scalp tingle.

Charms had only taught Lumos so far, and they were made to practice it over and over.

Herbology was interesting, but it always left them covered in dirt, and it was exhausting. Sometimes it was even dangerous!

A History of Magic was practically a class for catching up on sleep.

In Potions Class, Snape had already declared that everyone was an idiot.

At present, only Defense Against the Dark Arts and Flying Class remained in the Little Wizards' happy dreams.

Unfortunately, they were probably about to be disappointed.