He rubbed his hands together, his gaze sweeping across the classroom before finally settling on Lily with enthusiasm. "Ah, Miss Evans! What a talented child! I've heard you excel in Transfiguration! Come, come to the front, let's see if your talent in Potions shines just as brightly!"
He then looked at Snape, his smile still bright. "Mr. Snape? Come to the front too. I made a point of asking about your mother after I went to class last time... Eileen Prince, she's an outstanding Potions Master. And you've inherited her talent, how lucky you are."
Lily and Snape were called upon and had no choice but to go to the front control panel. This Potions was not difficult either; it was the Cure for Boils they had learned about in the previous lesson.
Slughorn would say something from below the stage, and Snape and Lily would do something on stage.
"Today, we're going to brew a simple medicine to treat boils." Slughorn began explaining the steps, his Sonorus and clear, spittle flying everywhere. He paid special attention to Lily and Snape on the platform, occasionally leaning over to give them a few pointers, and was particularly attentive to Lily.
"Yes, that's it, Miss Evans! Very delicate technique! Oh... Mr. Snape, the snake fang powder should be ground even finer... Yes, very good."
Kayson leisurely dealt with the slugs in the back seat, gutting them with a small silver knife and removing their slimy entrails. John, watching from the side, grinned and said, " Merlin's beard... Kayson, have you... have you ever butchered pigs before? You're so skilled!"
Kayson tossed the prepared slug into the copper crucible. "Nothing special, just practice makes perfect, brother."
John nodded. "You don't seem very interested."
Kayson rested his chin on his hand. "We've already lost ten points to Hufflepuff before class even started. We can't possibly improve. Snape and Lily can at least make amends for their school's mistake, but I don't have that ability."
John shrugged indifferently. "Come on, who cares about those numbers? Being happy every day is the most important thing."
Kayson nodded in deep agreement, but James and Sirius took the initiative to provoke them, and the three of them were forced to fight back. After Slughorn arrived, they ignored everything and took ten blows from each side.
Although the professor could understand such behavior, he still disliked it very much...
He glanced towards the podium, where Slughorn was standing with his back to them, demonstrating to Lily how to stir three and a half times counterclockwise with spittle flying everywhere.
Kayson twitched his finger.
On the workbench, a small pinch of dried nettle powder, as if picked up by an invisible hand, silently drifted into Professor Slughorn's steaming teacup, which was placed on the edge of the podium. The powder quickly dissolved in the black tea and disappeared.
"The dosage must be precise! Precise!" Slughorn turned around, habitually picked up his teacup, and took a large, satisfying gulp.
puff!!!
The next second, his entire chubby face instantly wrinkled like dried orange peel, his eyes widened almost to the point of popping out of their sockets, and he sprayed a mouthful of tea all over the podium, coughing violently until his face turned bright red. "Cough cough cough... Wh... what the hell is this! It's spicy! It's killing me!"
The classroom was deathly silent. Everyone stared in disbelief as the usually elegant professor stuck out his tongue in embarrassment, tears welling in his eyes.
Only Snape glanced quickly at Kayson in the back row, who was innocently poking at the slug corpses in the crucible with a silver knife, as if he were really studying them.
"Water... give me water, or milk, or even a solution of fairy grass!" Slughorn shouted hoarsely.
Snape quietly slipped the fairy grass that was on the table into his pocket.
In the end, a certain Slytherin wizard, unaware of the truth, fetched a pot of water for Slughorn.
After finally calming down, Slughorn drank a whole pot of cold water before standing back on the podium, panting heavily and looking extremely pale.
His suspicious gaze swept over the students in the front row, lingering for a moment on Lily and Snape's faces before finally looking away helplessly.
Although they were the closest to him at the time, he simply couldn't believe that these two promising young men would do such a thing.
"Keep going!" he said weakly. "Watch your crucibles! Don't mess things up!"
The second half of the class passed in an eerie and tense atmosphere. Slughorn no longer had the energy to pay special attention to anyone; he simply paced wearily around the classroom, checking on each student's work.
James and Sirius huddled at the other end of the classroom, no longer daring to provoke him, only occasionally glancing at Kayson with longing eyes that yearned for a duel.
The bell finally rang, and like a pardon, the students, feeling as if they had been granted a reprieve, quickly packed their things and rushed out.
Slughorn didn't even look at the others, his face ashen as he was the first to rush out of the classroom, probably to find water to rinse his mouth.
The corridor instantly became noisy. As soon as Kayson, Lily, and Snape stepped out, they saw James and Sirius leaning against the cold stone wall, clearly waiting for them.
"You've got some tricks up your sleeve, Heath." James crossed his arms, his face devoid of a smile. "Poisoning the Professor? You've got some nerve."
"You saw it, so you're free to report it," Kayson said with a shrug.
"We're not that despicable," Sirius said, pursing his lips.
James ignored them, his gaze passing over Kayson and landing on Remus Lupin, who was walking quickly past with his head down.
Lupin held the book, his thin shoulders slightly hunched, as if trying to hide himself in the shadows of the wall.
"Hey! Lupin!" James suddenly raised his voice. He and Sirius had seen Kayson feed Slughorn from a great distance. To be able to control magic so precisely from that distance was no different from frying fish for this age group.
In that case, the traditional arena duel would be out of the question. However, if a combination of permutations and combinations were used, it might be possible to achieve a two-win-one outcome, similar to the strategy of Tian Ji's horse racing.
Now they need to find their squad's third horse.
"It's so boring being alone!" Sirius, keenly aware of James's meaning, immediately echoed in Sonorus, making sure Kayson and the others could hear him.
James chimed in, his smile almost blindingly bright, "Exactly! Lupin, you're pretty good at Potions Class! Why don't you join us? Let's go on adventures together, we're all roommates anyway."
Lupin was sandwiched between the two men; his lips moved, but no sound came out.
"I... I..." Lupin's voice was barely audible.
"Stop with the 'I-I-I'!" Sirius slapped Lupin hard on the shoulder, so hard that Lupin swayed. "It's settled then! Hey, let me show you our secret base!" He practically dragged him along, and together with James, they pushed through the crowd, surrounding the bewildered Lupin.
Snape frowned. Lily watched Lupin being forcibly led away with worry, then looked at Snape: "They..."
"There's also a secret base?"
[Requesting a gift]
[Submission area]
I like both photos, and the number of likes is about the same, so I've included them both!
The function graph is somewhat abstract.
Jalan