Wolfsbane Potion Once Again

With the Mandrake Leaf in his mouth, Loren did not provide commentary.

Hermione was even more cautious. To prevent anyone from getting so excited when a goal was scored that they were pulled to sway and shake, she cleverly pulled Loren to sit in the Ravenclaw stands.

Compared to the bustling Gryffindor stands, this area was much quieter. The young wizards around them were discussing topics such as magical principles, Potions recipes, and the puzzle of the Eagle-shaped Bronze Door Knocker, making the stands even more deserted.

"Qiu, tell me quickly what kind of animal has legs but can't walk. I couldn't answer this question last night and almost got locked out of the lounge by the Bronze Door Knocker." Padma Patil, with long black hair and brown skin, asked the senior next to her.

Qiu Zhang is a very beautiful girl with long, glossy black hair. With her black hair and black eyes, she has obvious Asian features and a mysterious aura that makes people subconsciously look at her.

Before she could answer, Marietta Ekko tossed her reddish blonde ponytail triumphantly and boasted, "It's a kangaroo. How silly of you, you didn't even think of that. Oh, right, maybe it's not your fault. You come from poor India, you've probably never traveled to Australia, you have no idea what a kangaroo is."

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

Qiu Zhang looked at Padma, whose face was flushed with anger, and felt a wave of helplessness.

Marietta's mother is Mrs. Edgecombe of the Floo Network Authority of the Department of Magical Transportation. She grew up in a pampered environment and never considered the feelings of those around her when she spoke or acted.

Qiu didn't think she had any bad intentions; it was just a bit of a show-off, a little vanity. All girls have that, but Marietta's was a bit more pronounced.

Qiu patted Padma's hand and explained softly, "Kangaroo is an animal that moves by hopping with its tail and two feet. Not only kangaroos, but also frogs, dragonflies, toads... all animals that move by flying and jumping are included."

"Don't take Marietta's words to heart. That's just how she is. She doesn't have any bad intentions."

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

Padma Patil's family was not poor, which enabled her to study in the England from India. She was very beautiful and was Professor Flitwick's teaching assistant. As the focus of attention among her peers, Marietta's words made her very uncomfortable.

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

At this moment, the academically excellent Miss Granger is counting her House Points on her fingers.

Hermione muttered to herself, "Including the points we earned over the Easter Holiday, we're still leading by more than 180 points..."

She was somewhat surprised. "Professor Snape has been deducting far fewer points than I expected during this period."

Loren adjusted the position of the Mandrake Leaf with his tongue before speaking, "They probably realized the shady dealings behind the House Cup. With the biased Headmaster Dumbledore around, Slytherin hasn't had a chance to win the championship in recent years."

"Headmaster Dumbledore is not that kind of person!"

Padma: "..."

Padma quietly moved to another seat; this was not something she should be hearing.

Although the stands around the Quidditch Pitch are divided by college, this division is not mandatory, and no one will mind if you sit in a seat belonging to another college.

With no team of their own participating, many young wizards from Gryffindor Ravenclaw happy to sit in the Gryffindor stands, their infectious enthusiasm always radiating from them.

Ravenclaw strive for composure and rationality, but occasionally experiencing such passion can be just as enjoyable.

Luna and Ginny sat together in the back row of the stands, the two little girls holding a banner cheering for Harry, watching intently as the Gryffindor Quidditch Team players huddled together, and Captain Wood explained the tactics for the match.

Wood placed his hands on the Twins ' shoulders and looked at the youngest Seeker in the team. "Harry, you're in charge of the toughest one, Cedric. Just make sure he doesn't catch the Golden Snitch first, and we'll take care of the rest!"

"Yes!" Harry nodded vigorously.

He's no longer the rookie player he was last year. He's no longer so nervous before the start of the game that he couldn't even eat bread. Now, his heart is filled with rising fighting spirit.

George grinned and said, "Don't worry, we're acquaintances with Cedric, we'll definitely make sure you treat him well!"

Fred's scatterbrain clicked his tongue with a hint of regret as he thought of something else, "It's a pity the Basilisk was dealt with, otherwise they would have been too afraid to stop you, because getting too close would have turned them to stone."

This remark elicited a burst of laughter from the group.

The Gryffindor players are relaxed, and the Hufflepuff players are not as strong as them. The only problem is that Cedric has more match experience than Harry, but Nimbus 2001 will make up for this gap.

Wood intended to use the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team for practice, but ultimately heeded the advice of the unofficial coach Ron and let the goalkeeper wield a Nimbus 2000.

Well, goalkeeper Wood said it was purely for tactical reasons and had nothing to do with his captaincy.

With Madam Hooch's loud whistle, fourteen brooms shot into the air and flew into the mid-air of the field.

Angelina, the Chaser, took the ball first thanks to Nimbus 2000 beneath her. The other two Chaser from Gryffindor, Katie Bell Alicia Spinnet, formed an arrowhead formation around her and broke straight through Hufflepuff's defense.

George and Fred orchestrated their attack, and the goal was scored with great precision.

Conversely, when Hufflepuff have possession of the ball, they struggle to organize effective attacks. Their passes are frequently intercepted, and they only manage a handful of times to exploit gaps in the opponent's defensive transitions, crossing midfield to shoot in front of the Quidditch hoop.

But Wood's interception speed, riding the Nimbus 2000, was even more despairing. In just over ten minutes, the point difference approached 150 at an unprecedented speed.

Seeker Cedric hovered in the air above the field, his brow furrowed, his breathing quickening, and his anxious gaze sweeping around.

The Golden Snitch is worth only 150 points. If the score difference exceeds 150, it will be too late for him to catch the Golden Snitch.

Harry, standing not far away, stared intently at Cedric. Only a fellow Seeker could truly appreciate Cedric's excellence.

Even though Gryffindor has the advantage now, and even though his Nimbus 2001 is faster, Harry still can't shake off Cedric.

Occasionally, Cedric would use the Nimbus 2001's excellent straight-line acceleration to create distance, and then use a series of feints to confuse him, making him suspect that the Golden Snitch was Cedric, forcing him to reverse the direction of his broom and fly back.

It wasn't just about flying skills, but also about competition experience, psychological warfare... Harry truly realized that there was still a huge gap between him and this senior.

After the game, in Hufflepuff's locker room, the other players had already left. Although they had lost, they weren't too downcast. Cedric stayed behind to put the team's brooms back in the storage room.

Just then, George and Fred, dressed in bright red Quidditch team uniforms, swaggered into the adjacent locker room.

"How about it? Our Eagle Head Attack Formation is impressive, isn't it!" George put his arm around Cedric's shoulder, his tone brimming with pride.

Fred put his arm around his shoulder from the other side. "We were planning to use this tactic against Slytherin, but you guys got lucky."

Cedric, with a helpless smile on his face, pushed away the hands of the two scoundrels, changed out of his Hufflepuff Canary yellow team robe, and rummaged through the cabinet for his magic robe. "Slytherin... the whole team is Nimbus 2001, your eagle heads... the offensive formation won't be as effective as it is today."

His tone of voice was strange, and his pronunciation of certain sounds was off.

George and Fred exchanged a glance. George's eyes widened, and he exclaimed, "You're not still holding Mandrake Leaf in your mouth, are you?"

Fred was equally shocked. "How did you train while holding a leaf in your mouth?"

Donning his magic robes, Cedric shrugged. "I'm Seeker, I don't participate much in tactical communication, and I don't need to speak loudly on the field."

As he spoke, he suddenly remembered the Twins ' pranks, which had already failed on most of the students in the Teaching Class. Alerted, he quickly took several steps back, his eyes warily fixed on the two of them.

George tried to make his smile look friendly, "Don't worry, we won't play a trick on you."

Cedric didn't believe a word they said and continued to watch them warily.

Fred pulled him close and whispered in his ear, "We need to talk to you about something else..."

"Summer homework answers?! And answers for other grades too, they haven't even started summer vacation yet!"

"You guys are still saving up money? Are you really planning to open a magic joke shop?"

"Okay, but I want an extra 10%. I'm saving up to buy a Nimbus 2001."

At night, the corridors of the Hogwarts Castle basement were silent, save for the occasional crackling of firewood from the torches on either side of the walls, which sent sparks flying onto the torch stands, making the basement seem even more quiet.

With light footsteps, Loren arrived at the door of the Potions Master Department office.

Bang bang—

There was a knock on the door twice, and Snape's voice came through the wooden door, sounding somewhat muffled and distorted. "Come in."

He pushed open the door, finding the area behind the desk empty. Loren skillfully closed the door and strode into the storage room.

After mastering the basics of medicinal herb processing, understanding medicinal properties, and the principles of drug action, he came to this office to further his knowledge of Potions Master as often as before, but his gains were no less than ever.

Snape, dressed in a black robe, was bent over the workbench, the cauldron in front of him boiling.

Loren caught a whiff of an unpleasant, nauseating yet vaguely familiar scent in the air and blurted out, "Wolfsbane Potion!?"

Snape glanced at him with a hint of approval, but quickly withdrew it, saying calmly, "I had a plan before you came. If you couldn't remember what kind of Potions it was, I would make you drink the whole pot."

Smelling the air, which smelled like fermented rotten eggs, Loren shook his head quickly with disgust. "Such a unique Potions, it's hard to forget it."

As he spoke, Loren's nose twitched again, noticing something different from what he remembered. He hesitated and said, "Besides the smell of fermented rotten eggs, there's also the stench of a Giant Arum Lily. Has the recipe been improved?"

Snape's approval became even more evident, and his expression softened considerably. "After submitting the formula to the Ministry of Magic, Belby made some improvements on the original."

With the addition of Giant Arum Lily, the new version of the Wolfsbane Potion has a slightly reduced duration, but its effects are milder, making it less painful for Werewolf to take.

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

The pain lessens, the medicine becomes milder, and the dosage is increased, but drinking the medicine becomes more painful. Therefore, the weaker the pain, the stronger the pain.

Snape didn't answer the question about dosage, but instead stirred the potion in the crucible clockwise with a stirring spoon. "The main ingredient of the Wolfsbane Potion is Monkshood, which is highly poisonous. One of its many mechanisms of action is to use extreme pain to specifically stimulate a certain part of the brain and soul, so as to awaken clear reason and seal away the Werewolf's instinctive bestiality."

"After talking with Belby, I proposed a hypothesis—the stronger the pain caused by the drug, the more obvious the effect and the longer the duration of action."

Snape handed Loren a parchment list. "Try adding these herbs to the formula without interfering with the original properties of the Wolfsbane Potion. You don't need to specify the exact dosage; just provide me with an idea for improving the formula each week."

Loren readily accepted the Potions Master's unconventional teaching methods and took the list to begin reviewing it:

Rafflesia, a fleshy parasitic herbaceous plant or saprophytic plant, is known for its large flowers and foul odor...

The Leopard-skin flower, also known as the stinking flesh flower, attracts flies for pollination through its foul odor...

African egret flower...

Then, thinking about the Giant Arum Lily (also known as the corpse flower) in the latest formula... Loren wiped away non-existent cold sweat from his forehead, feeling that Snape's purpose in improving the formula was neither for teaching nor for optimizing the Wolfsbane Potion.

"Professor, do these things have to be the ones?"

"If you know of any herbs that would be even more effective, you can add them in as well," Snape said calmly.

"No."

"Notify the members of the Potions Club to gather in the Potions Classroom tomorrow afternoon."

"Yes, Professor!"

The Potions Club bell rang, and Professor Snape walked into the Potions Classroom on the basement floor just in time. He stood in the center of the podium when the bell ended.

The dimly lit Dungeon Classroom was quiet, with a small number of club members scattered about, making the classroom seem even more empty.

Since the completion of the large-scale production of Wormwood Essence, the Potions Club's activities have been limited to small-scale Potions brewing. Although it is not limited to basic Potions, it has always been a small-scale affair, and Professor Snape has not given any formal lectures to everyone.

This club event was somewhat unexpected; the members had no idea what the professor was going to talk about.