Professor Snape Could Finally Wash His Hair!

Lockhart had no choice but to run around everywhere, asking people for answers.

It was not until the morning of December 4, 1987, that Lockhart knocked on the Castle gates.

After Luke let him in, he headed straight for the dining room, where Moriarty was having breakfast.

"Young Master, I know why The Daily Prophet didn't report on the Mutual Aid Foundation."

Lockhart's voice was dry, and Moriarty noticed that he looked terrible.

He must not have slept well for several days over this matter. Huge dark circles hung beneath his eyes, and the hem of his embroidered coat was covered in mud. His running around these past few days had clearly exhausted him.

Moriarty poured Lockhart a glass of milk. "Come, Lockhart. Drink this and tell me slowly. Put your mind at ease. With me here, no problem is truly a problem."

Lockhart gulped down the milk, and some color returned to his face. Then he took out a letter.

"Young Master, look. Old Fli sent me a letter early this morning saying that the Mutual Aid Foundation has been boycotted!" Lockhart gritted his teeth. "It was Lucius Malfoy! He joined forces with several Pure-blood families to boycott your Mutual Aid Foundation! That treacherous, cunning Death Eater! If you ask me, he should be locked in Azkaban. He's rotten to the core!"

"Haha, don't say that." Moriarty was amused by Lockhart's appearance.

The Pure-blood families did not pressure him in the slightest. He did not even glance at Old Fli's letter. In fact, the moment he heard the name Lucius Malfoy, he understood everything.

"It is important that we find out who is targeting us from behind the scenes. You've done well, Lockhart!" Moriarty praised him, before his gaze turned sharp. "I had already prepared for the worst—if Goblins were behind this, I might have tried every possible way to cripple Gringotts first."

Lockhart blinked and said thoughtfully, "Then perhaps the Pure-blood families making a move this time isn't a bad thing for you, Young Master. Can we cooperate with the Pure-blood families?"

"The way you think pleases me."

Moriarty rewarded Lockhart with another glass of milk and even clinked glasses with him.

After drinking the milk, Moriarty cleared his throat. "As for pure-bloods, you need to remember that most of them are immersed in their former glory.

Have you forgotten the era of revival you spoke of? When the times abandon them, they will not even be given a farewell.

Unless the Pure-blood families change, my relationship with them will remain nothing more than cooperation."

"I understand, Young Master." Lockhart looked solemn. "Then what should we do this time?"

"Even if we cooperate, I will not suffer losses." Moriarty spoke unhurriedly. "My original purpose in having you establish the Mutual Aid Foundation was to dig a pit for the Goblins. Since the Pure-blood families have stepped forward, then make them pay until they lose Merlin's underpants!"

As Moriarty spoke, he left the dining room. He took Salazar's Diary from Salazar's bedroom, pointed at the notes on one page, and said to Lockhart, "See this? Go to Diagon Alley yourself and buy these Potion ingredients."

"Wow," Lockhart said in delighted surprise. "You're going to brew Potions?"

"That's right. I'm going to brew the first of the seventeen Potions left behind by Ancestor Salazar, and one that has never existed in the wizarding world before: the Neutralizing Potion!"

Moriarty had long since memorized Salazar's Diary, and he introduced it fluently.

"This Potion is like a counterweight that can balance tilted scales. It is used on unbalanced Potions. It can reduce dangerous components within a Potion while also enhancing its properties.

Ancestor Salazar said it could even neutralize the bad luck caused by taking too much Felix Felicis. However, brewing it will not be easy. Besides the ingredients available on the market, many of the raw materials have already vanished. Still, I think the first underground vault should have the materials I need."

After Moriarty finished speaking, he saw that Lockhart was already dumbstruck. "What are you standing around for?"

Lockhart jolted, shook his head, and stumbled away.

"He really is strange today." Moriarty clicked his tongue. "Don't you think so, Luke?"

The House-elf put on a show of offering an opinion, but he did not get to be happy for long before Moriarty sent him off to organize the cauldrons.

"Ingo!" Moriarty ordered the slowly approaching Goblin, "Go to Knockturn Alley and buy vampire eyeballs, werewolf toenails, dew from the first blossoms of saplings, the buck teeth of Chameleon Ghouls..."

Many of the ingredients were sold only in Knockturn Alley. Moriarty did not dare send Lockhart to buy them, and the Goblin Ingo was the most suitable choice.

After sending out all three of his assistants, Moriarty headed toward the underground Vaults and found several of the most important ingredients according to the records in Salazar's Diary.

Luke moved cauldrons, scales, small Potion bottles, stoves, and other equipment into the room where Salazar had brewed Potions nine hundred years ago.

There were more than ten cauldrons of varying sizes and materials. Luke numbered them and placed them one by one on the long table.

Moved by the sight, Luke shed sentimental tears. "Young Master is truly so much like the old master..."

Moriarty repeatedly recited every step to prevent mistakes. This was his first time brewing Potions.

According to his academic plan, he would not have attempted the Neutralizing Potion and two other Potions until after entering Hogwarts. The Pure-blood families' targeting had forced him to move that plan up by nine months!

An hour later, Lockhart returned first. The moment he entered, he impatiently began looking for Moriarty.

"Young Master? Young Master? Please allow me one minute to tell you about an idea—my idea!"

Lockhart ran into the Potions room and said breathlessly, "When I was studying at Hogwarts, I once thought about making a shampoo.

And I really did it—I successfully made a new shampoo with Occamy egg yolk as the main ingredient. I called it Cockatrice Yolk Shampoo!

It can effectively lock in the luster of one's hair. I tried it. It really works.

But there is one flaw: it is somewhat dangerous... For example, your hair might suddenly grow longer, then you go bald, and afterward it grows even longer!

Of course, that only happens occasionally. I think it has something to do with Occamies being able to expand and contract at will..."

Lockhart rambled on and on. The room was utterly quiet as he looked at Moriarty expectantly. "So? I thought about it on the way here. I think adding the Neutralizing Potion to Cockatrice Yolk Shampoo might neutralize the dangers brought by Occamies! Young Master? Do you think my idea is right?"

Moriarty looked at Lockhart as if he were seeing him anew. He understood why Lockhart had acted so strangely before.

He remembered Gilderoy Lockhart saying in his class that his greatest ambition was to eliminate evil from the world and sell his own line of hair-care products.

A clear chime rang in his mind, and Moriarty received a system notification.

Mission issued: Brew harmless Cockatrice Yolk Shampoo and give it to Professor Snape! Time limit: one year. Reward: one Achievement Draw! Mission failure: punish the Host with the same hairstyle as Professor Snape.

Professor Snape's hairstyle?

Wasn't that a dazzling, elegant mess of shiny hair—greasy hair!

Moriarty fell into thought. On the surface, this mission seemed like one task, but it was actually two.

First, brew a new shampoo.

Even if the system had not issued the mission, Moriarty would have brewed this shampoo. He wanted Lockhart to use the new shampoo to break the Potter Family's monopoly on shampoo and then compete with the Pure-blood families for the market.

Second, give the new shampoo to Professor Snape???

This mission left Moriarty at a loss for words. With Snape's personality, perhaps no one but Lily could give him shampoo and have him accept it. Even if Voldemort came himself, he could not make him wash his hair!

It seemed this mission could only wait until school began. Moriarty sighed and turned to look at Lockhart.

Lockhart now resembled a student waiting anxiously for a teacher to grade his exam.

"You never disappoint when it comes to fashion!" Moriarty lavishly praised Lockhart. "No one else could have come up with such a genius idea! Cockatrice Yolk Shampoo combined with the Neutralizing Potion will definitely shock the entire wizarding world."

"Oh, Young Master~ Thank you!" Lockhart silently shed tears. At Hogwarts, he had been an unnoticed nobody, yet he had longed for fame and recognition. No one had ever given him even a single word of praise.

Thinking of how the people who had once looked down on him would use shampoo he had made, Lockhart was happier than when he had won the Most Charming Smile Award for the fourth time. For some reason, the first person who came to mind was Severus Snape.

"I'm going to write to Professor Snape and recommend my shampoo to him! Haha, this is wonderful."

Lockhart was a man of action and was about to write the letter, but Moriarty stopped him. "Wake up. We haven't even started brewing yet! Come brew Potions with me. You need to make many batches of Cockatrice Yolk Shampoo so I can freely test the proportions of Neutralizing Potion added to it."

If Lockhart wrote to Snape, Moriarty's mission might never be completed. The system would erase him that very day!

That was why Moriarty's tone was so stern. Lockhart hurriedly put away his smug expression and began brewing shampoo in a fluster.

Luke doubled over laughing at the sight, but Moriarty quickly sent him to sort through the mountain-like pile of materials.

"Now that's more like it." Moriarty inspected the Potions room. It finally had the atmosphere of brewing Potions, and he gradually entered the zone.

The process of brewing the Neutralizing Potion was not dangerous. Salazar had developed it precisely to eliminate the dangers of most Potions. When dozens of fatally poisonous ingredients were added to the first golden cauldron, it began bubbling with a gurgle, gurgle.

Moriarty simmered the second golden cauldron over low heat. After heating it for thirty minutes, he needed to pour the ingredients from the first golden cauldron into the second and extract the essence from those dangerous ingredients.

This was no easy task. Perhaps just as there was no true fairness in the world, Salazar's recipe eliminated the disasters dangerous ingredients might bring, but it could not eliminate the foul smell they produced.

The buck teeth of the Chameleon Ghoul gave off a hot, fishy stench that nearly made the master and his two servants vomit up breakfast.

"Luke, keep the fire at 44.43 degrees!" Moriarty covered his mouth and nose as he spoke to the House-elf. "Not even one degree higher! The sapling's dew will react with black dragon saliva."

At this moment, Moriarty somewhat regretted not learning Fire Elemental Magic. Potions and the magical fire used to brew them were closely connected, like twin brothers.

With Fire Elemental Magic, he would undoubtedly be able to control low and high heat with greater precision instead of relying on Luke's assistance as he did now.

This made Moriarty determined to study more Potions, but that was not the only challenge facing him.

Salazar's recipe was extremely complicated. Moriarty had to remember the exact time each ingredient was added to the first golden cauldron, then pour them into the second golden cauldron in the order listed in the recipe to extract white essence.

"Lockhart, bring over the scales. I need to ensure the essence does not exceed 610 grams!"

Order, temperature, weight—Moriarty overcame one obstacle after another and finally reached the last step.

Time.

Moriarty poured the essence into an ordinary cauldron and began stirring it. The stirring had to continue for fourteen hours and seventeen minutes!

Lockhart looked at Moriarty with admiration. There were self-stirring cauldrons that could stir automatically, but Moriarty insisted on stirring with his own hands!

"The speed and force of an automatic stirring cauldron differ from the speed and force Ancestor Salazar used. I cannot overlook a single detail merely because it is tiring.

Lockhart, remember this: the shampoo is what we will sell, so we must ensure that every step is identical to Ancestor Salazar's."

After hearing Moriarty say this, Lockhart was deeply encouraged. He decided not to rest and to seize the time to brew several more batches of Cockatrice Yolk Shampoo.

Luke shed tears of excitement and relief again. He quietly closed the door and withdrew. He could finally get a good rest—at least he would not need to prepare lunch or dinner.

Fourteen hours and seventeen minutes later, Moriarty finally stopped stirring. The Neutralizing Potion was complete!

Moriarty let out a sigh of relief. After setting down the spoon, he collapsed onto a chair, both arms hanging weakly at his sides.

He was exhausted. Even fighting four Dark Wizards had not left Moriarty this tired.

Lockhart had long since collapsed onto the carpet. He had brewed more than ten batches of Cockatrice Yolk Shampoo and had been waiting for Moriarty all along.

He muttered weakly, "Young Master, I'd rather fight four Dark Wizards again. I'd rather walk through an avalanche again than brew Potions ever again!

My Potions class grades were not very good when I was in school, and I had quite a few complaints about that old bat, Professor Snape.

But now that I think about it, I truly admire him. Those Potion masters—I don't know how they kept going. They... they're incredible!"

Lockhart covered his forehead and eyes with one hand. He was famous, but he did not possess strength worthy of that fame.

"Come on, get up, Lockhart. We still have the final step to complete! After today, your Cockatrice Yolk Shampoo can go on the market!"

Moriarty struggled to his feet and looked out the window. It was already around one in the morning. Regarding Lockhart's feelings, he knew that any words of comfort would have little effect on the poor man.

Moriarty could only continue exploring the magical sky, letting Lockhart witness the charm of magic, changing him, and shaping him.

The rest was much simpler. The Neutralizing Potion perfectly eliminated the Occamy's ability to expand and contract at will. Cockatrice Yolk Shampoo no longer possessed mutative properties or danger.

Lockhart seemed to have been fully revived. He grabbed the freshly brewed shampoo, rushed into the washroom, and happily washed his hair with his own shampoo.

1. The inventor of Cockatrice Yolk Shampoo was Gilderoy Lockhart. Its effect was to ensure hair "locked in its luster," and its known ingredient was Occamy egg yolk. However, this shampoo was expensive and dangerous to use, so it was never produced for the mass market.

2. The Occamy was a winged, two-legged creature native to Asia. It was a bird-like man-eating beast with a bird-like head and the body of a snake, a Class 4X magical creature. Occamies could expand and contract at will, allowing them to grow large enough to fill all available space or shrink their bodies according to the space available.

3. The above information came from Fandom, the Harry Potter Wiki.