The Cover Is Lifted

"You were too impulsive just now."

Professor Slughorn's words carried a hint of reproach. "You offended the panel of judges. They'll definitely deliberately mark you down, and it won't be good for your future prospects either."

"Impulsive? No, I've always been calm," Albert said evenly. "There are some things that cannot be compromised on. Otherwise, all you'll face is even worse bullying. Besides, do you think they wouldn't do that if I compromised? No, they would. At least that President would. I never planned to become a potion maker anyway."

Professor Slughorn had nothing to say. He suddenly found that he could not quite understand the boy before him.

Albert could have won the Golden Cauldron through his own ability, yet the Potions Championship had never been a fair competition. He had clearly seen through that too, which was why he had become so angry.

After resting for a while, Albert went to process the potion ingredients he had collected earlier. Most potion ingredients used by wizards underwent preliminary processing.

For Albert, the biggest issue in brewing Shrinking Potion was obtaining rat spleens. Dissecting rats was a technical task. He had to locate the spleen in the rat's body and remove it intact, rather than simply taking out some random organ.

After washing, drying, and chopping the daisy roots, then peeling the Shrivelfig, Albert quickly prepared all the ingredients needed for Shrinking Potion. He arranged them neatly on the table and began brewing at an unhurried pace. The main thing to watch out for was not adding too much leech juice or rat spleen.

It took him over an hour to successfully brew a perfect cauldron of Shrinking Potion, but perhaps due to the aftereffects of having just confronted the panel of judges, he received only 73 points in the