The Senior's Old Textbook

After finding the page containing the information about the Philosopher's Stone, Kyle placed the book on the table and began to examine it carefully.

"The greatest achievement of ancient alchemy was a magical substance with amazing properties that could turn any metal into pure gold and create Elixir of Life, making those who drank it never die."

The Philosopher's Stone has appeared three times in history, and each time its appearance has triggered extremely brutal wars.

The longest war lasted twenty years, and the country that possessed the Philosopher's Stone was razed to the ground in the tenth year.

Because its appearance is always accompanied by countless amounts of blood, the Philosopher's Stone is also known as the Bloody Gem.

Of the three Philosopher's Stone, Merlin and Arthur once joined forces to destroy one of them. The other stone was eventually obtained by Rowena Ravenclaw, who, together with three friends, established the famous Hogwarts at the cost of the complete destruction of the Philosopher's Stone.

The only surviving Philosopher's Stone belongs to the famous alchemist and opera enthusiast, Mr. Nicolas Flamel.

Following this description is a picture of the Philosopher's Stone.

It was a bright red stone, irregularly shaped, somewhat like an unpolished ruby.

Kyle stared at the book for a long time, carefully examining every angle, until Cedric came to call him for dinner before he closed the book.

On his way to the Great Hall, Kyle managed to return the book just before the library closed.

Madam Pince found it a little strange, but she didn't say anything, assuming that Kyle was looking up information for his homework.

For the next period of time, Kyle stopped paying attention to the Philosopher's Stone and focused all his energy on Snape's notes.

Although Snape looked unkempt and didn't wash his hair, his notes were extremely detailed.

Moreover, he meticulously marked and explained many parts, making it very easy to understand the meaning while reading.

Because of the notes, Kyle suddenly thought of something else.

During his nighttime stroll, he made a special trip to the underground classroom and found the tattered book "Advanced Potion-Making" in a closet in the corner.

A line of small print also reads, "This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince."

"Tsk tsk, Half-Blood Prince... I never thought Snape could be so childish." Kyle unceremoniously stuffed the book into his pocket, planning to buy a new one in a few days and put it in there.

And just like that, December arrived quickly.

Hogwarts was covered with a thick layer of snow, and the lake was frozen solid.

With Christmas approaching, the young wizards are much more excited than usual, and the professors have to deduct at least a dozen points from each class just to get them to concentrate a little.

Of course, a few professors' classes are exceptions.

For example, Professor Binns wouldn't lose points.

And then there's Professor Snape... Even if the holidays were to start tomorrow, no one would dare to slack off in his Potions Class.

Today was no different. In the underground classroom, everyone was seriously studying the process of brewing the new Potions. Even when they occasionally talked, they deliberately kept their voices down.

Snape was standing behind Kyle, watching with a strange look as he crushed the Sopophorous Bean with the back of his knife to extract the juice.

"What on earth is going on? It's really like seeing Merlin..." Snape thought to himself.

A few days ago, he discovered that Kyle had made rapid progress in Potions, surpassing his previous level by a significant margin.

The problem is that Kyle was already very good at brewing Potions, and it was impossible for him to improve that much in a short period of time.

Snape suspected that Kyle had read the notes he had prepared for Kanna.

So in this lesson, he skipped the original Hair-Raising Potion and chose the more difficult Life Draught of Living Death, which is only taught in the sixth grade.

Because the notes he gave Kanna only contained material from fifth grade onwards; if it were sixth grade material, Kyle would definitely be exposed as a fraud.

Snape had already planned it all out: regardless of whether Kyle ultimately succeeded in brewing the Draught of Living Death, he would find various reasons to deduct fifty points.

It's not difficult. The Draught of Living Death is a very complicated Potions to make, with many steps and a lot of trouble. If you do it well, you can lose a hundred points without any problem.

He wanted Kyle to know how serious the consequences could be of looking at his notes without his permission.

But now... he suddenly realized he didn't quite understand what was going on.

Kyle's squeezing of the Sopophorous Bean was absolutely perfect; he couldn't have done it any better.

This little trick was clearly not in the notes, since Kanna was still struggling to cut those slippery beans with a knife.

Snape frowned.

Didn't Kyle look at those notes?

No, even the most talented person couldn't possibly make such rapid progress in a short period of time.

Let's wait and see. Maybe he just got lucky and stumbled upon it by chance.

With this in mind, Snape didn't go anywhere during the class and stood behind Kyle the whole time.

Even if a junior wizard blew up the cauldron, he would simply toss the other person out of the classroom with his wand.

When class ended, Snape looked at the perfect Draught of Living Death in Kyle's cauldron, opened his mouth, but couldn't utter any words of criticism. In the end, he could only let out a cold snort.

"How did you do that!"

"What did you say?" Kyle asked, puzzled.

"I mean..." Snape said stiffly, his face expressionless, "Why has your Potions skill improved so quickly?"

"I don't know either, maybe it's because of Headmaster Sacia of St Mungo's's," Kyle said with a smile. "She taught me a lot during the summer and gave me quite a few Potions as references."

"Pegasus Sacia?" Snape narrowed his eyes.

Snape was certainly familiar with one of the greatest pharmacists of his time, but he didn't believe Kyle's recent progress was related to him.

Perhaps there is some other reason... but it's definitely not the main one, otherwise he would have noticed it long ago after the start of the semester, and it's unlikely that he's kept putting it off until now.

"Tell the truth!" Snape said coldly, staring into Kyle's eyes.

"I don't understand what you mean, Professor." Kyle blinked and said with a serious expression, "It's all true. If you don't believe me, you can ask Dean Sacia yourself. She will testify for me."

Oh, by the way, I recently met a very enthusiastic senior student whose old textbooks I used back then have been incredibly helpful to me."

Snape's expression darkened further. He gave Kyle a deep look, then turned and left the Potions Classroom without looking back.

If you don't want to talk about it, fine, but why bring up old textbooks for older students... Do you think he doesn't know the level of those people?

Let alone the grotesque and flawed ones of today, even if we go back ten years, no one could brew such a perfect Draught of Living Death in the classroom!