After-Class Conversation

Three days after the Second Task, on Friday, February 27th.

On this day, Snape was taking the next potion in the semester's curriculum during Potions — the Wit-Sharpening Potion.

He has already taught the basics of antidote science; more advanced antidotes are covered in the advanced classes starting in sixth grade.

Incidentally, in the last class before Christmas, Snape really did keep his word and poisoned a student.

As Skylar had anticipated, Snape indeed chose Harry as the target of the poison. But to Skylar's surprise, Snape chose a "gender -Transfiguration potion," a potion that could cause a man to become a woman and a woman to become a man, with effects lasting for two hours.

Oh my god!

If Harry's antidote doesn't work, won't he turn into "Harley"? Snape is going to...

"I never would have guessed that Snape harbored such dark and despicable thoughts deep within his heart..." Skylar thought to himself with a cynical glint in his eyes.

Fortunately, with Hermione's secret help, Harry managed to create the full-effect antidote and drank it. When Harry drank Snape's poison in front of everyone, apart from letting out a loud burp, he showed no other unusual symptoms.

Skylar was almost certain that at that moment, a fleeting look of disappointment crossed Snape's eyes.

Let's get back to the lesson.

The Wit-Sharpening Potion is a medium-difficulty potion. Its effect is not to increase a person's IQ, but rather to make their thought process clearer. Therefore, it is also used as an antidote for those who have been afflicted by the Confundus Charm or have drunk the Confusing Concoction.

The normal process of making medicine is to first put ginger slices into a solvent to turn the medicine green, then continuously add anteater bile until it turns blue, and then add powdered Scarabs beetles until the medicine turns red. The same steps need to be repeated many times, and each time the amount of raw materials is increased by 20%, until the medicine is finally formed.

The real difficulty lies in the fact that if the young wizards are not focused enough, they can easily forget how many cycles they have repeated, and thus will be unable to deduce how many times the amount of ingredients should be in this cycle compared to the first.

For Skylar, who had previously concocted the Baruffio's Brain Elixir, the challenge of Wit-Sharpening Potion was actually quite simple. He used both hands, one hand constantly stirring the potion, while the other hand used Summoning Charm to control the three different ingredients to jump into the cauldron one by one. After three cycles (the total number of cycles depends on the alchemist's skill), his Potions was almost complete. He added a small piece of moonstone, about the size of his little finger joint, and the potion immediately emitted a faint milky white glow and a strange fragrance, instantly attracting the attention of the entire class.

Snape, with his bat-like figure, strode quickly to Skylar's table. He looked at the potion Skylar had prepared, his lips pressed tightly together, saying nothing. After at least five minutes, Snape spoke in a low, strained voice, as if suppressing his own words. "The moonstone addition is good. You came up with this yourself?"

Skylar nodded. "Yes, Professor. Because of my interest in Potions, I once looked through a NEWT-level Potions textbook. I found that the Draught of Peace of Peace, which was taught in fifth-grade classes, uses this ingredient, indicating that it can help achieve a calming and soothing effect—we all know that fluctuating emotions are not conducive to thinking, so I think we could try adding this effect of moonstone to the Wit-Sharpening Potion."

Then he crouched down, suddenly approached Skylar, looked him straight in the eye, and said, "Stay after class, I have something to tell you."

Then Snape straightened up and shouted, "Slytherin gets five points, Malfoy made a perfect Wit-Sharpening Potion, and the moonstone at the end was a stroke of genius. In comparison, let's look at Potter? Don't you think you've messed up again, Potter?" He didn't forget to continue mocking Harry.

Harry had indeed forgotten which cycle he was in. At this point, he had given up hope and resigned himself to fate, wildly guessing the amounts of ingredients to be added for this cycle. Sure enough, the potion soon emitted a foul odor and turned into a black, viscous liquid. Regardless of whether it was poisonous or not, just based on its appearance, even fools like Goyle and Crabbe wouldn't put it in their mouths.

The next lesson didn't have anything particularly noteworthy to mention—unless someone wanted to know how Neville burned his eighth cauldron (Skylar: Goodness, that's an average of two per year!), how Seamus Fegane accidentally caused his 24th explosion since entering the school, how Hermione made a decent potion but was ignored by Snape, and how Ron was ridiculed for making a disgusting potion that could send people to the Hospital Wing...

After class, everyone left the Potions classroom as usual.

Only Skylar and Snape remained in the classroom.

Although Snape was usually used to having a cold face, his face was even more gloomy at this moment, as oppressive as the dark clouds before a storm. He looked Skylar up and down with his hawk-like eyes.

After a long pause, his cold voice rang out. "Did you do it?"

Intelligent people never need to say much when they talk; Skylar understood this seemingly random sentence in one go.

"Yes, Professor." Skylar dropped his usual nonchalant smile and became unusually serious. He stared intently into Snape's deep, unfathomable eyes, their gazes meeting in mid-air. The temperature in the underground classroom suddenly dropped, and the air seemed to freeze. If anyone else were present, even breathing would be a difficult task for him.

After a long pause, Skylar's lips curled into a slight smile. His gaze towards Snape seemed to crackle with lightning as he whispered, "Professor, will you betray me to Dumbledore?"

Snape avoided answering, instead looking away and coldly remarking, "Occlumency quite well."

"This little achievement is nothing compared to yours, Professor," Skylar smiled, having already understood Snape's meaning. "Professor, you didn't keep me here just to ask me this one question, did you?"

"Dumbledore suspects you," Snape said coldly. "While we can't rule out the possibility that these students met with an accident in the Forbidden Forest or Hogsmeade, you remain the prime suspect. Among all the students, only you have the ability and the motive."

"So what, Professor—" Skylar said with amusement, "I suppose you know that person is back, don't you? Didn't the Dark Mark tell you?"

Snape frowned, but showed no surprise. In his view, it was perfectly normal for Skylar, with his powerful family background and connections, to know about his past as Death Eaters. As for knowing that the Dark Mark was changing, he secretly guessed that Lucius had revealed it. The problem was, he couldn't figure out what the changes in the Dark Mark had to do with these missing students.

Seeing that Snape remained silent, clearly waiting for him to continue, Skylar said, "Professor, you studied at Slytherin and are now the Head of Slytherin. Don't you know about the Ghosts Society?"

You mean...?

"These missing students are all members of the Ghosts Society. You should know that the Ghosts Society is, in a sense, quasi -Death Eaters. They tried to recruit me but failed, then attacked me at the Black Lake, but I took care of them all. Otherwise—" Skylar sneered, "How do you think Potter got back to shore before me?"

"I see..." Snape's brow furrowed even deeper. "What do you plan to do?"

"Dumbledore can't do anything to me. Voldemort is his real threat. These students are probably less important to him than even a finger of Potter. As for his Legilimency, Professor, you just witnessed it yourself. Do you think he can break through my mental defenses?" Skylar said calmly, his tone filled with unquestionable confidence.

"Even if there are no problems with Dumbledore," Snape said in a low voice, "Those Pure-blood families, and the Ministry of Magic, won't give up easily... Those who have gone missing are their precious elite offspring, including Fawley was even the designated heir to the family. The Ministry of Magic also needs to give the public an explanation..."

"Don't worry, Professor," Skylar smiled. "As long as you don't say anything and I don't say anything, how could they possibly suspect me? Given Dumbledore's character, he's even less likely to expose me based on a mere suspicion. Professor—"

Skylar's gaze suddenly sharpened. "I only need your help with this. You just need to pretend you know nothing. I'll handle the Ministry of Magic's investigation myself."

Snape looked at Skylar meaningfully, and he suddenly understood where Skylar's confidence came from—he had people in the Ministry of Magic! And the two Auror sent over probably also had his people!

After a long pause, he finally uttered a soft, "Okay."