As Snape spoke, he waved his wand, sending various potion ingredients flying off the lectern to land in front of each young wizard.
But the students did not look at the ingredients. Instead, every one of them stared wide-eyed at Snape on the platform.
Polyjuice Potion!
That was fifth-year material. It had even appeared on the O.W.L. Potions exam!
"The old bat must be mad. He doesn't want anyone to pass the selection!" Ron leaned over toward Harry.
Harry turned to him with a suspicious look. Somehow, Ron did not sound particularly angry. In fact, he seemed to be in a much better mood than before.
"Silence!" Snape's oily voice echoed through the classroom.
The students stared at him with rounded eyes. Snape said blandly, "Of course, this is an impossible challenge for you."
Two rows away from Ron and Harry, Hermione's lips moved. She wanted to raise her hand, but restrained herself.
She thought Snape was wrong. At least, she was confident she could brew Polyjuice Potion, but the ingredients before her were very different from the recipe she knew.
Even the most important ingredient, lacewing flies stewed for twenty-one days, was missing. "Two weeks ago, I taught you a variant of Polyjuice Potion," Snape said, walking slowly through the classroom, his gaze sweeping over every student's face.
"Why don't I remember that?" Ron looked bewildered.
Harry reminded him quietly, "The Transformative Potion. Vaughn's new invention. He mentioned in his paper that it's a new potion derived from microscopic Polyjuice Potion and a transformation spell. It's still unfinished, and it's one of the research topics for the exchange."
He glanced at Hermione. Harry had not actually read the paper himself; he had only heard Hermione mention it.
Snape suddenly turned to fix Harry with a stare. "Correct, Potter! But