Potions and the Dungeon

Early in the morning, at the long tables in the Great Hall.

Su Yu lay in Daphne's arms because he had not slept well last night.

Who would have thought Gemma Farley would fight so shamelessly, launching a sneak attack on an innocent young man like him in the middle of the night?

Could you imagine it? Waking up in the middle of the night to find an incomparably beautiful, seductive older woman with sexy red lips already straddling your bed, looking like she wanted to devour you—you would do what? Su Yu had originally planned to enjoy it if he could not resist, but Kurama swept his tail and sent Fa-jie flying. Then Fa-jie fell unconscious. Su Yu had no choice but to carry Fa-jie back to her bed before trying to go back to sleep. But Kurama adamantly refused. So he spent the whole night lying awake on the dormitory sofa.

Now, Su Yu lay in Daphne's arms, not even wanting to eat.

Daphne said nothing. She simply held him and patted his back, hoping he could sleep more peacefully. Her movements were gentle, her palm falling against his back again and again. Kurama lay on the table with a piece of cheesecake in front of her, but she did not eat it. She merely rested her chin on her paws, her amber eyes watching Su Yu while the tip of her tail swayed softly across the tabletop.

Su Yu closed his eyes. Daphne's embrace was soft, carrying a faint soapy scent like freshly washed clothes. He had only intended to rest his eyes for a while, but his breathing gradually deepened and steadied. His shoulders slowly relaxed, and his fingers slipped away from Daphne's sleeve.

Daphne did not gently shake his shoulder until it was time for class.

"Su Yu, it's time to go."

Su Yu groggily raised his head and rubbed his eyes. His weight had wrinkled Daphne's robes, and she was smoothing them out with her hand, her expression calm as though nothing had happened.

"What time is it?" Su Yu asked.

"Class is about to start. Potions is first, in the basement."

Su Yu stood up and scooped Kurama off the table. Kurama stretched lazily in his arms, draping her paws over his shoulder before yawning.

Everyone headed for the Potions classroom together.

The Potions classroom was located in the dungeon beneath the basement. The farther down they went, the colder the air became. The classroom walls were lined with niches filled with glass jars, each containing the corpses of pickled animals—octopus tentacles soaking in yellow-green liquid, eyeballs from some unknown creature, and several clumps of things Su Yu could not identify. The younger students walked forward with their necks hunched, and no one spoke.

The dungeon was far colder than the upper parts of the castle, gloomy and terrifying enough to make one's skin crawl.

Su Yu found a seat toward the back, with Daphne sitting beside him. Kurama lay on the desk, glanced at the glass jars around them, then buried her face in her paws.

Before long, Professor Snape swept into the room like a gust of wind.

His black robes billowed behind him as he strode quickly to the front, then whirled around sharply. The hem of his robes drew an arc through the air. His black hair hung greasy on either side of his face like curtains. His eyes were black, cold, and hollow, reminding anyone who saw them of a dark tunnel. His gaze swept over every student's face like a blade of ice.

The room was so quiet that everyone could hear their own heartbeats.

He picked up the register and began calling names.

When Snape called Harry Potter's name, he slowly raised his head and fixed his gaze on Harry's face.

"Ah, yes," he said softly. "Harry Potter. Our school's newest—celebrity."

Malfoy and his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, covered their mouths and snickered.

Snape continued the roll call. When he was finished, he set the register down on the desk, braced both hands against it, and looked up at everyone.

His gaze swept over every face once more.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," Snape said.

His voice was low, almost a whisper, yet everyone heard every word clearly—like McGonagall, Snape possessed a mysterious power that made students fall silent with ease.

"Since some of you are no more capable than waving your wands around like fools, many of you hardly believe this to be magic. I do not expect you to truly understand the beauty of potion-making. Imagine it: herbs simmering in a large cauldron, potions slowly boiling, white smoke curling upward... and the liquid flowing through the veins of the human body, liquid with incomparably subtle power... enough to intoxicate your heart and enthrall all your senses..."

He paused.

"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even... store death, provided you are not as foolish as the dunderheads I have taught before."

After Snape's speech, the classroom became even quieter.

It was the first class Gryffindor and Slytherin had attended together. Hermione, sitting beside Su Yu, sat ramrod straight, with barely the edge of her bottom touching the chair, as though that alone could prove to Snape that she was no fool.

"Potter!"

Snape suddenly called Harry to his feet.

"If I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood, what would I obtain?"

Powder of what added to juice of what? Harry stole a glance at Ron. Ron looked just as bewildered as he was. Hermione, however, was desperately raising her hand as high as she could, her arm stretched straight toward the ceiling while her whole body nearly rose from her chair.

"I don't know, sir," Harry answered quietly.

Snape pursed his lips and gave a derisive snort.

"Tsk, tsk. Fame is clearly not everything."

He completely ignored Hermione's raised hand.

"Very well, another question. Where would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?"

Hermione raised her hand as high as she possibly could, so high that it seemed ready to fly off her body and into the air. But Harry had not the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He did his utmost not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.

"I don't know, sir."

"Do you never prepare before class? Hmm, Potter?"

Harry forced himself to face those icy eyes.

Snape still ignored Hermione's trembling hand.

"What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

This time, Hermione stood up. Her right hand was nearly touching the dungeon ceiling.

"I don't know," Harry said quietly. "But I think Hermione knows. Why don't you ask her?"

Some students burst out laughing. Harry glanced at Ron, who winked at him. Snape, however, was not pleased in the slightest.

"Sit down," Snape snapped, glaring at Harry.

"The answers to my questions—powdered root of asphodel added to wormwood makes a powerful sleeping potion known as Death's Web. A bezoar is a stone found in a goat's stomach, and it is an antidote to many poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are different names for the same plant, also known as aconite. Well? Why are you not writing this down?"

The dungeon immediately stirred as everyone hurried to take out quills and parchment.

Snape added, "Potter, for your insolent attitude toward your teacher just now, I have decided to deduct one point from you."

The first lesson passed in such boredom that Su Yu felt as though he had watched a tedious melodrama.

But there was more bad news: the second lesson was Potions as well.

There were two classes that morning, and both were Potions.

Snape had the students divide into pairs and taught them how to mix several simple herbs into a remedy for burns.

After all, Hermione was a Gryffindor. She could not pair up with Su Yu and could only return to the Gryffindor side reluctantly. As she left, she glanced at Su Yu, her lips moving as though she wanted to say something.

Naturally, Su Yu paired with Daphne.

Snape stalked around the dungeon in his large black cloak, watching them measure dried nettles and crushed snake fangs. His steps were slow and silent, like a snake gliding through the shadows. Whenever he stopped beside someone, that student's body tensed unconsciously.

Almost everyone was scolded.

"These are dried nettles, not hay—where are your eyes?"

"Snake fangs must be ground, not smashed—are you a barbarian?"

"The fire is too high—are you cooking dinner or brewing a potion?"

Only Malfoy and Daphne escaped criticism. It seemed Snape rather liked Malfoy, telling everyone to watch carefully how Malfoy did things. When acidic green smoke rose from the simmering slug horns with a series of hisses, Malfoy handled it so well!

Su Yu followed Daphne's every step. He did not understand Potions very well, but he was neither blind nor crippled—whatever Daphne did, he did the same. Whatever amount she added, he added the same. However many times she stirred, he stirred the same number of times. Their pace was neither fast nor slow, and their potion gradually turned pale blue in the cauldron. Snape glanced at it as he passed but said nothing.

Neville's group, however, ran into trouble.

He was paired with Seamus. No one knew what they had been fiddling with, but Neville actually burned a hole through Seamus's cauldron. Black smoke first rose from the bottom, then—Bang!—a crack split across it. Scalding potion flooded through the gap, flowing over the table and down onto the floor, burning little holes through the students' shoes. Before long, many students had climbed onto their tables.

Neville did not have time to jump up onto a table. He had been frightened stiff, frozen in place as the pot of boiling potion was about to pour over him—

A sheet of sand blocked Neville's path.

Sand poured from Su Yu's sleeve, silently spreading into a thin barrier before Neville. The boiling potion struck the wall of sand with a hissing sound, then flowed along its curve to either side and dripped onto the ground. Neville stood there, pale as a sheet and trembling-lipped, but not a single drop of potion touched him.

"Idiot!" Snape roared, flicking his wand and cleaning up the potion splashed across the floor.

He walked over to Neville and looked down at the terrified child.

"Before taking the cauldron off the fire, did you throw in the porcupine quills?"

Neville was so frightened that he began sobbing. Large tears streamed down his face, snot running from his nose as his whole body shook like a leaf in the wind.

Snape turned around and stared at Harry and Ron, who sat beside Neville. His eyes narrowed, and his lips pressed into a line.

"You—Potter—you did not tell Neville that porcupine quills cannot be added when brewing this potion? You thought that if he made a mistake, you would get a good show, didn't you?"

Harry opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but Snape gave him no chance.

"I am taking another point from you!"

Then he changed the subject and looked at Su Yu.

"Because Su Yu acted cleverly and saved a fellow student, Slytherin receives five points!"

At eleven o'clock, they left the dungeon.

Su Yu was so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open. Last night's insomnia combined with the dungeon's chill had left him feeling completely drained. His steps were unsteady, and his eyes remained half-closed.

He went to the Great Hall with Daphne and asked her to help him get several hamburgers, fried chicken, and cola.

"I'm going back to sleep," Su Yu said.

Daphne looked at him without saying things like, "You still haven't eaten." She simply nodded, wrapped the hamburgers and fried chicken in paper, and placed them in a small bag.

"You go back and sleep first," she said. "I'll bring the food for you, and you can eat when you wake up. But remember, you have two more classes this afternoon—Charms and Herbology."

"Mm."

"I'll wake you beforehand."

Su Yu nodded, turned around with Kurama in his arms, and left.

Daphne stood in the Great Hall and watched his back disappear toward the Slytherin common room. Then she lowered her gaze to the little bag in her hand, and the corner of her lips lifted slightly.

At one thirty, Daphne knocked on the door to Su Yu's dormitory.

Kurama opened the door. She hooked the handle with her tail and pulled it open, then crouched in the doorway, amber eyes fixed on Daphne.

Su Yu was already up and washing.

Kurama turned and walked inside, with Daphne following behind. She placed the small bag on the table. Inside were the hamburgers and fried chicken from lunch, along with a cup of cola—it was no longer cold, but still drinkable.

By the time Su Yu emerged from the washroom, his hair had been combed and his robes were properly on. He looked much better than he had that morning—his eyes were open, and some color had returned to his face.

"Let's go," he said, pulling out a hamburger from the bag and taking a bite as he walked.

Su Yu was feeling much better on the way. He hurried toward the Charms classroom while eating his hamburger. Kurama lay in his arms, occasionally lifting her head to look at the hamburger in his hand before lowering it again.

Professor Flitwick taught their Charms class.

He was a very, very small wizard, so short that only the top of his head showed when he stood behind the lectern. He kept a stack of books beside it and had to stand on them during class just to see over his desk. His voice was high-pitched but enthusiastic, and his hands constantly gestured as he spoke like an excited little bird.

Su Yu really enjoyed listening to him teach.

Professor Flitwick did not coldly berate people like Snape, nor was he so stern that students could barely breathe like McGonagall. He smiled, applauded, and bounced around behind the lectern on tiptoe. When a Ravenclaw girl successfully cast the Unlocking Charm, he clapped his hands and said, "Good, good, good!" before awarding Ravenclaw ten points.

Su Yu leaned back in his chair, twirling his wand in his hand as he watched Professor Flitwick gesticulate wildly behind the lectern.

This was what class was supposed to be like.