Investigation into the Heir (V)

The Potions classroom, two afternoons later.

The air in the dungeon was as cold and damp as ever. The torches on the walls cast flickering yellow light, throwing warped shadows across the glass jars filled with all kinds of animal specimens. Lacewing flies soaking in unknown liquid, African tree snakes curled into balls, armadillos with their mouths open to reveal sharp teeth—all of them looked alive in the firelight, as though they might leap out from behind the glass and bite someone at any moment.

The classroom was filled with a complicated, unpleasant smell. Sulfur, spoiled innards, burnt hair, and something indescribable, like someone had hidden a pair of socks in the corner and worn them for three months without washing them. Mixed together, these scents formed the distinctive atmosphere of Severus Snape's Potions class.

Every student who had ever taken this class would still remember that smell vividly years after graduation—not out of nostalgia, but because of the psychological trauma.

Harry sat at his station with a brand-new brass cauldron before him. The flame beneath it burned steadily, heating the liquid inside to a mild temperature somewhere between bubbling and boiling.

Today's lesson was on dissecting Flobberworms, creatures that looked like caterpillars but were covered from head to toe in fine venomous spines. Flobberworm mucus was one of the key ingredients in the substitute formula for Baruffio's Brain Elixir.

The brewing process for this substitute was extremely complicated. It required timing accurate to the second and ingredient proportions precise to the smallest fraction. One wrong step, and the entire cauldron of potion would turn into worthless waste—or possibly explode.

Severus Snape stood behind the lectern, his black robes utterly motionless in the windless dungeon. His waxy face looked even more sinister beneath the torchlight, and his pitch-black eyes slowly