An experiment in fragrance and stench

The Silk-Spirit Beetle was a peculiar magical creature, with a wondrous magical bond linking the mother beetle to her offspring.

Whatever sounds the offspring heard, the mother could hear too, even from dozens of miles away. By rubbing her outer wings against her concealed wings, she could reproduce those sounds.

However, the reproduced sounds were very faint. A wizard needed a special amplifier to hear them.

From Quirrell's stammering words, Luo Bin could guess that Voldemort, in his parasitic state, wanted to recruit gifted students.

Tsk. Even setting aside the fact that evil could never triumph over good in this Wizarding World, Voldemort's increasingly hideous appearance and his nasty habit of casting Avada Kedavra at the slightest provocation were enough to make Luo Bin want to stay well away from him.

Still, Snape had warned Quirrell, so Hogwarts should remain peaceful for a while. Luo Bin tidied his desk, took out his handwriting copybook, and practiced one letter and one word at a time.

They were only letters and words. Could they really stump a student from a top-tier university on Blue Star who had cleared hurdle after hurdle and fought his way through a million competitors?

The next day, however reluctant he was, Luo Bin returned the mother Silk-Spirit Beetle. After being told to keep his mouth firmly shut, he wheedled and pestered until he was allowed to carry several jars of poisonous specimens back to the Dormitory. Draco was so frightened that he nearly moved in with Crabbe and Goyle.

Of course, he failed. After all, each of his little sidekicks was big enough to take up two beds.

From then on, Luo Bin's days were fulfilling and happy—not!

Hagrid spent all day prowling along the edge of the Forbidden Forest, forcing their fire-control training to come to a temporary halt. Luo Bin's movements were limited to the Dormitory, classrooms, and Great Hall, where meals were served. Naturally, he spent most of his time in the Dormitory.

Whenever anyone came over out of curiosity to ask why, he said it was cold and he wanted to curl up under his blankets to keep warm.

Indeed, once December arrived, the weather grew colder by the day. The snow on the Castle and treetops never melted, and the Black Lake froze under several feet of ice. Mischievous students often arranged to go skating together, only to be led away by their head of house, whose expression was icy.

Luo Bin was not the only one who stayed in the Dormitory all day. There were others, such as the clumsy, timid Neville and the greedy, hefty Crabbe and Goyle. But Luo Bin stayed there to study the unique volume away from prying eyes, while the others... really were afraid of the cold!

Although fireplaces burned in the common room and the Great Hall, the corridors leading to them had no heating whatsoever.

What was more, howling drafts swept through from time to time. Whenever that happened, students wrapped their wizarding robes tightly around themselves and sprinted through. Even then, their teeth were chattering by the time they reached their destination.

Fortunately, the school understood that younger students were sensitive to the cold and imposed no daily limit on how long they could remain in their dormitories.

On December twentieth, the two-week Christmas holiday began. Luo Bin, who combined talent with hard work, finally mastered the unique volume.

He now had a rough grasp of what the oddly shaped symbols in the Ancient Elvish of the Bedegleret Mountains meant and how to pronounce them.

Then he spent another two days carefully reading the first three chapters of the Flower Fairy Care Manual and learned how to lure out a Flower Fairy.

But no matter how he considered it, the method seemed unreliable. He remembered Madam Pince saying that the books in the box were either damaged and incomplete or questionable in content. Ugh, could I really be unlucky enough to have picked one of the latter?

Still, if he did not give it a try, would all his earlier efforts not have been wasted?

Early on Christmas Eve, Luo Bin went to the kitchen and spoke with the cook, obtaining a piece of untreated blue cheese. Its smell—a combination of dirty socks and used footbath water—insisted on worming its way into his nose even through layers of foil.

That afternoon, after his extra lessons ended, he took an assortment of equipment to the Hunting Grounds Little Stone Hut. Before he could even greet Hagrid, he heard him say in disgust, "Luo Bin, did you step in something squishy? You know, Fang sometimes misbehaves and does his business wherever he likes!"

Uh, no, I didn't know, and I haven't stepped in anything, Luo Bin grumbled inwardly.

"Hagrid, you've got it wrong. The smell isn't coming from the soles of my shoes. It's coming from my pocket. I'd like to borrow a little space here for a small experiment. If you don't agree, I can take Fang into the Forbidden Forest and do it there."

"No, absolutely not. The Forbidden Forest's been too dangerous lately. You can't go in there. What sort of experiment? Do you need my help?"

"A debate between extreme fragrance and extreme stench. I won't need anyone else's help for now."

"All right. Here, I just bought this little table. Do your experiment on it!"

"Great!"

It was a folding table. When not in use, its four legs could be folded away and the table stood to one side, saving plenty of space. Luo Bin gave Hagrid an apologetic smile, then laid out all his equipment.

When the foil unfolded, Hagrid's beard trembled. When five rotten eggs were cracked and beaten, he stuffed cotton into his nostrils. When the tin of fermented herring was pried open, his eyes instantly watered. The moment skunk gland secretion went in, he hastily turned to leave with Fang, only to discover that Fang had already fled.

"Fang... you disloyal little—urgh! Luo Bin, I think... I'll be sleeping in a tent tonight!" With that, he left, supporting himself against the wall.

Inside the Little Stone Hut, Luo Bin remained perfectly composed under the assault of the stench. Holding a stone pestle, he stirred the ingredients clockwise at a steady speed, stopping only once they had blended together so thoroughly that their original forms were no longer recognizable.

He rubbed his aching wrist but did not dare rest for too long. Thirty seconds later, he lined a funnel with three layers of gauze, pouring in the thick liquid while pressing it with a porcelain spoon to speed up the filtering.

After filtering it three times to ensure that no stray fibers remained in the bluish-green liquid, he began purifying it. Five hundred meters away, Hagrid sat on a large tree stump and watched the black-haired boy's every move through a telescope.

Hagrid watched the disgusting liquid bubble, boil, and evaporate. He watched clear yellow-green droplets drip from the condenser tube into a beaker, one by one. He watched the boy add reagents of every color to the beaker, and watched thick mist churn above it...

By the time jewel-like stars filled the night sky, he saw Luo Bin putting away his apparatus and guessed that the experiment was over. He stuffed two wads of cotton into his nostrils and walked toward the Little Stone Hut, the thick snow crunching beneath his feet.

"Luo Bin, what on earth are you up to?"

"Sorry for stinking up your stone hut! In theory, stench and fragrance share the same origin, and there's a folk saying that the most extreme stench leads to the most extreme fragrance. I got curious, so I found some really smelly ingredients to experiment with."

Hagrid bitterly regretted his decision. He really should have sent this boy into the Forbidden Forest. This was no experiment—he was clearly developing a biological weapon.

As for safety, there was no need to worry at all. Wherever that stench went, even the ants would scramble to move house.

"Oh, heavens! It reeks! My mole-skin coat, the wooden cupboard, the aluminum pot—they all stink! Robin Sear, you're a one-boy wrecking crew!"

Hagrid picked up an enormous thin wooden board and fanned the air as he spoke helplessly.

"Hagrid, don't worry. I have a solution!"

Luo Bin traced a Y shape with his wand and pronounced clearly, "Deodorize!"

Instantly, a dozen or so streams of pale green magical wind swept through every corner of the stone hut, including Luo Bin, Hagrid, and Fang. All the fur around Fang's neck stood on end, making him look like a majestic black lion.

A dozen seconds later, the green winds surged out through the window, taking the nauseating stench with them.

"Oh, I actually forgot about magic!"

Hagrid spoke self-deprecatingly, and the observant Luo Bin caught the fleeting disappointment and envy in his eyes.