The Half-Blood Prince's Textbook

As the speculation grew more and more absurd, Snape waved his Wand, cast a Silencing Charm on several troublemakers, then hit someone crawling across the floor with a Full Body-Bind Curse. He ordered two students to carry Draco on a wooden board to see Madam Poppy Pomfrey!

Before the three disappeared through the doorway, Luo Bin caught sight of slime stretching a good dozen centimeters between the boards. The corners of his mouth lifted. I'm pretty talented at brewing Potions!

"Listen carefully. Brewing Potions is precise, complicated work. There's no room for the slightest mistake. Pair up and continue brewing your Boil-Cure Potions!" Snape said, his face dark.

After two fiascos, most students wanted nothing more to do with the ingredients on their desks. But they feared the old Bat, so they gritted their teeth and kept weighing ingredients, simmering their Cauldrons, and adding liquids.

Fortunately, apart from Ron breaking a small bottle, there were no more mishaps during the second half of class.

When Potions Class ended, the first-years dragged themselves up the stairs one step at a time, their legs as heavy as lead. That single lesson seemed to have taken half their lives. In fact, it nearly had!

Luo Bin packed up his things and was about to head to the Hunting Grounds to find Fang when Snape stopped him. "Robin Sear, come with me!"

"Sorry, Professor. I have plans!"

"Draco Malfoy's crawling looked remarkably like Aragog's in the Forbidden Forest. I assume you'd rather no one else learned that secret?"

Snape knew Potions inside out. Luo Bin had guessed he couldn't hide his prank on Draco from those sharp eyes. Hugging his heavy textbook to his chest, he said, "I have a little time before I need to go. What did you want to discuss, Professor?"

"Come with me!"

Stone-faced, Snape led Luo Bin out of the Dungeon, through passage after passage and Stone Door after Stone Door, until they reached the cramped Potions Storeroom!

Countless square compartments were packed with bottles and jars of every size. Some bore labels listing the Potion's name, symptoms it treated, dosage, ingredients, and more!

Luo Bin's eyes went wide at the Potions books on the last Bookshelf.

After all, Potions could be every bit as powerful as spells. Draco's reaction to inhaling the mist was a perfect example.

"You're interested in Potions?" Snape asked, pulling a thick book from the shelf without looking up.

"Yes. Potions are fascinating. Herbology ingredients, Magical Beasts, insects, minerals—they can all serve as raw materials. Weigh them on a Balance Scale, simmer them gently in a Cauldron, blend them together in a Glass Bottle, and you create something entirely new. Just imagining that godlike feeling makes my blood race!"

Snape strode forward, brows drawn together in excitement. "Exactly! Like a creator! Wisps of white smoke rising from a Cauldron over a low flame, as beautiful as a paradise on earth. It stirs the soul. What's sealed inside a Glass Bottle isn't merely a Potion, but wondrous Magic with all manner of effects..."

Luo Bin hadn't expected a lie he'd made up on the spot to strike such a chord with the old Bat. Listening to him talk so freely, he looked nothing like his usual cold, restrained self!

Only when his lips grew dry did Snape realize he'd gotten carried away. After a few soft coughs, his expression turned cold and forbidding again. "Draco isn't foolish enough to drink something handed to him by just anyone."

"He wouldn't drink it, no. But he has to breathe, especially when he's asleep!"

"A Potion in mist form? Tell me how you made it!"

Snape's bony hand brushed slowly over the cover of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. Luo Bin had a feeling that if he didn't tell the truth, he might lose his chance to study Potions!

"You know the recipe for the 'Shared Body' Potion. Once I'd brewed it, a perfume bottle gave me an idea. I condensed the Potion to concentrate it as far as it would go, then heated it over Dragon-Bone Charcoal and sealed the resulting gas in small bottles."

"I used one bottle to prank Draco. If you're interested, Professor, I can give you the three I have left!"

"That's all?" Snape asked, incredulous.

The 'Shared Body' Potion used more than a dozen ingredients, including Purple Thistle, Multicolored Coral Powder, and Sisal Fiber, as its base. Rhinoceros Horn, dried toad, and Giant Squid brain were added to produce a pale-green Potion. Add an animal's hair or bodily fluid before drinking it, and the drinker would 'share a body' with that animal, taking on one of its distinctive traits.

Draco's horse-like neigh came from Centaur Ronan's hair.

His bizarre crawling came from the blood of Aragog's offspring.

And the slime seeping from his skin came from a slug on the wall of Hagrid's Hut.

Of course, inspiration alone wasn't enough to make the mist. The fire Luo Bin had used was no ordinary flame. It was the Phoenix Fire hidden within his body.

He couldn't reveal a secret that might save his life, not yet. Unafraid of Snape's searching gaze, he raised his head and met it!

Such composure was rare in someone so young. Yet he'd also dared to make a fool of the Malfoy family's only son. He really did resemble a combination of James Potter and Tom Riddle.

Snape despised both men. Merely thinking of their names put him in a foul mood. Yet he didn't dislike the black-haired, black-eyed boy before him. If anything, he admired him a little.

He handed over the book. "Take it. With your talent, I trust you won't waste my time outside class. And if you run short of experimental materials, you can come to me."

Luo Bin accepted the book and flipped through a few pages. The inventive notes made his eyes light up. For example, the printed instructions said to cut a certain insect in half and scrape out its thick juices with a silver spoon. A note in the margin said to crush it with the flat of a knife instead, and the juices would flow out on their own.

Snape was a double agent, switching between his roles as a spy for the Order of the Phoenix and a spy among the Death Eaters.

But his heart had always leaned toward the light. Clever since childhood, he approached problems differently from others and insisted on testing everything for himself. That was why his books were filled with such unusual notes.

Even Harry Potter had nearly lost himself in the Half-Blood Prince's textbook. That alone showed how precious it was. Luo Bin closed the book and asked, "Professor, did you test all these notes yourself?"

"Practice reveals the truth. Try them yourself and you'll have your answer. Now, didn't you have somewhere to be?"

"Thank you, Professor Snape!"

Luo Bin took the hint. After thanking him, he carried the book to the Hunting Grounds, slipped past Hagrid, and led Fang deep into the Forbidden Forest.

He blew his whistle to summon the Centaurs Ronan and Bane. Then he drew ring after ring of fire with his Wand and played "circus" with them!

Three hours later, night fell. Luo Bin didn't want the firelight to attract trouble, and his right arm was genuinely sore. He put away his Wand, watched the Centaurs leave, then called Fang to head back!

But when he turned around, he found Hagrid sitting on a fallen log. He had no idea how long Hagrid had been there.

"Hagrid, when did you get here?" Luo Bin asked.

"When you made that 'Giant Squid'-shaped ring of fire!" Hagrid answered, his beard trembling.

"Just having a bit of fun. Look, I got a new Potions book from Professor Snape. That'll keep me busy for the next month or so!"