In the Room of Requirement, Will studied the magical structure of the Water of Despair.
The parchment was crowded with intricate, twisted lines forming magical circuits that drew the eye in.
Will had a feeling the Water of Despair would leave its mark on the history of Potions. The way it worked was far more complex than a mere "emotional poison."
From a Wizarding World pharmacological perspective, it was a clever blend of several highly poisonous herbs. Physically, it stimulated the body's endocrine system and forcibly interfered with hormone secretion, producing profound grief and pain.
But that was only the most obvious layer.
What truly made it "despair" was its magical power.
Will stared at the lines, replaying what he had observed in Bellatrix moments earlier.
The Water of Despair's magical structure resembled a net covered in barbs. Once swallowed, it forcibly disrupted the magical structures in a wizard's brain, dragged out memories deliberately sealed away or suppressed, and magnified the pain within them without limit.
It was an extraordinarily powerful, violent dismantling of the soul and memory.
Will thought Snape had been able to invent such a potion partly because of his exceptional talent for Potions. But Snape had also known genuine pain, and his experiences and temperament had given him a deeper sensitivity to it and a more profound understanding of it.
"If despair destroys and magnifies pain..." Will murmured, tapping the table lightly. "Then does happiness rebuild and soothe wounds?"
If the Water of Despair affected memory by disrupting magical structures, reversing its effects would require a magical model capable of "soothing" and "reorganizing" those structures.
The problem was that he had no magical structure for the Happiness Potion to use as a reference.
Will felt a headache coming on. His own understanding of happiness was hardly