Douglas rearranged the information at key points throughout the article.
He finally arrived at a single sentence.
"The serpent's head changes places."
Lucius had reacted fairly quickly. After all, it had happened last night, and he had already found a way to pass on the information today.
After dinner.
The Potions office.
Neville stood before Snape's desk.
Snape took Neville's parchment, his expression suggesting it was covered in Horklump juice.
His voice carried a suffocating pressure.
"I would have thought, Mr. Longbottom, that a single afternoon would hardly suffice for that brain of yours, which appears to have been repeatedly chewed by a troll, to organize this jumble into anything containing even a shred of logic."
Neville sounded somewhat nervous, but he forced himself not to stammer and laid out his thoughts word by word.
"Professor, I've recalculated the data."
"I compared and tested the half-life theory in 'The residual effects of advanced curses in the human body' against Advanced Potion-Making. If you turn to page three, you'll find..."
"I do not need an idiot who cannot even manage a cauldron teaching me how to read parchment!"
Snape cut him off sharply.
"You write here that you intend to combine an extract of Essence of Dittany with the mild resonance of Eastern fleeceflower root to interrupt the long-term neural damage caused by the Cruciatus Curse? Has your brain gone into hibernation along with your toad?
Dittany's rejection response, when confronted with residual Dark Magic, will instantly trigger a magical storm, causing the blood vessels in the patient's brain to burst like that delicious Blast-Ended Skrewt!"
"What if we used it in reverse?"
Neville was not intimidated into retreating. He took a deep breath and spoke rapidly under Snape's murderous gaze.
"I read through the Longbottom family's old handwritten notes over