Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 179 Wolfsbane Potion and the Prodigal Snape

Potions professor Severus Snape is the head of Slytherin and also the most prejudiced professor against Gryffindor.

He never gave Gryffindor any extra points in class; on the contrary, he deducted more points than he ever did.

If Harry performs normally, he can lose about five to ten points in a class, so he dreams of giving up Potions class.

Unfortunately, Potions is a core subject, and Harry will only be able to truly get rid of it when he chooses the advanced class in his sixth year.

Even if he didn't want to, he had to drag his heavy steps and walk with Xilun to the underground classroom.

The underground classrooms are perpetually dark, and even in summer, one can't help but feel a chill in the air.

Experienced students prepare a slightly thicker robe before potions class and change into it once they arrive at the underground classroom.

“Oh, I didn’t bring my robes,” Hermione said regretfully as she stepped down the stairs.

“You took it,” Ron said from the side. “When we left the common room, you were carrying one… wait, Hermione?”

Ron stared in surprise, "When did you appear?!"

“What nonsense are you talking about? I’ve been here the whole time.” Hermione glanced at him and said to herself, “I remember now, I left it in the bathroom during Muggle Studies class.”

"What are you talking about?" Ron looked at her suspiciously. "We've been together the whole time, how come I don't know when you went to the bathroom?"

"Besides, the Muggle Studies class doesn't start until three minutes later. When did you take that class?"

“No, there’s nothing there.” Hermione suddenly shut her mouth. “I mean, you’re mistaken. I didn’t take my robe when I left the common room.”

"Is that so?" Ron blinked, then asked, "What about your class?"

“It’s alright,” Hermione said. “When they’re brewing the potion, they’ll light a fire, and it won’t be so cold then.”

Her idea was good, but she miscalculated.

The potion brewing method used in this lesson is a cold fire similar to the Bluebell Flame Charm. People don't feel any heat when they get close, and they won't get burned even if they put their hands on it.

But it can be used to brew magic potions.

"Wolfsbane Potion." Snape stood on the platform, pointed with his wand to the top row of large words written on the blackboard, and said, "This is what you will learn today."

"But Professor, there is no wolfsbane medicine in the third-year curriculum. Are you sure you're not mistaken?"

“Thank you for reminding me, my brilliant Miss Know-It-All,” Snape said, drawing out his words. “But I don’t think you’re the only one who’s read the book.”

"Also, you have to raise your hand before you speak in my class, or you'll lose five points in Gryffindor."

Hermione glared at Snape resentfully, but said nothing more.

Past experience had taught her that arguing with Snape in Potions class was an extremely unwise choice, and that doing so would only result in Gryffindor losing more points.

Snape stepped forward and continued, "You'll be in groups of four. Keep an eye on the steps I've written down. I don't expect any of you to actually finish this potion, but if anyone does a really bad job and wastes the ingredients, I'll make them drink everything they made!"

Snape's voice was colder than the underground classroom corridor, and Neville instinctively shivered.

As everyone knows, his potions class is the worst of all, and he will most likely be the one to drink his own potion in the end.

However, everyone soon learned why Snape had specifically instructed them not to waste materials and to divide the students into groups of four.

Pure silver crucibles, moonstone mortars, silver cutting knives... these special tools alone are quite expensive, not to mention the precious materials used.

Silver powder, moonflower juice, and the most difficult-to-obtain wolfsbane flower.

This plant needs to be harvested during a full moon, and it has strict requirements for tools and processing environment. A single plant is more expensive than mandrake.

Of course, the wolfsbane flowers that Snape provided for them were probably not the refined kind.

Xilun noticed that the leaves and stems of those flowers were damaged to varying degrees, clearly indicating they were defective. Even so, their price was still significantly higher than that of ordinary materials.

And this is just for Gryffindor and Slytherin classes; if you include the other two houses and other years, the cost would be even more staggering.

Did Snape spend such a large sum of money just to imply that there were werewolves in the school?
Ha, potion masters are really foolish and rich.

So many wolfsbane flowers are great for making wands. Just squeeze out the juice, add pine oil, styrax, and a dozen other different ingredients and carefully mix them to get the best wand maintenance potion.

Soak the cane in it for a week, and then you'll never have to worry about it getting infested with insects again.

Snape actually used such a good thing to let his students practice?

Oh no, they're only in third grade, it's not even practice, it's a complete waste.

Siren curled his lip, and when he looked at Snape again, it was as if he were looking at an idiot.

That look made Snape very uncomfortable; he instinctively felt that Siren was thinking something impolite.

That idiot who only knows how to smoke wood with precious potion ingredients is more annoying than the chattering Granger.

Unfortunately, his Potions class grades were quite good, and Snape rarely had any reason to lose points during class.

Just like now, Siren used a silver cleaver to slice the wolfsbane root into thin slices, each one uniform in size and thickness. Snape watched for a while, then finally turned and left.

Forget it, if I can't find a reason to deduct points during class, I'll just save them up and deduct them after class. That will be much easier.

Siren, of course, had no idea what Snape was thinking. At this moment, he had already cut up the wolfsbane root and put it into the pure silver crucible.

Before this, Hermione had already boiled the frozen spring water, and Harry and Ron were carefully grinding silver powder and moonflower.

Half an hour later, Ron poured the moonflower juice into the cauldron as Snape had instructed, stirred it six times clockwise with his wand, and Harry quickly sprinkled in the finely ground silver powder.

The crucible churned and bubbled, quickly turning a phantom-like pearly white color.

Take another look at the steps Snape wrote...

“After adding the silver powder, the liquid should be pearly white,” Hermione whispered. “Very good, we did it right.”

"Great! Now Snape has no reason to deduct points from us," Ron said happily. "So, what's next?"

“Slow cook for twelve hours,” Hermione said.

"What?" Harry was stunned. "Twelve hours, but we only have twenty minutes left before get out of class ends!"

“But that’s what Snape wrote!” Hermione said irritably.

The others immediately looked up and, sure enough, saw the last sentence on the blackboard.

The medicinal liquid is pearly white; then simmer over cold heat for twelve hours.

It is indeed hours, not minutes.

"We can't stay here for twelve hours."

“Of course not, we have other classes,” Celen said.

“What about the potions in the cauldron…” Ron glanced at his hands. “I feel like my hands are about to break after crushing all those moonflowers. I can’t just leave them like this.”

“We might have to wait until Thursday to continue with the next steps,” Hermione blurted out. “We also have two Potions classes that day.”

……

(End of this chapter)