The Rune Mage Starting at Hogwarts

They were still advising Reese not to be so tense all the time, to rest more often, and to enjoy campus life.

In fact, Ryze did not deliberately disrupt his schedule. At most, it was the energy brought by the science fanatic that allowed him to fully recover with only six hours of sleep a day, giving him an extra hour or two of study time.

I get up around six in the morning to go to the "Wish-Fulfilled House" to brew medicine, and do some simple morning exercises while brewing the medicine.

During the day, I attend classes if I have any, and if I don't, I take a stroll around Hagrid's hut and the Ancient Runes classroom. In the afternoon, I walk around Hogwarts in search of ravens, and spend the rest of the afternoon in the library or dueling club until dinner time.

After dinner, relax for a while, chat with people in the common lounge or play some fun games like Wizard's Chess, and then go to the House of Requirement to brew medicine and study.

I go back to my room to rest around 11 pm. Occasionally, because the eagle-head door is too out of the way, I have to spend the night in the Requirement room.

With Ellie keeping watch, he was never spotted by Felch or any of the other prefects on night patrol.

It looks like I'm very busy, but actually most of my time is spent studying on my own. There's a lot of flexibility in between, which is much more comfortable than my high school days in my previous life.

Most importantly, Ryze can now enjoy learning this magical knowledge, and new ideas are constantly popping into his head. He is happy to spend time verifying those new ideas.

Soon, it was Saturday again.

Chapter 102: The Final Test of the Ecstasy Drug

The weather in December became even colder.

The temperature in the underground classroom had dropped to freezing. Even though more than a dozen crucibles were emitting heat at the same time, each breath of the students created a puff of white steam in front of them.

The only way for everyone to keep warm was to rub their hands together and bring them close to the flames below the crucible.

It's not that people don't know how to cast a warming spell, but rather that no one dares to cast one on themselves at this time.

When brewing a high-grade potion like the Joyful Potion, which is highly sensitive to both magic and external materials, the magic of the Warming Charm might seep into the crucible through the fingertips during the magic infusion process, affecting the quality of the potion.

They even avoid wearing warm items like scarves and hats that shed easily.

The fact that the wizards even turned their heads away to avoid affecting their potions showed just how careful they were with this brewing process.

After all, this pot of euphoria today will determine whether they can continue to enjoy this extra potion resource.

No one will give up easily; everyone focuses their energy on the crucible before them.

“Fourteen minutes to go,” Snape’s deep voice rang out, causing a chill to run down the spines of the students who were lagging behind.

This time, Snape didn't give him the whole morning.

He simply instructed the students to follow the standard brewing time for the euphoria drug.

According to him, the standard cooking time is already quite lenient; it's only required for students whose brains are no different from those of trolls.

Even if it's an improved formula, if it can't be brewed within the standard time, it only means that no effort has been put into the research of the medicine itself.

If anyone fails in the cooking process, they will naturally not be given a second chance.

One chance, based on the effects of the brewed euphoria potion, half of those ranked at the bottom will be eliminated.

Even the usually confident Jemma Farley maintained a focused expression at this moment.

With the last ten minutes remaining, she was still the first to finish brewing the euphoria potion.

Compared to the ordinary golden euphoria, her potion was a deeper color, exuding a somewhat luxurious dark gold hue.

Snape glanced at the other person's potion but said nothing.

Since it's an evaluation, we should wait until everyone's medicine has been prepared before evaluating them together.

The person who cooked it next was not Penelope but Percy.

He wiped his forehead with a sigh of relief, looking at the golden liquid in the pot with satisfaction, which was almost identical to the one in the textbook.

He took the word "standard" to the extreme, adding only one ingredient that wouldn't affect the drug's efficacy and even slightly reducing some side effects.

Although the reduction may only be around 5%, Percy is confident that the quality of the potions he brews will be among the best in the entire place!

Then, one by one, people finished brewing the potions. Ryze also turned off the flames with three minutes left, put the potions in the pot, and waited for Snape's evaluation.

"Time's up."

As Snape's voice faded, a suppressed wail echoed in the classroom; it came from a Ravenclaw student.

He was putting the finishing touches on it; if he had just half a minute more, he would have finished the medicine.

But Snape didn't give him that chance.

“If the potion isn’t completed by the deadline, the competition is lost,” Snape said coldly, looking at the pale-faced boy and sentencing him to death.

Then, he began to walk around the students' potion tables, giving his evaluations quickly and accurately.

"mediocre."

"Boring."

"If your clumsy brewing technique could keep up with your ideas, the quality of your potion could be improved by at least 15%. What a waste of materials."

After a barrage of criticism, Snape looked at Gemma Farley's potion.

"It's much more reasonable than last time. Although material costs are still the biggest problem, it reduces side effects by half and increases efficacy by 30%. If it were on the market, wealthy people would be willing to try it."

Meanwhile, Penelope's evaluation has improved considerably compared to last week.

After a week of effort, Penelope achieved 90% of the original effect with 90% of the original materials, while reducing the side effects by more than 20%.

"Although reducing the efficacy of the drug is foolish, fortunately the reduction is not significant. With your technique, it should still be able to sell on the market."

However, when he walked up to Percy and saw the potion in front of her, his expression immediately turned ugly.

“Weasley,” Snape stared at the Gryffindor prefect with his dark eyes, “tell me, have you been sitting here for a month just to show me that you have a pair of reasonably obedient hands and an empty shell that can only recite textbooks?”

Percy's smile froze: "Professor, my medicine is of very high quality, and I've also tried to minimize the side effects without affecting its efficacy..."

"Lower it as much as possible!" Snape repeated Percy's explanation loudly.

"For the first three weeks, I could at least discern some of your own ideas in your flawed medicine, but now you're telling me this is the final solution you've come up with after a week of work!?"

He pointed to the bottle of brightly colored euphoria: "Besides adding a dose of rose thorns, tell me, what other improvements did you make to the brewing method of this potion!"

Percy's face turned a purplish-red, and he couldn't say a word.

Snape snorted, turned away, and continued walking without looking at Percy again.

Finally, after looking through everyone's potions, Snape walked up to Ryze.

Percy Weasley was staring intently at Snape as he stopped in front of Rizzi's table.

From the outside, the color of Rizz's bottle of euphoria was almost identical to that of Percy's.

Percy wanted to know what Snape's opinion would be on Rizz's potion.

However, Snape did not speak immediately. Instead, he picked up the potion bottle, waved it gently in front of his eyes, and then gently smelled the potion.

Ryze sensed that Snape's reaction at this moment seemed to be... a recollection of the past?

He has indeed made many adjustments to the formula and method of this medicine this week. Could it be that he has completely replicated Snape's improved formula from back then?

"You added peppermint at the last minute."

Snape looked at Ryze, and Ryze nodded.

"You also added narcissus root powder and honey in three separate batches during the cooking process."

Ryz continued to nod.

Snape's knuckles turned white from the force he exerted, and he suddenly bent over, his eyes burning as if on fire.

He questioned Raz in a somewhat subdued tone: "Tell me, Black, who told you about this improvement plan... or where did you find her notes from back then?"

Chapter 103: Overlapping Ideas with Lily

Snape pronounced "she" very softly, but Ryze could sense that the other man's emotions were not as calm as when he spoke.

In an instant, relying on his accelerated thinking, Ryze almost immediately figured out the truth.

The inspiration he gained through divination over the past two weeks, along with the continuous optimization and adjustments made by the science madman over the past week, finally led to the finalization of the improved formula for the euphoria drug.

The closest one to the conclusion is probably not the improvement plan that Snape came up with and recorded in the book, but the improvement method that Lily Evans, Harry's mother, developed when she was in school, which was the one that Snape regretted for the rest of his life.

Rizz knew that Lily Evans had a talent for potions that was no less than Snape's, and that she was one of the Potions Professor Slughorn's favorite students during her time at the university.

In reality, although Lily and Snape should have completely fallen out in fifth year, they still participated together in that year's Potions Challenge in sixth year.

These were things that Rizzi had learned from Hagrid.

However, that trophy is not currently displayed in the prize room; perhaps it has been kept by Snape himself.

Because of this connection, it's perfectly normal for Snape to know about Lily's improved potion formula.

But Ryze was truly innocent.

If he really got his hands on Lily's notes, he might indeed use them to provoke Snape.

However, it can only be considered a twist of fate at this point.

Although he did use divination as an aid at first, he later spent a lot of effort perfecting the recipe to its current state.

“I don’t know who you mean by 'she,' Professor,” Reiz began, his tone frank and direct. “I would be very happy if my ideas for improvement were related to someone like that!”

Snape's eye twitched.

Ritz continued, "In the beginning, I did rely on some special methods to confirm the necessity of peppermint as an ingredient, but the subsequent ingredient ratios and cooking methods were all deduced little by little over the past two weeks."

As he spoke, he pulled out a stack of densely written draft paper and formulas from his bag and placed them on the potion table between the two of them. He had prepared these in advance, and they were the evidence he originally intended to show Snape when Snape said that he was using divination to cheat again.

Snape frowned, lowered his head, and quickly flipped through the stack of draft papers. The sound of flipping through the papers was unusually jarring in the quiet classroom.

When Snape saw that the final deduction results indeed pointed to the potion in Ryze's hands, his expression became even more unpleasant.

Rizz did not copy the answer from Lily's notes. Instead, like Lily, who possessed ancient magical talents, he used the rigor of ancient runes and arithmetic divination, along with a bit of almost intuitive spirituality, to ultimately brew this euphoria with almost identical ingredients and methods.

The boy in front of him had an appearance and surname that he disliked, and his personality made him feel troubled.

For the past three months, he had always felt that the other party was just an ordinary person who barely managed to gain a foothold in the potion business by relying on his divination abilities.

Even today, the euphoria that the other person placed in front of him unconsciously plunges him into that past from more than ten years ago—a past he is unwilling to recall, yet always finds himself recalling.

But no matter what, he would never admit that this guy he hated actually had a talent and mindset similar to Lily's when it came to potions.

It was just an accident!

Snape put down the draft paper, turned away from Ritz, and made no comment on the euphoria Ritz had concocted.

After returning to the podium, he continued to read out a few names in his indifferent tone.

"...And Percy Weasley, you're out. Now, pack your things and leave my classroom immediately."

The atmosphere in the underground classroom only changed at this moment. Those whose names were called sighed with resentment and regret, while others breathed a sigh of relief for being lucky enough to stay.

Percy froze on the spot. He looked down at the bottle of euphoria in his hand, which was of excellent quality and almost perfect, and then glanced at Rizzi.

He didn't understand why Ryze had only added three more inexpensive ingredients, and even the color of the potion was almost identical to his. Why did Snape have such a complicated expression on his face?

His potion was clearly of much higher quality than those of the other students who had luckily passed, yet Snape ruthlessly eliminated him.

But under Snape's piercing gaze, Percy didn't dare utter a word. He could only pack his things with a sullen expression, not even glancing at Penelope, and leave the Potions classroom with his head down.

After all the eliminated people left, Snape wrote on the blackboard the content that the remaining six people needed to study in advance before the next week.

“I will be testing your learning progress next Saturday, so don’t think you’ve passed. If you relax even a little, I will not hesitate to kick you out of my classroom just like I did.”

Snape's gaze fell on Ryze: "And you, from now on, I will no longer give you any preferential treatment. If you want to stay, let me see your determination."

After saying that, Snape turned and went back to his office.

The students present breathed a sigh of relief, then exchanged glances before focusing their attention on Ryze, who was sitting at the very back.

Snape didn't take their potion, so they could finally get a closer look at Rhett's bottle of euphoria that had made Snape so strange.

With Reese's permission, they reached out and picked up several other bottles of euphoria from the other person's table to examine them.

"It does look almost exactly the same color as regular euphoria. It seems our eyesight is still not as good as Professor Snape's," a Hufflepuff upperclassman commented after observing it for a while.

“But the potion is actually clearer than before, you can feel it if you shake it,” another Slytherin student said, then smelled it. “The smell is also very different...it smells fresher than regular euphoria.”

Jamie Farley was even more direct. She took out a thin silver needle, dipped it in a drop of the potion, and put it directly into her mouth, experiencing the effects of the euphoria potion herself.

Chapter 104: The Pressure of the Final Spot

In the murmur of the Slytherin Prefect, who was known for his calm and serious demeanor, relaxed immediately after drinking a small drop of euphoria, and a smile involuntarily appeared on his face.

This image looks somewhat contrasting, but she doesn't care about that and is instead focused on experiencing the effects of the medicine.

“The effects are very noticeable, excellent,” Jamie Farley suppressed her laughter and then began to feel whether she had any urges to sing or blow her nose.