Magical Studies at Hogwarts...

Chapter 97 Intelligence + N

In early July, England was shrouded in continuous rain. The old drainage system left Spider's End Lane in the suburb of Cockworth flooded, with hardly any room to step.

A fire was burning in the fireplace, and Snape sat quietly on a sofa nearby, reading a book.

"Bang, bang, bang"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the glass. Snape, his face cold, waved his wand, and an owl, soaked to the bone like a drowned rat, flew in. It had a letter in its beak and a box wrapped in brown paper at its feet.

He casually took the box and letter, pushed a box full of nuts toward the owl, and opened the letter directly.

The letter was short, just over a hundred words, and could be read in the blink of an eye. Snape, however, seemed to have been greatly shocked, his face growing even paler.

He abruptly threw the letter into the fireplace beside him, waved his wand to open the box, and saw a bright red rose that looked as fresh as if it had just been picked.

As if venting his anger, he crushed the flowers, took a bottle of red wine from the cabinet next to him, poured it into a glass, then picked up a little bit of the crushed flowers and put it into the wine, tilted his head back and drank it all in one gulp...

"Lily..."

Snape felt as if his soul had been ripped out, and all his strength had vanished. He let the half-full glass of red wine spill onto the ground, then collapsed to the floor, tears welling up in his eyes without him even realizing it.

"Potter!"

It roared with heart-wrenching fury, the rage of which startled the owl who was happily munching on nuts nearby. Forgetting its delicious meal, the owl flapped its wings and fled out the window.

Ike hadn't expected the truth to be exactly as he suspected, and Snape hadn't anticipated such a cruel reality. When he drank the wine mixed with red rose petals, the peculiar taste unlocked his long-buried memories.

In June 1976, at the dinner after the OWLs exams, a glass of pumpkin juice with a strange taste...

He was certain, and would always believe, that he would never utter the word "Mudblood" under any circumstances, especially not to Lily...

Everything became clear...

Snape lay on his back on the floor, staring blankly at the chandelier on the ceiling, like a walking corpse, until the next morning when he finally came to his senses.

Struggling to get up from the ground, he slowly walked to the kitchen, fried himself a plate of eggs, sat down at the table, and ate them little by little.

More than half an hour later, Snape finally finished breakfast. He casually pushed the plate to the middle of the table, went to the basement, took a bottle from the cabinet full of potions, wrote a note, put it in a box along with the potion, and summoned an owl to deliver it.

Then, with a wave of his wand, he vanished.

Ike recognized the potion immediately upon receiving it; it was the infamous Buffalo Mind-Boosting Potion, a potion that enhances the user's mental abilities, its production difficulty almost on par with Felix Felicis. There are almost no genuine Buffalo Mind-Boosting Potions on the market; what's sold are almost always abridged and watered-down versions, with short-lasting effects, poor efficacy, and severe side effects, potentially even permanently damaging a person's brain.

Snape's creations were naturally different from the defective products on the market; they were also improved to a certain extent, capable of permanently enhancing a person's brainpower, at the cost of only having a month of mental fog.

Without the slightest hesitation, Ike drank the entire bottle of Buffet Brain-Boosting Potion. The rarity of something that could permanently increase attribute points was self-evident.

It must be said that Ike underestimated the side effects of the Baffy brain-stimulating agent. Throughout July, Ike was in a semi-conscious state, his reactions were much slower, and he often gave irrelevant answers. This strange behavior naturally caught Julian's attention, but by then Ike was unable to explain it clearly.

It took a lot of effort to calm Julianne down, so Ike simply locked himself in his room and didn't even get out of bed except to eat or go to the toilet, until the owl delivered the new school year's reading list, which ended this difficult period.

The results were remarkable. Many problems that were previously incomprehensible became clear after a little thought. In just one week, the research on alchemy and the Ravenclaw manuscripts was equivalent to what would have taken a month to achieve previously.

A very significant result; at least Ike is very satisfied.

After spending another week quietly at the orphanage, Ike said goodbye to Julianne two weeks earlier and headed to London.

After selecting all the elective courses, Ike's reading list was much longer than others. In addition to the essential books such as "Standard Spells Level 3" and "Intermediate Transfiguration", he had to buy almost as many extra books as the required ones, such as divination textbooks, ancient runes textbooks, and magical creature protection textbooks.

Of course, returning to the Wizarding World early wasn't just for these reasons; more importantly, it was to have a place to make potions.

Throughout the summer, Ike spent first on Red Rose, then on Buffet's Mind-Boosting Potion, and finally spent almost half a month studying alchemy, runes, and Ravenclaw manuscripts. In addition, there was the rule that underage wizards could not use magic outside of school, so Ike simply did not have time to complete the things he had planned before the holidays.

It's unacceptable to live off one's savings.

Old Tom at the Leaky Cauldron was still as lazy as ever, but he'd grant any request for the right price. After paying an extra 10 siscos, Ike successfully obtained the right to brew potions in the room. Old Tom even provided a little gadget to absorb the unpleasant odors emitted during the potion-making process.

After spending half a day buying all the books for the new school year and another half a day buying enough potion ingredients, Ike locked himself in his room again, with Old Tom sending people to deliver his three meals a day to his door.

Ike didn't intend to make any complex potions; he only made anti-swelling potions and white stigma. The former could be used to reduce swelling caused by magic, while the latter was the most common healing potion. Both of these were consumed in enormous quantities daily at the St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Injuries, making selling them to them a sure-fire way to make a profit.

Although he wouldn't earn a lot, stability was more important to Ike than anything else.

The raw materials cost Ike 57 Galleons and were sold for 112 Galleons, resulting in a net profit of 55 Galleons in half a month. This is already higher than the salary of many Ministry of Magic employees.

Of course, they can't compare to officials, let alone the professors at Hogwarts.

But that was enough. With the fixed annual scholarship from Hogwarts, after deducting the cost of textbooks, and with the addition of an owl that he finally decided to buy, Ike still had several dozen Galleons left over.

Owls are very common, the cheapest kind. They're rather dull, and if you don't call them, they can stay on their perches all day.

Actually, even Ike the owl didn't originally want to buy one, because the nightingale simply couldn't handle the great task of delivering mail and packages. The little guy had a terrible temper; he was angry that Ike had specially added a new member just for him since he couldn't do it himself.

Yes, Nightingale followed Ike the whole time and was even named Ellie by him.

As for the owl, it's called Skye.

Definitely terrible at naming things...

(End of this chapter)