One had to admit that the potion Neville brewed was a true Cure for Boils.
Any skin splashed by the liquid would instantly sprout boils.
It was also intensely acidic, to the point where the splashing liquid burned holes straight through several students’ shoes.
*Using this as a healing potion might not work, but it makes a decent offensive weapon,* Caelan thought to himself as he pulled Hermione back a step.
Both of them raised their wands simultaneously.
“Scourgify!” “Idiot!” Snape roared at Neville.
“I suppose you added the porcupine quills without taking the cauldron off the fire, didn’t you?” Neville was terrified out of his wits, and because his face was covered in boils, he couldn’t even speak.
“Take him to the hospital wing!” Snape turned and snapped harshly at Seamus.
“Potter!
Why didn’t you tell him not to add the porcupine quills?” Snape could drag Harry into anything.
“Did you think he’d make you look good by making a mistake?
That’s another point lost for Gryffindor because of you!” No one in the classroom dared to speak.
Almost everyone looked like terrified chicks, staring dumbfounded at Snape.
“What are you all standing around for?
Waiting for me to brew the potions for you?” At Snape’s bellow, the rest of the students hurriedly resumed their work.
“Caelan, I’m afraid this batch of potion is ruined,” Hermione said, her face pale as she looked at the cauldron before them.
Some of the liquid that had splashed from Neville’s cauldron must have landed inside theirs, completely ruining the brew.
Now they had only one set of ingredients left.
Snape stood on the raised dais, looking down at them from above, with no intention of supplying them with extra materials.
The students who had gathered to talk bad about Caelan before class were all watching with gloating expressions.
In their hearts, they wished Caelan’s cauldron would suddenly explode too, leaving both of them with faces covered in boils.
“Looks like we only have one shot left.” Caelan glanced up at Snape.
“Can we do it?” Hermione asked.
“With you here, we can.” Caelan passed the tools on the table to her.
“Let’s process the ingredients together.” The Cure for Boils was a simple potion; the critical factors lay in controlling the heat and the timing of adding ingredients.
These details were already thoroughly etched in his mind from previewing the textbook; now they just needed to prepare the ingredients properly.
Caelan ground the snake fangs into powder.
Hermione used tweezers to pick up the horned slugs, placing them into the cauldron to steam while carefully controlling the heat with her wand.
Once she removed the steamed slugs, Caelan poured out the water in the cauldron and reheated it.
Meanwhile, Hermione finely chopped the dried nettles and set them aside.
White steam quickly rose from the water in the cauldron.
Spotting the exact right moment, Caelan added the snake fang powder and the nettles.
He stirred according to the technique described in the textbook, and the nettles and powder rapidly dissolved together.
The potion in the cauldron turned pitch-black.
At that moment, another cloud of thick green smoke erupted in the classroom, and someone yelled, “Shit…
move!” Several students screamed in pain as they were burned by splashing potion.
When Snape saw that they were Slytherin students, his face grew even darker.
Having such empty-brained fools in his own house filled him with disgust.
If they hadn’t been Slytherins, he would have already deducted heavy points from them.
With two accidents occurring back to back, the remaining students felt nervous, and even Hermione couldn’t help but worry.
After all, they only had one set of ingredients left, leaving no margin for error.
If it didn’t succeed…
Hermione shook her head, banishing the chaotic thoughts from her mind, and carefully lifted the cauldron off the fire.
“Be careful, Caelan.” “Don’t worry.” Caelan stared at the liquid inside the cauldron.
A flash of inspiration suddenly struck him, and instead of immediately adding the porcupine quills as recorded in the textbook, he paused.
“What’s wrong, Caelan?
The book says to add the porcupine quills right away,” Hermione urged anxiously.
Without rushing, Caelan counted three seconds in his head before dropping the two porcupine quills inside, stirring once more using the textbook technique.
The moment he finished stirring, the potion in the cauldron instantly transformed.
A plume of pink smoke rose from the cauldron, and the color of the potion shifted from heavy black to a deep emerald green.
“Is this…
a success?” Hermione put out the fire beneath the cauldron stand and set the cauldron back down.
Caelan flipped open the textbook to find the description for the Cure for Boils: “Pink smoke, deep green liquid…
That should be right.” [Successfully brewed a Perfect Cure for Boils Potion] [Potion Genius: Proficiency +2] The two of them poured the finished potion into a vial.
Hermione brought it up to her eyes and inspected it closely, comparing it to the description in the book, and couldn’t help but exclaim in wonder, “It worked!
We succeeded on our first try!” On the other side of the classroom, Snape, who had just scolded several students to tears, saw that the two of them seemed to have finished.
He walked over with heavy, clicking steps and closely examined the cauldron, which still had a bit of potion left inside.
Brewing a perfect Cure for Boils was child’s play for a Potions master like Snape.
However, many first-years had never been exposed to potions before entering school.
Even if they managed to succeed, the quality of their potion was rarely satisfactory.
Yet Caelan and Hermione had produced a bottle of potion that could truly be called perfect.
This surprised Snape.
Hermione clutched the potion vial tightly, feeling tense.
Since the class began, Snape had already sent away two pairs of students and yelled several people to tears.
If her and Caelan’s potion wasn’t up to par, they would probably get chewed out too.
“Acceptable.
Barely adequate.” Snape raised his head, dragging out his words somewhat reluctantly.
“One point…
to each of you.” The rest of the students exploded into hushed shock upon hearing this.
Everyone knew Snape never gave points to Gryffindor students.
Yet today he had broken the rule!
Even if it was just one point, it shattered precedent.
This was big news!
The Slytherin students looked at Caelan with sour jealousy.
They had originally hoped to use Snape’s formidable presence to take Caelan down a notch, but they never expected Caelan to possess such talent in Potions as well.
It left them feeling thoroughly defeated.
Chris squeezed further back into the crowd, trying his best to make himself inconspicuous—though it was mostly useless given his conspicuous pointed hat.
He felt somewhat relieved.
*Thank goodness I followed what Caelan said in that note.* Malfoy glared at Caelan in frustration.
His potion was finished too, but he was a step slower than Caelan, so Snape had barely noticed him.
“Thank you, Professor Snape,” Caelan said with a polite smile.
“The two of you cooperated well.” “It was mostly Hermione’s doing.
Her handling of the ingredients was flawless,” Caelan said, pulling Hermione slightly forward.
“If I hadn’t worked with her, I couldn’t have made it at all.” “No, Caelan and I processed the ingredients together, and he managed the heat,” Hermione hurriedly corrected.
“It wasn’t all my credit.” Professor Snape’s gaze shifted from Caelan to Hermione.
The corner of his mouth twitched, and just as he was about to deliver a sneering remark— The words caught in his throat.
In his heart, he knew Hermione was a very clever girl.
Brilliant and hardworking, just like Lily back then…
At the thought, Snape clutched his jaw, his heart trembling violently.
He suddenly realized with a jolt that the girl before him was, to a certain degree, astonishingly similar to Lily.
Her bloodline, her house, her talent…
Once this thought surfaced, it spread like Devil’s Snare, wildly occupying Snape’s mind, coiling tightly around him so that he couldn’t break free no matter how hard he tried.
Snape averted his gaze with difficulty.
Yet as his vision shifted, the figures of Caelan and Hermione stepped right into his view once more.
His mind suffered an even fiercer impact.
Behind those two children, he suddenly saw two other figures overlapping with them.
One was himself, and the other was the person he missed day and night, unable to ever forget.
Lily and Hermione were so alike.
Both born of Muggle parents, both brilliant, both in Gryffindor.
He and Caelan were so alike too.
Both half-bloods, both gifted in Potions, both in Slytherin.
It all added up!
It all matched perfectly!
His heart was thrown into total disarray.
He spun around abruptly, not daring to look at the two children any longer.
“For your cooperation…
five more points to each of you,” Snape said, striving to keep his voice calm.
He thought to himself: *If I hadn’t spoken those irreversible words back then, perhaps Lily and I would have been just like Caelan and Hermione are now…* Even though he knew it was utterly impossible, Snape still projected his deepest regret and desire onto Caelan and Hermione.
Hearing Snape’s words, the surrounding students were even more dumbfounded.
In a single lesson, Professor Snape had awarded Gryffindor six points!
Six points!
The same thought surfaced in everyone’s mind: *If I tell anyone else about this, they’ll definitely think I’ve gone mad!* “Oh, now the two of them are going to be even more smug,” Ron grumbled indignantly.
“I really wish he wasn’t my cousin.
Being associated with a Slytherin makes my skin crawl.” As Snape walked past him, seeing Harry’s features that so closely resembled his father’s, he felt an immediate wave of disgust.
“Mr.
Weasley!
If you have time to chatter, why haven’t you finished brewing your potion?” Snape barked.
“Five points from Gryffindor!” Well, adding points first and then deducting them—that was how the point gap widened again.
Ron was simply unlucky.
Not only was he sitting next to Harry, but he had also spoken ill of Hermione right next to Harry.
How could that not make Snape project onto them even more?