The beginning of this Potions class consisted of Professor Snape’s usual speech, so it will be skipped here.
Aine’s attention turned toward the blackboard.
Professor Snape wore a black wizard’s robe, and his greasy hair reminded Aine of a creature he had learned about during the modern era: a shut-in.
And not just an ordinary shut-in, but one who had cultivated his skills to an impressive level.
This kind of creature never socialized and only focused on its own affairs.
They even had a special name: a technical shut-in.
Aine was not surprised at all.
From conversations with his family, he had learned that Severus Snape was a Potions Master who often proposed ways to increase the success rate and quality of advanced potions.
He was also one of the reviewers for the journal Advanced Potions, making him one of the most famous Potions Masters in the wizarding world of the twentieth century.
With so many honors to his name, Professor Snape’s arrogance was only natural.
Professor Snape’s teaching style was rather special.
He openly wrote the potion recipe and brewing process on the classroom blackboard, then immediately had the students begin brewing the potion.
That’s right!
He completely skipped theoretical lessons and instruction on handling ingredients and went straight into the brewing stage.
This step would immediately make any student who had spent all their time playing around without previewing the Potions textbook look exceptionally foolish and leave them with three questions that made them question their existence: Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I doing?
But the little Badgers and little Eagles had no such problems.
One was the obedient and well-behaved Hufflepuff, while the other was the house of knowledge-hungry students, whose arrogance even surpassed that of the snakes.
Moreover, many clever students noticed that the contents on the blackboard differed from those in the Potions textbook.
Seeing students calmly begin processing their potion ingredients, Professor Snape gave an almost imperceptible nod.
Aine would never have noticed it without his keen observation.
Snape then looked toward the student beside Aine, who had been constantly conveying the message: I’m watching you!
Tucker had a rather unusual way of watching Aine.
Under Tucker’s incessant prompting through his eyes, Aine picked up the Long-Horned Toad, which was constantly puffing out its cheeks in the water, and turned its eyes toward Tucker.
Aine then saw Tucker’s face turn pale the moment he looked at the Long-Horned Toad.
Finding it rather amusing, Aine directly brought his knife down and cut off the Long-Horned Toad’s head.
He did not know whether his knife had been too fast or whether the Long-Horned Toad had some unusual structure, but it did not die.
Its head continued staring at Tucker.
As though nothing had happened, Aine continued dissecting the Long-Horned Toad.
This lesson required the liver of a Long-Horned Toad, so after taking out its internal organs, Aine also peeled off its skin.
Aine planned to find somewhere to cook a pot of spicy frog meat after Potions class.
It had been a long time since he had tasted spicy frog meat, after all.
It was only after seeing the Long-Horned Toad that he had remembered such a delicious dish.
But Tucker did not see it that way.
After seeing what the Long-Horned Toad looked like after Aine had skinned it, his already pale face turned green.
If Aine had not been able to sense his breathing, he would have thought Tucker had stopped breathing.
Only after Aine covered the Long-Horned Toad’s head, meat, and skin with a piece of white cloth did Tucker’s complexion finally recover and return to normal.
These little actions clearly caught Professor Snape’s attention.
Professor Snape had already passed by several times while Aine was processing the Long-Horned Toad.
Watching Tucker’s face change from rosy to pale, then from pale to green, and finally back to rosy, Snape’s mouth twitched.
When Tucker completed the final step, Aine glanced around the classroom to check on the other students.
He discovered that not a single person had witnessed Tucker’s changing expressions.
Aine felt a sudden sense of emptiness.
Tucker, who had just finished his potion, happened to notice Aine’s disappointed expression.
Gritting his teeth, he quietly forced out a sentence:
Aine took a sheet of white paper (don’t ask me where the white paper came from.
The author says it exists, so it exists) and wrote:
I’m helping you overcome your psychological barrier.
If you want to overcome it, come with me after class.
Tucker narrowed his eyes at Aine for a moment before nodding.
After watching the students place their completed potions on the lectern, Professor Snape waved his hand and said coldly,
“Class dismissed!”
As Aine left the classroom, he casually took the processed Long-Horned Toad carcasses from the other groups as well.
Under Professor Snape’s hollow stare, he walked out of the classroom.
Potions class had ended precisely on schedule.
Aine glanced at his special mechanical watch and saw that it was only eleven in the morning.
He dragged Tucker to the Hogwarts kitchens.
Under the watchful eyes of a crowd of house-elves, he set up a pot and, as Tucker’s face once again turned pale, began skinning the Long-Horned Toads.
Besides the one from their own group, there were more than twenty others that needed to be processed.
After finishing with the Long-Horned Toads, Aine began cutting the skinned and headless toads into pieces.
He then marinated them for twenty minutes with salt, vodka, and some homemade potato starch.
While the meat was marinating, he heated the oven and prepared a savory herb glaze with butter and rosemary.
He had taken the scallions and ginger from Hagrid’s garden while wandering around the castle at night.
Then he poured the marinated pieces of Long-Horned Toad meat into the pot and stir-fried them together with the scallions and ginger until the meat turned golden brown.
Once the meat had turned golden brown, he added green peppers, red peppers, onions, chili peppers, and bay leaves, then stir-fried everything together again.
As Aine gave the ingredients their final stir, the aroma spread throughout the entire kitchen.
After reducing the sauce of the spicy toad, Aine took out the calming flowers he had previously preserved with a spell, crushed them into powder, then poured in edible oil made by mixing Night Flower Essence with olive oil.
The freshly cooked spicy toad, combined with the fragrance of the calming flowers and Night Flower, made everyone’s appetite soar.
Aine took a bite…