“What’s wrong, Mr.
Merrick?
Weren’t you just questioning my class?” Seeing John hesitate, Snape continued pressing him with his cold, low voice.
John felt helpless.
He had not expected Professor Snape to notice that tiny questioning expression, much less single him out over it.
But there was nothing he could do.
He had not previewed the textbook beforehand.
He deserved this.
Taking a deep breath, John reached out to examine the two piles of ingredients more carefully, and Professor Snape did not stop him.
Upon closer inspection, there really were slight differences.
Although the powder on the left had been crushed finely, there were still traces of incompletely ground flakes mixed within it.
It also felt slightly prickly to the touch, matching the characteristics of dried herbs more closely.
The pile on the right felt more like dried fish that had been ground apart.
Some of the particles clumped together slightly, and compared to the left pile, it had a faint stickiness to it.
“The one on the left is dried nettles, and the one on the right is puffer-fish eyes.” After confirming his thoughts, John gave his answer.
Once he finished speaking, Professor Snape slowly straightened up and looked down at him again.
“Oh?
Is that so?
Then I sincerely hope you do not mix up the ingredients while brewing your potion.” After saying that, Professor Snape neither confirmed nor denied the answer.
Instead, he gave an ambiguous response before collecting the two jars and returning to the front of the classroom.
Once Snape walked away, John immediately reopened his textbook, anxiously searching to see whether the correct answer was listed inside.
He did not want to mess up during the practical portion and ruin the potion entirely.
Hmm…
according to the textbook, he was probably, maybe, more or less correct.
Later, Snape explained the differences between the two ingredients to the class, and his explanation matched John’s earlier observations exactly, proving that John had indeed answered correctly.
It also proved just how arrogant and unpleasant Snape could be.
Although there was only one class in the afternoon, Potions lasted noticeably longer than ordinary lessons.
After Professor Snape finished explaining and demonstrating the process for brewing the Cure for Boils, he directly ordered the young witches and wizards to begin brewing it themselves.
Professor Snape only explained each key point once.
He also demonstrated the brewing process for the Cure for Boils only once.
Even though the potion required only four simple ingredients, very few students could remember the cauldron temperature, the timing for adding ingredients, and the exact measurements all at once.
Most could only follow the textbook while trying to recall Professor Snape’s instructions from memory.
John picked up the scale and carefully poured out the powdered snake fangs, adjusting the amount little by little until it matched the required measurement before setting it aside for later use.
Next, he prepared the crushed puffer-fish eyes, dried nettles, and porcupine quills as well.
Much like cooking, he arranged all the ingredients beside the cauldron beforehand for easier access.
However, when Professor Snape passed by and saw this, John received no praise.
Instead, Snape merely sneered at him.
John had no idea what Professor Snape was mocking.
Perhaps one of his steps was incorrect.
Still, after repeatedly checking against the textbook, everything seemed fine.
The ingredients and measurements were all correct.
As long as he properly controlled the timing and temperature while heating the cauldron, there should not be any problems.
Better to start first.
The easiest way to discover mistakes was by actually making them.
Because of that, John was not worried about failing the potion at all.
Instead, he was worried about succeeding accidentally without understanding why he had succeeded.
The blue portion of the flame had to remain at only one-third the height of the cauldron, neither too high nor too low, and orange flames absolutely could not appear.
The moment the liquid in the cauldron began bubbling, he added the powdered snake fangs and stirred three times clockwise.
Then, once the potion was fully boiling, he added the puffer-fish eyes and stirred three times clockwise followed by two counterclockwise turns.
After stirring for thirty seconds and allowing the ingredients to combine completely, he added the dried nettles and stirred twice.
After letting it continue boiling for another thirty seconds, he extinguished the flame, stopped the boiling, added the porcupine quills, and stirred three times clockwise.
Everything had been going smoothly.
But what John did not expect was this.
When adding the puffer-fish eyes, John noticed that the prepared ingredients had turned slightly green and become stickier.
Whether it was because of some reaction or something else entirely, he could not tell.
But by the time he noticed, there was no opportunity to stop and think about the reason.
He could only grit his teeth and continue brewing.
Now that the potion was finally complete, John frowned deeply.
The Cure for Boils in the cauldron should have been light blue.
Instead, his had turned light green.
“Excellent, Mr.
Merrick.
You have successfully produced a pot of troll snot.” “No, perhaps troll snot would be ten times more valuable than whatever this liquid is supposed to be.” At some point, Professor Snape had appeared beside John’s cauldron and was now sneering at the results of his work.
However, John completely ignored Snape’s mockery and instead stroked his chin thoughtfully as he reviewed the entire brewing process.
The biggest problem had clearly been the prepared puffer-fish eyes.
They had originally been dry brown granules.
Yet by the time he used them, they had become sticky pale-green particles.
“These magical ingredients may appear simple, but they possess different properties and can undergo extremely rapid deterioration reactions.” “Perhaps one careless action is enough to ruin an entire cauldron of potion.” “Do not assume yourself a genius.
Do you think nobody else before you has considered such things?” Seeing John still lost in thought, Snape spoke coldly.
Yet those words immediately gave John clarity.
Snape was obviously referring to John’s little shortcut of preparing all the ingredients in advance.
John immediately flipped back to the second page of the textbook and found the section describing the ingredient properties required for the Cure for Boils.
Among them, the puffer-fish eyes specifically needed to be stored in a cool, dry environment.
If exposed to excessive heat, they would rapidly deteriorate and begin secreting a pale-green sticky liquid.
The ingredient jars in the Potions classroom had clearly been specially enchanted to maintain ideal storage conditions at all times.
What John had done earlier was basically the equivalent of taking the ingredient out of a refrigerator and placing it beside a boiling cauldron, greatly accelerating its deterioration.
John took a deep breath.
“I understand, Professor.” Even though he said he understood, he was not given a second chance to try.
After all, these ingredients were not cheap.
If everyone wasted several sets of ingredients, the school would probably have gone bankrupt long ago.
So achieving good results while working with limited resources was also part of the difficulty of Potions.
In this class, John had been the first student to finish brewing.
He had also been the only student to receive a zero.
Because of his little attempt at being clever, he had effectively doomed the potion before he even started brewing it.
As a result, even students who failed to distinguish between puffer-fish eyes and dried nettles, or nearly caused explosions by adding porcupine quills before extinguishing the fire, still managed to receive twenty or thirty points.
Perhaps Professor Snape specifically wanted him to remember this lesson.
In short, John’s first Potions class had been both highly rewarding and an absolute disaster at the same time.