Chapter 42: The Magic Potion Fountain
Chapter 42: The Magic Potion Fountain
Kyle was surprised to find that Kona had a natural talent for potion-making.
Whether it was boiling nettle solution or grinding snake fangs, she executed each step with calm precision, leaving him with little to do but watch the cauldron idly.
Compared to the flustered students around him, Kyle looked like he was on vacation.
There truly wasn't much he could assist with. Potion-making differed from other courses in that it didn't involve much practical work. Most of the time, they simply had to wait for the potions to brew.
It was akin to making soup—ten minutes of preparation and two hours of simmering.
Of course, this was assuming that the preparation was done correctly. Otherwise, even something as basic as preparing a standard nettle infusion could take up half the class.
Take, for example, the two Slytherin first-years to their left, who had already made seven trips to the supply cabinet for more nettles.
This also meant that every time Professor Snape glanced in their direction, his expression grew grimmer—whether out of concern for his dwindling nettle supply or frustration at having two students in his House with intellect comparable to that of trolls was unclear.
Kyle glanced to his left and noticed that the smaller of the two snakes was on his feet yet again.
Excellent... that made it eight times now.
"Floda, Walker, I expect you to engage your brains, scarce though they may be," Snape finally snapped, his eyes icy. "If you cannot produce a standard yellow-green solution this time, I will dunk your heads into the cauldron!"
The two Slytherin first-years froze, their faces paling. The unlucky one tasked with retrieving the nettles looked as if he were walking to his own execution.
Snape glared at them before sweeping his robe around and gliding over to another pair of hapless students.
"Are you attempting to brew licorice syrup? Pour it out and start again!"
"It's not yellow enough. Dump it out and redo it!"
"Dump it!"
Snape flitted about the classroom like a bat, leaving a trail of despairing students in his wake.
As the sound of "dump it" and "start over" echoed through the room, the atmosphere grew tense, and the students' movements became more cautious.
However, Kyle and Kona remained unaffected. Kyle kept his eyes fixed on the cauldron, waiting for the precise moment when the solution turned from yellow-green to pale yellow, then immediately lowered the flame to a minimum.
At the same time, Kona added the finely ground snake fang powder without hesitation.
This step was a success, as an unpleasant sweet and putrid odor soon wafted from the cauldron.
"Perfect," Kyle nodded, turning up the flame once more.
Now, they had to endure another long wait.
Kyle turned to Kona, curious. "Have you brewed potions before coming to Hogwarts?"
"No," Kona shook her head, slightly puzzled. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, you have a talent for potion-making," Kyle remarked. "Usually, when newcomers first try their hand at potions, it's a disaster, and their cauldrons might even explode."
"No way," Kona scoffed, clearly unconvinced.
Kyle didn't elaborate further but gestured for her to look around.
Kona lifted her head, her skepticism evident, and that was when she noticed the chaos that had descended upon the Potions classroom.
Young witches and wizards scurried back and forth between their cauldrons and the supply cabinet, their once-neat robes now disheveled. Some even had smoke rising from their hair, making them look like they'd been cursed.
One might mistake them for victims of a Blasting Curse.
Moreover, various colored fumes rose from many cauldrons, converging on the ceiling to form a strange, brownish-gray cloud, accompanied by an indescribably foul odor.
"How is this possible... Making potions shouldn't be this easy," Kona muttered to herself.
She glanced over at the Slytherin students. Being pure-blooded wizards, and with Professor Snape as their Head of House, they should have been adept at this...
As Kona turned her head, she witnessed a scene that would be forever etched in her memory.
The cauldron at the table next to hers had exploded!
Well, to be precise, the potion within the cauldron had detonated.
For some unknown reason, the originally liquid potion had started to froth and foam, rapidly expanding until it filled the entire cauldron in the blink of an eye.
But that wasn't the end of it.
The next second, copious amounts of foam erupted from the cauldron, colliding with the classroom ceiling.
It was a spectacular sight.
"Floda! Walker! You two idiots!"
Professor Snape was so furious that he seemed ready to kill, but his instincts as a professor kicked in, and instead of immediately punishing the two culprits, he swiftly drew his wand and pointed it at the cauldron that was still spewing foam.
"Windblast!"
"Scour!"
...
Under Snape's spells, the cauldron and the foam were quickly cleaned up.
After confirming that none of the students were injured, Snape angrily strode over to the two young Slytherin wizards.
He didn't bother with words or point deductions; he simply grabbed them by their robes and threw them out of the Potions classroom.
"Go find Filch! You're both in detention!" Snape bellowed.
With Snape's angry shout, the classroom fell silent once more, and everyone remained quiet, careful not to make even the slightest sound.
Although there wasn't much for Kyle to do, he decided to keep up appearances by preparing the ingredients they would need later.
In fact, making an incision on the side of the porcupine quills and pre-boiling the slimy slug wasn't mentioned in the book, Magical Potions and Drafts, but Snape had specifically instructed them to do so.
He hadn't explained the reason, and when Ryan had dared to ask out of curiosity, he had lost three house points. After that, no one else dared to question him.
Kyle picked up the bag of ingredients and selected a reasonably good-looking porcupine quill. He started with the easier task, carefully slicing the quill.
Since he was trying to kill time, he cut very slowly, taking over ten minutes to slice a single quill that was less than 30 centimeters long.
However, this blatant slacking soon caught the attention of Professor Snape.
He appeared soundlessly beside Kyle, picked up one of the quills from the table, and sneered at the crooked cut. "If I recall correctly, I asked for a straight line. Is this what you call a straight line? Does it resemble a dried-up Filibuster xylomid? Or perhaps you don't understand what a straight line means."
Huh?
Kyle looked up at Professor Snape in confusion, then down at the porcupine quill he was still cutting.
He thought he had only taken one...
Had he lost his memory? Or had Professor Snape, in his zeal to find a reason to scold him, taken a quill from someone else's table?
That didn't seem right. While Snape could be shameless when it came to deducting points, he wasn't that unscrupulous.
Besides, his last name wasn't Potter.
"Pro... Professor," Kyle began.
At that moment, Kona, sitting next to him, suddenly raised her hand, her voice shaking slightly as she spoke. "I cut that one, Professor."
(End of Chapter)
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