A New Way to Influence Magic

Chapter 16 A New Way to Influence Magic

Snape waved his wand, and a huge projection appeared above the classroom, showing the lectern and Snape's hands, ensuring everyone could see the details of his actions.

"The first step is to weigh the medicinal materials and determine the proportions, starting with dried nettles..."

Snape began selecting herbs and operating the instruments with precise and fluid movements.

"Next, I'll crush the snake's fangs. Watch my movements..."

"Start cooking the slugs. Make sure to choose slugs with antennae, and don't put them in cold water the first time; make sure the water is boiling before adding them..."

"Melting porcupine quills... Watch out! Make sure to remove the pot from the heat and let it cool for a while before putting in the porcupine quills, or you'll be disfigured... To save time, I'm using magic to cool it down here. Don't do that when you're doing it later, or your clumsy magic might accidentally blow up your cauldron."

"Then comes the final step..."

Snape mixed the slug solution, which had already been boiled three times, with other medicinal herbs and stirred it in a certain rhythm and direction.

"Um?!"

Because he was sitting in the first row, Avada could see Snape's movements directly without having to look at the projection above his head. What he saw almost made him gasp out.

In his perception, the magical structures contained within the various medicinal herbs were originally chaotic and seemingly meaningless when picked up individually. However, when they were added to the slug solution, their magical structures gradually merged under the harmonizing effect of the solution's simple magical structure, forming a regular, beautiful, and entirely new structure!

The whole process is like putting a broken jigsaw puzzle back together—smooth and pleasing to the eye.

This was a phenomenon he had never observed in the past few years—the most direct way to obtain a certain magical structure was to cast a spell directly, using mental power to alter the surrounding magic. But this new method, which used the magical structures inherent in magical herbs to fuse and combine them, could accomplish something extremely difficult to do with direct spellcasting at a very low cost.

Take this scabies treatment potion in front of us as an example. It only takes a skilled first-year wizard about ten minutes to make it. However, if you want to use only a wand to achieve the magical structure, the difficulty is no less than casting a Clear Water Charm!

The spell "Clear Water Like a Spring" is a spell that can only be learned in the sixth grade, so you can imagine how difficult it is!

Avada then realized that potion-making was a completely new way of influencing magic, unlike any other kind of magic!

"I must master potions!"

He secretly made up his mind that even if he was targeted by Snape in the future, he would still shamelessly ask him for advice.

On the platform, Snape finally finished preparing the potion. He poured it into a glass bottle and held it up to show everyone. It was a light blue potion, shimmering slightly in the dim light, and looked absolutely beautiful.

"Now, I'll give you the materials for making the potion. Start making it in pairs. I hope none of you are so stupid that you can't even gather enough equipment for one experiment!"

"Miss White, you're paired with Mr. Shabby; Mr. McNeil, you're paired with Mr. Alex..."

Snape walked to the back of the classroom and began to group the students according to the house, working from the back to the front. When he reached the front row and saw Avada and Baron, a playful look flashed in his eyes.

"Unfortunately, both Hufflepuff and Slytherin students are in odd numbers. So, Mr. Ken, why don't you team up with Mr. Shafik?"

"Perfect, this will also allow Mr. Shafik to keep an eye on your brain, which can't even remember the formula for the cold-dispelling medicine, so you don't cause any trouble in my class..."

He distributed the ingredients for the potion to Avada and Baron, then turned around and went to inspect the classroom.

"Don't worry about it, he actually thinks highly of you..."

Baron explained somewhat awkwardly to Avada, "The Warming Potion is a potion that can only be learned next semester. The fact that you could recite most of the recipe right after entering school is already beyond his expectations. I think he probably wanted you to mentor me, but he was too proud to admit it..."

"Focus on the experiment, and stop whispering!"

Snape reappeared behind the two of them at some point and tapped them on the head with a parchment.

"Cough cough."

The two shuddered, their expressions turned serious, and they quickly began the experiment.

"Dried nettles, snake fangs, porcupine quills, slugs..."

Baron was responsible for accurately weighing each herb and handing the weighed herbs to Avada for further processing. Avada loaded the snake fangs into a mortar and pestle and pounded them into powder, one stroke at a time. Although it was a purely physical process, Avada had memorized the magical structure of the reaction while watching Snape perform the process, so details such as how finely to pound the herbs, whether to disperse them or let them clump together, were no problem for him.

Next, the porcupine quills are broken into small pieces, the dried nettles are chopped, and water is boiled to prepare for boiling the slugs. It must be said that these old classic recipes, after countless generations of experimentation and improvement, have almost no room for optimization. On the contrary, they have revealed many operational pitfalls to Avada.

For example, if you don't break the porcupine quills into small pieces but grind them into powder to speed up the reaction, then congratulations, the excessively large reaction area will cause a magical change that should have occurred later to happen prematurely, and then it will combine with other components that have not yet finished reacting to form a structure similar to the magical "raging flames"...

While inwardly grumbling, Avada methodically worked with Baron, simmering, cooling, adding herbs, simmering again, stirring, and cooling a second time...

With detailed notes and instructions, Avada Kedavra and Baron's standard procedures, and the constant monitoring of every magical change with their magical senses, the two made rapid progress in their creation, standing out from the rest of the classroom amidst the occasional explosions, hissing sounds, coughs, exclamations, and Snape's curses.

Soon, they arrived at the final step.

"Stir clockwise seven times, pause for three seconds, then stir counterclockwise two times..."

Baron flipped through his notes and muttered to himself, glancing at Avada as he worked on the machine. He saw that Avada had stopped stirring clockwise after five and a half rotations, paused for two seconds, and then started stirring clockwise again.

"Hey, you're doing it wrong!"

Baron urged, but Avada calmly continued stirring, explaining, "Don't panic. This is another stirring technique I saw in the library, and it's perfect for this potion. If all goes well, the potion stirred this way will be two to three times more effective than the original."

This is also a lie; in reality, Avada finally discovered a flaw that could be improved. This flaw was exceptionally noticeable in his magical senses, but it's unclear why no one before him had addressed it.

Baron nodded, not interfering because of the trust he had built with Avada in Charms class.

Finally, Avada completed his improved stirring. As the glass rod was pulled from the cauldron, the originally colorless potion gradually turned into a deep blue, even more intense than the original. Avada took out the glass bottle, poured the potion in, and waved it triumphantly at Baron: "I told you, you couldn't go wrong with me."

"sharp."

Baron nodded in admiration, then raised his hand to call Snape over to inspect their finished product.

However, after examining their potions, Snape did not praise them, nor did he simply turn away. Instead, he let out a cold laugh.

"Mr. Ken, do you think your brilliant mind has discovered an unprecedented method of improvement?"

He took a piece of meat from an unknown animal from a nearby shelf, then waved his wand, causing it to sprout scabies: "Come on, let me show you what the effects of this 'genius potion' are."

He carefully opened the bottle cap and poured the azure-blue potion onto the skin. As the potion came into contact with the skin, a sizzling sound rang out. The skin on the piece of flesh that came into contact with the potion quickly turned black and broke apart, as if acid had been poured on it, eventually leaving a large, shocking black spot.

"Your genius technique tripled the potion's effectiveness, so it went from simply killing scabies mites to burning away entire patches of skin, Mr. Ken!"

"And if you're still not giving up and intend to dilute it with water, then I wouldn't mind watching the fireworks one more time!"

(End of this chapter)