25 Hogwarts! (Part-3)
{5th Sept 1993}
{Great Hall, Hogwarts, Scotland}
{8:23 PM}
Hogwarts has settled down somewhat in the past week, new residents have learned the common rules and after days of complaining about the never-ending homework, the weekend promised the first few days of fun for the castle-dwellers.
Blaise sat in his seat in the middle of the Slytherin house table but the people around him had changed drastically during the week. As the Slytherin house went through its regular shift due to internal power struggles, duels became an easy form of entertainment for the regular members every night.
While everyone at the latest rumor mill was projecting about the latest attempted prank of the Weasley twins on Blaise, he was lost in thought as one by one all his plans were met with resistance.
'Tch- I still can't believe the Runespore trick didn't work, is there something so much different about Parselongue? or maybe it is related to soul magic too, cause Harry only had it until he was a Horcrux.'
With the disappointing end to the Runespore experiment, the snake was now locked in his trunk. Along with that, the second headache that Blaise received was because of the DADA professor.
[Name: Philip Liam Rowley]
[Gender: Male]
[Race: Human]
[Age: 45 ( 46 on Aug 30th )]
[Class: Wizard]
[Level: 126 ( 49.2% to next level )]
[Health Points: 12600/12600]
[Mana: 16200/16200]
[Mana Pool: 162]
[Strength: 11]
[Dexterity: 14]
[Stamina: 16]
[Perception: 25]
[Intelligence: 71]
[Wisdom: 52]
[{Status effect}
---
]
'Definitely not someone from Voldemort's camp, or at least not unwillingly so.'
Blaise noticed when he summoned the black mamba a few days ago that when he used to observe, if the target was under any spell, like the imperious spell, it will be listed as a status effect. So at least the current DADA professor was in control of his own actions.
Professor Philip had sharp facial features and didn't look a day into his 30's, most probably due to the effect of magic on ageing. Interestingly it was documented that Wizards/ witches live twice as long as a squib.
"You seem distracted?" Calypso asked, she had apparently claimed the seat beside him, at least she was easy on the eyes and not a bad company.
"Yeah, a lot on my mind." Blaise deflected as he shot the pumpkin juice a look of distaste.
'I seriously need to consider Charlie's idea of selling orange juice...'
"Are you worried about your shop? From what I've heard your shop is doing more than fine, even after days of continuous orders, there is still a backlog of orders for you to clear." a hint of frustration leaked into her voice as Blaise gave her an amused look.
"What!" she challenged, "that cream you invented is really a stroke of genius, who would have thought that some common beautifying potion could be used like that," she whispered.
One of the most common problems of the beautification potion was its short effective duration. Even a high-quality beautification potion lasts just about 4-6 hours which is not good enough for daily use plus its high cost. Although most of the richer families could easily afford it.
The modified potion that Blaise's shop was selling came in the form of cream, when applied once it could last up to 18-20 hours and has a milder enchantment effect compared to the original. That's what made the product so popular as the enhancement wasn't over the top and would last longer.
"Why do you even need to buy it?" Blaise gave her a weird look.
"Why thank you for the compliment," Calypso grinned before shrugging, "I just wanted to try it, my sister was bragging about getting it in her last letter..." she grumbled.
Blaise shook his hand and gulped down the remaining mashed potatoes before he stood up from his seat.
'Aright, now I just need to somehow get through this meeting,' dreading the upcoming appointment Blaise walked deep into the dungeon towards Snape's office.
*Knock**Knock*
The door swung open to the office beside the potion's class, Snape was sitting behind a large oak table grading some papers before his attention was focused on Blaise.
"Good evening Mr. Selwyn, please take a seat." Snape indicated to one of the two chairs in front of his table as Blaise gingerly sat down.
"Good evening professor." Blaise greeted.
"You seemed to have achieved great achievements in your chosen field Mr. Selwyn." Snape started, his hollow eyes fixed upon Blaise's dark ones as he readied for any form of a Legilimency probe.
"It's nothing too impressive Professor, just modifying some basic potions to get a foothold in the market." Blaise knew what question was coming his way, so he was trying to stall as much as possible.
Snape sat silently for a few seconds before he opened his drawer and pulled out two parchments from his drawer, one of which was the same conjured parchment from months ago...
"Is one of the ingredients that you omitted, Blatta Pulvereus?" Snape asked in a resigned voice.
Blaise nodded, thanking his lucky stars that Snape was able to figure it out on his own.
'No way in hell I'm allowing him to drink that potion, I guess he wants to forget about his attachments to Lily but I ain't risking making the potion again with the chance that maybe someone else with the same knowledge as me could replace Snape.'
It was highly unlikely that it could happen again, there are many things that can alter the effect of a potion, the difference between a Fluxweed picked on a full moon and one not on it could change the whole recipe, in the same way, Astrology is heavily linked with the effect on complex potions. The exact day and time on which Blaise took that potion could be one of the many reasons that he was summoned, and maybe if the stars are not aligned in the exact same way as before it won't happen again, but why take the risk.
Blatta Pulvereus, is a very peculiar ingredient, it is an extract from the crushed bulb of a Pulverus insect mainly found in the forest of Scandinavia. The potions in which it is used have a very interesting effect, every potion in which it is used could only be drunk by people who are either 11 years old, or 17 years old. A very common ingredient in the Blood adoption potion, it has powerful magic which fuels most of the complex potions and some rituals but that also makes the modified potion unable to Snape.
"It was the only poisonous ingredient that I knew of that could counter the poison of an unplugged Fluxweed while also not completely destroying your mana capacity. Unfortunately, that also means that only people of age 11 or 17 can use this modification of the potion. Unless you could think of a way to remove the Fluxweed and simultaneously gain a powerful reagent plus a grade 2 magical ingredient this potion will remain incomplete."
'And burned right away so that it doesn't see the light of the day.'
There was no change of emotion on Snape's face as he nodded slightly before picking up the second parchment, "The Potioneer society has reached out to me regarding your three new modified potions, as you know your potions are under a patent, so even though the recipe hasn't leaked yet it will leak soon, while it won't affect you in the long run, publishing an article for the next edition of Potion's Weekly could provide you with tremendous benefits." He passed Blaise a letter which was addressing Snape to contact Blaise as he was the resident Potion's master of Hogwarts.
"I would advise taking this opportunity as it would massively favor you when applying for your mastery, having a paper published in the Potion's Weekly about a promising potion, and your research regarding the benefits of Flobberworm mucus could be a great starting point." Snape finished emotionlessly.
"I can help you streamline the process if you can get me your article by the penultimate week of September if there are no questions, then you are free to leave." Snape finished his speech as his eyes were fixed on the parchment.
Blaise stood up to leave before turning back to Snape and replied softly, "You could try using Deadlyius to replace Fluxweed, that was my original plan but the Blatta Pulvereus just clicked so I choose unplucked Fluxweed." I said as Snape's eyes widened slightly, as multiple ingredients were already running through his mind.
Blaise turned away as he too was thinking about the pros and cons of writing a paper and exposing his research ideas.
'There shouldn't be a way possible to change the recipe more than 25% to receive the patent, I guess that's why Snape specially mentioned the Flobberworm mucus.'
The door softly clicked as Blaise walked silently towards the Slytherin common room.
'I need to contact Sirius and get all the books regarding Horcruxes mailed to me, I guess I need the Slytherin's locket to enter the chamber after all.'
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AN: Getting used to writing the story from 3rd POV, if there were any mistakes dramatically please mention them so I can figure it out.
The bonus chapter for 250 power stones will be published tomorrow!!
