Chapter 12: First Encounter with the Mysterious Girl

"Found it!" Macka couldn't help but feel happy at quickly finding the information he needed.

He read the contents of the book word for word, silently in his mind: "Fairies, Ministry of Magic classification: XX, fairies holding wand-like branches in their hands..."

At noon that day, Macka couldn't wait to open one of the books he had ordered, a potion textbook called "The Book of Potions." It was an ancient book published in the 16th century. If he hadn't seen it on a list of old books at Flourish and Blotts, he might have missed it.

In this potion book, Macka found an interesting material—the wings of fairies.

This was a rather rare potion ingredient. Although fairies wouldn't die from losing their wings, their innate vanity would never allow them to willingly part with their wings.

"...The wings of fairies possess unique magical properties. They can make fairies dazzling when they need to show off, and they can conceal their tracks when they need to hide."

"If these wings could be used as the main ingredient in a potion, perhaps it could produce a very special invisibility potion," Macka speculated.

How to make someone invisible was a fascinating question. Besides making complex invisibility cloaks and difficult-to-master Disillusionment Charms, only a few potions could achieve the effect of perfectly hiding an adult wizard's form. And these magical potions, without exception, were very expensive—some of their ingredients were extremely hard to find.

This led Macka to entertain the seemingly unrealistic idea of "why not research and develop a new invisibility potion himself."

Although Macka knew he might not have much confidence in it, he saw it as an opportunity for self-challenge.

Opportunities had to be created by oneself—that's how Macka always saw it.

"Excuse me, do you know where the books on 'How to cultivate Bindweed' are?" Just as Macka was about to put the book in his hand back on the shelf, he suddenly heard a faint voice behind him.

Because the voice was so soft, Macka couldn't help but feel like he might have misheard. To confirm this, he turned around to check.

"Um, what did you just say?"

Behind Macka, a girl wearing a large Slytherin robe that covered her tightly stood silently. On her head, she wore a wide-brimmed pointed hat, covering most of her face, leaving only a pair of rosy little lips visible to Macka.

"Excuse me, do you know where the books on 'How to cultivate Bindweed' are placed?"

The petite girl repeated exactly what she had said before, with the same flat tone, reminding Macka of Professor Binns, who taught History of Magic.

"Um, yeah, the books on Herbology should be over there." Macka subconsciously pointed to the area not far from here.

As soon as he finished speaking, the mysterious Slytherin girl immediately turned and walked away, without even saying "thank you."

"What's going on?" Macka stared blankly at the girl's back, feeling ignored.

It seemed that in the eyes of that girl, Macka was just like a tree on the roadside, not worth noticing.

He tilted his head and thought for a moment, but he couldn't recall encountering this mysterious Slytherin girl in his memory.

"Well, forget it. I'll find out when I have the chance. She seems to be a new student in this year's intake, right?" Macka shook his head and then walked towards the section on Herbology.

Perhaps he would have to come to the library often in the future. He found that the collection here was truly astonishing, and if he searched carefully, he would surely have quite a harvest.

In the days that followed, Macka spent most of his free time in the library, apart from shuttling between various classroom subjects with other students according to the schedule.

Most of the time, students who came to the library could see such a scene—

At the reading table near the shelves of Potionology and Herbology, there was a position always buried under a large number of books. These books were of various sizes, thicknesses, but mostly theoretical books that only upperclassmen or even professors would borrow.

And the librarian, Mrs. Pince, usually stared fiercely at this position not far away, as if the person sitting there was trying to violate her children, with sharp and angry eyes.

If you wanted to figure out who was sitting there, you had to go around to the back, because the front was completely blocked by the piled-up books.

Inadvertently, Macka had become a topic of conversation among the Hogwarts students.

This was not only because of his conspicuous actions in the library but also because he was the only non-Slytherin student who could exchange a few words with Snape without being sarcastically ridiculed.

Even the knowledgeable Miss Granger couldn't achieve this.

"That's just because Miss Granger is a Gryffindor." When Ernie told Macka about this rumor, Macka shook his head in response.

As a student, Miss Granger was undoubtedly quite excellent, and Macka had to acknowledge the huge effort she put into it. But still, he didn't think that this indiscriminate study method was a suitable choice, especially for a wizard.

During this time, the deeper he delved into his studies, the more certain he became of this—magical knowledge was truly vast and profound. Just studying Potionology alone might consume his entire lifetime.

...

When a person is immersed in something, time passes very quickly. Unknowingly, a week passed by.

During this time, Macka didn't encounter the mysterious Slytherin girl again, but his understanding of Potionology made great strides.

For the potion books he had ordered, Macka had already completely mastered them. And as for the "new type of invisibility potion," he had made significant breakthroughs.

Regarding the research on "how fairy wings achieve invisibility effects," Macka had already reached a conclusion. It was a new type of invisibility— "Perception Block Invisibility"—which was different from the "optical invisibility" of invisibility cloaks and several ancient potion formulas for "environmental integration invisibility" used by Disillusionment Charms. This new type of invisibility made others unable to "feel" your presence, even though you objectively hadn't changed.

"But this thing is really expensive!" Macka sighed heavily, resting his head on the table.

He calculated that to completely conceal a wizard's existence, the dosage of wings in the formula must be quite high.

"Fairy wings cost 8 Galleons each, so three would be 24 Galleons; plus other ingredients and catalysts, the cost of a bottle of finished product would be a whopping 43 Galleons..." At this point, Macka sighed again, "It's simply robbery!"

"...Wait a minute! Why am I worrying about this?" Suddenly, Macka stood up as if he had discovered a new continent.

"The library prohibits noise!" Mrs. Pince shouted hysterically.

"...She doesn't care if she's noisy herself." Not far away, a few Ravenclaw girls were whispering to each other.

Macka apologized repeatedly to Mrs. Pince with a embarrassed expression, then sat back down among the books.

Undoubtedly, a new, practical potion meant what? It meant wealth!

Compared to the rarity and expense of the only few existing invisibility potions, Macka's potion was already quite cheap. In the entire magical world, rare potions were always expensive, and masters like Snape, who created and improved several precious potion formulas with significant effects, were in great demand.

If it weren't for Snape being entangled in too many stories and thus not having ambitions in this area, he would probably have been employed as an exclusive consultant by some potion maker or noble family long ago.

What's the problem with not having money? Since ancient times, which potion master has truly lacked money? As long as one carefully selects the selling channels, the gold Galleons would roll in, more than enough to support his continued research. Speaking of transactions, this was what Macka was best at.

The next morning, he had Mack deliver a shopping list for him. He wanted to start experimenting with the potion immediately. But before that, several practical problems that would be encountered during preparation had to be solved first.

"Knock knock knock."

During lunch break, Macka knocked on the door of the professor's office, a place that almost no one would voluntarily knock on—the office of Professor Snape, the Potionology professor.

"Who?" It was still that gloomy and indifferent tone, making the visitor feel unwelcome by the host.

"Professor Snape, it's me, Macka MacLean."

"...Come in." There was a pause inside, and then came the reply.

Macka turned the doorknob and opened the gloomy and dimly lit room, then walked in quickly.

"Professor Snape, I have several questions about Potionology that I would like to ask you. I hope I'm not disturbing you." Macka spoke cautiously, trying to be as polite as possible.

Snape looked at him expressionlessly for a moment, then said with a hint of impatience, "Ask."

"Actually, I have encountered several questions while studying potion books. For example, about the Hestia's Second Law, how should the aversion reaction that occurs during the actual preparation be handled to maintain the stable magical form of the original potion solution?" Macka nodded and quickly raised the question.

"Hmph." Snape frowned and snorted coldly at the words.