Potion Improvement

You're not like me…

Ivan secretly told himself that he had achieved what he had today because he could use the experience card's thought-acceleration mode to aid his learning, and because of the two dangerous blood-fusion rituals.

It was through sheer talent and hard work that Hermione was able to achieve this feat, which was why Ivan was so impressed with her.

Hermione, unaware of this, was on her way to Arithmancy when she remembered the Slytherin girl and Malfoy.

"Ivan, are all those pure-blood wizards so arrogant and unpleasant?"

"Ron wouldn't like it if you said that… the Weasleys are pure-bloods, too!" Yvonne shook her head in amusement.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know…" Hermione said sheepishly, sticking out her tongue. She had met the Weasleys before.

Ron's good-natured parents not only treated her without prejudice, but also invited her to The Burrow sometime.

Their family was worlds apart from the arrogant Malfoy family.

"By the way, are you also a pure-blood wizard, Ivan?" Hermione asked, suddenly thinking of this.

"How should I know? I don't think so." Ivan hesitated. He still didn't know what was going on with his parents, and Alicia had never told him.

However, only the Sacred Twenty-Eight are widely recognised as pure-bloods in the wizarding world, and the House of Hales is not one of them.

"And I'm afraid there are no longer any full-blood families in the wizarding world," Ivan said, smiling at the memory.

Hermione was surprised. 'Why do you say that?'

"According to secret sources, many pure-blood families have intermarried with Muggle-born wizards, otherwise they would have been finished if they had only married each other."

Yvonne explained that the disadvantages of inbreeding were well known to modern people, but that few pure-blood children were mentally ill, which suggested that pure-blood families did not play by the rules.

Even so, intermarriage between the families was quite common to maintain the reputation of pure-bloods, as Malfoy's mother was a member of the Black family.

"Then I'll use that against Malfoy the next time I see him," Hermione said with a smile.

"I doubt Malfoy will believe anything I say…" Ivan shrugged, then looked sad. It was because of pure-blood wizards like this that the wizarding world had remained the same for centuries.

They talked and laughed as they walked into the Arithmancy classroom.

The Professor of Arithmancy, Celestima Victor, was a very scrupulous individual, very different from the secretive Trelawney.

Even Celestima Victor was extremely disdainful of Trelawney, who also taught Divination.

As soon as class started, she bluntly stated that one could only see the future through careful reasoning and calculations!

Most of the students were Ravenclaw students, and Hermione listened with great interest. When the class was over, the young witch was amazed at how much more reliable Professor Victor was than Trelawney.

Ivan, on the other hand, earned another score, and the two of them hurried to the next classroom.

Over the course of the day, the pair had attended nine classes in over ten hours.

Later that night, Ivan used the Time-Turner to go back five hours to experiment with potions.

These days, despite having Snape's notes on potions, Ivan's research into potion improvement was not going well, and he needed more time and books.

Fortunately, the problem of time can be solved by the Time-Turner, and the relevant books can be found in the Restricted Section.

Thus, Ivan took some time to convince Lupin to sign a note to borrow a book, in the name of developing a potion.

Lupin, who had been avoiding Ivan for the past few days due to the rumours he had heard, was shocked when Ivan came looking for him, thinking that his cover had been blown.

Yvonne was quick to state her business, and Lupin agreed without hesitation.

After all, he knew the inventor of Ivan's Wolf Venom Potion, and it was normal for him to want to borrow a few advanced potion books. He also hoped that one day Ivan would be able to develop a cure for werewolves.

When Ivan left the Defence Against the Dark Arts office, he had a feeling that Lupin was afraid of him, but he couldn't figure out what was going on.

Was he so terrible?

Ivan remembers being quite handsome, especially after merging with unicorn blood…

Perplexed, Ivan took the note from Lupin and borrowed three banned books on Potions from the Restricted Section: Encyclopedia of Advanced Magical Materials, Advanced Potion-Making, and Potion-Making.

Eventually, they found a quiet and empty classroom in which to work on a feasible plan for potion improvement.

Why not in the library?

The library, of course, was a place where he often had to look up information, and Ivan felt that it would be better not to stay there and trouble his future self.

The only frustrating thing for Ivan was that Hermione, although she did not stop him from using the Time-Turner for extra research, went back five hours with him.

"Hermione, you've been in class for almost twenty hours today. You should go back to your room and get some rest," Ivan said, trying to comfort her.

Hermione shook her head firmly, thinking that if Ivan didn't need to rest and was still trying to learn about potions, she would have to work even harder.

"And I've read a lot of books, so I know how to make most potions. I'm sure they'll help!" she said confidently.

Hermione looked at Ivan apprehensively. She could tell how much Ivan valued this potion, and she wanted to help him.

Yvonne thought about it for a moment, then decided not to refuse. It would be good to have someone else to help with the potion's modifications.

Hermione was delighted, but it was only when she actually started working on Potions that she realised that Ivan's research was far beyond her wildest dreams.

This, coupled with the fact that she had never been exposed to potion-improvement before, led to Ivan's research material being completely incomprehensible to her.