Chapter 61: Potion for Treating Scabies

The Potions class continued, and Snape was instructing everyone on brewing a potion for treating scabies. After explaining the method for preparing the scabies treatment potion, he divided the class into pairs and instructed them to start brewing.

Albert naturally partnered with Lee Jordan since they were sitting together.

"Let's go through the steps a few times before we start brewing the scabies treatment potion to avoid any mistakes in the process," Albert reminded. "As long as we follow the steps correctly, the final product shouldn't differ much from what's in the book."

The most crucial thing in potion-making is avoiding adding ingredients haphazardly and stirring randomly.

Albert opened his book, "Magical Potions and Elixirs," and memorized the recipe for the scabies treatment potion without noticing Snape approaching from behind in his black cloak.

Once Snape moved away, Albert took out the required ingredients from his potion kit: a few snake fangs, a giant onion, a bundle of dried nettle, a jar of horned slug mucus, and some porcupine quills.

"You'll be in charge of brewing the horned slug mucus. It needs to be brewed for at least 33 to 45 minutes," Albert handed his forceps to Lee Jordan.

"Sure, leave it to me," Lee Jordan replied without objection. He took the forceps that Albert handed over and plucked out the repulsive horned slug from the jar.

By the way, this disgusting thing costs 1 Galleon at the apothecary.

"Remember to clean it first, and don't add too much water in the crucible. Be careful not to let it boil over," Albert added as a supplement.

Then he started grinding the snake fangs in a mortar and pestle. The book required the fangs to be ground into a fine powder, which was quite a laborious task.

Compared to Albert's skill at hands-on work, the other students seemed a bit inferior.

Of course, this might be related to Albert having advanced his potion-making to level 1.

Snape was still hovering in the classroom, observing the students weighing the dried nettle and grinding the snake fangs. Almost all the students received criticism, except for Albert and George.

After all, Snape couldn't find any faults to criticize them on, except that their progress was slightly slower than the others.

"Next, weigh the dried nettle," Albert whispered, looking at Snape's retreating figure. "Pay attention to the weight and don't make any mistakes."

"Okay," Lee Jordan was in a good mood since Snape hadn't come to bother them.

Meanwhile, Albert struggled to slice the giant onion into thin slices.

Half an hour later, Lee Jordan spoke up, "The horned slug is fully cooked."

Albert immediately leaned over, poked the horned slug with a glass rod, and once he confirmed it was thoroughly cooked, he poured out the water from the crucible, leaving behind the cooked horned slug.

With the ingredients prepared, the only thing left was to brew the potion for treating scabies.

First, Albert added the powdered snake fangs into the crucible and stirred slowly to thoroughly mix it with the water. The potion in the crucible gradually turned deep blue.

"Is it deep blue?" Lee Jordan leaned closer, wanting to see the color of the potion in the crucible.

"It's deep blue," Albert deftly placed the sliced giant onion into the crucible and continued heating it for about ten seconds. As recorded in the book, the potion changed from deep blue to red.

Once the color stopped changing, the next step was to slowly sprinkle in the dried nettle and stir the potion to turn it pink.

"Continue by adding a teaspoon of Floberworm mucus and stirring. The potion inside will turn green," Albert muttered the steps as he operated. "Next, add a tablespoon of stewed horned slug and stir until the potion becomes bluish-green."

After completing the previous step, Albert lifted the crucible off the fire.

Snape had specifically reminded everyone not to add the porcupine quills directly without removing the crucible from the fire.

Albert took the two porcupine quills handed to him by Lee Jordan and slowly placed them into the crucible. Then he began stirring clockwise three times, causing the originally bluish-green potion to gradually turn blue.

Finally, he waved his wand above the crucible to complete the potion.

"Did it work?" Lee Jordan asked nervously.

"What do you think?" Albert scooped up a spoonful, put it into a crystal vial, and handed it to Lee Jordan, allowing him to see the color of the potion clearly.

"We did it!" Lee Jordan excitedly looked at the potion in the vial, which was meant to treat scabies. The color of the potion was pretty much identical to the description in the book "Magical Potions and Elixirs."

"Yeah, we did it. It wasn't easy, though," Albert extinguished the fire. However, he still had some doubts about the effectiveness of the scabies treatment potion.

While bottling the potion and labeling it with his name, Albert suddenly caught a nauseating smell. He turned his head and saw bubbles rising from Fred and George's cauldron, with the potion inside displaying a disgusting brown color.

"Wait, you have to remove the crucible from the fire before adding the porcupine quills," Albert stopped George from making a reckless decision that could have burnt through the crucible.

However, this couldn't save their scabies treatment potion.

"Weasley, tell me, what is this?" Snape approached the twins expressionlessly.

"A potion for treating scabies," George muttered quietly.

Snape coldly asked, "According to the book, what color should the scabies treatment potion be when it's finished?"

"Blue."

"I dare say, drinking this concoction of yours wouldn't cure the scabies but would poison oneself," Snape waved his wand, clearing the potion from the cauldron.

"Anderson, where is your potion?"

"Here, sir," Lee Jordan hastily handed over the blue scabies treatment potion, secretly wiggling his index finger in triumph behind Snape's back.

"Passable," Snape picked up the glass vial, glanced at the scabies treatment potion inside, and said.

"What does 'passable' mean?"

After class, Lee Jordan was annoyed as he spoke to the twins, "What's the point? None of the potions we brew are considered good enough? And... why do we have to write a two-foot-long essay after successfully brewing a scabies treatment potion?"

"Keep your voice down unless you want to get into trouble," Fred pointed towards Snape approaching from their direction.

"Ahem," Albert cleared his throat and said to Lee Jordan, deliberately lowering his voice to a level where Snape could still hear, "Perhaps Professor Snape thinks we have talent in potion-making and wants to cultivate us."

"You see, nobody else gets this treatment, do they?"

"I hope your essay on the scabies treatment potion doesn't disappoint me, Mr. Anderson," Snape turned his head and stared at Lee Jordan, "As for you, there's no need to write an essay."

"What does he mean?" Lee Jordan muttered as he watched Snape's retreating figure.

"What does he mean? Obviously, he doesn't think you're worth special attention," Fred burst into laughter once Snape had left. He patted Albert on the shoulder and said, "It looks like Professor Snape really intends to give you special treatment. Maybe he wants to invite you to join the Potions Club!"

"Then I'll have to decline. After all, I've already joined the Transfiguration Club," Albert said earnestly.

In the next moment, all three of them burst into louder laughter.

Of course, they could tell that Snape didn't like Albert, but he couldn't do much about it, so he resorted to this tactic and gave Albert his so-called special treatment.

After all, students, in general, didn't enjoy doing homework, especially when it was extra homework.

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(End of this chapter)