Chapter 176: Professor Snape's Assignment: Brewing Wolfsbane Potion?
In the dimly lit dungeon office, candlelight cast flickering shadows on the stone walls. Glass jars, filled with unidentifiable organic matter, glowed eerily on the shelves. Professor Snape's black robes swept across the mottled flagstone floor, like the wings of an ill-omened bat.
Three paces away, a solitary high-backed oak chair stood, its serpentine carvings seemingly writhing in the faint light.
"Sit."
Upon seeing Dylan, Professor Snape gestured towards the chair, his voice an echo from the depths of the dungeon.
Dylan walked over and sat down unceremoniously, the leather cushion groaning in protest.
"This term, one of the new professors will require Wolfsbane Potion one bottle per month." Professor Snape looked at Dylan, his expression calm. His thin lips barely moved as he spoke, yet his voice cut clearly through the damp air of the dungeon. "I have no desire to brew potions for him not even at Dumbledore's request."
"So?" Dylan blinked.
Professor Snape gave him a sidelong glance. The look clearly said, Does that even need asking?
Professor Snape's thin lips pressed together, a subtle movement that conveyed his usual cold severity. "If you brew the potion, Dumbledore will owe you a favor. I will provide the potion ingredients. Do you have any questions?"
Dylan rubbed his chin. Was Professor Snape not even bothering to pretend anymore?
Lupin was a werewolf. He needed Wolfsbane Potion to suppress his transformations. This was normal.
But what wasn't normal was that Professor Snape would just tell him this kind of information directly. Even without explicitly saying it, how many new professors were there this year? Only two, right? Hagrid and Lupin. One Dylan knew well, and one Dylan "didn't know."
So, wasn't this clearly telling him who exactly needed the Wolfsbane Potion?
Professor, Professor, surely you promised old Dumbledore you'd keep Lupin's identity a secret, right? Is it really okay to leak it like this?
Dylan wiped non-existent sweat from his brow.
Moreover, and more critically, brewing Wolfsbane Potion was incredibly complex, with a low success rate and significant difficulty. It was also a potion only developed in recent years. This potion was used to treat lycanthropy, primarily allowing werewolves to maintain their sanity during the full moon, reduce pain, and control their actions. It prevented them from losing their humanity entirely and harming others when they transformed.
Dylan had never learned to brew this potion from Professor Snape before. The potion's ingredients were also very valuable. Professor Snape truly trusted him to hand over such a task.
So, could he pretend to fail one batch, secretly pocketing the ingredients, then use the second, or even third, batch of ingredients to brew a single potion to give to Professor Snape? A direct "middleman" move the Potion Master making a profit!
"I'd be glad to help you with this, Professor." Dylan's face was sincere. "I'm just worried that if I don't succeed in brewing the potion, leading to wasted ingredients... that would be very embarrassing for me."
Professor Snape looked at him questioningly. After a pause, he finally spoke: "Even if you fail to brew the potion, it won't be a major problem. There will always be a way to deal with it."
How to deal with it? Dylan muttered inwardly. Will he throw Professor Lupin into the Shrieking Shack? What a brilliant solution...
Dylan nodded: "Alright, but if you could provide me with two or three sets of ingredients each month, I can absolutely guarantee to brew one potion every month."
Professor Snape narrowed his eyes: "Let's hope so."
Dylan smiled shyly: "By the way, Professor, why are you unwilling to help the new professor brew this... strange potion?"
Professor Snape glared coldly at Dylan. However, the latter simply grinned, completely unafraid of his gaze. After a brief silence, Professor Snape scoffed, then added: "Does that even need asking? Of course, it's because I was brewing other potions before I knew I'd have to brew Wolfsbane Potion."
Dylan's eyelashes fluttered: "Such as?"
Professor Snape's face darkened: "Such as the Draught of Living Death!"
Dylan looked enlightened: "I see!"
"Although you haven't told me the specific brewing recipe for Wolfsbane Potion yet, since you put it that way, this Wolfsbane Potion must be quite... volatile, right?"
Professor Snape frowned in correction: "It's positive! What's 'volatile'? Have you fed all the knowledge I taught you to a werewolf's stomach?"
Dylan chuckled, nodding repeatedly: "Right, right, right, it's positive."
....
Essentially, the key to a potion's effectiveness isn't its conventional medicinal properties, but rather the mystical qualities embedded within the ingredients. These qualities are like hidden magical codes deep within the materials, waiting for a wizard to unlock and utilize them in certain ways.
Take the mystical attribute of "transformation," for instance. It needs to be driven by negative energy. Polyjuice Potion is a prime example. This miraculous potion, which temporarily changes one's appearance, requires fluxweed picked during a full moon. The moonlight of a full moon, in magical understanding, carries negative qualities. When fluxweed is gathered at this specific time, it imbues itself with this negative power, thus providing crucial assistance for Polyjuice Potion to effect external transformation.
Furthermore, the Animagus potion Dylan had previously brewed followed the same principle. Its creation process was equally complex, requiring not only the full moon, a time imbued with negative energy, but also a thunderstorm, a natural phenomenon teeming with mystical power, as well as a Death's-head Hawkmoth chrysalis. The chrysalis itself inherently possessed the mystical property of metamorphosis. Moreover, the entire brewing process absolutely had to isolate positive energy such as sunlight. This is because positive energy would interfere with the condensation of the negative energy required for the potion, thereby ruining its creation.
Evidently, the Wolfsbane Potion, which suppresses transformation, also adheres to these magical laws. The Draught of Living Death is an extremely potent sleeping potion that plunges the drinker into a deep sleep, even a state of suspended animation, appearing as if dead. This potion utilizes negative energy.
However, Wolfsbane Potion needs to "unravel" the lycanthropic poison during a werewolf's transformation. This requires positive qualities. If one were to immediately brew Wolfsbane Potion after brewing a batch of Draught of Living Death, it would very likely lead to an unexpected outcome during the Wolfsbane Potion's creation. At best, this mishap would cause the potion to lose its effect. Even worse, it could lead to an imbalance in its efficacy, resulting in even more troublesome complications.
Except...
Did Professor Snape really brew the Draught of Living Death?
Dylan had already thoroughly researched the concept of lingering potion properties on a person, due to his consistent potion brewing. The conclusion was—such properties simply don't linger for very long! They completely dissipate in less than a week. Sometimes, three or four days are enough.
Only one bottle of Wolfsbane Potion was needed each month. Did Professor Snape really lack the time and energy for that?
Dylan didn't believe it.
However, he knew when to stop and didn't continue to tease Professor Snape. After all, he was Professor Snape's most accomplished student, wasn't he? Which meant he had to take good care of his master. Even if that title was self-proclaimed and not officially recognized.
Lupin, as James's friend, hadn't directly bullied Professor Snape, but his very connection to James was enough to make Professor Snape hostile towards him. And Dylan was naturally willing to stand by Professor Snape and scoff at Lupin together.
Of course, when facing Lupin, he would also stand by Professor Lupin and acknowledge him as a kind person.
In short, speaking the right words to the right people; that was Dylan's consistent style.
"So, Professor, when will you provide me with the ingredients? And the potion recipe?"
Professor Snape twitched his wand. A small pouch appeared before Dylan.
"The ingredients and recipe are all here. Take them back and study them when you have time I don't need you to make the potion perfect, just functional understand?"
Dylan subtly took the pouch: "Of course."
"Then, Professor, should I brew the potion here? Or find my own place?" Dylan added, "I imagine you've heard that I've chosen all the elective courses this school year, so I don't have much free time."
"Brew it in your dormitory. Don't keep using that thing—even for class." Professor Snape glanced at Dylan.
Dylan maintained his smile. How many more glances does this old bat need?
"I understand, Professor."
As Dylan finished speaking, the office fell silent. After a moment, Professor Snape looked up again.
"Aren't you leaving yet?"
"Oh? You want me to leave? Alright, I'm going now." Dylan "anxiously" stood up, said goodbye to Professor Snape, and walked out at a leisurely pace. "Get some rest, good night~"
Professor Snape watched his retreating back, a twitch at the corner of his mouth.
....
Dylan left Professor Snape's office and followed the stairs back to Gryffindor Tower. After speaking the password, the Fat Lady opened the portrait hole. After greeting her, Dylan entered the Gryffindor common room.
The common room's fireplace had already dwindled to dark red embers—it was getting late. Dylan planned to research the Wolfsbane Potion brewing process and brew a bottle today. After all, judging by Professor Snape's demeanor, it seemed he hadn't even prepared this month's potion dose for Professor Lupin yet.
He pulled out the pouch Professor Snape had given him and took out a small notebook. It detailed the ingredients needed for Wolfsbane Potion and the step-by-step process for brewing it.
"It even requires powdered unicorn horn." Dylan rummaged in the pouch and peered inside. There were three sets of ingredients. Dylan's eyes immediately lit up.
"This is a free haul of three portions of powdered unicorn horn! No, wait, I'll use one, so that's two." Dylan smacked his lips: "Speaking of which, it's been a while since I went to the Forbidden Forest to draw blood from that unicorn unicorn blood is the most valuable research material from a unicorn!"
Dylan planned to find some free time to visit the Forbidden Forest, and check in on Hagrid while he was there. He wondered if Hagrid, now a Hogwarts professor, would still have time to "wander through the woods" with him.
"But now that Hagrid's a professor, his salary should go up, right?"
"Even though he's just the Care of Magical Creatures professor, this course will use many magical creature-related items or materials. I must find an opportunity to have Hagrid bring some out for me..."
Dylan's lips curved into a smile.
Harry and Ron, who were chatting nearby, shivered when they saw Dylan's expression. "Why does Dylan's smile feel so sinister?"
Harry also looked over, curiously asking: "What's that little booklet? Hermione said Professor Snape just called Dylan over."
Ron shook his head: "I don't know, looks like some kind of recipe."
Dylan ignored the two and began clanging around, setting up his cauldrons.
Finally, Neville couldn't resist asking: "Dylan, are you brewing a potion?"
Dylan nodded, preparing for the potion brewing while replying: "Professor Snape asked me to help him brew some potions, but I have a lot of classes, so I can only brew now."
Ron's eyes widened: "Huh? Professor Snape actually asked you to help him brew potions? What kind of potion?"
Dylan casually replied: "Nothing special, don't worry. I'll set up this cauldron closer to the door, so it won't disturb you."
Ron was still agape: "Is that a pure gold cauldron? My goodness, how much does a cauldron that big cost?"
Harry blinked: "And a pure silver cauldron too, Dylan, are these all yours?"
Dylan smiled: "That's right, they're mine."
He had specifically borrowed them from Borgin & Burkes previously.
"Merlin's socks! Dylan, you're really rich!" Ron looked envious.
"You'll be very wealthy too someday," Dylan said.
He dragged a small table near the door and cast a Silencing Charm on that area of the dormitory door. Only then did he light the fire and begin brewing the Wolfsbane Potion.
According to the instructions in the booklet Professor Snape had given him, Wolfsbane Potion required a very long brewing time. It was quite troublesome.
First, many ingredients were needed: wolfsbane, powdered unicorn horn, belladonna essence, cranesbill, frankincense, toadstools. And also a pure gold cauldron, a gold stirring rod, a silver cauldron, a silver stirring rod, fine gauze, parchment...
Wearing gloves, Dylan cut the wolfsbane root into small pieces. After mixing it with the powdered unicorn horn, he poured in the belladonna essence. This step alone required the wolfsbane to soak in the belladonna essence for a full bowl.
However, before that, Dylan could do some other preliminary preparations. Dylan twirled his wand, and the flame beneath the pure gold cauldron diminished slightly. Dylan poured distilled water into the gold cauldron until it boiled. Then he added the cranesbill. This step required at least four hours of simmering. The better the essence brewed, the more effective it would be.
Dylan cast a simple Protective Charm to prevent anyone passing by from accidentally touching and being scalded by the cauldron. Next, Dylan added frankincense to the silver cauldron. He stirred it five times clockwise and three times counter-clockwise with a silver stirring rod, then lit a fire beneath it. This step also required waiting.
Dylan was not in a hurry. Once these preliminary preparations were complete, he could proceed to the next step. Dylan placed some bottles and jars on the table. Although not all of them were needed for the current potion, and some were other ingredients, Dylan planned to brew potions in his dormitory occasionally in the future. This way, others wouldn't constantly wonder what he was doing in his suitcase.
More crucially, his classes would indeed be very busy from now on. For simple potion brewing, he wouldn't need to constantly dive into his suitcase. Unless he wanted to conduct more secretive experiments and research. Like finding the Basilisk to drain some blood, or researching dark magic with little Tom, or further refining the Obsidian Restorative Potion formula, etc.
He cast another spell, reinforcing the small table and ensuring the flame beneath the cauldron maintained a stable energy release. He added a few more layers of shields. After all, he was brewing potions in the dormitory, so he had to consider the possibility of an explosion. Although this possibility was small, he still had to be prepared.
Having done all this, Dylan tidied up casually and lay down on his bed. He could read for a while before sleeping. The cauldron bubbled and gurgled, but Dylan couldn't hear a thing due to the silencing charm.
When it was time to sleep, Dylan closed his book and didn't pull Coal from his pet space. Instead, he hugged his pillow and fell into a deep sleep. Harry and the others also pulled up their blankets, preparing for their busy classes tomorrow.
....
It was the dead of night, around three or four in the morning. Harry's head felt groggy, his consciousness hovering at the edge of a dream, but his body instinctively urged him to get up. Being woken by the urge to pee in the middle of the night was not a pleasant experience.
Harry stumbled towards the door, intending to go to the Gryffindor Tower bathroom. However, just as he reached the doorway, his foot slipped, his body swayed, and he lurched to the side. He could have just grabbed the wall, but at that moment, Dylan's cauldron and various potion ingredient bottles were placed there.
As Harry bumped into them, the cauldron remained upright, but the bottles on the shelf above clattered, scattering everywhere. The lid of one bottle flew off, and the opening landed directly above the cauldron, several herbs clattering into the pure gold cauldron.
The cauldron was still boiling, bubbling and gurgling. The liquid had become viscous. The herbs melted into it without causing any immediate reaction. However, even though nothing obviously special happened, Harry instantly sobered up, his green eyes behind his glasses wide with panic as he stared at the scene.
At this moment, two words screamed in his mind:
"I'm screwed!!!"
Dylan won't curse him to death, will he? No, Dylan won't just turn him into a troll with a spell, will he?!
At the same time, Dylan woke up almost the instant Harry touched the potion bottles. He had placed a charm on the cauldron so that he would sense any touch. When he woke, although the room was not brightly lit—Dylan had used a charm to block the light from the cauldron's flames—he still immediately saw the panicked Harry, standing stiffly in front of his cauldron.
Looking at the mess around, Dylan understood what had just happened. He threw off his covers, got out of bed, and quickly walked to Harry's side.
Harry's body trembled, his legs feeling weak. "Dylan, let me explain, I didn't mean to."
Dylan's attempt to steady Harry paused, a corner of his mouth twitching. "I know, you meant to."
"Huh? No, no, no! I didn't..." Harry's eyes widened, and he quickly waved his hands, trying to defend himself.
Dylan rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright. Of course, I know you didn't mean to, nor did you intend to—nor was it on purpose."
"Uh..." Harry nodded, but felt there was something strange about Dylan's last sentence.
"Alright, alright, go back to sleep." Dylan took Harry's hand and carefully helped him back onto his bed.
Harry sat on the bed in a daze, then scratched his head, muttering softly: "I... I was going to the bathroom."
Dylan paused, then gave an embarrassed smile: "I thought you'd already come back from the bathroom. Well, hurry up then."
Harry quickly got up, tiptoed to the door, opened it, and walked out.
Dylan then walked over to the small table to check the potion's condition. He hadn't rushed to check the potion earlier because, although he had only glanced at it, he could still sense its state. It wasn't a major problem.
He waved his wand, tidying up the messy area. Dylan looked at the open ingredient bottle.
"Hellebore?" Dylan blinked. "Hmm, simmering it longer should be fine."
However, this hellebore was even more bitter than wormwood. Dropped into the potion, it would likely make the final Wolfsbane Potion quite bitter, and probably even more numbing to the mouth than chewing a handful of Sichuan peppercorns.
"Well, I didn't do this on purpose. If there are any issues, Professor Lupin can ask Harry about it later."
Dylan checked the time. "Ah, never mind. It's almost time for me to wake up anyway, so I won't go back to sleep."
Dylan extinguished the cauldron's flame and began the next step.