Among the three potioneers present, Jigger and the potioneer from the Ministry had obviously formed an attitude of following Severus's lead.
No one would ever question Severus's potion-making skills.
He was a recognized Potions Master throughout the entire Wizarding World, not just limited to Britain.
When all eyes turned to him, Severus did not hesitate. He stepped forward to the bedside and began examining the unconscious victim.
In fact, he didn't need to observe her in such detail. The information he had obtained from Slughorn was enough for him to determine exactly what had happened with the Draught of Living Death this young girl had been forced to drink.
What he really wanted to understand was what had actually happened to the victim.
Even if she was a Duke's daughter, she was still a Muggle.
Under normal circumstances, wizards rarely interacted much with Muggles. Aside from extremist organizations like the Death Eaters, which are close to terrorists, it was even rarer for wizards to deliberately harm Muggles.
Severus raised his wand and lightly tapped it in the air above the girl's forehead, confirming that her current condition matched the symptoms of someone who had ingested the Draught of Living Death.
But soon, he noticed something else unusual.
He frowned slightly, then pulled back the blanket covering the girl and prodded her waist with his wand.
"Was there something wrong with her body before this?" Severus asked.
Kingsley turned to the Ministry employee who had been stationed there, and the employee quickly replied, "Yes, her family said her name is Patty. When she was 7 years old, she was in a car accident and suffered severe spinal cord damage, leaving her permanently paralyzed from the waist down. She's been confined to a wheelchair ever since."
"Did she attend school?" Severus continued.
The employee didn't quite understand how these questions related to brewing an antidote, but he answered anyway.
"From what we've gathered, after finishing primary school, she was homeschooled by private tutors and completed Muggle secondary school and part of her university education."
"So, she was mostly at home and rarely went out?"
"Yes, it seems her family didn't seem to want her to leave the house either."
Severus put away his wand and stroked his chin.
"Have you investigated her social connections before she was poisoned?"
At this point, Kingsley finally couldn't hold back anymore.
"Professor Snape, we're here primarily to find a way to brew the antidote. The investigation into the case is being handled by other Aurors."
Severus met his gaze and shook his head.
"I'm asking these questions precisely to find a way to brew the antidote. The Draught of Living Death she ingested isn't just a stronger version… It contains an excessive amount of sopophorous bean juice, as well as roughly three additional special ingredients."
"The sopophorous bean can be dealt with, but without identifying those three extra ingredients and understanding their properties, we can't formulate a targeted antidote."
Kingsley's expression darkened.
"So you're saying that unless we know what was added to that Draught of Living Death, we can't brew an antidote."
"We could also try trial and error, testing combinations one by one." Severus moved away from the bed to make way for Jigger and the other potioneer.
"But there's no telling how many potion ingredients are compatible with the Draught of Living Death, nor can we be sure that the added ingredients are even among the known ones. The odds of stumbling upon the right antidote this way are a hundred times worse than winning the Daily Prophet's grand prize."
The entire bedroom fell silent upon hearing Severus's proposed solution.
Only Harry, who had been standing beside Severus the entire time, quietly glanced up at his teacher, who lied so effortlessly without batting an eye.
If he hadn't been to Slughorn's house with him, he would have believed it too!
Jigger and the Ministry's potioneer also examined the girl named Patty. They conducted far more tests than Severus had, even collecting a few drops of her blood.
However, in the end, their conclusions were even less comprehensive than Severus's.
"All we can determine is that the potion she drank did contain an excessive amount of sopophorous bean juice."
"But if that were the case, she shouldn't have been able to bear the pain after drinking the potion and died instantly. The fact that she's still alive, albeit unconscious, proves that, just as Professor Snape said, other ingredients were added to the potion to counteract the overdose."
Kingsley's face turned completely ugly. He knew the situation had just become far more complicated.
"So you're saying we must first find the wizard who brewed this potion?"
Severus answered his question.
"Finding residual traces of the potion would also suffice. We could reverse-engineer the ingredients from the potion itself."
Jigger hesitated, then looked at Kingsley.
"You still haven't tracked down the source of this Draught of Living Death? Not to mention Britain, even across the entire Wizarding World, there can't be more than a handful of people capable of modifying such a standardized potion."
Kingsley shook his head.
"We've questioned every possible person in Britain who might have brewed this, but no one has admitted to it. Robards is handling the investigation into the potion's origin."
He didn't elaborate further. In fact, not only had the task of tracing the potion's origin been handed over to Robards, but he had already got some clues.
At that very moment, Robards was leading a team to question potion merchants across Britain who sold the Draught of Living Death, trying to trace the supply chain and determine if any independent sellers had recently offloaded large quantities of the potion.
This is an excellent direction, because if someone wanted to improve a standardized potion like the Draught of Living Death, they would need to conduct extensive experiments.
As for those failed batches with mediocre effects, they would likely be sold off to recoup material costs. As long as they follow this trail, they might find a big discovery.
Kingsley kept this to himself because he had already grown wary of Jigger and Severus.
Many in the Auror Office suspected that one of the four, which are Slughorn, Severus, Jigger, or Borage, had lied. After all, who else but them could have brewed such a potion?
But the current situation is undoubtedly the worst-case scenario.
They could only brew an antidote by either catching the culprit or finding the potion's source. This shattered the Aurors' original plan of first saving the victim and then gathering information from her directly.
"Everyone, although the odds of brewing an antidote without knowing the ingredients are slim, we must still try, no matter how small the chance."
Kingsley looked at the three potioneers, including Severus.
"If possible, I'd like you to focus on brewing standard antidotes for the Draught of Living Death over the next three days. The Ministry will cover all material and labor costs. We'll give it three days. If that fails, we'll have to wait until we find the potion's source."
His request wasn't just about gambling on an antidote… it was also a ploy to keep Jigger and Severus occupied, diverting their attention so they wouldn't notice Robards's investigation.
Jigger was an honest man and agreed immediately.
But Severus detected the deeper implications in Kingsley's words directly.
Instead of answering, he walked back to the bedside of the girl named Patty and gently lifted the brown hair covering the back of her neck.
The others noticed his movement. Kingsley stepped forward first and saw that on the snow-white neck that was originally covered by the hair, there were two faint marks. If one didn't look carefully, it would be easy to overlook the wounds!
"Did any of you notice this?" Severus asked calmly.
Kingsley's face flushed a little, and he didn't bother making excuses.
"This year's recruits are utterly incompetent!"
Severus shook his head.
"I'm not here to lecture the Aurors. But it's clear she wasn't just poisoned… these marks on her neck are unmistakably from a Dark magical creature."
Under the watchful eyes of everyone in the room, he straightened his robes with deliberate gravity.
"And I am not only proficient in potions."
Both the Aurors and the potioneers exchanged confused glances, somewhat confused as to what Severus meant.
Seeing that no one expressed any opinion, Severus couldn't help but complain about Ghost Snape in his heart, 'That greasy-haired guy's previous idea that he was qualified to teach a certain course was indeed just pure self-delusion!'
But since he'd already started, Severus had no choice but to finish.
He cleared his throat lightly.
"Cough, in addition to potions, I consider myself a master of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Over the years, I've repeatedly submitted applications to Headmaster Dumbledore, requesting a transfer to teach that subject instead."
Kingsley seemed to grasp his meaning and asked cautiously, "So… Professor, are you suggesting…?"
"Since this case involves not just potions but also Dark magical creatures, I believe I should stay and assist you in further investigations."