Chapter 118
Ethan went to Snape's office and showed him the letter. "Professor, the first batch of fire lizards will be delivered to Hogsmeade tomorrow. Do you have time to handle the handover?"
Snape took the letter and quickly skimmed through it. "Yes, you don't need to worry about it. Just come feed the lizards tomorrow afternoon."
Ethan nodded. "Alright. What are we doing today?"
"Blood extraction." Snape placed the letter on the desk and led him to the lizard nest.
"Grab two and come with me."
Ethan selected two fire lizards that looked particularly sturdy, held them, and followed Snape to the potion-brewing area.
Today's layout in this area was slightly different from usual.
The large cauldron that had previously occupied the center of the room was now at the edge. In its place stood a smooth stone table covered with various instruments for handling materials.
Snape lit two flame bottles and gestured for Ethan to place the fire lizards on them.
"Having studied potions with me for so long, you should know that there are several different blood extraction methods, and how the blood extracted by these methods differs, right?"
"Explain it to me." The two stood facing each other on opposite sides of the operating table.
Ethan organized his thoughts.
"Regarding extraction methods, the first classification distinguishes between blood taken from living creatures and blood taken from dead ones. The second is specialized extraction versus ordinary extraction. These two classifications combine to yield four distinct extraction methods.
"Of the four methods, the best is living blood extracted via the specialized method, containing the highest levels of spiritual essence, magic, and life force from the creature being bled. The worst is dead blood extracted via ordinary means, containing only trace amounts of magic and nothing else.
"The remaining two each have their own advantages and disadvantages."
When Snape remained silent, Ethan continued explaining the differences between the various blood products.
The difference between living blood and dead blood is obvious. Take the red blood of ordinary magical creatures, for example: one is bright red, as if it still flows with life, while the other is dull and heavy, like stagnant sediment.
The difference between special extraction and ordinary extraction is significant, requiring charm detection on the extracted samples to tell them apart.
This charm was invented by a witch named Iris, and is called the Iris Blood Charm. It specifically measures the content of 'spirituality,' 'magic,' and 'life force' in blood.
Snape remained silent.
Once cast, this charm causes the blood to emit light in three colors: blue for spirituality, green for life force, and red for magic.
The brighter the light, the higher the concentration of that element.
Only then did Snape nod, satisfied. "Yes, you remembered what I taught you. Not bad."
These days, ordinary living blood is what sells best on the market, because as long as the creature stays alive, it can keep producing more. This is also the main source of income for large breeding farms.
"Today, I will teach you how to perform special extraction."
Ethan immediately perked up. He had processed materials before, but aside from that time with the pickled frogs, which had been living creatures, the rest had all been plant-based. This time, he had really struck gold.
"Special extraction requires special handling of the subject being bled, involving two steps: feeding them potions and utilizing charms to squeeze out their magic, soul, and life force, merging them all into the blood we extract."
Snape took out a small prepared bottle, grabbed a fire lizard from the shelf, pried open its mouth, and poured in a quarter of the potion.
"This is one such potion. It works significantly better for extracting fire lizard blood."
"So, Professor, are there corresponding potions for other creatures as well?"
"Yes, but not every magical creature has a corresponding blood extraction potion. Only those like dragons, fire lizards, and others with particularly valuable blood have them."
"The rest use universal potions. No potioneer would waste effort developing a specific potion for creatures that are essentially useless to them."
As Snape spoke, he watched the fire lizard secured to the stone table by a charm.
"It's about ready. Now its life force and soul have been mobilized. Next, we'll use charms to incorporate them into the blood as fully as possible."
As the fire lizard grew increasingly irritable and began to twist, Snape drew his wand, first casting a Stunner, then reciting a lengthy charm.
Once charmed, the unconscious fire lizard gradually melted from the inside out until, skin and scales dissolved away, only a small pool of bright red blood remained on the stone table.
Snape flicked his wand, and the blood flowed into a potion bottle he had prepared.
"Cast a charm to examine it and see if the spiritual essence inside is abundant."
He set the bottle, the blood within still churning, onto the stone table and motioned for Ethan to cast the charm.
Colored light bloomed from the bottle and, reflecting off the stone table, covered the entire ceiling in a layer of colored light.
Seeing such intense light, Snape nodded to himself. The blood of this black lizard, transformed from a gray one, indeed shone slightly brighter than that of a lizard mutated directly from an ordinary one.
"All right, you handle the remaining one yourself. First, I'll teach you the blood extraction charm."
Just as Snape was walking Ethan through the charm step by step, a small incident occurred on the Quidditch pitch.
After listening to Captain Wood explain the training plan all morning, the Gryffindor Quidditch team finally took to the field to practice, their stomachs growling.
But just after they had flown two laps, the Slytherin Quidditch players in their green robes walked in.
Gryffindor Captain Wood landed hard and roared at the Slytherin captain, "This is our training time! We booked the pitch!"
"Hmm? The pitch is big enough, Wood. Besides, I have a note signed by Professor Snape." Flint pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it, reading aloud. "I, Professor S. Snape, give permission for the Slytherin team to practice on the Quidditch pitch today, to train their new Seeker." After reading, he even showed it to Wood to prove it was in Snape's handwriting. Wood looked at the writing, confirming it was personally written by Snape.
"You have a new Seeker? Who?" Wood hadn't seen Draco, who was hidden behind a group of taller figures. "Right here!" Draco, noticeably thinner and shorter than the others, stepped out. He glanced at Harry smugly. "You're Lucius Malfoy's son? The one who was caught and given detention last semester?" Fred asked with disgust. "You're still Ethan's roommate? I really feel sorry for him."
"You!" Draco's face went red with anger.
"Ignore him. With those broken brooms they're holding, just wait to eat our dust." Flint patted his shoulder, telling him to calm down.
At the mention of the brooms, Draco got cocky again. "The latest Nimbus 2001! Much faster than the Nimbus 2000, not to mention those Cleansweep Sevens in your hands! This year, we will definitely win the Quidditch match!"
Ron and Hermione, watching the practice from the lawn in the distance, didn't know what had caused the confrontation between the two sides, and quickly ran onto the pitch.
"Didn't Wood reserve the pitch? What are they doing here?" Ron asked Harry, who was standing at the back.
Harry said with disgust, "The Slytherins have a note from Snape and want to practice today too. And that Malfoy guy is their new Seeker."
"Yes, I am the Seeker. How about it, Weasley? Are you envious? My father sponsored seven of the latest Nimbus 2001s," Draco said.
Hermione also had no fondness for Ethan's roommate, or for his father, Lucius Malfoy.
"The Gryffindor team gets in on ability, unlike some people who have to buy their way onto the team!" Her words were sharp and bitter, and they struck a nerve.
"You!" Draco's face darkened.
For a long moment, he was silent. Then, "Hermione Granger, right? Top of the year? A Muggle-born witch. Even with perfect grades, you'll never amount to anything in the wizarding world once you graduate!"
"Don't listen to him. There are Muggle-borns who became Ministers of Magic." Angelina Johnson comforted Hermione, whose face had gone pale.
"Hmph!" Draco sneered and retreated to his own team.
Click. From the sidelines, Colin Creevey pressed the shutter, capturing the confrontation, then ran toward the crowd.
"Get him off the pitch!" Wood shouted at Harry. He was in a foul mood.
"Colin, come on. You can't be on the pitch right now." Harry quickly stepped in before Wood could explode and persuaded the small, gray-haired boy to leave.
Though Wood hadn't chased them off, Hermione and Ron left the pitch on their own, not wanting to disturb the training.
Wood gathered the Gryffindors together. "We'll use the old methods for this training. We can't expose our new plan."
"Huh?" Several people looked at each other. So they'd gotten up early, skipped breakfast, listened to the explanation, and now it was all for nothing?
"Next time, I'll ask Professor McGonagall to apply for full use of the Quidditch pitch so we can train the new plan." Wood ground his teeth.
The Gryffindors could only listlessly mount their brooms and warm up on their half of the pitch.
*New brooms really are fast!* Wood watched the Slytherins on the other half of the pitch, swift as the wind, then glanced at his own team's old brooms, feeling discouraged.
*Could we apply to Professor McGonagall for funds to upgrade the brooms?* Wood shook his head and dismissed the thought.
Harry's Nimbus 2000 had come out of Professor McGonagall's own pocket. Applying for enough money to buy new Nimbus 2001s wouldn't be approved by the school.
Wood shouted to everyone, "Train properly! We must win the Quidditch Cup this year!"
"You guys? Hahaha." Wood's words drew Flint's ridicule. He circled Wood on his broom, showing off its speed.
"Get back to your half!" Wood's anger flared.
"Hahaha! Eat our dust!" Flint gave a mocking wave and returned to the Slytherin half.
The two sides remained confined to their respective halves, training in resentment.
Before long, no one knew which side had crossed the boundary first, but players were frequently crossing the midline into the opponent's half.
This boundary crossing angered both sides. It started with verbal disputes, and slowly the anger grew. The two sides began sporadic shouting matches, and finally both sides landed on the ground and formed a circle to hurl insults at each other.
"Who gave you the right to cross the boundary? Trash!"
"We crossed? You were the first, you reckless fools!"
The anger on both sides grew and grown. Then someone—no one knew who—shouted, "Beat them up!"
Rationality on both sides had already reached the breaking point. The shout was like fuel on the fire, and the two sides immediately started fighting.
Since they didn't have their wands with them during training, the two sides resorted to a fistfight, flesh against flesh.
However, the Gryffindor team had three girls, putting them at a disadvantage. Even though it was seven against seven, they were still on the losing side.
"Not good! They're fighting!" The three people watching from the lawn immediately noticed something was wrong.
As Hermione and the other two ran toward the pitch, Colin excitedly raised his camera. With a click, he snapped a photo.
"A wizard battle, and Harry Potter is part of it! Too precious!"
After taking the photo, he ran forward, camera in hand, trying to get more shots up close.
"Stop them? I'm a new student who's been here less than a week. What right do I have to stop wizards who are taller than me and have been here longer?"
"Impedimenta! Stupefy! Petrificus Totalus!" Hermione, wand in hand, was like an invincible war goddess at that moment. Wherever she went, Slytherins fell one by one.
"Well done!" The Gryffindors all felt very satisfied.
Ron also drew his wand, looked at the tape wrapped around it, hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn't resist the opportunity to make Malfoy suffer and cast a charm at the blond boy on the ground who was moving slowly.
A green light shot out from the broken end of his wand and struck him.
Everyone was startled.
"Are you alright?" Looking at Ron, who had fallen to the ground, the Gryffindors stepped forward with concern.
Ron opened his mouth. Instead of answering, he let out a loud burp, and several slugs dropped from his mouth.
"Slug curse?" Hermione immediately realized which charm had hit Ron.
Ron had threatened to use this charm on her and Neville last school year if she dared sabotage the duel and get them caught. She'd stopped Harry and the others from dueling with Malfoy then, and Quirrell had mentioned the charm in class.
"Finite Incantatem!" Hermione cast the counter-charm at Ron.
Once the spell took effect, Ron vomited several more slugs, then his pale face returned to normal.
"Don't tell anyone about this." Ron's tone was nearly pleading.
"Too late, Ronnie. The Slytherins saw." Fred sympathetically patted his youngest brother, pointing to several Slytherins who were bound but not unconscious.
"No!" Ron wanted to kill himself.
Click! Colin, standing slightly apart from the crowd, captured the scene.
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3.Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World = CHAPTER 272
4.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = CHAPTER 116
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