Snape's Private Underground Laboratory.
This place was a hundred times more advanced than the Potions classroom. The walls were lined with preserved organs of rare magical beasts, and the shelves held toxic plants banned even by the Ministry of Magic. The air was thick with a dense, suffocating aroma of medicinal herbs.
Snape paced the room like a bat trapped in a cage, his black robes sweeping across the floor with a rustling sound.
"Sit, Potter." Snape pointed to the only stool, which he usually used for precious ingredients. "Now, tell me the principle behind that 'High-Frequency Oscillation' you used for the Felix Felicis. If you dare say 'intuition', I will transfigure you into a slug and feed you to the Giant Squid."
Ivan sprawled onto the stool, even propping his feet up on the experiment table, toying with the silver knife Snape used for cutting rare ingredients.
"Professor, is this how you ask for a favor?" Ivan tapped the table lightly with the back of the knife. "Besides, I'm hungry. A Slytherin Prefect needs nutrition to grow."
Snape took a deep breath, veins throbbing on his forehead like earthworms. He slashed his wand, and a plate of exquisite Rock Cakes and a cup of hot pumpkin juice appeared on the table out of thin air.
"Eat! Eat and then speak!" Snape roared.
Ivan took a bite of a cake and frowned in disgust. "Too dry. But it'll do."
He swallowed the cake and pointed to a bottle of potion emitting an eerie green glow on the shelf.
"Is that the 'Wolfsbane Potion' you wanted me to improve?"
"Correct." Snape huffed. "That is the version I spent three years refining. It reduces the pain of werewolf transformation by 50%. But I know, in the eyes of a 'violent brewer' like you, it's probably garbage."
"It is indeed garbage." Ivan said bluntly.
Snape's face turned black as the bottom of a cauldron. "What did you say?"
"Too gentle." Ivan stood up, brushing crumbs from his hands. "You are merely 'suppressing' the lycanthropy, not 'solving' it. Like sealing a volcano with duct tape; sooner or later, it will blow."
Snape paused. Though arrogant, the words hit the mark. Wolfsbane Potion could only alleviate, not cure.
"And do you have a brilliant idea?" Snape crossed his arms, sarcasm dripping from his tone. "Do you intend to kill the werewolf? That is the best 'cure'."
"Killing takes no skill." Ivan walked to the lab bench, staring at the pot of green liquid. "I'm going to turn it into a tonic."
"A tonic?" Snape thought he misheard. "A tonic for werewolves? Do you want them to have more strength to tear houses down when they transform?"
"Watch."
Ivan didn't use his ebony wand. Instead, he pulled out a rusty dagger he'd bought in Knockturn Alley—used for cutting meat.
"What are you doing?!" Snape paled. That rusty knife was inches from his precious ingredients!
"Physical extraction." Ivan said calmly.
In the next second, Snape saw something that stopped his heart.
Ivan didn't put the ingredient into the cauldron. Instead, he threw an extremely precious Hellebore directly into his mouth and crunched it up like a radish!
"Are you insane?! That's toxic!" Snape screamed, rushing forward.
But Ivan simply spat a mouthful of green juice directly into the boiling Wolfsbane Potion.
"Fight poison with poison. Destruction before construction."
Ivan slammed the dagger into the bottom of the cauldron—not stirring, but spinning it wildly like a drill!
BOOM!
The liquid in the cauldron instantly turned black, followed by a thunderous roar!
"It's going to blow!" Snape instinctively covered his head and crouched down.
However, no explosion occurred.
Instead, a blinding golden light shot out from the cracks of the cauldron, illuminating the underground lab like daylight!
The originally murky Wolfsbane Potion had turned into pure, flowing liquid gold! And it no longer boiled; it swam in the cauldron as if alive, even emitting a crisp "dragon roar"!
> [System Alert: Host successfully improved "Wolfsbane Potion," triggered "Alchemy Critical Hit"!]
> [Gained New Formula: True · Werewolf Blood (Upon consumption, the werewolf retains full sanity, and all stats increase by 300% during transformation)]
> [Reward: Title "Explosion is Art"]
Snape stood up shakily, staring at the pot of golden liquid, his glasses reflecting the gold light.
"What... what is this?" His voice trembled.
"Improved Wolfsbane Potion." Ivan tossed the dagger back on the table and clapped his hands. "Drink this, and a werewolf won't just keep their sanity, they'll turn into a Super Saiy... uh, Super Werewolf. The kind that can punch a cow to death."
Snape felt like his brain had short-circuited.
Trembling, he picked up a glass rod and dipped it into the golden liquid.
No pungent smell. Instead, a scent of... mint?
"This is a high-dimensional strike." Ivan sat back down, crossing his legs. "Professor, your thinking is restricted. Potions isn't making soup; it's alchemy. It's changing the essence of matter."
Snape stared at Ivan, his gaze fanatic, like looking at a demon god descended to earth.
"You... you are absolutely mad." Snape whispered. "But I am beginning to like your madness."
Just then, Ivan's stomach rumbled.
"Professor, since the potion is done, can I go? Also, as payment, can I take that?"
Ivan pointed to the top shelf, to a fruit emitting a strange glow, sealed under layers of glass.
"Rejuvenation Fruit (Unripe)".
Snape's face changed instantly. "No! Absolutely not! That is a research project Dumbledore left me! It's not ripe; eating it will kill you!"
"Because it's unripe, we eat it now." Ivan stood up. Without waiting for Snape's permission, he cast "Accio" followed by "Reducto".
Smash!
The glass cover shattered.
The fruit flew into Ivan's hand.
But he didn't eat it. Instead, he tossed it casually into a nearby waste cauldron that was still smoking black smoke from a failed experiment.
"What are you doing?!" Snape's heart bled. That was priceless!
"Helping you take out the trash." Ivan snapped his fingers. "Word Soul · Combust."
Whoosh!
There was no fire under the waste cauldron, but the metal turned red-hot instantly.
Ivan poured the leftover dregs from the improved Wolfsbane Potion into it.
"Since it's an unripe fruit, eating it directly is toxic. But if we use the domineering nature of 'Wolfsbane' to neutralize its 'regressive' properties..."
As he spoke, Ivan stirred frantically with the rusty dagger (actually carving a micro-magic circle).
"Just like this, fuse 'destruction' and 'reshaping' together..."
Sizzle—!
An ear-piercing noise.
The waste cauldron exploded.
But this wasn't an ordinary blast. Pink smoke instantly filled the entire laboratory!
Snape coughed violently, tears streaming down his face. "Cough! You blew it up again! What is it this time? Poison gas?!"
However, when the pink smoke cleared.
Snape saw a scene he would never forget.
Though the waste cauldron was shattered, hovering in its place was a single drop of crystal-clear liquid, radiating rainbow light.
The air around that drop was slightly distorted—a characteristic of Time Magic!
Ivan reached out, and the drop landed on his fingertip.
"Pity, the heat was a bit off." Ivan shook his head regretfully. "Only made a semi-finished product. Probably makes someone younger by... five or six years? Or heals wounds instantly?"
He flicked the drop toward Snape.
"For you, Professor. Consider it compensation for blowing up your lab. Remember to take it before meals, or you might regress into a baby."
With that, Ivan yawned, pushed open the heavy lab door, and swaggered out.
Leaving Snape alone, holding a drop of priceless "Time Blood," standing in the wreckage of his lab, utterly bewildered.
> [System Alert: Snape suffers emotional collapse! Emotion Value +500!]
> [System Alert: Snape's "Awe" for Host has reached the peak!]
> [Current Total: 6300 Points!]
It took a long time for Snape to come back to his senses.
He looked at the liquid in his hand, then at the ruined remains of the priceless Rejuvenation Fruit.
"Treating a god-tier potion as compensation... treating an explosion as art..."
Snape suddenly laughed, a somewhat neurotic sound.
"The Potter family... how does it produce such monsters in this generation?"
He carefully stored the liquid in his sturdiest vial and labeled it: "ABSOLUTE TABOO: Ivan's Prank (DO NOT TOUCH!)"
Then, he picked up a quill and wrote a line on a piece of parchment:
"Albus, if you want to know how to turn Potions class into Demolitions, and how to brew a Time Potion with a rusty dagger... come find me. But I'm charging a fee. A very expensive one."