Snape remained silent, appearing to dismiss the shop owner's evaluation of his Potion with disdain.
However, he didn't need to communicate anyway; Sherlock was the one in charge of the negotiations.
"Fifty percent is too little; we want seventy. Of course, the extra twenty percent isn't for nothing—if any bottle in the subsequent batches fails to reach the level of that Wit-Sharpening Potion, we won't charge a single Knut in production fees."
Sherlock had specifically researched the market before coming. A seventy percent quote was actually a bit high, but it was meant to give the other party room to bargain.
In the end, they settled on a production fee of sixty percent of the profits, but they needed to pay a ten-Galleon deposit to the shop first. This money would be refunded after three successful collaborations.
After all, the Potion ingredients were provided by the shop, and this was to prevent them from running off with the materials.
Once the specific details were finalised, the shop owner drafted a magical contract, and both Sherlock and Snape signed it.
Even though they used pseudonyms, the contract would still be binding on both of them.
This type of magical contract acts directly upon the person; whoever signs it is affected, similar to the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery that Hogwarts students sign upon starting school.
After everything was prepared and the shop owner provided them with the materials for the first batch of Potions, with a delivery date set for three days later, Sherlock suddenly remembered something.
He pulled a colourless, water-like Potion out of his pocket and handed it to the Witch.
"Help me take a look at this. If this Potion were to be sold, what kind of price could it fetch?"
The Witch took the Potion from him, opened the cap, and sniffed it. She couldn't smell anything, and nothing could be discerned from its colour either.
"What is the effect of the Potion?"
"Healing. It has broad utility; it can be effective on almost any injury. However, for severe wounds, it can only provide relief and won't heal them instantly."
This bottle was, of course, a healing Potion created using a Philosopher's Stone fragment—essentially a simplified version of the Elixir of Life.
The manufacturing process was extremely simple: just prepare a cup of fresh water, place the fragment in it for three seconds, and once the water turns pink, a bottle of healing Potion is ready.
Although it lacked the heaven-defying effect of immortality, its healing capabilities were quite impressive. Back then, the Veritaserum used to trick Sirius was actually this Potion in disguise. The injuries he sustained from being beaten black and blue by Lupin healed in no time after he drank it.
However, a Potion's evaluation naturally couldn't rely solely on Sherlock's word. The Witch wouldn't be foolish enough to taste it on the spot to test its effects; it required a professional Potioneer to carry out a rigorous evaluation.
Simply put, it required time.
"When you come to deliver the Potions in three days, I'll give you an answer. If its healing effects are good, we will offer a reasonable price."
Sherlock naturally had no objections. The healing Potion made from the Philosopher's Stone required neither cost nor skill. Even if the market price was low, as long as it could be sold, it was pure profit.
Walking out of the Potion shop with Snape, they wandered around Diagon Alley for a bit longer.
Sherlock even bought two ice creams and, despite Snape's disdain and refusal, forced one into his hand.
"I don't understand you people. Why is ice cream exclusively for children? Dumbledore is so old, and he still likes lemon sherbets. One of us is in his twenties and the other in his thirties—what's wrong with having an ice cream?"(TN: You people? What do you mean? Adults commonly have ice cream.)
Sherlock rambled on, condemning Snape's prejudice as they returned to their rooms at the Leaky Cauldron together.
Snape ultimately didn't eat the strawberry ice cream Sherlock bought him. Before entering his room, he shoved the nearly melted ice cream back into Sherlock's hand.
"Don't disturb me while I'm brewing Potions. Do whatever you want by yourself."
After speaking with a cold expression, he shut the door, hiding inside like a recluse.
Sherlock held an ice cream in each hand and shrugged.
He felt that Snape's temperament was very similar to those tsundere blondes often seen in British television dramas. Moreover, in the end, the childhood friend always loses to the newcomer, becoming the one left heartbroken—it was truly tragic.
Just as he was about to return to his own room, he suddenly noticed that a crack had been stealthily opened in the door of Room 10 nearby. A pair of large, azure-blue eyes were quietly watching him through the gap.
Sherlock locked eyes with that pair for a moment, then extended the strawberry ice cream that belonged to Snape towards them.
"Do you want one?"
However, the only response he got was the sound of the door slamming shut with a bang.
Sherlock clicked his tongue and took a bite out of the tip of the nearly melted strawberry ice cream.
"If nobody wants it, then fine. I can eat two by myself."
Levitating the ice cream in mid-air, he opened his door and walked into his room.
While Snape was brewing Potions to make money, Sherlock naturally wasn't idle either. He was currently focused on studying the pocket watch around his neck, which could now be removed.
After Sherlock had forcibly terminated its journey during the time travel, it had reverted to its tattered, rusty state.
But it was clearly still repairing itself. Once it was fully restored again, it would inevitably continue to reverse time.
However, Sherlock already knew how to suppress it. He just needed to use a massive number of high-level counter-curses on it at regular intervals to damage it and delay the restoration.
This pocket watch was what had brought them to this time, so to return, he naturally had to find a way through the watch.
He didn't have any ideas yet, but it was clear that professional matters still needed experts to solve them.
Time-Turners were already non-reproducible alchemical items. Whether it was because the craftsmanship had been lost or some alchemical substance was missing, Sherlock wasn't sure, but there were still Wizards in the Wizarding World researching Time-Turners.
The place where the greatest concentration of experts could be found was naturally the Ministry of Magic, especially the Department of Mysteries.
Prophecies and time were both within the research scope of this department.
This was the only direction Sherlock could think of for now; there were no better options.
But even with an idea, there was no good way to proceed.
People from the Department of Mysteries were not easy to contact. The employees there were known as Unspeakables; few people even knew their identities, let alone what they were researching all day.
As a newcomer using a false identity, Sherlock naturally had no way to reach these people.
But where there's a will, there's a way. He had only been staying at the Leaky Cauldron for a day, so he wasn't in a hurry.
Aside from that, Sherlock also bought back issues of The Daily Prophet from the previous three months from a second-hand shop in Diagon Alley to understand the current situation in the Wizarding World.
Currently, the British Wizarding World was at the peak of Lord Voldemort's power.
Hogwarts had become a talent supply base for the Death Eaters. Every year, a large proportion of Slytherins and a small number of pure-blood students from the other three Houses were attracted by Lord Voldemort's ideology upon graduation and joined their ranks.
The power base that Tom Riddle initially built rested on a sufficiently attractive theory.
The so-called pure-blood theory sought to emphasise that pure-blood Wizards possessed greater power than other Wizards.
The Death Eater group did not initially intend to completely destroy all Muggle-born Wizards.
The standard for determining whether a Wizard was pure-blood was whether they had any direct Muggle relatives within the previous three or five generations of their ancestry (the concept of pure-blood families was another matter entirely).
As long as a Muggle-born Wizard continued to marry other Wizards, their descendants would gain recognition after three or five generations.
However, they intensely loathed unions between Wizards and Muggles, believing they polluted the noble bloodline.
Once the Wizarding World fully implemented the Great Pure-Blood Theory, the relationship between the Wizarding World and the Muggle world would also be severed. After that, they could return to an era of conquest in which Wizards ruled the world and Muggles were regarded as inferior.
This was the theory Voldemort used when he first assembled his followers, and it was also the general direction of his future plans.
From this set of theories alone, it was relatively rational. After all, the main reason Grindelwald ultimately failed to make Wizards the masters of the world was the existence of widespread resistance within the Wizarding World.
Voldemort understood the principle of securing the home front before expanding abroad, so he first proposed the pure-blood theory, uniting the pure-blood faction, which, though small in number, possessed the greatest power and influence in the Wizarding World.
After succeeding in the internal struggle, he would use it to completely sever ties between the Wizarding World and the Muggle world, integrating the Wizarding forces into a single whole before finally invading the Muggle world, accomplishing what Grindelwald had failed to do.
A rational, organised, and meticulously planned scheme with a genuine possibility of success.
But while the plan was good, its execution became increasingly distorted.
As the number of pure-blood Wizards under him grew, so did the number of lowlifes and psychopaths. They became increasingly unscrupulous in their treatment of Muggle-born Wizards.
Added to that was the fact that Tom's own mind seemed to have deteriorated, becoming increasingly twisted, deranged, and cruel.
A leader gets the followers he deserves. The Death Eaters became even more unrestrained. Starting in 1970, they carried out terrorist attacks throughout the Wizarding World, resisting the rule of the Ministry of Magic.
The Order of the Phoenix was also founded by Dumbledore around this time.
Simply put, Tom began with a somewhat reasonable and feasible theory but ultimately failed to follow it. Violent, high-pressure terrorist attacks led to a backlash from the entire Wizarding World.
After all, half-bloods and Muggle-born Wizards made up the majority of the Wizarding World. Added to that was a small number of pure-blood "blood traitors" like the Weasley family, and finally, Dumbledore himself, the stabilising force within Hogwarts Castle.
This kept the Death Eaters—despite their unscrupulous use of the Dark Arts and having a nearly invincible Dark Wizard like Voldemort—in only a slight position of advantage, far from achieving total dominance.
But even with only a slight advantage, the Death Eaters' brutal methods made every Wizard deeply afraid.
The Ministry of Magic used Stunning, Petrification, and Disarming Spells to capture Death Eaters.
The Death Eaters used the Killing Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the Imperius Curse to fight the Ministry.
It was obvious which side had the greater deterrent power.