Hogwarts: Don't call me the Staff Maker

Chapter 631 The Half-Blood Prince's Advanced Potion Making

Chapter 631 The Half-Blood Prince's Advanced Potion Making

"Oh, Merlin's beard!"

To get a better view, Slughorn instinctively took a step forward, his round belly nearly tipping over Siron's cauldron.

This time he saw it clearly; the potion in the crucible was indeed the standard light pink. When he fanned it with his hand, he could see the smoke from the potion swirling in the air like ocean waves.

"Incredible," Slughorn said. "Potion making has always been a rigorous discipline. Even the simplest stirring has strict requirements. One more or one less turn can lead to failure and waste the whole pot of potion."

"But I've never seen anything like it before." He looked at Siron. "This is truly a huge surprise. It seems that my decision to return to Hogwarts was absolutely the right one."

"Then what's there to hesitate about?" Slughorn suddenly turned around and shouted to the others in the classroom, "Incredible success—here, take it! I keep my word, here's a bottle of Felix Felicis, make good use of it!"

Xiren put the small bottle of golden liquid into the shapeshifting lizard skin bag.

"Oh, of course, and yours too." Slughorn turned around and handed Harry another bottle.

"Oh, I have one too?" Harry was slightly taken aback.

"Of course, because I really can't tell who's better between you and Siren," Slughorn said, troubled. "Siren's techniques are eye-opening, but you are indeed faster. After thinking it over, it's more appropriate to say that it's a draw."

"Take these quickly, or I might regret it, since these are the only two bottles I have left." Slughorn said with a smile, "Besides, there aren't many sixth-year students who can brew the perfect Living Hell Potion, so this achievement deserves a reward."

I think you must have inherited your mother's talent; Lily was just as skillful in Potions class back then!

Harry accepted the Felix Felicis with mixed feelings. He felt a little guilty at first because it wasn't his own ability, but rather he had followed the notes in the book exactly.

But when he saw the annoyed expressions on the faces of those Slytherins, he was immediately overjoyed.

But after class, when the group went to the Great Hall for dinner, Harry told them the truth.

Hermione's face grew increasingly grim as she listened to his account.

"You probably think I cheated, right?" Harry was annoyed by the look on her face.

"Yes, you didn't do it all by yourself, did you?" Hermione said stiffly, then looked at Siron, as if waiting for his explanation.

But Celeste felt he didn't need to explain anything to Hermione; the only ones who probably needed his explanation were Fred and George.

Because they discovered this method and then taught it to him.

Oh, and Harry too.

Slughorn was willing to offer Felix Felicis as a prize most likely because Harry Potter, the savior, was right there.

Siren just asked the students in other grades, and the potions classes for third and fifth graders are in the morning, but Slughorn didn't prepare Felix Felicis for them.

The gift for third grade was a bottle of memory potion, and for fifth grade it was a dreamless sleeping potion. Although both were relatively expensive potions, they were far inferior to Felix Felicis.

"I don't see any problem," Siren said, serving himself a bowl of stew. "There's very little knowledge that's static. Like how you've read more magic books than we have, so you can always come up with more comprehensive answers than the textbooks during exams—does that count as cheating?"

Faced with Sheren's question, Hermione was somewhat speechless, but she still stubbornly insisted on her own opinion, even suspecting that there might be some kind of dark magic in the book.

Harry was also angry. He thought it was just a student's notes that he casually wrote in a book during class—after all, who would inscribe a curse on a textbook?

The two had a big argument and parted on bad terms.

"Don't be angry, Harry. I think Hermione is just having a hard time accepting it," Ron said from the side. "Think about it, she used to be first in every subject except Defense Against the Dark Arts. Now that you and Siren have taken first place in Potions, it's normal that she can't accept it right away."

Harry quickly accepted his explanation.

However, Celeste didn't think so. Perhaps some of it was as Ron guessed, but it was definitely not all of it—Hermione wasn't that petty.

The main reason for this was Hermione's personality; she trusted the textbooks too much, believing that what was in the books was the "official" compass, and that any other different viewpoints were wrong shortcuts.

So even after they reconciled, and Harry shared the book "Advanced Potions Making" with them, Hermione remained unmoved and continued to follow the instructions in the book.

Needless to say, while the content in the book is correct, the steps are numerous and tedious, making it difficult to be completely error-free.

Hermione's potions were far less satisfying than Harry's, which made her increasingly irritable.

In contrast to her, Slughorn became increasingly pleased. He praised Harry to other professors more than once and complained that Dumbledore was dishonest, telling him that Harry's Potions grades were mediocre.

If this is considered average, then what would be considered outstanding? At the same age, he had only seen two people whose talent could be compared to Harry's—Severus Snape and Lily Evans when they were still at Hogwarts.

This made the other professors doubt whether they had misheard, especially Professor McGonagall.

She clearly remembered Harry's exam results every year. To put it another way, even without Snape's interference, his best grade was only an E (exceeding expectations), and he never got an excellent grade.

Can this guy really be considered a potions genius?

Perhaps it's because she's not a potions professor and doesn't know its value.

Meanwhile, Harry was clearly unaware that he had become a figure of interest among the professors. During Charms class, he took the book "Advanced Potions Making" from Sirens and asked, "You finished reading it so quickly?"

"Hmm, more or less," Xilun said.

He wasn't interested in the potion-making tips recorded in it, nor did he care about Slughorn's praise, which had no real prize.

So he only read the parts of the book related to spells, and he learned a great deal from them.

The book contained quite a few spells, about seven or eight. Besides the Ear-Blocking Spell and the Divine Sharpness Spell that Xilun already knew, there were also the Nail Growth Spell and the Eyelash Curling Spell.

Well, it fits Snape's character when he was young. Just imagine, if your toenails suddenly grew more than ten inches while you were running, and your eyelashes started growing in the opposite direction—that feeling definitely wouldn't be good.