allendalepharm Chapter 144 Snape's Potions
Chapter 144 Snape's Potions
Chapter 144 Snape's Potions
Lockhart discovered something very subtle.
The "savior" title that Deng Xiaoping and the Phoenix Society created has been promoted for over a decade, and it has one very useful application.
That is, when someone shines so brightly that they are like Harry Potter, if they want to hide their existence in the shadows, then people will only see the savior on the stage.
Snape took advantage of this.
The Ministry of Magic's all-out effort to capture the criminal Coban Yaxley was so grand that it affected all aspects of society. Once Coban was actually caught, the Ministry of Magic's propaganda and the newspaper reporters' pursuit of the hot topic pushed Lockhart's reputation to an even more sensational level.
But look at the reports in the major newspapers and the announcements from the Ministry of Magic—our heroes: Professor Lockhart and his students.
No one mentioned Severus Snape throughout the entire event.
This was intentional on Old Stalin's part. He had his own mission and couldn't openly stand against Voldemort, as such a title would be detrimental to his future role as a spy.
Yes, he's still following the same line of thinking.
Become a spy, infiltrate the Death Eaters, obtain a wealth of information about Voldemort—and then hand that information over to Dumbledore, hoping that this powerful wizard or the "savior" Harry Potter, aided by the Order of the Phoenix, will defeat Voldemort?
Snape had already keenly sensed that he was beginning to resist this approach.
Because hope had risen in his heart, and he began to yearn to defeat Voldemort himself. His current actions seemed to be nothing more than escapism and a continuation of his past cowardice.
His cowardice caused him to lose Lily, his cowardice caused him to lose magic, and in the end he gained nothing and had nothing at all.
Unlike Lockhart, he was a normal person, a normal person who longed for the 'success' defined by the world.
He yearned for success and fame; otherwise, he wouldn't have been moved by Lockhart's words and planned to write a book to cultivate his own authoritative image and vindicate his past.
He also longed for a fulfilling life, otherwise he wouldn't have been so attached to losing Lily.
He just lacked a bit of courage.
And now, he begins to yearn for courage, even if it's a little late.
But he really changed; he actually felt it was just "a little too late." Before, he felt his life was over and the days ahead were meaningless, but with Lockhart's appearance, he slowly began to realize that his life might just be beginning.
He's only 32 years old; he still has a future, even if it doesn't include Lily...
Lockhart is right.
No one could force him to be unwilling. Sometimes he could no longer cowardly deceive his own heart; he had truly begun to yearn for his future.
Even if the initial intention was to gain more powerful magical abilities to fight Voldemort and avenge Lily.
This is a terrible vortex.
Only by letting go of Lily in your heart and moving towards the future can you gain the power to avenge Lily.
That's the right line of thinking, but there's a problem—if he can really let go of Lily in his heart and find meaning in life, will he still be determined to avenge Lily?
This terrifying vortex was tearing him apart.
On the third day after returning to magic school, Snape, who was caught in a life-changing decision and standing at a crossroads, finally stopped keeping it all to himself and tried for the first time to open his heart and ask his good friend Lockhart for his thoughts.
But he was wrong.
Lockhart could never come up with a good idea.
He's not some kind of life mentor or anything like that.
"Hahaha..." Lockhart laughed maniacally. "That's life. You can't really understand it. It's just a constant internal struggle, buddy. That's life, you know?"
It's as good as saying nothing.
Snape received no answers.
Lockhart then gave an example—magic.
"Magic is inherently chaotic. Before young wizards enter magic school to receive their magical education, their magic can help them do anything, such as making things float or even flying themselves to the rooftops." (That's how Harry Potter is.)
"After entering school, they lost that ability. They learned the Levitation Charm, and some of them couldn't even make a feather float properly."
"Why is that? Because we have begun to have a will in magic, which will give magical properties and make it begin to have a bias."
"This characteristic, when taken to its most extreme state, is actually silent."
"Look, from chaos to characteristics, from characteristics to the ultimate, haven't you noticed? Pure extremes will only turn wizards into monsters; self-struggle is the way to redeem the soul."
Lockhart shrugged. "Dude, that's life."
"It's inherently difficult, but that's the meaning of life!"
Snape fell silent, sitting blankly by the office window, staring out the window in a daze.
Lockhart ignored him and began burying himself in revising the final draft of "Severus's Potions Class".
During this time, he often took time to organize these manuscripts, including another book, "Voldemort the Mysterious Man: A Pureblood Supremacist with a Muggle Dad?" With more communication and exchanges with Tom Riddle, he accumulated a lot of material and ideas, and he is almost finished with it.
"Oh, right."
Lockhart held up his quill and gestured towards the pot of seafood simmering nearby. "What exactly is that stuff? I've seen you busy with it for half a year. It seems like a good gimmick. Tell me, maybe we can add it to a book?"
Snape glanced back at the cauldron, his expression complex, and after a long pause replied, "Life out of control, that's its name."
"???" Lockhart blinked. "What's the use?"
"A potion to undo mistakes!" Snape scoffed. "You've heard of that name, haven't you? Throughout history, potions to undo mistakes have been a field that potions enthusiasts have longed to explore, but no one has ever actually succeeded in concocting one."
A remedy for regret?
Does such a thing really exist?
Lockhart put down his quill and walked curiously to the cauldron, looking down at the potion ingredients churning inside.
To be honest, helping him organize the manuscript of "Severus's Potions Class" was also a learning process for him. Old Severus's book really laid a very solid foundation for him in potions.
This allowed him to immediately discern the complexity of the soup in front of him.
The changing colors of the potions, the complex surges of magic, and the repeated transformations of various shapes inside made him feel as if he were a high school student reading a calculus paper—completely bewildered yet incredibly impressive.
"How's the effect?" he asked curiously.
"I don't know. I may never be able to concoct it in my entire life," Snape sighed deeply. "I don't even know what it's for."
He stood up, went to the crucible, took out his wand and stirred it gently. After observing it for a while, he poured in some powder, observed the changes for a while, and then shook his wand.
"This is the 13th 'regret pill' I've concocted. Some of them failed in the past, and some succeeded, but even if they succeeded, it was still useless and ultimately a failure."
"Life Out of Control"—that's the name of a "regret potion" that supposedly penetrates the very roots of life, reaches the realm of time, and can reverse everything.
Lockhart's eyes lit up, and he quickly fetched parchment and a quill. "Yes, a great gimmick. It gives 'Severus's Potions Class' an open ending and elevates the book's quality. Tell me more about it."
He gestured to the manuscript on the table, "Try to explain this potion as difficult as the book's final description, so that readers can understand it."
Snape was somewhat resistant. "Write this down? The 'regret pill' is a complete scam, a fake!"
"Who knows?" Lockhart reassured him. "Man, I've always stuck to this approach, teaching my students without reservation, and hey, guess what? I always get more interesting insights from them. Maybe you won't find the answer, but what if your readers do?"
He never agreed with the view of the older generation in his previous life that teaching apprentices would starve the master. That only showed that the master only intended to rely on what he had already mastered and stop improving. Teaching apprentices is not only about passing on knowledge, but also about two spiritually rich wisdoms overlapping and helping each other to climb the ladder.
Always maintain an apprentice's mindset and never stop learning. Every bit of progress and flash of inspiration from the apprentice will help the master grow even more.
"Alright," Snape was convinced.
He gestured for Lockhart to look at the cauldron, drew his wand, and fiddled with the potion inside, carefully explaining to him every change that occurred within it.
Old Si is actually a very reliable professor.
However, his teaching method is only suitable for people with exceptional spiritual talent. Lockhart is quite talented and can keep up with this teaching pace.
Potions is an extremely interesting subject.
It is a complex discipline, encompassing more than just herbalism and magical biology. Lockhart could even glean some information about transfiguration and spells from Snape's accounts.
If we were to explore this further, we would need to understand more about magic ourselves.
This is also the reason why Snape was always able to improve potions.
"Following the potion recipes and steps exactly as they come won't work in the world of advanced potions." Snape tried to incorporate the content of "Potions Master Severus" into his explanation, gesturing to his wand. "The biggest difference between wizarding potions and Muggle potion-making is that we need to use a wand."
"This not only means that magic is involved, but also that we ourselves are involved, becoming an indispensable foundation for the creation of potions."
"Now you can understand, right? Our mental state and our magical path play an extremely crucial role in the effects of potions."
"Actually, the potion recipes that young wizards are currently exposed to are carefully selected, and there are not too many requirements in this regard. This is beneficial for young wizards to master the basics as soon as possible, but many wizards who stop here think that potions are just like that."
This is something Lockhart can understand.
The wizard's magical path and the harmony of magic are based on the same principle.
Returning to the topic of the "Life Out of Control" potion, Snape began to earnestly explain his philosophy on controlling magic, while Lockhart carefully selected and wrote down the parts that did not involve personal matters, listening with shining eyes.
He started to have his own ideas. "Hey, do you think it's possible that you mixed this potion wrong?"
"Hmm?" Snape narrowed his eyes, looking at the guy who dared to interfere in his field of expertise with displeasure.
"An out-of-control life, yet your mindset is to control it?" Lockhart gestured with his hands. "Of course, I don't know much about potions, but I do know magic. If you asked me to figure out a spell called 'An Out-of-Control Life,' I would definitely make it go out of control."
Snape frowned. "It won't work in the potions field. If you let potions get out of control, you have no idea how terrible things will get!"
Lockhart shrugged. "Losing control is often the meaning of adventure; magic will naturally unfold, and mystery will be revealed."
Neither of them could convince the other, but this was just an academic debate. Perhaps there was never a right or wrong, only choices about the path of magic.
Snape longed to control his life and prevent it from spiraling out of control, but unfortunately, life is beyond control, and it ultimately spiraled out of control.
Lockhart craves adventure, which often comes with losing control, but he is unafraid of losing control and looks forward to the magic finally blossoming. Fortunately, he always succeeds.
Perhaps he is the one who is truly on the path of striving?
"I'll give it a try!" Snape finally said.
"???" This time Lockhart was stunned, looking at him with a puzzled expression. "Why don't you give it a try?"
"Yes."
Snape stared intently at the potion churning in the cauldron. "I can't see the future. I'm starting to crave the future. Maybe I should take a risk and try all the possibilities."
"I'm willing to try it the way you suggested."
He couldn't remember when he started to be obsessed with the "regret pill," maybe it had been more than ten years. He had tried to concoct one after another, but had never succeeded.
So much so that he's just continuing his old habits now, but he no longer has any hope that the potion can actually be successfully concocted.
Perhaps he would never be able to make it in his lifetime; that was how he had always believed, harboring a sliver of hope while actually having long since given up hope.
So...
Why not give it a try?
Whether it's potions, magic, or life itself, perhaps it's time for a change.
He quickly gathered some potion ingredients and asked Lockhart to help him process the potion, instructing him on various techniques for handling the ingredients. Soon, he had prepared a complex potion.
"Actually, this potion has been stuck for several months. I know that if we continue like this, we will only face ultimate failure. The potion we are preparing now is to break this deadlock."
Snape had Lockhart write down the process he had just witnessed. "This is a potion I invented myself. It can disrupt the balance during the potion-making process and give the potion a new vitality."
Pour the potion into the seafood potion in the crucible, and soon the potion begins to boil, emitting a lot of strange, oily bubbles, and some foul odor begins to rise from it.
"Next..."
He waved his wand, tidying up the office, putting important items into a cabinet with protective magic, and holding a handful of potion powder while looking at the soup pot.
Lockhart swallowed hard, watching the scene with some tension, his wand gripping tightly, ready to protect him and Snape in case of an explosion or other terrible situation.
Boom~
As the powder was sprinkled in, the crucible suddenly roared violently, and the liquid inside trembled rapidly as if it contained a fire dragon. A strange and mysterious magical light shot into the sky, dyeing the entire office with a glowing light.
A terrifying repulsive force filled the entire office, flinging the surrounding tables and chairs and slamming them against the walls, forcing Lockhart and Snape into a corner.
The howling wind seemed like a demon baring its fangs and claws in this space.
"I never imagined things would change like this!"
Snape shouted excitedly, his eyes lighting up, all traces of his usual gloom gone, replaced by pure joy.
Yes, it was pleasant.
Just as Lockhart enjoyed the pleasure of magic, Snape was equally obsessed with potions.
"You're a madman too, Severus!"
Lockhart seized the opportunity to retort. Oh, that felt good! He finally got his revenge. So satisfying!
Snape didn't mind at all and burst into laughter, a hearty laugh that Lockhart had never seen before.
He forcefully raised his wand. "Gidero, you're right. Dark magic is the ultimate form; if you overuse it, the wizard becomes a monster. Life always needs some struggle!"
He defied the gale and repulsive force step by step, walking towards the crucible. "Sometimes, life should be allowed to spiral out of control so that we can truly find our place."
Lockhart, bracing himself against the wall, was nearly suffocating from the fierce wind, yet he still burst into laughter. "Yes, yes, that's how it should be!"
"Living numbly is meaningless! Dying numbly is even more foolish! Life should be lived to the fullest, to shine brightly; such a passionate life is the most beautiful color of life!"
"Even if it's temporary, so what!"
He grabbed his wand, gripped it tightly, and slowly pushed forward against the powerful force. "Wait for me! Let me see what this seafood hotpot of yours tastes like!"
"This is a potion, you idiot!"
(End of this chapter)