Impedimenta.
It's a jinx—an extremely practical one.
[Rapid casting of Impedimenta can delay an opponent for a moment, or halt a magical creature's advance for a short while. This jinx is a crucial part of a wizard's duel.]
—Miranda Goshawk, The Standard Book of Spells
The spell lasts around a dozen seconds and can briefly slow an opponent's speed. It can even make a wasp pause mid-air.
Snape's test subject was a wasp. He said, voice icy:
"If you fail, Sean Green—perhaps a little pain will clear your head!"
Sean nodded—he didn't notice the wand clenched tight beneath Snape's robes.
"Impedimenta!"
Blue-white sparks burst from Sean's wandtip; the wasp, streaking in, froze at once.
[You practiced Impedimenta once at an Expert standard. Proficiency +50]
[You practiced Impedimenta once at an Expert standard. Proficiency +50]
…
[Impedimenta: Adept (110/3000)]
[A new Dark Arts domain title has been unlocked]
Compared to other branches, Sean always seemed to break through faster in the Dark Arts.
One hour to go from Apprentice to Adept…
Sometimes he felt he wasn't casting Dark magic so much as Dark magic was running out through his wand by itself.
He truly bore no strong "malice" in his heart—yet the Dark Arts' power never flagged.
"Hah—lucky you, Green—"
Seeing Sean a little tired, Snape flicked his wand and the wasp, ready to attack again, vanished.
"Take this—"
Snape tossed over a booklet. As Sean turned, he noticed his letter had been placed in a cubby of the glass cabinet.
But in the blink of an eye, both the letter and the little vial beside it had disappeared.
Hallucinating?
Sean wondered.
"What are you waiting for?! For the ingredients to prep themselves and jump into the cauldron?!"
Snape's fury surged again.
The cauldron chuffed like a steam vent, sending up white vapor that mixed with blown-in snow.
Sean's Guiding Method notebook was crammed with notes. For once, Snape added no ridicule—he simply and precisely improved what was inside.
And he added a new potion: the Elixir to Induce Euphoria.
It appears in Master Libatius Borage's Advanced Potion-Making—fifth-year work, by rights; very difficult for Sean now.
But Sean keenly noticed this elixir had Borage's completed refined ritual and guiding method.
So while Snape seemed to be assigning an impossible task, he'd actually left a good deal of hope.
"Brewing something even a troll could manage—does that satisfy you?" Snape sneered.
The Euphoria Elixir is advanced; its difficulty is unquestioned.
But luckily, the refined ritual and guiding method still opened a path.
[You brewed a cauldron of Euphoria Elixir at a Beginner standard (complete brew). Proficiency +1]
[Euphoria Elixir: Locked (1/30)]
"What did you do?!" Snape's voice struck just as the panel prompt chimed.
His murderous gaze swept Sean—then settled, a fraction.
"Get. Out."
Sean thought he understood—he'd absent-mindedly added a small sprig of peppermint.
When his will was sharply focused, his actions were almost instinctive. Only after adding it did he remember the sprig's story—Snape's own invention in the Half-Blood Prince's notes.
As always, Sean tidied the bench, pulled his scarf tight, and left the dungeon.
He hadn't even stepped outside when he found ten Galleons in his hand, from who-knew-when.
"Hah—" came the cold laugh from deep in the dungeon.
…
Snape stared after Sean, for no reason a little dazed.
The boy's potions talent was beginning to show, and he was sure the fool didn't have his notes.
Something occurred to him; his complicated gaze took on a shade of remembrance.
In the corridor,
Sean's shorthand quill scratched on without pause:
[Alchemy's central aim may be more complex—and less material—than it first appears.
It comprises three phases: black, white, and red.
Phase one is melting, the black phase (nigredo).
Phase two—lead into gold—is the white phase (albedo).
Phase three, the final stage, is the red phase (rubedo).
As the fire intensifies, a sacred red glow spreads over the white stone… The whitening made red is often likened to being dyed with fresh blood.]
And Potions?
When his will sank into the billowing cauldron, Sean felt the old matter cease, transform, and finally transcend.
He had a strong intuition—equally valid in alchemy—that this applied here too.
He turned to Allegories of Alchemy: The Four Elements and found it at once:
[Alchemy—i.e., the search for the Philosopher's Stone, to turn base metals into gold and grant the bearer youth everlasting—was once believed possible and real.
One reading of the "instructions" alchemists left is that they symbolize a spiritual journey, guiding the practitioner from ignorance (base metal) to enlightenment (gold).]
And what is potion-brewing, if not a voyage from ignorance (common materials) to enlightenment (magical draught)?
At last Sean grasped the primal line binding Potions and Alchemy. With that insight, his alchemical progress was lightning-quick.
In two days, following the notes, he made a floating quill.
With that will-felt sense to guide alchemical magic, his only worry was where to find the Weasley twins.
As he advanced in alchemy, his focus swung back to Potions. Snape not only taught him the Euphoria Elixir, but also—alongside it—other Borage recipes that included refined rituals: the Invigoration Draught and the Antidote to Common Poisons were Borage's last entries.
Once Sean had drawn enough experience from the ritual, that unruly knowledge truly passed to his keeping.
On a night of sleet and snow, he sat at the bay window and watched ravens cross the sky.
[Witches and wizards created Potions—but could not comprehend them.
When Zygmunt Budge's portrait awoke on Hermetray Isle, centuries had flown—truth had not changed.
So the pilgrims know: what lies inside the cauldron is still the secret of magic entire.
Will you be the last pilgrim, Sean Green?]
~~~
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