Potions class continued, and Snape was instructing the students on how to prepare a potion to treat scabies. After explaining how to make the potion, he divided the class into pairs and had them begin preparing it.
Albert was naturally paired with Lee Jordan, since they were deskmates.
"Let's review the steps a few times before we start preparing the scabies treatment solution to avoid making mistakes," Albert advised. "As long as the steps are correct, the finished product won't differ too much from the one in the book."
The worst thing about preparing medicine is adding herbs randomly and stirring haphazardly.
Albert opened "Potions and Elixirs" to memorize the recipe for the scabies potion, completely ignoring Snape, who was dragging a black cloak behind him.
After Snape left, Albert took out the necessary medicine from his medicine box: a few snake fangs, a Pongo onion, some bundled dried nettles, a jar of horned slugs, and a few porcupine quills.
"You're in charge of boiling the horned slugs. This stuff needs to be boiled for at least 33 to 45 minutes." Albert handed his tweezers to Lee Jordan.
"Okay, leave it to me." Li Qiaodan had no objection. He took the tweezers that Albert handed him and picked out the disgusting horned slug from the jar.
That said, this stuff costs 1 Gallon to buy a bottle at a pharmacy.
"Remember to clean it thoroughly first. Don't put too much water in the crucible, be careful it doesn't boil over," Albert added.
Then he began to grind the snake fangs with a mortar and pestle, as the book required grinding the snake fangs into a fine powder, which was a laborious task.
Compared to Albert's practical skills, the other students were rather lacking.
Of course, this may be related to Albert upgrading his potion-making skills to level 1.
Snape was still pacing around the classroom, watching the students dry nettles and grind snake fangs. Almost all the students had been criticized, except for Albert and George.
After all, Snape couldn't find anything to criticize, except that their progress was a little slower than the others.
"Next, weigh the dried nettles." Albert whispered, watching Snape's retreating figure, "Pay attention to the weight, don't weigh them wrong."
"Okay." Li Jordan was in a good mood; Snape hadn't bothered them.
Albert painstakingly sliced the Pongo onions into thin slices.
Half an hour later, Li Qiaodan reminded him, "The horned slugs are overcooked."
Albert immediately went over and pricked the horned slug with a glass tube. After confirming that it was thoroughly cooked, he poured out the water from the crucible, leaving the cooked horned slug.
With the materials prepared, all that remained was to mix the medicine for treating scabies.
First, add the snake fang powder to the crucible and stir slowly to mix it thoroughly with water. The potion in the crucible will gradually turn dark blue.
"Is it dark blue?" Li Qiaodan leaned closer, wanting to see the color of the medicine in the crucible.
"It's dark blue." Albert deftly sliced the Pongo onion into thin slices and placed them in the crucible, then continued heating for about ten seconds. The potion, just as described in the book, gradually changed from dark blue to red.
Once the color stops changing, slowly sprinkle in the dried nettles and stir the potion until it turns pink.
"Add another small spoonful of Flobber caterpillar slime, then continue stirring until the potion turns green," Albert muttered as he performed the procedure. "Next, add a large spoonful of stewed horned slugs and stir until the potion turns blue-green."
After completing the previous step, Albert removed the crucible from the fire.
Adding porcupine quills directly to the potion without removing it from the fire will cause it to fail immediately; Snape specifically warned everyone about this.
Albert took the two porcupine quills handed to him by Li Jordan, slowly put them into the crucible, and then began to stir clockwise three times, causing the originally blue-green potion to gradually turn blue.
Finally, wave the wand above the cauldron to complete the potion.
"Did it work?" Li Qiaodan asked nervously.
"What do you think?" Albert scooped up a spoonful, put it into the crystal bottle, and handed it to Li Jordan next to him so that he could see the color of the potion.
"It's a success." Li Qiaodan looked excitedly at the potion bottle containing the scabies treatment. The color of the potion was basically consistent with the description in "Magic Potions and Elixirs".
"Yes, it worked! It wasn't easy." Albert extinguished the fire. However, he still had some doubts about the effectiveness of the scabies treatment.
As Albert was bottling the potion and writing his name on it, he suddenly smelled a nauseating odor. Turning his head, he saw bubbles rising in Fred and George's cauldron, and the potion inside was a disgusting brown color.
"Wait, we need to remove the crucible from the fire before adding the porcupine quills," Albert stopped George from making a potentially disastrous decision that could burn through the crucible.
However, this still couldn't save their scabies treatment.
"Weasley, tell me, what are you?" Snape walked up behind the twins with a blank expression.
"Medicine for scabies," George muttered to himself.
Snape asked indifferently, "What color is the scabies medicine in the book when it's finished?"
"blue."
"I dare say, if you drink this potion of yours, you'll poison yourself to death before your scabies are cured." Snape waved his wand and swept the potion out of the cauldron.
"Anderson, where's your medicine?"
"Here it is, sir." Li Jordan quickly handed over the blue scabies medicine, and when Snape wasn't looking, he smugly wagged his index finger at the twins.
"Barely passable," Snape said, picking up the glass bottle and glancing at the scabies medicine inside.
What does "barely passing" mean?
After class, Li Qiaodan angrily said to the twins, "What is this? Are human-made scabies treatments really so bad? And... why do we have to write a two-foot-long paper after we successfully made a scabies treatment?"
"Keep your voice down, if you want to get yourself into trouble," Fred said, pointing at Snape who was walking towards them.
"Ahem." Albert cleared his throat and said to Li Jordan, "Perhaps Professor Snape thinks we have a talent for potions and wants to train us well."
Albert deliberately lowered his voice to a level that Snape could hear.
"You see, no one else gets this kind of treatment, right?"
"I hope your paper on the scabies treatment won't disappoint me, Mr. Anderson," Snape said, turning to look at Lee Jordan. "As for you, you don't need to write a paper."
"What does he mean by that?" Li Jordan murmured, watching Snape's departing figure.
"What you mean is obviously that you don't deserve special treatment." Fred finally couldn't help but burst into laughter after Snape left. He raised his hand and patted Albert on the shoulder, saying, "It seems that Professor Snape really intends to give you special treatment. Maybe he wants to invite you to join the Potions Club!"
"Then I have no choice but to decline, since I've already joined the Transformers Club," Albert said seriously.
The next moment, all three of them laughed even louder.
They could certainly guess that Snape disliked Albert, but had no good way to deal with him, so he had no choice but to resort to this tactic of giving Albert so-called special treatment.
After all, few students enjoy doing homework, especially extra homework.