Chapter 93: Indenture

The next day, it was the weekend again, and today is the Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw Quidditch match.

Titus and the others all went to watch the match, only John didn't go.

He is doing something vital.

That is detention.

Yes, discovered night-touring by Filch yesterday, he ran all the way.

In order to shake off Filch, John ran blindly to the basement.

Waved his wand, used the unlocking spell he learned from Hermione, and opened a heavy wooden door.

Then hid inside without looking.

As a result, after closing the door, he found that it was Professor Snape's private studio.

He was exactly at the critical moment of brewing a potion, interrupted by John's sudden intrusion, missing the best timing for potion material fusion, causing the whole pot of potion to be scrapped.

Professor Snape turned black-faced on the spot, almost hanging John up for public display.

If it weren't for Headmaster Dumbledore coming forward to dissuade, John would really have to hang at the entrance of the Great Hall for a whole week.

But even so, John still had to sign an indenture.

For the entire semester, all his weekends would be Professor Snape's private plaything, at his disposal.

This Saturday is the first weekend he fulfills the 'contract'.

John sat bitterly on a small wooden stool in the corner of Snape's studio, staring at the spider web in the corner and dazing.

Snape was standing with his back to him, focused on stirring a pot of potion with strange purple smoke, muttering something in his mouth.

At this time.

"Prepare 20 grams of monkshood powder, and wormwood infusion."

"Ah?"

"Immediately!"

"Oh."

Professor Snape's cold opening made John snap out of his daze, hurriedly stood up and ran to the shelf in the studio, looking for the materials the old man mentioned.

Wormwood infusion found, monkshood also found, but the powder?

Don't tell me I have to grind it now?

He asked carefully: "Professor, does this monkshood need to be ground into powder?"

"If your ears are not broken, the answer to the question should be obvious."

Professor Snape didn't look back, but said very coldly.

"......"

John silently picked up a small knife and cut off a small section of the root.

Then walked to Professor Snape's workbench, took a mortar and pestle, and prepared to start grinding.

Just that Professor Snape saw that small section of root in his hand, looking at him like a fool.

"You think just by relying on this section of root in your hand, you can grind out how much powder? Not even one gram!"

"Ah? No way, this amount is enough for 20 grams."

Hearing Professor Snape's reprimand, John was also stunned, weighing the root in his hand and saying.

Professor Snape closed his eyes, as if enduring great pain.

Halfway through, he took a deep breath, turned around, pulled a book from the shelf, and threw it in front of John.

"Page 96!"

John looked at Professor Snape, then looked at the cover of the book "Guide to Potion Material Preparation".

Opened the book page, found page 96.

It is exactly the correct processing method for monkshood.

After reading for a while, John finally understood that the powder of monkshood is not obtained by directly grinding the root.

But needs to first use a silver knife to scrape the skin of the root, then bake the scraped skin until dry with high heat, and finally grind it into powder.

That is to say, this small section in John's hand, the skin scraped off, is indeed not even one gram.

Professor Snape glanced at him coldly, his tone carrying a trace of coldness: "I remember I once said, for any plant root grinding material, the best is always to take the skin to grind powder."

John's face revealed a trace of embarrassment; the old man seemed to have really said that...

No way, he had to pick a whole monkshood root again, carefully scraping the skin with a silver knife.

Then put it in an iron plate, bake it over the flame, until the skin turned dark brown, emitting a faint bitter fragrance.

After the skin cooled down, John put it into the mortar and pestle, slowly crushing it with a pestle until the powder was as fine as dust.

The powder was finally made, and John put the prepared materials in front of Professor Snape.

Only to see Professor Snape pick up a pinch of powder with his fingers, rub it slightly, smell it at the tip of his nose, and his brows relaxed imperceptibly.

But he didn't say anything, just continued to stare at the cauldron in front of him.

John also had nothing to do again.

However, Professor Snape didn't drive him away, so he simply watched from the side.

But half a day passed and he didn't see Professor Snape's next move, just quietly watching the cauldron that kept bubbling, so he simply studied the book Professor Snape just threw to him.

Time flew by, John was engrossed in reading.

Even Professor Snape had finished brewing the potion and he didn't know.

Until a big hand suddenly pulled the book away.

"I ordered you to come, not to let you come here for a vacation."

Professor Snape coldly closed the book, threw it casually, and the book flew back to the bookshelf.

"Clean up the studio, not allowed to use magic."

"And wipe those jars behind you clean, wear gloves."

"Finally, process all the materials in that box in the corner, put them into these jars behind you, and label them well."

Listening to the orders issued one by one, John paused, then reacted, hurriedly nodding in agreement.

"Yes, sir!"

Professor Snape ignored John's clowning, turned around and walked out of the studio.

John shrugged, didn't say much, and started to execute the orders silently.

First was brushing the jars, then processing the box of materials.

Some were even ones he didn't know.

If it weren't for the detailed labels on the materials, and him taking out a book to compare and identify, it would really be hard to handle.

After finishing, the sky had completely darkened.

Finally, he dragged his exhausted body and cleaned the studio again, tidying up the mess on the floor.

Only then did he complete all of Professor Snape's tasks.

He lay on the floor, really not wanting to move.

At this time, the studio door was pushed open again, Professor Snape walked in, holding a bottle of potion in his hand.

He looked at the jars that were arranged neatly, glanced at John on the floor with disgust, and then placed the green potion on the table.

"Drink it."

After saying that, the old man left again, not even willing to say another word.

John struggled to crawl up from the floor, looked at the potion on the table, the dark green liquid slowly flowing in the bottle, as if trembling slightly with life.

Whatever, drink it.

John poured the potion down in one gulp.

A burning heat spread from his throat to his stomach, followed by his whole body's blood seeming to boil, John couldn't help but gasp.

But strangely, this burning heat didn't bring pain, but made him feel the whole person much lighter, and the fatigue was swept away.

Eh?

That old bat still has some humanistic care.

This should be an energizing potion, right?

Good stuff, I'll secretly learn from the old man another day.

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PS: Chapter 92 was also heavily revised, changed on the evening of September 11th at 8 PM, it won't affect friends who read later. ===== CHAPTER 94 =====