Chapter 888 Potions Class Teaching of Ghost Dishes

For most students, conspiracy theories are too far away.

After Halloween, Hogwarts quickly returned to normal and fulfilling campus life.

The Headless Horsemen have become the most popular ghosts in the school. These ghost patrols who ride ghost horses to maintain order in the grounds and castles will receive cheers and cheers every time they appear in front of the little wizards. applaud.

On the other hand, the major magic newspapers outside the school will naturally not miss this hot spot.

The wizarding world began to seriously pay attention to and discuss the food at Hogwarts - not just chatting like before, but seriously studying its charm and the magical power it may contain:

Delicious food that even a ghost can taste.

This can arouse people's curiosity more than any verbal expression or exaggerated dynamic picture presentation.

Countless wizards began to try to cook "ghost dishes" in their own homes. From time to time, some people stood up and proudly announced that they had succeeded in imitating the "ghost dishes" in the Hogwarts kitchen, but in the end they were all proven to be rumors.

Just when people became anxious and confused, the current Minister of Magic stood up and responded.

【Ghost dishes? Phased results of Hogwarts teaching reform! 】

"In a brief interview on Tuesday morning, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge showed some of the results of Hogwarts' new curriculum teaching reforms and made a bold prediction about the future pattern of the wizarding world..."

"'Oh yes, ghost dishes are a thing, and it's a great innovation at Hogwarts - but it's not a cooking trick as you might think - it's an outgrowth of the field of Potions. In In the new semester, we have innovatively introduced a number of well-known wizards to teach students better and liberate their academic research capabilities.' Fudge said, he looked particularly proud and proud when facing reporters, 'From now on Judging from the situation, quite gratifying comprehensive results have been achieved in less than two months, and ghost dishes are just one of them. We believe there will be more good news in the future.'"

"'Because we are currently in the education and research pilot stage, we cannot disclose too many details. However, the Ministry of Magic, the International Federation of Wizards, and the Hogwarts School Board are trying more cooperation and exploration, and we expect to be able to sort out a report next year. Send a complete set of methodologies to every magic family so that everyone can equally enjoy the fruits of the new era.'"

"Mr. Minister didn't explain much about the principle of 'ghost dishes', but according to some relevant insiders, it is a special 'potion' that only potion masters can get involved in, even in Hogwarts. Not all potion masters can complete the production 100% smoothly——"

"Hey, tell me, which professors can make this kind of 'ghost dish'?"

Lavender Brown secretly took out the newspaper from under the desk, took a look at it, and asked the classmates around him mysteriously.

The Daily Prophet has at least two or three pages full of news about 'ghost dishes'. In addition to the relevant speeches by the Minister of Magic, there are gatherings and concentrated protests by ghosts from all over the country, and a lot of experts are skeptical about this new thing. For a time, the entire magical world suddenly started a strange craze in discussing potions and cooking.

"I don't know about others, but Professor Snape can definitely do it."

Parvati Patil replied softly while cutting the toad's legs.

"I saw an analysis by a well-known wizard in "Wizard Weekly". This is equivalent to brewing exotic potions. In addition to profound knowledge of potions, it also requires skilled magical cooking techniques... It is difficult for most wizards. Satisfy both of those things at the same time.”

They were in the Potions classroom on the ground floor of Hogwarts.

Professor Snape stood on the podium not far away, explaining the potion knowledge that he was going to learn today.

However, compared to the quiet and restrained class atmosphere of the past few weeks, today's class was obviously much noisier. The students' whispers were like mosquitoes, and they had not stopped since the beginning of today's class.

As the buzzing sound in the classroom became more and more exaggerated, Snape's face finally darkened completely.

"That's enough! Quiet-"

Snape tapped the blackboard with his wand and said coldly.

"I said - be quiet! I don't know what's worth discussing about separating the toad's skin and hamstrings..."

After a slight pause for about half a second, the Potions Professor's eyes wandered around the classroom, and finally fell on Lavender Brown through the thin fog in the classroom, or to be more precise, under her desk. skirt.

"And you, dear Miss Lavender Brown, if you are going to keep your knees under the desk, trying to hold down the newspaper that will help you brew the potion - I suggest you choose a slightly A narrower newspaper - I don't want to see the person in the newspaper lying upside down on your lap looking at me. Ten points, Gryffindor!"

Lavender was startled and her face turned red.

Part of this was due to the embarrassment of being caught red-handed by Professor Snape, and the other part was due to the sadness of causing the college to deduct points... Since the classes were divided this semester, the number of times Snape deducted points in the class There are obviously fewer points. Unless it is a serious operating error or disciplinary violation, Professor Snape will not choose to deduct points.

Of course, in the eyes of some students, they may prefer to have their points deducted.

Thanks to the tips of an unnamed cherub, Severus Snape finally came to the conclusion:

Simply deducting points cannot deepen the memory of the stupid Pipi Shrimps.

Starting from the second half of last year, the students with the worst performance in each potions class have a certain chance of being assigned an equally terrible "dark potion cooking imitation" as a punishment for their poor performance in the class.

However, this does not mean that Professor Snape has forgotten the skill of "point deduction".

According to the rules privately summarized by the students, when the Potions professor starts deducting points, it usually means that he is in a bad mood. If he continues to commit suicide in this situation, there is a high probability that he will get a substantial combination package. ——Point deductions, extra homework, penalties for dark potion cooking, and confinement for cleaning toilets, cleaning, and handling potion raw materials.

"I know what your little little brains are thinking..."

Professor Snape looked up at the whole class, his eyes cold and empty, like two dark tunnels.

"Ghost dishes? New potions? That's right... There is some truth to this statement. Those potion apprentices outside who can't even prepare the refreshing potions have got a lot of things right this time, but these things are different from yours. Miss or sir, it doesn’t matter.”

He did not continue the lecture, but stood on the edge of the podium with his arms folded, like a big black bat with folded wings.

Snape's eyes swept across the classroom coldly, and he whispered with an unkind expression. His voice was just above a whisper, but everyone in the classroom easily heard every word he said.

"This involves controlling the origin of potions, do you understand? It's not a simple potion that can be successfully completed by foolishly chanting a spell or following the step-by-step instructions in your textbook - in fact, most people don't even know the basics. I can’t do this step well. So I don’t want to hear the ghost of someone in my class going to school with something crappy they made.”

As the news of ghost dishes spreads more and more, students have also tried many things in school.

More than one ghost complained to Dumbledore or the deans of various colleges. From time to time, little wizards would come to them with a bunch of strange soup, hoping that they could pass through it to see if it had any taste.

Therefore, Professor Dumbledore specially asked all Potions professors to explain it in their respective classes.

Compared to the other two Potions professors, Professor Snape was obviously the focus of private discussions among the students.

After all, in the last semester, all the students in the school witnessed with their own eyes the skillful cooking skills of the Potions Professor and the coveted mysterious cutting magic. The dishes made by Professor Snape were even better than those in the Hogwarts kitchen. more delicious.

If there were any wizard who qualified as a "potion + cooking" double spirit, people's first reaction would definitely be the dean of Slytherin House.

However, not many students had the courage to ask this question in front of Professor Snape.

The Weasley twins did try it once, shamelessly pestering Professor Snape in the corridor to ask for cooking secrets.

The price was that the two of them were deducted 50 points in a class, and they were also punished to clean the toilet for a week after class. Even if Professor McGonagall came to argue, the points deduction was only half, but the punishment of confinement was still there. Unchanged.

From then on, almost no one dared to be presumptuous in front of Professor Snape.

Apart from……

Just when Professor Snape was about to end the topic and start teaching again, he suddenly frowned.

Harry raised his hands.

Snape's eyes quickly glanced at the white-haired dumpling who was listening attentively. After confirming that the question did not contain any instigation or dangerous elements, Snape narrowed his eyes and looked at the potion sitting next to Draco Malfoy. Little genius.

"Any questions? Mr. Harry Potter—"

"Professor, it is recorded in the textbook that some potions can act on ghosts, so why don't they taste it when the potion works... and... do you know how to prepare 'ghost dishes'?"

Harry said clearly, raising his head and looking at Professor Snape expectantly.

"I should have made it clear just now..."

Snape looked away and waved his hand impatiently.

"Cooking, these are just small skills, whether they are exercises in potions class or daily simulations... These are just a form to assist you in learning potions, not the purpose - including the so-called ghost dishes , it is essentially the transformation after mastering the origin of potions. What you need to think about is how to learn potions, not anything else..."

"But you can do it all, right?"

Harry said nervously, looking at Snape with his dark green eyes, and asked softly, "If some wizards do not form ghosts, but we make extremely delicious 'ghost dishes', will we give them a chance?" return……"

At the Halloween death dinner not long ago, Sirius promised Harry that if he had time during this holiday, he would take Harry to Godric's Hollow to see the Potter family's old house and Harry's parents' house. grave.

If possible, before then, Harry would like to try to learn this ghost dish and put it on his parents' grave.

For a long time, the world of ghosts has been a completely untouchable and unfamiliar territory for wizards.

But with the appearance of ghost dishes, a crack seemed to appear in the barrier between the living and the ghosts. Harry saw similar speculations in many newspapers and magazines - when the 'ghost dishes' develop to a certain stage , or combined with some substances with powerful magical abilities, it may be possible to resurrect the dead.

At least in "The Quibbler", there is an article reviewed by the editor-in-chief that analyzes this:

If you mix some magic stone powder into the 'ghost dishes', it may have a magical effect.

Considering that Nico Flamel, the only owner of the Philosopher's Stone, is at Hogwarts at this time, it is very likely that Hogwarts is conducting some kind of dangerous human experiment. The author of the article even claimed that the Dark Lord did not really disappear, but was imprisoned in the school by Albus Dumbledore, Nico Flamel and others and used as experimental material for research.

Of course, this article was posted in the "Lovegood·Knowing the World" section.

As we all know, this is a completely unreliable, absurd, and ironic political novel story classification, but Harry still sees some hope in it... After all, this is Luna's newspaper, and Luna has always been very good at inspiration. sharp.

"...Unfortunately, no."

Snape looked at Harry deeply, but he was not angry.

After being silent for half a second, he sighed softly - of course he knew what Harry was talking about.

In fact, he tried and asked Dumbledore about this matter at the first time.

If it weren't for this reason, Snape wouldn't have spent his rest time cooperating with the headmaster of Hogwarts to research and perfect the methodological manual for "ghost dishes". These things should have been the job of a certain chef. .

"Forget it, I will give you a simple demonstration and you will understand... The so-called ghost dishes are not very magical. It can neither evoke ghosts nor restore vitality to ghosts - it is just a spiritual phantom."

Snape took out his wand and waved it gently in the air.

"Toad hamstring, this is today's potion ingredient..."

"In conventional potion processing, it symbolizes bounce and explosive power after form transformation... We can extract the corresponding concepts from it. If your mental power is strong enough, you can extract some 'death' from some Some concepts are extracted from the trace materials and given magical effects... and in this aspect..."

"This is a part of tissue taken from a dead toad... This concept is very weak, but it exists."

With a solemn expression, Snape gently moved the wand in his hand, directing the toad leg to fall into the rolling red potion soup in front of him, carefully mobilizing the magic power to give it the concept of "death".

Then, under everyone's gaze, the rolling pot of potion suddenly became quiet and peaceful.

"Do you understand? When you successfully imprint the element of 'death' into a potion, you will at the same time kill the magical power contained in it that can be seen by the living, turning it into a This is a magic that only ghosts can feel..."

"Therefore, it cannot be used as a potion to awaken or inspire ghosts and give them magical effects - the boundary between ghosts and the living has not been broken or changed. We are just using potion knowledge to create things in the other world. That's all. This so-called 'ghost dish' is more of a special failure than an achievement."

"It will consume a lot of magic and mental power, and even cause disaster if you are not careful, but in the end... except for satisfying empty desires, it has no effect on the real world - OK, now put these contents Write it down for the final exam!"

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Great! !