AWB Chapter 923: Shrinking Pill
Chapter 923: Shrinking Pill
Tuk-tuk-tuk.
"Enter."
Ai Huihara pushed open the door of Snape's office.
Each teacher at Hogwarts has a separate office, just as their classes have separate classrooms.
Snape's office is also in the dungeon, a little deeper than the Potions classroom. The office is as gloomy as his classroom, and the walls are filled with jars containing terrible specimens.
Snape cast his gaze towards the crack in the open door. When he looked down, he saw the figure of Huihara Ai and was obviously a little surprised: "What are you doing here?"
Regardless of what he thought, Snape had always been very harsh towards Gryffindor, and after the potions class just now, it was obvious that he had a very bad impression of Martin from the bottom of his heart, and he also became disgusted with the other two Orientals, even though Huiyuan Ai had a very obvious native London ancestry.
"I have a question." Haibara Ai said coldly. Her voice was not loud, but it was very clear in the dungeon office where it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Snape frowned and said, "I don't have any experience in stewing to teach you. You can go to the kitchen and ask the house elves there."
This is why Haibara Ai did not ask Martin Mawu to accompany her, but instead gave Martin a wink to convey her idea and came to see Snape alone.
In the Potions class, Snape praised Martin's hot pot and called it country stew, which could be said to have triggered one of Martin's few sensitive points. If this matter was brought up again, Huihara Ai felt that Martin would definitely do something to Snape, which would waste her time.
"Please ask me a question." Haibara Ai just repeated it.
Snape exhaled: "You have ten minutes." Dumbledore had instructed all teachers not to refuse to answer academic questions for the Oriental children.
"I saw a potion called Shrinking Potion in the book 'Magic Pharmacy and Potion'..."
Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by an impatient Snape: "Don't be so arrogant, it's a bit early for you to prepare a shrinking potion. It won't be too late to think about it when you are in the third grade."
If a shrinking potion is dropped onto a non-living object, it can make the object smaller. If a person or animal takes the shrinking potion, they will return to their childhood appearance. For example, a frog can turn back into a tadpole.
Obviously, Haibara Ai is very interested in whether the shrinking potion and APTX4869 have anything in common.
Haibara Ai stared at Snape without saying anything.
Well, Snape's rebuttal was useless. Everyone except Ma Wu knew that the exchange student program only lasted for forty days.
"Go on."
Haibara Ai originally wanted to ask more details about the shrinking potion, but seeing Snape's impatient attitude, she could only be more direct.
"The book doesn't mention how to remove the effects of the shrinking potion. I want to know about this."
"The effect of taking three drops of shrinking potion will only last for three to five minutes. You just need to wait for a while before it ends." Snape said: "Even if you take more potions, the increase in this time will become smaller and smaller."
"The introduction to that book says—"
Snape interrupted her again impatiently: "'Every potion has an antidote'! You don't have to remind me, miss."
Veins popped up on Haibara Ai's head.
But then, Snape picked up the quill and papyrus, and quickly wrote a prescription for Huihara Ai: "In the future, I will teach you the theory of potion balance. The antidote needs to contain opposing elements... Put the dew collected on the second day after the full moon into a copper crucible, heat it with the smallest flame until the water surface is slightly silvery, then add three drops of swelling vine juice, stir clockwise for seven times, and you can observe that the liquid turns light green. Add two milliliters of peppermint essence and five drops of Flobberworm mucus in turn, stir counterclockwise for three times, and the liquid will turn milky white and emit a cool fragrance. At this time, sprinkle two grams of moonstone powder and add a day orchid petal. You can see that the petal will dissolve into golden threads. At this time, increase the flame and continue stirring until the liquid turns light gold. After turning off the heat and letting it stand for 3 minutes, the potion will eventually solidify into an amber gel."
"Drink one-fifth of the amount of antidote corresponding to the amount of shrinking potion you drank. If you have been in the shrunk state for a long time, deduct the remaining potion effect to calculate it yourself."
Haibara Ai's original plan was to study the principles of the shrinking potion and the shrinking antidote after getting the antidote formula to find inspiration for developing the APTX antidote. But Snape's attitude made her unhappy, so she continued to ask, "What if there is another potion whose shrinking effect lasts forever? How do you deduce its antidote?"
"Don't be so whimsical, miss. Apart from deadly poisons, there is no potion with permanent effects." Snape said angrily. He now felt that this was just a whimsical little girl who came to talk to him about "fairy tales", wasting the antidote he had just carefully designed and derived.
"I want to know where I can learn about deducing the antidote." Huiyuan Ai couldn't just tell him that she had taken such a 'permanent shrinking potion', so she asked directly and bluntly: "Can you recommend me some books in the library, or let me audit the senior courses?"
Snape was very annoyed. If you say that Huibara Ai was just daydreaming, she sounded very pragmatic; if you say that she was serious, Snape felt that she was making trouble.
"There is no shortcut! First you have to memorize all the potions and herbs. At least make these two potions for me to see!" Snape finally sent the guest away with a donkey face.
"Thank you, professor." Haibara Ai maintained basic politeness, picked up the papyrus on the table with the antidote to the shrinking potion written on it, folded it and put it into the pocket of the wizard's black robe.
However, when she reached into her pocket, her fingertips touched an unfamiliar bottle. She didn't remember having such a thing in her pocket, so she took it out and checked it on the spot.
It was a glass medicine bottle. She had many identical medicine bottles in the basement laboratory of Dr. Agasa's house...it looked like they were taken from her laboratory.
There were two red and white capsules in the glass bottle. Most of the antidotes made by Huiyuan Ai were blue and white, so this was obviously not her temporary antidote. What's more, the capsules were printed with black miniature letters "APTX-4869", as if to prevent someone from not recognizing its identity.
After leaving the Black Organization, Haibara Ai has never synthesized APTX again. It is obvious that the drug was put into her pocket by someone else.
Looks like someone is holding a grudge against Snape for promoting his hot pot.
Huihara Ai placed the glass bottle on Snape's desk: "This is the 'shrinking potion' with permanent effect. If you don't believe it, you can try it."
Seriously? Snape calmed down and picked up the glass jar to look at the contents: "Oriental potion...?"
Ai Huihara thought Snape was an old antique like other pure-blood wizards, and said casually: "Yes, this is a pill."
"This is obviously a capsule." Snape was a half-blood wizard who grew up in the Muggle world, so he could still recognize the capsule.
"Keep up with the times. This makes it easier to swallow." Even after being exposed, Haibara Ai still said calmly. This is the time when the thickness of one's skin is tested.
"what is inside?"
"There are many purified substances, such as sodium 2-hydroxypropane-1-tricarboxylate dihydrate, 2-dinaphthyl-3-dioxolane-3-ethoxymethyl acetal... and growth hormone extracted from humans and its analogues." Haibara Ai couldn't remember all the information about APTX: "The known ingredients in the antidote are some aromatic hydrocarbons extracted from white dry wine, such as 5-tris(1-methoxyphenyl)-1-di(2-thienyl)-4-azacyclopentene..." Knowing that Snape would definitely not understand this time, Haibara Ai turned around and left after she finished speaking.
Just act cool and run.
But after leaving the office, her conscience made her retreat and remind her: "Some people have experienced permanent shrinkage after using this drug, and some people have died after taking it. Please decide carefully whether to try it."
After saying that, she really left this time and hurried to the Charms classroom for class.
Before Huiyuan Ai said this, Snape was thinking, "Only a fool would eat something of unknown origin."
After Huiyuan pleaded with him to be cautious, Snape thought to himself, "Do you think I dare not eat it?"
Of course, Snape was not stupid enough to eat it directly. He took out one of the capsules and opened it, observing the dark red powder inside. He then cast various inspection spells on it, extracted a little sample with a copper spoon, burned it on the fire, and threw it into the unicorn's tears to observe the color of the bubbles.
...After a series of inspections, Snape didn't think that the capsule contained any ingredients that could kill him, but he also didn't think it could have the effect of a shrinking potion.
He fed the remaining powder to a mouse, but was surprised to find that the adult mouse shrank into the state of a baby mouse after a spasm.
Is it really possible?
He had already believed what Haibara Ai said, but now the only thing on his mind was the new potion, which he had no idea about.
The remaining one cannot be used for experiments. You have to eat it yourself to experience how it works.
So Snape took the capsule and the shrunken baby mouse and walked directly to the office door. He was going to find the Hogwarts veterinarian, no, the school doctor, Madam Pomfrey, to make sure that if anything happened to him after taking the pill, someone could save him.
But do you really want to eat it?
Standing in front of the door, Snape hesitated.
Doing so is undoubtedly risky, because judging from the questions that Haibara Ai asked, it is clear that there is no antidote for this medicine now.
But I can't analyze the composition and mechanism of action of this pill, so I have no idea how to design an antidote. The best way is to try the effect of this medicine myself.
Should I ask Huihara Ai again if she has more pills? Or should I learn more about this medicine first?
Should I go and ask her for advice humbly?
Or maybe just forget it. Now is a turbulent time. Why don't we wait until the matter of the Philosopher's Stone is settled before researching the pill?
All kinds of thoughts came and went in Snape's mind, and he paced back and forth in front of his office door, holding the red and white capsule in his right hand in front of him, looking at it and unable to make up his mind.
Bang! Suddenly, the office door behind him was pushed open, and the door panel suddenly opened and hit Snape's head.
"Professor, I'm back." Neville's voice came in.
Neville, the troublemaker, was sprayed with the wrong potion due to an operational error in the Potions class, causing scabies to grow all over the places where the potion was contaminated. He was sent to the school hospital by Snape for treatment.
After being cured, Neville ran back to Snape to be scolded and to hear how many points he would be deducted.
Neville looked down and found Professor Snape lying on the ground, covering his mouth and coughing.
"Professor, are you okay?"
"Cough... cough, ugh-ugh! Cough cough cough!" Snape tried hard to spit out the capsule stuck in his throat, but the capsule slid into his stomach instead.
"Five points from Gryffindor!"
Snape's angry voice echoed in the dungeon, and then his body suddenly spasmed violently, and he covered his heart and cried out in pain.
Neville: It's a scam!
……
"Severus, it's been an hour, and you still don't feel like changing back?"
Now sitting in Madam Pomfrey's ward was a handsome boy who looked less than twenty years old, with a gloomy face. He was wearing an unreasonable loose robe, as funny as Ron at the start-of-term banquet.
"Not at all." The young version of Snape looked down at his hands. Even the erosion marks left by years of potion experiments on his hands had disappeared.
In fact, half an hour ago, he made the antidote for the shrinking potion according to the prescription written for Haibara Ai and took some of it.
But obviously, his condition did not match the state of using the shrinking potion. Instead, it was equivalent to taking the antidote without any problem. As a result, his whole body was swollen. It was still Madam Pomfrey who cured him. However, the strong medicine Madam Pomfrey prescribed made his stomach hurt until now.
"You look exactly the same as you did when you just graduated." Madam Pomfrey asked him worriedly, "If it is true that the oriental child who gave you the pill said that the effect of this potion is permanent, then how are you going to attend classes?"
"There are many ways." Snape was not worried about it at the moment.
He had already thought about it. He could prepare an "aging potion" with the opposite effect of the shrinking potion before class and take an amount that would allow him to last a little longer during the class.
There's a Potions class for third years this afternoon, so I'll go back to the office and prepare an aging potion.
However, twenty minutes later, after taking a test tube of aging potion, Snape stood in front of a mirror. Seeing his still immature self in the mirror, he began to realize that the problem was far more serious than he thought.
Five milliliters of the aging potion was supposed to make one's appearance age one year, and Snape drank a whole test tube of the potion, which theoretically would return him to his original appearance, except that he would also grow a thick beard that needed to be cleaned.
But now there is nothing, and a test tube of aging medicine has the same effect as a bottle of ordinary spring water.
If the aging potion can't make me "age", then it means that the real key to the pill is not some permanent shrinkage at all! (End of this chapter)