Hogwarts starts with stealing power.

Seeing the twins tidying up the equipment on the lab table, putting all the materials back in their place, and about to wash the equipment, Lin Xia spoke up:
"This is a public laboratory. No visitors are coming in recently, so it can temporarily serve as your laboratory. You can put your experimental equipment in the places you usually use."

The twins' eyes lit up.

They also planned to apply to Lin Xia for a period of time to use the public laboratory to bring an idea that had come to mind to life.

They had a feeling that the newly made potion would be more effective than the previous [Potion of Wisdom].

Hermione looked up at Lin Xia.

She thought Lin Xia would directly tell the twins to try to find an interesting research topic at the school, become outstanding students, and apply to the school for their own private laboratory.

The twins' classroom was in a different direction from Lin Xia's and the others'; they parted ways at a fork in the road on the second floor.

Lin Xia caught Hermione's questioning look out of the corner of her eye, instantly understood her thoughts, and couldn't help but smile.

"The bait should be added slowly and gradually, not in such a hurry. Throwing it out too hastily will only make the fish wary."

The afternoon class was Potions.

However, Snape did not teach everyone new potions at the beginning, but instead let the young wizards make the potions they had learned in the previous semester.

He gave the wizard a cold look and said, "I will grade your potion-making in this class, and the score will be included in your final exam grade for this semester as a supplementary assessment."

The young wizards were shocked and let out a wail, all feeling that this was unfair.

Why don't other people's Potions classes have their potions checked on the first day of school?

"Other potions professors don't need to do this, so why do we?"

"This is so unfair to us. We can't use magic at all during the holidays, and we don't have any experimental equipment at home. Who would repeat experiments over and over again during the holidays?"

Snape ignored the students' groans and sneered, "You only learned three potions last semester. I've taught you so many times that even a fool would have memorized every step."

If you forget all the knowledge you learned in just one month of vacation, it means you didn't study properly at all.

The further you study potions, the more profound the knowledge you encounter, and any step could lead to injury. Forgetting to add a single ingredient or misperceiving a single action could cost you your life.

He paused, then slowly and deliberately said, "I'm just picking out the idiots in advance, making sure those who need to retake the exam do so, and those who need to cram do so, so you don't die without even knowing how."

Snape was unusually patient in explaining things today.

In the past, he wouldn't have said a single word of nonsense and would have gone straight to the exam.

He noticed that Ron, who used to howl the loudest, was sitting calmly in his seat, looking quite confident.

Snape saw the students beside him, all of whom were outstanding students like Lin Xia.

He scoffed. If they thought they could get away with it by relying on the help of top students, that would be too easy.

Snape said, "This time, you're not allowed to form fixed teams for the exam. Everyone is to be scattered."

He waved his wand, and a blue magical screen appeared in front of the young wizard.

The list contained the names of all the young wizards in the class. At first, it was a bit chaotic, but it soon became orderly and well-organized.

Snape pushed his wand forward, and the list was divided into dozens of parts, falling into the hands of each wizard.

Some of the young wizards were hoping to get through the challenge with the help of their companions and were thinking about how to get high-achieving students to team up with them.

But the release of this list immediately shattered the hopes of the other young wizards.

"Who is Ke Jia? I've never heard of him before."

"I'm actually teamed up with Tony! Wow, I remember he almost failed his potions test!"

"Stop talking. I'm still with Neville. I'm just glad he's not a burden to me. How can he help me?"

The young wizards were grumbling, but Snape remained expressionless and coldly said:

"You have 10 minutes to prepare. The test will officially begin after 10 minutes. If you still can't find your teammates by then, you will fail."

The young wizards had to bow to reality and found their respective members.

Ron was also assigned to a classmate he didn't know very well, named Graeme Brick.

He remembered that he hadn't had much interaction with him and hadn't exchanged many words with him.

Although Hogwarts brings together students from different houses in one classroom, the interaction between students is mostly limited to their assigned groups.

Members outside the group rarely interact with each other, and they have even less opportunity to speak in class.

In the Muggle world, some group leaders can communicate with the entire group by collecting homework, but in Hogwarts, there are no such group leaders.

Brick saw Ron and his expression turned somewhat unpleasant.

He remembered that Ron was a poor student, just like him.

Last semester, Hogwarts did not publish each student's grades at the end of the semester; instead, the grades were sent to the students' parents in envelopes.

Therefore, apart from their parents, students do not know each other's grades.

Of course, there are also some students who have excellent exam results and immediately start making a fuss about it as soon as the results are released, as if they want the whole world to know.

In addition, some students perform very well and are always praised by professors.

These students will undoubtedly get A's in the final exam.

Ron didn't care about Brick's attitude; as long as it didn't bother or disturb him, he could do whatever he wanted.

He said businesslike, "I plan to make an antidote for the love potion. Compared to the coma flower potion, which requires the use of biological blood, I prefer pure plant extracts. What about you?"

Brick was somewhat surprised that Ron actually remembered the potion he had learned about last semester.

His reminder brought it to his mind.

He was quite meticulous when making the Coma Flower potion and was more skilled at processing biological materials, always feeling that those plant extracts would make his hands dirty.

However, he only remembered a few key steps in making the Coma Flower Potion, and he couldn't even remember all the materials needed to make the potion.

He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Then let's make an antidote for the love potion. We're a team, so we only need to make one potion. But I don't remember the steps for making the antidote very clearly. What about you?"

Ron was already selecting the equipment and materials needed for the experiment, saying casually:

"Then you'll stay by my side and assist me. Do whatever I tell you to do. Don't take matters into your own hands if there are no materials you're not asked to handle."

Brick said, "Okay."

But he was actually a little uneasy and didn't think Ron was reliable.

But the teams were already assigned, and he couldn't muster the courage to ask Snape to change his teammates. Meanwhile, Ron had already figured out the key steps and ingredients needed to make the antidote for the love potion.

All of this was brought to him by the knowledge-based puzzle games in the potions course.

To allow young wizards to learn more immersively, the professor upgraded the knowledge puzzle game.

Once in learning mode, the mini-game can project things into real life. In the case of learning about potions, it will project many raw materials and experimental equipment.

Although these projections were fake, the professor made them very realistic.

Students must strictly follow the course in the book and complete it step by step in order to get a "pass" rating in the potion knowledge puzzle game.

The professor in charge of assessing this course once said: "This kind of judgment is ultimately too rigid. Students must make the potion according to the conventional method in order for the game to be judged as successful."

In real life, some students with exceptional potion-making talent might be able to skip steps or modify raw materials to achieve their potion-making goals.

However, thanks to the help of projection, although only conventional judgments can be made, students can become familiar with the properties of various materials, reducing the material loss rate during actual production.

Especially when making advanced potions, few wizards can modify the steps; they must follow the established procedures. If the steps can be projected through a knowledge-based puzzle game, the success rate of making advanced potions actually increases.

Because this method is beneficial for advanced potions, the school ultimately adopted it.

Ron learned the entire third-grade Potions course through a knowledge-based puzzle game. Whether it was reviewing or previewing, he mastered all the key points of the third-grade Potions course.

The reason he chose the antidote for the love potion was because it was the antidote that caused him the most mistakes when he was studying.

Because he made so many mistakes, he repeatedly tried to make it, which made him remember the process of making the antidote very well.

"Peppermint infusion, moonstone powder, mistletoe berries, the berries need to be soaked for 24 hours before pressing..." Ron selected the ingredients and quickly finished choosing them.

He thought picking the mistletoe berries would be a bit of a hassle, but it turned out Snape had already prepared them.

This made Ron somewhat suspicious that this lesson wasn't Snape's spur-of-the-moment idea; he probably intended to give the students a tough start in the very first Potions class.

Brick felt a little relieved when he saw that Ron had quickly selected the ingredients.

Human emotions are contagious.

Brick felt that Ron exuded confidence, composure, and ease from the inside out.

He wondered if his memory was wrong, and if Ron was actually a good student instead of a bad one.

But that doesn't make sense; he hadn't heard any other students mention that Ron had a great talent for potions.

On the other side, the other young wizards who had formed the team gradually accepted the reality after their initial panic and hurriedly made potions with dejected expressions.

At this moment, the prepared wizards and the unprepared wizards were clearly distinguishable.

Prepared wizards have already selected most of the ingredients and started making the product, while unprepared wizards can't even remember the ingredients.

Fortunately, some of the young wizards were quick-witted and, for some reason, were holding last semester's potions textbook.

After writing down all the ingredients and steps for making the potion he wanted to create, the young wizard donated the textbook.

But there were too many little wizards who needed help, so someone said, "Hurry up and write down the steps, otherwise it will take a long time to read and memorize them one by one."

Harry's partner this time is a young wizard with poor grades. He seems very anxious and is in line to look at the textbook.

Even if Harry were the savior, it couldn't soothe his restless heart.

After all, everyone knows that Snape dislikes Harry the most and often criticizes him, using all sorts of excuses to deduct points from Gryffindor's grades.

Harry had intended for him to handle the materials, but seeing many people still diligently copying books, he said:

"Why don't you use Transfiguration? You could just find a leaf and transform it into this textbook."

Harry spoke while waving his wand.

A moment later, an identical magic textbook appeared before everyone. The other young wizards stared in disbelief, never having imagined that they could use Transfiguration.

Other young wizards also tried to use the Transfiguration spell by waving their wands. They thought it would be difficult, but it turned out to be surprisingly simple.

It is more difficult to give inanimate objects the state of living things.

Transforming an inanimate object into another inanimate object is merely a simple transformation.

Harry actually wanted to suggest using the Copy Charm on the textbook, but remembering the chaos that followed last semester's use, he immediately shut up.

In Charms class, some young wizards couldn't control their magic output and accidentally created hundreds of balloons, almost filling the entire classroom. The young wizards would have to step on one every few steps.

This is Potions class, after all. What if we piss Snape off?
At the same moment, the young wizard who was teamed up with Neville stared at Neville in shock, his mouth agape for a long time.

Neville created the Coma Flower Potion, which is used to treat narcolepsy caused by attacks from magical creatures.

For example, some wizards fell into a deep sleep after being stung by a Bowtruckle.

In addition, they raised Billywig bugs last semester. If someone is accidentally stung by a Billywig bug, their brain will feel dizzy and disoriented. They can take a potion of the Coma Flower to relieve the symptoms.

However, if the condition is too severe, simply taking medication is not enough.

While processing the raw materials, Nawei muttered the experimental procedures.

"The salamander blood and unicorn tail hair need to be added in layers, separated by Sichuan pepper powder..."

His teammate suddenly realized, "Ah, I'll handle this!"

Neville seemed startled, his shoulders twitching.

He was bewildered for a while before looking at his teammate: "What were you just saying?"

The teammate repeated, "Shall I handle the salamander blood and unicorn tail hair you just mentioned? Do we need to add them in layers, with Sichuan peppercorn powder in between?"

Neville: "Yes, but you don't need to do anything. I'll handle it. This kind of handling is very difficult. If you're not careful, the whole experiment will be ruined and we'll have to start over. I don't want to waste time."

He spoke with utmost sincerity, leaving his teammates speechless.

"Then what should I do? I can't just do nothing, can I?"

Neville pointed to a cauldron that was boiling. “You keep an eye on it. I need the liquid from it after it has boiled for ten minutes.”

Teammate: "Okay."

He stared intently at the crucible, his face serious and focused.

However, this teammate probably didn't expect that the Coma Flower potion didn't require this step at all. It was just a step that Neville randomly pointed out, just to keep his teammate quiet.

He was used to either making potions himself or assisting Lin Xia under her direction; he wasn't used to giving orders and having others do things, as it made his mind overthink and become a jumbled mess. (End of Chapter)