Hogwarts starts with stealing power.

Lin Xia had indeed tried making truth serum.

Sometimes experiments require the use of truth serum, not on humans, but on other organisms, to observe how strong the neurotransmission of the truth serum is.

She also made a few bottles, which are currently gathering dust in a corner of the seamless retractable ring.

Hogwarts is very safe; you can hardly catch any spies all year round, and even if you notice anything unusual, you will hand it over to the professor.

These professors are all very intelligent, and Lin Xia dared not use torture on those unusual individuals, lest she be discovered.

Ahead, Snape's indifferent voice came, as if he were reciting from a script, showing no sign of how precious or important this formula was.

Even the basic formula of Truth Fluid is a controlled substance in the magical world.

The truth serum made from the basic formula lacks complete efficacy. It may occasionally work, but it is mostly used to prepare for adding complete steps later.

Even so, many wizards still flocked to it.

Wizards cannot obtain the complete core recipe, as this type of knowledge is strictly controlled, but the basic recipe for Truth Potion circulates on the black market.

Snape was able to apply to the school to allow students to make the basic formula for Veritaserum, which means that it is also possible to obtain the basic formula at Hogwarts, and the difficulty is not too great.

If it were a very large school, Snape wouldn't have been able to apply for it so easily, and students wouldn't even have to sign a confidentiality agreement.

"The core ingredient in the basic formula is an unknown plant extract that can inhibit higher cognitive functions of the cerebral cortex and weaken the complex brain activities required for lying, such as memory reorganization and creativity, causing people to reveal the truth unconsciously."

Snape walked around the students, speaking slowly and deliberately, word by word.

When he walked up to Neville and the others, he suddenly stopped, his dark eyes fixed on them, and he quickly explained the simplified production process.

"What you need to do is pre-treat the materials, collect dew on a full moon night, let it stand for 14 days to receive moonlight catalysis, and the moon dew has a half-month maturation period."

The second step is low-temperature simmering. Dew is heated over a low flame (blue flame) in a silver crucible, and dragon nerve powder is slowly added while stirring clockwise until the potion turns a transparent blue.

After Snape finished speaking, he turned away.

His cold voice echoed in the quiet room.

"All you need to do are these two steps. Don't worry about the other steps for now. Once you've mastered these two steps, then you can move on to the next step."

Hermione frowned slightly upon hearing this and involuntarily raised her hands high.

Snape glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, a look of disgust flashing across his face, before turning to look at Hermione.

“Miss Granger, you’d better have something important to tell me, rather than making me answer pointless questions.”

The other students have no complaints, so why are you the only one with so many opinions? I think you need to reflect on this.

After arrogantly uttering those words, he nodded and said, "State your question."

Hermione stood up, looked at the professor without fear, and said, "Professor Snape, I have seen the recipe for Truth Potion, and I remember it was not made like this at all."

You skipped the second step of magic fusion and jumped straight to low-temperature simmering.

Snape said coldly, "It seems Granger is going to show off her vast knowledge again. She even knows the formula for Truth Potion, which is hard to come by."

Hermione frowned. "Professor, that's not what I meant. I just think your steps are wrong. If we follow those two steps, we won't be able to complete the basic formula for Truth Potion. It's an ineffective procedure."

Snape raised his head and said arrogantly, "I've said before that the Truth Potion works because of some unknown magical plant extract."

I know the name of this plant, but I can't tell you. Even if I did, you wouldn't be able to find it, and it's best if you don't know right now.

I can't even tell you the name of this magical plant, which shows how precious this extract is. Do you think either I or the school would allow you to practice with such precious materials?

Ron shook his head instinctively.

Even if Hogwarts is very generous to its students, it is not a charity, and the school cannot allow students to waste such precious materials.

Moreover, Truth Potion is a high-level magic potion.

They were only third-year students and had neither the ability nor the relevant experience to handle advanced potions.

Giving them so many precious materials to practice with is a real waste.

Those who don't know the situation might think that Hogwarts controls countless farms that grow the raw materials for Truth Potion.

Snape said coldly, "So, I'm just letting you familiarize yourselves with the basic recipe and processing methods. Only after you can make no mistakes in the initial steps will you proceed with the subsequent processing."

He paused deliberately at this point, and surprisingly, used a seductive tone to say:
"If you do an excellent job, you may be able to obtain the real formula and complete production method of the truth serum later. What I have taught you is only the most basic configuration. If you want more, you will have to fight for it yourselves."

After the introduction, Snape surprisingly led the students out of the gloomy potions basement and outside.

He asked everyone to learn how to collect moon dew.

"Many people misunderstand moonlit dew, thinking that it should be collected at night. But in fact, the dew is collected in the early morning and left to stand on the windowsill for 14 days. It will mature under the catalysis of moonlight, which means that the transformation is complete."

"The difficulty in collecting moonlit dew lies not in the transformation process, but in the collection of the dew."

It has very strict requirements for the dew in the early morning; it must be collected between 6 and 7 a.m. If the time is missed, the dew will be invalid.

At the same time, the technique must be correct. If even one drop of dew is collected incorrectly, all the moonlit dew you collected will be invalid. Every single drop of dew must be collected correctly…

outdoor.

Students like Lin Xia and Draco, who already knew the formula for Truth Potion, were collecting moonlit dew using the correct methods.

The other students were still listening intently as Snape explained the technique.

But Snape's teaching style was never to teach stupid people; he spoke quickly and demonstrated his actions very quickly.

When Snape demonstrated it three times and asked the students to try it out, everyone was still confused.

This time, Snape didn't sulk; instead, he looked at the outstanding students like Lin Xia and asked them to assist in teaching.

Draco was about to agree when Lin Xia said, "Professor, how many Academy Points will you give us if we provide assistance?"

Snape's lips twitched slightly, and his cheeks looked somewhat distorted, as if to say:

It's an honor for you to have me teach you, yet you're actually trying to bargain with me and ask for extra points!
After a moment of silence, Lin Xia asked again, "Professor, how many college points will you give us?"

Snape said irritably, "Hufflepuff gets ten points, and Gryffindor gets ten points too!"

Lin Xia shook her head: "Professor, that's too little."

Snape stared intently at her. "Lin Xia, you are a student, and I am your professor." Lin Xia smiled slightly. "Professor, I didn't mean to question you. I just think that as a teaching assistant, I deserve more points, like 30 points. What do you think?"

Mikel, as if struck by a sudden thought, chimed in, "Yes, Professor, at least 30 points!"

Although he had never made a truth serum, he had relevant experience in making one, which was transferred to him along with his talent.

This resulted in him having a good talent for potions and a strong theoretical knowledge of Truth Potion.

Besides, he's an excellent student, so he definitely needs to join the teaching assistant team so he won't fall behind.

In the ensuing silence, Snape's forehead veins throbbed, and all the young wizards fell silent in fear.

They all thought that the professor would unleash a furious roar in the next second.

"Hufflepuff +30 points! Gryffindor +30 points!"

The young wizards were all stunned, a look of confusion flashing across their eyes.

"This……"

Some of the young wizards couldn't help but rub their ears. They hadn't misheard, had they? Professor Snape hadn't said deducting points, but adding them?

At this moment, Lin Xia and the others, who had heard about the bonus points, stood up and demonstrated their excellent teaching assistant skills, dividing the young wizards into groups and teaching them how to collect moon dew.

This group of people often did this in Hagrid's Conservation of Magical Creatures class, and they had also helped out in the Herbalism class before, so the professor had a lot of praise for them.

This has given them a lot of experience in mentoring young wizards, and they know how to get things started as quickly as possible.

Under the organization of Lin Xia and others, the students, who were like lost lambs, finally found their way and nestled into the warm embrace of the teaching assistants.

With guidance from the outstanding students, the young wizards quickly got the hang of it and collected materials in a very professional manner.

This made Snape's expression much better, and he didn't feel so bad about losing the extra house points.

When the potions class ended, the young wizard was a little dazed.

"Pinch my cheek. Are we really in Potions class, or Herbalism class?"

"Yes, this is my first potions class outdoors. Professor Snape actually taught us how to collect potions himself, and he even demonstrated it three times!"
Good heavens! I've been taking his potions classes for so long, and I don't think I've ever seen him demonstrate it himself. He always just reads out a whole paragraph and then makes us make them ourselves!

"What I find most incredible is that he actually gave Hufflepuff and Gryffindor extra points, not just one or two, but a whopping thirty points! That's unprecedented!"

As everyone knows, Professor Snape was extremely stingy with bonus points.

Apart from Slytherin, students from other houses generally do not receive any bonus points from him, and even if they do, it is only one or two points.

A full thirty minutes, which changed their impression.

Not to mention the group of young wizards were in a daze, even Lin Xia and the others who received bonus points were a bit dazed, except for Lin Xia who looked calm.

Hermione and Mikel were surprised that adding points was so easy, and that Professor Snape would actually compromise!

They were still discussing this as they walked to the lab.

Hermione felt that Snape's sudden boost in points probably meant there was a bigger conspiracy behind it.

Ron actually guessed, "Do you think Professor Snape suddenly had a change of heart and realized he hadn't given us enough points before, so this time he agreed to Lin Xia's request and directly added 30 points?"

Draco's lips twitched, and he turned to Harry, asking, "Do you believe me?"

Harry shook his head decisively.

As Snape's primary target, he had no belief that Snape would ever have a change of heart.

Draco looked at Lin Xia again and couldn't help but ask, "Did you discover something?"

Lin Xia glanced at the corridor, where people were coming and going, and many students were running around, including some Hufflepuff students.

The second floor has a kitchen and also a passageway to the Hufflepuff common room, where many students gather.

She quickened her pace and arrived at the laboratory in no time.

Only after entering the laboratory and closing the door did she reveal her guess.

"Snape must have had a lot of tasks to make Truth Potion, which he felt he couldn't do or would find very difficult, so he decided to pass those tasks on to his students."

He teaches his students basic recipes and incomplete production processes, which doesn't cross the school's lines and also reduces his own stress.

Hermione frowned: "But the process he described is wrong. He omitted the potion-making steps. The unknown magical plant extracts must first be ground and mixed with dragon nerve powder in a 1:1 ratio, and then simmered together at a low temperature."

"He didn't integrate it beforehand, he just had us collect moon dew and boil it at low temperature, which won't work."

Lin Xia shook her head: "Hermione, don't be so absolute."

"Professor Snape is not only our Potions Professor, but also an extremely outstanding Potions Master."

His research on potions is extremely profound; he doesn't necessarily have to follow the recipes and steps given by his predecessors like we do.

With his exceptional potion-making skills, he should have long ago tried to create his own unique potion-making methods, and even discovered some loopholes in old recipes, knowing how to extract ingredients to make the potions more effective.

When we do research, we often find that the publicly disclosed methods for extracting certain potions have extremely low extraction efficiency.

Even we had this feeling, let alone Snape? I think he must have figured out a way to add that unknown magical plant extract in a later step.

Upon hearing this, the other young wizards suddenly understood.

If so, it makes sense.

As expected, the professor's promise of a complete recipe and production process turned out to be nothing but a pipe dream.

Ron muttered, "I wonder what he's going to do with all that Truth Serum. It's strange that Professor McGonagall would let him do it."

Lin Xia's eyes darkened slightly.

Hogwarts keeps a close eye on its students' learning, and the curriculum is rarely adjusted significantly. The teaching plan for the following year is usually determined a year in advance.

Snape's change of the course content was approved by the school, which shows that there must be a severe shortage of truth serum somewhere.

Could the fact that Hogwarts would cooperate so readily suggest a connection to the world of evil gods?

Lin Xia shook her head and said, "Don't worry about it. It's not something we can control. Let's discuss the research we'll be doing this semester." (End of Chapter)