Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 525 Alas, Pharmaceutical Capital

Making Hellfire Soup may be difficult, but making Hellfire Soup is somewhat impossible.

First, chop the daffodil roots and grind them into powder together with the moon dew flowers, then add the mugwort infusion.

This step is the simplest, because you just need to keep adding mugwort infusion to the pot until light blue steam comes out.

So most people's first step goes very smoothly. At this point, you just need to wait for it to cook until it reaches the state of a "smooth, brownish-yellow liquid".

Hermione was a step ahead of Cohen, because Cohen wasted a lot of time chatting with Harry at the beginning.

Next, add two dozen pieces of valerian root chips. This is a little difficult for students because it is hard for them to be sure that there are no grains of soil mixed in with the valerian root in the material bottle.

Slightly smarter students will pick out the larger pieces of plant fiber to add.

If this step is also correct, then their potion should turn dark purple.

Then comes the most outrageous step, which the book says is:
Slice four sleep beans and add their juice.

These shriveled beans are inherently difficult to extract juice from, and if they are not cut properly, you can only collect juice from two beans.

Many people get stopped at this point, including Hermione.

"This book says to squeeze with the side of the silver dagger—Cohen, how do you know that?" Harry asked in surprise when he saw what Cohen was doing, just as he was about to say something to Cohen.

Because I've already seen this part, little Harry.

Cohen remained silent, pretending to be a dummy, and after pressing down on his sleep beans, he pushed the silver dagger towards Harry.

After adding the drowsy bean juice, the potion turned a pale lilac color—and soon after, Harry's turned the same.

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked anxiously, scratching her head as she noticed that Cohen and Harry's potion had entered the next stage.

"Squeeze the beans with the side of the silver dagger?" Harry said. "Hermione, would you like to try—"

“The book says ‘cut’,” Hermione said firmly.

“You didn’t chop them finely enough, so there aren’t enough for four beans in the soy milk,” Cohen said. “Chop a few more and add them little by little, then try again.”

Hermione felt that Cohen's statement made some sense—she had actually only collected a few drops of juice from the beans.

Soon, Hermione began to experiment cautiously—and once her potion started to change color, she finally stopped scratching her hair.

The last challenge lies in mixing.

The textbook requires stirring at a rate of one revolution every two seconds until the medicine becomes colorless and odorless.

"It says here to go seven times counter-clockwise, then one time clockwise..." Harry said to Cohen, somewhat habitually, "Cohen, what do you think—"

“I have to criticize the person who wrote this textbook; this lousy textbook needs to be replaced.” Cohen frowned. “If the stirring position is different, it’s useless if the stirring rod takes the same amount of time to complete one revolution.”

"So, should we try this?" Harry said. "He got everything right up to the top—"

“You try yours first, I want to try my own ideas,” Cohen said, but his steps were different from Harry’s—he stirred the crucible along its edge.

Moreover, Cohen deliberately slowed down to observe the rate at which the potion changed color. It was clear that there was an upper limit to how quickly the potion would fade as it was stirred; if the speed was exceeded, its potency would be reduced. When the speed increased to one revolution per second, Cohen could see that some of the magic in the potion was rapidly dissipating, while when the speed was slowed down to one revolution per four seconds, the fading of the potion stopped.

Anyone who truly knows how to make medicine would know the difference, so there's only one possibility why the textbook is so vague about it.

The author of this textbook never intended for everyone to be able to make these medicines.

Otherwise, how would the medicine be sold for money?
Sigh...capital...

Cohen stopped stirring after the potion had completely turned into a liquid like water.

"You're so fast?!" Harry exclaimed in surprise. He was still stirring the medicine seven times clockwise and one time counterclockwise, following the method in his old textbook. It was a little slower, but more stable, and the medicine's effectiveness wouldn't be reduced much by speeding up.

Therefore, his medicine was also fading rapidly.

Hermione's potion wasn't doing so well; it still had some color, and it became increasingly concentrated as she stirred it in the middle of the cauldron, showing no signs of fading.

When Cohen tried to tell her to stay close to the edge and speed up, Slughorn called for a stop.

Of all the students in the class, only Cohen and his group had a slightly better result; the other students' potions all encountered problems in the first few steps.

Cohen's potion had turned into clear water, Harry's into slightly colored clear water, Hermione's into a darker clear water, and Ron's into swill—

"Did you throw up inside?" Cohen asked, sounding somewhat tense.

“No!” Ron immediately explained, “I saw Hermione add eight Sleepy Beans, so I added eight too. Then I saw you used the side of the silver dagger to squeeze it, so I borrowed the silver dagger from Hermione as well—”

"Who told you to copy answers and mix them up..." Cohen sighed.

Slughorn was inspecting their crucibles row by row, offering no comment, only occasionally stirring or smelling them as he passed by.

When he reached the table with Cohen, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, he nodded slightly in approval.

“Too many Sleepy Beans, Mr. Weasley. Miss Granger did a very good job—oh my goodness…” Slughorn exclaimed with delight upon seeing Harry’s cauldron. “You’re just as talented as your mother, Harry! Lily is just as skillful in Potions class, she almost finished it—if…”

Then, Slughorn looked at Cohen's crucible.

He paused, wanting to test whether what was in Cohen's crucible was plain water or the fully brewed potion of living hell.

When he reached in a branch with an orchid attached, it withered rapidly as it was pulled out—

"The undisputed winner!" Slughorn said, grabbing Cohen's hand. "I take back what I said earlier about not expecting you to brew a perfect potion! Cohen brewed it perfectly! Here, the prize is yours—"

Then, Slughorn handed Cohen the bottle of Felix Felicis and winked at him, as if praising Cohen for living up to his name.

The Slytherin table cast longing glances at Malfoy, who was staring eagerly at the bottle of Felix Felicis in Cohen's hand, but when Cohen looked away, Malfoy looked away in fear.

“Snape wouldn’t do that.” After class, Ron looked enviously at Cohen’s pocket. “Slughorn is so nice…”

“I still don’t quite understand,” Hermione said, displeased. “I followed the instructions exactly as written in the book—”

"So the effect you achieved is exactly what the textbook authors wanted you to achieve," Cohen said. "It's hard to explain in detail, because the Ministry of Magic also collects taxes from the potion trade..."

(End of this chapter)