Kapitel 88: Chapter 88
Ethan and Daphne looked at the potion curiously, when the door to the car was once again opened. Theodore was about to hide the potion, when he noticed that it was just Tracey.
She had a large grin as she said, "Potter and Malfoy look like they're about to fight!"
Ethan raised an eyebrow at that, not that the two being in conflict was anything new, but that was confirmation that Dobby had not managed to stop Harry from coming to school. As for Daphne and Theodore, they did not care one bit as Theodore tried to shove Tracey next to Daphne, only to find her body to be like an anvil.
Tracey looked at him smugly, "Maybe you should make a potion that makes you stronger instead of-"
Theodore quickly shushed her by placing his hand in front of her mouth, berating, "Don't spoil it!"
Even with only her eyes visible, it looked obvious to Ethan that she was smiling mischievously. Still, she silently sat down, allowing Theodore to make his little show.
He held the dark green potion like it was the most precious thing in the world, and introduced it, "This, my friends, is my first original potion, the All Nighter Potion!"
Ethan deadpanned at his friend, and Daphne asked exasperated, "You did not make a potion just to sleep even less, did you?"
Theodore scoffed, "Your fragile minds fail to comprehend the true majesty of this potion! I have essentially brewed time into a bottle!"
Propping his head with his hand, Ethan said sluggishly, "You do realize there are like, dozens of potions currently on the market to fight-off sleep. And they all suck."
Ethan knew about them because he had tried to use them in the past. As Theodore said, if they worked properly, then these potions were indeed time in a bottle. The thing was, they did not work properly.
"They don't suck, they just are for different uses. Fending sleep for one night can be useful in certain situations."
"If you have to not only catch up to it, but even sleep some more the day before, then not only have you not earned anytime, you have wasted some. And the research on these potions has always been shady, these potions might have side effects on the long term we do not know of."
The potion business was one of the biggest in the world, everyone needed potions after all, but it was also very similar to the muggle world. After all, be it wizards or muggles, big interests always come with ruthlessness.
Potions were also extremely versatile, and anyone would always have a use for some kind of potion, be it to cure diseases, study better, sleep better, or answer to any of their basic needs or desires.
And for magnates of the potion business, they would always favour quantity, pushing their Potionologists to improve prescriptions to lower the costs while keeping as much of the effect as possible. As for any side effects that may be borne from these changes, they would do everything in their power to hide it.
In the end, wizards are only humans, and share the very same faults.
Theodore tapped the dark green vial, his excitement not hampered in the least as he said, "Yeah, they can't get past it. But I do. This potion," he shook the vial, "actually eliminates the need for sleep for a time. And it does not come back later on. In its current version, it is capable of halving someone's sleep for an entire week!"
Daphne immediately frowned, and swiftly snatched the potion away. She crossed her legs, hiding the vial against the car's wall as she asked, "And your first instinct is to show it to us?"
Theodore's eyes lasted on her legs for a moment, before he said, "Of course not, I checked its effects before."
Daphne clicked her tongue, "Do you have any idea of how dangerous this could be for you if the wrong person learns about this? Best case scenario, your recipe gets stolen. If this ever gets introduced to the market, it will steal the sales of every other similar potions. That'd be painting a target on your back."
Theodore frowned and leaned toward her, and tried to take the potion back. Daphne held onto it however, resulting in the two staring intensely into each other's eyes, nearly close enough for their foreheads to touch. Seeing she was not letting go, Theodore scoffed, "Since when are you an expert? I know what I'm doing!"
Daphne did not back down, "Please, it would be like taking candy from a child."
The two kept staring. Ethan, who was sitting in front of Daphne, had a more unfortunate position though as Theodore's butt was right in his face as he faced Daphne. So, he shoved Theodore aside, and brought the potion to his hands with a silent and wandless levitation charm.
The two narrowed their eyes at him, so he said, "First off, Daphne is right. This is a great discovery if it's true, but you absolutely should be more careful."
Ethan handed over the vial to Theodore, who repeated, "If true?"
He looked like he was offended Ethan even entertained the idea that he would lie about this. Ethan was unmoved as he said slowly, "You are telling me you managed to outdo Potion Masters? You, a mostly self-taught?"
Theodore's potion education only amounted to Hogwarts and self-study, as far as they knew.
Theodore was about to answer, but Ethan shifted his gaze to Tracey, who was still smiling, and added, "And since Tracey knew about it, I'm going to guess she helped you. Tracey, who barely managed to scrape by an Acceptable with our help AND by cheating?"
Tracey crossed her arms, huffing, "You're just jealous of-"
Theodore ruthlessly interrupted, "She still sucks at potions. But she has an astonishingly great grasp of human anatomy. That was where the problem lied all along. Other potions tried pushing sleep away without even ever truly understanding what even caused it. And by fighting the effect instead of the cause, all they unknowingly did was exacerbate the cause. I'll spare you the details-"
"It's a hormone from the brain, isn't it?"
Theodore froze, before clicking his tongue, not quite unlike Daphne earlier, "Partly, yes. Melatonin, if you really must know."
Ethan nodded, "But that's not all part of it. I guess your potion only halves the number of hours of sleep someone needs because it only deals with melatonin, but doesn't address the more spiritual causes of sleepiness."
"That's kind of bastardizing my work."
"But that's kind of true, isn't it?"
Theodore rolled his eyes and put the potion back in his bag, saying, "I was going to share, but since you are being such a smartass, you can do it yourself."
Ethan smiled, "If your All Nighter Potion, which definitely needs to be renamed, is still in its experimental stage, which it most probably is, then there are probably some kinds of side effects. And even if that is not the case, production must be long and costly for now. I'd know, runes are driving me crazy."
Runic Magic was much less expensive than potions, because all Ethan had to technically pay for was magical ink, which was much cheaper than potion ingredients, and Ethan had more than once been forced to stop in the middle of his experimentations because of a lack of funds.
Although his parents definitely had more than enough money to fund these, they had set hard limits onto his budget. Ethan did not complain since he knew they had a purpose for doing this, that is to teach him not to waste, and he also had more funds than any student.
Thinking about this, Ethan decided to add, "Actually, you should probably go to Snape with your discovery. Well, probably Dumbledore first."
Now they were looking at him doubtfully. Understandably so, as even among Slytherins, Snape was hardly known as a helpful figure, and Ethan was also directly contradicting his warning of earlier not to just show the potion to anyone.
He explained his reasoning without having to be asked, "Snape would definitely be able to help you. I highly doubt he would eye your discovery too, not because of the greatness of his soul, but because he genuinely wouldn't care. That's why you maybe should go by Dumbledore first. The old man will definitely want to help if you make the first step to come to him, which should help with Snape. But it's up to you anyway."
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein