Chương 84: Chapter 84
Hermione looked up at Alex before answering his question, "Is it because they affect the body, mind and soul? I mean, the killer curse expels the soul out of the body, the imperius puts the mind under control and the cruciatus curse inflicts unbearable physical pain."
Alex shook his head again, "Nope. There are a few other spells that effect the soul, the body and the mind too. Why are these three banned specifically?"
She thought for a while but gave up after a few seconds, "I don't think I know the answer."
"Mhmm, alright. The answer is something I arrived at recently and even that was thanks to a lot of practice, experimenting and luck. I'm not going to give you the answer directly but I'll give you a task through which, you should be able to come to the conclusion. Talk to the top duellers in the leaderboards and that should be enough."
Hermione and Neville nodded while Alex pointed his wand at the wooden doll a few meters away and said, "incendio…"
A large burst of flames erupted from his wand and flew towards the wooden doll, burning it to crisp in just a few seconds.
"This is also an extremely destructive spell but it isn't as widely used as the bombarda for duelling purposes but it surely used for utilitarian purposes such as starting a fire if they don't know how to conjure an eternal fire or to burn a few things that they don't need around. Once you figure out the answer, you will understand why these spells aren't used for duels.
Now that you already have a task for duels and since we won't be continuing on duels for now, let's start potions. Professor Snape is one of the most knowledgeable professors in Hogwarts so try to learn as much as you can from his classes. I'll simply be assisting you in strengthening your foundations."
Two large cauldrons appeared in front of the two Gryffindors and a small stove emerged out of the ground like wet clay which moulded itself into the desired object. The cauldrons gently sat on the stove while the fire began to burn and Alex pointed his wand at the mouth of one of the cauldrons.
"Aguamenti.", he said, quickly filling one and moving on to the other and doing the same.
A box filled with magical ingredients appeared just like the cauldrons were gently lowed until they sat beside the stoves. Alex took out two parchments and began to write and stopped after a few minutes, seemingly satisfied with his work.
He gave both of them their parchments before conjuring a comfy chair and sitting down, "These are recipes to make different potions and your task for the next month is to brew the potion written in your parchments. You cannot stop until you can identify which potion you are making and until you make the perfect potion.
I'll provide you with the ingredients so you don't have to worry about that. I wish you all the best and I'll see you next week."
A second after he finished talking, he was gone and the other two read the contents in their respective parchments. Hermione's was filled with a lot of text and relatively smaller handwriting compared to Neville's.
"Um… this seems way harder and complicated if we compare this to the stuff professor Snape teaches us."
Hermione nodded in response, but was frowning as she read the text again and again, frustrated. She had never heard of such a potion and nor did she ever read about it. She gave up trying to figure out what it was and began to follow the steps like Neville.
It didn't take too long for Neville's potion to turn dark violet and spew out smoke as he continued to mess things up. They were about to leave the room when the cauldron emptied up in a fraction of a second and all the smoke was sucked into the fire which turned violet for a second before turning back to its normal bright orangish red.
Hermione was glad that she didn't have to abandon her potion midway and continued while Neville started the process again after noting down the mistake he had done.
Time passed surprisingly quickly and before Hermione could finish the final step, a ringing sound was heard. They checked the time and saw that it was already six but Hermione refused to go out until she finished her work.
Neville left her alone in the room and tapped his ring with his wand twice and was out. Hermione continued and it took her another hour to do the last step of getting the right consistency.
Thick gooey substance sat inside the cauldron while she turned off the flames before the final ingredient which looked like charcoal but was extremely cold. According to the instructions, she ground it into a fine powder before measuring the exact amount and sprinkled it into the cauldron.
She stirred it clockwise five times and anti-clockwise twelve times. It took her twenty cycles to notice a change in the consistency. The thick gooey substance was getting easier to stir and the change gave her a boost of energy as she continued stirring.
A few more minutes passed and the substance inside began to glow while it had thinned down to a water like consistency. She felt her shoulders hurt but continued to stir for a few more minutes until the glow intensified and the white colour changed to being emerald like.
She stopped when that happened as that was the end of the potion making process according to the contents written on the parchment but the moment she stopped, the entire contents in the cauldron vanished exactly like it had happened to Neville's.
She stared at the empty cauldron for a few seconds and read the contents on the parchment a few times before sighing lightly, "Maybe I made a mistake at some point and now I'm unable to find what I did wrong…"
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