The Prince's Tale

【1】The boring life of a pharmacy apprentice

[…… After adult wizards and wizards have obtained NEWTs certificates of 'good' or above in the five exams of Herbalism, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Protection of Magical Creatures, they will be eligible to apply for the first-time pharmacist qualification exam.Wizards who pass the first pharmacist qualification exam will begin the first two-year apprenticeship in a drugstore or hospital pharmacy to qualify for the second pharmacist qualification exam. ——"Explanation of the European Common Qualification Examination for Wizards and Pharmacists (1971 Edition)"]

"Many people's fate is doomed from birth." A shy country girl will never blend in with the bustling city, and a well-behaved lady will never know what it means to be exhausted for life.

As a 19-year-old me, I am smug about my escape from that sentence—whether the escape is temporary or not.I proudly ground the narcissus root in the mortar over and over again, thinking that Tiffany would not bother me with such trivial matters today.

Today is August [-]th, [-], an ordinary day.Diagon Alley had its usual rain before I woke up, the cobbled pavement was potholed with water, and I had to cast a drying spell on the blanket in front of the drugstore three times before it opened to prevent it from getting wet under the rug. The wooden floors were moldy.

My name is Jane, appended with a surname that doesn't matter now.I and the people around me rarely mention it.In fact, I doubt they even know what my last name is.A year ago, I came to this small pharmacy in Diagon Alley, and started my ordinary and busy pharmacy apprenticeship life. With a meager salary that barely survived, I did manual work that could exhaust three adult wizards.

There are three pharmacies in Diagon Alley, two large and one small.The two big drugstores are under the Prince family name, but I've never seen anyone from his family in the drugstore; this small drugstore belongs to old Mr. Brown.Old Mr. Brown lost his wife in his early years and had no children. He had two clerks under his command——the "drugstore old fritters" Tiffany, who was seven or eight years older than me, and me, who was at the bottom of the pharmacy.

Old Mr. Brown and Tiffany are both licensed pharmacists, but Mr. Brown is too old to do this kind of work that requires high concentration and extremely sensitive hands and feet, so the work of dispensing medicines is usually difficult. Do it by Tiffany.And she shamelessly used that as an excuse to leave all the rest of the chores to me.

I have been squeezed for a year, and I have lost my temper. I can only carry boxes without complaint every day (I am definitely more than enough as a helper for the gamekeeper Hagrid), and write letters to suppliers to urge the goods (last month, I was urging wormwood. just broke three quills), check the herbs in the storage room every day for damp mold or insect bites (Tiffany threatened to deduct my wages at least ten times for this), soliciting customers (which is a The easiest job here) and sort out the medicines that need to be delivered by the transportation company.The pharmacy is open from [-]:[-] am to [-]:[-] pm, but my working hours are from [-]:[-] am to [-]:[-] pm.As a result, I have no time to study for the second pharmacist exam a year later.

When I think about the half-person-high review materials that have already been covered with a layer of dust in the corner of the attic, I feel desperate.

There seemed to be the sound of rain falling outside the window, so I took no surprise, and continued to grind the narcissus roots that had already become fine powder vigorously, as if they were Tiffany who exploited me all day long.When I think about it this way, I feel more motivated.The finely divided powder gradually transformed into Tiffany's indifferent and unchanging face in front of me...

The clock of the Muggle church in the distance struck twice, finally pulling me out of my resentment towards Tiffany.I looked up at my watch and saw it was 08:30.And Tiffany, who has always been here at 08:30, and who has always been strict with herself regardless of the weather, finally left her first stain in the pharmacy on the 390th day after I came to this pharmacy—— Tiffany didn't show up until the pharmacy officially opened at nine o'clock.

And I, from the initial joy and complacency, became dazed and uneasy later.Merlin, if a patient comes to me with a prescription signed by St. Mungo's therapist, do I have to do it myself?In case something goes wrong, am I going to go to Azkaban for a few more years?I was terrified.

The pharmacist qualification examination is divided into three times.Only after passing three qualification examinations can you officially become a pharmacist and dispense medicines to patients in hospitals or pharmacies.It is said that during the third pharmacist exam, the examiner asked us to drink the potion we made.I still don't have the guts to think about how to prepare for this exam.Could it be that today is the beginning of preparing for the exam?

However, our pharmacy has no other advantages, but its location is extremely superior.The good thing about this place is that very few people can find it.Those who can find this pharmacy are basically acquaintances.

When I waved my wand and poured the ground narcissus root powder into the crystal bottle, the wind chime hanging on the door rang.I looked up with a guilty conscience and looked at the people who suddenly appeared at the door, but I didn't realize that the powder had spilled on the table.

Sure enough, they are acquaintances.I came back to my senses and quickly cleaned up the mess on the workbench. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the boy with pale face, greasy hair and dripping coat slowly walking towards the counter.

Severus Snape.

To be honest, I didn't have any dealings with him, let alone any liking or antipathy.But if you really look into it, I still have some connections with him-I didn't just know him in this pharmacy or Hogwarts.

"Welcome, what do you need?" I tidied up and asked with a professional smile on my head.

He didn't answer, and he didn't seem to recognize me.That did make me breathe a sigh of relief.But I still kept a high level of vigilance, smiling and watching his eyes sweep over the bottles and cans behind me, as if he took my smile and the phrase "welcome" as air.

Thinking of this, I feel a little unhappy.While I didn't want him to recognize me for who I was, I didn't want to be taken for granted—especially by such a scruffy, unattractive person.

"Excuse me, what do you need?" I emphasized the tone, and the meaning is not difficult to guess.

But something in my tone seemed to sting him slightly.At this moment, he was like a wounded and sensitive little animal, yet he had to put on a look of indifference to cover up the wound.I saw that his left hand, which was not in his pocket, unconsciously clenched into a fist—I could already roughly guess what was going on, so I felt a little regretful.

His unfathomable black eyes flew past me quickly, and only touched my gaze for a moment before moving away in embarrassment.

"I'm here to buy a demulcent." He said mechanically, and his eyes shifted to a hole in the carpet - it was a time when I accidentally spilled the pus of Babo's tuber and corroded it.

Demulcents...need a pharmacist to make up...a ​​prescription?

"Do you have a prescription from your therapist?" I asked point-blank.The palliative is a prescription drug and cannot be purchased without a prescription.

"No." After a few seconds, he spoke.

"Then please bring the therapist's prescription next time you come over, St. Mungo's is in—"

"I know, but—" He looked up at me, and in those few seconds, I suddenly understood why he was hesitating and what he was hesitating about.

But all wizards who still have a little contact with the magic world will be compulsorily paid for a medical insurance.With this insurance, you can see a doctor for free throughout the UK.There are only two kinds of people who don't need this kind of insurance-either they have a family therapist and don't need to go to St. Mungo's, or they have completely left the wizarding world.

The person who needed the palliative probably fell into the latter category.

Thinking of this, I unconsciously feel a little more sympathy.But I'm careful not to show this emotion called "sympathy."

"It's impossible without a prescription," I sighed, and decided to tell him the whole truth. "Besides, the pharmacist in our pharmacy is not here today. Even if you have a prescription, you can't get the medicine." I said dryly.

"You're not a pharmacist, so you can't dispense medicine?" His eyes flickered.Is it a mockery?

"Yes," I admitted generously, I have now learned to face everything calmly, "this is the rule."

The sarcasm on his face grew stronger.I think, as a Slytherin, he must have disdain for such things as "rules".I still faced his ridicule with a smiling face, but my cheeks gradually became stiff.

"This is the content of the fifth grade." He said contemptuously, his eyes no longer dodged, but it was somewhat condescending.

I shrugged, not minding being looked down upon.

"I haven't been to Hogwarts," I told the lie without changing my face, and I was very happy to see him showing a slightly surprised expression, "You can do it yourself." I turned around with a smile, and quickly walked out of the cabinet. Take out all kinds of medicines.

"Moonstone powder, hellebore syrup, ginger root, belladonna extract, rue, daisy root, goldenseal root..." I finally handed him a paper bag with the Brown's Drugstore logo on it, "two of them Xi Ke has eight nats, you can take it back and make it yourself."

He stared at me for a few more seconds, and didn't seem to see any flaws. "Don't moonstone powder and belladonna also need a medicine list?" he asked coldly.

"Low-dose, low-purity restricted herbal medicines don't need a prescription," I replied fluently, "but high-dose, high-purity non-restricted herbal medicines also need a prescription issued by a therapist."

Seemingly unaware that there was such a rule in the pharmacy, he reached into the depths of the pocket of his battered, ill-fitting overcoat, pulled out a handful of odd coins, counted two Sickles and eight Knuts, and placed them in a glass tray. In the middle, grabbed the paper bag, turned around and rushed out of the pharmacy.Maybe he left too hastily, the wind chimes at the door jingled for a long time.Before I put all the coins into the drawer, his back disappeared under the heavy rain curtain.

I smiled disapprovingly, reached out and took out another five Sickles from my pocket and put them in the drawer.

I just bully him that his arithmetic is not as good as mine, and I have no other intentions.

The author has something to say: First of all, it needs to be explained that the protagonist of this article is not Professor Snape, and the theme of this article is not entirely about love.At the beginning of the conception of this article, I just wanted to write about the ordinary and trivial life of an ordinary girl in the pharmacy in Diagon Alley; then I thought that I could write about Professor Snape from the perspective of a bystander, so I had this title; The protagonist has completely become the heroine, and the theme has thus become a girl's growth process and psychological changes.

The heroine of the Snake Academy is a pure-blood, CP is not a professor, and there is no secret love affair with the professor.I tried hard not to portray the heroine as a Mary Sue, I wanted her to look kinder.She has the shortcomings that everyone may have. She is cowardly, willing to be mediocre, and understands the truth of staying away from right and wrong to protect herself. She has the kindness of ordinary people but doesn't like to cause trouble. She understands things but often complains.She will run away like an ostrich in case of trouble, but she will also stand up bravely to protect the one she loves.

As for the previous pharmacy setting, in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", there is a description of the pharmacy——

"Then they visited a pharmacy, which had a pungent smell of rotten eggs and rotten cabbage leaves. But the pharmacy was magical, with buckets of slimy stuff on the floor and jars of herbs lining the walls. , dried grass roots, and brightly colored powders of all kinds, with bundles of feathers, clusters of fangs, and furry claws hanging from the ceiling. When Hagrid bought a standard dose of various powders from the clerk behind the counter , and Harry was examining a horn of one-horned buffalo worth twenty-one Galleons each, and tiny, black, shiny beetle eyes (five nuts a spoonful)."

This is not consistent with the image of the pharmacy I want to describe.In my imagination, a pharmacy should be clean, warm and bright.This is somewhat different from the original.But one can argue that "Diagon Alley isn't just one pharmacy" or "not all pharmacies are like this", at least it can be justified.