The days of hanging out at Hogwarts

In the secret room, dozens of suitcases were neatly placed around Loren and Snape, suitcases specially used for storing medicinal materials. The inner lids of the suitcases were engraved with simple and rough alchemy circles, and there were many magic blessings on them.

Not long after he came out of the principal's office, Loren was captured by Snape and asked him to help dispose of the basilisk's body and collect and store basilisk materials.

In front of them, a huge basilisk corpse dozens of feet long lay at the foot of the giant statue of Slytherin. Even though it had been dead for a while, its body showed no signs of decay and was as thick as the trunk of an oak tree. Each scale is still shining with a cold green metallic luster.

The snake's head was slightly flattened and triangular in shape, with a fatal penetrating wound extending from the skull to the roof of the mouth. The originally plump yellow eyes were also pecked out by Fox, and liquid flowed out from the wound, leaving two dry eyeballs.

Loren was a little pity. He was very interested in the fatal magic power and petrification magic power in the basilisk's eyes, and even had the idea of ​​appropriating the two kinds of magic power to make weapons.

Now without a steady stream of magic to choose from, the idea seems to be dead.

Observing the basilisk's body at close range, Loren noticed details that he had overlooked before. The basilisk's scales were not smooth. There were two rows of short blunt spines on its back, and the scales on its head also had blunt, thick spines. Come on, numb.

In the middle of the abdomen, about one-fifth of the entire length of the snake's body, large swathes of scales had been removed from the roots and piled next to it. This was Snape's previous achievement.

"The scales of the basilisk are very hard and difficult to cut with ordinary magic spells and knives. I asked you to come over to help dispose of the basilisk corpse to speed up the processing and to test whether your Divine Edge Shadowless Curse has deteriorated." Snee Pu Qing's cold voice echoed in the secret room.

Loren retracted his gaze from looking up at the basilisk's body, glanced at Snape with a slight disdain, and curled his lips. Even if you want to exploit underage student workers, you still find some high-sounding reasons.

"The basilisk's body won't decay. Professor, you can just cut it up bit by bit. After all, the Christmas holiday is still long, right?"

Loren tried to resist. As the inventor of the Shadowless Blade, a professor of potions, and a master-level proficiency in handling materials, Snape took so long to cut so little, and it was just a scale...

If I were to get in, I would probably spend all the time before Christmas in the secret room.

Snape's eyes were unperturbed, and he raised his hands to roll up the cuffs of his robe, as if preparing to start work.

After rolling up his sleeves, he stretched out his hand and gave Loren a slap on the head: "Put away that offensive look and respect your teacher. In addition, there is not so much time to waste. We need people from the Ministry of Magic and the school board." Take care of all these things before school.”

Loren felt pain, covered his head and nodded. He understood that Crabbe's case had been opened for investigation, and the basilisk would soon be exposed in front of the Ministry of Magic and the school board.

Many people would be tempted by a rarity of this level, and if they were to get involved, even if Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall could handle it, there would be a lot of trouble.

Don't naively think that things in the school belong to Hogwarts. Driven by sufficient profits, many pure-blood families can ask for a share of the profits in the name of Slytherin blood.

If we really analyze the marriage between pure blood generations, every family is related to each other. Even within the Weasley family and the Malfoy family, if you count the generations up, you can definitely find relatives.

"If I had known this, I should have gone home during the Christmas vacation." Loren wailed, helplessly following Snape's footsteps and starting to learn how to cut the basilisk's scales.

The scales are stacked one on top of another, and the full scale can only be seen clearly without the previous layer. In a large area in the middle, the scales have been removed, and there is a clear boundary between the black flesh and the green snake scales.

Loren stretched out his hand and pressed the exposed flesh of the basilisk. It was hard and felt like some kind of rough rock.

Snape held a piece of snake scale in his left hand, held the scale upright, then pointed the wand at the connection between the scale and the skin, and whispered: "[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

The invisible blade passed by, and a diamond-shaped scale fell off, with a flat cut surface at the end.

Throwing the scale into the nearest suitcase, Snape started to handle the next scale without even looking at Loren: "Actually, the integrity of the scale can be better ensured by pulling it out, but that still requires It will be more cumbersome to deal with the flesh and blood adhering to the scales."

"[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

Another scale peeled off. Snape raised his eyelids and looked at Loren: "Have you learned it?"

Loren did not answer, but held a scale, pointed his wand at the root of the scale, and said: "[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

A scale was peeled off, but the cut surface was not smooth enough and there were some flaws.

It’s a matter of experience, just try it a few times. Snape ignored this flaw and pointed at the head of the basilisk with a wave of his hand: "You start cutting the scales from that side, and I'll be responsible for the tail with more and denser scales."

Glancing at the basilisk's head, Loren's eyes widened instantly. But remembering what he just said about respecting the teacher, Loren temporarily suppressed the urge to slander Snape...

The ones with more and denser scales mean your work is more troublesome. Obviously, the scales on the tail are more neatly arranged, and the arrangement is more consistent with the stacking pattern, making it easier to handle.

Most of the weird-shaped scales on the head are not stacked together. The scales are weird-shaped and the places where they fit into the skin are messy, which makes it look very troublesome.

Sensing his reluctance, Snape said calmly: "After handling the basilisk body, you can take some materials and choose whatever you want. Do you have any questions?"

"Not at all!" Loren's answer was very simple. The eyes of the basilisk were, of course, the eyes of the basilisk.

After saying that, he chuckled, quickly ran to the head of the basilisk, and looked at the irregularly shaped scales wrapping the head.

The first thing Loren noticed was that the kiss scales at the front, which were commonly known as kiss scales, were different from other strange-shaped scales on the head. The kiss scales were neat and symmetrical, and the basilisk only had one kiss scale on its body.

After thinking about his unskilled handling skills, Loren changed his hands to a scale that was not very good-looking.

The scales and skin on the snake's head have different fitting surfaces and angles. The Shen Feng Shadowless Spell is not difficult. What is difficult is finding the right angle and anticipating the cut in advance.

"[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

"[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

The whistling invisible blade raged in the space of the secret room, cutting off scales one after another. Periorbital scales, peritemporal scales, jaw scales... Slowly, Loren gradually peeled off the entire scales on the basilisk's head.

The proficiency of Shen Feng Shadowless Curse has also increased rapidly, becoming more and more handy. You can cut wherever you want, and enter the knife however you want. The cutting direction, trajectory, retraction and power of the knife mark can all be adjusted and changed in a single thought.

Snape watched Loren's progress from a distance and smiled imperceptibly.

Except for the most difficult part, the head, the scales on the basilisk's trunk were much less difficult. Seeing that Loren's work was on track, Snape began to talk about some knowledge about the basilisk.

"The snake material we commonly use is African tree snake skin... The scales of snake magical animals are mainly divided into three types, smooth, granular and prismatic. The first two are easy to understand. Prismatic scales refer to the scales. In the middle, there is a vertical edge.”

Loren looked at it and saw that the basilisk seemed to have three types of scales. This should be regarded as the special feature of the basilisk.

He was not very interested in these biological knowledge, so he asked instead: "Professor, what are the uses of the various materials on the basilisk?"

"[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

Snape cut off another scale and threw it into the suitcase, "Who knows?"

"ah?"

Snape explained slowly: "The number of basilisks is too rare. After the death of Salazar Slytherin, the detailed basilisk hatching ritual seems to have been lost. After that, the Ministry of Magic strictly prohibited the hatching and breeding of basilisks——"

Loren couldn't help being curious and interrupted: "Professor, didn't you say that the basilisk was a monster born from a toad hatching a rooster's egg?"

Snape gave him a subtle look. Although there were no words to express it, Loren understood that Snape was calling him a fool.

"Loren Morgan -" Snape sung an aria that was almost poetic, "You don't think that this strange 5X-level dangerous magical creature can be cultivated in such a simple way, do you? "

Come on, every time Snape thought he was stupid, he would call him by his full name, or call him Mr. Morgan.

Loren gritted his teeth and nodded... Before that, he had indeed thought so, because the rooster eggs could well explain the reason for the scarcity of basilisks. Rooster eggs are rare, so basilisks are rare.

Snape sneered: "Think about it with your orange juice-filled head, inducing a rooster to lay an egg or inducing a toad to hatch an egg. Which step sounds simple?"

"Choose the right horoscope, choose the right breed of roosters and toads, and feed the two animals with magic potions...Any wizard who knows a little bit about potions knows how harsh these conditions are."

After Snape sneered at Loren, he felt very comfortable and turned to the question of the medicinal value of the basilisk.

"——In the UK, there have been no records of sightings of basilisks for at least four hundred years." Snape snorted coldly and said proudly, "A mature potions master can completely rely on the information contained in the materials. Magic, the properties of the material, analyze its effect by analogy with materials of the same type. If it's unique and different, that's better, that would mean a unique potion."

Loren scratched his head. He might not be a mature potions master yet, so he might not have such awareness.

In the dark secret room, Snape explained how to theoretically analyze the medicinal value of the basilisk.

Until the time before lunch, Snape had been talking about basilisk-related knowledge, including the basilisk hatching ritual speculated by some scholars, placing eggs under the body of the toad on the brightest night of Sirius... Comparing basilisks and chickens Similarities and Differences between Snake-tailed Beasts...

By afternoon, things seemed different.

After finishing lunch, Loren declined Harry and Ron's invitation to have a snowball fight, rested for a while, and then came to the secret room again after eating.

Before Snape arrived, Loren did not wait, climbed onto the basilisk's body, and continued to cut off the basilisk's scales.

Thanks to the talent of spell correction, during the process of harvesting scales, Loren repeatedly released the Divine Edge Shadowless Curse. His current spellcasting is extremely smooth:

"[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

"[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

…

When Snape came in, Loren had already piled up several boxes of scales, even faster than him.

The Shadowless Blade was a curse invented by Snape himself. He was keenly aware of Loren's rapid progress.

At first, Loren observed for a long time and then cast the spell, but it still left flaws.

But now, as soon as Loren raised the scales with his left hand, his right hand was almost instinctive, casting spells without thinking. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the cut scales.

Snape's footsteps stopped in place, staring blankly at Loren's actions of handling the scales, and stayed there for several minutes.

Although Dumbledore didn't say it explicitly, Snape could tell that he wanted to train Loren to be his successor. Whether it is the chief wizard of the Wizengamot or the principal of Hogwarts, he wants to train Loren to be a person with the same role as him.

Do some extremely boring work, pay for the mistakes made by the stupid people in this world, cover up... or so.

Snape completely disagreed with Dumbledore's idea. Loren was talented and was the one chosen by Nico Flamel. Even if no one revealed it, Snape knew that Loren might follow a path similar to that of Nico Flamel.

Nico Flamel had almost reconstructed alchemy, and Snape felt that Loren could also achieve brilliant achievements in potions. This child had talent.

But the scene before him told him that Loren's talent was not limited to potions...

After throwing the newly cut scales into the suitcase, Loren looked up and saw Snape, and said hello happily: "Good afternoon, Professor!"

"Yes." Snape replied softly...forget it, he should have a long life anyway, let him choose for himself.

Snape said nothing and walked to his seat to continue dealing with the basilisk.

In the process of processing the scales, Snape stopped mentioning the medicinal value of the basilisk and started talking about the Potions Club and the school's potions business.

A voice without any emotion sounded in the secret room: "The money from the previous sales of rue essence has gradually arrived, because this is the first time that the school has held such a large amount of funds without the supervision of the school board, and there is no expert sent by the school board. Calculator, Professor McGonagall made some mistakes in handling such a large sum of money."

Professor McGonagall cannot reveal her current financial situation until she is completely financially independent. In the past, the allocation of funds and the purchase of daily necessities for the school's teachers and students were all carried out under the supervision of the school board of directors. There were specialized accountants to manage it. Professor McGonagall only had to give instructions.

Suddenly there was an extra amount of funds that could be used freely. Professor McGonagall lacked relevant experience. During the use process, some details were not handled well. The school board seemed to have found something through the accounts.

"Is it a big problem?" Loren asked.

"It's not too big, and it's not too small. Normally, it can be dealt with. However, if the school board of directors seriously investigates and handles the matter, there may be some trouble." Snape said calmly, "Until the next school year the accounts are settled. Before now, this aspect of business will temporarily stop. It happens that the rue is almost used up, so the Potion Club will suspend its previous activities."

"Is it time to start developing a drug to bring the dead back to life?"

Snape hummed and didn't say much about the arrangements of the Potions Club: "Among this year's graduates, Professor McGonagall is going to select some people and recruit them to act as agents for the school's business. The main content is potions, including the purchase of raw materials. , the refining, development and sales of potions.”

Loren listened while handling the scales. Although he didn't understand why Snape told him this, he still took it to heart.

"...In order not to attract the attention of the school board, until the profit cannot cover all the school's expenses, the sales scope will not be located in the UK, mainly in Africa, the United States, Egypt and other places..."