"...What smell is that?"
After walking out of the Potions Classroom and seeing Harry with a somewhat pale face, William hesitated for a moment before finally giving in and asking. However, as soon as the last syllable slipped out, he pushed the Mandrake Leaf, which he had been holding in his mouth for a full 28 days, up against his palate with his tongue—
As long as he opened his mouth to speak, the thing would slip around, completely unavoidable.
"Uh..."
Hearing William's words, Harry involuntarily savored the taste for a moment, even smacking his lips, then shivered uncontrollably... It was terrifying. If possible, no matter the cost, he never wanted to go through that process again in his life—
After he vomited, Snape just stared at him with a calm face. If it weren't for his strong opposition, and eventually dumping out half the cup directly, that old Bat Spirit probably wouldn't have intended to give him a replacement, but even so, the one he swapped still looked no better than muddy water.
As for not drinking it?
Couldn't be done. William had mentioned modifying the potion to him before, but didn't say when, nor that Snape was doing the modification—after all, William had become quite reserved with words by then, having already held the leaf for half a month, fearing a failure might drive him to jump out of the Headmaster's Office in frustration—
Harry, meanwhile, had been somewhat dizzy from a cold lately, combined with Snape's oppressive aura. He didn't recall the matter until he was holding the potion, since honestly, it looked utterly treacherous.
If not for William being there, Harry would definitely think this was Snape's way of trying to kill him.
'Hehehehe, Snape waves his hand, the door slams shut...'
Hiss, how terrifying...
As for the potion's effects... well, Harry couldn't feel them, but unlike the potion William gave him, this one didn't leave him with a "head on fire" aftereffect. In fact, once those liquids entered his stomach, the flames constantly burning atop his head vanished.
But... other than that, there seemed to be no change... except that the potion was so hard to swallow, Harry still had an urge to vomit even now.
Oh, and his stomach kept twitching, feeling like it was protesting madly.
"Sigh..."
William let out a sigh, patting Harry on the shoulder with a look full of helplessness, the meaning clear—alright, if you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to.
How bad was it? It was plain to see!
When he initially heard Dumbledore was entrusting this matter to Snape, he didn't think much of it; it's only now hitting him that the old bat would definitely pull some trick on Harry while carrying out his duties—that type of potion might not be delicious, but certainly shouldn't be that bad.
Making it look that ghostly while preserving its potency... honestly, it was a real burden on Snape.
(Harry: Thanks, ow.)
The reason, as William now understood, was naturally Harry's face, which was the spitting image of his dad James.
William had heard bits and pieces about Snape and Lily's story from Lupin; even though Lupin's knowledge was somewhat sketchy, it was still explosive gossip—shocking! A certain Hogwarts Potions Professor actually admired the Savior's mom?!
That's absolutely mind-blowing...
Of course, it wasn't just William being nosy, but he happened to discover it in Harry's dreams. Then, he started gathering tidbits about Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and with Lupin nearby, he casually asked about it...
Well, truthfully, it was his gossiping. Honestly, who doesn't love juicy tidbits?
As for the shoulder pat for Harry, the comfort contained was clear—after all, Harry still needed to take the potion until he and Dumbledore can figure out the truth behind the revival yet dormancy of Little Tom's soul in his head.
This was probably a lengthy process, and before that happens... how often did Snape say again? Once every two weeks?
Even more frequently than Lupin's transformations, not to mention Lupin's potions now taste like strawberries.
As to whether William should take the potion recipe for improvement—not likely, after all, Snape was good at brewing potions, and they didn't poison anyone, so the taste issue was none of his business.
Why ask for the recipe without reason? Respect individual intellectual property. Even William's reasons for improving the Wolf Poison Potion were because the inventor didn't recommend it and he had quite a few werewolves working under him, many of whom served in the circus, most having pledged loyalty to William, so improving it was only natural.
If Lupin were the only werewolf around, he wouldn't bother with the effort.
The original potion was drinkable after all.
The topic concluded, and thereafter, since Harry was still contemplating the potion, and William was practicing Silent Meditation, neither spoke as they made their way to the hall, where they bumped into a familiar face—
"Hey, seniors, and Harry... Where have you been?"
Hermione, clutching a pile of hefty books, hurried past, seemingly heading to return books to the library—no choice there, since though William had surreptitiously amassed quite a few books from the Hogwarts Library, they paled in comparison to Hogwarts' vast collection.
So, after exhausting William's supplies down to the last spec, Hermione's primary battleground naturally returned to her faithful Hogwarts Library.
No choice, the records about the Seik Crystal dug deeper and deeper, through books spanning months, Hermione only found fragments in a few, while countless others introducing such objects abounded in the library; although many overlapped, there were distinct variations, requiring Hermione to nibble away at them bit by bit.