Time flew by, and soon it was Saturday, the agreed-upon day to learn potion-making with Snape.
After breakfast, Ethan Jones, not knowing what to prepare, knocked on the door of Snape's office carrying only a wand.
The door opened automatically. Snape was sitting in the chair directly facing the door, looking at him without saying a word.
Ethan Jones didn't know why, so he quickly checked his attire. There was nothing wrong, so he started staring back at Snape.
Neither of them looked away. Finally, seeing the corner of Snape's mouth twitching and realizing he was about to lose his temper, Ethan Jones asked timidly, "Professor, say something! You're just looking at me like this; how am I supposed to know what you want to do?"
"Hmph!" Snape, having won the staring contest, snorted coldly and said gloomily, "I heard you gave Hermione and Hagrid each a 'precious' mutated Salamander?"
"Ha, haha, it's like this, Professor. Listen to my excuses—no, listen to my explanation."
He quickly laughed it off, his brain working furiously to think of a reason to suppress Snape's displeasure: "I was wondering why he looked at me a bit strangely yesterday. So it was this; he was waiting to make things difficult for me today."
"Aren't those just consumables for the Professor to use up! Yes, just consumables. I still have a super rare first-generation variant in my hand, twice the size of an ordinary Salamander! Wait a moment, Professor, I'll go get it right away."
He made a gesture to leave, but inwardly he hoped Snape would call him back. He dawdled towards the door, almost opening it, but still hadn't heard Snape call for a stop.
He looked back at the expressionless Snape and had to steel his heart, quickly returning to the dormitory to bring back his beloved Little Black.
Ethan Jones stroked the obedient Little Black pitifully: "Professor, let's not kill this one. I raised it as a pet and have feelings for it.
How about you find a few ordinary Salamanders, and I'll make you a few more variants? I created this one myself."
Snape didn't believe he could do something like mutating a Salamander.
So he reached out directly and snatched the black Salamander.
He examined it carefully in his hand and determined that this one should have stronger potency than the gray one Ethan Jones had sent.
Since he had indeed never seen such a mutated Salamander, he began to believe Ethan Jones's words a little.
"I'll take some blood from this one. I'll prepare Salamanders for you in a while, and I'll watch how you mutate them like this."
Ethan Jones breathed a sigh of relief and nodded quickly in agreement.
Snape took a syringe, drew a tiny bit of blood, nodded with satisfaction, took out a bottle of Essence of Dittany to stop the bleeding for Little Black, and put it into the small fire habitat he had created to accompany Little Gray.
Seeing the Essence of Dittany, Ethan Jones remembered the pot of Dittany he had kept for himself.
Professor Sprout's assignment on the effect of Dittany's growing environment on its growth state had ended long ago. The final conclusion was that there was an effect, but not much, so his pot of Dittany could still be made into usable Essence of Dittany.
He had planned to keep it for use on small animals, but unfortunately, the spells he used for experiments either left no corpse or were curses like Densaugeo (teeth-growing spell) that didn't need Dittany at all, causing his little plan to fall through.
"Professor, what are we learning today?"
"Potion material processing. Let's start with pickling frogs." Snape's smile made Ethan Jones's hair stand on end, but he was more afraid of what he heard.
Shocking! A greasy man in his thirties actually made a young boy do such a thing!
"Pickling frogs!"
Snape's smile was full of malice: "What? Don't want to do it? If you don't want to do it, you don't have to learn."
"I'll do it!" Ethan Jones gritted his teeth. Looking at the bucket full of frogs Snape had produced from somewhere, he suppressed his nausea and picked up the small knife next to him, preparing to stab them to death one by one first.
He had just killed one when he was stopped by Snape.
"Wrong. You can't cut from here; it will destroy the medicinal value of the frog's brain. You have to do it like this."
Saying this, Snape took the knife from his hand, found the position corresponding to the neck from the belly side, cut open the blood vessel with the knife, drained the blood, and threw it into another bucket.
"Did you see clearly?" He picked out the frog Ethan Jones had cut from the head and threw it away.
"I saw clearly."
"Then what are you waiting for! Do it!"
"Yes!"
Ethan Jones caught a slippery frog with one hand, turned it over, listened to the frog's croaking, suppressed its struggle in his hand, and carefully looked for the position of the blood vessel.
At first, his movements were very jerky, often stabbing the wrong place, making the frog in his hand croak louder and struggle more violently.
Gradually, after a few frogs bravely paid with their lives, he became more and more proficient, often killing them with one strike.
Actually, if Snape hadn't asked him questions before he became proficient in this work, one or two fewer cute frogs would have suffered the pain of a lingering death.
"Name several potions that can be made with pickled frogs, and also, the function of frog brains." Snape wore a malicious smile.
"Um... pickled frogs can be used to make the antidote for Amortentia (Love Potion). I don't know the others.
Frog brains are an ingredient in Baruffio's Brain Elixir."
Ethan Jones thought while frantically processing the frogs. He couldn't stop his hands; a big bucket of frogs was waiting for him to bestow death upon them. He didn't want to have intimate contact with these frogs all day.
Snape nodded with some satisfaction: "Barely passed.
Pickled frogs can also be used to make Hate Potions, and in other places, they can be used to make potions that attract snakes.
Frog brains, besides being used in Baruffio's Brain Elixir, are also frequently applied in Draught of Living Death (or Dreamless Sleep context)."
Ethan Jones wanted to write down these knowledge points that were not written in the textbooks immediately, but he was still holding a frog and had no pen or paper. He could only pray that he would still remember them after finishing all the work.
"I need a Pensieve!" This was his strongest wish right now.
For the rest of the morning, Snape was busy with his own affairs—analyzing what extra efficacy the blood of the black Salamander had compared to ordinary blood.
Having finally finished dealing with a bucket of frogs, Snape just glanced at it and said lightly: "Come back in the afternoon to learn how to pickle."
After speaking, he waved his hand, signaling Ethan Jones to leave.
Ethan Jones raised his hands covered in blood and mucus and waved them in front of him.
Snape rolled his eyes and summoned a ball of Aguamenti (clear water) for him to wash his hands clean.
"Thank you, Professor. See you in the afternoon."
Stimulated by the bloody smell all morning, he had no appetite to eat at all. After leaving the office, he hurried back to the dormitory to write down some of the knowledge he had learned in the morning.
After washing up, he rested for a while and went to the dungeon office again to learn how to process the frogs killed in the morning into usable potion materials.
Just like in the morning, he did it first. After making mistakes, Snape demonstrated. Once his movements were correct, Old Snape ignored him and continued his own research, letting him process slowly.
The pickling process in the afternoon was even more disgusting than the morning. He had to cut open the belly, take out the colorful internal organs inside, wash them clean one by one, and soak the frogs in a special solvent.
Ethan Jones retched several times before finally suppressing the acid reflux that kept coming up.
He was somewhat glad he hadn't eaten lunch, or it wouldn't be just acid reflux now.