Chapter 72: Too Much is As Bad As Too Little
In the middle of the night, Ethan woke suddenly, lying in bed. He thought about why he had failed.
Not caring what time it was or whether his roommates might be awakened, he quickly got up, set up the cauldron in the corner of the dormitory, and began brewing the potion.
The low flame flickered, casting shadows across his face.
The previous steps went smoothly, and Ethan relaxed. When it was time to add the horned slugs stained with rat spleen juice, his heart suddenly lurched, pounding against his ribs.
"Success or failure depends on this!" He gritted his teeth and threw the chopped horned slugs into the pot.
He stirred a few times, waiting for the normal reaction as he noticed the impurities.
Then, he took out his wand, pointed it at the cauldron, and recited the spell softly.
For this step, he stared at the cauldron in front of him with full concentration, watching the rat spleen juice that had mixed in begin to dissolve and precipitate out bit by bit.
"Stop!" Seeing that the impurities had almost completely precipitated out, he quickly stopped casting the spell and used Specialis Revelio to analyze the composition of the cauldron.
Confirming and separating bit by bit like this, he finally confirmed that all impurities were separated and poured them into a small test tube.
Following the normal steps, after the potion turned green, he took the cauldron down, added porcupine quills, and continued simmering. Finally, a pot of green Cure for Boils was successfully brewed.
"Damn, finally succeeded!" Ethan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
The reason for his first four failures was that he'd been too heavy-handed. Afraid the impurities hadn't been removed cleanly enough, he'd filtered out some of the effective ingredients along with the impurities during the final stage.
"Too much is as bad as too little. I'd filtered out the good stuff, throwing off the entire ratio. No wonder it failed!"
He lay there thinking it over for a while, then ladled out the potion, extinguished the flame, and drifted back to sleep.
What he didn't notice was that Draco had woken up and was watching him from behind his curtains the whole time. Eventually, he drifted off to sleep, but Ethan's technique kept running through his mind, and a wave of jealousy washed over him.
"My talent in potions isn't bad either, and my relationship with Snape should be closer anyway. Why does he get to be the professor's apprentice? I'm not convinced!" He tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep no matter what.
The next day, when Ethan got up to go to Hagrid's hut for spell practice, Draco also got up and knocked on the door of Snape's office.
Snape, who opened the door, was still expressionless. He didn't show any more warmth just because Draco was the son of an old friend.
"What are you doing here, Draco?" Snape said in his usual low voice.
Although he had thought it through last night, when he actually faced Snape at this moment, Draco was somewhat nervous.
He swallowed hard before stammering out his purpose: "Professor, I... I also want to learn potion knowledge from you."
Snape stared into his eyes with his pitch-black gaze. After a long moment, he said slowly: "Oh, really?"
"Then let me ask you, what potions can be brewed with pickled frogs? What potions can frog brains be used in?" Snape asked the exact same questions he had once asked Ethan.
Draco stammered for a long time but couldn't answer any of them.
Snape's sneer lingered on his face. Because Draco was the son of an old friend, he didn't want to speak so harshly. He just looked at him with a sneer, hoping he would back down in the face of difficulty.
But Draco, filled with jealousy, didn't think it was his fault. He believed that even Ethan hadn't known the answers before studying with Snape.
So, blinded by jealousy, he questioned loudly: "Professor, did Ethan know the answers when you asked these questions?! This is not within the scope of our first-year study at all!"
Snape criticized unceremoniously: "Is that so, Draco? I'm very disappointed in you. Your father Lucius is such a shrewd person. I didn't expect you to be so stupid."
"Let me tell you something. These are the very same questions I asked Ethan on the first day he came to study with me.
His answers weren't perfect at the time either, but he could recite several answers from the advanced potions textbook.
So, Draco, before you came to me and said you wanted to learn potions with me, did you make any preparations?
You know in your heart whether you really like potion brewing."
Snape's words pierced Draco's heart like sharp needles.
His face was pale, and he was still unconvinced in his heart.
Looking up, he met Snape's gray eyes, hoping he would speak and say that it was all a joke just now, all fake.
But this was just his fantasy. The cold reality was that Snape ignored his gaze and didn't send him away, just letting him stand there while busying himself.
Despondent, Draco staggered out of Snape's office, leaned his back against the wall, slid down weakly, covered his face with his hands, and tears couldn't stop flowing out.
"Wuwuwu." Soft sobbing sounded in the corridor.
"Hehehe, look, a first-year brat crying here!" With a poof, a little dwarf suddenly popped out of the air.
Draco was in no mood to care about Peeves at this time, continuing to sob softly.
"Bang!" An apple hit Draco on the head.
Draco, his eyes slightly red and bloodshot, raised his head and glared at Peeves through tear-stained eyes.
"The brat is angry! So fun!"
More apples came flying at Draco in response.
"I'm going to tell the Bloody Baron!" Draco threatened through his pain.
"Go tell him! Nyeh nyeh nyeh." Peeves stuck his tongue out at Draco before vanishing into thin air.
Draco touched his head, feeling several bumps, then shot a resentful look toward Snape's office. He wiped the tears from his face and headed toward the common room.
At noon, Ethan finished practicing spells and agreed with Hermione to skip the afternoon library self-study, planning to return to the dormitory to continue brewing potions.
When he came back, he found something was wrong with Draco.
Ethan looked at the bloodshot streaks in Draco's eyes that hadn't quite faded. "What's wrong? Have you been crying? Did someone bully you?"
"No, blocked by Peeves in the corridor." His voice was somewhat low, concealing the jealousy in his heart.
"Just shout Bloody Baron when you see Peeves; he's most afraid of the Baron." Ethan himself wasn't afraid of Peeves. For some reason, this prank spirit in the castle turned and ran whenever he saw him.
So except for the beginning of school when it played a prank on Hermione, Ethan basically hadn't confronted Peeves head-on.
"Mm."
Ethan gave Draco a strange look, feeling he was a bit weird today, but didn't take it to heart. He was anxious to continue trying Snape's Separation Charm and had no mind to care about Draco's thoughts.
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