For most students, conspiracy theories are too far away.
After Halloween, Hogwarts quickly returned to normal and fulfilling campus life.
The Headless Horsemen have become the most popular ghosts in the school. These ghost patrols who ride ghost horses to maintain order in the grounds and castles will receive cheers and cheers every time they appear in front of the little wizards.
applaud.
On the other hand, the major magic newspapers and periodicals outside the school will naturally not miss this hot spot.
The wizarding world began to seriously pay attention to and discuss the food of Hogwarts, not as a casual chat like before, but to seriously study its charm and the magical power that may be contained in it:
Delicious food that even a ghost can taste.
This can arouse people's curiosity more than any verbal expression or exaggerated dynamic picture presentation.
Countless wizards began to try to cook "ghost dishes" in their own homes. From time to time, some people stood up and proudly announced that they had successfully imitated and cracked the secret of the "ghost dishes" in the Hogwarts kitchen. However, in the end, they were all proven to be rumors.
And just when people became anxious and confused, the current Minister of Magic stood up and responded.
[Ghost dishes? A phased achievement of Hogwarts teaching reform!]
"In a brief interview on Tuesday morning, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge showed some of the results of Hogwarts' new curriculum teaching reform, and made a bold prediction about the future pattern of the wizarding world..."
"'Oh yes, ghost dishes are a thing and it's a great innovation at Hogwarts. But it's not a cooking skill as you might think. It's a spin-off of the field of Potions. In the new term,
We have innovatively introduced many well-known wizards, on the one hand to teach students better, and on the other hand to liberate their academic research capabilities.' Fudge said, he looked particularly proud and proud when facing reporters, 'Judging from the current situation
, we have achieved quite gratifying comprehensive results in less than two months, and ghost dishes are just one of them. We believe there will be more good news in the future.'"
"'Because we are currently in the education and research pilot stage, we cannot disclose too many details. However, the Ministry of Magic, the International Federation of Wizards, and the Hogwarts School Board are trying more cooperation and exploration. We expect to sort out a series of plans next year.
Send a complete set of methodology to every magic family so that everyone can equally enjoy the results of the new era.'"
"Mr. Minister didn't explain much about the principle of 'ghost dishes', but according to some relevant insiders, it is a special 'potion' that only potions masters can get involved with, even in Hogwarts.
Not all potion masters can complete the production 100% smoothly."
"Hey, tell me, which professors can make this kind of 'ghost dish'?"
Lavender Brown secretly took out the newspaper from under the desk, took a look at it, and asked the classmates around him mysteriously.
The Daily Prophet has at least two or three pages full of news about 'ghost dishes'. In addition to relevant speeches by the Minister of Magic, there are gatherings of ghosts from all over the country, concentrated protests, and a lot of experts' opinions on this new thing.
As a result, the whole magical world suddenly started a strange craze in discussing potions and cooking.
"I don't know about others, but Professor Snape can definitely do it."
Parvati Patil answered in a low voice while cutting the toad's legs.
"I saw an analysis by a well-known wizard in "Wizard Weekly". This is equivalent to brewing exotic potions. In addition to profound knowledge of potions, it also requires skilled magical cooking techniques... It is difficult for most wizards.
Satisfy both of these things at the same time.”
They were in the Potions classroom on the ground floor of Hogwarts.
Professor Snape stood on the podium not far away, explaining the potion knowledge that he was going to learn today.
However, compared to the quiet and restrained class atmosphere of the past few weeks, today's class is obviously much noisier. The students' whispers are like mosquitoes, and they have not stopped since the beginning of today's class.
As the buzzing sound in the classroom became more and more exaggerated, Snape's face finally darkened completely.
"Enough! Quiet"
Snape tapped the blackboard with his wand and said coldly.
"I said be quiet! I don't know what's worth discussing about separating the toad's epidermis and hamstrings..."
After a slight pause for about half a second, the Potions Professor's eyes wandered around the classroom, and finally fell on Lavender Brown through the thin fog in the classroom, or to be more precise, under her desk.
skirt.
"And you, dear Miss Lavender Brown, if you are going to keep pushing your knees under the desk in an attempt to hold down the newspaper that will help you brew the potion, I suggest you choose a slightly narrower one.
I don’t want to see the person in the newspaper lying upside down on your lap looking at me. Ten points, Gryffindor!”
Lavender was startled and her face turned red.
Part of this was due to the embarrassment of being caught red-handed by Professor Snape, and the other part was due to the sadness of causing the college to deduct points... Since the classes were divided this semester, the number of times Snape deducted points in the class
There are obviously fewer points. Unless it is a serious operational error or disciplinary violation, Professor Snape will not choose to deduct points.
Of course, in the eyes of some students, they may prefer to have their points deducted.
Thanks to the tips of an unnamed cherub, Severus Snape finally came to the conclusion:
Simply deducting points cannot deepen the memory of the stupid Pipi shrimps.
Starting from the second half of last year, the students with the worst performance in each potions class have a certain chance of being assigned an equally terrible "dark potion cooking imitation" as a punishment for their poor performance in the class.
However, this does not mean that Professor Snape has forgotten the skill of "point deduction".
According to the rules privately summarized by the students, when the Potions professor starts deducting points, it usually means that he is in a bad mood. If he continues to commit suicide in this situation, there is a high probability that he will get a substantial combination package.
Deductions, additional homework, penalties for dark potion cooking, and confinement for cleaning toilets, cleaning, and handling potion raw materials.
"I know what your little little brains are thinking..."
Professor Snape looked up at the class, his eyes cold and empty, like two dark tunnels.
"Ghost dishes? New potions? That's right... There is some truth to this statement. Those potion apprentices outside who can't even prepare the refreshing potions have got a lot of things right this time, but these things are not consistent with you.
Miss, sir, it doesn't matter."
He did not continue the lecture, but stood on the edge of the podium with his arms folded, like a big black bat with folded wings.
Snape's eyes swept across the classroom coldly, and he spoke softly with an unkind expression. His voice was only slightly higher than a whisper, but everyone in the classroom easily heard every word he said.
"This involves controlling the origin of potions, understand? It's not a simple potion that can be successfully completed by foolishly chanting a spell or following the step-by-step instructions in your textbook. In fact, most people don't even know the most basic of this.
Not a single step was done well. So I don’t want to hear the ghost of someone in my class going to school with something crappy they made.”
As the news of ghost dishes spreads more and more, students have also tried many things in school.
More than one ghost complained to Dumbledore or the deans of various colleges. From time to time, little wizards would come to them with a bunch of strange soup, hoping that they would pass through it to see if it had any taste.
Therefore, Professor Dumbledore specially asked all Potions professors to explain it in their respective classes.
Compared to the other two Potions professors, Professor Snape was obviously the focus of private discussions among the students.
After all, in the last semester, all the students in the school witnessed with their own eyes the skillful cooking skills of the Potions Professor and the coveted mysterious cutting magic. The dishes made by Professor Snape were even better than those in the Hogwarts kitchen.
more delicious.
If there is a wizard who meets the requirements of "potions + cooking", people's first reaction will definitely be the headmaster of Slytherin House.
However, not many students had the courage to ask this question in front of Professor Snape.
The Weasley twins did try it once, shamelessly pestering Professor Snape in the corridor to ask for cooking secrets.
The price was that the two of them were deducted 50 points in a class, and were also punished to clean the toilet for a week after class. Even if Professor McGonagall came to argue, the deduction was only half of the points, but the punishment of confinement was still the same.
Unchanged.
From then on, almost no one dared to be presumptuous in front of Professor Snape.
Apart from……
Just when Professor Snape was about to end this topic and start teaching again, he suddenly frowned.
Harry raised his hands.
Snape's eyes quickly glanced at the white-haired dumpling who was listening attentively. After confirming that there was no instigation or danger in the question, he narrowed his eyes and looked at the potion sitting next to Draco Malfoy.
Little genius.
"Any questions? Mr. Harry Potter"
"Professor, it is recorded in the textbook that some potions can act on ghosts, so why don't they taste it when the potion works... and... do you know how to prepare 'ghost dishes'?"
Harry said in a clear voice, raising his head and looking at Professor Snape expectantly.
"I should have made it clear just now..."
Snape looked away and waved his hand impatiently.
"Cooking, these are just small skills, whether they are drills in potions class or daily simulations... These are just a form of assisting you in learning potions. They are not intended to include the so-called ghost dishes.
Essentially, it is the transformation after mastering the origin of potions. What you need to think about is how to learn potions, not anything else..."
"But you can do all this, right?"
Harry said nervously, looking at Snape with dark green eyes, and asked softly, "If some wizards do not form ghosts, but we make extremely delicious 'ghost dishes', will we give them a chance?"
return……"
At the Halloween death dinner not long ago, Sirius promised Harry that if he had time during this holiday, he would take Harry to Godric's Hollow to see the Potters' old house and Harry's parents' house.
grave.
If possible, before then, Harry would like to try to learn this ghost dish and put it on his parents' grave.
For a long time, the world of ghosts has been a completely unfamiliar realm for wizards.
But with the appearance of ghost dishes, a crack seemed to appear in the barrier between the living and ghosts. Harry saw similar speculations in many newspapers and magazines. When the 'ghost dishes' developed to a certain stage, another
Or combined with some substances with powerful magical abilities, the dead may be resurrected.
At least in "The Quibbler", there is an article reviewed by the editor-in-chief that analyzes it this way:
If you mix some magic stone powder into the 'ghost dishes', it may have a magical effect.
Considering that Nico Flamel, the only owner of the Philosopher's Stone, is at Hogwarts at this time, it is very likely that Hogwarts is conducting some kind of dangerous human experiments. The author of the article even claims that the Dark Lord has not really disappeared.
, but was imprisoned in the school by Albus Dumbledore, Nico Flamel and others and used as experimental material for research.
Of course, this article was posted in the "Lovegood·Knowing the World" section.
As we all know, this is a completely unreliable, absurd, and ironic political story classification, but Harry still sees some hope in it... After all, this is Luna's newspaper, and Luna has always been very good at inspiration.
.
"...Unfortunately, no."
Snape looked at Harry deeply, but he was not angry.
After being silent for half a second, he sighed softly. Of course he knew what Harry was talking about.
In fact, he tried and asked Dumbledore about this matter at the first opportunity.
If it weren't for this reason, Snape wouldn't have spent his rest time cooperating with the headmaster of Hogwarts to study and perfect the methodological manual for "ghost dishes". These things should have been the job of a certain chef.
.
"Forget it, I will give you a simple demonstration and you will understand... The so-called ghost dishes are not very magical. It can neither evoke ghosts nor restore the vitality of ghosts. It is just a spiritual phantom."
Snape took out his wand and waved it gently in the air.
"Toad hamstring, this is today's potion ingredient..."
"In conventional potion processing, it symbolizes bounce and explosive power after form transformation... We can extract the corresponding concepts from it. If your mental power is strong enough, you can extract some 'death' from some
Some concepts are extracted from the trace materials and given magical effects... and in this aspect..."
"This is a part of tissue taken from a dead toad... This concept is very weak, but it exists."
With a solemn expression, Snape gently moved the wand in his hand, directing the toad leg to fall into the tumbling red potion soup in front of him, carefully mobilizing the magic power to give it the concept of "death".
Immediately afterwards, under everyone's gaze, the rolling pot of potion suddenly became quiet and relaxed.
"Do you understand? When you successfully imprint the element of 'death' into a potion, you will at the same time kill the magical power contained in it that can be seen by the living, turning it into a
This is a magic that only ghosts can feel..."
"Therefore, it cannot be used as a potion to awaken or inspire ghosts and give them magical effects... The boundaries between ghosts and the living have not been broken or changed. We are just using the knowledge of potions to create things other than the world on the other side.