As December approaches, snowfall becomes more frequent in Scotland.
Hogwarts Castle and the surrounding forests were covered with snow, and a thick layer of ice had re-frozen on the surface of the Black Lake surrounding the castle. A new round of ice skating craze had started by the lake. Albert went there once and met the ice skating killer Katrina. Miss McDougal still hadn't given up the idea of learning ice skating.
Maybe it was because she had very poor talent or some other reason, but the smart Katrina just couldn’t learn to skate.
However, Albert was not too worried about encountering the skating killer while skating, because he rarely went back to the Black Lake to skate, and most of his free time, Albert and several roommates had been looking for winter specialties in the woods around the school - snow mushrooms.
Snow mushroom, also known as cedar mushroom, is a type of mushroom that only appears in the snowy winter. It is rare, tastes good, and has high medicinal value.
Of course, this thing is not easy to preserve. Once it leaves the cold snow, it will easily deteriorate and rot. Usually, after picking snow mushrooms, they must be processed as soon as possible.
Of course, you can also make it into a delicacy directly. Roasted snow mushrooms are quite delicious and leave you with an endless aftertaste.
Last year, Albert sliced and roasted the snow mushrooms he dug up, which almost made several of his roommates heartbroken.
In pharmacies, snow mushrooms are considered extremely precious medicinal materials, but that does not mean they can just sell the dug snow mushrooms at a high price.
Although it may sound cruel to say this, the pharmacy in Diagon Alley will not accept unprocessed snow mushrooms. Even if they have been processed, the merchant will not want to buy them if he finds out that you are not a potion expert.
Processing snow mushroom is a technical job. The wrong method will directly lead to the decline in the quality of snow mushroom powder and seriously affect the effect of the manufactured medicine.
The black market is a sales channel, and if Mundungus helps to sell it on the black market, he will definitely make a small profit. However, in Albert's view, this approach is a losing business.
During the circulation of goods, middlemen are always the most blood-sucking link, especially when selling on the black market.
Albert was not willing to suffer a big loss, not to mention that it was stupid to sell magic raw materials directly. If he could process the raw materials into finished products, he could make greater profits.
"Store the snow mushroom powder first." Albert put the freshly picked snow mushrooms into a wooden box filled with snow, and mentioned the matter to his roommates again: "I don't agree with selling the raw materials directly. That is definitely the most unprofitable business. If you want to sell your share of snow mushroom powder, I can help you contact Mundungus and ask him about the price of purchasing snow mushroom powder. However, don't expect to get many galleons from Mundungus."
The four of them were busy in the woods for half an hour and only found five snow mushrooms.
Of course, the main reason is that after being collected by several people, the number of snow mushrooms that can be found outside the forbidden forest is rapidly decreasing.
Albert did not agree to venture into the forbidden forest, so they all stayed on the periphery.
However, the four of them were not just simply looking for snow mushrooms. Albert also took the time to draw a map of the forbidden forest and roughly marked the locations of the snow mushrooms on the map, which would make it easier and more efficient to pick snow mushrooms next year.
Fred and George were very conflicted when they heard Albert's proposal. According to Albert, even if they sold the snow mushroom powder processed by Albert, they might not get many Galleons. At least the Galleons they should have received would be reduced by 50% to 80%. The black market price was indeed very expensive, but that was the price that black market merchants used to cheat customers. Unless they were willing to go to the black market to sell in person and find customers who were in urgent need of the snow mushroom powder, they would only be ripped off.
Albert never liked to be ripped off, he preferred to rip off other people's wallets, so he did not agree with selling at low prices.
Fred and George were both in a state of hesitation. In their opinion, as long as they could sell a few Galleons, their hard work in finding snow mushrooms would be worth it. But they also understood that Albert's mind and thinking knew better what to do and how to make a lot of money than them.
Another reason they finally agreed to let Albert handle the stuff was that Lee Jordan also agreed with Albert's approach.
"Albert would rather roast the snow mushrooms he dug and eat them directly than let himself suffer a loss!" Lee Jordan once said privately to the twins.
In fact, Albert had thought about selling the snow mushroom powder to the potion master Dagworth, but then he gave up. Dagworth had many channels to get the snow mushroom powder, and he was a little embarrassed. After all, he had no experience in processing snow mushroom powder, and the quality of the snow mushroom powder he stored was only average.
The two parties are friends, there is no need to mess up the relationship because of this one thing.
Tricking someone you know is something that many people liked to do in their previous life. However, once this is done, the friendship between the two parties is basically over.
Of course, there were people who would be willing to sell it for a good price, but after careful consideration, Albert felt that it was not worth doing so, so he never mentioned it.
"Let's go back and roast these snow mushrooms." Albert suddenly suggested on the way back to the castle.
"I feel so sorry for you." Lee Jordan couldn't help but roll his eyes at Albert, but he didn't object. Instead, he said it in a strange tone. The snow mushrooms really tasted great, and they found a lot of them this winter.
"It feels like a waste." Fred couldn't help but mutter. He preferred putting Galleons in his pockets to delicious food.
Although George didn't say anything, he probably had the same idea. Nothing is more real than Galleon.
"Don't worry, you'll get Galleons sooner or later." Lee Jordan consoled him. At this moment, Lee Jordan's mind was clearer than Fred and George's.
How to turn things into wealth is a technical job. If you want to earn Galleons, you must use your brain to find a way.
And Albert is obviously better at this than them, so it is undoubtedly most appropriate to let him handle the matter.
After all, a bottle of Bafe Brain Stimulant could be sold at a high price of ten Galleons, and several students had secretly asked if they could help get a bottle privately.
If snow mushroom powder is made into medicine, the price will naturally be more expensive.
In fact, Albert really knew how to use snow mushroom powder to further refine the potion. After all, he had a good relationship with Dagworth, and he quickly got the formula of the energy recovery potion through indirect means.
It is not difficult to prepare the energy recovery potion. The difficult part is that the raw materials used in the potion are all very expensive magical materials, so the price of a small bottle of energy recovery potion is almost equivalent to that of the felicity potion, and it is in short supply.
As for the effect of the energy recovery agent, it is just as its name suggests, it replenishes the energy consumed by a person and quickly restores physical strength.
Of course, it also has the effect of nourishing the kidneys.
If only I could gain the common sense of snow mushrooms like Mandrake did.
Unfortunately, this kind of thing really only depends on appearance.
At this moment, a dog barking suddenly came from the distance, and then they heard footsteps running towards this side quickly.
"What was that sound just now?" The three of them stopped and turned to look in the direction where the sound came from.
"Barking dogs?" muttered George.
"It's definitely not a good thing, let's leave quickly." Albert had already guessed what was going on, so he urged his three companions to leave.