During the Christmas holidays, the Anderson family won the lottery again. They used the windfall to enjoy a delicious French meal in a high-end restaurant.
Herb was used to Albert using National Lottery pounds to pay for family dinners, which were rare anyway, and enjoying fine food in a fancy restaurant was undoubtedly a pleasant experience.
In order to cover up the matter, Herb and Daisy would spend a little money every month to buy a few national lottery tickets. Otherwise, they would win every time, which would look suspicious no matter how you look at it.
The day before school started, Albert went to King's Cross Station to take the Hogwarts Express and return to school with other students.
In the carriage, Lee Jordan couldn't help but complain about Snape giving Albert a Christmas gift.
Albert had already seen the parchment in the package sent by Snape, and it was indeed a potion recipe.
The jar of cockroaches in the package was real too, probably farmed. They needed special treatment before use, and the treated ones were sold in pharmacies. There were other potions as well, none of which were precious, but they were all raw materials used in potion recipes. Putting them together and adding a few common herbs made a potion called Nagging Soup, which would make people talk nonsense uncontrollably after drinking it.
Merlin's beard!
If anyone knew that the ingredients of nagging soup were these things, no one would dare to touch it.
To be honest, Albert was impressed by Snape's accomplishments in potions, as he was able to find such a potion formula. It was completely reasonable for a potion professor to give his favorite student a potion-related Christmas gift.
Is Albert Snape's favorite student
To some extent, it is.
Moreover, the recipe for the nagging soup was improved by Snape himself, so it can be considered a precious gift.
However, Albert estimated that Snape probably just wanted to give him a surprise.
After listening to Albert's analysis, Lee Jordan expressed his disagreement with Snape's bad taste, and said bluntly that if Albert dared to give him such disgusting things to drink one day, the two sides would break off their friendship.
Especially after reading the recipe for the nagging soup on the parchment, Lee Jordan said that his weak heart had been severely hit and he needed Albert's holiday homework to calm down, so he planned to copy it... for reference.
The professors at Hogwarts School always like to give them a lot of homework during the holidays, which is particularly annoying.
Lee Jordan worked hard on his holiday homework yesterday, but still failed to finish all of it, so he had to find an excuse to seek Albert's help.
After consultation, Albert finally agreed to give the paper on the shrinking potion to Lee Jordan for reference.
There was no other way. Ever since the snowman incident, the three friends around Albert had been having a harder and harder time. Snape really couldn't cause trouble for Albert, but he could occasionally cause trouble for Fred, George, and Lee Jordan. Snape didn't even need to do anything special. He just needed to pay more attention to the three of them when he had time, and that was enough to make them unlucky.
Lee Jordan would be in big trouble if the holiday homework wasn't done, and Snape was just itching for an excuse to get them in trouble.
"I bet Fred and George haven't finished it either." With the help of Albert, Lee Jordan began to scramble for his own paper on the shrinking potion.
In fact, Lee Jordan guessed correctly that most of the Weasley twins' minds were no longer on studying, and they were working hard on joke props.
After the two of them returned to Hogwarts Castle in the night carriage, Fred and George appeared without warning to welcome them, and enthusiastically gave them some candies and expressed their desire to see Albert's holiday homework.
"You guys haven't created anything weird again!"
Lee Jordan looked at the candies warily, with no intention of touching them. But he had not forgotten how he had been tricked by these two guys.
"Candy made from sad bug syrup makes you feel sad when you put it in your mouth."
Seeing that neither of them was going to try it, George simply unwrapped the candy and threw it into his mouth.
The sad candy worked very well. After a while, the smile on George's face disappeared, and he showed a sentimental expression. He even began to sob softly and soon burst into tears.
Lee Jordan was stunned by the amazing change on George's face. He had never thought that the effect of the sad candy would be so good.
"We added a large dose of syrup produced by heartworms." George explained to them sadly that this was a complete loss-making business.
"Perhaps, we can produce a small amount of Sad Candy, but never expect to produce in large quantities, as that would drain every Galleon from our pockets."
"It's such a sad thing." Albert smiled and patted George on the shoulder. The effect of this candy was much stronger than he expected.
"Well, that's probably the situation."
Fred tried hard not to laugh and handed a candy to George. After George ate it, the sadness on his face was immediately replaced by a smile, but that smile looked a little silly.
"The antidote is almost ready, but it still can't completely eliminate the effects of the drug."
Fred pointed at the silly smile on George's face and explained helplessly, "That's the aftereffect of the Ariotte leaves. Of course, it won't take long, um, about ten seconds, for this slight aftereffect to completely disappear."
"That's a good start!" Albert comforted the two of them and changed the topic of the chat: "Have you opened the package that didn't have a sender's name on it?"
Fred and George looked at each other and shook their heads. "We think that interesting things like this should be shared with everyone, so we've temporarily kept the package without a name on it and will open it together when you return to school."
"Then open it now. I'm a little curious about who sent me this Christmas gift anonymously." Albert muttered softly, "I have a feeling that there won't be anything good in it."
"We've tested it with an honesty detector, and there's no reaction to the curse, but..." Fred hesitated, then reminded, "I think it's best to be careful when opening the package."
There's no way. With Snape's case as an example, who knows what's in the package.
They took the package to the common room, and since no one was willing to open it, Albert had to use a spell to open it from a distance.
In full view of everyone, a yellow-green liquid suddenly sprayed out from inside the package the moment it was opened, just like a grenade explosion. The liquid splashed everywhere, and a pungent smell of gasoline instantly filled the entire lounge.
"Luckily I was far enough away, otherwise I almost got hit. It was so insidious!" Fred cursed under his breath. He was almost splashed by the unknown liquid just now.