The night in the Forbidden Forest is still so dim and lightless. Occasionally, the wind blows and the leaves rustle.
The depression deep in the Forbidden Forest still looked messy. Countless Acromantulas, large and small, surrounded Maka, who was coming again, staring at him silently with eight big, shining eyes.
This is the third time that Maka has entered the Acromantula's territory since the beginning of this semester. He spent almost an entire summer vacation working on bloodline transformation.
You know, when at Chateau Blois, apart from helping Willy take care of Rafaela's Kiss, Maka spent most of her free time conducting research in this area.
The good news is that the research on bloodline transformation is going smoothly, and we can start our first attempt tonight.
"Aragog, are you ready?" Maka asked calmly.
When Maca returned from France and came to the Forbidden Forest for the first time, Aragog and his wife Mosag met him.
Originally, Mosag didn't agree with it at all. Asking it to give away its own child was almost like killing it.
But when Mosag learned that if Aragog accepted blood transformation, the children born would be stronger and more likely to survive, it quickly agreed.
In the Forbidden Forest, even for a group of Acromantulas, the survival rate of their larvae is not very high. Mossag always loses his temper because children suddenly disappear or die. It is really important to him that the children can grow up healthily.
But even so, the matter of "accepting wizard transformation" still made Aragog hesitant.
When Maka asked Aragog if he was ready, Aragog clicked and moved, obviously still worried.
"Don't worry, I also said that even if the transformation fails, there won't be any problems." Maka comforted, "At most, you will feel very tired and need to rest for a few days."
The transformation plan that Maka chose was based on potions, which he was best at.
He extracted some of Aragog's body fluids and blended it with the basilisk's blood in a targeted manner. If successful, Aragog might not change too much, but its children would Some of the strange magical properties are integrated into the characteristics of the Acromantula.
However, this kind of bloodline transformation is indeed very difficult. Even if the research process goes smoothly, Maka does not think it will be successful soon.
When Aragog expressed that he was ready, Maka decisively injected the prepared medicine into its body.
Time passed little by little, and Aragog's condition didn't seem to have changed much. It just slowly became sluggish. From standing at the beginning, it gradually turned into lying on the ground.
"I feel... powerless," Aragog clicked.
"I think the first attempt failed." Maka patted Aragog's leg, then took out a bottle of potion and handed it to his mouth, "Drink this, and then rest for a few days. It will be restored soon.”
The failure of the first attempt did not bring too many surprises to Maka, which was normal. All he needs to do is readjust the transformation formula based on the data collected in this attempt, that's all.
…
The next morning, the sun rose as usual, casting its first rays of morning light over Hogwarts, dispelling the silence brought by the night.
Maka got up from the bed, washed up in a hurry, and hurried to the greenhouse.
Although Willie has dropped out of school, she still continues to take care of those flowers and plants - there are a lot of potion ingredients that Maka planted herself, and if you are not careful, you will suffer a lot.
In the past, there would have been no one there so early, but today there was an uninvited guest in the greenhouse.
"professor?"
As soon as Maka opened the greenhouse door, she saw Snape who was checking the herbs in the greenhouse.
Snape nodded expressionlessly at Maka.
Just when Maka was about to do her own thing, unexpectedly, Snape took the initiative to speak.
"Wolfsbane potion, how is the situation?" Snape asked.
"The progress is good, Professor." Maka turned around after hearing this and replied, "Although the preparation process is very complicated, there is not much difficulty in pharmacology."
"Yes." Snape nodded, then lowered his head and continued to check the herbs.
When Maka saw this, she wanted to go back and mess with her own affairs, but then she thought about it and paused.
"Professor Snape, there is a flower that I would like you to take a look at for me?" Maka asked.
He was referring to the flower seeds that Willie asked him to try growing last semester. After that, Maka continued to check a lot of information, but did not solve the original doubt.
He thought that maybe Snape, as the Potions Master, would know.
"You should ask Professor Sprout this kind of question." Snape raised his head and said impatiently.
But even though he said this, he still walked towards Maka.
The flower seeds that Maka tried planting before have already grown some stems and leaves. They look very ordinary and do not move around like other magical plants, nor do they suddenly emit any gas.
Just like some Muggle plants, they just broke out of the ground and stood there quietly.
But if you observe carefully, you will find that there is a faint psychedelic light on their branches and leaves, which makes people stare at it for a long time without knowing it.
At this point, even Snape fell for it.
Maka had to pat Snape's arm to remind him.
"Don't stare at those brilliance, it's easy to get trapped." Maka said.
Snape looked away and stood there in thought for a moment before speaking.
"I haven't seen it, and I don't remember any books mentioning this plant, but it should have a strong psychedelic effect." Snape said seriously, "When they bloom, you must do something about it. Be prepared."
Maka nodded immediately.
"...You can ask Professor Sprout again." Snape suggested.
"Actually, I have already asked, and she doesn't know what kind of flower it is." Maka said, "This is the flower type provided by Miss Blois. Although I don't know where she got it, but Perhaps it is a new artificially cultivated variety, which is unknown.”
Snape said "Huh", glanced at the plants again, and walked away.
This time he came to the greenhouse to select some herbs for use in teaching. Although he always has a cold face and doesn't like students asking questions in class, he is always well prepared in teaching.
Snape is a qualified Potions professor, which Dumbledore personally recognized, and his vision has rarely been wrong.
The time before breakfast passed quickly, and after Maka packed up her tools, she left in a hurry. Snape, on the other hand, had already returned to his office when he was halfway through his work.
After breakfast, the first class of the day was Professor Lupine’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
Lu Hu walked into the classroom as the school bell rang. He looked at everyone and smiled slightly, then put his tattered suitcase on the desk.
His clothes were as shabby as when he arrived, but he looked healthier than on the train, as if he had eaten several solid meals.
"Good morning, everyone," he said, "Please put your books back in your bags. Today is a practical lesson, so just hold your wand."
The whole class immediately put their books back in their bags. Everyone looked very excited because they had never had a practical Defense Against the Dark Arts class before.
This does sound fresh.
"Then," Lupine said when he saw that everyone was ready, "come with me!"
Everyone stood up and followed Lupine out of the classroom.
He led them down a deserted corridor, turned a corner, and walked into another corridor. Soon, he stopped outside the faculty lounge.
"Please come in," Professor Lupin said, opening the door and taking a step back.
The faculty lounge is a long place filled with old mismatched chairs. It looks spacious and has large windows, which makes it always bright inside.
In the deepest part of the room, against the wall, was a large wardrobe. It swayed from time to time and banged against the wall. It seemed to contain something.
"Why did I forget about this! If I had known, I should have skipped this class..." Maka shook her head and thought, "Unless everyone wants to see what the Boggart's true form looks like."
"Don't worry," Professor Lupine said calmly, as several students looked a little nervous, "There's just a Boggart in there."
“Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces,” Professor Lupine said, “wardrobes, the space under the bed, the cupboard under the sink—once I encountered a boggart hiding in an old clock in my ancestral home. "
"And this one was moved in yesterday afternoon. I asked the principal and asked the teachers if they could leave it alone and give my third-year students some practice opportunities."
"So, I think what everyone should know in advance is - what is a 'Boggart'?" Lupine asked, looking at the students.
"It is a shape-shifting creature. It will look into your heart and turn into the thing you fear most." A Ravenclaw boy replied.
"Yes, that's right, that's right!" Lupine nodded with a smile.
He paused, glanced at Maka standing behind, and suddenly said: "Mr. MacLean, I always hear other professors say that you usually have a deeper understanding of some knowledge. I don't know if there is anything you want to add." Of?"
Maka looked at Lupine and said: "It can't be said to be a supplement, this is just a guess - the reason why Boggarts transform to scare people may be because they feed on human fear, not the general fear of the wizarding world. Considered self-defense.”
"Of course, this is just the speculation of some wizard scholars, but I personally feel that this speculation does make sense."
"Yes, this is just a guess. McClain is right." Lupine nodded, "But this is a good research topic, which involves a lot of very profound knowledge. I hope everyone can solve it in the future. clear."
"Okay, next, I want to..."