Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures-Chapter 1295: The Tattered Textbook

Amortentia, the most effective love potion in the world.

When introducing it, a warning was often marked next to it: This potion is extremely dangerous!

The powerful love potion could make people fall in love, but that was not true love, but spiritual deception.

It could control a person like the Imperius Curse, making him or her fall in love with the other person uncontrollably, unable to control his or her emotions and body, and willing to do anything for the other person, including sacrificing one’s own life.

In some ways, it was even more terrifying than the Imperius Curse.

Voldemort’s mother had once used a love potion to make Tom Riddle Sr. fall in love with her, eventually giving birth to Voldemort.

There had been many such cases in history. Some Dark wizards would use this method to make a Muggle king fall in love with a woman or themselves, and then indirectly control the entire country and take the opportunity to complete their evil intentions.

Evan had no intention of using Amortentia, but he could not deny that the smell was still pleasant both physically and mentally.

He could prepare a bottle and carry it with him. When it would be late at night and he would be alone and lonely, he could take a sniff, which would have a good effect…

Don’t get him wrong, though, because another characteristic of the love potion was that different people smelled different scents.

The scent corresponded to what each person loved, needed, or found beautiful the most — in other words, the “scent of love.”

Just now, Evan could smell that unique fragrance associated with Hermione, or maybe it was just the scent of her shampoo, but it was comforting, mixed with a floral fragrance he loved, causing a strange reaction in his body.

“Now then, now then, now then,” said Slughorn, whose massive outline was quivering through the many shimmering vapors. “Scales out, everyone, and potion kits, and don’t forget your copies of Advanced Potion-Making textbooks, so we can start this term’s Potion’s class…”

“Sir?” said Harry, raising his hand.

“What’s the matter, Harry?” Slughorn asked gently.

“I haven’t got a book or scales or anything — nor’s Ron — we didn’t realize we’d be able to do the N.E.W.T., you see —”

“Ah, yes, Professor McGonagall did mention … not to worry, my dear boy, not to worry at all. You can use ingredients from the store cupboard today, and I’m sure we can lend you some scales, and we’ve got a small stock of old books here, they’ll do until you can write to Flourish and Blotts. …”

Since they didn’t expect to be in Potions class, Harry and Ron hadn’t packed these items.

Evan did have spare scales, cauldrons and various materials, but he didn’t take them out.

He thought this was a chance to see if Harry could still find Snape’s old textbook.

He remembered that there was such a textbook, which recorded Snape’s improvements to the potion recipes and brewing processes recorded in Advanced Potion-Making, as well as some magic created by Snape himself.

To be honest, Evan was very interested in this textbook and its contents.

At the very least, it would be of great help with potions.

When he visited Snape’s closet before, Evan looked for it specially, but found nothing.

It seemed that Snape didn’t take out this textbook, but kept it somewhere.

This term, he gave the classroom to Slughorn, and he might have left it behind when he was packing up, or Slughorn might have found the textbook somewhere else when he was tidying up the classroom.

Anything was possible. In any case, getting this textbook required some luck, which Evan didn’t seem to have. So, he decided to let Harry try…

Slughorn strode over to a corner cupboard and, after a moment’s foraging, emerged with two very battered-looking copies of Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage, which he gave to Harry and Ron along with two sets of tarnished scales.

Could this be it? Evan fixed his gaze on Advanced Potion-Making in Harry’s hand.

“Let me see, Harry,” he whispered, taking the tattered textbook.

The pages were a bit moldy, covered with scribbles and doodles, making the blank spaces as smeared and dark as the sections with potion instructions.

Could this be the one? But there was no way to confirm just from that.

He randomly flipped to a potion recipe, scrutinizing the formulas carefully.

“Now then,” said Slughorn, returning to the front of the class and inflating his already bulging chest so that the buttons on his waistcoat threatened to burst off, “I’ve prepared a few potions for you to have a look at, just out of interest, you know. These are the kind of thing you ought to be able to make after completing your N.E.W.T.s. You ought to have heard of ’em, even if you haven’t made ’em yet. Anyone tell me what this one is?”

He indicated the cauldron nearest the Slytherin table, which contained what looked like plain water boiling away.

This obviously couldn’t be plain water, so it could only be…

Hermione’s well-practiced hand hit the air before anybody else’s; Slughorn pointed at her.

“It’s Veritaserum, a colorless, odorless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth,” said Hermione.

“Very good, very good! It is Veritaserum. It’s remarkable that you can identify it. Now…” said Slughorn happily. He pointed at the cauldron nearest the Ravenclaw table, “this one here is pretty well known. … Featured in a few Ministry leaflets lately too … Who can —?”

Before he could finish, Hermione’s hand was fastest once more.

“It’s Polyjuice Potion, sir,” she said.

The slow bubbling mudlike substance in the second cauldron was a potion they had brewed before when they sneaked into the Slytherin common room. It was especially familiar to Hermione, who later helped Evan make it many times!

“Excellent, excellent! Now, this one here … yes, my dear?” said Slughorn, now looking slightly bemused, as Hermione’s hand punched the air again.

“It’s Amortentia!”

“It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask,” said Slughorn, who was looking mightily impressed, “but I assume you know what it does?”

“It’s the most powerful love potion in the world!” said Hermione.

“Quite right! You recognized it, I suppose, by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen?”

“And the steam rising in characteristic spirals,” said Hermione enthusiastically, “and it’s supposed to smell differently to each of us, according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and —”

But she turned slightly pink and did not complete the sentence. She just secretly glanced at Evan beside her.

Unfortunately, Evan didn’t catch her words; he was focused on studying the grimy textbook.

Otherwise, he might have guessed that Hermione was perhaps going to say she could smell his scent…

Or rather, it was the feeling of being captivated by the sensation of kissing him.

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