"How did you end up here?" Anthony asked.
Tracey said quietly, "Sorry, I was distracted, Professor." She turned back and walked down the stairs. "I think I've been lacking sleep recently."
Anthony nodded with a calm expression and followed. "All right, Davis. Hope you rest well tonight."
The dungeons were even colder and gloomier than other places. Torches burned feebly and lit the corridor flickering bright and dark. Their footsteps struck the walls and echoed repeatedly. Anthony escorted Tracey to the dormitory entrance, watched her give the password and enter, then immediately returned to that abandoned bathroom.
If the Weasley twins hadn't shown him their already-abandoned "secret base" when handing over the Jobberknoll eggs, Anthony might not know how to enter this room with its rusted door lock. He found a wire under the door crack—he secretly doubted whether Tracey really used the twins' method to open doors—poked it into the keyhole, and struggled to fiddle with it (George demonstrated so skillfully for him).
The door gave a creaking groan and opened. Anthony walked in.
The furnishings inside had changed from last time. The air was filled with potion smell. A cleaned cauldron sat by the washbasin. The toilet the twins had converted into a storage shelf at the entrance was neatly arranged with potion ingredients. The whole room was cleaned spotlessly. Only the toilet stopper wearing a rainbow wig and grinning maintained Weasley characteristics.
That toilet stopper started chattering from the moment he entered. "Welcome, honored guest! Welcome to the beautiful toilet! I wish you a urinal-wonderful day! If not, I wish you a toilet-wonderful tomorrow..."
Anthony stuffed it into an unused toilet nearby. The toilet stopper gurgled satisfactorily and quieted.
Anthony frowned at the rows of potion ingredients before him.
Wooden-stoppered bottles held stones reflecting strange luster. Crystal reagent bottles contained sticky liquid. Neatly divided boxes arranged scales of various sizes. Dried herbs were stored in breathable linen bags and gave off strange smells. Jars held powders of various particle sizes and colors. Dark brown glass bottles for light-protected storage contained some... uh, corpses.
Just as Anthony told Neville, he knew nothing about potions. Rather than expect him to deduce what Miss Davis was doing from this shelf of materials, better to expect Myrtle to pop out of the toilet and tell him what was happening.
But fortunately, there happened to be a supposed Potions Master in the castle. Parentheses, didn't win the British Advanced Potion Society Lifetime Achievement Award.
And Tracey happened to be a student from his house.
He'd just knocked once on that pitch-black door when the office door was yanked open. Snape glared at him irritably. "I hope you have sufficiently good reason, Anthony."
"I think I do," Anthony said. "Probably."
"Very well. State it," Snape said impatiently. His voice echoed in the corridor and made the dungeons seem even colder and more silent.
Anthony said somewhat apologetically, "Might take some of your time... I need you to help identify some potion ingredients."
Snape immediately said, "Unfortunately, not every professor is idle all day, drinking tea, strolling, chatting." He stepped aside and showed Anthony the bubbling cauldron behind him. "As you can see, I'm a busy man. Helping colleagues solve curiosity born from their ignorance is not within my duties, especially when I need to stay in my office."
Anthony smiled. "But this matter isn't just my curiosity. It also concerns a student." Seeing Snape about to refuse, he added, "I think I said last time, you can't ignore students. And good news is, I have a very good memory."
"A handful of thin, long thorn-like solids, tips are black, about this long, in a glass bottle."
"Porcupine quills," Snape answered with tightly furrowed brows.
He stirred the strange thing in the pot clockwise three times, lowered the flame, then turned around aggressively. "It's been half an hour. What exactly do you want to know, Anthony? A basic potion ingredients knowledge test?"
"Not quite," Anthony said and thought for a moment but didn't reveal more details.
Before knowing what Tracey was specifically doing, he didn't plan to leak too much information to Snape. The staff room teapot as witness, he had too much evidence that this man would immediately refuse others from meddling in Slytherin affairs after knowing what happened.
Anthony continued asking, "A type of stone, reflects strange blue-white light, this big."
"I'm curious why I should answer you if you can't give a reasonable explanation," Snape said. Then the small hourglass on his desk called out.
He waved his hand irritably, made the hourglass shut up, and started pouring some materials into the cauldron. "Moonstone. Supplement your common sense, Anthony. You'll find it's not that difficult."
Anthony recalled—he already knew the names of all materials in Tracey's inventory. Next step was permutation and combination to judge what exactly she was secretly brewing. Whatever it was, shouldn't exceed Hogwarts textbook scope—she was only a second-year student after all, and the materials sounded relatively simple.
"I have no more questions. Thank you," he said.
"Very well," Snape said without looking up. "Allow me to remind you, two of the answers just now were incorrect. You can try judging which two yourself."
"What?"
"You heard me, Anthony," Snape said. "Supplement your common sense."
The potion in the cauldron turned a beautiful blue. Snape tapped the pot rim with his wand and straightened up proudly. "Or, tell me why you want to know these materials. Very interesting choices, Anthony. The materials you listed can brew some very wonderful things..."
"Such as?" Anthony asked.
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