Snape, still dressed in a pure black robe, crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Developing potion?"
"Yes, Professor Snape," Vizette nodded. "I wanted to send some postcards home, so I made some."
"Developing solution? Inferior chemicals, a cost-cutting trick!" Snape sneered. "Fine! Let's start with the armadillo today!"
Armadillos are seemingly majestic animals, covered in bony armor, yet they are quite timid.
During the day it stayed obediently in the cave, and only came out to forage at night. When it encountered danger, it curled up its body and used its bony armor to defend against attacks.
In the magical world, the gallbladder of such animals, which may carry leprosy, could be removed and the bile used to make Wit-Sharpening Potion.
Snape began by dissecting the armadillo, his wand held with effortless ease, as if it were a sharp scalpel, every movement precise.
He made a small incision in the abdomen, touched the wound with his wand, and used a Diffindo to penetrate deeper, separating the armadillo's bony armor from its flesh.
Gathering blood, removing flesh, taking bones, separating internal organs...
As Snape cast his spells, disassembling the armadillo into its parts, he could also give lectures, explaining the effects of each part in potions.
Vizette could tell that this was more basic, back-to-basics knowledge.
It was like laying the foundation before building a house; it was buried deep underground, but it was a necessary project.
It involved tracing the origins of the ingredients, exploring their effects, and why they produced those effects.
To understand this part of the knowledge, one would naturally need to learn about ritual magic. One needed to start with this ancient type of magic in order to truly understand the various properties of a material.
This was a very interesting process, somewhat similar to the story of Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs.
Ancient wizards also discovered the first few materials through personal experience, and used these materials as "mediums" to carry out various ritual magic.
Once these basic materials were determined, they would be used as a basis to summarize and categorize several types of materials.
Once these types were identified, the newly discovered materials would replace the original materials, the ritual magic would be performed again, the characteristics of these materials would be observed, and then they would be categorized into the corresponding types.
This was an extremely complex process that required countless trials by ancient shamans, with corrections made time and again, in order to arrive at a more objective and accurate classification.
For example, the most primitive material "medium" for making armadillo bile, which was used to make Wit-Sharpening Potion, was oak.
Oak trees were widely used in ritual magic, possessing properties such as strength, courage, and wisdom;
These properties were also present in armadillo bile, which was why it could be used as a Wit-Sharpening Potion.
As more and more materials were summarized, more diverse classification methods had emerged in addition to this type of classification.
By drawing analogies and comparisons based on the characteristics of materials such as color, smell and taste, appearance, origin, and growth state, the properties of the materials could be summarized.
Of course, the method of "drawing analogies" could not be applied to all newly discovered materials, and it could also make mistakes. Therefore, practice was the only truth.
When faced with materials that could not be "analyzed," ancient wizards would return to their origins, either using ritual magic to verify their properties or consuming newly discovered materials to personally experience their specific effects.
The second method was risky, so ancient wizards found an alternative: they would apply the material to the toad's back and observe what changes would occur.
It was around that time that a trend emerged among wizards to keep toads as pets.
...
Without understanding and mastering this fundamental knowledge, it was extremely difficult for a potion maker to become a potion master.
Because he only knew how to copy what he saw, but didn't understand "why do it this way" or "would it be better to use another method or material?"
Snape said in a low voice, "Exploring their original principles and understanding this will make it much easier to concoct potions directly."
He glanced at Vizette's notebook, which was filled with dense writing, including not only the knowledge he had just imparted but also Vizette's personal understanding.
It saved him the trouble and eliminated the need to repeatedly emphasize key points, which was why he was willing to maintain private tutoring.
Vizette wrote down the last part, shook her slightly sore wrist, and said, "Professor Snape... I would like to ask you a question."
Snape said succinctly, "Speak!"
In private lessons, there weren't many rules between them; questions were answered immediately to solve problems, which was much more efficient.
"It's about what you said at the very beginning…" Vizette said, "You said that developing chemicals are inferior agents, a cost-cutting trick."
"Can I understand it this way? This medicine only works on photographs, and photographs and this kind of handheld camera... were invented around these last few decades..."
He speculated as he spoke, "In other words... there were actually more complex versions of the developing solution before that. If we continue to explore along this line of thought..."
"The developing solution should be able to work on the canvas, meaning it can be used to create those kinds of moving, wandering portraits! Professor Snape, is that how I understand it?"
Snape still spoke very little, "Yes!"
"Professor Snape, I also found a passage in the notes…" Vizette picked up the notes, flipped through a few pages, and found the record he was looking for.
"Besides possessing 'creativity' similar to rosemary, scarab beetles also have 'revitalizing' properties similar to birch sap..."
"If we combine a Wit-Sharpening Potion with a developing solution, could we make the image more dynamic, or even generate simple thoughts?"
Snape didn't speak, but puffed out his cheeks, stared at Vizette for a long while, and then uttered the same word again, "Yes!"
Sometimes, knowing too much and having too strong an associative ability wasn't necessarily a good thing.
He took a deep breath and banished the thought.
Wouldn't it be more convenient to do it all in one step?
Wouldn't that allow us to impart more knowledge?
With this in mind, he continued, "In this process, we also need some materials to mix them together, forcibly combining the two potions in a crude manner."
Upon hearing this, Vizette immediately became intensely curious.
He had always been curious about the lifelike portraits inside the castle and wanted to know how they were made.
Now that he had finally been able to make contact, he naturally had to be on high alert and make sure he understood it thoroughly.
"hiss!"
Just then, Snape suddenly gasped and instinctively covered his left arm.
His eyes widened, disbelief flashing in them, as he stared intently at Vizette…
….
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