Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, it looks like a right-angled croissant, which makes it hard to swallow."

Seeing Gregorovitch's uncomfortable look, the participating young wizard Luc Miller Farley from Beauxbatons couldn't help but curl his lips.

Then, he used the tongs that appeared from his magic wand to take out a piece of finished potion that looked like "soufflé" from his uniquely shaped crucible and placed it on a porcelain plate that had been prepared long ago.

Like all pastry lovers who are worried about the soufflé becoming too soft, even though the pastry was still a little hot right out of the pan, Luc Millerfarley still took out a spoon and began to taste the delicacy he made with his own hands.

This scene was seen by the guests on the deck of the "Queen of Glory". Some of the old wizards and witches smiled and nodded; others shook their heads secretly, expressing their dissatisfaction.

Just like when raising pets, there are two camps: cats and dogs. There are similar situations when drinking tofu pudding, with two camps: salty and sweet. The potion masters in the wizarding world also have an interesting polarization when it comes to the "flavor of potions".

There are very few centrists who sit on the fence.

One group of wizards firmly believes that improving the taste of potions is just an unreasonable redundancy and something that pharmacists don't need to worry about.

Another group of wizards holds a completely opposite opinion. They believe that improving the taste of potions will help promote and sell them.

What's more, not all potions are like the "wolfsbane potion" invented by Damocles, where adding sugar will make the potion ineffective.

Is it hard to add some sugar?

How much waste would it be to add a little sugar when brewing a potion?

Severus Snape, the current Potions Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is a staunch supporter of the "only efficacy of medicine" theory.

When the potion master was in school, he optimized many potion recipes, either reducing the difficulty of brewing the potion or improving its efficacy.

But the problem is, just like the cursed position of "Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts", all potion recipes optimized by Snape will, without exception, produce potions that are several times more unpalatable than those made with the original recipes!
In sharp contrast to Snape's style, among the several magic schools in Europe, there is the wealthy Beauxbatons.

Madame Maxime, the headmistress of Beauxbatons, who was a guest of honor, immediately gave a very high evaluation of the little wizard for knowing how to enjoy delicious food (of course, this does not rule out the possibility that she was canvassing for votes on the spot).

"Everyone, if you are willing to go to Beauxbatons," the headmaster, who is as tall as Hagrid but dressed like a lady, smiled and extended a warm invitation to everyone.

“As the host, we will definitely show everyone what French cuisine is.

The food at Beauxbatons is definitely not just French fries, various vegetable salads, and dry chicken.

Bouillabaisse, a variety of meats, and delicious desserts...

These dishes will appear on the dining table of Beauxbatons. Under the influence of this culture, the young wizards in Beauxbatons are all gourmets.

Luc Miller Farley, who represented Beauxbatons in this competition, is one of the best. He once baked baguettes for the birthday party of Mr. Nick Flamel, our respected school director."

Standing next to Madame Maxime, if he heard her mention the birthday party of the great alchemist, out of the friendship between Britain and France, Horace Slughorn would probably ask: "Are you sure that someone of that age can still eat baguettes?"

However, he was not in the mood to do so now. The old man's attention was now focused on Bourne who was still brewing the potion.

"Why is it so slow?" Horace couldn't help but feel anxious. "Is there something wrong? Why does Bourne have to brew two pots of potion?"

Just when the old wizard was secretly getting anxious, Nelida Vokhanova suddenly announced loudly: "The elimination round has officially begun, everyone come and test the effects of your potions!"

As she shouted, many ropes stretched out from the three masts of the "Queen of Glory" like an octopus and directly wrapped around the little wizards at the end of the gangway.

There was a young wizard from the Ouagadou School of Magic in Africa. He was almost done brewing the potion and wanted to "sneak away" for a while, but he was caught red-handed and his crucible was taken away by a cable.

The crucible was swept onto the deck and displayed in front of many judges. After seeing it, the old men and women all knew what the little wizard was doing.

Libasho Pollach said: "It should be a kind of 'water of life and death', a very powerful hypnotic, but the control of the temperature is still a little bit lacking."

Damocles: "It's not just about controlling the temperature. It looks like this little wizard wants to combine the effects of the 'Aerosol Solvent' potion and the 'Water of Life and Death' to create a drowsy foggy area.

Since everyone else was stunned, he would naturally get first place.

However, he probably delayed some time because he first prepared the antidote for the Water of Life and Death for himself."

Then, Damocles added very pertinently: "It's a good creative idea, and it also complies with the rules of the competition, but the time limit has indeed exceeded...

In fact, I'm not sure if 30 minutes is enough to come up with a strategy and brew two more potions. And one of them is a potion recipe that I mixed on the spot."

However, the Potions Championship is an elimination competition after all. The little Neon wizard who unfortunately fell into the water early was eliminated, and this little wizard from Vagadu is naturally no exception.

He could only be brought back from the diving board helplessly. The guest, Professor Vagadu of Potions, put his arm around his shoulders and kept comforting him.

"Just a little bit!"

Just now, Horace's heart almost jumped out of his throat, because if Bourne had not taken the potion out of the crucible before the witch said "stop", Hogwarts would have been eliminated like Vagadu.

Moreover, the potion that Bourne took out was somewhat different from the potions that all the young wizards had taken out before—although many of them made potions with strange shapes—and the potion that Bourne took out was actually a piece of cloth. "Horace, is your little grandson going to ride a flying carpet?" An old wizard pushed his glasses curiously and approached his old acquaintance and asked, "Didn't Principal Vokhanova just say that alchemy is not allowed? There are more or less things in the flying carpet..."

But at this moment, before he could finish, Nelida Vokhanova took direct action again.

No one knew what unique detection spell she used, but after waving her wand, the little wizards on the springboard either had the potions in their hands emitting yellow light or had yellow light flashing on their bodies.

Yellow light means the test is passed, and there is no violation of the regulations in using alchemy and Muggle objects, then the potion will show this light. If the potion is drunk (eaten) into the stomach, then the person who drinks (eats) it will flash.

Bourne also passed the test successfully: the "cloth" in his hand not only emitted a yellow light, but the color of the light was even golden!

Only the little wizard from Ilvermony School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in America, whose face turned purple like a sweet potato and whose body was indeed flashing red after drinking the potion, emitted a blinding red light from the inner wall of the crucible.

"Bring the cauldron here!" Vokkanova waved her hand, and the cauldron of the little wizard Ifamoni flew onto the deck.

The good news was that upon inspection, the cauldron was found to be just an ordinary pewter cauldron, not even an automatic stirring cauldron which was banned by the Ministry of Magic.

But the bad news is that the residual potion on the inner wall is flashing red, indicating that there are Muggle products among the raw materials of the potion.

Of course, to be more precise, it was the little wizard from Ilvermorny who used a Muggle finished potion as the raw material for the potion.

"There are some problems, but it's not completely unacceptable," after thinking for a few seconds, Nelida Vokhanova made the final decision.

She ignored the looks Karkaroff kept giving her, who undoubtedly wanted to remind the headmaster that he had finally found a reason to eliminate a contestant from another school, and he couldn't let this opportunity go.

It was a pity that Vokanova let the little wizard go. She just hoped that the guest sent by Ifamoni to watch the ceremony, who was also the professor of Potions of the school, would ask the little wizard to make a copy of the list of materials for her later.

"Then, let's begin!"

Vokanova used the "Voice Loudness Charm" again, and excitedly urged the little wizards to jump into the sea from the springboard three or four stories high.

The first person to enter the water was Gregorovitch, the representative of Durmstrang. He had been transformed into a dolphin for a long time, just waiting for this sentence.

The next one was the little wizard from America. After drinking the potion, his muscles were like fully wound springs, eager to release the energy stored inside.

The two men plunged into the water almost one after the other with a "splash", and after entering the water, they began to swim.

The third person to step off the diving board was little Libasho Polachi. He was a little afraid of heights, so after making the potion, he even closed his eyes and stood barefoot on the diving board, slowly waiting for the competition to begin.

When he jumped down, as soon as his feet touched the surface of the sea, his whole body "jumped" forward a long distance, and then touched the sea water again, and his whole body began to repeat the previous process.

"Jumping mushroom potion, I guess," said old Libasho Pollachi, who was standing on the deck, complacently as he watched his grandson's strange but fast way of moving forward.

"This kid used the magical mushroom 'Hop-Hop Mushroom' as the main ingredient, and cleverly used the 'Puffball Pot'. The magic potion he made can last for at least two hours!"

The so-called "jumping mushrooms" are a kind of magical mushroom that lives in the Brazilian rain forest. After they grow their bodies, they will bounce up and continue to spread when they come into contact with water.

Little Libasho Polachi not only took part of the potion, but also smeared the potion on the soles of his feet when he squatted down to take off his shoes.

After the potion took effect, his legs seemed to be propeld by springs and kept bouncing forward.

Even if he accidentally fell on the sea, it didn't matter, because he had also taken the magic potion, and his body also had the characteristics of the jumping mushroom, and he would bounce up after encountering water - it's just that his feet were not coated with the magic potion, so they would bounce so far and so happily after getting wet...

Soon, only Bourne, Luc Miller-Farley, and Olya were left on the diving board.

The little witch moved first. She opened the pot of drink she had just made... no, it was a magic potion, and sprinkled it into the sea against the wind.

Not long after, accompanied by a loud sound of water, a Norwegian Ridgeback that had previously dived into the sea to hunt sea beasts suddenly rushed out of the sea.

Do you remember the promise that Nelida Vokhanova made to Olya? The old witch dared to guarantee that the little witch Olya could enter the top three because of this preparation.

Others might have other competitions, so she arranged for the little witch to ride a dragon. This dragon was one of the Norwegian ridgebacks that had pulled the coffin for her. Its favorite drink since it was hatched was the potion that Olya had just brewed.

When the fire dragon flew to the side of the boat, Olya found the right opportunity and jumped from the springboard to the back of the fire dragon in one step, holding tightly onto the bulge on the fire dragon's spine.

At the same time, Bourne's eyes lit up. He held the "magic potion" and waited for a long time, and the "cloth" finally produced some magical effects.

The buzzing sound of an engine starting up suddenly came from a strange piece of "cloth" that had no mechanical structure at all.

“Praise be to Om Messiah!”

Bourne added a prayer, then hurriedly spread the strange "cloth" to the far end of the springboard, and then stepped hard on the place where it was connected.

With a "crack", the springboard broke in half. The referees were stunned by this scene. They clearly didn't see Bourne take any potion to make himself stronger, so how could he break the board with just a stomp of his foot? Is he still a little wizard? (End of this chapter)