On Thursday morning, Sebastian released his magic senses and found that the crowds outside the Ilvermorny campus had long since vanished.
The bustling noise seemed to have been swallowed by the night in a single day, replaced by a profound silence.
"Interesting," he murmured, the scene from last night flashing through his mind, "The meeting didn't look like it was going to end at all before I went to bed."
"Did the Magical Congress of the United States of America members give up? Did everyone compromise?"
"Otherwise, the crowds outside the school would definitely not have dispersed."
"I don't know what the result is," Sebastian casually picked up the jacket on his bedside, "I'll ask the Principal later, he definitely knows all the information."
After breakfast, the official staff of the Potion Championship brought the latest news.
In yesterday's competition, all five Hogwarts students brewed perfect-quality Draught of Living Death, so they all qualified for the third round of the competition.
Looking at other magic schools, their best results were only three students qualifying, and some schools even had only one contestant left to participate in the third round.
Hogwarts, with all its students advancing, was unique among all magic schools.
As for the detailed rules of the third competition, they had also been released.
In Friday's competition, the officials no longer set unified questions, but instead allowed the contestants to perform freely.
Contestants needed to select the Potion they wanted to brew today, and then submit the Potion name and required Potion ingredients to the event organizer before 6 PM.
The organizer would prepare a separate set of Potion ingredients for each contestant based on the information provided by them.
As for the competition results, all judges would jointly score the contestants.
At the same time, considering that some advanced Potions take a long time to brew, the competition time was no longer limited to a mere hour and a half, but would last from 9 AM to 6 PM on Friday.
Snape took the scoring rules from the staff member, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly. The dense rules listed all the precautions contestants needed to understand before the competition.
It seemed that the third round of the competition was the true test of the contestants' skill. The Potion Championship officials wanted to select truly talented individuals in the Potion field through this method.
The brewing difficulty of different Potions varied, and the scores obtainable for different brewing difficulties also varied.
It could be said that the choice of different Potions completely widened the score gap between contestants from the very beginning.
Choosing a difficult Potion certainly made it easier to get a high score, but failure meant elimination.
Therefore, it was not an easy task to make contestants make appropriate trade-offs within a day.
Thinking of this, Snape no longer hesitated and called Harry and the others into his dormitory to begin one-on-one guidance.
After a full day of repeated research, the competition topics for each of them were finally determined.
The Potion chosen by Percy, Penelope, and Cedric was the Wit-Sharpening Potion, an advanced Potion whose brewing difficulty was much greater than that of the Draught of Living Death.
Harry, on the other hand, chose the Baruffio's Brain Elixir. According to Snape's deduction, if Harry could brew a perfect-quality Potion, then this year's golden cauldron would undoubtedly be claimed by Hogwarts.
As for Theodore, this guy wanted to challenge his limits. After hearing that Harry chose the Baruffio's Brain Elixir, he also chose the same Potion.
Seeing his determined gaze, Snape ultimately said nothing more, but instead took him for an intensive pre-exam study session.
On Friday morning, Harry was too nervous to eat a single bite. Today was the day of the finals, and he really wanted to get the golden cauldron.
According to the Professor, one of his mother's regrets in her youth was not being able to represent Hogwarts and win the golden cauldron.
Harry wanted to drink some tranquilizer to force himself into a calm state.
However, drinking tranquilizers in such a large competition was considered cheating, so his idea could not be realized at all.
Under Sebastian's persuasion, Harry still managed to drink some milk and eat some bread, then followed the staff to the arena.
The audience seats were already filled with Wizards who came to watch the competition.
On the podium, in addition to the various judges, the Principals of various magic schools also appeared.
Harry didn't pay much attention, but instead focused on reviewing the Potion brewing steps over and over again in his mind.
The moment the competition bell rang, he began to preheat the cauldron, then picked up a silver knife and skillfully chopped the silver leaves.
Only when the water in the cauldron began to bubble slightly after heating did he add the weighed silver leaf fragments to the cauldron.
Seeing the liquid in the cauldron turn light green, Harry subtly breathed a sigh of relief.
He dared not be complacent in the slightest, taking the chopped dragon's tongue leaves and lightly roasting them over the fire for a few seconds, then quickly adding them to the cauldron.
Immediately, the liquid in the cauldron emitted a brilliant golden glow.
Although this was just the beginning, Harry was slowly getting into the zone. He was no longer nervous and began to methodically process the remaining ingredients.
He first ground the moonstone and blood-red crystal into fine powder, then thoroughly mixed them evenly according to a certain proportion.
The addition of this mixed powder was also the first difficulty in the entire competition; once handled improperly, the entire Potion would instantly go out of control.
Harry carefully sensed the Potion reaction in the cauldron with his magic, while recalling Snape's earnest teachings.
"Remember, you must first stir slowly seven times counter-clockwise in the cauldron, then quickly stir three times clockwise."
"After completing the above operations, perform one final counter-clockwise stir, while slowly pouring in the mixed powder of blood-red crystal and moonstone during the stirring process."
Sensing that the Potion in the cauldron began to react violently, Harry's eyes narrowed, and he picked up the stirring rod and began to stir in the cauldron.
His movements were extremely standard, and his timing was very accurate.
The liquid in the cauldron gradually became thick, its color slowly changing from light green to a deep purple, and it emitted a strange glow.
Seizing this opportunity, Harry took four frogs, then skillfully extracted four fresh frog brains.
After sensing that the Potion in the cauldron had completely stabilized, he extended his wand, allowing the four frog brains to smoothly fly into the cauldron.
Instantly, the Potion boiled violently, emitting bursts of purple steam.
As the morning passed, Harry's operations remained very steady, which made Sebastian nod repeatedly.
So far, the young man's operations had been perfect; as long as he continued to maintain this, he would definitely be able to brew a perfect Baruffio's Brain Elixir.
The others also performed well; Percy and the other two had already completed their Potion brewing and received their scores from the judges.
Theodore was also not bad. Although it was his first time brewing Baruffio's Brain Elixir, he had been doing well all along, without any fatal mistakes.
Of course, it was impossible for him to brew a perfect-quality Potion on his first attempt, but for him, just being able to persist to the end was a huge success.
Snape's judgment was indeed correct; Theodore truly was a promising talent in Potions.
Harry and Theodore's performance attracted the attention of many people.
William, the PotionProfessor from Ilvermorny, even specifically sought out Sebastian to express his envy.
"Your students can actually brew something like Baruffio's Brain Elixir. It seems they have already touched the threshold of a Potion Master."
"I really don't know what method your PotionProfessor uses to cultivate such excellent students!"
Time slowly passed, and Harry's forehead was covered in sweat.
After the final stir, the Potion in the cauldron slowly stabilized, finally presenting a pure green luster.
This was clearly a perfect-quality Baruffio's Brain Elixir.
Looking at the crystal-clear green Potion in the cauldron, Harry's grin widened.
His hard work had not been in vain.
golden cauldron, you are mine!
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