Chapter 387: The complicated steps of resurrection water and Lombard's volunteering

After learning about the Ministry of Magic's outrageous actions, Rice was speechless for a long time.

These people in the Ministry of Magic actually told the Prime Minister about the existence of the wizarding world...

He first wrote a letter, asking Henry to stop Minister Bones from doing such stupid things again. At the same time, he also attached his own proposal: it was time for the Ministry of Magic to send a few wizards to be stationed in the Muggle government.

If you want to take root in the civil service system, you can find out the Muggle policies in advance, and an admission letter from a top university is essential. Although civil service does not require scientific knowledge, it requires a high level of literacy in the humanities - at least you must be able to use long and difficult sentences proficiently, which requires time to plan.

After writing his reply to Henry, Rice turned his attention back to his new invention.

The seeds have been planted, and it will take time to see what kind of flowers they bloom.

Speaking of seeds, after the holiday, Rice went to see Professor Sprout with the compass grass that Helga gave him.

He hoped that the professor, who was well-versed in herbal medicine, would try to revive the precious plant in his hands.

Well, let’s see if modern wizards have any solution. If they do, we won’t bother Helga.

Professor Sprout did not have a deep impression of Rice. He would stay in the corner of the classroom with his familiar classmates in every class, not causing any trouble. He would not rush to answer her questions like Hermione Granger did, but when she called on him, he would always give the correct answer. In addition, his grades were very good. In Professor Sprout's opinion, it should be because he had been with Daphne for a long time and absorbed the positive influence of the academic bully.

More importantly, in three years, Professor Sprout had never heard of Les Lint having a conflict with any Hufflepuff student. This was totally unlike a Slytherin - this also made Les Lint have a good impression on Professor Sprout.

But when Rice showed his "collection" to Professor Sprout, she was deeply impressed by the student.

"Compass grass?" Professor Sprout stood up from his seat and wanted to pounce on it directly.

How shocking it was that a plant that was thought to be extinct in the first century AD, a plant that the Romans searched for intensively but only found one, and that was eventually presented to Emperor Nero, appeared before her like this.

As early as the ancient Roman period, compass grass was an extremely important ingredient in magic potions. There are dozens of magic potion formulas with it as the main ingredient or auxiliary ingredient. It can be used to treat coughs, hernias, malaise, and even give beef and mutton a unique flavor. It is hard to imagine how many sparks it can create when combined with modern magic potion formulas.

The reappearance of this thing has great significance for herbology and potions.

Professor Sprout carefully examined the specimen brought by Rice and finally determined that it perfectly matched the ancient Romans' description of compass grass.

"Where did you get it?" Professor Sprout asked impatiently after confirming that the specimen in front of him was indeed the compass grass.

Judging from the state of the specimen, it seems to still retain a trace of activity, and the medicinal properties show no signs of decline at all. This is definitely not a relic of ancient Rome, but a product of modern times.

So is it true that there is compass grass that evaded the Romans' search and has survived until now in some hidden corner?

"Professor White gave it to me."

When Sprout heard the source, his heart sank.

Professor White? That antique from hundreds of years ago? Sprout's hope was shattered in an instant: I'm afraid only Merlin knew where Professor White got this compass grass from. As time passed, the source of the compass grass might have been lost.

"Professor, do you think there is still hope of saving this specimen?" Les asked with a glimmer of hope.

In the magical world, nothing is impossible, such as bringing a dried specimen back to life. Of course, Muggles can also use the power of science to perform magical operations.

Looking at the compass grass lying quietly in the box, Sprout suddenly remembered an unpopular prescription that could indeed revive dead plants, but it was extremely cumbersome and time-consuming.

I wonder if Les in front of me has that patience?

"I actually have a recipe that's very effective for this situation." Professor Sprout didn't hesitate and wrote down on the parchment a plant resurrection recipe that she had obtained from South America when she was traveling abroad.

"But this recipe is very complicated, and few people have the patience to stick to it." Before handing out the prescription, Professor Sprout gave Rice a vaccination.

Rice didn't care about the so-called tediousness - as a potion master, what complicated potions had he not made? He could easily make a potion like Polyjuice Potion, which took a long time to make, so why would he be afraid of the tedious prescription?

However, after seeing the "formula" handed to him, Rice's first reaction was: Professor, are you kidding me? This is a formula that can be written by a human? !

Professor Sprout's prescription is used to prepare a nutrient solution for resurrection water. This resurrection water requires the cultivation of seven specific herbs: sunflower, moon grass, Styx vine, hawk kiss flower, wind sunflower, swamp jumping bulb and fire-breathing agave.

Each of these seven herbs has its own characteristics and needs to be cultivated in different environments. They also need to be watered and fertilized at specific times every day. What's more troublesome is that the window period left after picking is very short, and they need to be processed immediately after picking. After the extracts of the seven herbs are mixed together, they are mixed with the blood of the person who planted these plants. Only then is the resurrection water considered complete. After preparation, it must be used within a quarter of an hour, otherwise the resurrection water will lose its activity. In order to revive the dead plants, these resurrection waters must be poured every four days, and a total of thirteen times can bring the plants back to life.

Rice did a simple calculation and found that, not counting the time for cultivating the herbs, it would take fifty-two days just to water the resurrection water.

This is too time-consuming!

If you do this, you don’t have to do anything else and just grow vegetables every day.

"Well, I'll go back and study it carefully." Rice said politely, put away Professor Sprout's formula and left her office.

Although the compass grass is precious, is it really worth it for him to do this? Rice was a little hesitant. He was unwilling to do such repetitive and heavy physical work from the bottom of his heart.

"Eh? I can make a puppet and let the puppet plant and pick herbs for me!" A flash of inspiration flashed through Les' mind, and he suddenly realized it.

What era is it now? Are you still growing herbs yourself?

His good friend Helga Hufflepuff is the world's top puppet maker. All he needs to do is say "Help me, Professor White" and the problem will be solved.

Thinking of this, Rice strode towards Helga's office.

Outside her office, Rice ran into someone who seemed familiar yet strange.

"Neville? Why are you here?" Les asked in surprise.

"It's like this..." Neville took out a wooden box from his arms and told Rice what Professor White had done in the Hufflepuff common room.

"Oh? Can I see it?" Les suddenly remembered that Helga had made such an invention in order to select the most talented students. Unexpectedly, she left this invention to Neville.

He tried it and found that it really required a high level of magic sensitivity. However, for Rice, who was proficient in the flow of magic, it was easy to send the balls into the corresponding holes.

For a moment, Les wanted to take this little prop back to Slytherin House and let the students there try it out.

But after a little consideration, he gave up the idea. First, dealing with two students had already exhausted his energy, and second, what would he do if those people he looked down upon were detected to have high talents?

Teaching them knowledge is disgusting to myself, and not teaching them knowledge may seem like a waste of talent, so it’s better not to test them - as long as I don’t test them, I won’t know their talents and it won’t be a waste of talent.

As for bringing talented students around and teaching them by example, Les has lost confidence in this regard ever since Daphne became involved with magma.

"So Neville, you are here to return the box?" Les asked after returning the box to Neville.

"Yes." A smile spread across Neville's face, "I can do it now!"

As he said this, he demonstrated it in front of Rice, and sure enough, within a few seconds, four crisp sounds were heard, and all four beads fell into the corresponding holes.

Les' eyes widened immediately: Neville's ability to control magic was quite excellent. But this was strange, if Neville had such a good talent, why didn't Helga accept him as a student?

Could it be that……?

Sure enough, after asking, Neville told Rice that it took him a period of practice to master the trick, and it took him much longer to get the ball into the correct hole before.

"That day in the common room, I was so nervous that I accidentally moved the beads too far." Neville smiled awkwardly, his round face slightly red.

Rice nodded silently, and he was impressed by Neville, but at the same time he felt a little sorry: Neville's talent in magic control did not meet Helga's requirements for accepting him as a disciple - only students who could return the ball to its place within ten seconds after touching the box for the first time could be said to meet their requirements. In Neville's case, he could only be said to be talented.

If Helga didn't have any students, then everything would be easy. Unfortunately, she already had Cedric, and it was difficult for her to spare the energy to teach a student with mediocre talent.

Pity.

After burying his sympathy for Neville in his heart, when Les was about to knock on the door of Helga's office, Neville asked him a question: Why did he come here? Did he want to ask questions about Defense Against the Dark Arts?

Les laughed at Neville's words - it was more like Helga came to ask him questions.

"I'm here to ask Professor White to design a doll." Les told Neville about his visit to Professor Sprout.

"Compass grass? Can I take a look?" Neville's interest was immediately piqued. As a young man who loved herbology, he simply couldn't resist the temptation to see with his own eyes the rare plant that was rumored to have long been extinct.

Les was not a stingy person. He directly took out the box containing compass grass and handed it to Neville.

After carefully opening the box and looking carefully at the compass grass in the box with bated breath for a while, Neville showed a satisfied expression.

"If only I could draw, I could draw it," he said with emotion.

"Have you heard of compass grass?" Les was more curious because from Neville's reaction, he seemed to have heard of the name of compass grass a long time ago. This was strange, because this herb was particularly famous among Muggles, and basically no one in the magic world had heard of it except wizards who specialized in herbology.

"Well, I've seen a record of it in a book. It's a pity that they became extinct, but I didn't expect to see a specimen here..." At this point, Neville suddenly remembered something: Rice seemed to have mentioned just now that he went to Professor Sprout's office to find a way to revive the herb?

"Lies, what did Professor Sprout say?" Thinking of this, Neville became excited and asked in a voice that was slightly trembling with excitement.

"The professor did give me a formula, but the steps involved are too complicated, so I'm thinking of asking Professor White to design an automaton to help me grow the herbs needed for the formula."

"Um... can I see the formula?" After learning that Professor Sprout really had a formula that could bring plants back to life, Neville felt a burst of genuine joy in his heart. After a few seconds, his curiosity about the formula took over his heart. Driven by curiosity, he bravely asked Rice about the formula.

Rice was not one to hide his knowledge in this area. He directly took out the parchment with the formula and stuffed it into Neville's hand.

"It is indeed a complicated prescription." After reading the process recorded in the prescription, Neville also felt that this formula was indeed extremely complicated and tedious.

"So just ask Professor White to design an automaton."

"Les——"

"Ok?"

Neville's face turned red, and he told Les that he was willing to try to help him grow the herbs for the resurrection water.

Rice looked confused: Didn't he say he wanted to ask White to design an automatic doll to grow medicine?

"But dolls are expensive, aren't they?" Neville rarely expressed his opinion to others. He really wanted to participate in the work of reviving the compass grass.

Rice wanted to tell him that he was not short of money, but when the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back.

"Okay, thank you for your help..." He hesitated a little, because he was not sure if Neville could do this task well. But it didn't matter, let him try, at worst he could ask Helga to make a doll after he failed.

"Great!" Seeing Les agree, Neville almost jumped up with excitement. He repeatedly assured Les that he would take good care of the herbs and compass grass.

Les nodded and pushed open the door to Helga's office.

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