As soon as Alan returned Lily home, having slightly tweaked her memories beforehand, he began working on the potion.
He had started the conversation with the girl with only one goal: to understand what kind of person she really was, and this left him a little disappointed. After all, instead of the cunning fox he had believed her to be, she turned out to be a simple fool, too lazy to even bother with. And Alan knew one thing for sure: people like her never lived long, so he did not have to do anything; she would find her death on her own, or someone would help her do it.
So he simply put her out of his mind, completely devoting himself to his work...
Looking at the black liquid in the cauldron, he hissed in displeasure.
"As I suspected: although they're very similar in appearance to those in my world, due to the weaker magical background, some plants have weaker properties, so I'll have to slightly tweak the formula... ah... I should have guessed. A waste of money," he muttered discontentedly, taking out a second set of ingredients and beginning to examine them.
Alan was no stranger to Potion-making. Besides Severus's knowledge, he himself once studied Alchemy, Potion-making's equivalent, and even achieved some impressive results. Having completed the entire beginner's program, he knew the names of over ten thousand herbs and even their properties.
Therefore, it was not a big task for him to edit the recipe, thanks to Snape's knowledge, because Severus was a real genius in this regard...
And so, after six hours, the cauldron contained a thick, dark green mixture that smelled of herbs, with a predominantly minty scent.
"Three times weaker... although that's all one could expect from these ingredients," he said, transferring the contents of the cauldron to a jar and immediately purifying it, proceeding to the second batch. Ten portions would be needed for his training and "baptism": exactly one month's supply, every three days due to the potion's weaker effect.
Several herbs immediately flew towards him, right into the flame burning in his palm, and at the same time, water began to appear in the cauldron, and several other herbs hovered above it.
As soon as the water began to show signs of boiling, a light gust of wind crushed the herbs into powder and dropped them into the cauldron.
The herbs hanging over the fire began to crack after exactly ten minutes, and this served as a signal for Alan to take a drop of Kelpie's Blood from a small vial, and at the same second he squeezed out drops of clear liquid from the dried herbs, which began to merge with the blood, emitting a turquoise glow.
The thick, pale green mixture in the cauldron had already begun to boil, so he began the final step, removing the last two ingredients. These were two herbs: one black, emitting a dark miasma, the other light, with a minty scent.
As soon as these two herbs "met," a true war began: they began emitting auras as if they were alive, attempting to suppress each other. Like sworn enemies, both "lashed out" at each other, but neither was able to gain the upper hand.
But the next moment, the red droplet, previously hovering in the air, rushed toward the light grass and entered it. At that very moment, red lines appeared on the plant, pulsating like veins, and the previously bright aura turned crimson and began to suppress the dark one.
And within a minute, the dark grass began to dry out as the lighter one drained its strength. Less than ten minutes later, almost nothing remained of the first one, and at that very moment, a light gust of wind cut the "winner" into hundreds of pieces...
"Whoever created this strengthening potion is quite the sadist..." Under Alan's indifferent gaze, the pieces of grass fell into the cauldron, from which a minty scent immediately wafted. At the same time, he moved the empty jars to the corner of the room and pulled out another set of identical ingredients. Just fifteen more minutes, and we can see what Bella's doing. Maybe she's in a meeting with the Death Eaters right now.
Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the seal in the woman's body, and the next moment a satisfied and slightly obscene smile appeared on his face...
After all, at this time the sorceress was in the bathroom and washing her hair, while two washcloths wandered over her magnificent body.
Alan could not take his eyes off her proudly erect breasts and cherry-colored "polka dots" that seemed to beckon him; her thin waist, firm butt, and long, slender legs.
The contemplation of this beautiful sight caused a strong excitement in him, and if he were next to her at that moment, he would hardly be able to restrain himself and would "attack" her at that very moment.
Oh... hormones... it's like I'm sixteen again... he thought nostalgically, shaking off the obsession and opening his eyes. "I'm not a pervert after all," he muttered, glancing at his watch out of the corner of his eye, noting the time so he would not accidentally see her showering again in the future, of course.
He finished his tenth and final portion of the strengthening potion around midnight and almost immediately retired to his room. He was quite tired that day, not physically, but mentally, having to constantly concentrate on the potion and use magic. While constant use of magic was beneficial, the magical core also needed a break.
Alan's next day began with a visitor appearing at his bedside. In the first seconds, as soon as he sensed someone teleporting through his barrier, he prepared to greet the intruder with a blast of flame. However, he managed to stop himself in time when he recognized the visitor as a small, bald creature, resembling an old man with huge eyes and wearing only a rag. He immediately recalled the Malfoy house-elf he had seen before, and the stack of books in its hands confirmed this.
"The master ordered me to hand over these books to you..." the creature quickly and timidly explained, noticing the irritation on Alan's sleepy face.
"What time is it now?"
"T-ten o'clock!"
"So that's how it is... why so early?"
"...the master ordered..."
"Okay, what's your name?"
"D-dobby!" the creature looked at him with fear, its ears lowered.
"Okay, make me some coffee before you go, and consider us even," he said, falling back onto the bed, and the creature instantly disappeared.
But not even ten seconds had passed before it reappeared next to the bed, holding a tray with a cup of coffee, a plate of scrambled eggs, and a small vase with a single rose.
"You're fast," he nodded, sampling the coffee first and then looking at the agitated house-elf with mild surprise. "Excellent coffee," Alan drawled with a satisfied smile, patting the cowering creature on the head a couple of times, causing it to flinch each time. Then, realizing it would not be scolded, it looked at him in surprise.
"D-dobby is happy to serve his master's friend..."
"Uh-huh, thanks. I'll clean it up later, you're free to go." It nodded timidly again and vanished, leaving Alan alone, sipping his coffee. Now I understand why they hire house-elves instead of servants: they may not be very attractive, but they do all the housework well and quickly, and their loyalty, since this one still serves Lucius, says a lot. After all, who better than me should know his nasty character... Once I save up some money, I should buy one out of Hogwarts, at least then I won't have to worry about household chores...
With these thoughts, he picked up one of the books lying on the floor, with the catchy title "Legilimency for Dummies" (P.B.: oh yeah, straight for dummies, you can tell the genius right away, since you skipped the blonde version! XD) and began studying...
It was not until lunchtime that he put down the third book on the subject and finally got out of bed. And no, of course, Alan wanted to read it all at once, but he was disturbed again, and it was an owl knocking on the window.
"Today is some kind of open house..." he muttered wearily, opening the window and taking the envelope. He transformed his bed into a chair and sat down at the table, while the feathered creature landed on his shoulder. "So... Macmillan... apparently, they've finally finished examining my toy." After reading the first words of the letter, he smiled contentedly. After all, it was a request for a meeting, and they were very interested in his artifact. The rest consisted mainly of questions about the item itself and how many were in stock, as well as a request to write the nearest date when they could meet and discuss the price.
Although the sender tried to appear reserved in the letter, Alan understood that he was eagerly awaiting a meeting and the opportunity to discuss their deal as quickly as possible, lest anyone else get ahead of them. After all, such protective artifacts would be very useful in these turbulent times.
"Hmm... I suppose tomorrow would be a good time to meet, but today I want to finish studying Legilimency and Occlumency..." he muttered, stroking his chin. Then, taking a sheet of paper from the table, he wrote a reply with the meeting place and time. "Fly and take it back," Alan said, placing the letter in an envelope and handing it to the owl, who immediately flew away. He himself sat down at the table and resumed studying the books Malfoy had given him...