As soon as Adrianna heard that they would be creating an antidote for poison, she became interested. The professor asked them to follow him into a room where there were large cauldrons. Each group had a separate cauldron for them. The ingredients were kept on the shelves in the far corner of the room. This time Professor Lane asked one representative of the group to collect the ingredients. After the poison incident, the staff had become extremely alert. They were handling the ingredients to the representatives rather than letting the students take it themselves.

While walking down the alleys, Adrianna had noticed that there were some wizards and witches who were flying across the alleys. She had asked Lile about it and she said that the security has been tightened around the academy. There are reports that some things have been stolen from the grounds.

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Lile was sent as the representative of the group. The staff handed her four ingredients, gunpowder, newt legs, powdered basil leaves and crushed white ants. When Lile came back with those ingredients, all others felt so disgusted. Lile picked a newt leg and started teasing a boy with red hair.

There was general fun around the table when Professor Lane interrupted. "The main ingredient of this potion is the poison that we use from the viper snake," he said while tapping a covered glass jar near him, which had the green viper snake raising its head and occasionally taking out its tongue.

"But that's a live snake!" cried a student. "What if it bites us?"

Professor Lane looked at her and chided, "I will teach you how to catch the snake and extract poison. You have to learn how to catch a snake in order to draw the poison out of it. In the wild when your near and dear one will get poisoned, how will you help them? Think of the most dire situation that you can get into and get motivated."

A hush fell over the class as each one of them started thinking of a situation. Professor Lane continued, "The most ingredient of this potion is the viper poison. Only two drops would be needed. If you take more than two drops, it will become lethal and less than that won't be effective." Saying that the professor opened the lid of the glass jar. He lifted the viper with a fork and then placed it on a table. The viper once again raised it head. Suddenly, Professor Lane pinned its head, using fork to the table and then held the head. The viper's body convulsed to free itself but it had been pinned. The professor took his hand to its head and held it forcing it to open its jaw. As soon as the jaw opened, its fangs were exposed and the professor placed a small glass bottle there pressing its poison glands. The poison from them flowed out as clear white liquid.

Professor Lane kept the snake back in the glass jar and covered it. The snake was very agitated and was lashing its tail inside the jar much to the amusement of the students.

As soon as the professor finished showing how to extract the poison, there assistants came near the students each holding a glass jar with a viper inside.

The cauldrons were kept on the fire and the base liquid was poured into it. It was boiled for five minutes and the ingredients were added. There were lots of different sounds one could hear as the class progressed. They all were working hard to attain a red colored potion. Once the red color was obtained they had to add the viper's poison in raw form. Most of the students found it very difficult to catch hold of the snake's body, let alone the head. However, Adrianna held it easily and extracted the poison much to her group's surprise. The staff took the snake back when the poison was extracted in the bottle.

When the liquid in the cauldron reduced to less than half a pint, they added two drops while it was boiling. The liquid stopped boiling and the frothing stopped. The cauldron was taken off the fire and the red potion was taken out in a bottle.

At the end, only Adrianna's group succeeded in making the potion while rest other groups submitted green or yellow liquids. Professor Lance announced, "Tomorrow all the groups who haven't been able to make this potion will repeat the experiment while the successful group can take a break."

Lile jumped in excitement. "Wow! Let's all go to out of the academy to have lunch tomorrow." She suggested.

"Are we even allowed?" asked the brown haired boy.

"We rarely get breaks from the professors and yes we are allowed," she informed.

All of them were thrilled when they heard that they could actually go out. While they started talking where all they could go, an announcement was made over the speaker by the headmaster.

"Tomorrow, a notice for the second stage of the competition will be revealed. All the senior students are requested to line up in the gardens tomorrow morning."