Recently, Snape's mood had been terrible.
Ever since the duel, he'd been avoiding Murphy. He even hesitated to appear in crowded places like the Great Hall, feeling as if everyone was mocking him behind his back.
He knew it was an illusion.
He was a professor now, not a student who made a fool of himself. No one would dare mock him.
Still, when Flitwick tried to comfort him by saying, "Don't take it to heart," he nearly lost his temper. He didn't need comfort! Or pity! That brat had just played a trick; he hadn't lost!
"Forget it, Tom..." Hermione held back Tom, who was about to stop Snape. "He seems even more dreadful than before. I doubt you'd come back alive."
"Don't worry," Tom smiled. "He can't kill me again."
After the recent dark events, he was no longer much afraid of a professor.
In the puzzled gaze of his friends, Tom stopped Snape in the corridor leading to the dungeons.
"Professor, may I take a moment of your time?"
Like a bat gliding close to the ground, Snape halted abruptly. "Move, Lucas. Or I'll deduct fifty points from Gryffindor!"
"I'm a Slytherin, Professor," Tom corrected with a smile.
"Oh, really? How surprising."
"I have a question to ask you."
"Can't the all-knowing Murphy Darkholm answer your question?"
"Professor Murphy admitted he doesn't know, but perhaps you do."
"Hah, how unusual."
"Professor, can you make the Elixir of Life?"
"What?" Snape's eyes sharpened instantly.
"I remember you saying you could teach us to defy death... And I don't think you were just referring to simple healing potions."
"Why do you ask?"
"I've heard it's one of the greatest potions." Tom said. "And I want to know if potion-making really has the power to defy death."
"If you've heard of the Elixir of Life, you should know it requires the Philosopher's Stone." Snape took a step forward, looking down at him. "I'll ask again, why this question? Who sent you?"
Tom, unaware that Snape suspected him of being a spy for Quirrell, continued, "The Elixir of Life can also be used to reshape bodies, right? Do you have someone you want to resurrect?"
This was undoubtedly offensive, but Tom didn't care much. He had almost confirmed that Snape knew the Elixir's formula; otherwise, Snape could have just denied it or walked away.
Tom wanted to test whether Snape really planned to steal the Philosopher's Stone as Harry suspected.
If so, Snape might panic upon having his secret pointed out.
Unexpectedly, Snape exploded in anger, "Is it Murphy who sent you? Is it!"
This reaction caught Tom off guard.
In Tom's mind, if Snape were innocent, he would have been infuriated by the offense, but not to the extent of appearing deeply humiliated and enraged as he did now.
Snape left in a fury, without even threatening to deduct points. His anger seemed to suddenly dissipate into a terrifying calm, and he left without a word.
"Tom... are you okay?" Harry and the others approached after Snape was gone. "Hey, are you alright?"
"Professor Snape... doesn't seem to be the person we're looking for," Tom said.
"What? What did you say to him? He looked like he was about to lose control and duel you."
Tom was also puzzled. "He seemed too sensitive to that comment..."
But at least it was now certain Snape knew the formula for the Elixir of Life.
The remaining question was how to obtain it from Snape.
...
The workload for the second half of the term was much heavier than the first, and Harry was exhausted every day from Quidditch training.
Tom was also very busy, spending almost all his free time in the library, studying various spells. The diary had challenged him; using spells from it wouldn't defeat his opponent, so he was learning on his own.
To break free from the diary's control, he needed to develop self-protective abilities – it might be a slim hope, but he refused to give up.
Tom hadn't opened the diary again, so Murphy couldn't directly guide him through it anymore. However, their relationship had grown closer recently.
Tom often sought Murphy for spell instruction, and coincidentally, Murphy had a project that needed Tom's assistance.
His recent research was "Magical Vision Virus."
This was inspired by the "Anti-Cancer Virus" training.
In his cancer research institute, thousands of employees worked half on collecting a variety of bizarre cancerous tissue samples from around the world and half on sample marking and re-reviewing the markings.
Due to the higher staff number than initially planned, the volume of training for the anti-cancer microbial community was much larger. However, his luck wasn't great – of over a hundred trained groups, more than eighty had been eliminated for killing normal cells or failing to kill cancer cells thrice, eradicated by the Seed of Consciousness.
To sustain the remaining twenty groups, he had to slow down the training, allowing them enough reproduction and mutation time.
During the training, he realized that if microbes could be trained to kill cancer cells, they could also be trained to be affinity-indicating for a certain type of magical attribute.
For example, repeatedly stimulating the group with "Control" attribute magic, keeping those that respond and eliminating those that don't. After hundreds of generations of optimized mutations, select bacteria or viruses that produce a specific reaction – as long as the sample volume was large enough, he could find such microbes.
Thus, a bacteria or virus that reacts specifically to "Control" attribute magic would be created.
In these microbes, there must be a substance that reacts specifically to "Control" magic – say, releasing certain ions.
And there must be one or several genes that can express and synthesize this substance.
Then, by cutting out these genes and transferring them to rod or cone cells, using their original light conversion mechanism, magical vision could be achieved by substituting magical stimulation for light.
Although the process was complex, there were no absolute technical bottlenecks. And once successful, not just wizards but even Muggles and animals could see magic.
In this project, Tom was mainly responsible for magically training the microbes.
After training that day, Harry used the fairy gold coin to call Tom to the Gryffindor table, where the young wizards gathered again.
"After today's match..."
"Match?" Tom had been immersed in learning and research with Murphy after classes and hadn't paid attention to sports.
"Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff, we won," Harry said. "Anyway, after the match, I saw Snape threatening Quirrell. He seemed to want to know how to get past Quirrell's traps."
"Do you still think he's involved?"
Harry nodded. "And this time, I thought of a way to prove it."
"How?" Hermione asked.
"Ask Quirrell." Harry said. "If Quirrell tells the truth, we have evidence."
"But Quirrell's a professor; he won't entertain our questions," Ron pointed out.
"Unless we transform into a professor to ask," Tom suggested. "Murphy mentioned the Polyjuice Potion, which can transform someone into another person."
Tom didn't really believe Snape was after the Philosopher
's Stone, but confirming it wouldn't hurt.
If necessary, he might help Snape succeed and then share the results. After all, he only needed the Elixir of Life made from the Stone, not the Stone itself.
"However, I heard that potion takes over two months to brew."
"It won't take that long," Hermione realized something. "Remember the transformations Autumn Zhang's group was working on? Professor Murphy had them make many Polyjuice Potions; maybe I can borrow a bottle."
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