Speaking of the Wolfsbane Potion, one inevitably has to mention the group that uses it—werewolves.
Werewolves are humans who transform into wolves when the full moon rises. This condition is caused by infection with lycanthropy. Werewolves can spread this terrifying disease by biting other humans.
During the full moon, a werewolf is unable to control themselves. They will transform automatically, and for the duration of the transformation, they lose their reason.
After transforming, they forget who they are and may even kill the people closest to them. The cruelest part is that although they have no rationality or emotion during the transformation, once it ends, they can still remember everything they experienced throughout the entire process.
If they harmed those closest to them during the transformation, that sense of guilt would likely become a shadow they could never escape for the rest of their lives. According to some tragic accounts, many victims of werewolves would rather die than become the next werewolf themselves.
This is a terrifying and tragic magical disease. Werewolves are also patients afflicted by this illness—they should have received help and sympathy.
However, lycanthropy cannot be cured, and during their transformations they cannot remain conscious or rational. Very few werewolves are able to suppress the craving for blood within themselves, and those who lose their reason have caused many horrific tragedies.
Werewolves who are out of control, completely driven by their inner thirst for blood, are abandoned by normal humans. Wizards generally feel disgust and fear toward werewolves. They are not accepted, nor can they find work.
Prejudice, shame, and abuse begin from the moment they contract the disease and accompany them for their entire lives.
The Ministry of Magic established the Werewolf Capture Unit and the Werewolf Registry in an attempt to control werewolves and reduce the danger they posed. The original intention may have been good, but everything changed in execution.
Under the ulterior motives of certain individuals within the Ministry, anti-werewolf legislation was even introduced. The person behind this legislation was the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic, Dolores Jane Umbridge.
Under this kind of top-down exclusion and oppression, some werewolves began to develop hatred toward wizards. Werewolves grew ever more bloodthirsty and brutal, and the Ministry of Magic's crackdowns became increasingly severe.
The rift between werewolves and normal society widened more and more.
It was precisely because of this rift that an opportunity arose for a portion of werewolves. They formed their own communities, took in more of their kind who were rejected by normal people, and at the same time devoted themselves to infecting more people to expand their ranks.
They even hoped that one day, relying on vast numbers of werewolves, they could defeat the wizards and establish a realm drenched in blood.
The most infamous werewolf community in the British wizarding world was founded by Fenrir Greyback.
He and his followers took pleasure in bloodshed, cruel and murderous. Even while maintaining human form, they still acted with abandon, creating countless tragedies.
Wizard discrimination and the recklessness of their own kind plunged those werewolves who still retained kindness in their hearts into boundless darkness. There was not a trace of light in their lives—until the appearance of the Wolfsbane Potion.
This potion was invented in recent years. Although the Wolfsbane Potion cannot cure lycanthropy, it gave these pitiful people a glimmer of hope. It can help werewolves maintain their reason during transformation and suppress their inner impulses.
Hope did appear, but the high price of the Wolfsbane Potion made werewolves shrink back in fear. Because of wizarding exclusion, werewolves were unable to find work. They could not eat their fill or keep themselves warm, and simply could not afford the potion.
Moreover, most werewolves sneered at this potion. They had already grown accustomed to killing and blood; they enjoyed such a life, and they would not spend even a single copper Knut on the Wolfsbane Potion.
For all of these reasons, Eda could not understand why Snape was having her brew the Wolfsbane Potion.
All along, the potions Eda brewed privately while serving detention had come from market orders Snape had received. On the one hand, they suited Eda's current level in Potions; on the other, they could also bring her some income.
This was the Potions professor's personal consideration for Eda, and she had always kept it in mind.
However, there were very few werewolves who wanted to purchase the Wolfsbane Potion, and among them, the number who could persuade Severus Snape to act was practically zero.
The high price of the Wolfsbane Potion was not only because it was the only potion that could help werewolves, but also because of the precious ingredients listed in its recipe.
That was the real reason the potion's price remained so high. Many potion scholars had devoted themselves to improving the potion, yet had never found a solution.
Being suddenly asked to brew this kind of potion naturally left Eda confused. She couldn't figure out the reason and had no idea what Snape was really up to.
Faced with Eda's doubts, Snape couldn't even be bothered to lift his eyelids. He repeated, "The formula is on the table, the ingredients are in the cabinet. That is your task for today."
Did you really think Snape wanted to brew the Wolfsbane Potion?
If it weren't for that nasty old man's request, Snape wouldn't touch such a thankless and exhausting job at all! What's more, this potion was being provided to someone he didn't even like.
Snape was the Potions professor at Hogwarts, not Dumbledore's personal potions assistant. First he had to help take care of children, then brew potions for Glover Cecil, and now it was the turn of that annoying Moony.
Snape strongly demanded extra pay—otherwise this job simply couldn't be done!
What the Potions professor was thinking, Eda had no way of knowing. If he were willing to say any of this out loud, Eda would certainly find the nickname "Moony" familiar, because she and the twins possessed the Marauder's Map, and among the map's four creators was Moony.
Moreover, if she knew that this Wolfsbane Potion was for someone within the school, following that thread, Eda could easily uncover the answer to her biggest mystery of the school year.
Unfortunately, Snape, the king of spies, kept his mouth tightly shut and let nothing slip.
In fact, Snape had already brewed the Wolfsbane Potion long ago. He was just sulking over what had happened yesterday. That scheming Moony didn't deserve to drink a potion he had made himself, so Snape made Eda brew another batch.
Revenge—very childish revenge, but there was no helping it. Snape still had to consider the bigger picture; letting a werewolf stroll around the school bathing in moonlight was definitely not a good thing.
The dungeon classroom was very quiet, with only the crackling of the flames and the bubbling gurgle of the potion in the cauldron.
Eda tied her hair tightly back behind her head to keep it from falling into the cauldron. But doing so also left all of her expressions fully visible to Snape. The slight upward curve of her lips once again reminded him of the humiliation brought by that new "skin."
After finishing the day's procedure, Eda left the dungeon classroom, and along with her departure went Gryffindor's points.
Snape once again deducted points from Eda without the slightest bottom line. The reason? Who was he looking down on—since when did the Potions professor need a reason to deduct points!
When Eda returned to the common room, the twins hadn't gone to sleep yet. The two of them were sitting by the fireplace, carefully picking the spines from fire crabs. Eda walked over and joined them.
She asked, "Do you think there really are werewolves in the Forbidden Forest?"
There had always been rumors at the school that there were werewolves in the Forbidden Forest. Even though no one had ever seen a werewolf appear there, many students were still filled with fear toward the dark forest.
"Werewolves?" Fred guessed. "Probably not, I'm not too sure." They'd gone in and out of the Forbidden Forest so many times, yet the twins had never seen a werewolf—though they had seen a few pretty little wolf cubs.
"What's wrong? Why ask that all of a sudden?" George asked with concern. Why had Eda suddenly become interested in werewolves—had Snape said something to her that evening?
Eda shook her head and didn't mention the Wolfsbane Potion. She didn't want to add unnecessary worry.
She said, "Nothing much, it just occurred to me. The rumor about werewolves in the Forbidden Forest has been around for so many years, yet no one's ever seen one. It's kind of like the Chamber of Secrets."
"Hey, it's no big deal!" Fred said nonchalantly. "Some other day, we'll just find time to take a trip there!"
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