After treating Harry's injuries, Adrian pulled out the dittany plant whose top he had plucked. This couldn't be wasted.
Harry shook his arm and said, "Mr. Westeros, I received your letter."
"Of course," Adrian replied with a cheerful smile. "Otherwise you wouldn't be here."
"So..." Harry began awkwardly.
"Actually," Adrian interrupted Harry, his tone suddenly becoming serious, "You shouldn't so readily accept an invitation from a strange wizard. It's very dangerous."
Seeing Adrian's sudden seriousness, Harry was taken aback, seemingly not expecting Adrian to say such a thing. But Harry quickly regained his composure.
"But you're not a bad person," he said with certainty, "and you even healed my injuries."
Adrian smiled and shook the dittany root in his hand, still with some soil attached to it: "Ah, Harry, there are many kinds of bad people. Some bad people also smile and heal your wounds—as long as it serves their other purposes."
"What about you, sir?" Harry asked, shrinking his neck in fear.
Adrian raised an eyebrow. "You're quite lucky," he said lightly, "I was just trying to scare you."
Harry let out a long breath.
"Well, chitchat's over. Let's get down to business," Adrian handed most of the dittany to Harry.
Instinctively taking the dittany, Harry looked at Adrian puzzledly.
"Your task now is to learn how to turn this dittany into dittany essence," Adrian said.
Of course, this wasn't Adrian's true purpose. His real objective was to have Harry stay in the same space as the Wisdom Tree. This might be the reason for the Wisdom Tree's progress bar advancing.
Adrian waved his wand. A table flew out from the corner of the greenhouse. On the table sat a battered cauldron, along with materials for making dittany essence—pure spring water, ground dittany, unicorn tail hair...
"Oh, right, and this too." Adrian handed Harry a stick: "Although this wand might not be perfectly suitable for you, we don't have other options at the moment."
Harry took the wand. He knew that Adrian had used such a stick to cast amazing spells before. At this moment, he was so excited that he couldn't even speak.
"I don't recommend you attempt to learn actual spellcasting just yet, but working with potions should be perfectly fine," Adrian explained, "After all, your magical power isn't quite mature enough yet to handle controlled wandwork."
Harry nodded. He didn't know why Adrian was willing to teach him potion brewing. But! Whatever the reason, he was now eager to get in touch with something related to magic.
So, under Adrian's patient guidance, Harry enthusiastically began brewing his very first potion.
As the hours passed, it became gradually apparent that brewing potions was significantly less fascinating than the dazzling spellwork Harry had witnessed earlier. At least for Harry it was.
When Harry failed to successfully brew dittany essence for what seemed like the hundredth time, his initial enthusiasm had completely vanished replaced by frustrated resignation.
"Sir," Harry said cautiously, "I think this might be a bit difficult for me."
Looking at Harry's dejected expression, Adrian was momentarily speechless. This kid really wasn't cut out for brewing potions.
He had stirred the potion clockwise when the instructions clearly specified counterclockwise—not once, not twice, but three times in succession!
How could someone make exactly the same error three consecutive times?
Three times! For Merlin's Sake!!
"Alright, Harry," Adrian sighed and covered his forehead with his hand, "let's try once more."
Harry wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked up at the sky outside the greenhouse: "Sir, I need to head back, it's probably getting dark soon."
Adrian raised an eyebrow, took out an old but exquisite pocket watch and glanced at it: "Hmm, it is indeed already four o'clock."
The time inside the plantation was almost the same as the outside world. After all, the sky here was the same sky as outside.
Adrian put the watch back into his pocket and gave Harry a faint smile: "In that case, let's end here for today. Come back at the same time tomorrow."
"Do I need to come again?" Harry blurted, startled by this development.
Adrian patted Harry's shoulder, "Practicing potion brewing requires persistent dedication, Harry, Patience is ultimately more valuable than raw magical power in this subject."
Harry frowned, seemingly suddenly realizing something. He asked puzzledly, "Isn't this knowledge I would learn after entering Hogwarts?"
"Oh, Harry, this is just preschool content," Adrian said casually.
"Preschool?" Harry's eyes widened, "Hogwarts has a preschool?"
"Of course not," Adrian responded with a wink. "But now you've had the good fortune to meet me. Getting a head start on some skills is always advantageous, wouldn't you agree?"
Harry opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to argue something, but finally closed it.
"Alright," he shrugged, reluctantly agreeing, "see you tomorrow."
Adrian nodded slightly and waved his wand. A breeze blew past, and the previously messy potion materials automatically flew back to the table, each returning to its place.
Taking advantage of the tidying time. "Eldra," Adrian called to the Wisdom Tree, "how is your growth progress?"
[Status: Growing (2%)]
When the information came back, Adrian was delighted internally.
Just as he had hypothesized! During the previous week, when Harry Potter had been absent from the plantation, the Wisdom Tree's growth progress had remained at 1%, showing no advancement despite Adrian's best efforts. Yet today, after a single afternoon in Harry's presence, the progress bar had increased by one percentage point.
Adrian was now almost certain that this effect was definitively caused by Harry Potter. Something about the boy—perhaps the residual magic from surviving the killing curse, or some innate quality in his magical signature—was promoting the Wisdom Tree's development in ways Adrian couldn't yet fully understand.
When seeing Harry to the door, Adrian took out a green object from his pocket and handed it to Harry.
Harry took the green object about half the size of a fist and stared at it puzzledly for a few seconds: "What is this?"
Adrian smiled mysteriously, "This is a Chinese Chomping Cabbage."
"Chinese Chomping Cabbage?" Harry instinctively backed away a bit, keeping his hand away from his face, "Sounds unsafe."
Perhaps Harry's movement was too dramatic; the Chomping Cabbage in his hand turned around, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth, pointing at Harry.
"Ah!" Harry was frightened and threw the Chomping Cabbage away.
Adrian lightly waved his wand, a flash of blue light passed, and the Chomping Cabbage that Harry had thrown stopped steadily in mid-air.
"It doesn't appreciate being thrown around casually," Adrian explained with calm amusement, as if discussing the preferences of a temperamental pet rather than a botanical oddity with teeth. "Despite its somewhat frightening appearance, I assure you it's actually quite harmless."
The Chomping Cabbage twisted uncomfortably in the air, trying to break free from the Levitation Charm's constraint, but Adrian's magic was as steady as a mountain.
Adrian made the Chomping Cabbage float back in front of Harry.
"Remember, don't be afraid," Adrian said softly, "when you show calmness, it will also quiet down. Once the Chomping Cabbage remembers your scent, it won't attack you."
Harry hesitated for a moment but eventually reached out and carefully took the Chomping Cabbage floating in mid-air.
Strangely, this time the Chomping Cabbage seemed to truly quiet down, stopped struggling, and obediently lay in Harry's hand. Although its mouth of small teeth was still faintly visible, it no longer showed any aggressive behavior.
"See," Adrian smiled slightly, "it's already starting to like you."
In fact, generally speaking, Chomping Cabbages were not this docile. These Chomping Cabbages had all been "mutated" by Adrian. Although they sacrificed some aggressiveness, they would obey their master's commands. And not like normal Chomping Cabbages that bite anyone they see.