Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world

Chapter 64: Potions Research and Development
The speculation and search for the secret room is a small change that Vaughn finds for himself in his busy life.

He had made all the preparations for the new potion and was just waiting for Professor Snape to find time to take him to find the werewolf.

Two days later, when Vaughan came out of the Slytherin common room dressed neatly, he saw Snape standing in a dark corner of the corridor waiting for him.

The eerie and strange look seemed as if they were making some underground connection.

"Professor, get some sun. It won't melt you."

"Shut up!"

"Good professor."

They came to the office together, and Snape handed over a basin of Floo powder with a stern face:

"To Knockturn Alley, don't read it wrong!"

Vaughn suddenly began to miss the reborn Fox. How convenient it was, unlike Floo powder, which would get him covered in dust.

He grabbed a handful and went into the fireplace.

After following the standard procedure, when I opened my eyes, I was already in a dark and narrow alley.

Unlike Diagon Alley not far away, the public fireplace here looks shabby and dilapidated, and there are many sneaky figures hiding in the corners around it.

Every time the green fire soared, the people who appeared after being teleported would tighten their cloaks, move in a hurry, and not dare to stop at all.

Vaughan didn't care much. He brushed off the dust on his body and waited for a while. Then the fire lit up in the fireplace behind him.

But Snape didn't come out immediately.

Vaughan saw him standing in the fireplace, quietly waving his wand...

Vaughn shouted with a smile, "Professor, are you secretly cleaning the ash?"

Then, Snape's gritted teeth came from the fireplace: "Shut! Up!"

Not long after, Snape came out, looking clean and refreshed.

His clothes were straight and his hair was still shiny black without a speck of dust.

If it weren't for Vaughn's previous shout, I believe his character would have been very successful.

He glared at Vaughan and walked towards a shop first.

Knockturn Alley is notorious throughout the wizarding world, where dark wizards conduct all kinds of shady and ugly deals.

But it has been able to exist and not be eliminated by the Ministry of Magic, so it must have its own way of survival.

At least Vaughan knew that many illegal transactions were not actually carried out in Knockturn Alley. There was also an underground block with the entrance hidden among these shops.

For example, Borgin and Burke!
On the surface, Borgin and Burke's is a shop that sells antiques. It is not illegal, but it can be said to be a gray industry that skirts the edge of the Ministry of Magic's laws. As for whether the antiques contain dangerous black magic...what does that have to do with the owner?

When Snape took Vaughn into Borgin and Burke's, the owner of the shop, Mr. Borgin, seemed not to notice and was focused on combing his shiny slicked-back hair.

Only when Vaughn looked at him did he give a greasy smile.

Snape ignored him and pulled Vaughn to the back of the shop, opened a trap door, and jumped down with Vaughn.

It was a narrow cellar, and it was a bit crowded for two people to stand in it. As the trapdoor closed, Snape recited a spell, and Vaughan felt as if the walls around him were moving.

After a moment, the light returned to his vision and he saw a door appear in front of him.

The moment the door was pushed open, a bustling underground block appeared before my eyes. It looked quite dilapidated, with bumpy roads full of dirty puddles.

The smell of rotting frog intestines and fermenting snake venom wafted in the air, making people dizzy and confused.

The light around was dim, with only a few torches scattered in front of a few shops.

The guys, hiding their heads and showing their tails, walked back and forth in the dark and dirty streets, whispering to each other. Occasionally, someone would suddenly chant an evil spell, and the magic light would bring light, and then go out with screams.

Everyone around turned a blind eye.

"What a chaotic place." Vaughn shook his head and sighed when he saw a green light in the distance.

Snape's face was expressionless. He waved his wand and blasted a guy who suddenly rushed over away. At the same time, he said in a tone that seemed to be mocking and warning: "In the eyes of the scum here, children like you are just fat sheep with words written on their faces. I hope you have some self-awareness. I don't want to receive a tearful letter from your parents one day."

Vaughn shrugged. "Don't worry, Professor. I value my life more than you think."

Snape's upper lip curled into a barely perceptible smile, and he said with his signature drawl, "It would be best if—"

After dealing with two nonsense guys again along the way, he took Vaughn to a store.

As soon as he opened the door, Vaughn heard a wizard roaring at the skinny old clerk behind the counter:

"...you promised this potion would cure dragon pox (a wizarding epidemic, the first case of which was caused by having sex with a dragon), damn it, look at my face -"

Flames suddenly burst out of his nostrils on his blue face.

The old clerk waved his broom, repeatedly slapping the wizard's hands as he stretched out to grab him, while explaining: "Those potions are absolutely effective. They are made by Master Snape... Ah, Mr. Snape, you've come at the right time!"

Snape snorted and glanced at the wizard: "There's nothing wrong with the potion. If you hadn't had...close contact with the dragon again, you would have recovered long ago!"

Vaughn, who was standing next to him, looked at the wizard in amazement.

He just thought this was an unlucky guy who was infected, but he didn't expect it to be a warrior...

Perhaps overwhelmed by Snape's title as the Master of Potions, this warrior who danced with dragons finally left in disappointment.

The rescued old clerk thanked Snape, closed the shop door, and took the two to the basement.

"Mr. Snape, these are the werewolves you requested."

He opened a heavy door.

Vaughn looked inside and saw more than a dozen iron cages welded to the rough stone wall of the small room. Some ragged people were lying or sitting in the cages.

Some of them had no light in their eyes, and they were as dazed as puppets, while some of them were growling ferociously like wild beasts.

Vaughn looked at the old clerk and asked, "What are these werewolves? Wanderers? Or are they Greyback's werewolf army?"

The old clerk first looked at Snape and found that Snape was still aloof. He immediately realized that it was the child in front of him who needed this group of werewolves.

Business people wouldn't be enemies with Jin Galleon. The old clerk smiled and took out a list: "Sir, you have everything you mentioned. Their identities are all recorded here. Please take a look."

Vaughn examined it carefully for a moment, nodded, opened his small satchel, and pulled out a bag of gold galleons he had prepared long ago. He handed it to the old clerk and said, "Is it okay for me to use your basement?"

"Of course, sir, please feel free to use it."

The old clerk said, almost obsequiously. Seeing the transaction complete, Snape said, "I'll wait for you upstairs."

"Hey, boy, come here and let me taste your meat!"

"Let me out, you little red-headed white pig—"

When Vaughn walked into the cell full of werewolves and closed the door, the werewolves' threats and roars began to echo in his ears.

These energetic guys are all members of Greyback's werewolf army.

Vaughan held the list in his hand, checking each name against the photos, and turned a deaf ear to their insults.

After more than ten people had taken their seats, Vaughn turned a stone brick into a laboratory table.

He opened his magical little bag and took out the tools from it.

He spent a lot of money to order a microscope from the Muggle community (with a spell that could reveal traces of magic), a set of separation equipment he designed himself (with a simple centrifugal function, used for tissue fluid research), a set of enchanted surgical equipment, an automatic extraction tank, an automatic quill pen...

As these equipment, which cost more than 2000 gold galleons to build, were displayed one by one.

The delighted Vaughan gradually began to hum a little tune.

In the dark basement, the atmosphere suddenly became weird.

When everything was in place, he took out a pair of glasses and put them on - they had a magnifying function - and tapped the parchment list in his hand with his wand a few times.

Then he said happily, "The first experiment, Mr. Marcus... Oh, you just said you wanted to taste my flesh?"

The roar of the werewolf named Marcus suddenly stopped, and his eyes widened under his messy long hair as he looked at the smiling child who raised his wand.

"Transform quickly!"

Under the powerful transformation spell, the iron bars of the iron cage were pulled out one by one, like climbing snakes, twisting and wrapping around Marcus's limbs and covering his head. The other end extended up and down through the roof and the ground, spreading Marcus' limbs wide and hanging him 1 foot above the ground.

Then, Vaughn picked up a syringe and pushed up his glasses. "Now, Mr. Marcus, let's get started. This potion can help you transform into a werewolf and activate the virus in your body, making it easier for me to observe and extract it. I believe you don't mind, right?"

Mr. Marcus, with his head covered, was unable to answer.

He couldn't even struggle.

As the potion was pushed into the body, the howling of a werewolf was soon heard in the basement, and then turned into a scream. In the shop above, Snape and the old clerk heard the sound and did not show any strange expression.

More than three hours later, when it was almost noon, Snape re-entered the basement.

He smelled the faint aroma of potion in the air, pushed open the door, and saw a horrific scene - a foot above the ground, there were several pools of rotten flesh, with only the skeleton remaining in its normal shape.

Their skin was peeled off, their muscles and internal organs were completely exposed, and their pink nerves were throbbing.

But surprisingly, there was no blood. The blood was drawn away by a tank floating nearby. Whenever a test tube was full, it would automatically float to the separation device and spin hummingly inside.

Next to it, there were many similar devices running, which dazzled Snape.

Although he knew that Vaughan's ideas were always eccentric and completely different from those of traditional pharmacists, such a scene still challenged his imagination.

Vaughn was lying in front of the laboratory table at this time.

The pair of magnifying glasses were pushed up to his forehead. He put his eyes on the microscope, and the halo of magic potion flowed in the glass slide. On the other side of the laboratory table, the automatic feather pen connected to his thoughts was recording.

He looked up when he heard Snape come in. "Ah, Professor, is it noon already?"

"Yes..." Snape was silent for a moment, then asked, "How's the progress?"

"Very smooth."

Vaughn was in a good mood. He said cheerfully, "Through the cooperation of several gentlemen, I've found where the werewolf virus is hidden. It's incredible. They have an extra organ compared to ordinary humans. When a werewolf is in human form, this organ is hidden behind the heart."

"But when a werewolf begins to transform, its tissue will spread into the lymphatic system. By circulating in the lymphatic system, the werewolf's saliva and blood will be filled with the virus..."

"Also, wolfsbane has proven effective in suppressing the werewolf virus, but it's not enough. It primarily targets the magical aspect of the virus, a cursed power entangled in the virus. It's the main reason werewolves lose their sanity."

As he spoke, he flipped through his notes and muttered, "It's a bit difficult. The curse and the virus are one and the same. If either one is not eliminated, it will regenerate... At present, it seems that wolfsbane can only suppress the curse, but cannot eliminate it. So, even if the wolfsbane potion is developed, it can only keep the werewolves sane..."

Upon hearing this, Snape immediately took the stack of notes from Vaughn's hands.

After quickly reading it, his face twitched as he looked at Vaughn and asked, "You think this isn't enough?"

Vaughn, waking from his thoughts, shook his head. "If it were just to curb the dangers of werewolves running amok, then of course it would be enough. But this medicine can't restrain werewolves bent on doing evil."

"You are too perfectionist!" Snape criticized him rarely.

"In my opinion, this potion is more than enough to help those poor people you told me about the other day. Or rather, your potion can only help them."

"Because they are the only ones who are forced into this situation, and their predicament is also due to the loss of control caused by their transformation into a werewolf. Your potion may not be able to solve the problem of the werewolf group, but it can alleviate their predicament and allow them to live, work, and fall in love like normal people..."

Having said this, he suddenly paused.

There was a visible expression of disgust on his face, as if he was thinking of some disgusting guy.

He skipped over the word and concluded, "Anyway, it's useful!"

Vaughn remained noncommittal. He felt that Snape was a bit idealistic: "Professor, the prejudice in people's hearts is as huge as a mountain. If it cannot be completely resolved, the situation of werewolves will not be able to improve at all!"

However, after more than three hours of testing for the virus, Vaughn also knew that it would be unlikely for him to solve it in a short time.

He then said, "Of course, you are right. It does work. At least it can prevent those werewolves who are forced to be infected from actively harming others."

Seeing that Vaughn seemed to have given up his hesitation, Snape resumed his aloof persona and asked concisely, "When is it going to be released?"

"It will take a while."

Vaughn said, "Today is just a test of the properties. The properties cannot be preserved. Next, we need a series of tests, selection of auxiliary materials, and planning of rituals to finalize the actual potion formula... I'm so hungry, where should we eat?"

His jumping thoughts almost made Snape lose his expression.

"...Are you not going to deal with these experimental subjects?"

"Ah... I almost forgot. Could you please help set the Fiendfyre on fire? These guys are Greyback's lackeys. They should be honored enough for their contributions."

"Humph, cruel fellow!"

"Thanks for the compliment, Professor."

Soon, the fierce fire engulfed the rotten flesh. This powerful cursed fire burned them to ashes.

(End of this chapter)