Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 220 Vaughn: You're a real bastard, Albus!

The "island" in front of me looks no different from any other "island".

The colors are vibrant and ever-changing, and the shapes are illusory. They appear towering and majestic, but upon closer inspection, they seem incredibly small, giving people a strong sense of spatial disorientation.

Vaughn knew this was because the crevices, like the ether, possessed the characteristic that space loses its meaning.

Almost all the "islands" located here are like this.

He didn't know how Sara Amira distinguished them; it was probably related to the special magic in the legend of the Dream Messenger.

Vagado's magic is unique to begin with, not to mention the even more unique magic within this unique magic system.

Anyway, no matter how hard Vaughn tried to open his eyes, he couldn't see what Sarah Amira's hands, hidden under her burqa, were doing.

Then, the "island" slowly opened up in front of the two of them.

A crystal-clear path stretched from the interior of the island, leading right to their feet.

The road was crystal clear, and it even had musical notes jumping around on it.

In response, the competent guide, Sarah Amira, explained, "This is Amira—oh, the owner of the dream, the little wizard I discovered named Amira. She loves music and dreams of becoming a singer—or, in Muggle terms, a star?"

As she spoke, she pulled Vaughn along, stepping onto the transparent path, where musical notes danced beneath their feet.

Vaughn even heard ethereal music playing near and far in his ears.

Sara Amira overheard this as well, and her tone became both cheerful and wistful: "Little Amira secretly practiced her vocals again today. Her parents have always been against her learning it, thinking she's delusional and shameless."

"Shameless?"

"Yes, her Muggle race and beliefs do not allow her to show her face in public."

Ah!

Vaughn suddenly realized.

To be honest, he wasn't very good at distinguishing between Arabs and Coptics, but he did know a little about the characteristics of their faiths.

However, this thing is hard to evaluate, so I didn't say much more.

As they spoke, the leaping musical notes carried the two of them into the interior of the island, a "world" that, like the island's exterior, was filled with dazzling colors, seemingly vast yet incredibly narrow, giving one a strong sense of spatial disorientation.

A series of illusory scenes rise and fall in the "world".

"That's Amira's silhouette projected here from her dream in the Ether—ha, look, she's dreaming of becoming a big star!"

Following Sarah Amira's gaze, Vaughn saw a dark-skinned little girl with high eyebrows and deep-set eyes, dressed in a gorgeous but oddly fitting gown for her age and size, singing passionately on a magnificent stage.

The dream flashed by quickly, and the clothes and backgrounds kept changing.

Vaughn wasn't surprised by this; dreams are indeed unpredictable. In fact, he had already seen the dreams of countless people through memory magic.

For example, characters like Malfoy and Goyle only possess memory magic, requiring the dreamer to be by their side, rather than observing through another means as they do now.

After enjoying the little girl's dream for a while, Sarah Amira took Vaughn and jumped off the edge of the road.

Falling into this dazzling "world," amidst countless flowing "lights."

It continues to sink.

After sinking for an unknown period of time, until it disappeared into complete darkness, Sara Amira suddenly raised her hand and made several gestures.

She pulled each scene out of the darkness.

Like a series of interconnected picture frames, or like an enlarged film reel, it floated in front of the two of them.

Vaughn recognized it at a glance; it was the memory of the little girl, Amyra!

He frowned slightly: "Is what you dream messengers do every day just to look through the memories of these little wizards?"

"Yes, to be precise, it should be called memory projection. After all, we are not memory magicians and lack the ability to interfere with memories."

"What if a dream messenger is also a memory mage?"

Vaughn asked curiously because he could sense that he could now tamper with Amyra's so-called memory projections.

Sarah Amira, who was gesturing and quickly reviewing the girl's memories, turned to look at Vaughn upon hearing this and chuckled, "Then, the god Set will bestow punishment!"

"Hmm? The God of Set?"

"Do you remember the doorknob you and Dumbledore used when you entered here? Its true form is called Set, or Settras, the god of darkness and chaos in Egyptian mythology. It is an ancient artifact, possibly thousands of years old. The rift where we are and those dream entrances are formed by its power. It has jurisdiction over everything here, one of which is that it does not allow any wizard to interfere with memories and dreams."

Vaughn's brow furrowed even more deeply.

Noticing his confusion, Sara Amira thought for a moment and asked, "Do you know what dreams represent in Egyptian culture?"

Unlike Vaughn's answer, she had already replied: "In Egyptian mythology, dreams are considered a passage from the present life to the afterlife, a bridge between humans and gods, a path to the afterlife, and a corridor to the dwelling place of the soul!"

"And this so-called myth was actually passed down from Egyptian wizards to Muggles—you can think of dreams in the Egyptian magical world as representing the path to the other side. Thousands of years ago, a great alchemist created Set to manifest and protect dreams!"

'

Vaughn looked bewildered.

Noticing his expression, Sara Amira, who had been speaking solemnly just a moment ago, suddenly let out a clear laugh: "What, you didn't actually believe it, did you? This legend is similar to the stories in your 'Tales of Beedle the Bard,' just a myth from the magical world!"

Do not!

The records in The Tales of Beedle the Bard are indeed myths and legends, but that does not mean the stories themselves are not based on real events or evolved from history.

At least, the legend of the Peverell brothers is true.

It's just that the Grim Reaper element has been added.

Similarly, if we remove the mythological elements from the Egyptian legends told by Sara Amira regarding the function of "dreams," does it also contain a certain amount of truth?

For example, dreams are corridors leading to the dwelling place of the soul.

soul!

For Vaughn now, he wants to know and understand any information related to this concept!

The mysteries of life and death, the mysteries of magic, all seem to be related to the soul.

Regardless of his past or present life, the knowledge he possessed was almost entirely useless in determining or searching for a soul.

After a moment of stunned silence, Vaughn raised his head, his smile gentle and utterly deceptive: "Ms. Sara Amira, do your Dream Messengers recruit foreigners?"

Sara Amira: "————?"

The Dream Messenger certainly does not recruit foreigners.

Sarah Amira rolled her eyes and ignored Vaughn. Vaughn didn't care and continued to watch the new dream messenger who had graduated this year with great interest, carefully examining the young witches she was in charge of.

The child's day was unremarkable. Although Egypt in the 90s was poor, it was still recovering from the trauma of several Middle East wars.

But compared to the region separated only by the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, a country that, like the Far East, is gradually opening up, at least still enjoys peace.

Having reviewed the little witch's day and confirmed that she hadn't encountered any strange people or caused any trouble due to the fluctuations in her magic—

Egypt's attention to prospective wizards far surpasses that of England, perhaps because of the stronger secular religious atmosphere there. Therefore, newly discovered prospective wizards are usually given a confusion spell by a dream messenger on their families.

To prevent any abnormalities caused by the magical outburst from threatening the survival of the aspiring young wizards.

After examining Amyra's dream, Sarah Amira, along with Vaughn, went to another young wizard she had discovered.

For the rest of the time, the process was almost always the same. Sara Amira tended to her flower buds like a diligent gardener.

Vaughn didn't find it boring at all, and watched with great interest.

After his experiences in North America and his recent stay in Egypt, he suddenly realized that the graduation trip that Hogwarts has had since the time of the four great masters is indeed a necessary and visionary rule.

The world is not just the British Isles; it is vast, so vast that different regions can have enormous differences. These differences are not only reflected in local customs and culture, but also in magic and the history of magic—a point that he had not previously paid enough attention to.

Over thousands of years, countries around the world have not always been in contact. Amidst the comings and goings of separation and reunification, countless valuable magical artifacts and histories have been buried in the weight of their respective histories.

After accompanying Sarah Amira to examine yet another young wizard, they left the dream. Dumbledore had also finished talking with Piastre and was waiting outside.

"Mr. Albus Dumbledore," Sara Amira said with a slight bow, greeting Dumbledore.

Old Deng is generally quite reliable in front of outsiders. He nodded slightly and exchanged a few pleasantries, displaying a dignified and respected demeanor.

After they said goodbye and left, he winked at Vaughn and asked, "Honey, how did it go?"

"—Boring old man!"

Dumbledore didn't mind being teased and just laughed it off.

Seeing him laughing so happily, Vaughn asked, "How did your talk with Piastor go?"

Sure enough, Old Deng's smile vanished, replaced by disappointment and weariness on his aged face: "Alas, Piastar—or rather, the Egyptian Ministry of Magic—has explicitly refused to interfere in their affairs—I can understand their concerns."

"The emergence of negative emotions is not caused by dark wizards, but by the Muggle war. The Muggles' actions have nothing to do with magic, and according to the Statute of Secrets, no wizarding organization is allowed to participate in it, even if the purpose is good."

As he spoke, he looked at the gap between reality and ether, at the vast, boundless black void.

It's as if your gaze can penetrate this place and see the other side of the peninsula in reality, where the dark clouds hovering over the city are composed of the pain, resentment, and despair of countless dead.

His eyes were unusually lost.

Dumbledore was a staunch defender of the Secret Code. In his long life, he did see some of the Code's drawbacks and experienced some of the problems it brought.

In his past view, the "Secrecy Law" was generally flawed but its merits outweighed its shortcomings.

But Vaughn's trip to North America, including witnessing the calamities in the Middle East firsthand, made him suddenly waver in his previous convictions.

What exactly does the "Secrecy Law" protect?

"Vaughn, I feel like my vision is really too narrow right now, and I'm suddenly having trouble distinguishing right from wrong."

"What are you going to do next?"

"I need to think about this carefully—" Dumbledore withdrew his gaze, changed the subject, and asked with a smile, "And you? How was your experience as a Dream Messenger?"

"That's interesting. I was just discussing with Sara Amira about becoming a foreign dream messenger—by the way, perhaps you could talk to that Piastor, or even the Egyptian Ministry of Magic, and ask them to grant me this wish?"

Hearing such an outrageous request, even someone as thick-skinned as Dumbledore's lips twitched slightly.

This was, of course, just Vaughn teasing him.

After the two escaped the narrow passage and returned to the cruise ship, Vaughn revealed his true thoughts: "Albus, I'd like to organize an international magic school exchange program for the new semester."

This time, Dumbledore did not hesitate as he had when Vaughnti started the werewolf class.

Instead, he pondered for a moment, then lowered his head and asked, "What is the topic?"

"Wolfsbane Potion 1.0, Wolfsbane Potion 2.0, Warn Beauty Series, etc., are basically academic exchanges on magic extraction methods and magic potion research and development."

There's nothing wrong with this topic. Vaughn, who has developed the Wolfsbane Potion and already holds the title of Potions Master, is qualified to set out such a "topic" and extend invitations to other magic schools.

He was more interested in another point: "Have you successfully developed your second version of the wolfsbane medicine?"

Vaughn nodded: "There's still some finishing work to be done, mainly focusing on the selection of materials. I didn't bring a lot of medicinal herbs with me when I was in North America, so I'll finish it as soon as I get back to England."

"And the results?"

"As originally planned, while maintaining the werewolf's sanity during the full moon, the effect has been further enhanced. As you know, the first version of the werewolf poison theoretically had the potential to go out of control, but the second version has completely solved this problem and weakened the contagiousness of the werewolf virus."

"weaken?"

"Yes," Vaughn said calmly. "For the time being, there is no way to completely eradicate it, because the werewolf virus involves the modification of microorganisms with the aid of magic. The virus and the werewolf curse are one and the same. From a physical point of view, it is not difficult to completely solve the spread of the virus. The difficulty lies in the curse, unless I can research an antidote and reproduce the effect of the antidote through a potion."

Dumbledore frowned. If that was all there was to it, then the effectiveness of the so-called Wolfsbane Potion 2.0 would be greatly diminished.

Noticing his expression, Vaughn said, "Don't worry, perhaps I was too cautious with my words. What I meant by 'weakening' actually greatly reduces the virulence of the werewolf virus. For newly infected patients, as long as they are within 12 days of infection..."

Taking the medication within an hour has a very high probability of blocking the virus's physiological effects on them.

During his research, Vaughn discovered that the most challenging aspect of the werewolf virus is that it restructures the host's physiological structure to a certain extent after infecting the host.

Simply put, it causes the host to grow several new magical organs that humans shouldn't have.

These are the virus factories that the werewolf virus builds inside its host.

Vaughn named them "viral glands," and their existence and function are quite similar to human glands, including their classification.

It has endocrine glands, which enter the bloodstream and affect the target through blood flow. The werewolf's transformation into a madman during the full moon is mainly due to the function of the endocrine glands.

The first version of the wolfsbane drug developed by Vaughn works by entering the bloodstream and "controlling" the werewolf virus, forcing the werewolf virus, which is active in the bloodstream, to be unable to enter the brain or only enter in small quantities.

Therefore, for Wolfsbane Potion 1.0, the werewolf who takes the potion needs to stay in a fixed location and restrain himself for a period of time—especially on the night of the full moon—in order to avoid the increased blood flow during strenuous exercise, which would reduce the "controlling" effect of the potion.

Another type is the exocrine gland, which does not enter the blood vessels but has its own "duct" to transport secretions.

They are mainly concentrated around the werewolf's fingernails and mouth. Wolfsbane Potion 2.0 targets these areas. According to Vaughn's plan, the new version of Wolfsbane Potion will block the ducts of the exocrine glands, preventing the werewolf virus it produces from leaving the glands and participating in external effects.

The mechanism of action is divided into two parts. One part is to directly attack the glands, forcing the glands, which are the virus factories, to stop producing viruses at full capacity.

The other part is the potion isolation layer, where certain weak magical forces formed through mystical means within the potion enter the conduit to intercept any viruses carrying curses that pass through.

This interception can even act on the blood-brain barrier, which is why Vaughn said the second version enhanced the werewolf's ability to maintain sanity.

Yes, the two versions have different mechanisms of action and target different objectives. Therefore, Wolfsbane Potion 1.0 and 2...

0 represents two complementary versions.

Version 2.0 cannot truly replace version 1.0. Warn has turned the Wolfsbane Poison into a dual therapy!

Dumbledore also keenly noticed this, though he wasn't sure if it was due to technical skill or Vaughn's deliberate act.

Old Deng always subconsciously speculated about Vaughn's behavior and pondered what Vaughn had done with malice.

But he almost never says it out loud; it's a tacit understanding between the two of them.

He listened silently as Vaughn outlined the themes for the new semester, including his ideas on potion development and potion therapy, for the international magic school exchange program.

"—I'm going to organize the method for extracting the magical properties of medicinal herbs and try to develop it into two spells, one for extracting properties and the other for analyzing properties. I'll also reconstruct the research and development theory of potion-making around these two spells."

"There are so many medicinal herbs in the magical world, each with its own unique properties. The extraction conditions for each one are different. The traditional potion system uses a decocting method, supplemented by mystical rituals, to crudely utilize them."

"The law of magic extraction is precise extraction. In the past, I used my keen perception and transmutation talent to extract it little by little. But if I want to promote my theory, it is obviously not possible to do it this way. It is imperative to develop it into a spell. This requires someone to work with me to study what conditions are needed to successfully extract various properties and to help me build a database of my spells."

"This is very demanding, but also very groundbreaking work—Albus, do you think those magic schools will agree?"

Dumbledore replied almost without hesitation, "Of course they'll agree!"

Although Dumbledore was not very good at potions, he understood the advantages of terms like "standardization" and "standardization" that were imported from Muggles.

He could foresee that if Vaughn succeeded, the entire world's potion-making system would undergo a massive upheaval.

Given such prospects, only a fool would refuse!

Even he himself was very interested in participating in it.

After listening to Vaughn's idea, Dumbledore thought for a moment and said, "When we return to England, turn your considerations into a plan and give it to me. I need to give it to the Ministry of Magic and the Board of Governors—"

He paused for a moment before continuing, "Regarding the werewolf class—I think you can also include it in the proposal, making it part of the overall plan. After all, your exchange topics include the research and development of wolfsbane, and the research and development of wolfsbane requires reasonable test subjects—"

Vaughn glanced at him sideways. "I like that suggestion. You're such a scoundrel, Albus!"

"Thank you for the compliment. I think you must have thought of this method without me reminding you; I just said it first."

The two foxes looked at each other and smiled.

Back on the cruise ship, the two parted ways in haste.

Vaughn needs to go back and organize the international magic school exchange plan, and try to get the plan moving forward before the start of the semester. He will try his best to contact and negotiate with major international magic schools at the start of the semester to implement the plan.

Dumbledore was even busier.

Although he appeared carefree and nonchalant in front of Vaughn, he had actually been keeping the events in North America to himself.

Upon returning, he would prepare for the investigation. Of course, an investigation cannot be conducted by one person alone; it requires organizing manpower and carrying out the investigation in a planned, organized, and logical manner.

He needs to think carefully about how many "tools" he has in his pocket that he can use.

Secondly, there was the situation in the Middle East. Through his conversation with Piaster, he realized that Egypt was no longer a viable option, and he needed to think of other ways, such as contacting the ministries of magic in other Middle Eastern countries and forming an alliance with them.

Alternatively, he would have to find a way to get the Federation involved—but that would certainly provoke protests and opposition from major magical nations like England and France.

Limiting the power of the federation is an unspoken understanding among major powers.

Finally, there's Vaughn's international magic school exchange program, which Old Dumbledore strongly supports.

Even though he didn't understand why Vaughn did it.

but----

Studying potions is better than Vaughn being so engrossed in WAC affairs and always thinking about politics, right?

A powerful potions master is generally more reassuring than a powerful magical politician.

During the final moments of their return journey, the busy couple didn't leave their suite again.

The cruise ship left Cairo the next day, crossed the Mediterranean, and passed through the Balkans and Southern Europe. Only when passing through southern France did Vaughn briefly come up to the deck to see Isabella surrounded by wolf children, point to the distant horizon, and tell them where Beauxbatons School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was.