Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 254 Dumbledore Feigning Madness

On Saturday, a day off, at a faculty and staff gathering, I served as a teaching assistant (but to avoid any curses, I had no actual title or position).

Vaughn attended the event.

The tall, thin Professor Sinister gripped Vaughn's hand tightly, wiping away tears with emotion: "In truth, I never imagined that you would be the one to save me, to save Astronomy Class, Vaughn, my dear. I'm so sorry I once thought you had absolutely no talent for divination—"

Vaughn's lips twitched. He really wanted to tell Professor Sinister that if he was truly sorry, he didn't need to repeat himself!

Professor Sinister, who had been marginalized for too long, did not notice Vaughn's embarrassment and continued, with tears in his eyes, "Unexpected, yet incredibly heartwarming. What wonderful children, what a wonderful intention, yet some people slander you and want to cause you trouble."

"My dear, please rest assured, I fully support you and Professor Rozier in continuing the practical courses. Anyone who wants to cause trouble for you will have to ask for my permission first. The teacher may not be very capable, but the field of astronomy is not dead yet. I have many friends in the Prophet's Club, and I also have connections in faraway Vargadu, my alma mater (the movie is set in Africa), which is the holy land for astronomers all over the world. It will be a pillar behind you!"

Professor Sinister was referring to the Board of Trustees when he said someone was causing trouble.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts practical course, spearheaded by Vaughn and Isabella, was able to pass through the Board of Governors only because Dumbledore exploited internal factional struggles within the school, uniting representatives of wizarding families and prominent figures in society to suppress the opposition of pure-blood families, barely managing to achieve this.

However, with the recent trial operation of the practical courses, some members of the board of directors have changed their minds.

The problem lies with the giant wolf!

In fact, the Board of Trustees was initially unaware that the giant wolf was related to werewolves. Dumbledore had brought the giant wolf into the Forbidden Forest without telling anyone.

Otherwise, the giant wolf tribe would have been driven out or wiped out long ago.

Vaughn recently published a paper in *Extraordinary Medicine* discussing the phenomenon that the werewolf virus cannot be inherited.

Whether a werewolf and a wizard mate, or a werewolf and a human, or even a giant wolf born from two werewolves, there is no indication of the inheritance of wolfification.

In the paper, Vaughn argues that if the cause of these signs can be deciphered, it could greatly promote the development of a new version of the wolfsbane medicine.

For example, completely cure wolf syndrome!

The paper was deliberately released by Vaughn, who specifically used the example of giant wolves in it; however, the paper itself was actually fine.

If you were a scholar or a pharmacist, the first thing that would come to mind when you see the paper is the new ideas that Vaughn's observations of non-heritable phenomena provide.

But in some people's eyes—they can only see what they want to see!

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Magic and the Board of Governors are where these people are most concentrated.

"I've read your paper, Vaughn." Hearing Sinestad mention "trouble," Professor McGonagall leaned closer. She'd had a few drinks, a faint blush on her aged face, her eyes bright, and she seemed quite lucid, though with a hint of doubt. "You shouldn't have mentioned giant wolves in your paper, child. Those purebloods opposed your and Miss Rosier's practical course reform plan from the start. Dumbledore went to great lengths to barely persuade the Board of Governors, but now—"

She didn't want to directly address the wizards' deep-seated prejudice against werewolves; it was too ugly.

Professor Sinister, however, lacked the vice-principal's composure. She curled her lip and said, "It's just prejudice. Hearing that giant wolves are descendants of werewolves, those well-dressed guys are all terrified, even though Vaughn clearly stated in his paper that werewolf offspring don't inherit wolfification, and even though several pharmacists have published articles in 'Extraordinary Potions' these past two days corroborating Vaughn's point!"

In fact, Vaughn's idea was not original. Long ago, wizards noticed that werewolf offspring do not inherit wolfification.

However, werewolves were of low status at that time, and even if a wizard observed this result, no one cared.

A similar phenomenon occurs when a wizard or Muggle is attacked by a werewolf in its non-transformed state; they will not contract werewolfism, but the injured person will develop a craving for raw meat after recovering.

Such records can be traced back hundreds of years, with many wizards who fought werewolves leaving behind notes.

But before Vaughn, no wizard cared about those records.

It wasn't until Vaughn recently incorporated them into his paper that they began to receive some attention.

Professor McGonagall was a well-known academic star who had read extensively in her youth, so she had naturally read those notes. Therefore, she did not refute Professor Sinister's words.

Seeing the slightly awkward atmosphere, Vaughn changed the subject: "Professor McGonagall, why isn't Dumbledore here today?"

The meeting place for faculty and staff is located on the fourth floor of the castle, which is probably the quietest floor in the castle. Of all the classrooms for all subjects, only the spell class is located on this floor. The other classrooms and activity rooms are almost all sealed off because they are not needed.

The prize display room is also here, and last year, Dumbledore sealed off a section of the corridor, designating it as a restricted area.

There was a classroom with a trapdoor that was converted into the entrance to a secret room where the Philosopher's Stone was stored.

It just wasn't used in the end.

The room, which the professors used to host parties, was spacious and meticulously clean, but sparsely furnished. There was only one huge table piled high with food, drinks, and beverages in the center of the room, with chairs and benches scattered around it.

Only the chair at the head of the table, representing the principal's position, looked quite luxurious, but there was no one there now.

Upon hearing this, Professor McGonagall sighed, a hint of resentment in her voice: "Albus hasn't been back for the past two days. Yesterday, the Board of Governors summoned him for questioning, and today, the Ministry of Magic called him in!"

"—Because of the practical class?"

"What else could it be?"

Ok!

It seems that this has indeed caused some trouble for Deng.

Vaughn raised his glass to hide his embarrassment and took a sip of juice.

But he was still quite satisfied. To be fair, Old Deng had a bad temper, but once he promised something, he really did his best!

Promoting practical courses, exchanges with international magic schools, and werewolf classes were conditions that Vaughn had previously exchanged with Dumbledore.

These days, Dumbledore spends almost all his time on these three things.

Vaughn hasn't shown up much.

On Sunday evening, Vaughn had just stepped out of the library when Phoenix Fox emerged from the air in front of him.

Dumbledore returned and invited him to meet.

When Vaughn arrived at the principal's office, Old Deng was eating his favorite candy behind his desk. He seemed to be in good spirits, but Vaughn could still tell from his "enjoying a delicious treat" expression that he was haggard.

"Ah, darling, welcome!"

When Dumbledore saw Vaughn following Fawkes in, he warmly opened his arms.

But Vaughn ignored him. "Professor McGonagall said you were summoned for questioning by the Ministry of Magic?"

Dumbledore, who was being "neglected," was not embarrassed at all. He stretched lazily and nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, thanks to your thesis, those school board members who were originally on my side and supported the practical courses are now starting to change their minds."

"Only a few school board members without children attending Hogwarts are still reluctant to follow my lead. Fudge has also gotten some leverage over me. It's a real shame I didn't take you with me. He's been in high spirits these past few days, all ruddy-faced, giving me a real dressing down. He said you and I conspired to create a werewolf army at Hogwarts and infect all the young wizards to become werewolves!"

"ha!"

Vaughn didn't want to say anything, but Fudge was indeed the kind of person who could utter such anti-intellectual remarks.

"So, what was the result?"

"The result wasn't too bad," Dumbledore said without keeping them in suspense. "Wessengamo invited several renowned apothecaries, and they acknowledged your observations at the inquiry meeting. One of them, apothecaries named Damocles Belby, spoke highly of you."

"Fudge probably realized that the preparations were insufficient, so he rescheduled the questioning meeting midway through and postponed the preparations for another month."

Ok?

Vaughn looked puzzled: "He's so sensible? He didn't cause any trouble?"

"Hahaha—" Dumbledore laughed, then winked: "Our dear Minister Fudge certainly didn't want things to end so abruptly, but today's newspaper article made him choose to keep quiet for the time being."

As he spoke, he waved his hand, and a copy of the Daily Prophet floated toward Vaughn.

Vaughn took it and discovered that the newspaper was actually in French.

Fortunately, he speaks French, so there were no obstacles.

The front page headline of this French edition of the Daily Prophet featured two enormous photographs, magically enhanced by a developing agent. The one on the left depicted a French palace nestled in the mountains, a work of art in itself.

The one on the right is a square building standing in the rainforest, surrounded by lush canopies and moist mist, its entire body gleaming with gold, resembling a temple.

Below the photo, a large title reads:

[England's youngest Potions Master, inventor of Wolfsbane Potion, invites magic schools worldwide to Hogwarts for a potions exchange program—Bobbyton and Castorbcher gladly accept the invitation.]

Beauxbatons is a French magic school, but its enrollment area covers almost all of Central and Southern Europe. It is one of the three major magic schools in Europe, on par with Hogwarts, and is also one of the largest and oldest magic schools in the world.

Castorbuscher is relatively less well-known. It is a magic school in South America with a relatively short history, only a few hundred years old. According to Vaughn, it is even younger than Iphamoni.

Before Isolt Thayer traveled to the Americas, the transmission of shamanic education among the indigenous peoples of the Americas was still a relatively inefficient master-apprentice model.

This is related to their culture at the time. Native American shamans did not come into contact with the secular world. From the moment they became shamans, they assumed that they were separate from the human realm.

Having abandoned even the identity of a human, they naturally had no intention of establishing schools or developing magical education.

It wasn't until Thayer established Ivermoni, modeled after Hogwarts, and actively engaged with and communicated with indigenous wizards that the indigenous wizards' views gradually changed. About 200 years ago, he established Castorbusch in South America.

Vaughn scrolled down.

Below the photo are interviews with the principals of the two magic schools:

—Headmistress Orim Maxim praised the contribution of Wolfsbane to the global magical community: "It is a potion that can rewrite history." She added that Europe is the birthplace of werewolves, and for thousands of years countless Muggles and wizards have suffered from the threat and torment of werewolfism, until Mr. Vaughn Weasley put it on the reins.—

"Beauxbatons respects any wizard who has contributed to the wizarding world, and we are delighted to have received Mr. Weasley's invitation to send our outstanding students to learn from the world's youngest Potions Master," said Ms. Maxim emotionally.

A spokesperson for the French Ministry of Magic stated that the Ministry is actively communicating with England to facilitate this international exchange between magic schools. However, strangely, the English Ministry of Magic seems less enthusiastic. There are rumors that the English Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, has a private grudge against Mr. Vaughn Weasley. The spokesperson stated that France welcomes Mr. Weasley to study at Beauxbatons.

Ah!

Looking at the veiled reference at the end of the report, Vaughn smiled. It would have to be the century-old friendship between Britain and France, meaning they couldn't interact, otherwise the two sides would be giving each other a good verbal beating under the newspaper.

Compared to the French reports, which contained various ambiguous meanings, the news from Castrobuscher seemed much more normal.

Enrique Jacutinga, headmaster of Castorbash, said that Castorbash has had a deep friendship with Hogwarts since its founding. Benedit Doradu (the previous headmaster) visited Armando Dippet, Dumbledore visited Benedit Doradu, and Jacutinga visited Dumbledore. Their friendship has lasted for a century and will never fade.

Of course, aside from the official platitudes, Vaughn noticed that Enrique Yakutinga later revealed that the main reason he was invited was indeed for the wolfsbane medicine.

To be precise, it was for a series of novel techniques and theories that Vaughn used in developing the wolfsbane drug!

For example, theories on the properties of medicinal materials and the magical extraction method!

South America’s vast rainforests are home to some of the world’s richest biodiversity, and the Castorbcher Magic School is best known for its herbalism.

Unfortunately, the development of this discipline, which Castulbsch relied on most, had long been stuck in a bottleneck.

Especially in recent centuries, as the golden age of potion-making has gradually faded away and the trend of constantly creating new recipes has disappeared, potion-making has become more conservative, and the demand for new herbs has also decreased rapidly.

After the Scapin Revealing Charm was invented, herbs completely lost their mystique, and now, the discipline has almost become "the cultivation and maintenance of magical plants" —

Many herbalists once thought that the field of herbalism had reached its end.

After all, the potion recipes currently available in the world have already exhausted the potential of herbs. This exhaustion does not mean that no new herb varieties will appear.

In fact, every year, wizards from all over the world discover new species of magical plants in the South American rainforest.

The so-called exhaustion of potential refers to the fact that new magical plant species and new herbs cannot surpass the value of the old ones.

After all, the medicinal properties required in the potion system are fixed.

When existing varieties are sufficient to meet the needs of potion-making, newly discovered herbs will naturally be overlooked, thus losing their research value.

It's only natural that a discipline that can't create new value will hit a bottleneck!

It wasn't until the advent of wolfsbane medicine that Warn's related theoretical research spread throughout the world.

One can imagine the wizards of Castorbuscher seeing Vaughn's research papers, which revealed theories about how herbs could possess countless possible properties, and the magical extraction methods for realizing those properties.

How crazy they are!

Unfortunately, both the property theory and the magic extraction method have serious limitations—they require a talent for potion making.

Since the advent of the Wolfsbane Potion at the beginning of the year, Vaughn's theoretical research has gradually become known to the magical community around the world. Castorbuscher has organized a large number of people to try to sense the properties of the medicinal materials and extract them with magic power, following the method mentioned by Vaughn in his paper.

As a result, only a few people succeed.

Without exception, successful wizards are all renowned apothecaries in South America.

At that time, Castrobscher speculated that Vaughn Weasley's theories and methods might require a very high level of potion-making talent.

This conjecture was confirmed in a paper subsequently published by Vaughn.

Originally, Castor had already abandoned the theory of properties and the method of magic extraction. After all, if a theory and technology are only allowed to be mastered by a few people, its prospects can only be greatly reduced.

Unexpectedly, after the summer vacation, at the end of August, Vaughn Weasley suddenly announced in a paper that he was trying to develop the properties of perception and magic extraction into spells so that every wizard could use them!

Not long after making this bombshell announcement, he published an "unfinished spell" in Spell Creation.

Next, Dumbledore, through the International Confederation of Wizards, sent invitations to major magic schools around the world.

They were invited to send their best pharmacists and students with potion-making talent to Hogwarts for academic exchanges on potions.

One of the exchange programs listed by Dumbledore that particularly appealed to Castor Büsher was to help Vaughn Weasley perfect that spell!

During this time, Castrobusch reorganized his team to verify the "incomplete spell" that Vaughn had revealed.

Although it seemed unbelievable, the results showed that the spell was real!

"That unfinished spell has immense potential; we believe it can reverse the current stagnation in herbalism," Enrique Jacutinga exclaimed excitedly. Although Vaughn Weasley's original intention wasn't for herbalism, there's no doubt that if many assumptions within the theory of properties hold true—such as properties being influenced by legends—herbalism might become incredibly unfamiliar because of his achievements!"

For Castorbushe, and for any wizard skilled in herbalism, becoming unfamiliar with this subject is not a disaster, but a new beginning, perhaps opening up endless possibilities—Castrubushe will certainly respond enthusiastically to Hogwarts' invitation, and we will send our best talents to assist Mr. Weasley in perfecting that spell—

Looking at the excited expression on the face of Enrique Jakutinga, the principal of Castrobuscher, at the end of the article, Vaughn smiled slightly.

The fish has taken the bait.

When Vaughn first decided to hold the International Magic School Potions Academic Exchange Activity, his first target was this school located in South America.

He later spent reputation points, also to attract them.

The theory of properties was extremely important to Castulbche, whose main discipline was herbalism.

Therefore, he was not surprised by Enrique Jakutinga's statement.

Relatively speaking, Beauxbatons' willingness to step forward surprised him somewhat.

The century-old friendship between Britain and France is not just a casual remark, and Beauxbatons has always regarded Hogwarts as a stumbling block.

Could it be Nicolas Flamel?

Seemingly sensing Vaughn's confusion, Dumbledore, who was still eating candy behind his desk, spoke up: "Nicole has been a great help to us this time. He personally contacted the Beauxbatons Board of Governors and the French Ministry of Magic—he had originally decided to retire from worldly affairs."

Vaughn remained unmoved and rational: "What are Lemaître's demands?"

Dumbledore wasn't surprised by Vaughn's almost detached rationality. Instead of answering, he asked, "You haven't begun your journey through the Aether yet, have you?"

The Journey to the Aether is considered by the Golden Soul School to be the starting point of alchemy. Although it is just communicating with the ether, projecting consciousness from the material world into the ether to take a "journey".

However, in the view of the Golden Soul School, this act itself represents the return of the individual to the cosmic soul, and is the first step from separation to great unity.

Therefore, although Vaughn once entered the Aether under Dumbledore's guidance, such "travel" does not count in alchemical philosophy.

"I've been quite busy since the start of the semester, so I haven't started yet."

Dumbledore nodded: "No rush. You need to be fully prepared for your first ether journey. You'll be alone, so you need to consider all possible contingencies. I'll take you to see Nico after you've completed your journey."

"Is this his request?"

"Yes!"

"Just a meeting?"

"Just a meeting—or at least that's what he said."

Vaughn was a little puzzled and joked, "Why did he wait until I finished my trip to meet me? Is he planning to take me on as his apprentice?"

"Perhaps!" Dumbledore shrugged. "Or maybe it's just curiosity. You know, when people get old, they can become very eccentric, sometimes as unpredictable as children."

"Like you? You're always acting crazy!"

"Thank you for the compliment, child, I love you!" Dumbledore said dismissively, smiling as he unwrapped another candy.

Looking at him, Vaughn's eyes flickered.

The old man is faking his madness!

Nicolas Flamel's demands were probably not that simple.

However, seeing that Dumbledore didn't want to talk about it, Vaughn didn't press him. Whatever Nicolas Flamel had to say, that was a matter for later.

Thinking this, Vaughn shook the newspaper in his hand: "Did Nicolas Flamel also help with this?"

"Yes, the Lemaître family's influence in France is far greater than anyone imagines."

Vaughn didn't care about that: "What's the English saying?"

"Cornell was in agony," Dumbledore chuckled. "You should have seen his expression at the end of the questioning this morning. It was spectacular—bewilderment, surprise, embarrassment, and humiliation—I've never seen anyone's face change so quickly."