Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 264 The Art of Boiling

Lupin discerned the difference, then slowly pushed open the door, revealing a room that was completely different from the dusty, dilapidated scene outside.

The room was clearly cleaned; the floor was gleaming, the wooden walls were covered with wallpaper without a single scratch, and two sofas were comfortably placed next to the fireplace, where a fluffy rug was laid out. As the fireplace flames flickered and danced, a kettle spewed out steam.

On the other side of the room, however, was a completely different scene.

Several shelves piled high with medicinal herbs stood against the wall, with a heavy, massive obsidian table positioned between them.

The area in front of the table, near the center of the room, was not empty either; stoves, crucibles, balances, and other utensils were arranged in a neat and orderly fashion.

The girl who was processing herbs on the cutting board next to the crucible had stopped and was looking back at him, her eyes filled with curiosity.

There was another person next to the girl, whose back was to them, and who was bending over to examine the cauldron while waving a magic wand.

It's Vaughn Weasley.

Upon hearing him enter, Vaughn did not stop what he was doing. With a surge of powerful magic, some herbs flew up and circled around him as he waved his wand, while others quietly shattered, with specks of light falling into the cauldron.

"Perfect timing, Remus, this potion will be ready soon."

He said.

Hearing Vaughn's voice, Lupin looked toward the crucible.

Thick smoke swirled around it, making it appear to be boiling, but the color of the liquid behind the smoke was indistinguishable.

"President, is it the new version of the Wolfsbane Potion?"

Lupin asked curiously.

Vaughn, still focused on brewing the potion, casually hummed in response.

Looking at the crucible, Lupin remained silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Did you call me here to test the medicine?"

"Of course, dear Remus, otherwise why would I bother you? You have so many things to do right now."

Is this sarcasm, a warning, or just a casual joke?

Lupin couldn't tell, just as he had never clearly realized before carefully studying that article yesterday that Vaughn had actually been PUing him all along.

He had never truly seen through the child before him, this genius wizard!

Lupin's thoughts were a bit jumbled for a moment, while Vaughn on the other side showed no unusual behavior; his attention had already returned to brewing the potion.

A vast magical force surged forth, infused with indescribable emotions. A bizarre magic was brewing, utterly unfamiliar yet visibly powerful. Even the mere disturbance it caused to reality caused everything in the room—light, color, and even the space itself—all the elements that constituted a material entity, to mutate and mutate under its influence.

Visually, it looks like a Muggle television experiencing a signal malfunction.

Flickering, frame skipping.

Lupin wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but for a fleeting moment, he seemed to see the inanimate objects in the room—the wooden shelves, the table, the floor, and so on—as if they were—

He came back to life?

It's as if, within a very short frame rate, they are suddenly given life, grow, spread, twist, and then return to their original state in a very short instant.

Before he could savor the sights and ponder them, Vaughn waved his wand before the cauldron, and all the strange phenomena transformed into a shimmering ball of light, which coalesced at the tip of the wand.

At the same time, Vaughn's distant voice, as if from a great distance, came: "Hermione, prepare to take notes."

"Ready."

The girl answered in a clear, crisp voice.

Lupin then noticed that the girl who had been standing next to Vaughn had somehow left the vicinity of the crucible and was now standing next to him, holding a notebook and a quill pen.

Seemingly noticing his gaze, the girl looked up and smiled at him: "Hello, Mr. Lupin."

"Hello, Miss Granger."

Lupin knew her; in fact, many C members had heard of this young girl, from a Muggle family, and the president's girlfriend.

In fact, Hermione Granger's presence reassured many within the werewolf pack in its early days. For a group containing numerous Muggle werewolves, a Muggle girl was, to some extent, an indicator of Vaughn Weasley's stance.

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Hermione was clearly unaware that her origins had once been closely observed by the werewolves as a form of inclination.

She was simply curious about Lupin, who was standing next to her.

Having known Vaughn for so long, Hermione rarely saw him discuss any of C's werewolves with her in private. When he did mention them, he would only gloss over them and never go into detail.

The only name Vaughn mentioned many times was Remus Lupin.

Especially the other day, she went to the small world to find Vaughn, who was discussing a new level with Professor Rozier.

Professor Rozier joked, "Am I putting too much effort into the practical classes? I can only be a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for one year. When I step down next year, won't all this work I'm doing now just benefit the next bastard?"

Vaughn laughed and replied, "Would you be a little more accepting if Remus were the bastard next year?"

"Remus Lupin? You want him to replace me next year? Hmm—"

The two were just chatting casually at the time, and in the end, the professor did not give her any opinion. Vaughn also said that he was only providing candidates, and when he stepped down next year, Dumbledore would mainly refer to Professor Rozier's recommendation.

But Hermione knew that the more casual the conversation, the more it revealed a person's true intentions.

Based on her understanding of Vaughn, his recommendation of Mr. Lupin was most likely not a casual remark, but rather a decision he had already made and was trying to reach a consensus with Professor Rozier.

Hermione was curious about what it was about this rather melancholy-looking middle-aged man that Vaughn valued so much.

Don't blame her for overthinking. At the age of 13, while boys are still rolling around in the mud like monkeys, girls who are more precocious are already thinking about their partners and future.

Perhaps it was that precociousness that made Hermione instinctively want to know more about the people around Vaughn.

His family, his colleagues, his subordinates, and C, whom he relied on!

Thinking it over, Hermione extended her hand: "Mr. Lupin, let's get acquainted again. I'll be responsible for recording and observing the preparation and testing of the second version of the wolfsbane potion. It'll be a pleasure working with you!"

Lupin, who was being recorded and observed, was a little hesitant to speak, but he still shook hands with Hermione and was about to say something.

On the other side, the fairy fire that suddenly blazed up under the crucible furnace interrupted his conversation with Hermione.

Hermione looked over there with sparkling eyes, picked up her quill, and said, "We'll talk about that later. Vaughn is about to begin."

Lupin's attention also shifted to that.

More and more medicinal herbs flew from the table and wooden shelf to Vaughn's side, and were then "crushed" one by one, with countless specks of light falling like stars into the steaming crucible.

Vaughn's voice followed.

He explained the steps in detail, what materials were needed for each step, what rituals were planned (potions also require rituals), what his design concept was, and what kind of effect he wanted to achieve in the end.

"—Agrophobias (a fictional herb in European legends, described in various occult books as similar to peony), a controversial herb. Some apothecaries believe it possesses the ability to defend against dark forces, while others believe it is used to enhance darkness—"

"This controversy has lasted for hundreds of years, and its original function is no longer traceable. Therefore, according to my theory of shaping properties based on legends," it actually possesses both of the aforementioned functions simultaneously. My magic extraction experiments have also confirmed this. It's quite interesting that the apothecaries' analysis has created a contradictory medicinal herb —"

"However, here we only use its property of defending against dark forces. In my design, it is used to weaken the curse power of the werewolf virus. The ritual is to add the property, stir it to the left 4 times, 4 symbolizes harmony, allowing it to blend into the main ingredient, stir it to the right 3 times, right is the superior, and 3 possesses holiness, to strengthen the holiness of Aglaufortis."

"—When a barnacle blooms, a goose is born from the flower—"

"This is a record from a 16th-century Muggle who described a goose born from a barnacle flower, named Solingdal," also known as the Barnacle Goose. Its widespread exposure coincided with the drafting of the Act of Secrecy by the last Wizarding Council. Solingdal was later included in the first list of secrets by the first Ministry of Magic. They misled Muggle biologists, making them believe that it was absurd for barnacles to give birth to geese."

"Of course we know that Solingdai is a real and magical creature. It is not a plant, but a marine creature. Its larvae mimic barnacles, attaching themselves to rocks and waiting to mature before flowering. Thus, Solingdai, which is somewhere between a marine creature and a bird, came into being."

"Sorlingdale itself is nothing special. These little guys, whose origins are hard to pinpoint, live in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, not far to the north of the Hehidiri Islands. For generations, they have been food for the Hehidiri black dragons. The Ministry of Magic included them in the first protected list to hide the Hehidiri black dragons, but the wizards at the time could never have imagined that it was their actions that made the absurd and twisted life forms of Sorlingdale widely known in Muggle society."

"Now, the barnacles that can give birth to Solyndae" are said to possess the characteristic of symbolizing twisted life. Even twisted life is still life—it will serve as the foundation to carry my creeping spell."

"Using distorted and deformed life force and life form to disrupt the transformative rituals of wolfification —"

Hermione, standing beside her, was writing rapidly with a quill pen.

On Vaughn's side, Lupin also noticed that after explaining his detailed design, Vaughn's magic surged, and he "crushed" a bunch of things that looked like dried barnacles, and the light spots that were extracted fell into the crucible.

He began to wave his wand.

The ball of light and shadow that had previously shaken all the inanimate objects in the room, making them seem to come alive, and which had been concentrated at the tip of the staff, was thrown into the crucible by Vaughn.

Then, accompanied by Vaughn's murmurs, the stirring rod began the potion ritual for the new ingredients: "Stir to the right once, 1 represents creation, even twisted life is creation, it sustains the Spreading Curse—"

Stir twice to the left. 2 is the first even number, representing the hidden in mysticism and symbolizing the moon. Only a twisted life form originating from the moon can deceive the werewolf virus, which also originates from the moon. Stir four more times to the right. This is for harmonization.

Once the ritual was completed, Lupin watched as the steam rising from the crucible suddenly became viscous.

A faint silver edge appeared.

At first glance, it looks like the bright moonlight cast by the night sky, cool and refreshing, calming the mind at first sight.

Of course, this phenomenon was short-lived, because soon, Vaughn added another key ingredient: "The gerbera, also known as the sunflower, is passionate and fiery. It is the embodiment of the sun, passed down for thousands of years by various tribes across the African continent—this flower will imbue the entire potion with the pure mystical power of the sun, and it is the key to suppressing the wolf-like disease ritual—"

The stirring rods began to move again. For the gerbera, the ritual numbers designed by Vaughn were 3 and 6. 3 represents sacredness, and 6 is a multiple of 3, signifying its advancement.

Under that ritual, Lupin was astonished to see that the steam, which had just seemed like a handful of silvery water, had turned orange-red and violent in the blink of an eye!

In a daze, a wave of heat rolled in.

Is this really something a human can drink?

Lu Ping suddenly felt a little guilty.

But Vaughn had clearly considered this, and the ritual did not end: "—Because it is too pure, its power needs to be hidden. Ten times to the left and ten times to the right. Ten is the number of perfection, the ultimate number. —But there is no perfect thing in the world. Everything is opposite. Just as there is holiness because there is darkness, nine is the limit of holiness. One more step forward, and it will disappear into the abyss."

The wave of heat that hit us vanished in an instant after the ritual symbolizing the abyss was completed.

Only the still-boiling steam from the crucible in front of Vaughn reminded Lupin that he hadn't been mistaken.

"It's a success!"

Hermione, who had been taking notes rapidly beside her, let out a small cheer upon seeing this.

Lupin turned his head, somewhat bewildered: "Is it over?"

"Not yet, but it's almost done." Hermione couldn't hide her joy and pride. "According to Vaughn's design, the main part of the potion is complete. All that's left is to add some auxiliary ingredients, such as making it taste better, or tweaking some of the potion's functions—after all, this is the first dose, and we still lack real experimental data, so we can only make vague predictions about its functions."

"The experiment you are about to participate in is just the first step; there will be subsequent randomized, double-blind, controlled trials —"

To be honest, Lupin was getting a little dizzy from listening to all this.

He suddenly regretted not studying potions properly when he was in school. If Snape were standing here now, he would definitely understand the ideas and techniques that Vaughn just said.

They will also be able to understand those incomprehensible words like "comparison" and "double-blind" that Miss Granger uses.

The only thing he could understand was that it was almost his turn to perform.

He didn't have to wait too long.

Just as Miss Granger said, over at the crucible, Vaughn paused for a moment, calculating the time and observing the color of the potion, before adding a few more ingredients here and there.

Vaughn waved his wand, extinguishing the fairy fire in the furnace and gradually cooling the cauldron.

Shortly afterward, when the steam disappeared, Vaughn pulled out a ball of liquid and poured it into a crystal bottle that had been prepared beforehand.

Lupin, who had already taken the first version of the wolfsbane medicine, was very familiar with it. Although the final product would definitely differ slightly due to the pharmacist's skill level, some characteristics would remain unchanged.

The bottle that Vaughn was holding in his hand, examining it against the light, was completely different from what he had previously known. The crystal bottle was clearly 4/5 full, but the liquid inside shimmered like a ray of bright moonlight or a handful of shattered gold from the sunset, with a light and ethereal shimmering light.

Is this the second version of the wolfsbane medicine?

Whether it was the light and ethereal feeling of the potion itself, or witnessing the birth of the new version of the potion firsthand, it was hard to tell.

A sense of unreality lingered in Lupin's mind.

Especially when Vaughn came over and handed him the potion by hand, he felt almost nothing in addition to the weight of the crystal bottle itself.

Lupin was somewhat stunned.

But Vaughn didn't have time to linger with him: "Let's go, Remus, it's your turn now."

Lupin snapped out of his daze and noticed that Hermione Granger had somehow opened an old suitcase and crawled halfway down into it, while Vaughn was also heading in that direction.

The suitcase was familiar; Vaughn had always carried it with him when he was in North America.

There's a magic moon inside!

Lupin once thought that the first version of the wolfsbane medicine was already hard to swallow.

It was a hard-to-describe taste. James Brown once casually remarked that it was very close to the experience of most werewolves: "It's like swallowing a huge wad of snot, or biting into a piece of slime gel, but thicker and stickier, hanging in your throat, then flowing down your esophagus, making you feel the shape of your esophagus all the way down, and then, like a flushed toilet, it plops down into your stomach —"

Of course, James Brown's analogies are somewhat exaggerated. For example, the first version of the wolfsbane medicine did not have a salty, snotty smell, or the slime gel smelled like swallowing rotten mud.

It's worse than either of those!

Apart from that, it is basically consistent with the facts.

Lupin had always thought that the first version of the wolfsbane potion was so unpleasant to drink that it would be hard to overcome the problem until two minutes ago, when, under Vaughn's watchful gaze and under Miss Hermione Granger's bright, observant eyes, he drank the freshly made second version of the wolfsbane potion.

The moment the potion entered his mouth, Lupin could no longer feel his mouth.

The entire mouth was first filled with an icy chill, as if you were in the snowy Scottish Highlands in winter, biting into a block of ice against the wind.

The nerves in the mouth were frozen to death in a very short time, leaving only a vague numbness in the oral cavity.

Next, the stomach will suffer.

After his mouth felt numb from the cold, the medicine entered his stomach and its effects began to spread. Lu Ping felt as if he had swallowed a razor blade.

First came the excruciating pain, followed by an intense burning sensation!

The pain was so intense that he couldn't straighten his back. It felt as if an invisible hand had ripped his stomach out of his abdomen and was slowly roasting it over a fire, working from both inside and outside!

But these pains were nothing compared to the magical moon that Vaughn summoned after he drank the potion, which caused him to enter a full moon transformation state.

The reason for such certainty was that the instant the magical moon rose, Lupin was overcome by a sudden, excruciating pain that spread from his stomach throughout his entire body, causing him to faint completely.

"."

Hermione, who was taking notes, paused, then asked, "It failed?"

"----No!"

With one hand on his chin, Vaughn observed Lupin lying on the ground and gestured to Hermione, "See, he hasn't transformed."

Hermione quickly moved closer.

Sure enough, even though Lupin was unconscious, his limbs were still twitching and white foam was coming out of his mouth, giving the impression that he was about to die.

But under the full moon's glow, there was no sign of the other party's body turning into a wolf.

"Could it be because he's unconscious?"

Hermione immediately smacked her forehead in frustration as she asked the question. "I almost forgot, you published a paper before discussing how the werewolf virus influences and dominates the host's consciousness during the werewolf transformation process through the blood plague curse. It also discussed whether werewolves themselves have independent consciousness and whether this doesn't affect the werewolf transformation process—so, it succeeded?"

As she spoke, she cheered up again.

Vaughn, also infected by the smile, said, "Mostly—judging from Remus's performance, there's still room for improvement."

Upon hearing this, Hermione immediately grabbed her quill and got back to work: "Before falling unconscious after drinking the potion, Mr. Lupin described feeling pain, like a burning sensation. The design drafts you gave me didn't mention this subjective feeling. Is that why?"

"Possibly."

"Where did the problem lie?"

"It might be gerbera. This is the first time this herb has been used in potions, and there are no previous records. Perhaps it's because the solar properties were enhanced twice? Or is the mixture not blended enough? Hmm—it seems we need to optimize several versions of the experimental formula for gerbera. One version will have the ritual adjusted, and another version will have auxiliary ingredients added to try and neutralize it. As for the auxiliary ingredients, we need to choose—write them down, Hermione."

"OK!"

The two workaholics, one speaking and the other taking notes, were working up a fever pitch.

Lupin lay behind the two men, still convulsing and twitching.

Late at night, Vaughn finished a day of experiments and stepped out of his suitcase.

Exhausted after a day of torment, Lupin fell asleep in the suitcase space, with the magical moon keeping him company, hoping he would get a good rest tonight and be fully refreshed to continue being a guinea pig tomorrow.

Hermione returned to the castle after dinner; she didn't have the same privilege as Vaughn, who had the professors' permission to attend classes and do homework freely.

-

Two weeks into the practical course, some professors with more conservative thinking may not yet realize the impact of this course, but in actual teaching, they have already been unknowingly "swept up" by it.

The most typical example is the skyrocketing amount of homework on weekends.

Nowadays, any course can potentially be related to practical courses, and while the content of these practical courses has been adjusted according to grade level, a large part of it is not actually in the textbooks required by Hogwarts.

This forces professors in various disciplines to create their own lesson plans based on the progress of practical courses, teaching some unplanned knowledge.

The lesson plan has already been prepared.

It would be such a waste not to assign more homework to students!

The sudden increase in homework made the young wizards very uncomfortable. Even Hermione, who has obsessive-compulsive disorder and feels uncomfortable if she doesn't finish her homework as soon as possible, found it hard to bear.

She will be working late into the night after returning to her dorm tonight.

Meanwhile, although Vaughn no longer had to do homework, he was still quite busy.