Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 265 Vaughn, who has mastered over a thousand spells

The development of any new drug is not achieved overnight, especially when it targets a disease as complex as wolf-like disease, a long-standing problem.

The successful brewing of the potion only proves that Vaughn's approach to developing the formula was correct. Whether it has achieved its design goals remains to be seen, depending on a series of subsequent "clinical trials".

[At this point, I hope readers will remember that our domain name tracking is accurate and super convenient.]

Today, Lupin's drug trial revealed several problems with the formula to Vaughn. He needs to sort them out tonight, repeatedly deduce the connections between the problems, and see which ones need to be completely resolved and which ones are acceptable side effects.

Of course, most importantly, Vaughn also benefited greatly from the design and preparation of the second version of the wolfsbane medicine.

Especially his theory.

After closing his briefcase, Vaughn went to the desk and began writing down his thoughts with a quill pen.

"—Currently, there is still no concrete evidence to prove the universal laws governing the formation of characteristics. We can only confirm that legends influence mystery. Over time, some medicinal herbs will be endowed with the abilities described in the legends—but how do legends influence mystery? From the moment the legend of how a medicinal herb was prepared spread, how long does it take for its characteristics to be born?"

"In addition, there are the inherent properties of the medicinal materials themselves, which can also be called medicinal properties or active ingredients —"

The characteristics obviously cannot be entirely attributed to legend.

Because that would lead to a problem—potions would definitely appear later than magic!

In the notes that Vaughn had collected in the past, there was no evidence to support this view. In practice, Vaughn also found that the medicinal properties of the herbs themselves were useful. Many potions, such as White Pepper Essence, utilize the healing ability of White Pepper itself.

This is common knowledge for pharmacists, and no one had paid attention to it before. After all, the first lesson everyone learned in potion making was to memorize the properties of medicinal herbs.

But Vaughn is different.

He thought about it more deeply.

The medicinal properties of herbs are undoubtedly outside the realm of magic. Many herbs are actually used in Muggle society as well, such as lycorine.

In the Muggle science system, the effective components of medicinal materials are called secondary metabolites, which are non-growth metabolites (not involved in plant growth and development) produced by cells during the growth process of medicinal plants to adapt to environmental changes, defend against pathogens, and when injured.

Therefore, whether in the magical world or Muggle society, as long as everyone uses the same medicinal materials, the secondary metabolites of the medicine will remain unchanged.

But why are magic potions more effective, while herbal remedies in Muggle society have a much slower effect?

The only reason, of course, is magic!

What has always intrigued Vaughn is how magic can achieve completely different levels of effect from the same substance.

It is important to know that, according to the "Gamp Transformation Law," no magic can change the nature of matter.

Simply increasing the quantity is not enough; in terms of technology alone, Muggle purification technology is far more advanced than that of the magical world.

Unless, of course, those herbs inherently possess the potential to enhance medicinal properties!

The research into this problem stemmed from a direction that Vaughn had conceived long ago—that the foundation of matter is the molecule.

Atoms, by continuously subdividing a tree and a person, until they are decomposed from their macroscopic state, become the basic particles that make up matter.

In essence, there is no difference between the two.

Since medicinal herbs can be "unleashed" by magic, can Muggles do the same?

In other words, could potion science, like developing and brewing potions, transform Muggles who have no magic and are forever cut off from magic into "potions" that allow them to access magic, through the adjustment of their properties?

"Unfortunately, judging from the current progress, this idea is too far-fetched. I haven't even discovered the basic principles—and this is something I can't share with anyone; it's too crazy, it would scare people!"

Shaking his head, Vaughn stopped paying attention to this fundamental, yet unsolvable, problem.

In comparison, sorting out medicinal materials is more practical.

He continued, "—I remember last year I suggested that Cedric pay attention to the sap grass, and I think its potential in the field of transformation is far from exhausted."

"In the second version of the Wolfsbane Potion, I first used the Sap Grass. Although the newly developed Creeping Spell can create 'distorted life,' it is precisely because of this distortion that I cannot define its exact scope. I noticed the Sap Grass's ability to reshape the body. As a catalyst, combined with the Creeping Spell, it proved to play a very important role —"

"As an excipient in compound decoctions, it is severely underestimated. The changes it induces are not superficial, but may penetrate deep into the body. Most interestingly, it can adapt to any organism and any individual. It seems that all organisms have the same template in front of it, whether they are the lowest insects or higher animals, male or female."

"In a sense, its ability to reshape the body is the closest it comes to breaking the 'Gamp Transformation Law'."

.

After outlining his thoughts at length, Vaughn prioritized Sapgrass to the top tier.

He needed to take the time to deepen his research on this herb. His intuition told him that the sapwort might be a key element in realizing his idea of ​​"giving Muggles magic through the method of brewing magic."

"In tomorrow's experiment, we can try designing an experimental formula that uses *Ligusticum striatum* as one of the main ingredients —"

Be careful, or I might turn Lupin into a slime—"

This is how you think, record, and deduce.

When Vaughn felt sleepy and put down his quill, it was already past 3 a.m.

After returning to his dorm and sleeping until noon, Vaughn ate lunch and then went back to the Screaming Shack. He entered the suitcase space and, with Remus Lupin's "active" cooperation, continued to modify and adjust the formula for Wolfsbane Potion 2.0.

He then spent the entire weekend like this.

It wasn't until Monday that we had to temporarily stop for one or two reasons.

One was that Lu Ping couldn't take it anymore—after two consecutive days of high-intensity experiments, where he practically drank and ate wolfsbane medicine, he experienced countless side effects from the medicine.

It can cause sensory stimulation such as severe pain, burning pain, itching, and drowsiness.

There are also terrible bodily changes such as rhabdomyolysis, bone degeneration, and subcutaneous tissue inversion.

Vaughn was very suspicious that if things continued like this, Lupin would either die or go insane.

To avoid losing such a good test subject, Vaughn had to suspend the work on refining the formula and give his dear Remus a break.

The other thing is that the Duel Section has been approved!

Previously, the school board had barely passed the proposal for the Duel Club. Vaughn proved that the giant wolves would not be infected with wolf disease by "self-harming". The wizard family representatives had no reason to stop it and all "turned against" him - that's what Lucius thought.

Of course, the representatives of the pure-blood families did not admit defeat either.

Since they could no longer stop the creation of the Duel Club, they changed their tactics. Led by Lucius, the pure-blood family representatives suddenly began to actively try to expand the Duel Club into a "Duel Class".

Conversely, the school board members who had previously supported Vaughn strongly opposed the proposal, demanding that it exist as a "club".

The shift in the positions of both sides is actually quite simple.

If dueling were to become a "lesson," it would be a regular course at Hogwarts, allowing the Board of Governors to exercise its power to interfere in teaching and administrative planning, including curriculum arrangements and personnel appointments.

However, if it is a club, then it is an "amateur organization" founded by Vaughn Weasley. According to the conventions of the International Magical Organization, such private clubs do not need to care about anyone's opinions in all their subsequent business activities, as long as they do not violate local laws and secrecy laws.

In the past few days, the Board of Trustees has held several meetings regarding Warn's research on Wolfsbane Agent 2.0, but neither side has been willing to back down.

Dumbledore, who had been missing for several days, returned to Hogwarts on Sunday night.

During the closed-door meeting that day, no one knew how Mr. White Demon Lord had persuaded the pure-blood family representatives. Vaughn only saw Lucius Malfoy and Alecto Caro, their faces ashen, storm off.

Then the following Monday, an announcement about the Duel Club was posted on the castle's bulletin board.

Harry noticed a large crowd gathered in the castle hall after his morning Herbology class. He squeezed through the crowd to see the announcement about the duel.

"—In view of the various problems students have encountered in the two weeks since the implementation of the practical course reform, such as how to better experience the course and complete the assignments, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry faculty and board of directors have decided to apply through Mr. Vaughn Weasley's Duel Club—"

In the Duel Club, Malfoy wasn't bragging?

duel?

Is it teaching how to fight?

Harry quickly wiped his glasses and continued reading the announcement. The first half of the announcement was mostly official language, explaining why Hogwarts had approved the club's decision, making the reasons seem legitimate.

The second half introduces the club itself: "—The Duel Club's philosophy is to facilitate practice and engage in duels with reality." It doesn't do anything excessive, violates school rules or laws; essentially, it provides a platform for sharing information, intelligence, and other resources for practical classes.

"Do you feel like you haven't had enough at the beginning or end of each practical class? Do you feel that your preparation before class was still insufficient, and that your post-class summary might not be useful for the next class? Do you feel that there are a lot of fake news circulating in the school, and that the information you have is useless?"

"With the Duel Club, all these problems will disappear. We encourage students to exchange information and intelligence here, teach each other contingency plans and guide the practice of spells—there are no entry requirements, any student or professor can apply to join. Come and contribute to the reform of practical courses, making things easier for yourself and others!"

When I saw the introduction about the concepts and functions of the dueling clubs...

Harry was immediately smitten.

But it wasn't because of what the announcement claimed, for the so-called exchange of information and intelligence—though that was one of the reasons, Harry, who had gradually become engrossed in the three practical classes, sometimes felt that the practical classes were changing too much.

The challenges you overcome last week may not be needed next week.

Exchanging information privately with others, without the other party necessarily receiving the truth, isn't necessarily pure deception. Rather, some guys like to boast, such as Seamus Finnigan, Justin Finley of Hufflepuff, and Ernie McMillan.

But what attracted Harry the most was the Duel Club's "Instruction Practice Charms".

"It says above that Vaughn will be the instructor for spell training—right?"

Harry stared blankly at the announcement when a faint voice came from beside him—it was Neville.

He was still short and chubby, and the crowd around him made it impossible to see anything clearly.

There's a practical class this afternoon. Because she really annoyed Hermione last week, this morning in the Great Hall, when Professor Rozier was tallying the team formations, Hermione handed in her form ahead of time.

She will be grouped with Parvati and Eloise.

The iron triangle falls apart —

Harry no longer hoped that he could persuade Hermione to change her mind in just one morning. To avoid having no one to team up with, he pulled Neville into the team during Herbology class.

Ron did not object to this; Neville's performance in the herbalism class two weeks ago had already impressed everyone.

"What, are you scared?" Ron squeezed in unnoticed, using his height to look down at Neville. "Last time you defended Vaughn so well, I thought you admired him. Turns out you're afraid of him too—"

"I...I didn't!"

Neville, his face flushed with nervousness, glared at Ron and stammered, "Yes, I'm scared, but I'm scared—scared that I'm too stupid to seize this opportunity to receive his guidance, scared, scared that he'll be disappointed—what do you know, Ronald!"

After saying that, he turned around and squeezed out again.

Ron was left awkwardly rubbing his nose, and said to Harry sheepishly, "Just kidding—why is he taking it so seriously?"

Harry didn't say anything.

Occasionally, he would envy Ron's carefree personality. Last week, he was speechless after being confronted by Hermione, and he reflected on whether there was something wrong with his attitude towards Vaughn.

As a result, they quickly forgot about their reflections and reverted to their old ways.

Even though he confided in everyone last weekend, causing some unpleasantness, Ron seemed to have forgotten about it after a good night's sleep.

Yesterday, Ron even accompanied him to Hagrid's cabin again, saying it was to make up for the missed trip on Saturday.

However, Harry knew that behind the apparent reconciliation, their relationship was still shrouded in gloom.

Harry didn't know how to solve it. He hadn't had many friends growing up and didn't have much experience to draw on. He simply felt that if he could handle the problems he had caused, he could solve them.

Perhaps, he, Ron, and Hermione can rekindle their friendship?

Notebook, Crevier —

Last week, after learning about the notebook's dangers from Ron, Harry started thinking about how to solve the problem. Thanks to Vaughn's hellish training, Harry is now much more cautious.

In the past, he would probably have barged up to Crevy and said, "Hey, Colin, can you give me back my notebook?"

Putting aside the possibility of alerting him, what if the notebook really gets back on his mind?

He was much more cautious now. He planned to improve his magical abilities before dealing with the notebook. In any case, the thing that was suspected to be a dark magic item had not yet shown the sinister and vicious side that Ron had described.

"Speaking of which, it seems like Crevy didn't show up today?"

After reading the announcement, Harry and Ron subconsciously looked around as they squeezed out of the crowd.

Normally at times like this, Colin Crevey would jump out from some unknown corner and unleash a burst of light right in Harry's face.

However, Harry didn't see him all morning.

Harry felt a little uneasy.

On his way back to the Gryffindor Tower, he told Ron about his discovery.

Ron dismissed it: "Maybe he's busy catching up on homework? You know, the professors have gone crazy lately, assigning tons of assignments related to practical classes. I'm getting up at 4 a.m. to copy them—I mean, to catch up!"

"But he's a first-year student; they don't have to take practical classes."

"Since you're worried, why don't you go back and ask? Although I don't think it's necessary. If something really happened to him, the school would have been in an uproar long ago. Why wait until you notice something's wrong?"

Ron always manages to say things that make people feel "reassuring" from strange angles —

Harry didn't dwell on it any longer, his attention returning to the Dueling Club. He asked Ron with a hint of anticipation, "What spells do you think Vaughn will teach us at the club?"

"—You really want to participate?"

"Don't you want to go?" Harry asked back.

Ron paused, mumbled something, and then whispered, "You're asking me? I don't know what spells he knows either—"

"You're his brother, Ron!"

"Thank you for reminding me, Harry, I almost forgot—of course I'm his brother! But you didn't get my point. What I meant was, Vaughn knows far too many spells, countless. I suspect he, like Professor Flitwick, has mastered thousands!"

Professor Flitwick kept a low profile when Harry, Ron, and others were in their first year.

Harry's deepest impression of him was when Professor Flitwick called his name during his first Charms class last year, and Harry was so excited that he fell off the lectern.

Even more outrageous than Quirinas Quiro!

However, everyone's attitude towards Professor Flitwick was completely different from that towards Quirrell, because this short professor, who was suspected of having fairy blood, was a very witty and humorous person, and attending his class was never an unbearable experience.

Compared to his witty and friendly personality, his magical abilities are less of a concern for most people.

Until recently, news of the dueling club had spread widely in the castle.

Professor Flitwick suddenly became quite active.

During the last Charms class last week, the professor casually mentioned that he had won the international dueling championship in the 70s.

Faced with the skeptical clamor from the Slytherin snakes, Professor Flitwick used dozens of different spells in class to deal with the same situation.

Naturally, his performance captivated the young wizards!

Rumors circulated in the castle on Saturday that Professor Flitwick, who was born with a defect, was less than 4 feet tall, and looked like a child, won the dueling championship by relying on his vast knowledge of spells and his wisdom.

At breakfast on Sunday, a young wizard from a wizarding family received a reply from his family confirming that Professor Flitwick had mastered at least a thousand spells!

From that moment on, Professor Flitwick became Ron's idol.

He often mentioned "thousands of curses".

Harry felt a little strange when Ron compared Vaughn to Professor Flitwick.

He still preferred Ron's old, unruly manner.

To Harry's relief, however, Ron, as his "useless brother," provided some information that outsiders would rarely know about Vaughn's strengths in spells: "If you're talking about Vaughn's best spells, as far as I know, they're definitely those related to research. Before he enrolled last year, I heard him tell Dad more than once that he wanted to go to Hogwarts to learn the Scaphine Revealing Charm—uh, that's a spell that can analyze potion ingredients, strictly controlled by the Ministry of Magic, and only Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic can teach it—well, judging from your expression, you're definitely not interested."

"I've almost never seen Vaughn use any powerful magic, but he has one amazing trait: he can use any ordinary spell with incredible skill. You probably noticed Vaughn's Apparition last semester when they fought Quirrell and—Mystic, right?"

Upon hearing this, Harry immediately recalled the memory from that time.

Vaughn's figure, enveloped in distorted light and shadow, flickered in the air like a ghost, appearing and disappearing in an instant.

The mysterious man, who was incredibly powerful and seemingly invincible in his eyes, was like a puppet, torn to pieces by Vaughn using the side effects of Apparition to split his body.

Furthermore, when the mysterious man led them through the illusionary teleportation, Vaughn invaded the distorted, bizarre, and magnificent spacetime tunnel, his shadow clinging to the tunnel, tearing and eroding like hands that blotted out the sky!

In fact, after the Chino incident, Harry had asked Dumbledore if he could learn Apparition.

Thinking of this, Harry sighed dejectedly: "Yes, I know Vaughn's Apparition is amazing. I heard that the big black sphere that teleported us in during Practical Class was a new spell Vaughn developed based on Apparition—but the problem is, Dumbledore won't let me learn it!"

"Dumbledore is right," Ron said without mincing words. "You have no idea how dangerous Apparition is, Harry. I suggest you take a look at the Apparition Accident Compilation. It's available in The Quibbler. I can also give you an example I know of: a distant uncle of mine once tried to travel 600 miles from Provence back to England. He made it back, but his ass was left behind."

"...

Harry suddenly felt a cold wind blow under his robes.

It seems there's no way to get the magic I've been eyeing the most.

He was somewhat unwilling: "Besides Apparition, do you have any other suggestions? He's your brother; do you really know him as well as I do?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Harry saw Ron looking around awkwardly, his freckles flushed red.

She then retorted confidently, "If I could understand Vaughn's magic, would I need to copy your homework? I'm not Hermione!"

Well, Harry couldn't refute that reason.

Speaking of Hermione, Harry felt melancholy. Her departure was a major blow to Harry, not only because the trio was missing a piece, but also because he lost a very powerful library and think tank.

If Hermione were here now, she would definitely give very reliable advice, such as clearly listing the magical directions she has observed Vaughn to be good at, and then, based on Harry's current weaknesses, formulating a highly feasible plan for targeted consultation.

pity----