Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 345 Universal Group

After saying that, he angrily turned and left, not wanting to deal with Vaughn, that awful guy, anymore.

Harry hesitated for a moment, but ultimately, he was more worried about Ron and chased after him.

Scrambling through the deep snow, Harry finally caught up with Ron. To his surprise, he saw his friend kneeling dejectedly under a tree, grabbing handfuls of snow and slapping his head hard.

Harry rushed up to stop him: "Ron, Ron, Vaughn was probably joking, you—"

Before he could finish his words of comfort, he was interrupted by Ron's pained voice: "No, Harry, I know he was joking."

"what?"

Harry stared in disbelief as Ron raised his face, which was red from either anger or the cold, his expression a mixture of heartache and pain: "He can joke, but I can't. I don't want to lose to him—that wretched bastard knows that very well, so he deliberately provoked me to say those words—Ireland's autographed football equipment, 10—Merlin, what did I just say?!"

'

'

Harry was completely bewildered.

gazebo.

Hermione accompanied Vaughn to admire the snow-covered Forbidden Forest for a while, then suddenly asked, "Ron gets agitated and impulsive whenever it involves you. Does he not want to back down to you?"

Vaughn smiled slightly: "Yeah, it's probably because he's always lost to me since we were kids."

"You did that on purpose!"

"This is an older brother's love for his younger brother, my dear. From a young age, I've helped him stay away from vanity and superficiality, to be a down-to-earth person. Look, the results are remarkable!"

'

Hermione was speechless. For a brief moment, she felt sorry for Ron.

Being betrayed by Percy, having her allowance stolen by the twins, and being ridiculed and tortured by Vaughn—if it were her, she would have already broken down mentally.

Even so, he still dared to make the bold statement, "I'll compensate you 10 times."

It must be said that Ron's resilience is astonishing.

-

To be honest, Hermione was actually a little envious: "That's great. Although Percy, Fred, and George are all unreliable, Ron still has you. Beneath your sharp tongue lies concern and encouragement for him. I've never had anything like that before—compared to the concern from blood relatives, even if I had to give ten times the gift, I would still be very happy, especially since you wouldn't want his—"

Before she could finish speaking, she heard Vaughn say from beside her, "Why not? He swore an oath."

Hermione's eyes widened.

After teasing Hermione for a while, Vaughn and she looked at the scenery for a bit longer. As the sun gradually sank behind the western mountains, the briefly clear sky was once again covered with dark clouds.

The biting wind blew back from the other side of the Forbidden Forest, forcing the two to leave and return to Hagrid's Hut.

Hagrid has prepared a pot of venison stew today, made from a reindeer that Vaughn gave him as a Christmas gift.

Last year, Vaughn gave him a picture book of animals from the Muggle world. Although the animals in the book weren't magical creatures, Hagrid still liked it very much, especially the species that didn't exist in England and that he had never seen before.

Large land creatures are his favorite.

After all, Hagrid's aesthetic has always been simple: bigger is better, and more is more beautiful!

So this Christmas, Vaughn, based on his hobby, commissioned the black market to buy several reindeer from Northern Europe as gifts.

Hagrid was happy, but unfortunately, he knew nothing about the habits of animals in the Muggle world. He mixed the caribou with a herd of Scottish elk, trying to let the "old guys" help the "new guys" get used to their new living environment, and even had Tooth supervise them.

Clearly, his plan failed.

The red deer disliked the strange creatures, and one day, when Ya Ya, with his tail between his legs, howled all the way to the scene of the fight, three of the six reindeer were already hanging from the red deer's huge, ferocious antlers.

It's pitiful that the red deer raised in the Forbidden Forest from a young age can reach almost 6 feet in shoulder height, while the tallest male caribou from the Muggle world is less than 4 feet tall.

That was nothing short of a massacre!

After such a tragic event, Hagrid was depressed for two whole days. He only managed to pull himself together yesterday and decided to use the forest's methods to dispose of the remains of these adorable little creatures he hadn't known for long.

That is to eat them.

It must be said that Hagrid is a devil when it comes to pasta, but when it comes to meat, he is the best chef at Hogwarts!

Reindeer meat is low in fat, has a firm texture that is difficult to chew, and has a strong gamey smell.

But after Hagrid used his unique sauce recipe and cooking method, the strange taste of the reindeer meat disappeared completely, leaving only a rich meaty aroma, and the texture became tender and mushy, somewhat like the braised beef that Vaughn loved to eat in his previous life.

Even Hagrid's dreadful rock cakes became unique because of this broth. Perhaps Dumbledore's letter reminded Vaughn of his past life's delicacies, and he smashed the rock cakes and soaked them in the broth, which unexpectedly made them delicious.

Hagrid raved about it: "A strange but wonderful way to eat it, like a thick soup bread, but without the worry of it becoming soggy, like drinking a bowl of snot—why didn't I ever think of pairing rock-skin bread with this before?"

Hermione frowned at his words and quickly changed the subject, asking Vaughn, "What time are you coming tomorrow? I need to prepare the Flame Jar in advance."

The girl seemed quite enthusiastic, not at all finding it difficult to sit in the pavilion every day.

In fact, she really enjoyed the holiday.

Because her beloved person is always by her side, instead of being busy with various affairs all day long and being invisible to others.

But reality still disappointed her.

"I'm starting my experiments tomorrow, Hermione." Taking a sip of broth, Vaughn chewed on a rock-skinned pancake soaked in the soup, which was as chewy as beef tendon, and said slowly, "China's participation in the potions exchange program has greatly facilitated the negotiation process. The remaining wavering magic high schools will soon join in as well."

"Dumbledore wrote in his letter that a delegation from China would be arriving in England in 10 days, and that Busbarton, Castrobusher, and Durmstrang were also confirmed to be coming at the same time. Before they arrived, I had to develop the 'universal group'."

Upon hearing this, Hermione's expression visibly showed disappointment.

But the girl was never spoiled. To be precise, she was originally a very rational person, only occasionally letting her emotions take over.

Therefore, she quickly adjusted her mindset and asked with concern, "Do you already have an idea?"

She naturally knew what a "universal group" was.

Vaughn had told her before that he was trying to develop an excipient to carry the properties of potions. If successful, potions would be free from the tedious boiling process (boiling is to destroy the microstructure of the material and release the medicinal properties), and the properties could be extracted directly.

The interaction between the drug and the body will abandon the "original" solution assistance and be directly undertaken by the universal group.

In Hermione's mind, this was a very troublesome matter.

During this time, she specifically wrote home, asking her father to help buy books related to pharmacy. She learned some knowledge about pharmaceutical excipients and realized that excipients are a very large category. Different excipients affect the solubility, permeability, control (sustained release, immediate release, etc.), stability, and guidance (liposomes, nanoparticles, and other targeted agents) of different drugs, etc.

Hermione couldn't imagine what kind of thing in the world could be completely adapted to so many different medicinal herbs under the above conditions, thus achieving the standard of "omnipotence".

She was very worried that Vaughn would encounter setbacks during the research and development process, and that these setbacks would affect him.

To Hermione's surprise, Vaughn nodded in response to her question: "Yes, I have some ideas, and I'm going to test them out."

Hermione didn't know what the line of reasoning was, and besides, she knew that her Muggle knowledge was insufficient, so even if Vaughn explained it, she probably wouldn't be able to understand it.

So she simply obediently agreed and suggested, "Where are you planning to conduct the experiment? Do you need me to bring you food?"

Bringing her food was just an excuse; what she really wanted was to work on the research with Vaughn. But objective considerations told her that research was a delicate matter, and if she couldn't help, she shouldn't be a burden.

Sensing the girl's subtle thoughts, Vaughn paused in his soup-drinking motion.

Hermione, who is only in second grade, can't help him yet; saying too much will only cause him more trouble.

Of course, this doesn't mean Hermione isn't his "fellow traveler," but rather that she is young, so it's normal for her to catch up a little slower.

The further he went into the research, the more difficult it became, and he had plenty of time to wait for Hermione to "catch up".

Including the young wizards he feels are qualified to "walk the same path" with in the future!

Therefore, he didn't refuse Hermione's offer to bring him food. After agreeing, he thought for a moment and then asked, "How's your progress with the books I asked you to read about potions?"

Hearing this, Hermione perked up a bit and smiled: "I've already finished the sixth-grade textbooks and started learning advanced potions."

""

"Hmm, do you know anything about the characteristics of the Sapwort?"

"Of course, it is one of the main ingredients in compound potions, providing the potion's transformation properties, but its efficacy has been seriously underestimated. Professor Snape compiled your paper into a textbook during the summer, and one of the papers discussed the high adaptability of Sapgrass's transformation properties —"

At this point, Hermione suddenly paused, then realized, "Your universal gene requires sapwort?"

Vaughn always believed that Hermione was very talented.

In the original "history," she had fewer and fewer highlight moments as the story progressed, mostly because the "plot" shifted towards Harry, leaving no room to highlight her.

In fact, even without guidance, Hermione in the original "history" would have come into contact with the high-grade potion "Potential Potion" this year and successfully brewed this complex and tedious potion.

So when Hermione only gave a slight hint, she keenly grasped the key point and connected the sap grass to his research, which Vaughn was not surprised at all.

Seeing Vaughn nod, Hermione was very excited to receive approval and quickly asked, "What is your idea? I don't quite understand. If we just use the shape-shifting properties of the sap grass to make a group solution, it doesn't seem enough to solve the problem. After all, shape-shifting only creates the form and cannot change the properties of the substance."

The girl was so excited that she stopped eating. Her eyes, filled with curiosity, almost shone as she stared at Vaughn, eager for an answer.

Vaughn had to calm her down: "My idea is rather complicated, and it's difficult to explain clearly in a short time—"

Hermione's excited smile froze, but before she could feel disappointed, Vaughn thought for a moment and continued, "If you're interested, you can come and help me—just help out, observe more, think more, do less. Can you do that?"

Is that even a question?

"Of course!"

The girl nodded repeatedly.

How could I not want to? I could be with the person I love and participate in a study that would most likely be recorded in the history of magic.

Double the happiness!

For the rest of the time, Hermione was in a state of near-hysteria, and even after having dinner at Hagrid's hut and returning to the castle with Vaughn, she didn't calm down.

After parting ways with Vaughn in the hall, she returned to the Gryffindor Tower with a smile on her face. She greeted everyone she met with a cheerful smile, even Lavender Brown, with whom she had a rather casual relationship.

It made people almost think she had gone mad.

However, Hermione didn't care what others thought. All night long, until she lay in bed ready to rest, she was still thinking about what kind of preparations she needed to make to participate in Vaughn's research.

Not just in terms of knowledge, but also in terms of image!

I haven't been using hair smoothing products as much lately, and my hair is starting to get curly and frizzy again. I'll use more tomorrow. Also, are my teeth still straight?

Should I spray some perfume? — No, the experiment can't be disturbed by any unusual odors.

Her excited mind kept generating all sorts of strange and wonderful ideas, which were then rejected one by one by her remaining rationality. Hermione felt that the chaos in her mind was both noisy and irresistible.

It's no wonder she acted this way; ever since they met last year, she's been trying to "get closer" to Vaughn.

They had already reached an emotional closeness, but for Hermione, that was still not enough; she also hoped to become Vaughn's business partner.

However, both the wolfsbane potion and C were far beyond her capabilities at the time. Although she had actually helped in some ways, Hermione felt that she could no longer be satisfied with just giving instructions, replying to letters, or handling small matters such as medicinal herbs!

Only by participating in high-profile projects can one truly get closer to Vaughn's cause.

Today, she has finally taken a solid step in her "career"—despite Vaughn's restrictions that required her to observe more, think more, and do less.

Everything is difficult at the beginning!

She tossed and turned in bed, so excited, until the early hours of the morning before finally falling into a deep sleep. Then, she woke up the next day at the crack of dawn.

After tiptoeing to the washroom to wash up, Hermione put on her robes and left the Gryffindor tower, heading downstairs.

Vaughn had already told her where the experiment was being conducted yesterday.

On a quiet morning during the holiday, the castle is almost deserted. Only when passing by the library can you see a few fifth and seventh graders, their figures slumped over their books and exercises.

Normally, Hermione would probably have joined in, but today she just strolled along, only stopping briefly at the Great Hall.

I ordered two breakfasts!