Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 64 Potion Development

The speculation and search for the secret room is a small diversion that Vaughn finds for himself in his busy life.

He had made all the preparations for the new potion and was just waiting for Professor Snape to find some time to take him to find the werewolf.

Two days later, when Vaughn came out of the Slytherin common room dressed in his finest clothes, he saw Snape standing in a dark corner of the corridor waiting for him.

Their sinister and eerie demeanor suggested they were conducting some kind of underground rendezvous.

"Professor, get some more sun; it won't melt you."

"Shut up!"

"Okay, Professor."

They went to the office together, and Snape, with a stern face, handed them a bowl of Floo powder:

"Go to Flip-Over Alley, don't mispronounce it!"

Vaughn suddenly began to miss the Nirvana Fox; it was so convenient, unlike Floo Fans who would get covered in dust.

He grabbed a handful and crawled into the fireplace.

After following the standard procedure, when I opened my eyes, I was already in a dark, narrow alley.

Unlike Diagon Alley not far away, the public fireplaces here look shabby and dilapidated, and many furtive figures are hiding in the corners.

Each time the green flames surged, the people who appeared through the teleportation pulled their cloaks tighter, their movements hurried, and they dared not linger for a moment.

Vaughn didn't seem to care much. He brushed the ash off himself and waited a while before the fireplace behind him lit up.

But Snape didn't come out immediately.

Vaughn saw him standing in the fireplace, quietly waving his wand...

"Professor," Vaughn called out with a grin, "are you secretly cleaning out the ashes?"

Then, from inside the fireplace came Snape's gritted teeth: "Shut up!"

A short while later, Snape emerged clean and refreshed.

His clothes were impeccably tailored, and his hair remained shiny black and spotless.

If it weren't for Vaughn's earlier shout, his persona would have been maintained very successfully.

He glared at Vaughn and walked towards a shop first.

Knockturn Alley is notorious throughout the wizarding world, a place where dark wizards conduct all sorts of shady and sordid deals.

But the fact that it has been able to continue existing without being eliminated by the Ministry of Magic suggests that it has its own way of surviving.

At least Vaughn knew that many illegal transactions didn't actually take place in Knockturn Alley; there was an underground block with the entrance hidden among these shops.

For example, Bokin Burke!

Borgin Burke is ostensibly an antique shop, which isn't exactly illegal; it's more of a gray industry that skirts the edge of the Ministry of Magic's laws. As for whether the antiques possess dangerous dark magic... what does that have to do with the shop owner?

When Snape led Vaughn into Burking Burke, the shop owner, Mr. Burking, seemed oblivious, preoccupied with combing his slicked-back hair.

He only gave a greasy smile when Vaughn looked at him.

Snape ignored him, pulled Vaughn to the back of the shop, opened a trapdoor, and jumped down with Vaughn.

It was a narrow cellar, so cramped that it would be a bit crowded for two people to stand inside. As the trapdoor closed, Snape recited a spell, and Vaughn felt as if the walls around him were moving.

A moment later, his vision brightened again, and he saw a door in front of him.

The moment you push the door open, a bustling underground neighborhood appears before you. It looks quite dilapidated, with uneven surfaces and dirty puddles everywhere.

A smell of rotting frog entrails mixed with fermenting snake venom wafted through the air, making people dizzy and lightheaded.

The surrounding light was dim, with only a few torches scattered forlornly in front of several shops.

Hidden figures wandered about in the dark, filthy streets, whispering amongst themselves. Occasionally, someone would suddenly chant an evil curse, a magical light would bring forth illumination, and then be extinguished amidst screams.

Everyone around them ignored it.

"What a chaotic place." Seeing a green light appear in the distance, Vaughn shook his head and sighed.

Snape, his face expressionless, swung his wand, blasting away a guy who suddenly rushed at him, and said, seemingly mockingly but also warningly, "In the eyes of the scum here, a kid like you is practically a fat sheep with your face written all over it. I hope you have some self-awareness. I don't want to receive a tearful letter from your parents one day."

Vaughn shrugged. "Don't worry, Professor, I value my life more than you think."

Snape's upper lip curled into a barely perceptible smile, and he said in his signature drawn-out emphasis, "It had better be—"

After dealing with two more rambling guys along the way, he led Vaughn to a shop.

As soon as Vaughn pushed open the door, he heard a male wizard roar at the gaunt old clerk behind the counter:

"...You promised that this potion could cure dragonpox (a contagious disease among wizards, the first case was caused by having sex with a dragon), damn it, look, look at my face—"

Flames suddenly shot out of his nostrils from his bluish face.

The old shopkeeper waved his broom, repeatedly swatting away the wizard's outstretched hand as he tried to grab him, explaining, "Those potions are absolutely effective; they're from Master Snape... Ah, Mr. Snape, you've come at the perfect time!"

Snape snorted and glanced at the wizard: "The potion is fine. If you hadn't had that...close encounter with the dragon again, you would have been fine by now!"

Vaughn, standing nearby, stared in amazement at the wizard.

He had initially thought this was just an unlucky infected guy, but it turned out he was a brave soul...

Perhaps intimidated by Snape's title as Potions Master, the warrior who danced with dragons ultimately left dejectedly.

The rescued old clerk thanked Snape profusely, then closed the shop door and led the two to the basement.

"Mr. Snape, these are all the werewolves you ordered."

He opened a heavy door.

Vaughn peered inside and saw that in the small room, more than a dozen iron cages were welded to the rough stone walls, and some ragged people were either lying or sitting in the cages.

Some of them had lost all light in their eyes, looking dazed and lifeless like puppets, while others growled fiercely, like wild beasts.

Vaughn looked at the old shop assistant and asked, "What are the identities of these werewolves? Wanderers? Or the werewolf army of Greyback?"

The old shopkeeper first looked at Snape and found that Snape was still aloof. He immediately realized that the one who needed these werewolves was the child in front of him.

Business people don't make enemies of Galleons, the old shop assistant said with a smile, taking out a list: "Sir, everything you mentioned is here. Their identities are all recorded here. Please take a look."

Vaughn examined it carefully for a moment, nodded, opened his small satchel, pulled out a bag of Galleons that he had prepared beforehand, and handed it to the old shop assistant: "Is it alright if I borrow your basement?"

"Of course, sir, please make yourself at home."

The veteran shop assistant said it almost obsequiously.

Seeing that the transaction was complete, Snape said, "I'll wait for you upstairs."

"Hey kid, come here and let me have a taste of your flesh!"

"Let me out, you little red-haired white pig—"

As Vaughn entered the cell filled with werewolves and closed the door, their threats and howls began to cacophony in his ears.

These energetic fellows are all members of the Greyback werewolf legion.

Vaughn held the list in his hand, checking each name against the photos, ignoring the insults directed at them.

After more than ten people had taken their places, Warn turned a stone brick into an experimental table.

He opened his magical little satchel and took out his tools.

He spent a fortune ordering a microscope from the Muggle community (enchanted so it could see magical traces), a separation device he designed himself (with a simple centrifugation function for tissue fluid research), a set of enchanted surgical equipment, an automatic extraction container, an automatic quill pen…

As these devices, which cost over 2000 Galleons to build, were displayed one by one...

A cheerful Vaughn began to hum a little tune.

The atmosphere in the dark basement suddenly became eerie.

Once everything was in place, he took out a pair of glasses—which had a magnifying function—and put them on, pointing them at the parchment list in his hand, and tapped them a few times with his wand.

He then said happily, "The first test subject, Mr. Marcus... Oh, you were the one who said you wanted to taste my flesh?"

The werewolf named Marcus's howl stopped abruptly, his eyes widening beneath his disheveled long hair as he watched the smiling child raise his wand.

"Transform instantly!"

With the powerful transformation, the iron bars of the cage were pulled out one by one, like climbing snakes, twisting and wrapping around Marcus's limbs and his head. The other end extended up and down into the roof and the ground, suspending Marcus's limbs wide open and fixing him one foot off the ground.

Then, Vaughn picked up a syringe, adjusted his glasses, and said, "Now, Mr. Marcus, let's begin. This potion will transform you into a werewolf, activating the virus in your body so I can observe and extract it. I'm sure you won't mind, right?"

Mr. Marcus, whose head was covered, was unable to answer.

He couldn't even struggle.

As the potion was injected into his body, the werewolf's howl soon echoed from the basement, then turned into a groan. Snape and the old shopkeeper, who heard the noise in the shop upstairs, showed no surprise.

More than three hours later, as noon approached, Snape finally re-entered the basement.

He smelled a faint scent of magic potion in the air, pushed open the door, and saw a horrifying scene—a few clumps of rotten flesh, only skeletons remaining, were restrained a foot off the ground.

Their skin was peeled off, exposing their muscles and internal organs, with pink nerves pulsating.

Surprisingly, there was no blood involved. The blood was drawn away by a floating container. Once a test tube was full, it would automatically float to the separation equipment, where it would hum and spin.

Nearby, many similar devices were operating, dazzling Snape.

Although he knew that Vaughn's thinking had always been eccentric and completely different from that of traditional pharmacists, such a scene still challenged his imagination.

Vaughn was currently hunched over the lab table.

The magnifying glasses were pushed up to his forehead, and his eyes were pressed against the microscope. The glow of magical potions swirled in the slides, while on the other side of the lab table, an automatic quill pen connected to his thoughts was scribbling away.

Hearing Snape enter, he looked up and said, "Oh, Professor, is it already noon?"

"Yes..." Snape paused for a moment, then asked, "How's the progress?"

"Very smoothly."

Vaughn was in a good mood and said in a light tone, "With the cooperation of several gentlemen, I have found where the werewolf virus is hidden. Incredibly, they have an extra organ compared to ordinary humans. When a werewolf is in human form, this organ is hidden behind the heart."

"But when the werewolf begins to transform, its tissues spread into the lymphatic system, filling the werewolf's saliva and blood with viruses through circulation within the lymphatic system..."

"In addition, the effectiveness of wolfsbane in suppressing the werewolf virus has been proven, but it is not enough. It mainly targets the magical aspect of the virus, which is a kind of cursed power that is entangled in the virus and is the main reason why werewolves lose their minds."

As he spoke, he flipped through his notes, muttering, "This is a bit tricky. The curse and the virus are one and the same; if either one isn't eliminated, it will regenerate... It seems that wolfsbane can only suppress the curse, not eliminate it. So even if a wolfsbane potion is developed, it can only keep the werewolves sane..."

Upon hearing this, Snape immediately took the stack of notes from Vaughn's hands.

After a quick glance, his face twitched as he looked at Vaughn and said, "You think this isn't enough?"

Vaughn shook his head, snapping out of his reverie: "If it's just to suppress the dangers of werewolves going out of control, then of course it's enough, but this medicine can't restrain those werewolves who are determined to do evil."

"You're too much of a perfectionist!" Snape remarked, a rare occurrence for him.

"In my opinion, this potion is enough to help those poor people you told me about the other day, or rather, your potion can only help them."

"Because they are the only ones who are forced into this situation. Their predicament stems from the loss of control caused by their werewolf transformation. Your potion may not solve the werewolf pack's problems, but it can alleviate their difficulties, allowing them to live, work, and fall in love like normal people..."

He suddenly stopped speaking.

His expression clearly showed disgust, as if he was thinking of some disgusting person.

He skipped over that word and concluded, "Anyway, it's very useful!"

Vaughn remained noncommittal, feeling that Snape was being somewhat idealistic: "Professor, prejudice in people's hearts is a mountain; unless it's completely resolved, the werewolves' situation will never improve!"

However, after more than three hours of testing the virus, Vaughn knew that it was unlikely he could solve it in a short time.

He then said, "Of course, you're right, it does work. At least it prevents the werewolves who were forced to become infected from harming others."

Seeing that Vaughn seemed to have stopped worrying, Snape reverted to his aloof persona and asked succinctly, "When are you planning to release it?"

"It will take some more time."

Vaughn said, "Today was just a test of the properties. The properties can't be preserved yet. We still need a series of tests, selecting auxiliary ingredients, and planning the ritual to confirm it as a true potion formula... I'm so hungry, where should we go to eat?"

His erratic thinking almost made Snape lose his composure.

"...Aren't you going to deal with these experimental subjects?"

"Ah... I almost forgot, could you please set some Fiery Blaze on them? These are all Greyback's lackeys, and they should be honored enough for making these contributions."

"Hmph, cruel fellow!"

"Thank you for the compliment, Professor."

Before long, the fierce fire engulfed the rotten flesh, burning them to ashes.

(End of this chapter)