Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 66 Christmas Gifts

"And I can't possibly generously offer to distribute all the wolfsbane medicine for free. I don't have that much money, nor am I that selfless."

"More importantly, even if I agreed to give the wolfsbane medicine for free, no shop would be willing to sell it, because for every bottle sold, the shop would lose the storage and operating costs of one bottle—no one would do something so foolish, Professor."

As a potions master, Snape had long forgotten the hardships of making money; he had plenty of potion shops chasing after him, stuffing Galleons into his pockets.

But that didn't mean he couldn't understand. So when Vaughn explained, he understood. Suppressing the déjà vu feeling that he was seeing Voldemort, Snape was silent for a moment, then looked at Vaughn and asked, "What are you planning to do?"

Vaughn, with his hands in his pockets, paced back and forth as he spoke:

"This is something that individuals cannot solve. Given the current number of werewolves in the magical world, even if you were to work yourselves to death, we still wouldn't be able to brew that many wolfsbane potions. So I plan to release the formula publicly, but there are still many problems."

"First, once the formula is made public, how many apothecaries will be willing to take on the task of brewing the potion? Who will gather them? Or will we expect them to help for free? Second, the large demand for raw materials will inevitably lead to price increases and higher costs. Who will be responsible for regulating this?"

Stopping in his tracks, Vaughn said calmly, "Therefore, to solve these problems, the entire magical world must share the burden. In other words, we have to involve the Ministry of Magic... and that is precisely what I'm most worried about."

"Are you afraid the Ministry of Magic won't agree?"

"No, I'm afraid they're too willing..." Vaughn shook his head. "This is a political matter. Professor, who is threatened by the existence of werewolves? Wizards, and the Law of Secrecy, both of which are the cornerstones of the Ministry of Magic's existence. If the threat of werewolves can be resolved, the Ministry of Magic is absolutely willing to cover all the costs of wolfsbane potions. In their eyes, anything that can be solved with money is the simplest thing."

"But then what? What do you think the Ministry of Magic will do? Spend huge sums of Galleons to send bottles of potions to werewolves every month?"

"They won't do that! Even a fool like Greyback could think of building an army of werewolves, so why wouldn't the Ministry of Magic?"

"No, they'll come up with even more tricks. If I were Fudge, I'd hold onto the wolfsbane potion tightly, use it as bait to lure werewolves who yearn to return to normal life, demand they abide by the 'Werewolf Registration Law,' make them swear an oath, and then grant them citizenship—doesn't that sound wonderful?"

"But on the other hand, I will continue to incite ordinary wizards to be hostile to werewolves. After all, the wolfsbane potion only keeps them sane, not heals them. They still have the ability to infect others."

"When the class division is complete, when all werewolves register and swear an oath, never to return to their past lives of hiding and wandering, they will only be able to cling to Fudge, who holds the wolfsbane potion, or someone in the Ministry of Magic, becoming the politicians' weapons and vote banks!"

After hearing these words, Snape broke out in a sweat.

Having spent most of his life in school, he never imagined that a small bottle of potion would lead to such a terrible situation as Vaughn described.

Although he didn't understand politics, Snape knew that the Ministry of Magic, represented by Fudge, was absolutely capable of doing such a thing.

He even thought about it a step further.

Who holds the power in the Ministry of Magic? Without a doubt, it's the pure-blood families!

If pure-blood families were to gain control of werewolves, given their personalities and their prejudice against Muggle wizards, it's almost impossible to imagine what they would do.

The power of a pure-blood family is far beyond what the Greyback can match!

Snape was indeed a proponent of pure-blood doctrine, but he was not a madman. He knew that if the situation developed in that way, if Voldemort were to be resurrected... the disaster in the wizarding world would probably be even more severe than the last Wizarding War!

At least last time, a large number of wandering werewolves and their offspring were neutral!

That's right, their parents were both werewolves, so they were born werewolves. There are several tribes in the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest.

They had a contract with Hogwarts to protect the school, and in return, the school allowed them to live in the Forbidden Forest under the supervision of centaurs. However, in recent years, they have grown increasingly resentful of this life of house arrest.

There are many such tribes in the magical world.

A gust of cold wind blew by, and Snape, who was immersed in a faint fear, suddenly woke up and found that his back was covered with cold sweat.

He murmured, "We can't let the Ministry of Magic take the initiative..."

“That’s right.” Vaughn nodded. “We can’t just passively wait for the Ministry of Magic to make a decision, or it will be too late. I sent them to find other werewolves so that this group could take the initiative.”

Vaughn didn't say how to take the initiative, and Snape didn't ask either.

The current information was already enough to confuse him, and he suddenly missed Dumbledore; that cunning old man was the only one suited to contemplate such dark and treacherous things.

On the way back, Vaughn looked up at the gloomy sky.

The dark clouds may still be there, but the sun will eventually shine down.

One thing Snape didn't notice was that Vaughn mentioned the potential threat from the Ministry of Magic, but didn't mention that he was the developer of Wolfsbane Potion.

He was the one who was naturally more approachable to werewolves...

……

The next day, Snape and Vaughan returned to Hogwarts. The beloved Potions Professor was still thinking about yesterday's problem and continued to suffer from insomnia that night. It was as if he could see a swarm of werewolves that would completely drown him if he closed his eyes.

I didn't fall asleep until the early hours of the morning.

Unfortunately, he had only slept for a few hours when he was woken up by the sound of an owl frantically knocking on the window, and only then did he suddenly realize that Christmas had arrived!

After he opened the window, the owls, who had been frozen for hours and were already furious, dropped their Christmas presents and began to climb on his head, pecking at his skull relentlessly.

Snape impatiently shooed them away, tidied his hair, and then checked the names written on the gift boxes one by one.

Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Malfoy...

Turning to the last large box, he saw Vaughn's beautiful cursive handwriting:

[Dedicated to my beloved Severus Snape, I hope you like it]

Your student, Vaughn Weasley

Snape's lips curled into a smile, and he suddenly felt a little expectant. But when he opened the gift box and saw dozens of bottles of shampoo neatly arranged inside, his good mood vanished instantly!

"Vaughn Weasley!"

On the other side, in Sterling's lounge.

Vaughn, who hadn't closed the door before going to sleep, found himself surrounded by gifts as soon as he opened his eyes.

He sat drowsily amidst a sea of ​​gifts, caught up in the anxieties that came with his growing fame.

It is foreseeable that this situation will become more and more serious in the future.

All sorts of boxes tied with ribbons were laid out from the bed to the floor. And that wasn't all. While Vaughn was washing up with hot water, several more owls flew in.

They looked exhausted, as if they had flown a long way, and as soon as they landed on the table, they devoured the snacks that Vaughn had specially prepared the night before.

Vaughn groomed their feathers and gave them some water, and the poor creatures finally recovered.

After nine o'clock in the morning, no more owls flew in. Vaughn looked at the hundreds of boxes in front of him and was a little worried.

He called over Fruit Tea: "My dear, go and call Ron over here."

Guoguo Tea excitedly ran out the door.

It had been a long time since it had seen its toy, that strange fat mouse.

The adorable big cat dashed out of the Slytherin common room. Slytherins who saw it on the way would make way for it, and some even left the door open for it so that it wouldn't be unable to return if it couldn't say the password.

As a pet, it can be said that it relied on its owner's power to reach the pinnacle of its feline life.

After walking through the hall and arriving at Gryffindor Tower, Guoguocha did not take the route that the little lions usually took.

Instead, it was a shortcut that Mrs. Lorris had told it, a shortcut exclusively for cats—the outer wall!

Harry and Ron had just gotten up.

Merry Christmas, Harry.

"You're happy too, Ron. Get up, there's a gift under your bed."

Harry heard Ron say uninterestedly, "I know what it is without even looking. Who else would send me something?"

"Maybe Vaughn's?"

"He already delivered it, have you forgotten? My wand."

Despite saying that, Ron jumped out of bed, and after a moment, he sighed in disappointment.

"Just like every year, the sweater Mom knitted is still that awful dark purple. Merlin! This is Charlie's—oh, are these dragon scales? Fred and George… never mind, I'd better not open it. Those two bastards are definitely up to no good. I won't fall for it again!"

Amid Ron's grumbling, Harry also began to open his own pile of presents, which was much smaller than Ron's.

To Harry's astonishment, the Dursleys hadn't forgotten him.

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Penny gave him a whole 50-pence coin.

Harry was so "moved" that he didn't want to watch it at all.

So when Ron's eyes lit up with amazement at this Muggle currency, Harry simply gave it to him.

Soon, Harry discovered the Weasleys' gift.

Ron gave him a brand new set of cards for the entire "Chadli Artillery Corps".

Harry loved the orange-red card depicting players speeding against the wind.

Vaughn gave him a book, "The 100 Guide to Quidditch: How to Kill an Opponent".

Harry: "..."

He smiled happily at the next gift: "Hey Ron, Mrs. Weasley sent me a sweater too."

It was a bright green sweater with uniformly rough stitches. It refracted the sunlight streaming in from the window, making Harry's face look as if it had been poisoned.

Ron suddenly felt a sense of balance.

Then, they found the Invisibility Cloak in the next gift. Harry didn't know who sent it, but from the unsigned note in the gift box, he knew that the Invisibility Cloak had once belonged to his father, James Potter.

Ron was envious, but Harry had some doubts. After what happened with the man in black, he wasn't sure if this thing was a memento left by his father, or if it was a dark magic item.

Just as he was hesitating, Scabbers, who was sleeping soundly in a cage on Ron's desk, suddenly screamed.

The two turned around and saw a huge cat outside the window, its paws on the glass and its eyes fixed intently on Banban.

Ron gasped, quickly scooping Scabbers and its cage into his arms, yelling at Harry, "Quick, get it away! Get that damned stinky cat away!"

"Uh...it seems like it's coming to find us."

Harry saw that Fruit Tea only stared at Scabbers for a couple of seconds before meowing at him, so he tentatively opened the window.

Sure enough, Guoguocha jumped in and barked at them twice, then walked to the door, its eyes scanning back and forth between Harry and Ron.

Harry scratched his head and said, "Let's go see what's going on. Maybe Vaughn is looking for us?"

Ron was still staring warily at the fruit tea.

Only after confirming that the big cat had no intention of attacking did they put Banban's cage back up.

"Sooner or later, Banban and I will be scared to death by it and its awful owner."

Ron angrily followed Fruit Tea.

Before leaving, Harry hesitated for a moment, but still took the box containing the Invisibility Cloak with him, intending to have Vaughn take a look at it.

Ron grumbled and complained the whole way, but when they arrived at Slytherin and entered Vaughn's dormitory, he immediately understood his brother's purpose when he saw the gift boxes all over the floor.

"I knew it, you never come looking for me for anything good..."

"Ah—Harry, thank you for coming to help too."

Vaughn, who was waving his wand and sorting the gifts, completely ignored Ron's gloomy expression and laughed happily.

Looking at those sunny, smiling faces, and the hundreds of gift boxes piled up one by one.

Harry suddenly wondered why he had come here in the first place.

"Come on, Ronald, don't look so sad. See this pile of boxes tied with purple ribbons? They're all from my clients. Help me open them, sort the letters inside, and don't mess them up. I need to reply to them later."

"Harry, I'll find you an easy job. These are probably all gifts from your classmates. If any of them are signed, write them down on this parchment so I can give them back. If not, that's fine."

Under Vaughn's strong command, the two men lowered their heads in resignation.

Perhaps it was a twist of fate, but the first box Harry opened was from Malfoy, which made him feel a little nauseous. He looked at the note tucked inside the gift and laughed again: "Homage to Mr. Vaughn Weasley of Love... Haha, the first time I've seen this wretched fellow so eloquent."

In contrast, Ron felt a bit physically unwell. Looking at the slips of paper in his hand, each addressed to something like "Vorn's Sweetheart," "The Angel Who Gave Me Youth," and "My Gentle Honeybee," he groaned, his eyes glazed over.

"Harry, do you know what kind of people Vaughn's clients are? They're all old witches who have to use potions to smooth out their wrinkles and transfer fat to their thighs... Ugh—"

Harry took a quick glance and quickly turned his head.

On the other hand, Vaughn was not idle either. He personally handled the gifts for some relatively important people.

For example, Dumbledore gave him a pair of wool socks: "My dear friend, I'm still in Romania. It was a pleasure to meet Arthur and Molly. We had a wonderful chat, sharing different sides of you that we see. I heard about your development of new potions. I'll be heading back to Hogwarts for a dinner party tonight, and we'll talk again then!"

"Also, do you remember the wish I told you? I really hope it can come true this year."

Vaughn sneered, "Shameless! Want wool socks? Dream on!"

He gave Lao Deng a cashmere nightgown in a soft pink color, very girlish.

Hagrid gave him a woven filter cloth (used to filter dregs when brewing potions). The workmanship was a bit rough, but the material was not simple. It was unicorn tail hair that he had collected before.

Sensing the faint magical energy flowing subtly on the filter cloth, Vaughn could only marvel at the wealth of this key administrator.

The gifts from his family were the same as before, nothing special, except that Ron, who had borrowed money from him before and was now a little better off, gave him a Chadli Artillery Corps figurine.

Hermione's book was a collection of poems by Robert Southey. Before the holidays, she often saw Vaughn flipping through Ravenclaw's poetry collections, probably assuming he liked that romantic style.

Professor McGonagall gave a Transfiguration notebook, which was her lesson preparation experience when she was an assistant to Dumbledore. It contained a lot of her own insights into Transfiguration and Dumbledore's guidance.

Vaughan liked it very much, and immediately found a cover to wrap it up and put it in the secret compartment of the bedside bookshelf.

Professor Flitwick also gave a gift, which was also a book called "A Brief History of Ancient Magic".

Vaughn flipped through it with interest. It wasn't a magic book, but a "popular science" work that introduced the history and basic knowledge of ancient magic. Ancient magic was completely different from the modern spell system. Its use was more demanding, requiring the preparation of spellcasting materials and rituals, making it far less convenient and quick than modern spells. Correspondingly, ancient magic was usually known for its immense power.

"I can try to study it when I have some time later."

After putting the book on the shelf, Vaughn soon saw Snape's gift. It was a box that looked very simple, perhaps used by the professor to store materials at some point, and it gave off a strange potion scent.

But the gifts inside are anything but ordinary.

The moment Vaughn took it out, he heard Ron take a deep breath.

Hearing the noise, Harry looked at the small glass bottle that Vaughn was holding, no bigger than a thumb. The bottle contained a golden liquid that looked like molten gold.

Harry was a little confused and asked in a low voice, "What is this?"

"Felix Felicis..." Ron murmured dreamily, "The most miraculous potion. After drinking one bottle, for the next 24 hours, no one will be luckier than you. You can practically have anything you want!"

Harry stared in shock, his little brain flashing through countless images of himself drinking Felix Felicis and having his wishes granted, solving all his troubles and worries.

Even someone as academically challenged as him immediately understood the potion's power and value!

Damn it!

Did Snape give all his malice to me and all his kindness to Vaughn?

Vaughn was also very surprised; he hadn't expected the professor to give him such a valuable gift.

In fact, Vaughn knew the recipe for Felix Felicis, which was recorded in "Potents of Power," but he never thought of brewing it.

The conditions are too demanding. One of the main ingredients, the Immortal Flower (some people translate it as amaranth, but I personally think it's not appropriate; the other meaning, immortality or non-fading, is more in line with magic), is very difficult to obtain. A pot of Felix Felicis requires a full 23 petals.

The other main ingredient, blood donated voluntarily by a three-month-old unicorn cub, is even more of a headache.

Not to mention that the entire process of decocting the medicine takes 6 months!

For the first half of the year, he had to be extremely careful and cautious; Vaughn didn't have that much time to waste.

I never expected to receive a bottle today...

"Tsk, suddenly giving such an expensive gift, doesn't that make the shampoo I gave seem inappropriate?"

Vaughn felt a pang of conscience for a moment, but quickly put it aside and happily put the bottle of Felix Felicis back into the box and stored it in the secret compartment.

After unwrapping gifts from several key partners (material suppliers and pharmacy owners), Vaughn found a letter.

It was sent by a pharmacist; the two were pen pals. When Vaughn was besieged by many conservatives of "Extraordinary Potion," she was the first person to support Vaughn's theories.

"Dear Vaughan Weasley, it was a pleasure to receive news of your enrollment at Hogwarts amidst your busy journey. Please forgive me for the late reply."

"I arrived in North America, where the situation is a bit tense. The Magical Congress is wary of any wizard entering the country. They took away my owl, and every day Aurors follow me around, seemingly worried that I might pull out my wand and use magic in front of Muggles."

Upon seeing this, Vaughn frowned.

All he knew was that the Magical Congress of North America was the most strict institution in enforcing the International Secrecy Act.

Over there, the wizarding world is completely separated from Muggle society.

The inside story is very complicated. It is said that the North American Muggle government has been trying to crack the power of wizards. They have been trying to capture wizards for research since the 20s.

This caused widespread fear within the North American wizarding community, since not all wizards possess powerful magic, not to mention the many junior wizards.

Under pressure and international opinion, the Magical Congress decided to completely hide the wizarding world. As a result, they have introduced a number of policies that require wizards not to marry Muggles, wizards born in Muggles not to reveal anything about the wizarding world to their families, and Muggles whose secrets are leaked must have their memories erased.

Vaughn continued reading:

"...The enforcement of the secrecy law is extremely inhumane. I once met a poor student named Evamoni (North American Magic School). In order to save his sick parents, he had to secretly use magic. After the Magical Congress found out, the Aurors erased all of his parents' memories of him, and he suddenly became homeless."

"The Magical Congress takes a tougher stance on the issue of marriage between wizards and Muggles. During Halloween, a witch attacked Woolworth Building (the headquarters of the Magical Congress)."

"I heard that she married a Muggle six years ago and had three sons, but this summer, they were discovered by the Magical Congress. Her husband and sons' memories were erased, and some say the Aurors destroyed them. In any case, this woman who lost her family went completely insane..."

The following long letters were filled with her observations and experiences in North America, which gave Vaughn a clearer understanding of the magical world in that faraway place.

Although these perceptions are not very friendly, Vaughn can almost imagine that North America is probably a powder keg right now.

She included a ptarmigan feather as a Christmas gift with the letter; this rare and magical animal now only has one habitat in Arizona.

After reading the letter, Vaughn took out a parchment and began to reply:

"Dear Isabella Rozier, I hope you are well. I have read what you have seen, and I must say, the situation may be worse than you imagine..."

"If possible, it would be best to return to England or France. Also, I have some good news for you: I have developed a potion called Wolfsbane Potion, which will be launched soon. I really hope to share the joy with you."

(End of this chapter)