Chapter 66: Christmas Gift
“And I can’t be generous and say all Wolfsbane Potions will be distributed for free. I don’t have that much money, nor am I that selfless.”
“More importantly, even if I agreed to free Wolfsbane Potions, no shop would be willing to sell them, because then, for every bottle sold, the shop would lose the storage and operating costs of one bottle. No one would do such a foolish thing, Professor.”
As a Potions Master, Snape had long forgotten the hardship of making money; there were already apothecary shops chasing him to stuff Gold Galleons into his pockets.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t understand. So, when Vaughn spoke, Snape understood. He suppressed the feeling of déjà vu, as if seeing Voldemort, and after a moment of silence, Snape looked at Vaughn and asked, “What are you planning to do?”
Vaughn said, with his hands in his pockets, pacing back and forth:
“This is not something that can be solved by individuals. With the current number of werewolves in the wizarding world, even if you and I worked ourselves to death, we couldn’t brew enough Wolfsbane Potions. So, I plan to reveal the recipe, but there are still many difficulties.”
“Firstly, after the recipe is released, how many potioneers will be willing to undertake the brewing of the potions? Who will gather them? Or will they expect them to help for free? Secondly, the massive demand for ingredients will inevitably lead to price increases and higher costs. Who will be responsible for regulating this part?”
Stopping his steps, Vaughn said with a calm expression, “Therefore, to solve these difficulties, the entire wizarding world must bear it together. In other words, the Ministry of Magic must be brought in… and this is precisely what I am most worried about.”
“You’re afraid the Ministry won’t be willing?”
“No, I’m afraid they’ll be too willing…” Vaughn shook his head, “This concerns politics, Professor. Who is threatened by the existence of werewolves? It’s the wizards, and the Statute of Secrecy, and both of these are the cornerstones of the Ministry’s existence. If the werewolf threat can be resolved, the Ministry will absolutely be willing to bear all the costs of Wolfsbane Potions. In their eyes, anything that can be solved with money is the simplest matter.”
“But then what? What do you think the Ministry will do? Spend a large amount of Gold Galleons to deliver bottles of potions to werewolves every month?”
“They won’t do that! Even an idiot like Greyback could think of using werewolves to form an army. Wouldn’t the Ministry think of it?”
“No, they’ll come up with more tricks. If I were Fudge, I would keep Wolfsbane Potions firmly in my hands, use them as bait, lure those werewolves who desperately want to return to normal life, demand they comply with the ‘Werewolf Registration Act,’ demand they take an oath, and then grant them citizenship – doesn’t that sound wonderful?”
“But on the other hand, I will continue to stir up ordinary wizards’ prejudice against werewolves, after all, Wolfsbane Potion only keeps them rational, not cures them. They still have the ability to infect others.”
“Once the class division is completely established, and all werewolves are registered and have taken their oaths, unable to return to their past lives of hiding and wandering, they will have no choice but to cling to Fudge, who holds the Wolfsbane Potions, or someone in the Ministry of Magic, becoming politicians’ weapons and vote banks!”
After hearing this, sweat broke out on Snape’s forehead.
Having stayed at Hogwarts for most of his life, he had never imagined that a small bottle of potion could lead to such a terrifying situation as Vaughn described.
Although he didn’t understand politics, Snape knew that the Ministry of Magic, represented by Fudge, was definitely capable of doing such a thing.
He even thought a step further.
In whose hands was the Ministry of Magic’s power? Undoubtedly, the pure-blood families!
If the pure-blood families gained control of the werewolves, given their personalities and discrimination against Muggle-born wizards, it was almost imaginable what they would do.
The power of the pure-blood families was nothing Greyback could compare to!
Although Snape was a proponent of pure-blood supremacy, he was not a madman. He knew that if the situation developed like that, and if Voldemort were to be resurrected again… the disaster for the wizarding world at that time would likely be even more severe than the last Wizarding War!
At least last time, a large number of wandering werewolves and their descendants were neutral!
That’s right, descendants born to werewolf parents were naturally werewolves themselves. There were several tribes in the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest.
They had a contract with Hogwarts, responsible for guarding 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 had grown to dislike this life of house arrest.
There were many such tribes in the wizarding world.
At this moment, a cold wind blew. Snape, immersed in a faint fear, suddenly sobered up and found his back drenched in cold sweat.
He murmured, “We can’t let the Ministry of Magic take the initiative…”
“Exactly,” Vaughn nodded. “This matter cannot be passively waited upon for the Ministry of Magic to make a decision; it will be too late. I’m having them find other werewolves to make this group proactive.”
Vaughn didn’t say how they would be proactive, and Snape didn’t ask.
The current news was already enough to make his head spin. He suddenly missed Dumbledore; that cunning old man was more suited to contemplating such dark and sinister matters.
On the way back, Vaughn looked up at the gloomy sky.
The dark clouds were still there, but the sun would eventually shine down.
Actually, one point Snape didn’t notice was that Vaughn mentioned the threat the Ministry of Magic might cause, but he didn’t mention that, as the developer of Wolfsbane Potion.
He was naturally closer to the werewolves…
…
The next day, Snape and Vaughn returned to Hogwarts. The esteemed Potions Professor was still pondering yesterday’s issues and continued to be sleepless that night, as if closing his eyes would conjure up swarms of werewolves overwhelming him.
He finally fell into a hazy sleep only in the early morning.
Unfortunately, after only a few hours of sleep, he was awakened by the frantic tapping of owls at his window. It was only then that he suddenly realized Christmas had arrived!
After opening the window, the owls, frozen for several hours and now furious, dropped their Christmas gifts and perched on his head, pecking him ferociously.
Snape impatiently shooed them away, tidied his hair, and then checked the names left on the gift boxes one by one.
Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Malfoy…
Flipping to the last large box, he saw Vaughn’s beautiful calligraphy:
【 To the esteemed Severus Snape, I hope you like it 】
【 Your student, Vaughn Weasley 】
Snape’s lips curved slightly, suddenly feeling a bit of anticipation. But when he opened the gift box and saw dozens of neatly stacked bottles of shampoo inside, his mood immediately vanished!
“Vaughn—Weasley!”
On the other side, in the Slytherin Common Room.
Vaughn, who hadn’t closed his door before sleeping, opened his eyes to find himself already buried in gifts.
He sat in the sea of presents, still half-asleep, troubled by the increase in his fame.
And it was foreseeable that this situation would only get worse in the future.
Boxes of all kinds, tied with ribbons, covered the bed and spread to the floor. This wasn’t all; while Vaughn was running hot water to wash himself, a few more owls flew in.
They looked exhausted, as if they had flown a long journey. They landed on the table and ravenously devoured the snacks Vaughn had prepared for them last night.
Vaughn gently stroked their feathers and gave them some water, and only then did these poor creatures recover.
After nine in the morning, no more owls flew in. Vaughn looked at the hundreds of boxes in front of him, a bit worried.
He called to Guo Guo Cha, “Big baby, go and call Ron.”
Guo Guo Cha excitedly ran out the door.
After not seeing him for a long time, it really missed its toy, that strange fat rat.
The cute big cat sprinted out of the Slytherin Common Room. Slytherins it encountered on the way would deliberately make way for it, and even left the door open for it, so it wouldn’t be unable to return without the password.
As a pet, it was truly riding on its master’s coattails, reaching the pinnacle of its cat life.
Passing through the Great Hall and arriving at Gryffindor Tower, Guo Guo Cha didn’t take the path the little lions usually used.
Instead, it took a shortcut that Madam Puddifoot had told it about, exclusively for cats – the outer wall!
At this moment, Harry and Ron had just woken up.
“Merry Christmas, Harry.”
“Merry Christmas to you too, Ron. Get up quickly, there are gifts under your bed.”
Harry heard Ron say indifferently, “I already know what it is without looking. Who else would send me anything?”
“Maybe Vaughn?”
“He already sent it, don’t you remember? My wand.”
Despite saying this, Ron still jumped out of bed. A moment later, he sighed in disappointment.
“As usual, it’s a sweater knitted by Mum. It’s still that horrible dark purple. Merlin! This one’s for Charlie – oh, is this a dragon scale? Fred and George… never mind, it’s best not to open them. Those two scoundrels definitely have bad intentions. I won’t fall for it again!”
Amidst Ron’s grumbling, Harry also began to open his much smaller pile of gifts.
To Harry’s surprise, the Dursleys hadn’t forgotten him.
Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had sent him a whole 50-pence coin.
Harry was so “touched” he didn’t want to look at it at all.
So, when Ron’s eyes lit up with wonder at this Muggle currency, Harry directly gave it to him.
Soon, Harry discovered the gifts from the Weasley family.
Ron’s gift was a brand new set of “Chudley Cannons” full player cards.
On the orange-red cards, the players were speeding through the wind, and Harry liked them very much.
Vaughn’s gift was a book, 《 One Hundred Foul Plays in Quidditch – How to Take Down an Opposing Player 》.
Harry: “…”
For the next gift, he happily laughed again, “Hey, Ron, Mrs. Weasley sent me a sweater too.”
It was a bright green sweater, the stitches just as rough. It reflected the light coming in from the window, making Harry’s face look as if he had been poisoned.
Ron suddenly felt a little more balanced.
Then, in the next gift, they found the Invisibility Cloak. Harry didn’t know who sent it, but from the unsigned note in the gift box, he learned that this Invisibility Cloak had once belonged to his father, James Potter.
Ron was envious, but Harry was a bit doubtful. After the incident with the dark robes, he wasn’t sure if this item was indeed an heirloom from his father, or perhaps a Dark Arts artifact?
As he hesitated, Scabbers, who was sleeping soundly in his cage on Ron’s desk, suddenly let out a yelp.
The two turned around and saw a giant cat outside the window, its paws on the glass, staring intently at Scabbers.
Ron gasped and quickly hugged Scabbers and his cage, shouting at Harry, “Quick, get rid of it, get rid of that damned stinky cat!”
“Uh… it seems to be here for us.”
Harry saw that Guo Guo Cha only glanced at Scabbers twice before meowing at him, so he tentatively opened the window.
As expected, Guo Guo Cha, after jumping in, meowed at them a couple more times and walked to the door, its eyes scanning back and forth between Harry and Ron.
Harry scratched his head and said, “Let’s go and see. Maybe Vaughn is looking for us?”
Ron was still warily glaring at Guo Guo Cha.
Only when he was sure that the big cat had no intention of attacking did he hang Scabbers’ cage back up.
“Sooner or later, Scabbers and I will both be scared to death by it and its terrible owner.”
Ron huffed and followed Guo Guo Cha.
Before leaving, Harry hesitated, but still took the box containing the Invisibility Cloak, planning to ask Vaughn for help.
Ron grumbled complaints all the way. When they reached Slytherin and entered Vaughn’s dormitory, he saw the gift boxes all over the floor and immediately understood his brother’s intention.
“I knew it, you only look for me when there’s trouble…”
“Ah—Harry, thank you for being willing to help too.”
Vaughn, who was waving his wand and sorting gifts, completely ignored Ron’s gloomy expression and said happily.
Looking at the sunny smile and the hundreds of gift boxes.
Harry suddenly thought, why did he come here?
“Come on, Ronald, don’t look so glum. See these boxes tied with purple ribbons? They’re all from my clients. Help me open them, sort out the letters inside, and don’t mess them up. I have to reply to them later.”
“Harry, I’ll find a lighter task for you. These should all be from classmates. If there’s a name, write it down on this parchment. I’ll need to send thank-you gifts, otherwise, forget it.”
Under Vaughn’s strong command, the two resignedly drooped their heads.
Perhaps it was fate, but the first box Harry opened was from Malfoy, which made him a bit disgusted. He looked at the note tucked inside the gift and then smiled again, “To the esteemed Mr. Vaughn Weasley… Haha, this is the first time I’ve seen this detestable fellow speak so politely.”
In contrast, Ron felt a bit physically ill. He looked at the slips of paper in his hands, all with headings like “Vaughn Sweetheart,” “Angel who grants me youth,” and “My gentle honeybee,” and moaned blankly:
“Harry, do you know who Vaughn’s clients are? They’re all old witches who have to use potions to smooth out wrinkles and transfer fat to their thighs… Ugh—”
Harry glanced at them and quickly looked away.
Meanwhile, Vaughn was also busy, personally handling gifts from some relatively important people.
For example, Dumbledore sent a pair of woolen socks: “My dear friend, I am still in Romania. I was very happy to see Arthur and Molly. We had a pleasant chat and shared different sides of you that we see. I heard about your new potion development. I will return to Hogwarts tonight for the banquet and we can discuss it then!”
“Also, do you remember the wish I told you about? I really hope it can come true this year.”
Vaughn sneered, “Shameless. Want woolen socks? Dream on!”
He sent Old Dumbledore a cashmere robe, baby pink, very girlish.
Hagrid sent a woven filter cloth （ for filtering potion dregs during brewing ）, roughly made but from unusual materials – unicorn tail hair he had collected before.
Sensing the faint magic subtly flowing on the filter cloth, Vaughn could only marvel at the Keeper of Keys’ wealth.
The gifts from his family were the same as usual, nothing much to say. Only Ron, who had borrowed money from him and was now a bit more well-off, gave him a Chudley Cannons doll ornament.
Hermione’s gift was a poetry collection by Robert Southey. Before the holidays, she often saw Vaughn flipping through Ravenclaw poetry collections, probably thinking he liked this romantic style.
Professor McGonagall sent a Transfiguration notebook, containing her lesson preparation notes when she was Dumbledore’s assistant, including her own Transfiguration insights and Dumbledore’s guidance.
Vaughn liked it very much and immediately found a cover to wrap it in and placed it in a secret compartment on his bedside bookshelf.
Professor Flitwick also sent a gift, 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 introducing the history and basic knowledge of ancient magic. Ancient magic was completely different from modern spell systems. The conditions for its use were rather strict, requiring preparation of spellcasting materials and rituals, making it far less convenient and faster than modern spells. Correspondingly, ancient magic was usually known for its immense power.
“When I have time later, I can try researching it.”
Placing the book on the bookshelf, Vaughn soon saw Snape’s gift. It was a box with a very simple packaging, perhaps something the Professor used to store materials in at some point, emitting a peculiar scent of potions.
But the gift inside was no ordinary item.
The moment Vaughn took it out, he heard Ron let out a loud gasp.
Harry, hearing the commotion, looked at the small glass bottle, only the size of a thumb, that Vaughn was holding. Inside the bottle was a golden liquid that looked like melted gold.
Harry was a bit confused and asked softly, “What is this?”
“Felix Felicis…” Ron moaned dreamily, “The most magical potion. After drinking one bottle, for the next 24 hours, there will be no one luckier than you. It’s as if your wishes come true!”
Harry’s eyes widened in shock. His small brain instantly conjured up many scenarios of himself drinking Felix Felicis and having his wishes come true, solving troubles and worries.
Even as a poor student, he immediately understood the power and preciousness of this potion!
Damn it!
Did Snape give all his malice to me and all his kindness to Vaughn?
Vaughn was also very surprised. He didn’t expect the professor to give him such a valuable gift.
In fact, Vaughn knew the recipe for Felix Felicis. It was recorded in 《 Potent Potions 》, but he had never thought of brewing it.
The conditions were too harsh. One of the main ingredients, the Amaranth flower （ (some translated it as amaranth, but I personally don’t think it’s appropriate; the meaning of immortality and unfading is more fitting for magic ）), was very difficult to obtain. One pot of Felix Felicis required a full 23 petals.
The other main ingredient, the voluntarily given blood of a three-month-old unicorn foal, was even more troublesome.
Not to mention that the entire brewing process lasted for 6 months!
Basically, half a year had to be spent being careful and apprehensive. Vaughn didn’t have that much time to waste.
He hadn’t expected to receive a bottle today…
“Tsk, sending something so valuable so suddenly, doesn’t that make my shampoo gift seem very inappropriate?”
Vaughn’s last shred of conscience twitched, but he quickly dismissed it, happily putting the bottle of Felix Felicis back into its box and storing it in the secret compartment.
After finishing opening gifts from a few more important partners （ material suppliers and shop owners ）, Vaughn saw a letter.
It was from a potioneer. They were sort of pen pals. When Vaughn was attacked by many Conservatives in 《 Exceptional Potions 》, she was the first to support Vaughn’s theories.
“Dear Vaughn Weasley, I am happy to hear the news of your enrollment at Hogwarts during my busy travels. Please forgive me for replying this late.”
“I have arrived in North America. The situation here is a bit grim. The Magical Congress is vigilant towards any entering wizard. They confiscated my owl, and Aurors follow me every day. It seems they fear I will pull out my wand and use magic in front of Muggles while walking.”
Reading this, Vaughn frowned.
He only knew that the North American Magical Congress was the strictest agency in enforcing 《 the International Statute of Secrecy 》.
There, the wizarding world was completely separated from Muggle society.
The inside story was complicated. It was said that the North American Muggle government had always tried to crack the secrets of wizarding power. Since the 1920s, they had been trying to capture wizards for research.
This caused the entire North American wizarding community to live in fear, as not all wizards possessed powerful magic, let alone so many young wizards.
Under pressure and international public opinion, the Magical Congress decided to completely hide the wizarding world. Up to now, they have enacted several policies requiring wizards not to marry Muggles, Muggle-born wizards not to reveal any information about the wizarding world to their families, and any Muggles who leaked information must have their memories wiped.
Vaughn continued reading:
“… The enforcement of the Statute of Secrecy is very inhumane. I once met a pathetic Ilvermorny （ North American magical school ） student who had to secretly use magic to save his sick parents. After the Magical Congress found out, the Aurors erased all his parents’ memories of him, and he suddenly became homeless.”
“On the issue of wizard-Muggle marriages, the Magical Congress’s attitude is even tougher. During Halloween, a witch attacked the Woolworth Building （ headquarters of the Magical Congress ）.”
“I heard she married a Muggle 6 years ago and had 3 sons, but this summer they were discovered by the Magical Congress. Her husband and sons’ memories were all cleared, and some say the Aurors eliminated them, but in any case, this woman who lost her family went completely mad because of it…”
The rest of the letter was filled with her experiences in North America, giving Vaughn a clearer understanding of the wizarding world in that distant land.
Although this understanding was not very friendly, Vaughn could almost imagine that North America was probably a powder keg at the moment.
She enclosed a Thunderbird feather as a Christmas gift. This rare magical creature currently only has one habitat left in Arizona.
After finishing the letter, Vaughn took out parchment and began to reply:
“Dear Isabella Rosier, I hope this letter finds you well. I have read your account, and I must say, the situation may be more dire than you imagine…”
“If possible, it would be best to return to England or France. Also, I have good news for you: I have developed a potion called Wolfsbane Potion, which will be released soon. I truly hope to share the joy with you.”
