Hogwarts: What wicked thoughts could a little wizard possibly have?

Chapter 36 Hagrid's Message

The last heavy rain before winter in the Scottish Highlands fell on Hogwarts in early October.

That was the night of the Slytherin training match.

Wood sat alone in the empty Quidditch pitch, getting soaked in the rain, seemingly trying to drown himself.

Everyone knows that Wood sees Slytherin as a formidable rival, the biggest obstacle to his wish to win the Quidditch Cup before graduation. He thought Gryffindor was safe with Harry, but after seeing Vaughn's performance, Wood fell into despair once again.

Harry would rather he hadn't despaired...

From that day on, Wood's Quidditch training became even more intense.

If he didn't still have a shred of rationality, he would even wish that everyone would skip all classes and focus solely on Quidditch practice every day!

The crazy result was that Harry was in complete trouble.

Not only do they have to cope with increasingly heavy coursework, but they also have to attend Quidditch training four nights a week.

One day in mid-October, a haggard and thin Harry finally ran into Vaughn again—he seemed to have returned to his busy state from before, disappearing after class.

Vaughn was startled by Harry's dark circles: "Where have you been?"

Harry gave him a resentful look and said listlessly, "Homework, training... Don't Slytherins need training?"

"Wednesday nights, any more than that is not appropriate, it will affect your performance."

"That's great. Flint looks fierce, and he's stupid and dumb, but he actually understands this principle."

Vaughn didn't say anything. He was the one who made the training plan, and Flint naturally disagreed. So Flint taught him a lesson with a disarming spell. Then Vaughn realized... there were actually advantages to having an idiot as captain.

Flint couldn't beat him, so he listened to him and didn't stick to the training plan. He could also be used as a shield in critical moments, such as when others criticized Slytherin's tactics as insidious.

"Harry, is there something you need? If not, I'll be going now, I've been very busy lately."

"Vaughn said."

This was not an excuse; he had recently been in Snape's office, using magic extraction techniques to familiarize himself with various materials.

That's no easy task.

Despite the processing, the materials taken from magical plants and animals still retained residual magic, which his magic could not destroy, so the progress was not fast.

Harry quickly grabbed him: "Nick Flamel!"

"..." Vaughn was speechless, looking at Harry's face, which almost screamed "premature aging." "You're so tired, and you're still thinking about it?"

Harry chuckled.

Vaughn pulled out a chocolate frog: "Remember the chocolate frog card you and Ron discussed when we first met? It's written on it!"

Harry jumped up immediately, hurriedly said goodbye to Vaughn, and ran towards the Gryffindor common room.

Vaughn shook his head, ate a quick bite, and then rushed to Snape's office.

Professor Snape has been in a better mood lately.

Perhaps it was because he saw Harry suffering, or perhaps it was because he had someone to talk to about potions?

In any case, at least recently when he's grading assignments, he doesn't seem to want to tear the parchment apart like before, or summon the little wizards who made mistakes on their papers and verbally abuse them until they cry.

After greeting Snape, who was gently waving his quill, Vaughn went to his seat and took out a piece of aconite.

He lightly tapped his wand with one hand, carefully infusing magic into the aconite, while in the other hand he held a quill pen, writing and drawing.

That was a record of the internal structure of aconite as reflected in his mind, and his guesses about its properties.

First, classify the data to facilitate subsequent experiments.

Time flew by in this focused state.

When Vaughn put it down, it was already 6 p.m.

It was getting late, and Vaughn bowed to Snape, saying, "Goodbye, Professor."

Snape called out to him, "Weasley..."

"Call me Vaughn, Professor."

"Wow—um…" Snape shook his head awkwardly. "The Quidditch season starts next month, and the first match is against Gryffindor. How's your training going?"

"It's alright," Vaughn thought for a moment and said, "Flint is planning to send two people specifically to snipe Harry; it's extremely vicious and cruel."

"Cruelty is just right," Snape thought with amusement, no longer paying attention, and instead asked:

"I've noticed you've been focusing a lot of energy on aconite lately. Are you planning to use it as the main ingredient in your potions?"

"Yes, Professor."

"Hmph...it's highly poisonous!" Snape said with annoyance, seemingly displeased by his overestimation of his abilities. "After you've finished your analysis, write a paper and hand it in to me!"

She was clearly afraid he would act rashly and wanted to keep an eye on him.

Vaughn smiled and agreed.

He was curious to see what Snape's expression would be when he finally discovered his research target.

Vaughn left the potions office and went to the Great Hall, where he chose to continue his visit to the Ravenclaw table today.

The young ladies are gentle and considerate, making them perfect for relaxing.

Unfortunately, just as I was chatting with Zhang Qiu, Harry, Ron, and Hermione came looking for me.

"Vaughn, you..." Harry had just greeted Vaughn when he saw Cho beside him, and then, for some reason, he started to stammer.

"Hello, I'm Haha Harry..."

"Harry Potter, everyone knows your name."

Qiu smiled gently, then waved her hand at Warn: "You go ahead and get busy, we'll talk again when we have time."

Harry stared blankly at her retreating figure.

Ron bumped into him and said, "What's wrong with you? Why are you spacing out?"

Harry then came to his senses and noticed Vaughn's ambiguous smile and Hermione's suspicion.

For the first time, he thought Ron was so adorable.

He blushed and quickly coughed twice: "Vaughn, thank you for reminding us. We now know what Dumbledore hid in the castle."

He leaned forward and whispered furtively, "It's the Philosopher's Stone..."

Seeing that Vaughn's expression didn't change at all after hearing what he said, Ron found it unbelievable: "Aren't you surprised at all? The Philosopher's Stone! We heard about it in fairy tales when we were kids!"

"I know what it is." Vaughn waved his hand. "I knew it was the Philosopher's Stone the moment you mentioned Nicolas Flamel; that was his greatest achievement."

"That's it? It can turn lead into gold!"

In Ron's eyes, this was the most magical function of the Philosopher's Stone.

Vaughn looked Ron up and down a few times, then smiled and said, "Ronald Weasley, my dear brother, what do you think is the difference between me selling potions and turning lead into gold?"

"..."

Ron looked ashen-white, and he didn't want to talk anymore.

Harry quickly pushed Ron away to prevent him from having a mental breakdown from being further hurt. "Vaughn, Hagrid wants to see you."

Hermione chimed in, "Sorry, Hagrid asked us if anyone else knew Nick Flamel, and we had to tell him."

Vaughn blinked. "Sure, when are we going?"

He had just realized that, despite being at Hogwarts for so long, he hadn't even visited the Forbidden Forest.

That was an oversight!