Hogwarts Letter

On the fifth floor, after dealing with his emotional mother and siblings, Vaughn returned to his room and stared thoughtfully at the system panel before him.

Since awakening the system, this was the first time he had seen a "quest."

Moreover, the quest did not seem to care whether he succeeded or failed. There was no penalty, only a reward for success.

Yet it was precisely that reward that caught his eye.

"Talent points..."

Ever since the "Newbie Gift Pack" had maxed out his talent for "Potions," letting him experience just how easy and miraculous it was to study and brew potions with 10 points of talent, Vaughn had been looking forward to another way to improve his talents.

Not to mention the magic scale!

As the name suggested, the magic scale referred to the total amount and intensity of a wizard's magic. The greater someone's magic scale, the more powerful their spells were and the more times they could cast them.

However, magic scale could not simply be understood as a mana bar or spell power, because casting spells also consumed emotion, while a spell's strength depended even more on one's proficiency with it.

There were still two months until the quest was completed.

Vaughn stopped dwelling on it and closed the system panel.

He then looked again at the Hogwarts letter he had opened in his hand. The first page read in dignified handwriting:

[Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (President of the International Confederation of Wizards, First Class Order of Merlin, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot)

Dear Mr. Weasley, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed with this letter is a list of required books and equipment.

The term begins on September 1. We await your reply by owl no later than July 31.

Deputy Headmistress

Minerva McGonagall]

After leaning over his desk to finish his reply, Vaughn sent it off to Hogwarts with the Weasley family's new owl—poor old Errol was simply too old. A few years ago, when it had delivered potions brewed by Vaughn, it had nearly fallen into a pond.

So once Vaughn had begun earning money, he had let Errol retire and enjoy his old age. It now lived in the garden.

That had also been the first time Arthur and Molly accepted Vaughn's money.

Errol's age had left them helpless, and they could not even think of a reason to refuse.

The few times afterward, the money had also gone toward improvements for the whole house, while their daily expenses relied entirely on Arthur's salary—they did not want their children to develop resentment and estrangement over money.

Thinking of money, Vaughn opened the second page of the letter again. Looking at the densely packed list of books and equipment, he could not help shaking his head.

"Looks like Ron will have to use Bill and Charlie's old things again. I just hope that kid doesn't start crying!"

In fact, Ron was far more "strong" than Vaughn had imagined.

When Vaughn finished sending the letter and stepped out of his room, Ron was on the fourth floor where he lived, clutching his crumpled Hogwarts acceptance letter and pacing back and forth with his head held high.

Percy patted him on the shoulder and encouraged him loudly, "Ron, I knew Hogwarts would accept you!"

Ron held his head even higher.

Vaughn rolled his eyes upstairs. Yesterday, when he had passed by the kitchen, he had heard Percy secretly asking their mother whether they should forge a letter to comfort Ron if his acceptance letter did not arrive.

"To celebrate your upcoming entry into Hogwarts, how about I give you Scabbers?"

The sudden "happiness" left Ron at a loss.

With a blank look on his face, he watched Percy pull a rat from his pocket, stuff it into his arms, and then stride away.

Leaning over the railing and watching the amusing scene, Vaughn heard two pairs of footsteps sneaking closer.

There was no need to guess. The only people in the house who would sneak around like that were Fred and George.

Sure enough, the twins came up beside him the next moment, copied his posture as they leaned over the railing to look down, and began speaking their "whispers" in loud voices. "I'd bet Percy has wanted to get rid of Scabbers for ages."

"That's right, George. Scabbers is old and ugly. He might drop dead at any moment."

"Poor Ron. He must think Percy is parting with something precious!"

"Yeah, George. Why is someone that stupid our little brother?"

"I can't understand it either, Fred. Maybe Ron gave all his brains to our other little brother?"

The twins cackled and played off each other, making Ron downstairs so furious that smoke practically came out of his ears. He took the rat from his arms, wanting to throw it away but unable to bear doing so.

In the end, he could only sulk back into his room.

Having enjoyed the show, Vaughn looked at the twins, who had been beating around the bush trying to flatter him, with a smile. "Go on, what do you two want?"

The twins exchanged a glance, looking a little embarrassed.

"You say it, George."

"You say it. You're the older brother."

"Oh—now you remember who the older brother is!"

After trading a few jokes, the twins saw that Vaughn was still smiling and knew they could not fool him. They had no choice but to stand on either side of him, one kneading his shoulders and the other pounding his legs, as they said:

"Well—dear Vaughn, you're going to Hogwarts soon. You'll definitely need to go to Diagon Alley to buy your school supplies, right?"

"Mom said you could buy everything you needed yourself. We knew you had money before..."

"But we didn't know you had this much money. If... if it's convenient, could you invest a little more in materials for us?"

"Just a little! Our great joke shop venture is only short of this much!"

Watching the always mischievous, lawless twins bend for Galleons, Vaughn could barely keep from laughing.

But he also knew that Molly had always forbidden them from doing research because she meant well, worried they might go astray.

So over the past few years, even though the twins had secretly borrowed money from him, he had never opened the floodgates. The twins had always thought he only made a few Sickles—until today.

To buy everything on the school lists—books, supplies, even a pet—would cost at least a hundred Galleons.

That was already an astronomical sum in the twins' eyes!

As Vaughn enjoyed the twins' massage, he hummed, "Last time you borrowed ten Sickles from me, you said the same thing."

"That was last time. Our first joke item is about to be successfully made, right, Fred?"

"That's right, George!"

Seeing that the twins were indeed serious, and that he had teased them enough, Vaughn stroked his chin. "Hmm... the garden needs cleaning tomorrow..."

Before he could finish, the twins eagerly chimed in, "How could we possibly trouble you with such hard work as cleaning the garden?"

"That's right, we've got it covered!"

"...I was going to say I'd dump it on Ron, Fred!"

"This is our sincerity, George!"

"Fair point!"

Watching the two blink at him expectantly from either side, Vaughn waved them off. "All right, all right. We'll see how you perform tomorrow!"

As he watched the cheering twins race downstairs, Vaughn shook his head. After standing there and thinking for a moment, he went to Ron's door and knocked.

Before long, the door was yanked open.

Still sulking, Ron puffed out his cheeks, trying to look fierce but lacking all conviction. "W-what is it?"

"Ron, come with me to Diagon Alley tomorrow."

Ron's lips moved as though he wanted to argue, but he had always felt inferior around Vaughn and could never muster the courage. After a long while, he said stubbornly, "Why do I have to go? I already have secondhand ones!"

"Oh—" Vaughn shrugged and said regretfully, "I was thinking of giving you your Christmas present early this year. For example, a new wand. Looks like you don't—"

Before he could finish, Ron shouted, "I'll go!"

"Hm?"

Even Ron's freckles had turned red as he stammered, "I... I'll go... I can buy some rat food for Scabbers while we're there..."

Vaughn's gaze passed over Ron's shoulder and into the messy room behind him, where the rat was gnawing on a biscuit atop the desk.

Utterly absorbed!

Vaughn deliberately looked interested. "Speaking of Scabbers, I used to keep asking Percy for him. He's old and ugly anyway, so why not give him to me as a test rat for my potions experiments? What do you say, Ron? Want to think it over?"

Inside the room, Scabbers' rustling biscuit-chewing froze.

Ron's eyes widened, his lips trembled, and for a moment, he could not say a word.

A minute ago, if he had heard such an outrageous request from Vaughn, he would definitely have yelled and screamed, gathered his courage, and driven this foul-tempered brother out.

But now...

There was a new wand... This...

Fortunately, he did not have to struggle for long. Seeing Scabbers begin to sneak toward the edge of the desk, Vaughn, not wanting to truly scare him away, patted Ron on the shoulder and laughed. "I'm kidding. A rat that small would be poisoned to death by one sip of potion (Scabbers began trembling all over). Remember not to sleep in tomorrow. That's all!"

Ron let out a long breath. Only after watching Vaughn head upstairs did he hurriedly run into his room and scoop up Scabbers.

"Oh, Scabbers, don't be afraid, don't be afraid. He was just trying to scare us..."

Outside the door, at the turn of the stairs, Vaughn stared at Ron's door with a cold smile.

Hmph. He could keep that fellow's rat life for a little longer!