Hagrid's Message

The last heavy rain before winter fell over Hogwarts in the Scottish Highlands at the beginning of October.

It was the night of Slytherin's practice match.

Wood sat alone in the empty Quidditch pitch, soaked by the rain, as if he wanted to drown himself.

Everyone knew that Wood regarded Slytherin as a formidable rival, the greatest obstacle standing between him and his dream of "winning the Quidditch Cup before graduation." He had thought Gryffindor's victory was assured with Harry on the team, but after seeing Vaughn's performance, Wood had fallen into despair once more.

Harry would rather he had not despaired...

From that day onward, the Quidditch training Wood arranged became even more insane.

If he had not retained a shred of reason, he would have wanted everyone to skip all their classes and train for Quidditch every day!

The result of that madness was that Harry suffered terribly.

Not only did he have to deal with increasingly demanding schoolwork, he also had to attend Quidditch training four nights a week.

One day in mid-October, the haggard, thinner Harry finally ran into Vaughn again—recently, he seemed to have returned to the busy state he had been in before, disappearing the moment class ended.

Vaughn was startled by the dark circles beneath Harry's eyes. "What have you been doing?"

Harry gave him a resentful look and said listlessly, "Homework, training... Doesn't Slytherin train?"

"Wednesday nights every week. Any more than that would be inappropriate; it would affect everyone's condition."

"That's nice. Flint looks so fierce, and he's dumb as a rock, yet he actually understands something that simple."

Vaughn said nothing. He had devised that training schedule himself. Naturally, Flint had objected, so Vaughn had taught him a lesson with a Disarming Charm. Then Vaughn discovered... there were actually advantages to having an idiot as captain.

Flint could not beat him, so he listened obediently. He was not particularly stubborn about the training schedule either, and at crucial moments, Vaughn could even use him as a shield—for instance, when others cursed Slytherin's tactics for being vicious.

"Harry, did you need something from me? If not, I'll be going. I've been very busy lately," Vaughn said.

It was not an excuse. Lately, he had been spending his time in Snape's office, using the magical power extraction method to familiarize himself with various materials.

It was far from easy work.

Even after being processed, those materials taken from magical plants and animals still retained traces of magic. His own magic could not damage them, so his progress had not been particularly fast.

Harry hurriedly grabbed him. "Nicolas Flamel!"

"..." Vaughn looked speechlessly at Harry's face, which practically had "premature aging" written across it. "You're exhausted to this extent, and you're still thinking about that?"

Harry gave an awkward laugh.

Vaughn took out a Chocolate Frog. "Do you remember the Chocolate Frog Cards you and Ron were discussing when we first met? It's written on there!"

Harry immediately sprang up. After hurriedly saying goodbye to Vaughn, he raced toward the Gryffindor common room.

Vaughn shook his head. After casually eating a little, he hurried back to Snape's office.

Professor Snape had been in an increasingly good mood lately.

Perhaps it was because he enjoyed seeing Harry suffer, or perhaps because he had someone with whom he could discuss potions?

Whatever the reason, at least when he graded assignments recently, he no longer looked as though he wanted to tear the parchment apart with his quill, or summon the young wizards whose essays were wrong and reduce them to tears with venomous words.

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

With one hand, he lightly tapped his wand and carefully channeled magic into the aconite. With the other, he held a quill and wrote and sketched.

He was recording the internal structure of the aconite reflected within his mind, as well as his conjectures about its properties.

First, he needed to classify everything to make the subsequent experiments easier.

Time passed quickly amid such concentration.

By the time Vaughn set it down, it was already six in the evening.

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

Snape called after him. "Weasley..."

"Call me Vaughn, Professor."

"V-Vaughn..." Snape gave his hair an uncomfortable shake. "The Quidditch season begins next month. Your first match is against Gryffindor. How has your training been?"

"Not bad." Vaughn thought for a moment before saying, "Flint plans to send two people specifically to target Harry. Very vicious and cruel."

Cruel was exactly right. Snape's mood brightened. He did not dwell on the matter further, instead asking, "I've noticed that you've been focusing your efforts on aconite lately. Are you planning to use it as the main ingredient in your potion?"

"Yes, Professor."

"Hmph... it's highly poisonous!" Snape looked irritated, seemingly displeased by Vaughn's overconfidence. "Once you finish analyzing it, write a paper and hand it in to me!"

He was clearly worried Vaughn would act recklessly and wanted to check his work for him.

Vaughn agreed with a smile.

He really wanted to know what expression Snape would wear once he discovered Vaughn's true research goal.

After leaving the Potions office, Vaughn went to the Great Hall. Today, he once again chose to grace the Ravenclaw table with his presence.

The young ladies there were gentle and considerate—perfect for relaxing.

Unfortunately, Harry, Ron, and Hermione came looking for Vaughn after he had only exchanged a few words with Cho Chang.

"Vaughn, you..." Harry had barely greeted Vaughn when he noticed Cho beside him. Then, for some reason, he began to stammer.

"H-hello, I'm H-H-Harry..."

"Harry Potter. There isn't anyone who doesn't know your name."

Cho smiled gently, then waved to Vaughn. "You go ahead and get busy. We can talk again when there's time."

Harry stared blankly at her retreating figure.

It was not until Ron bumped into him that he snapped out of it. "What's wrong with you? Why are you spacing out?"

Only then did Harry come to his senses. He saw the teasing smile at the corner of Vaughn's mouth, as well as Hermione's suspicious look.

For the first time, he found Ron so adorable.

His face reddened, and he hurriedly coughed twice. "Vaughn, thanks for the hint. We know what Dumbledore hid in the castle now."

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

Seeing that Vaughn's expression did not change at all after hearing this, Ron found it unbelievable. "You're not surprised at all? The Philosopher's Stone! The thing from the fairy tales we heard as kids!"

"I know what it is." Vaughn waved a hand. "The moment you mentioned Nicolas Flamel, I knew it had to be the Philosopher's Stone. It was his greatest achievement."

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

In Ron's eyes, that was the Philosopher's Stone's most miraculous ability.

Vaughn looked Ron up and down, then said with a smile, "Ronald Weasley, my dear brother, what difference is there between me selling potions and turning stone into gold?"

"..."

Ron seemed to turn gray all over. He no longer wanted to speak.

Harry hurriedly shoved Ron aside before the blow could crush his spirit completely. "Vaughn, Hagrid wants to meet you."

Hermione added from beside him, "Sorry. Hagrid asked us who else knew about Nicolas Flamel, so we had no choice but to tell him."

Vaughn blinked. "Sure. When should we go?"

He had just realized that, despite having been at Hogwarts for so long, he had never once taken a stroll through the Forbidden Forest.

What an oversight!