The Philosopher's Stone
Christmas Eve,
It was a night for revelry.
This is certainly true for those wizards who successfully secured a copy of the biography, "The Life and Lies of You-Know-Who," after making a reservation.
When they received the book, it was as if they were reading a story filled with sex, betrayal, death, and killing.
These contents captivated them, and they spent the entire night studying Voldemort's past.
The next day, everyone was looking for news and reading the reports.
Readers who bought the book were eager to see reviews and find common ground; wizards who didn't buy it were more interested in reading the newspaper to see if anyone had commented on or spoiled the plot.
However, they searched through the newspapers but found no reports about the biography.
Because the headlines... were snatched away by the Stark once again.
The photos showed the corpses of Death Eaters and signs of destruction on the ground, indicating that the battle was fierce.
But that wasn't the most eye-catching thing; the most eye-catching thing was the half-wand that Stark was holding in his hand.
The caption under the photo simply reads, "The Dark Lord's Wand."
The news content was also very simple:
On Christmas Eve, the Dark Lord led his army of Death Eaters in a surprise attack on Lovegood's house, intending to destroy the biography.
However, with the Stark ' intervention and the help of the Auror, they annihilated more than 500 Death Eaters.
Stark nearly killed the Dark Lord while the wine was still warm, but in the end, the You-Know-Who escaped, though Stark still managed to steal his wand.
When William saw this news, he almost spat out his 1982 bottle of soda.
While the general description is correct, isn't the claim of annihilating 500 men a bit too exaggerated?
Good heavens... William clearly killed over two hundred, and you've doubled that number?
It seems that exaggeration of war achievements is inevitable in any world and culture.
But who cares... as long as it gets heated, that's all that matters.
All the wizards were immersed in joy, and the future seemed bright. They believed they could defeat the Death Eaters in three months and kill Voldemort in five months.
Everyone praised the Auror, and then dragged Fudge out for a harsh critique.
As William said:
This incident did not significantly enhance his reputation. He was essentially on Dumbledore, and whatever he did was considered perfectly acceptable by everyone.
William, however, skipped three ranks in his part-time Auror position and became a captain.
Tonks can't be so cocky anymore; she, the squad leader, is now William's subordinate.
William can make things difficult for her however he wants, he can mold her however he wants!
With such severe losses, how could Voldemort possibly be one to suffer a loss?
On the third day after Christmas, he personally led the Legion of Giant Inferi to attack the Wizengamot of the Ministry of Magic, resulting in the deaths of seven wizards.
These were all highly respected old wizards.
The magical world was in an uproar; the praise from just a few days ago seemed to have turned into a slap in the face.
While Bones may not be Fudge, he still has the shrewdness of a politician.
To mitigate the impact of this incident, she immediately released the wizard census data, which had been delayed for three months.
This work was already underway when the war began.
A clear investigation into the number of wizards, the male-to-female ratio, and the birth rate will facilitate further policy adjustments.
But why wasn't it released before...? Because the data was too bad and needed optimization.
It is well known that the wizarding birth rate is low, and even though the Ministry of Magic has been urging people to have a second child, it still doesn't increase.
The reasons are: too low wages, too few job openings... and a lot of pressure.
Look at the Weasley family, even with Hogwarts tuition completely free, their salaries aren't enough to support so many children.
What about the other wizards having a second child?!
The aging population in the Wizarding World is also particularly severe; it has long since entered an aging society.
To say nothing of the distant past, the average age of the Hogwarts teaching staff is seventy.
If we include that old vampire Babbling, then the age would have to be pushed back even further.
Even before William became a teacher, Snape, this middle-aged man, was actually the youngest and most promising one... Can you believe it?!
Therefore, the Ministry of Magic also proposed "leveraging the role of over 59% of young and old people".
Even the elderly are now categorized into "young" and "old" age groups. I wonder who in the Ministry of Magic invented such a malicious term.
However, this matter is none of William's concern, and he doesn't care about it.
Besides entertaining Phoebe and the others and fighting Voldemort, he had an even more important matter to attend to during this Christmas holiday:
Crafting Philosopher's Stone.
Therefore, in the middle of the Christmas holidays, Nicolas Flamel visited William's house again.
A year had passed, Nicolas had aged considerably. He looked like a piece of rotten wood, as if his body was at risk of collapsing at any moment.
In fact, his Philosopher's Stone had been almost completely used up six years ago.
So Dumbledore simply borrowed it, placed it on the fourth floor, and set up a Restricted Section to set up a sting operation.
Even if Voldemort eventually steals the Philosopher's Stone, he will only get a stone with its magic depleted.
For the past six years, the "Elixir of Life" that Nicolas drank was basically all old stock.
Not only were the quantities small, but the Potions wasn't fresh, so its effects were actually quite poor.
The reason I came to see William this time is because we can't delay any longer.
William had prepared all the materials and was familiar with each step of the process.
In fact, William was arguably the most knowledgeable wizard of his time, aside from the Nicolas and Dumbledore, about the creation of the Philosopher's Stone.
It's normal for the Nicolas to be familiar with each other; Nicolas obtained the Book of Alchemy under Death's guidance years ago.
After deciphering the contents, he became the first wizard to successfully forge Philosopher's Stone.
His wife was the second.
The most difficult part of making the Philosopher's Stone is...
Outsiders only know that the Philosopher's Stone can grant immortality, but they don't know that Philosopher's Stone creation comes at the cost of lifespan.
Walking in the courtyard, Nicolas sighed.
The quality of a Philosopher's Stone is determined by its magical power.
The amount of magic power is related to the alchemist's skill and the lifespan granted by them.
Therefore, the number of Philosopher's Stone a wizard can create in his lifetime is limited.
When lifespan is reduced to a certain extent, even if one can use Philosopher's Stone to brew Elixir of Life and continue living, it will be impossible to refine Philosopher's Stone anymore.
Therefore, Nicolas has not personally crafted Philosopher's Stone for two hundred years.
"To solve this problem, I will search for talented children in the magical world, nurture them, and make an equivalent exchange that the other party agrees to," Nicolas recalled.
The one before that was Dumbledore.
When he was fifteen, he borrowed the Philosopher's Stone from Nicolas and used it to extend his sister's life.
Eventually, in his middle age, Dumbledore crafted a Philosopher's Stone and gave it to Nicolas.
"So who did you choose last time?" William asked curiously.
Standing by the river, Nicolas uttered a name that surprised him.
Lily Evans.