“The Grey Lady generously shared the Potion recipe with me.”
Dumbledore said, “But unfortunately, too much time has passed, so much time that The Grey Lady only remembers that Potion recipe.”
Weilan’s mood sank to rock bottom again: “Does that mean Harry is still…”
“No.” Dumbledore shook his head, “That Potion is already the core of the treatment plan; the rest of the auxiliary spells and ritual magic are merely to enhance the Potion’s efficacy.”
A parchment slowly floated into Weilan’s hand, unfolding in his palm.
It was a Potion recipe.
Although the ingredients for the recipe included many rare and expensive materials, they were not impossible to obtain on the market.
The process of brewing the Potion would take about 10 hours, and during the process, at least 20 different spells needed to be cast on the Potion.
Weilan suddenly felt that The Grey Lady was astonishingly intelligent to have remembered the nearly 2000-word Potion brewing process for over 1000 years.
“Only you can brew this Potion, Weilan.”
Dumbledore pointed out, “Many of the spells in the Potion brewing process involve Ancient magic. Only you can do these things.”
“As for the methods of casting Ancient magic, I did find a large number of records in the Castle of Farbaton—these were all personally recorded by their ancestors, from the mouth of Ms. Ravenclaw.”
“And combined with The Grey Lady’s slight guidance to me… Weilan, I think I can barely teach you some basic control and casting methods of Ancient magic.”
“This is the main content of your lesson.”
The sun outside the window gradually set, and the light of the setting sun streamed in, gilding stacks of parchment with thin gold.
Dumbledore diligently and thoroughly explained all the knowledge points to Weilan.
Now he had finished speaking everything and was drinking his cold tea to moisten his throat.
Weilan looked at his notes on the parchment.
Most of these Ancient magic spells were used to prepare that healing Potion.
There were three more practical spells:
The first spell, Ancient magic Lightning Strike, directly invoked the purest Ancient bloodline magic to release a wide-range destructive attack around the caster.
This magic belonged to a powerful offensive magic that relied on sheer power, crushing everything with its sheer numbers. Its drawbacks were that it was indiscriminate, affecting both friend and foe, and required a longer recovery time.
The second spell, Ancient magic Throw, was usually used in conjunction with the Levitation Charm and Accio. It could turn objects in the environment into flammable and explosive items, then hurl them at enemies, causing an explosion.
However, it shared a mana bar with Lightning Strike; if Ancient magic Throw was used too many times, Lightning Strike could not be cast.
The third spell… was Ancient magic Purification.
A certain step in brewing the Potion required it. However, this spell, when taken alone, still had many uses.
For example, it could remove most forms of poisoning, love Potions, Stupefy, Dementor’s Kiss, and many negative statuses inflicted by Dark Arts spells.
It was very practical, but it shared a mana bar with the first two types of magic.
Weilan folded the parchment containing the recipe with his class notes and put them away:
“I will do my best, Professor Dumbledore. If I succeed, I will let you know.”
“Also…” Weilan was about to talk about his own matters, “I want to know how your investigation into Mr. Bagman is progressing.”
Dumbledore interlaced his fingers, resting his arms flat on the table:
“At Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Mr. Bagman received a transfer from Finland one month ago… This location is very close to Durmstrang, and the amount totaled 500 Galleons.”
“Then, starting from the beginning of this year, individuals within Britain have successively deposited funds into his bank account. As of now, he has received over 50,000 Galleons in unexplained funds.”
Weilan’s face darkened: “Did he confess?”
“Mr. Bagman only admitted that Karkaroff gave him that 500 Galleon bribe so that he could specify the enemy the Durmstrang champion would face in the first task.”
“As for the remaining 50,000 Galleons… he said it was obtained from illegally hoarding and selling Quidditch World Cup tickets.”
“Mr. Bagman has now been convicted, dismissed from his post, and sent to Azkaban.”
Azkaban? Azkaban again!
Weilan questioned, “If it was just a simple bribery charge, how could he be sent to Azkaban?”
“Indeed.” Dumbledore pushed up his glasses on his crooked nose, “There are many suspicious points about this matter.”
“So, during my last meeting with Mr. Bagman, I used some means to retrieve his true memories.”
Dumbledore became serious, and Weilan’s nerves tightened accordingly.
Weilan knew that Dumbledore, as the greatest White Wizard of this era, could silently use Legilimency to read memories from people’s minds.
However, for ethical reasons, Dumbledore would not use this trick unless absolutely necessary.
“Someone spent 50,000 Galleons to bribe Mr. Bagman to ignore the anomaly on the Golden Egg during the pre-task inspection.”
“Furthermore, the other party demanded that Daphne must draw the Hungarian Horntail.”
“Mr. Bagman also hesitated, but facing the Goblin’s relentless debt collection, he finally chose to yield and received an initial fund of 10,000 Galleons to solve his urgent needs.”
“Thus, just as you deduced when you faced Charlie, there was a problem with one of the Golden Eggs, and it almost killed Miss Delacour because of it.”
“I think the culprit also didn’t anticipate that the two would exchange drawing results.”
Weilan eagerly pressed, “Then who exactly bribed Mr. Bagman with 50,000 Galleons?”
Dumbledore shook his head, “I don’t know. They communicated and transacted entirely through owls; Mr. Bagman never even saw the other party’s true face.”
“When Daphne was chosen as the champion, Mr. Bagman immediately thought of You-Know-Who who had bribed him. That’s why he was so eager to gloss over the matter.”
Weilan changed his line of thought: “Then, Professor Dumbledore, have you checked whose hands the Golden Eggs passed through?”
“Too many people.” A rare trace of annoyance appeared on Dumbledore’s usually serene face, “We can’t investigate everything.”
“Thank you for your hard work, Professor Dumbledore.”
Weilan reached into his pocket, his fingers caressing a smooth Knut, then pulled out the Merlin’s relic that was right next to it.
“Also, Professor Dumbledore, we have fully deciphered the cipher on this coin.”
Weilan translated the general meaning of the two sentences to Dumbledore respectively:
“The text on the back of the coin means—‘Thought knocks on the door to the past for me’.”
“The meaning on the side of the coin is—‘I think, I observe, I deduce’.”
“Excellent.” Dumbledore praised, “You must have put a lot of effort into deciphering the meaning of these two sentences in such a short time.”
“But.” Dumbledore changed his tone, “You still need to find the pronunciation of these two sentences.”
“Pronunciation?” Weilan’s head spun, “But their basis is Ancient Runes! Professor Babbling never taught…”
“They do.” Dumbledore assured him confidently, “Ancient Runes certainly have their own pronunciation system. And, you will definitely find it.”
Calming down, Weilan felt that Dumbledore’s statement was off:
“But, Professor, how can you be so sure I will definitely find it…”