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Boom.
Early that morning, a loud explosion suddenly came from one of the rooms in House Pendragon’s castle.
A beautiful black-haired girl in a maid uniform hurried over at once.
“Master Aurelian, are you all right?”
She looked at the person walking out of the room in a sealed protective suit.
“Do not worry.
I am fine.”
The person in the suit removed the hood, revealing Aurelian’s handsome face.
He took several deep breaths, then looked at the maid.
“Catherine, ask Bercas to clean this room later.”
The girl in the maid uniform was Catherine.
Two years had passed since Aurelian and Fleur’s engagement.
Two years earlier, after Fleur formed her contract with Phoenix, she had stayed at House Pendragon for a few more days before returning to France with her parents.
September had been approaching, and Fleur was about to begin school.
During the two years that followed, Aurelian and Fleur wrote to each other often.
Whenever school holidays came, Fleur would spend some time at House Pendragon, and their relationship grew steadily closer.
By now, both had fully accepted the other’s role in their lives.
“Master Aurelian, why must you keep doing such dangerous potion experiments?
What if something truly goes wrong?
Lord and Lady Pendragon should stop you.”
Catherine was ten now, graceful and increasingly beautiful.
As she helped him remove the protective suit, she complained with clear dissatisfaction.
Over the past two years, Aurelian had absorbed magical knowledge without pause.
Following instructions from his books, he had also begun attempting to brew potions.
Some attempts succeeded.
Others failed.
“Do not worry.
I took precautions, did I not?”
Aurelian pointed at the protective suit on the floor and smiled at her.
“Who knows whether something made by Muggles can be trusted?”
Catherine muttered while looking at the suit.
Seeing that he was not taking her complaint to heart, Catherine sighed helplessly and shifted the topic back to the potion.
“Yes.
I still do not know where the problem is.
Every time the potion is about to form properly, it explodes, and all the work is wasted.”
Aurelian rubbed his head, troubled.
“Master Aurelian, why are you so determined to solve this potion?
Perhaps it was only an accidental by-product and cannot be reproduced.”
Catherine did not understand his persistence.
Half a year earlier, one of Aurelian’s failed attempts at brewing Felix Felicis had exploded, and he had accidentally inhaled a little of the residue.
After that, he endured twenty-four hours that felt like a nightmare.
He missed a step while going downstairs and tumbled all the way down.
If his body had not been strong, he would have been badly injured.
At dinner, a house-elf that had always delivered dishes neatly with magic somehow sent the food directly onto Aurelian’s head, soaking him from top to bottom.
The house-elf was frightened half to death and kept punishing itself until Aurelian persuaded it to stop and forgave it.
After that, he suffered through being splattered by bird droppings the moment he went outside, being mistaken for a thief while catching one, and encountering an actual robbery at Gringotts when he went to withdraw money.
The robber was eventually subdued by the goblins.
After all of that, Aurelian realized something was wrong.
If the first incidents could be dismissed as bad luck, what was he supposed to make of someone trying to rob Gringotts?
He had never heard of anyone daring to rob Gringotts.
After taking the wrong fireplace several times in a row, he finally returned home.
He thought for a long time and concluded that his misfortune had to have been caused by inhaling the failed Felix Felicis residue.
The potion had produced the opposite effect of Felix Felicis.
While active, it would make a person continuously suffer unlucky events.
To confirm his guess, Aurelian decided to stay in his room for the rest of the day.
Yet not long after he lay down, his bed collapsed.
Bercas replaced it with a new one, and that bed collapsed soon after as well.
That confirmed his theory.
From then on, Aurelian began trying to recreate the potion, but he had not succeeded even once.
After that incident, he had also asked Catherine to buy a Muggle-made hazmat suit to prevent anything similar from happening again.
“If an accident can create a potion like that once, then there must be a way to produce it reliably.”
Aurelian sounded completely certain.
“But what use is a potion that only makes people unlucky?”
Catherine still could not understand why he was so obsessed.
“It has plenty of uses.
If I can produce it, I will never have to worry about what Father and Mother do to set me up again.
I can retaliate whenever I want.”
Aurelian raised his eyebrows, suddenly excited.
“If Felix Felicis is a potion that brings luck, then this is a Misfortune Potion.
Once I finish developing it, I can give a few drops to anyone who annoys me.”
At that, Aurelian revealed a rather unsavory smile.
Catherine looked at him with open disdain, then went to find Bercas so the room could be cleaned.
‘Where did it go wrong?’
After Catherine left, Aurelian sank into thought.
‘The ingredient ratio is exactly the same as the failed attempt, and the method is the same as well.
Why will it not work?’
“By the way, Master Aurelian, Lord Pendragon asked me to tell you that Professor Dumbledore will visit this afternoon.
Please be ready.”
Just as Aurelian was still considering the problem, Catherine suddenly returned and delivered a new message.
“Dumbledore is coming?”
Aurelian froze.
It took him a moment to recover.
“Why?
I do not remember our family having any connection with him.”
Dumbledore’s visit at this time puzzled him, but a guess soon surfaced in his mind.
“Could it be about our enrollment next year?”
“I do not know.
Lord Pendragon did not tell me.
He only said that you must pay attention to the time and not delay because of your experiment.
Professor Dumbledore is, after all, the most powerful light wizard of this age.
We should show him the respect he is due.”
Catherine was worried that Aurelian would become absorbed in his experiment and forget, so she reminded him again.
“I understand.
I will wash up now.
Go on with your work.”
Aurelian waved a hand to show he would remember.
Catherine left, and he returned to his room.
“Dumbledore?
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.