A summer morning, Devonshire.
The cool morning wind blew across the fields outside the village of Ottery St Catchpole, crossed Stoatshead Hill, and blew the large patch of vigorously growing reeds behind the hill into what looked like rolling waves.
The residents of Ottery St Catchpole had always believed that there was nothing here but reeds and wilderness.
But the wind knew that a wizarding family lived secluded among that vast expanse of reeds.
It had a rather large garden, and the pond in the garden rippled as the reeds swayed.
The main building was a towering house that looked rickety from the outside. Only the first floor appeared sturdy and standard; though the paint was old, it was well maintained, and a wooden sign carved with the words The Burrow hung at the door.
It seemed to tell the story of how, over twenty years ago, when a young couple chose to settle here, they placed all their passion for life and expectations of warmth into that single-story cabin.
But obviously, life's surprises far exceeded their expectations. As they had more and more children, the cabin was built higher and higher.
Until it became the strange appearance it had today!
On the top floor of The Burrow, the attic that was occupied by a ghoul just a few years ago had now been remodeled. Rows of potion ingredient shelves stood against the wall, piled high with boxes, bottles, and jars, making it look messy and crowded. Only the exact center of the attic had been cleared into an empty space.
A simple experimental workbench was placed there, with various instruments needed for brewing potions arranged neatly. The fire was burning, and the liquid in the cauldron bubbled.
In front of the cauldron, the red-haired Vaughn Weasley finished preparing the ingredients with a focused expression, then checked the heat of the potion in the cauldron once more.
"Lady's Mantle, Boomslang skin... hmm, add a little bit of fairy wings..."
Vaughn turned down the heat, waited for the cauldron's temperature to drop, and threw the last ingredient in his hand into the pot.
"Finally, add Fluxweed to provide bodily plasticity for the beautification potion..."
He muttered to himself while carefully observing the changes in the potion inside the cauldron. As the Fluxweed dissolved, the temperature dropped steadily, until the last bubble popped and a wonderful reaction occurred in the pot.
The originally thick and pitch-black potion quickly turned from cloudy to clear, looking like freshly melted rock sugar syrup that hadn't yet caramelized, emitting a sweet and fresh fragrance.
"A success!"
Vaughn hastily and accurately dug out a box of bottles from the seemingly messy ingredient shelves nearby, waved the old wand in his hand, levitated the potion, and filled it into the small bottles one by one.
Finally, he meticulously attached his handwritten labels:
[Vaughn's Beautification Potion (Anti-Wrinkle Variant)]
[For external application, supplemented with massage, bounce away your wrinkles and restore healthy, firm skin]
After finishing everything, Vaughn stretched forcefully. Accompanied by the satisfying crack of his bones, he looked out the attic window at the reeds swaying like waves in the morning wind, and the gradually brightening light on the horizon, feeling in a daze for a moment.
It had been 11 years since he crossed over into this world. Ever since he was born, he knew his surname was Weasley, and he knew he had 5 older brothers named Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, and George.
Along with his twin brother, who was kicked by him during birth and consequently born 5 minutes later, named Ronald Bilius Weasley, or Ron for short.
How could Vaughn not realize what world he had crossed into!
Harry Potter...
Though 11 years had passed, his memories of his past life were still relatively clear because he reminisced often.
But having lived in this world for so long, the past inevitably began to fade.
Vaughn shook his head, stopped overthinking, and silently chanted:
"System!"
Following this thought, a panel invisible to others floated before his eyes:
[Host: Vaughn Weasley]
[Magic Power Scale: 370 (Normal adult wizard is 500)]
[Talents: Charms 7, Dark Arts 6, Transfiguration 7, Potions 10, Herbology 6, Divination 2 (Max value is 10)]
[Spells: Occlumency LV5 (MAX), Shield Charm LV3 (2/8), Disarming Charm LV2 (2/4), Levitation Charm LV2 (0/4), Petrification Charm LV2 (0/4), Fire-Making Spell LV2 (1/4), Wand-Lighting Charm LV2 (0/2)...]
[Potions: Elixir to Induce Euphoria, Invigoration Draught, Blood-Replenishing Potion, Hair-Softening Potion, Hair-Growing Potion, Beautification Potion (Master Level, includes multiple formula variants)...]
[Fame Points: 12]
This system had awakened the moment Vaughn was born.
Having read the novels and watched the movies, Vaughn knew full well that the future survival environment would become increasingly dangerous. He didn't just throw his hands up and give up the moment he was born. It had to be said that the existence of the system gave him a lot of courage!
Vaughn glanced at the talents section on his system panel. Even though he had seen the words Potions 10 many times, it still gave him a sense of satisfaction akin to curing his OCD.
The levels of his other talents were innate from birth. Only Potions was a reward opened from the gift pack given when the system awakened—max level Occlumency, and randomly raising one talent to the maximum value!
Over these 11 years, through gradual exploration, Vaughn had slowly figured out the functions of the so-called Fame System. Up to now, this system had never issued quests, had no shop, and had no lottery.
Its core function, as the name implied, was to calculate Fame Points every month based on the spread of Vaughn's current reputation!
Fame Points could be used to upgrade spell levels. In the system's spells section, the numbers in parentheses represented the Fame Points required to upgrade the spell to the next level.
Depending on the difficulty of the spell, the required Fame Points increased or decreased accordingly.
Of course, spells could also be practiced manually to level up, but that required a massive amount of practice and talent.
After figuring out the system's functions, Vaughn felt very fortunate that the random max-level talent from his novice gift pack had landed on Potions.
It was undeniable that Potions was profound and vast, but at the same time, its barrier to entry was not high. As long as one had ingredients, a formula, and a cauldron, any wizard could start brewing. Some simple formulas didn't even require waving a wand.
Out of all the magical disciplines, there was none more suitable for a young wizard like Vaughn, who didn't even have a wand yet.
Vaughn's personality was very cautious.
He knew perfectly well that both his identity as a transmigrator and the existence of the system were massive secrets. When he was young, he never tried to highlight his abnormalities.
It wasn't until he was 4 years old that Vaughn began to build his persona as a genius, utterly crushing Ron in foundational subjects like word recognition, writing, and drawing.
Then, at age 7, he began to gradually bring his genius persona to his faithful Potions!
Starting with the simplest potions, 4 years had passed. From the very beginning when he cluelessly asked Bill and Charlie for guidance and learning, to modifying formulas himself, Vaughn had already become a somewhat famous potioneer.
Even in the field of beautification potions, the several papers he published and the various types of beautification potions he modified made him practically a beauty master and a friend to women in the wizarding world!
As for why he specialized in cosmetics...
Simple: it was easy to build a reputation, and the sales were great!