A summer morning in Devon.
The cool morning wind blew across the fields outside the village of Ottery St Catchpole, over Stoathead Hill, and swept through the large expanse of vigorously growing reeds behind the hill, making them look just 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 in seclusion among that vast patch of reeds.
It had a sizable garden, and the pond in the garden rippled as the reeds swayed.
The main building was a towering house that looked unsteady on the outside. Only the first floor appeared sturdy and standard; though the paint was old, it was well maintained, and a wooden sign engraved with the words The Burrow hung at the door.
It seemed to tell the story of more than twenty years ago, when a young couple chose to settle here, placing all their passion for life and their hopes for coziness 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 sight it was today!
On the top floor of The Burrow, the attic that had been occupied by a ghoul just a few years ago had now been remodeled. Rows of ingredient shelves stood against the walls, piled high with boxes, bottles, and jars, looking cluttered and crowded. Only a clearing in the exact center of the attic had been made.
A simple experimental workbench was placed there. Various instruments needed for brewing potions were arranged neatly, the fire was burning, and the liquid in the cauldron was bubbling.
In front of the cauldron, a red-haired Vaughn Weasley handled the ingredients with a focused expression and checked the heat of the potion in the cauldron once more.
"Lady's Mantle, Boomslang skin... hmm, and a little bit of fairy wings..."
Vaughn turned the heat down, 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 beauty potion..."
He muttered as he carefully observed 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 rock sugar syrup that had just melted but hadn't yet caramelized, emitting a sweet and refreshing fragrance.
"Success!"
Vaughn hurriedly and accurately dug out a box of bottles from the seemingly cluttered ingredient shelves nearby. He waved his old wand, levitating the potion and filling the small bottles one by one.
Finally, he meticulously applied his handwritten labels:
[Vaughn's Beauty Potion - Anti-Wrinkle Type]
[For external application, supplemented with massage, to bounce away your wrinkles and restore healthy, firm skin]
After finishing everything, Vaughn stretched forcefully. Accompanied by the satisfying crack of his joints, he looked out the attic window at the reeds swaying like waves in the morning wind, and the gradually brightening sky on the horizon, feeling a bit dazed for a moment.
It had been 11 years since he crossed over to this world. Since birth, he knew his last name was Weasley, and he knew he had 5 older brothers named Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, and George.
And there was his twin brother, whom he had kicked during birth, causing him to be born 5 minutes later, who was named Ronald Bilius Weasley, Ron for short.
How could Vaughn not realize what world he had crossed into!
Harry Potter...
Although 11 years had passed, his memories of his past life were still relatively clear because he recalled them often.
But having lived in this world for so long, the past was inevitably starting to fade.
Vaughn shook his head, stopped thinking too much, and silently muttered:
"System!"
With this thought, a panel that no one else could see appeared before his eyes:
[Host: Vaughn Weasley]
[Magic Power Scale: 370 (Normal adult wizard is 500)]
[Talent: 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), Petrifying Charm LV2 (0/4), Fire-Making Spell LV2 (1/4), Wand-Lighting Charm LV2 (0/2)...]
[Potions: Euphoria Elixir, Invigoration Draught, Blood-Replenishing Potion, Hair-Smoothing Potion, Hair-Growing Potion, Beauty Potion (Master level, including various types of formulas)...]
[Fame Points: 12 points]
This System had awakened when Vaughn was born.
Having read the novels and watched the movies, Vaughn knew full well that the future survival environment would become increasingly dangerous. The fact that he didn't just give up and let things rot the moment he was born was, it had to be said, largely due to the great courage the System's existence gave him!
Vaughn glanced at the talent column on his System panel. The text Potions 10, even though he had seen it many times, still gave him a sense of satisfaction akin to curing his obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The levels of his other talents were innate from birth, and only Potions was a reward opened from the gift bag presented when the System awakened—max level Occlumency and randomly upgrading one talent to max value!
Over these 11 years, through gradual exploration, Vaughn had also slowly figured out the functions of the so-called Fame System. So far, this System had not issued any quests, had no store, and had no lottery.
Its core function, as the name implied, was to settle Fame Points every month based on the extent to which Vaughn's reputation had currently spread!
Fame Points could be used to upgrade spell levels. In the System's spell column, the numbers in parentheses were the Fame Points required to upgrade the spell to the next level.
Depending on the difficulty of the spell, the required Fame Points would increase or decrease accordingly.
Of course, spells could also be leveled up through personal practice, but that required a massive amount of practice and talent.
After figuring out the System's functions, Vaughn was very glad that the random max-level talent from his newbie gift bag had landed on Potions.
Undeniably, Potions was vast and profound, but at the same time, its entry threshold was not high. As long as there were ingredients, formulas, and a cauldron, any wizard could get started. Some simple formulas didn't even have steps that required waving a wand.
Among all the magical disciplines, none was more suitable for a young wizard like Vaughn who didn't even have a wand yet.
Vaughn had a very cautious personality.
He knew very well that both his identity as a transmigrator and the existence of the System were massive secrets, and he had never tried to highlight his abnormality when he was little.
It wasn't until he was 4 years old that Vaughn began to build his persona as a genius, comprehensively crushing Ron in basic subjects like recognizing words, writing, and drawing.
Then at the age of 7, he began to gradually bring his genius persona into his loyal 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.
Especially in the area of beauty potions, the several papers he had published and the various types of modified beauty potions had practically made him a beauty master and women's best friend in the wizarding world!
As for why he specialized in beauty...
For no other reason than it was easy to make a name for oneself, and the sales were good!