#242 - Laboratory (asking for monthly ticket recommendation)

The final factor contributing to the current situation was the accumulation of negative emotions. Some young wizards had conflicts with students from other houses, which then ignited animosity among their own housemates. Naturally, anyone would be upset by such a thing. М

Therefore, anger, resentment, distrust, and other emotions intensified the atmosphere of indifference among the Slytherin students, with some even reaching a state of mutual hostility.

Faced with this situation, it was no wonder Snape was troubled. He didn't have much time to spare for the house, but if left unattended, Slytherin could truly be completely divided in a year or two.

That's why Snape sought out Anduin, hoping he could resolve this situation that he had indirectly caused.

"I've got a general understanding," Anduin said, closing the notebook in his hand and slowly rising from his desk. "It seems that to solve the problems within the house, drastic measures are necessary. I just hope our Head of House won't be too shocked when he sees my methods next year."

Anduin composed himself and walked out of his dormitory. Today was the end-of-year ceremony for the fourth year, and another year had passed without him noticing.

Upon arriving at the Great Hall, Anduin observed the Slytherin students on both sides chatting merrily, making it impossible to discern any issues.

Only those within Slytherin knew that these students mostly only spoke with their close friends, completely ignoring those outside their immediate circle.

Anduin also finished his end-of-term banquet in this strange, lively atmosphere.

Ravenclaw won the House Cup again this year, with Slytherin's score remaining steadily in third place.

The Slytherin students around him showed no reaction, clearly accustomed to this. It was just a matter of slacking off; at least Gryffindor was at the bottom, so it wasn't too embarrassing. They all coldly accepted the result.

Some even looked smugly at the Gryffindor table, as if despising them for being even worse than their own house.

Seeing this scene, Anduin was speechless. The second-to-last mocking the last? He even felt a sense of absurdness, as if he were watching a magical realist work.

Then he glanced at Vivian, who was stuffing a large chicken leg into her mouth, and felt even more exhausted. Hey, big sister, this is already your sixth chicken leg; can you even handle it?

Ever since Vivian started dating Charles, she had completely let herself go, spending her days eating and drinking happily, ignoring even Anduin's attempts to get her to lose weight.

Well, it seems I need to find something for Vivian to do next year, otherwise, this girl will end up fat.

After the end-of-term ceremony, Anduin boarded the train back the next day, but this time he was no longer alone, as he brought Qiqi and Hogg with him.

Qiqi had already recognized Anduin as her master and only obeyed his orders, while Hogg regarded him as a benefactor and always followed his lead. Fortunately, Anduin now had a place to stay in the wizarding world, or he wouldn't even have a place to put them.

After returning to the residence at 277 Diagon Alley with Qiqi and Hogg, Anduin spent some time tidying up the second bedroom on the third floor as their living quarters.

Anduin's own bedroom was very large, enough to divide a portion of it into a study, and he had moved the entire laboratory to the basement.

Since he had completely cleared out the basement warehouse, he had enough space to set up experimental areas. For this purpose, he specifically separated the warehouse area and the basement bedroom into two laboratories with different functions.

The area that originally belonged to the warehouse was specially sealed off from the corridor with a wall, forming a rectangle. Inside, he placed many bookshelves and a desk, and spent a fortune to purchase a runic workbench, specifically for studying runes and magic.

At the same time, he occupied part of the space in this room to build a vertical shooting range, which could be used for daily practice of spells and testing of new spells, after all, this room occupied a large area.

The other room, which was originally a bedroom, was smaller than the rune laboratory, but still very spacious. Here, he set up several workbenches, with many balances, beakers, and other experimental equipment placed on them. This room was arranged as a workshop for concocting potions and making alchemical items, with many semi-finished alchemical items scattered on the workbenches.

He left the original bed, ensuring that he had a place to rest if he was tired during his research. He also specifically arranged runic arrays for ventilation and adjusting temperature and humidity in the operating room, plus the original protection and energy gathering arrays. This place also served as the control center for the arrays in the entire building.

To support the upcoming research and experiments, Anduin purchased a large number of materials and equipment after returning, plus some rare local materials that Karkaroff had secretly smuggled back from overseas. He consumed a large amount of resources and wealth.

He had obtained a huge sum of more than 15,000 gold Galleons and a large number of materials during the summer vacation last year. Suddenly becoming wealthy, he had been experimenting and making alchemical items freely this year.

Among them, although a lot of materials were consumed, he had been saving the most precious refined Mithril, Urim steel, and Etherium Mithril, mainly consuming those common materials, so the impact was not too great.

However, the consumption of gold Galleons was very rapid. Just purchasing that top-of-the-line runic workbench cost him 3,000 gold Galleons. Mainly, this thing was not available in the UK at all. He had asked Professor Bones to help buy it back from Cairo. Adding some basic materials and equipment purchases, he had spent 5,000 gold Galleons this year.

If this trend continues, without new sources of income, Anduin's money might be all used up after graduation.

Mainly, he was no longer alone. There were the equipment and food expenses for Qiqi and Hogg, and he still had many research projects waiting for investment.

First of all, the Mind Memory Magic must be studied. He had not forgotten his promise to little Neville, but he had always been weak in this area and lacked information and experimental materials.

At the same time, there was the development of the Wild Lightning Rune. The biggest expenditure this year was mainly on this rune. Just experimenting with materials that could carry the rune and testing the power and consumption had cost him a lot of material money.

Other things included in-depth research into the control of runes, the development and application of bloodline magic, and his ongoing training studies, which required long-term testing and investment. These were all major expenses, not to mention the occasional flashes of inspiration that he needed to verify.