A day at Hogwarts.

Chapter 679 New Partner
In a guest room on the second floor of Pig Head Bar, the three introduced themselves and then sat around a round table.

Charles sat with his back to the door, calmly watching the two mysterious figures across the table—Jacob and his sister Amelia.

However, a very strange feeling arose in Charles's mind.

These two people were actually sitting in front of him, dressed plainly and behaving naturally, but he found that he couldn't clearly picture their specific appearances in his mind at all.

To be precise, once you recall their faces, it feels as if those faces are shrouded in a flowing mist, making the details of their features indistinct and their characteristics difficult to capture.

Especially Amelia. When Charles saw this older sister, he felt that there was something special about her, like a halo, which had only appeared on the old man and Harry before.

At the same time, what displeased Charles was that he keenly sensed two subtle yet persistent forces of magic trying to probe into his surface thoughts coming from the other side.

Like invisible tentacles, they cautiously probed the edge of his consciousness.

It is mind control; they even continue to cast this spell without permission.

Charles didn't react immediately, but the temperature in his eyes subtly dropped a few degrees.

Jacob seemed to sense Charles's subtle change in emotion and spoke first, his voice gentle and apologetic, breaking the slightly tense silence in the room: "Please forgive us, Mr. Smith, we did not mean to offend you."

"But my brother and I are natural Legilimency users. This ability is like breathing, and sometimes it is difficult to completely suppress, especially when facing someone as enigmatic as you."

He candidly revealed their special talents, which was both an explanation and an invisible pressure.

Charles remained expressionless, as if the other person was merely commenting on the weather.

He responded calmly, his tone devoid of emotion but brimming with absolute confidence: "It doesn't matter. If you can glean any information you deem useful from me, then I'll admit defeat."

These words were spoken with absolute conviction, demonstrating his absolute confidence in his own mental defenses, and even a kind of contempt for the Legilimency technique itself.

A fleeting look of surprise crossed Jacob's eyes, and Amelia, who had been silent all along, seemed to freeze for a moment as well.

Jacob quickly composed himself. Seeing that Charles hadn't stormed off, which meant there was still room for discussion, he got straight to the point and said, "We have come here today because of my sister, Amelia."

(Amelia gave Charles a polite, slight smile.)
"She graduated from Hogwarts in 1991 and had a good relationship with several of the Weasley children."

"Of course, she had already graduated by the time her two youngest children arrived at Hogwarts, so she didn't know them."

After Jacob finished speaking, Amelia said softly, "Not long ago, Charlie mentioned you and your ongoing large-scale potion model research when he was communicating with me about the application of dragon body parts in potions."

Charles nodded. He had asked Charlie for help when he was expanding the database of recipe models, mentioning the potion model he was going to work on next.

Amelia continued with a hint of a smile: "Later, I contacted another old classmate—Eleanor—and learned more details about the large potion model from her."

“We are very interested in this and hope to have the opportunity to participate.”

Charles listened quietly, his mind racing.

He remembered who the two were. Patricia Lacpic, an employee at Farbatton Castle, had served in Azkaban, and before that, she was a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts in 1988. Before that, she was a Cursebreaker at Gringotts and had mentioned Jacob and his sister.

Later, he heard that the brother and sister were connected to a certain wizarding organization, but there were many such small groups, so he didn't pay much attention. Now, Charles was unsure of their ultimate purpose in requesting to participate in the large-scale potion model project. Was it for personal or organizational participation? Was it for academic research or some potential benefit? Was it to use this platform or to achieve other, more secretive goals?
Charles had already made up his mind; he decided to hold off for now and investigate thoroughly before making any decisions.

Instead of directly responding to the request to participate, he slowly pointed out the core bottleneck of the project: "The success or failure of the large potion model depends on the richness of its database."

"An empty model is like a body without memory, utterly useless."

"It needs a massive amount of high-quality knowledge about potions, including formulas, principles, material properties, failure cases, and lessons learned, to learn from."

He glanced at the two siblings opposite him and said seriously, "If you, or the channels you can contact, can help persuade, invite, or otherwise get those potion masters who possess unique knowledge to contribute their treasured knowledge to enrich this database, then this will undoubtedly solve one of the biggest problems at present."

He didn't readily promise whether he could participate in the research and development. Instead, he presented the most troublesome preliminary task, which was both a test of the other party's capabilities and a way to keep the initiative in his own hands.

Jacob and Amelia exchanged a glance, a silent, tacit understanding.

After a moment, Jacob nodded and said with certainty, "We can help enrich the database."

“We know some wizards… well… who are outside the mainstream academic circles but possess valuable knowledge about potions.”

"Perhaps we can persuade them to exchange knowledge."

Charles understood; the wizards he was referring to were probably regulars at Knockturn Alley.

At this moment, Jacob took a roll of parchment from his bosom and gently pushed it onto the table in front of Charles.

“As a preliminary demonstration of our sincerity and ability,” Jacob said with a touch of solemnity, “this is a small gift.”

"This is a formula for a mind-enhancing potion. After taking it, we can enhance our mental abilities and improve our Legilimency."

"The original was invented three hundred years ago by Dai Ryuzaki, a Japanese sorcerer who came from the East. It is very difficult to make and takes several weeks."

“Amelia improved this potion, reducing its side effects.”

Charles took the parchment and said in his usual calm tone, "I accept this gift."

"We'll discuss the specifics of the collaboration in more detail once we've made further progress on the large-scale potion model."

He suddenly realized that he had previously overlooked the group of dark wizards.

Although he cooperated with Voldemort and Snape, he did not regard them as those powerless dark wizards who were always hiding.

Although those people did some questionable things, their knowledge was still invaluable.

More importantly, many of them probably crave social recognition, which gives them room to maneuver.

A plan was taking shape in Charles's mind when Grindelwald suddenly sneezed in the next room.

Before leaving, Charles solemnly said, "I have always believed that knowledge itself is neither good nor evil."

(End of this chapter)