The materials for brewing the temporary Draught of Living Death were stored inside the small wooden cabinet within the stone pedestal. They were all common potion ingredients. The necessary brewing equipment had also been provided.
Damian quickly gathered the materials and immediately set to work.
Brewing this specific variant of the Draught of Living Death did not take very long, but it demanded extremely precise magical manipulation. If there was even the slightest error during the brewing process, the concoction would curdle into a lethal poison.
After only fifteen minutes, Damian had finished.
A pot of dark green liquid bubbled softly in the cauldron. However, even a seasoned Potions Master could not judge whether a complex brew like this was flawless using the naked eye alone. It required special reagents to test its true effects.
While Damian was brewing, Hermione had been rereading the instructions on the parchment. She had reviewed the recipe several times now, and her slightly trembling hands betrayed her deep anxiety.
Seeing that Damian had finished, she slowly lowered the parchment.
"Let me test the potion..." Hermione's voice shook slightly, but she forced the words out, stating what she genuinely believed was the most logical option.
Harry, who hadn't read the finer details of the parchment, looked at her in wild confusion.
Damian ladled a vial's worth of the dark green Draught from the cauldron. He spoke slowly and clearly. "With this specific variant of the Draught of Living Death, the slightest error during brewing turns it into a poison. It won't put you to sleep—it will turn you into a true, permanent living corpse."
He looked at the two Gryffindors. "This is my first time brewing this exact recipe. I cannot be absolutely certain that this pot is flawless."
Harry panicked upon hearing this. "A potion you can't even be sure isn't poisonous? How can you drink it?"
"I am the person with the weakest combat ability here," Hermione said, her voice rising in defense. "It is most appropriate for me to be the one to test it."
She bit her lip hard. She was genuinely prepared to become a living corpse. As a Muggle-born witch, she simply could not accept the alternative: letting Lord Voldemort obtain the Philosopher's Stone and return to power.
"You're crazy! If this pot is poison, you'll be trapped like that forever!" Harry yelled, grabbing Hermione's arm to stop her from stepping forward.
Damian watched them in silence. Dumbledore... is this your test?
The moment Damian had read the recipe, he realized this chamber was entirely about making a choice.
He had to choose whether to selfishly let Harry or Hermione test the potentially lethal potion, or to blindly trust his teachers.
The entire premise of this obstacle course relied on the fact that Damian had already deduced this was a pre-arranged trial. Unlike the four first-years, Damian's usual demeanor was highly mature and calculated. Dumbledore surely knew Damian would see right through the facade.
Harry had conveniently received a flute from Hagrid to deal with the Cerberus. Hermione had conveniently learned about Devil's Snare in Herbology class. The giant chessboard was perfectly tailored to Ron's specialty, just as the flying keys perfectly suited Harry's talent as a Seeker.
This final chamber was testing Damian's character. Would he selfishly sacrifice others to pave his way forward, or was he willing to trust that his Headmaster wouldn't actually leave a lethal trap for his students?
Perhaps it had also been meant to test Neville's bravery, but the boy had fainted during the earlier sleeping-potion screening, giving Hermione the chance to prove her own courage instead. Everything was calculated just right.
Damian understood the game. If he truly trusted his teachers, he should believe that even if this potion turned out to be a lethal poison, Dumbledore would have a remedy prepared.
"I brewed this potion myself. Naturally, I will be the one to test it," Damian said with a soft chuckle.
"No, wait! Maybe there's another way!" Harry said frantically. "No one should drink it! If there's a problem, you'll turn into a living corpse!"
Damian merely smiled, gripping the vial tightly. Deep within his mind, he activated the traversal function of his metal disc.
Instantly, Harry and Hermione's frantic voices faded into absolute silence.
Damian reappeared inside his Wizard Tower.
By now, he was highly accustomed to traversing worlds via the metal disc, and he experienced almost no physical discomfort during the transition.
In the Hogwarts world, a wizard only had to make difficult choices when they lacked the strength to forge their own path. But Damian didn't have to choose between blind trust and sacrificing his friends. He could have it all.
Although the Wizard Tower was an external force, it was still a fundamental part of his strength.
"Welcome back, Master."
The voice belonged to a stunningly exquisite blonde girl. She wore an elegant black dress with an off-the-shoulder, boat-neck cut. Her golden hair cascaded over her pale shoulders, with a small fishbone braid tied on the right side to add a touch of playfulness.
However, her glowing blue eyes and the intricate silver runic patterns tracing her neck made it immediately clear that she was not human.
"Orianna, analyze this potion," Damian ordered, holding out the vial of the dark green Draught.
The blonde girl, Orianna, was an alchemical puppet. Although Damian had spent less time in his original wizarding world recently, he still returned occasionally to manage his assets.
After the merchant guild had delivered a shipment of Mithril ore, he had asked Chris, a highly skilled blacksmith, to help refine it. While the Tower's Alchemy Workshop could process Mithril automatically, having Chris do the manual labor saved a considerable amount of the Tower's magical reserves.
Once the refined Mithril was prepared, Damian had expended 10,000 Degrees of magic from the Tower's underground level core to forge this golem assistant.
"Please wait a moment, Master," Orianna replied smoothly. She took the vial from Damian's hand and glided toward the stairs leading to the 3rd Floor.
The Potion Workshop was located on the 3rd Floor of the Wizard Tower, fully equipped for brewing and analyzing complex magical mixtures.
Damian followed Orianna upstairs. As they reached the landing, he glanced upward. The staircase leading to the 4th Floor and beyond was completely sealed off by a shimmering, translucent light screen.
This barrier was one of the main reasons Damian had been visiting the Tower less frequently. The light screen isolated the upper levels, trapping the highly dangerous mutated monstrosities that had overtaken the 4th Floor's ruined ecological biome.
Tower Spirit Zero had strongly advised Damian to wait until he fully advanced to a Formal Wizard before attempting to clear out the upper floors. It had been sealed for a long time now, and not even the Tower Spirit knew if the most powerful beasts were still alive up there.
Damian followed Orianna into the Potion Workshop. Similar to the Alchemy Workshop, the room was packed with advanced, esoteric instruments. It had once been a fully automated facility capable of mass-producing potions without any human oversight.
Orianna carefully extracted a single drop of the Draught of Living Death, placed it onto a transparent glass slide, and slid it into a device that resembled a sleek black box.
She tilted her head. "Do you know the exact materials used in this concoction, Master? Inputting the ingredients will significantly reduce the analysis time."
Damian quickly recited the ingredients he had used at Hogwarts, detailing the specific magical properties of each root and bean.
Orianna rapidly input the data. After performing a series of operations on the black box, a translucent light screen projected outward, floating directly in front of Damian.
The entire process had taken less than five minutes.
[Analysis Complete]
Result: Consuming a dose of 50–100 milliliters will induce a temporary 'living corpse' state. The effects will begin to fade after 10 minutes and will dissipate entirely after 30 minutes.
Warning: Do not use frequently. Consuming doses exceeding 100 milliliters for seven consecutive days will result in a permanent living corpse state.
Damian smirked. The effect was meant to induce a brief, temporary state of living death. He had successfully brewed the Temporary Draught of Living Death flawlessly on his first try.
This saved him a massive amount of trouble. If the batch had been poisonous, he would have had to waste time re-brewing the correct recipe here in the 3rd Floor and swapping the vials back at Hogwarts.
"Thank you, Orianna," Damian said, dismissing the projection.
Although Tower Spirit Zero had explicitly stated that Orianna possessed no real emotions, her highly realistic appearance and advanced intelligence often made Damian treat her like a real person.
"It is my absolute honor to serve you," Orianna said, bowing deeply. The movement highlighted the flash of snow-white skin revealed by her low-cut dress.
Damian politely withdrew his gaze. He took back the vial, gripped his metal disc, and initiated the traversal back to Hogwarts Castle.
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