As everyone knows, the path of experimentation is fraught with obstacles.
After hundreds of explosions, collapses, dark curse injuries, mass poisonings, and other workplace safety incidents competing for center stage, almost every researcher's performance bonus had been docked to the very bottom.
But Augustus and Croaker boldly spoke up, declaring these were merely tests on the road to achieving their dreams—losing bonuses didn't matter, they still had perfect attendance awards, vast room for salary reductions, and the benefit of free St. Mungo's healthcare coverage.
Jane Yu felt her brain stop functioning entirely.
This attitude made it seem as though she was asking them to pay to work here, and this group would happily hand over their Galleons.
"Accidents everywhere... If this continues, I'm genuinely afraid that one day everyone here will either be sent to meet Merlin in the sky... or end up in Azkaban."
Facing her complaints, Dumbledore—who'd come to inspect, provide technical guidance, and once again reinforce the ceiling and floor—flipped through the safety incident logbook with a comforted yet empathetic expression.
"Raising children... researchers teaches one a parent's... headmaster's heart," he murmured softly. "Since they're blowing things up here, at least they can't blow up the school... St. Mungo's, and the Ministry of Magic..."
Mid-sentence, he changed tack, speaking earnestly:
"They're all planning to pay to work, Yu—just let them have their way!"
Jane could hardly believe such words were coming from the steady Dumbledore, while Snape—who had to come daily to clean up the architectural aftermath, cast various Silencing Charms, and brew antidotes for researchers poisoned for various reasons—looked ready to give his superior an Levicorpus.
"At least you two have some self-awareness, not calling those troll twins to add to the chaos," Snape muttered coldly in self-comfort. "Otherwise, putting these five together would make this house collapse like it'd been tunneled by a nest of moles."
Before he'd finished speaking, the floor beneath him creaked ominously, developing several cracks.
Snape's brow furrowed, his expression cracking along with the floor.
Jane's heart tightened, her eyes widening instantly.
Before she could shout "Careful!" came the crackling sound of breaking stone and cement!
The next second, the ground caved in, creating a gaping hole straight from the first floor to the basement!
Fortunately, all three present were battle-hardened with quick reflexes—with a nimble leap, they easily moved out of harm's way.
"Yu—Surprise!"
Two identical, grinning heads wearing Spell-Shielding steel helmets popped up from the hole!
But in just 0.01 seconds, neither could smile anymore.
Their faces frozen, they raised their right hands with all five fingers spread, greeting a Potions Professor whose frown could crush flies and a Headmaster whose smile radiated nuclear-level warmth. Just before Snape could unleash Sectumsempra, they shoved each other and ducked their heads back below ground level.
A hand emerged from the hole, trembling as it gripped a wand and waved desperately, the voice revealing twelve parts desperation and tension, sounding like a brain that had crashed from fright:
"Reparo... what was it again... George? No, it's restore... restore pro max...!"
The scattered bricks and pebbles jumped up, reluctantly shifting positions and filling the hole in the wrong order, looking ready to collapse again any second.
"It's Reparo! Fred!"
Another arm reached out, equally trembling as it grabbed the wand, correcting his brother's mistake and making the bricks, stones, and gravel return to their proper positions—finally filling the hole.
This spell work, far from "excellent," made their former professor and headmaster's faces even darker.
"Uh... this situation... let me explain..." Facing Snape's glare, Jane awkwardly scratched her head. "I just asked Fred and George to provide some user suggestions—we'd previously made Decoy Detonators as joke products and planned to merge them... to create Magical Grenades..."
For some reason, she suddenly felt Snape's understanding of the twins had reached transcendent levels.
That's why he could speak things into existence so accurately.
"Excellent suggestion, wise choice—perhaps Miss Jane feels this house hasn't been blown flat enough, so she's chosen to mingle with the Weasley troll twins."
Jane's response pushed Snape's anger to the breaking point. He spun around to face Headmaster Dumbledore:
"You won't agree to this, will you? Those two Weasleys? If I were you, I wouldn't let them set foot in my home—I wouldn't even let a single hair of theirs touch my Advanced Potions classroom—two idiots who even dared ask me how to improve love potions—"
Dumbledore erupted in thunderous coughing, moving swiftly to cover Jane's ears.
Jane felt his grip had never been so strong—for a moment, even twisting her body couldn't escape those hands firmly covering her ears.
The following words were hard to hear clearly—
She only caught fragments like "though only two years older," "but that's still minor and adult," "you must send her back to school," "Weasleys and dogs not allowed inside," and similar phrases.
Was there anything she wasn't supposed to hear?
Jane blinked in confusion.
...
In any case, though the road was indeed somewhat rocky, fortunately the future was truly bright.
Through collective effort, the Spell-Shielding Hat and Spell-Shielding Robe became more diverse and refined in function:
Based on the magical script Jane provided, she and Croaker combined the original powerful Shield Charm with counter-curses and directional spells for various dark curses. After multiple optimizations by researchers to improve spell stability, this equipment was refined into a set of anti-curse armor.
While some curses targeting wizards' minds could still break through defenses, wearers could resist the vast majority of physical and chemical impacts until the robes' magic was completely depleted.
After the Weasley twins graciously provided the occasionally malfunctioning invisibility device their father had secretly installed in the car, new invisibility functionality was being researched and developed by Croaker's team, striving to replace the time-consuming and expensive Invisibility Cloaks made from Demiguise hair.
Augustus, meanwhile, had attached various organ-protecting charms to the robes. Taking inspiration from the Weasley car, he was even trying to add Dittany-infused airbags to the Spell-Shielding Robes.
Under the tireless work of several Unspeakables responsible for production, the first batch of Spell-Shielding Hats and Spell-Shielding Robes was delivered to the Ministry of Magic.
The tense atmosphere in the laboratory, originally caused by overtime rushing to meet deadlines, finally eased.
At the monthly summary meeting, Jane had just completed her monthly review and future outlook:
"...These are our research achievements and shortcomings... guard against arrogance and rashness, forge ahead... safety awareness isn't adequate... strive to reduce accident frequency..."
As soon as she finished, Augustus cheerfully spoke up:
"Mission complete! We've achieved first-stage victory! This place is wonderful! Simply a research sanctuary! Heaven for wizard and Muggle theory! Next time I'll drag Hippocrates here for research too, let him see his excellent student's achievements—mmph mmph mmph—"
Jane was so startled she clapped her hand over his mouth—
Though buy-one-get-one-free was indeed a good deal...
Celebrating prematurely was absolutely forbidden!
Sure enough, before Augustus could enjoy himself for even a few minutes—
Dumbledore's silver-white phoenix Patronus flew through the window and opened its beak:
"Yu, St. Mungo's Hospital is under attack—keep Mr. Pye here. Don't let him leave."
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