Ding…
The lift doors slid open and Yvonne found herself in the Ministry's Atrium, which was decorated in a more austere and dignified manner than the vast, luxurious entrance hall above.
As soon as they entered, they caught the attention of everyone in the room. A middle-aged wizard in his forties with a bald head hurried over and hugged Doggett.
"It's been a long time, old friend!" said Doggett as he enthusiastically patted the middle-aged wizard on the back. When they parted, Doggett looked down at Ivan and made the introductions.
"This is Director Stamp of the Patent Office, one of my best friends."
"How do you do, Mr Stamp?" Yvonne replied politely.
"You're the one who invented the Wolfsbane Potion? My God, even though Dougett mentioned your age in his letter, I always thought he was joking…" Stump looked at Ivan, who was at most eleven or twelve years old, and sounded surprised.
"To tell you the truth, several of my old friends were rather reluctant to believe that a young wizard could have developed a potion that could cure wolf venom. You know, one would have to have studied werewolves very deeply…"
"But that's the truth, isn't it, Mr Stump?" Yvonne interrupted, moving on.
"Also, I don't think it's because the development of the Wolf Venom Potion is too difficult, but because there are so few potion masters who care about the werewolves' current situation that no one has ever come up with a solution before…"
Ivan's words caused Stamp some embarrassment.
At that moment, there was a round of applause, accompanied by a deep voice.
"Well said!"
Ivan turned to see a young wizard praising him. He looked to be in his thirties and was probably the youngest person in the Atrium besides Ivan.
Before Yvonne could question him, he spoke angrily.
"You were right. The entire wizarding community is indifferent to the status quo of werewolves, believing them to be anomalies, troublemakers, and unstable elements.
However, they forgot that most of the werewolves were victims of the same attack, and were previously normal wizards who had done nothing wrong and were treated as such!"
In contrast to Ivan's slightly tactful speech, the young wizard was more straightforward and did not try to hide it.
After cursing angrily, the wizard's tone softened and he looked at Ivan.
"By the way, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Damocles Marcus, a wizard researching werewolves."
"How do you do, Mr. Marcus?" Yvonne said casually, but she felt guilty.
If he remembered correctly, this was the inventor of the Wolf's Bane potion from the original timeline, and Ivan never expected to see him here.
The key was timing. Marcus should be able to develop the Wolfsbane Potion on his own before long.
Yvonne suddenly felt a headache coming on, and she was worried that he was out to get her.
After all, no one would be happy to find out that someone had beaten them to it when they were about to produce results.
However, to Ivan's surprise, Marcus was very friendly with him.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Marcus began to chat about the current state of the werewolves, as well as the werewolves' rioting conjectures… and even shared some of his experimental results.
Fortunately, Ivan's potion-making skills were not low, and he had been in contact with werewolves for some time, so dealing with them was easy, and he even came up with some new ideas.
"You think a werewolf's transformation is a special kind of Animagus?" Marcus asked, surprised. He had studied werewolves for many years and had seen them go on a rampage many times, but he had never thought of it in this way.
"Yes! When I was at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall, who taught Transfiguration, told me about the details of the Animagus transformation.
Add to that the fact that I have werewolf friends in Knockturn Alley who were able to freely take control of their powers while in werewolf form after experimenting with my Wolf Poison Potion, and we have this theory."
Yvonne hesitated, then shook her head in disappointment and said nothing of the discoveries she had made while analyzing the werewolf's body.
"It's a pity that the Wolfsbane Potion has such a duration. If it could be modified to allow the werewolf wizards to freely transfigure while maintaining their sanity, what would be the difference between that and an Animagus transfiguration?"
When Marcus heard this, he thought Ivan was being ridiculous and wanted to retort, but after careful consideration, he realized that it was possible.
"If that were true, the wizarding community would be in an uproar," Marcus said, shaken.
It must be noted that an Animagus was an advanced transfiguration spell that only a dozen people in the British wizarding community could master.
Transfiguration was generally done by harmless creatures that could only be used for scouting and concealment.
If Ivan were to one day produce what he described as an improved potion, then werewolves would no longer be feared, and would even be highly sought after by some wizards!
After all, the greatest weakness of a wizard is their vulnerable body when they are near, and the werewolf form can solve this problem.
More importantly, this ability was extremely easy to master. It was so simple that one could unlock it with a bite from a werewolf and a bottle of the improved Wolf Venom Potion.
Marcus was suddenly impressed with the young wizard in front of him.
Prior to his arrival at the Ministry of Magic, Marcus had his doubts about Ivan, the inventor of the Wolfsbane Potion.
Because he had devoted himself to the study of werewolves over the years, he had worked hard to achieve some results, and was only missing one or two key points.
This led Marcus to drop his research and rush to the Ministry of Magic two days ago, when he received the news that his research had been stolen.
After some small talk, during which Ivan was able to answer many of his professional questions, show his sympathy for werewolves, and express his displeasure with the Ministry's neglect of werewolves, Marcus was able to put aside his doubts and take the young wizard seriously.
By the time Ivan came up with a new idea for his werewolf form, Marcus had forgotten all about his suspicions, and was ashamed of his earlier thoughts.
Because it seemed to him that Ivan had gone further than he thought in his research into werewolves!