I do not own the realm of Harry Potter or any of its constituent elements.
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Features: Smarter than canon Harry, best friend Hermione, fair weather sidekick Ron Weasley (not appearing in this short), and wise guy Nicholas Flamel.
Location: Hogwarts, shortly after the Hospital Wing scene after the Defense of the Philospher's Stone, beginning outside the Headmaster's Office.
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A seemingly grim, ageless man walked down from the staircase that lead to the headmaster's office. Just released from the Hospital Wing, Harry Potter, Defender of the Ignorant, and Hermione Granger, Smartest Witch of Her Generation, watched the man, the legend, as he left his meeting with the eccentric headmaster. "Mister Flamel," Harry called out to the man. "We'd like a word, if you wouldn't mind."
"Ah, Mr. Potter, Ms Granger, two of the defenders of my Stone. I suppose I owe you enough to spare you a moment of your time. Though I must warn you now, I am not currently looking for any apprentices," Nicholas Flamel acceded. "Perhaps somewhere a little more private," he said, leading them to an unused classroom, and flicking his wand a few times. "How may I be of service?"
"Well, we did some studying," Hermione began.
"I don't want any alchemy related questions, if you would," he interrupted her.
"Well, I really don't know how to ask this sir, but, well, we were reading ahead in our text books and I came to a startling conclusion," Harry began. Nicholas looked confused, unsure of where the disturbingly scrawny child was going with this. "I'm just going to come out and ask, sir. The elixir of life, its just a shrinking solution, isn't it?"
Nicholas smiled. "That would be telling. How would you explain the transformation of any metal to pure gold then?"
"Well, the wizarding world, from what we've seen of it, is rather stagnant, denouncing innovation and change. If someone, Mr. Flamel, were to discover a spell to transfigure things into gold, after centuries of failures, and say that it was a magical gemstone that they theorized must exist, do you think that anyone would try to reverse engineer the spell?" Hermione asked. "Most wizards just accept it and move on in life."
"Congratulations," Nicholas smiled. "You've figured out what no one else has in six hundred years. Now, what to do with you?
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Premise of this story: In PoA, when Snape feeds Trevor the Toad the shrinking solution it turns into a tadpole instead of getting smaller, so if a person were to drink it, they would get younger.