"See you at potions," Harry waved as they both left their dorms. He turned to the left, descending down past the charms, history and armithacy floors to arrive at the alchemy labs. There was only two other students, two boys leaning against the wall.
"Good morning," he greeted politely, causing the two to look up and smile.
"Morning," the two chorused. "You're the transfer kid, White, right?"
"Harry will do just fine," he laughed. "To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"
"Why I'm Orion," the twin on the left greeted.
"And I'm Perseus," the other twin waved. He made a note that Orion had a slightly lower cheek bone, while Perseus' lips were slightly paler. It would be useful to distinguish between the two, and likely endear himself to both.
"A pleasure to meet you both. Fifth years?"
"Yep. Last year the class had eighty people. We're apparently the two decent enough to pass. Professor Tomak is very strict, but the man knows his stuff. Hopefully you did some pre-reading, he tests everyone," Orion advised. Harry dipped his head in gratitude, just as the door opened to reveal a tall and thin man with a long goatee.
"Ah, mister and mister Lelock. And mister White, do come in, time is of the essence," he ordered softly, and they obeyed. The classroom had roughly twenty stations and they each took one in the front row.
"Now, mister and mister Lelock, you are in luck, seeing as my attention must be focused on testing here. Mister White, how many fundamental tenants to alchemy?"
"One."
"Just one?" he asked mockingly. Harry merely stared impassively.
"State it."
"The principle of equivalent exchange," Harry answered confidently. The two locked gazes before the professor cracked a faint smile.
"Good, to be sure of yourself is important in alchemy. You will find...with sufficient dedication to the art...that even death could be conquered. You know, of course, that I'm referring to the philosopher's stone, which no one has successfully managed to replicate. I do not believe in wasting either of our time. I will expect you to know the content. If you are struggling, it is up to you to ask. The time here will be spent working or discussing. If you are cannot or need not do either of those things, do not bother to show up. I do not care for attendance, only results. Questions?"
"Do you have a sacrificial circle?" he questioned. The professor's faint smile appeared once again, as he waved his wand, moving several of the workstations to the edge of the room, and tapped several runes, causing the stone floor to part, revealing a large heptagram drawn in presumably platinum.
"You have read ahead. Before we proceed, what do you wish to experiment with today?"
"I wish to pump magic into a diamond," he explained, pulling out a jewel the size of his fist. The professor nodded, gesturing for him to continue. I believe through alchemy, I can enhance the diamond and fix any impurities."
"And what will you sacrifice?"
"Forty nine galleons," he answered. The professor frowned, before shaking his head.
"A classic mistake. Never put in anything you aren't certain of the exact composition. Galleons, while mostly gold, contain notable amounts of other metals, not to mention the magic embedded within them. All of these can affect an alchemic sacrifice with unpredictable consequences," he warned sternly. Harry nodded his head in acknowledgement.
"What tolerances of impurity can be accepted? I read about the Pokol Loss index, but it never provided any values."
"It depends on the material, you will find that only advanced books contain such information, I am unsurprised you have not seen it thus far. For gold, 0.001% impurity would be 99% efficient. A 0.01% impurity would be 50% efficient. As such, you will find, mister White, that purity is very important, and mistakes, very expensive."
"Out of curiosity, how is the value of a sacrifice estimated?"
"Trial and error. You will find that most masters of alchemy guard these records jealously, and it is usually only passed down from master to apprentice," the professor chuckled. "Your fourth year would have largely consisted of sacrificing materials and developing your own table, but the school saw fit to put you in fifth year, so I shall provide you with that of mister and mister Lelock."
"Do you two mind this, if not I can always do the experiments myself," Harry asked the two brothers, who eyed each other before shrugging. "I can pay you for this, I know it was a lot of work."
"Ten galleons, and we'll call each other even," Orion offered. Harry nodded, taking out his money pouch, pouring out the agreed amount and handing it to him. The professor eyed him approvingly.
"A very mature attitude to hold, mister White," he appraised, casting a copying spell on the twin's stack of tables and handing it to Hary." Opening it, he flipped to the value of tungsten, and did some mental calculations, before rejecting the idea. He then eyed several other materials, before flicking through the gemstone section. He frowned when he realised that all of them seemed less efficient than gold, which remained the most efficient material to use. He decided to worry about calculating the efficiency per knut cost in his own time.
"For my own curiosity, give me the forty nine galleons, and I shall provide you with the gold in their weight. In future, however, I will expect you to have your own materials. I would recommend buying in the BMU, their guilds there have extremely competitive rates unmatched in the rest of the continent, with their connections to Russia and all."
"Thank you for the advice, sir," he dipped his head, handing the man his galleons and accepting the bar of gold. Putting it in a cauldron, he slowly melted it down, dividing it into seven equal portions and cooling them with a freezing charm. He began drawing the runes for the transfer under the watchful eye of his professor. When he was finish, his professor simply nodded, at which point, Harry placed the gold at each corner, placed the diamond in the middle, and sent a jolt of magic at the ignition rune, causing the entire sequence to activate.
"Will I succeed, sir?"
"I'm estimating an efficiency rating of ninety percent, certainly not bad for a first attempt," he admitted grudgingly. "Your runes were fine, but by using blood rather than platinum to write, you're introducing inefficiencies in the transfers."
"Ah," Harry dipped his head, stowing this titbit in the back of his mind.
"Take heart, young one, you have done adequately. Your runes seemed to focus on purity rather than size alone, which means that it's going to grow to roughly the size of a quaffle, but be extremely pure. I imagine it's perfect for a wardstone, no?"
"Yes professor."
"It'll take several weeks to fully complete the transfer, but you need to go to your next lesson. Do not worry, I will take care of this," he assured, casting several wards over the circle. Nodding gratefully, he packed his things, leaving the classroom. The twins had already left earlier.
Descending down the stairs, he ran past the duelling arena, main library and archives, descending down two flights of stairs to arrive outside the potion lab, where Katerina was reading a book. As he approached, she looked up and brightened upon seeing him.
"How was healing?" he inquired.
"Fun! We got to do a practical exercise today. Apparently several older students were outside and their bodies were half-frozen by the time they were found. Several also had injuries to their leg. I was selected to amputate one of their stubs!" she mused excitedly. He chuckled fondly, causing her to stick her tongue out at him. "Don't bash it till you try it."
"I wonder what they were doing outside," Harry mused. Katerina shrugged uncaringly.
"Wouldn't talk, claimed they lost track of time. Probably up to no good," she informed him. Harry merely smiled mysteriously, before the two were allowed inside the potions lab by a chubby, jovial man.
"Welcome back everyone! Come in! Come in! Partner up, and find a station." Harry guided Katerina to one in the back corner. At her questioning look, he explained, "Monitor for potential accidents, interruptions and sabotage."
As he said this, he cast several protective enchantments over their station. Quickly scanning the room, he could see there were a few students of similar age or slightly younger, though most were clearly older. He was surprised just how many students there were, probably at least over three hundred in all. Eyeing the cauldron below, he shook his head, casting a water charm, a soap charm and stirring before vanishing it. Now the cauldron sparkled slightly.
"You're quite paranoid, and that's coming from me," she mused dryly. He chuckled, shaking his head.
"Better safe than sorry."
"Mister White!"
"Present," he called back, earning a nod from the man as roll call continued.
"How did you do that?"
"Multi-tasking, you're next."
"Here!" she called out, still eyeing him strangely. "Seriously, that's messed up."
"If you say so," Harry shrugged, before the two turned their attention to the front of the class, where the professor was beaming at his students brightly.
"Welcome back to potions, everybody. Hopefully the summer hasn't made you forget too many things. As always, the time you spend here is to be spent brewing, not reading. You are not permitted to brew anywhere else on campus, not that it has ever discouraged students, but I would prefer you remain in here such that I can be supervising. With that said, I'm sure you know what you need to do."
"What in merlin is that guy smoking?" Harry asked Katerina dryly. She shrugged.
"With classes this filled, what do you expect?"
"I thought there would be more people per class in those such as this or transfiguration...yet…"
"Many drop subjects, and there are several classes for each year level. The younger years mostly have afternoon and evening classes, which means mornings are only for years four to seven, which has far less students than the lower three years," she explained as she pulled out her ingredients. "I'm going to practice brewing draught of living death, want to join in?"
"Go ahead, I brought my owl cauldron," he admitted, pulling out a bronze cauldron from his bag and unshrinking it. It was true, most of his readings in herbology and alchemy overlapped with his study in chemistry, biology and ecology years back, and he found it interesting to theorise on different potions.
Pouring in some water, he dumped several salts into his cauldron, stirring until the crystals had dissolved and then putting more salts, and repeating the process, until the solution was near saturated. Pulling out several bags of ingredients, he began dicing some Valerian roots, tossing them into the cauldron and stirring until the solution turned a lime green. Extinguishing the fire, he allowed it to set as he grinded down some tikak leaves and pushed them to one side, wiping his knife clean, and beginning to chop some Ahsuyat. Once he finished that, he measured out two spoonfuls of yagib and placed them on the leaves, causing the white surface to shrivel and contract until it was a sickly purple. He then lifted his chopping board, putting all the ingredients inside, stirring them as he cast a freezing charm on the cauldron, watching as the solution lobulated before forming a jelly like substance. Harry frowned.
Seeing the potions master walking towards him, he raised his hand, causing the man to wander over with a large smile. "Ah, mister White, how may I be of assistance?"
"I was trying to powderize a sleeping draught, and I knew I had to over concentrate it first, which went well, but then when I added the wilted tikak it formed this...jelly rather than powder."
"Wait wait wait...you were doing what?" the professor asked incredulously.
"I was trying to powderise the sleeping draught, sir, so it could fit in a capsule and sublime into gas when in contact with moisture, professor."
"That's...going to be your project, I presume?"
"Yes, sir."
"Shouldn't you be...revising how to brew normal potions?"
"But...what's the point? If I have the instructions, I follow them and the product is made. There's no point to the exercise."
"So you're...modifying potions?"
"Yes."
"Wel...based on my initial thoughts, I suppose the reason it wouldn't work is because you're not capturing the moisture away fast enough. Did you dry the Valerian roots before you cut them?"
"No sir, I thought they would shrivel."
"Not if you add a preservation agent."
"But if I add moluse, that will react with the tikak, whereas if I add fefab, the yagib would react. I did think of adding fenan gas, but that introduces a whole host of other variables."
"Have you thought about esob?"
"They would ionise the solution, causing it to react prematurely, not to mention its stabilisation effect would be lost once dried, as it only works in moisture and I'm trying to create a powder."
"I see.." the professor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I must admit, most students would simply try and brew an existing potion, or otherwise improve on an existing recipe, now change it entirely."
"That seems like a futile exercise to me, with respect to my classmates," Harry shrugged. The professor sighed.
"Well, if you succeed, you might just get a mastery out of it. I'd imagine it'll also be a hit with the aurors. I suggest you have a backup, though, in case this doesn't work out."
"That's the plan, sir," Harry promised, causing the man to smile and walk away, muttering to himself under his breath.
"Your wood is burning too hot," he mused over to Katerina as he vanished the contents of his cauldron and stowed it away, pulling out his notes and returning to breaking down the chemical properties of the various ingredients. He didn't need to look up to feel her gape as she scrambled to amend the error.
-Break-
The moment he stepped through the door, he fired a blast of flames at several conjured birds diving towards him. Rolling forward right behind his flames, he gained a foothold in the classroom, quickly summoning several tables and transfiguring them into golems midair.
He leapt to the side to avoid several daggers, which impaled the door shut behind him, and he held a grin on his face, the sensation of battle rushing through his blood. Blasting the floor and ejecting rubble from the floor, he transfigured it into molten lava, and sent a jet of it towards the professor, who cocooned herself with a conjured bubble.
"Going to give up, Mandy?" he chuckled, eliciting a playful growl from the teacher as she untransfigured his lava, banishing the rubble back at him.
"You're one to talk, Harry," she returned with a predatory grin, with a slash of her wand transfiguring "Daring, to incur my wrath like that."
"You love it, Mandy," he jibbed, cutting through several animals with conjured razor wire and transfiguring the rubble into a single golem that lumbered towards the professor. "Is this some strange way of trying to woo me?"
"In your dreams, Harry," the professor barked, rolling out of the way of the golem's fist slamming down.
"Oh you're in my dreams, I assure you," Harry continued, chuckling when the professor stumbled and was forced to conjure a slab of rock to shield herself. "Who knew, the mighty Amanda Hurst, brought down by a bit of flirting."
"I'll show you, upstart," she snarked, banishing several tables at the golem before transfiguring them into chains, wrapping them loose. Harry, however, had not been idle, and transfiguring several bits of rubble into chains, wrapped them discreetly around the professor's ankles, causing her to stumble when she tried to move.
He blasted a torrent of water at her as she tried to untransfigure the chains, stopping, then starting again every time she so much as moved her wand. She let out a scream of frustration. "I concede."
"Wow, professor," he chuckled as he released her from the chains, "I've made you wet, and I've made you scream, what would the rest of the school say?"
Rolling her eyes with fond exasperation, she cast a drying charm on herself while fixing up the room. "You have quite the sharp tongue."
"All the better to seduce my beautiful professor with," he cooed, eliciting a bark of laughter from her. "What are we working on today?"
"Minute transfigurations," she answered as the two sat next to each other in front of a desk. Pulling out an apple, she placed it on the desk and tapped it with her wand, incanting, "Oppum Sapphus."
The spell caused the apple in front of him to turn into an arrow.
"In traditional transfiguration, as you yourself acknowledge, the focus is on refinement and detail. Take this arrow, for instance. Observe it, see its imperfections."
"The edges are slightly blurred, the wooden shaft too metallic," he deduced quickly. She nodded approvingly.
"Good, now watch again. Oppum Sapphus," she cast, smoothing out the edges. He ran his finger along it, and this time there was a distinctly wooden texture. "See how the features are more definite. Feel it, memorise it, and try to replicate it. Take your time."
Pulling out another apple, she waited patiently as he inspected the arrow, weighing it carefully in his hands for several minutes. Turning to the apple, he flicked his wand, and it turned into an arrow.
"Better than usual," she complimented. "How did it feel?"
"More...taxing," he admitted.
"Indeed, just as with speed, detailing becomes easier with more practice. I do believe you would be the type to transfigure your own furniture, tell me, how did that go?"
"I used runes to ease out the refinements. As it wanted to enter the nearest natural state, I channeled energy through them for micro-corrections," Harry shrugged. She frowned, processing the words. "I transfigured roughly what I wanted and used runes to hold them in form."
"Ah," she nodded with a faint smile. "That would fall more under transmutation and alchemy, admittedly. You take the course?"
"Fifth year," he admitted, causing her eyebrows to raise delicately.
"They let you skip a year? My, my, you're full of surprises." Hurst pondered. "Are you aware of what transmutation is?"
"The ability to break the alchemic channels and reconstruct them to pivot a natural state from the object of origin to the object of finality," Harry recited. Hurst, nodded, pleased.
"In an alchemaic sense, yes," she nodded, "you're very well read for a fifth year, I expected it out of a seventh, perhaps, but not a fifth like you."
"You took alchemy?"
"Finished seventh year," she nodded in reminiscence. "I was one of the few to do so...I'm no expert in the way I am with transfiguration, but I have a passing knowledge of the subject. Though we are getting off track. Transmutation is most commonly achieved through alchemy, though that is not the only way. I require an oath that you will not reveal what comes next."
"I, Harry White, swear on my magic, not to reveal any of what Amanda Hurst reveals to me while we remain in this room for the next hour." He flared his aura, giving the impression that an oath had been made and she nodded satisfied, pulling out her necklace and handing it to him.
"What's this?" she questioned. He felt the necklace in his hand, weighing it. Quickly making some napkin calculations on its density mentally.
"Platinum."
"Its platinum, tell me, does anything feel off about it?" Curious, he ran it over with a visual inspection that he knew from training, to see no obvious red flags. Running over it more closely with his magic, he frowned to see some distortions in its magical conduits. "So you see it. Yes, there are remnants of its original state, gold. As platinum has more magical conduits, those of gold were distorted trying to array themselves into such."
"This was done through transfiguration?"
"Essentially yes," she answered proudly. "One of my best works, if I do say so myself."
"A Mahler resonance jump of three...quite impressive."
"Yes, I nearly drained myself eight times to finally pump enough magic to do so. It is why you can feel phasing," she reminisced. At his slightly confused look, she elaborated, "Phasing is the phenomenon when you transfigure an object through multiple stages. Because it's not seamless, there will be distortions."
"Ah," he nodded in understanding.
"Do you know why I chose to show you this, Harry?"
"Because you trust me?" he queried. She shrugged.
"In a sense. I trust that you are destined for greatness."
"And you want a part of it."
"I was going to say I was hoping to foster it...but in essence yes," she admitted. "In staff meetings, most staff that have met you sing your praises, and from your prowess in transfiguration...well the only fair comparison would be Grindelwald, I suppose, distasteful as he may be. While terrible, his accomplishments and influence was nevertheless great."
"And you see him in me?"
"My father was an auror during Grindlewald's initial rise. He was at one of the rallies, and he described to me, this aura of strength, confidence and finality that the man always held. Despite hating everything he stood for, my father confessed he had never been so tempted to turn than when he heard the man speak. Even his presence, it was enthralling."
"And is that what you see in me?"
"No, not yet at least. But with work, I believe you could be," she mused thoughtfully. "You make me think of another boy I had the pleasure of meeting...strange...he would have been a first year now. Such remarkable potential...alas, no one quite knows what happened to him."
"Who was this boy?" Harry pondered. Hurst frowned, and he knew he would not be getting an answer.
"I don't quite remember," she claimed, and were Harry not so well versed in detecting lies, he would have believed her. "But as to why I tell you this...well, I am retiring from my post after this year for other pursuits. In such a time, I hope to train you, and set you on the path to greatness."
-Break-
James waved goodbye to his colleagues at the department of international magical cooperation as he stepped into the department floo and called out, "Potter manor."
He landed gracefully on his feet, and smiled at the sight of Lily curled up on the couch by the fire reading a book. Walking over to her, he wrapped her in a tight hug. "Lils! Where's Rose?"
"She went over to Susan's today, she'll be back soon," Lily answered, scooting over so James could sit down and wrest her head on his lap. He began playing with her dark red hair, causing her to mewl at the ministrations. "I'm glad the two are getting along so well, she has far too few friends for my liking."
"She's a shy person, just let her be. She'll grow out of it and be a social butterfly like you soon enough," James chuckled. "Besides, she'll have many opportunities to make friends with others at Hogwarts."
The floo flashed, and a raven haired girl tumbled out, swaying on her feet uneasily. "Mum! I'm home!"
"We're right here, Rose," James smirked, startling the girl before she let out a grin, rushing towards him and wrapping him in a tight hug. "How has your day been, baby girl?"
"It was fun! Susan, Hannah, Su, Mandy and I made bracelets," she held out her arm, where a chain with dozens of colourful sparkling beads on it. Both parents smiled at this as she continued to babble on.
It had taken a long time for Rose and Lily to forgive him for his part in losing Harry. A part of him was happy for so, for it was far better for them to be angry at him that for them to blame themselves and wallow in misery. To have moments like this...James cherished each and every one.
Author Note:
First chapter of the day! I was in the hospital to follow up on my toe injuries, so I haven't written as much as I'd like. Hopefully I'll get us that second chapter in a few hours. But you're not concerned with that, you're here for some insider scoop on my writings.
I will admit, I hesitated in adding the last section on the Potter family, though I thought it would be a nice change of pace to the constant learning and magic seen with Harry at Durmstrang. This will likely be the last of its type until Harry's next year and Rose's first, which might either be a relief or a disappointment to you. To be frank, Rose is a talented ten year old witch being taught decent levels of magic by Dumbledore because of her being the supposed girl-who-lived and all that. But she's still just a ten year old witch that acts like a slightly more mature ten year old, she's going to gossip, play doll and do other things ten year old girls do. I've realised that in fantasy, it can be too easy to dive headfirst into escapism and believe everyone is extraordinary in abilities and living extraordinary lives. Especially since we've focused on Harry/Raven which is the case most of our time, I want to emphasise that not everyone is going to be like that. While there is a bias in stories such as this, given Harry is seeking out extraordinary individuals to build his circle, not everyone is going to have faced some sort of adversity from home. Katerina, thus far, may have faced isolation from her peers and bullying, but she hasn't been raped and is not abused at home. The same can be said about various other characters. Also, if you get the reference of where Hurst is from, then you might be slightly spoiled. I respected the portrayal so much I decided to imitate it, even if there will be major differences. Also, Harry's seeming out of character flirting is meant to throw Hurst off balance. We can see that he is distrustful, even if respectful of her abilities. Flattery is one of the most effective ways of endearing yourself to someone. She knows it is in jest, and reacts accordingly. This isn't going to suddenly turn into a fluffy romance fic or something, sorry to disappoint the two or three of you at the back who were still keeping their fingers crossed. While I'm not going to discount Harry forming a romantic relationship in the distant future, it is going to be authentic, realistic and gritty as this story has striven to be. Feel free to comment down any pairings, though always amuse me.