Chapter 21: Secrets of Alchemy
Harry climbed through the portrait hole in the Gryffindor Common Room, where Ron and Ginny were waiting for him, sitting on the couch opposite the fireplace.
"Tell us, how was it?" Ron promptly asked when Ginny had only managed to open her mouth halfway.
"It was unexpected," Harry chuckled. "McGonagall caught us." Ginny's expression immediately went alarmed, so Harry added, "But we managed to tell her an excuse, so everything was fine."
"Phew, but what about the search? Did you find something out?" Ginny asked as soon as she had regained her ability to speak. Then Harry began to tell them in detail which places they had both visited until Hermione had finally returned to the Common Room.
"Yikes, that Filch was so annoying. He needed me to fill in the form," she sighed.
"At least you're finally back," Ron found something to rejoice in, "and Harry already told us everything about all of your adventures tonight."
"So you, Hermione, do think the Diadem is hidden somewhere in the western part of the castle, besides being charmed by various protective spells, including the Unplottability?" Ginny summed up.
"Precisely. And if we could figure out how to amplify our Locator Spell to a greater extent, we could be able to detect the location of it more specifically," Hermione confirmed.
"Yeah, that sounds so hopeful," Ron said sarcastically, "as if we haven't tried everything already."
"Maybe let's try to consider everything from the beginning again, perhaps the summing up could bring us some kind of an idea," Hermione suggested. Ron was about to retort, but Harry spoke first.
"So, I was searching for Voldemort's energy, which he has hidden in his Horcrux. For amplification, we should have something more, maybe some kind of his possessions or something of his Horcruxes," Harry said thoughtfully.
"But, Harry, you carry those two pieces of junk everywhere you go in your mokeskin pouch; can't you use them? Since they were Horcruxes before," said Ron.
Harry's eyes widened and he pulled out of his pouch the Slytherin's Locket and the Hufflepuff's Cup, which both looked disgusting black and calloused. They looked at them for a moment, and then Hermione spoke up, "I don't think it's possible to extract a useful amount of magical energy for amplification out of them. The Basilisk venom is extremely strong and had destroyed them completely." Anyway, Harry tried to feel some magic in them in a similar way like he was using the vials of the Magic Essence, but it seemed that Hermione, as usual, was right again.
"And isn't there really any possible way to fix them? Remember the Resurrection Stone? It was a Horcrux, but even though Dumbledore had banished Voldemort's soul out of it, the Stone was still working," Ginny suggested. Hermione just sadly smiled at it with a disapproving look.
"You need something equally strong in order to fix something that was damaged by Basilisk venom."
"Like phoenix's tears," Harry said.
"Or the Philosopher's Stone?" Ginny asked. Hermione nodded in agreement for both options, but Ron sneered at them.
"Oh, wait just a second, I'll just get my Philosopher's Stone now," he pretended to be searching for something in a pocket of his robes. "Mhm, I think I already have one in my pocket." Ron took his hand out of his pocket and showed his friends a Sugar Quill he had bought earlier in Hogsmeade, and the tip of the Quill was already bitten off. "What a pity – this is not it; this is made only of sugar. Phoenix tears, the Philosopher's Stone – such things practically don't exist in the world no longer!" the young man was bold enough to express his indignation in a whisper.
"Unfortunately, I have to agree with you, Ron – I really don't know of any other way, not even theoretical, to fix something damaged by Basilisk venom," Hermione said sadly, albeit less expressively than Ron.
"But at least so far the idea was pretty good," Ginny tried to find something happy about it.
"Thank you, Gin. I would like to suggest that we all should go to our beds now, we all are feeling sleepy, and maybe we'll be able to come up with some better ideas tomorrow," Harry suggested, and his friends agreed with him, so the guys, after saying goodbye to the girls, went to their dorm room to enjoy a good night's sleep.
Unfortunately, no new ideas come to nor Harry's nor his friends' minds during the next day, and on Monday afternoon, Harry found himself sitting in the library with Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Luna, and Neville in their usual group again. Their mood was already just like at the holidays, the term was practically over, and now they had a bit of free time for themselves.
Ron had found an old issue of the Quibbler and had fun reading the questions on a test: Which is the Rune of your destiny?
"Listen to this one," he laughed in a half-whisper as he leaned closer to Harry, "if you have twenty points, the Rune of your destiny is Fehu. Its traditional meaning is related to the sense of "property", "cattle". This would be the exact Rune for Malfoy, since he's like an animal."
Harry also laughed quietly with him. Really – who does make these tests and do they actually believe them themselves? But in the meantime, Hermione and Luna discussed the last lesson of Ancient Runes, which they had both attended only a few hours ago.
"Which story did you choose?" Hermione asked. "Of course, I chose the Deathly Hallows."
"My Dad and Mum read the Tales of Beedle the Bard to me as bedtime stories when I was a child. I know all of them by heart," Luna replied with a smile. "But I picked the Fountain of Fair Fortune. So that Professor Babbling doesn't have to listen only about the Hallows in the New Year."
And Ginny and Neville were discussing Slughorn's Christmas party of yesterday.
"Ginny, I understand that for such a Quidditch fan like you it was spectacular to meet Gwenog Jones, but I would have preferred some of the magical biologists or the famous zoologist Scamander. I think Newton Scamander's grandson Rolf also travels a lot and has seen a lot of interesting creatures of which even Hagrid would be very excited to hear about," Neville said.
"Then we need to suggest Slughorn on inviting Rolf Scamander to his next meeting," Ginny agreed and then she cast a quick look at Luna, adding, "Maybe he'll know something about the wondrous Crumple-Horned Snorkacks."
Neville chuckled quietly with a grin.
"Anyway, Neville, actually I couldn't care less about Gwenog Jones and Rolf Scamander, but you and Hannah look really good together," she praised her friend. "I'm so happy for both of you."
"Thank you, Ginny, you've always been a good friend to me," Neville replied, smiling shyly at her. "Besides, after Halloween, Romilda hasn't bothered me anymore."
"Well, we all saw she was holding tightly onto Terry's elbow. It seems she's actually managed to tame one of the D.A. members after all," Ginny said a bit mockingly.
"I wish her only the best. The most important thing is that she's not throwing any Fanged Frisbee's at me or trying to give me any Love Potions anymore. I've always thought Terry's a sensible guy. So I find it weird, he's chosen such an airhead," Neville said his thoughts.
"I doubt the seriousness of their relationship. And besides, she's not ugly," Ginny added.
Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by Luna's familiar dreamy voice, "Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Ron – how far have you gotten with your task to find the Diadem? That's the reason you came back to Hogwarts, right?"
Hermione quickly told her about her and Harry's observations that the Diadem might be somewhere on the west side of the castle, but they still had no idea how to determine the location more precisely.
"On the west side of the castle, there are only the Owlery and our tower," Luna summed up flatly. "Although in my free time, when the Common Room was empty, I've searched every part of it on your recommendation, but there was absolutely nothing suspicious. Besides, I don't feel there any special magical energy at all, except the one that comes out of the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw."
"Yes, we've also detected that energy when we searched for the typical Hogwarts energy," Hermione confirmed. "So it means the Ravenclaw Tower leads us to a dead end. I really don't know what to do next."
"My Dad used to say – with time comes knowledge," Luna said, smiling sweetly at her friend. "So don't worry about it too much. Christmas is coming soon and we all have deserved a little bit of joy."
The next day, Flitwick actually made them joyful as he gave practically all of them outstanding marks and he proposed to repeat the Cheering Charm. With their new knowledge of charm amplification, they had managed to make such a cheer, which sounded through the entire Hogwarts castle like the England Team would've won the World Cup. After that, for the rest of the day, most of the seventh-year students appeared unusually joyful and happy.
Harry felt that this magical joy only began to diminish the next morning, when he had to get ready for the last Alchemy class this term. Besides, there were only double Alchemy and one Potions lesson by Slughorn left, and then tomorrow was the Christmas Eve.
At the breakfast, Ron occasionally praised and admired Philip Flamel's lessons in order to tease Hermione, in addition, the professor had promised a Christmas present, and all of his students were fully confident that he's going to reveal them the most sacred secrets of Alchemy. Hermione, on the other hand, simply ignored her boyfriend's silly talking as she was hiding her face behind the everyday copy of the Daily Prophet, and just said grumpily that she wouldn't be much surprised that they actually wouldn't be told any secrets. "There's not even a single alchemist on the Earth who would like to share his secrets," she had muttered quietly.
Ginny and Harry didn't get involved in their discussion, but quietly continued to eat their food, though, secretly hoping that this time it would turn out that Ron was right.
Soon the impatient crowd had gathered next to Alchemy classroom on the fourth floor of the East Wing of the castle amazingly early, whispering excitedly.
The bell rang and the door was opened by the familiar thin figure of their professor, who wore a smile under his square glasses as he kindly welcomed everyone inside.
Though, the lesson started extremely boring with giving everyone their marks, besides, the professor was not in a hurry with the assessing the skills individually for each student.
"Miss Greengrass and Miss Greengrass, you both have great success in managing the corner of the Earth magic; I could even say you did it amazingly. You have also performed well in the Water or Air corner, but you were not so good with Fire. In theory studies, I see that both Daphne and Astoria have earned good marks, so I'm going to give both or you E for this term," the professor pondered about the performance of the Greengrass sisters, who always worked in a pair.
Much later, after Flamel had given marks to the other Slytherin and Ravenclaw students, he turned his attention to the famous Gryffindor trio. Ginny got Outstanding, Ron – Exceeds Expectations, but considering Harry, the professor was thinking hard for a long time. This young man, though, a celebrity in the Wizarding world; the boy, who had saved the world, even more than once, had not really been able to show acceptable success in any of the element corners. Harry himself was even ashamed of it, because he couldn't understand why he couldn't manage to control any of the elements, if some of his classmates could do it even exceedingly well. Even Malfoy could do it. Finally, basing his decision on Harry's outstanding marks in theory of Alchemy, the professor gave him Acceptable, which turned out to be one of the lowest marks in the class. Harry felt an unpleasant bitterness inside of him – why was he so bad at Alchemy, why? At Hogwarts, he actually had learned a lot of knowledge in all of his classes and he definitely didn't feel as being the worst student.
When Flamel had given the last mark, everyone held their breaths as they waited for what the professor will be saying next. But he only announced a fifteen-minute break and didn't even give a second glance to the young people anymore, having started reading some kind of parchments.
Of course, the class exploded in conversations, everyone being eager to discuss their marks and what exactly the professor could have prepared for the next lesson. Ginny put her palm on Harry's hand soothingly and said, "Don't worry about your mark. I know how hard you tried, and I'm sure you'll do better in the next term."
Harry thanked his girlfriend for her encouragement; however, it didn't make him feel much better about failing completely the practical part of Alchemy subject. Really, wasn't he able to learn anything without Hermione's help? But then how had Ron managed to learn it? Hermione had strictly refused to help both of them in Alchemy.
Soon Professor Flamel cleared his throat and stood up, and in the classroom, there was an instant silence, that one could almost hear the small, subtle, slowly falling snow flakes hitting the window panes.
"I promised you something like a Christmas present at the beginning of this term, right?" the professor began. Everyone immediately nodded in approval. "Then do listen carefully, I'm going to tell you about the secret of Alchemy."
The eyes of most of the students widened, and the Ravenclaws in particular sat, leaning forward, eager to hear every word said by the professor. Perhaps they'll be the ones, who will be able to make the Philosopher's Stone. Once there was someone who had succeeded, so it was possible.
"But before you've started to break the chairs out of sheer excitement, I want to warn you that I'm going to tell you about the secret, but you'll have to figure out the secret by yourselves. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a secret," Flamel added cunningly.
"So then, listen now to my story – as I already told you in our very first lesson, the history of Alchemy dates back to an ancient times, when the idea formed long ago that it is necessary to turn yourself into something advanced, something better, or – as the ancient philosophers of Hermeticism did postulate this idea – it is necessary to purify yourself until you turn yourself into gold. This meaning, of course, applies to the spiritual aspect of a person, but over time, wizards themselves began to ask a question – why not try to materialize this idea in a tangible way? Why not try to create such a substance that could turn any material, anything into gold? – I think you can easily image the very first efforts of ancient Alchemists," the professor said as he pulled a nail out of his pocket. Then he pointed to it with his wand and said, "Morfum Aurum!" The iron nail soon acquired a yellow texture of the gold. The students looked at the professor in admiration – did he really know how to turn objects into gold even without the Philosopher's Stone? It was something unheard of!
But then Flamel took a second nail out of the pocket of his dark blue robes. "Do you see this nail? I charmed this one, too, but a few days ago. So, who will tell me what's wrong with this Transfiguration spell?"
The Ravenclaws instantly shot their hands in the air, and even Harry thought the answer was quite simple, when Anthony said, "This transfiguration is not permanent. It will expire over time."
"That's right, Mr. Goldstein," Flamel praised his student.
"That's why alchemists soon realized that this task was much more serious than just waving a wand. It was necessary to ensure that such a transformation lasted as long as possible. Then the rush of making all sorts of tonics and infusions began. Practically everyone experimented with them – more than a thousand years ago; even before the founding of Hogwarts, every ancient Greek and Egyptian wizard was involved in such experiments. And then the legend of the Philosopher's Stone formed, because it had to be such a substance that could be able to ensure the permanence of the transfiguration that would last forever," Flamel told them.
"You see, the ancient guilds of the Alchemists, who had begun to form after the thirteenth century, was guarding diligently the information on their efforts for making such a substance, which could make not only the transformation from iron into gold, but in general, it makes any transfiguration eternal, forever permanent. Remember, we tried to learn some of this coding in our theory lessons." Students were nodding their heads in affirmation.
"Then here, one question arises – how could it be possible that this ultimate secret, the most guarded knowledge of Alchemy could be available not only to the N.E.W.T. students of Hogwarts, but even to some of the Muggles?"
Now the young people looked at each other in confusion. They didn't know much about the Muggles, and Harry had a strong suspicion that the all-knowing professor would have made a mistake this time, because he really couldn't image that Dudley could know something about all of this or even had the slightest idea what the Philosopher's Stone was.
"You see, maybe you have heard of such a very famous person like Nostradamus, who lived in the sixteenth century and used his Arithmancy talent to make predictions for the upcoming future. In addition, I would like to remind you that then the Statute of Secrecy hadn't been established yet, so he was free to publish his books for both wizards and Muggles. The problem arose when Nostradamus had calculated the most guarded secret of Alchemy, so to speak, and had published it in a low-demand book along with his other discoveries about some processes in nature; this book became popular only about one hundred years later, here in Britain, and it turned the whole world upside down. You see, in 1650, the secret of Alchemy had spread widely among the British people who were able to read, which later led to the signing of the Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in 1689. Which one of you has studied the History of Magic carefully and can recall the official reason why wizards had to go into hiding for good?"
Now, only a few raised their hands, including Luna, "It was the only way how to stop the years-lasting immense witch-hunting. Then countless witches and wizards were captured, and they were mostly burned with fire or their bodies were ripped open."
"Exactly, Miss Lovegood. And I would like to claim that this madness broke out among the Muggles only because of Nostradamus' supposedly innocent book on the secrets of nature, which had suddenly become extremely popular in our country back then. So, this is the story about the secret of Alchemy, which basically destroyed all of the Wizarding community," the professor ended his speech with an unusually dramatic ending.
Everyone sat there, holding their breath, and couldn't believe that the professor wasn't going to tell them anything more.
"But what's the secret?" Theodore soon asked.
"Oh, this I want you to figure out by yourselves. As I said earlier, if I'll tell it to you, then it wouldn't be a secret," the professor replied slyly.
"And what was the title of the book which tells us about this secret?" Draco asked a wittier question.
"That I've already told you – the book was written by Nostradamus in the 16th century. Of Secrets and Knowledge of Nature. The original is in French, but I'm quite sure there is also a copy in English. However, undoubtedly, this book is located at the Restricted Section."
"And you certainly won't give us the access to this book?" Draco inquired further.
"Right now, of course not," the professor replied, grinning cunningly.
"Wait a moment, Professor Flamel, you said you wanted us to deduce it ourselves, didn't you?" Ginny asked as she raised her hand.
"That's right, Miss Weasley," the teacher said as he smiled at the girl. "Though, only a few students before have come to the right conclusion, but I would be very happy if you succeeded. Just try to use your knowledge and the information of what I just told you."
Hannah, always being the diligent Hufflepuff student, right away began to summarize her knowledge, "In Alchemy, there are four basic elements of nature – water, earth, air, and fire. The Philosopher's Stone must be a particularly powerful magical object in order to make any Transfiguration spell permanent forever. As far as I know from Potions, we've learned to get the Essences of each individual element, which can be used for more or less certain groups of Transfiguration spells, but then if you want to fasten any kind of Transfiguration spell, you have to combine all four essences into one, making the Combined Essence of All Elements."
"It sounds true, if not taking into account the fact that the essences of fire and water destroys each other, as the same happens with the essences of air and earth," Romilda told her.
Daphne was interested in the historical account, "But, the chaos began with the mass burning of witches in Britain about one hundred years after the publication of the book of Nostradamus in France. How it comes that such disorder didn't happen in France even earlier?"
"An excellent question, Miss Greengrass, and I'll be glad to give an answer." Flamel smiled kindly at her. It seemed that the exercise set up by the professor himself seemed to him more and more interesting by any passing second.
"It will rather be an assumption in my interpretation, and yet, I would like to think that it contains a lot of truth. In my opinion, French wizards, unlike the British, had acted wiser in their time, because they simply realized that mass psychosis would do no good for them. I hope I don't have to clarify it in more detail to anyone what our British brothers were capable of in order to achieve some higher imaginary goal. I suppose that something similar could have happened here three hundred years ago.
Moreover, I find it interesting enough that this knowledge had spread so quickly among the Muggles – I suppose the wizards themselves gave a helping hand in this matter – so that's why the witch hunting in Britain became so uncontrollable, while in France, the Muggles took this knowledge more peacefully, because it is possible to look at this knowledge from an angle of the point of view of the Hermeticism philosophy, which suggests anyone to purify your soul into gold. There were even some Muggles who tried to cook their own Philosopher's Stone. At those times, one of the best known, at least in the Muggle society, was a German citizen Böttger, who was fortunately ordered to quit Alchemy by the Muggles, and then in 1708 he discovered how to produce porcelain and was able to make his pottery peacefully."
"So, the making of Philosopher's Stone needs some kind of a special person?" asked Astoria, Daphne's sister. "Or one needs to kill some kind of a special person?"
"The golden person!" suddenly Ron exclaimed next to Harry. "They needed the golden person!"
"What are you talking about, Weasley?" Theodore said harshly. "There's no such people made of gold."
"Of course, there isn't," Ron said surly, "I meant a person who could be considered to be like a gold. With that pure soul or something like that."
"Brilliant, Mr. Weasley," Flamel said as he formed a wide smile. "And how do you think, what kind of role such person could have had in the theoretical process of making the Philosopher's Stone?"
"Hannah already told us that there's needed something that could bind all four elements of nature," said Terry. "Then you probably need something from this person, who could bind the elements of nature together. Most likely it could be his magic."
"You're close, very, very close, Mr. Boot," Flamel said excitedly as he clapped his hands together.
"Love is the strongest thing in people – I know it because Harry proved it to all of us," Luna simply said, ignoring the Slytherins who giggled quietly about her strange statement.
"It's even closer, but it's not fully accurate," the professor looked at all his students with enthusiasm. It was obvious he wanted to know, who is going to be the one to give him the right answer.
And then Harry remembered how he had held the true Philosopher's Stone in his own hands seven years ago. Then it had seemed so special, so magical, about the size of a fist as it glowed charmingly having the color of dark blood…
"The heart," he said grimly as his stomach clenched unpleasantly – the revelation of the secret of the Philosopher's Stone didn't bring any joy at all, as he had originally hoped, but rather made him feel a cold chill running down his spine. Flamel turned to him immediately and waited for him to continue. And Harry explained it in more detail, "The most magical and powerful organ of any human being is the heart. In order to bind all the essences of the elements of nature, alchemists need the heart or blood from the heart taken from a golden person."
"You're absolutely and utterly correct, Mr. Potter," Flamel exclaimed enthusiastically as he clapped his hands again, while the rest of the class had sunk into a fearful silence and were now listening intently to the professor.
"Nostradamus had revealed in his book of Secrets of Nature that all four essences can be bound together only by the blood of the heart of such a person, who in his or her deepest essence and being has attained a spiritual state of gold. That was the reason why the virgin witches were persecuted the most three hundred years ago, because they were considered the purest, most innocent, kindest and gentlest, as opposed to the rudeness and violence tended men. So, I hope you understand why it's technically impossible to make the Philosopher's Stone, because you need a person with a golden soul, and, of course, such people are extremely rare, and even if you happen to find such a person, you have to kill him or her, because otherwise it's impossible to collect the blood of her heart, and then you still have to acquire the knowledge of how to combine all five components."
Then Flamel watched his students closely. "I really do hope no one is thinking right now how to kill an innocent girl with a golden heart." Everyone turned away from the professor's gaze, feeling uncomfortable and shy, as they shook their heads. The secret, however, had proved to be extremely scary.
Then suddenly Harry felt a touch on his upper arm and he turned his head, seeing Ginny's strange expression like she had some kind of revelation.
"Harry," she looked at him with her deep, brown eyes, "your Polyjuice Potion turned gold, right? At least that's what Hermione told me, and the Polyjuice Potion actually shows the person's being, right?"
Harry stared at her in amazement. Could he really be the golden person? The Holy Grail of alchemists, they have been trying to find for centuries. If so, it is better that no one finds out about this. What if some crazy Alchemist guild starts chasing him? That was the last thing he needed…
Suddenly his thoughts were disturbed by the bell, and Flamel wished everyone a merry Christmas, but Harry stayed in the classroom, wanting to ask the professor a prompting question about Ginny's proposed theory. But halfway to the professor, he was interrupted by Luna, who, as it turned out, had thought the same thing as Ginny.
The others left the classroom including Ron and Ginny, but Harry and Luna approached Flamel to find out about the Polyjuice Potion.
Harry asked the teacher, "Please, tell me, Professor, how exactly someone could know when there has been found this person with a golden soul. Are there any other signs besides that this person is just being good?"
"What kind of signs are you thinking of? I've never met such a golden person, but I think that such features like eye or hair color won't matter," Professor Flamel replied a little thoughtfully.
"We had thought more about, for example, the Polyjuice Potion," Luna said kindly. "Its color actually shows the essence of the person."
"Actually, you're right, Miss Lovegood. Your idea truly is a great one. A Polyjuice Potion could really reveal a person with a golden soul," Flamel said, admiring her suggestion, but soon his tone became gloomier. "But even finding such a person doesn't make it possible to make the Philosopher's Stone, because we do not want to kill anyone, but the Stone needs the power of both magic and heart's love. Otherwise, it is not possible to hold the essences of all the elements together."
"But isn't it possible to make the Essence of the Heart-blood using only the blood?" Luna asked more. Both Harry and especially Flamel looked at the blonde, short girl strangely.
"You, Miss Lovegood, indeed have very interesting ideas. You honestly are a true Ravenclaw. May I ask you how did you conclude such an idea?"
"All blood flows through the heart, right? Then it should contain the much needed power and energy to make the Stone, only in a smaller amount. If one knew the way how to amplify the power of the blood until it was as strong as the one taken from the heart, then one wouldn't need to kill this golden person, but only a little blood should be taken from him or her," Luna explained her theory in detail, and this time also Harry looked with admiration at his usually strange friend, who now told an absolutely unbelievable yet undeniably logical theory.
"Your suggestion is extremely intriguing, but this theory is as crazy as it is impossible," Flamel tried to make a polite excuse, "because we have practically no knowledge of how to obtain such a powerful essence of magic and heart-blood, nor do we know even a single person who could be labelled with the title of the Golden Person."
"Professor, I have a slight suspicion that you are wrong about this," Harry simply said, having decided to throw away his caution. "You see, the Polyjuice Potion turned into gold, when my hair was added to it. At least that was true a year ago."
"And my Mom did experiments with spell amplification, producing especially strong essences, before she died in an accident," Luna added cheerfully.