Chapter 28: The Blood Powder
When Ron was friends with him again, Harry felt as if the sun had finally showed up after an especially long and gloomy rain season. Finally Ron apologized to him for being mad at him so long, and Hermione's face was always happy like sunshine now.
Harry told him about his efforts in searching for the Diadem that he had taken Ron's suggestions into account, but a careful examination of the Marauder's Map hadn't given any positive results; Ron also agreed that it was a hasty and silly idea to ask Slughorn about Horcruxes, and it would be even sillier for them to go into the Forbidden Forest themselves to find out what was going on there, especially if according to Hagrid, there were clashes between Centaurs and Acromantulas.
But what to do next? This they didn't know. No matter how much Harry didn't want to admit it, they all seemed to have placed all their hopes on Flamel's experiments, but who knows how long it would take for the Alchemy professor to produce something actually useful. However, rumours had started to come from Hogsmeade that the construction works of the so-called Summer House of Xenophilius would soon be finished, which meant that Professor Flamel's project was going forward at a rapid pace.
Ron was still asking Hermione about the theory of vanishing now and then, to which Hermione was always replying, "If you really want to deal with centuries old poop then go ahead. But then don't complain about the results later." The young man was still restful about this idea, so he had talked Harry into trying the Conjuring Spell, but unfortunately it turned out Hermione was right. Not mentioning the vanished feces, the two of them had only been able to conjure up the remnants of some failed potions and one broken cup, even though they had tried every version of this spell without as well as with every probable representative word, and Harry had even tried to cast this spell in Parseltongue, but without any success. Understandably, the stinky gains soon broke the determination of both young men to keep diligently studying this theory in practice. But they had no other ideas, so the four of them were now focusing mainly on preparing for their upcoming N.E.W.T. exams, which were soon to come.
A few weeks later, when May was going on for a while and Hermione had again posted a notice of the next visit to Hogsmeade, at the end of the usual Wednesday Alchemy double lesson, Professor Flamel asked Harry to come closer to him as he wanted to say something to him. Harry, Ginny, Luna, and Ron waited for the rest of their classmates to leave the classroom, and then they approached the professor's desk.
"Professor, you wanted to say something to us," Harry began.
"Oh, my dear students," he said as his thin face behind his spectacles turned into a genuine smile, though, remembering Hermione's strict warnings about the malicious intentions of all Alchemists, Harry thought for a second that he saw also some unpleasant hunger in the professor's eyes. "I would like to invite you to visit me this Saturday, while you'll be visiting Hogsmeade. I want to show you my new laboratory. And I need to say an endless thanks to you, Luna; without your help I would've never succeeded. And, of course, I have to thank you too, Harry; it's unbelievable, but the Resurrection Stone really did prove its powers, and I have spent countless hours consulting with Pandora about her excellent experiment setup. So I would be very happy if all four of you – including you, Ronald and Ginny, – would like to come to visit me, and perhaps we could even start our first experiment!" It seemed that the Professor's insides were trembling just by this thought alone.
Harry immediately accepted the professor's invitation as he shot a quick glance at Ginny.
"Can we take Hermione with us, too? Erm, Hermione Granger, the Head Girl and the best friend of all of us," Ron asked and explained in more detail as the professor looked a little confused at first.
"Oh, yes, right, the famous Miss Granger. Sure, sure, she is also welcome," Flamel said with a smile, but then his face turned serious. "But I would be very grateful if you don't tell anyone about this visit. Alchemy has always kept its knowledge in secret, and there's no shortage of envious minds who want to use it for malicious purposes. Therefore, I must ask you to be careful when speaking to anyone about both the visit to the laboratory and what you are going to see there."
They exchanged worried looks, though they promised they wouldn't say anything to anyone other than Hermione about this visit to the Professor Flamel's newly built laboratory.
Hermione took this invitation with two opposite feelings: at first she was surprised that Flamel had indeed already built his laboratory and she was wondering about the equipment of such a building, but on the other hand she was cautious and suspicious. "Look, but why did he ask us so strictly not to tell anyone about this visit? What if he's planning something to do with us?"
"He said he didn't want anyone to follow us or learn something about his experiments and discoveries," Ron said. "I think it makes sense. Besides, how could he actually harm us?"
"Technically, he needs only my heart, but I strongly doubt he's planning to kill me and imprison the rest of you somewhere deep," Harry said with a grin. "Someone would notice if we won't return from Hogsmeade."
"Harry, please, don't joke like that," Hermione said, having her face pale, but Ginny looked amused next to her. "It's just the thing you said, that he wanted to start experimenting with something, and I can only repeat over and over again that I don't trust any Alchemist experiment at all. It doesn't need a lot of effort – he could confuse us, use us as he needs, and then erase our memories. You'll never remember what happened with you there." Listening to her, Harry felt a cold chill running down his spine – they really didn't know much about Flamel's intentions.
"Hermione, if you're so worried about this, we can make preparations," Ron offered.
"Besides, we'll be five there," Ginny said. "I really don't think he could confuse all of us at once."
"And we have to risk trusting him, because unfortunately, we have no other ideas how to find the Diadem right now," Harry said grimly. Hermione agreed reluctantly as she nodded.
"Then so be it – on Saturday, we are going to visit Flamel's laboratory in Hogsmeade. But to be sure about our safety, I'll send an owl to George and ask him to send us a few pairs of his Shield Gloves. Constant vigilance!" Hermione strictly said at the end, recalling to everyone the teaching of Moody and his impostor disguised as him, which was especially important in any dangerous task.
Saturday came incredibly fast, and as the chilling wind blew, the five of them were already measuring the muddy road to Hogsmeade.
"Harry, is that true that you're planning to resume D.A. classes?" Luna suddenly asked in her usual dreamy voice, her eyes set on her black-haired friend.
"That's nonsense," Harry said. "Where did you hear something like that?"
"Oh, don't mind it, Harry," Luna said with a smile, "It's just – this morning in my dorm room, it was a hot topic for the girls. You see, there was an article in yesterday's issue of Witch Weekly that you were often seen wandering around the castle, especially examining all the empty classrooms, so it was speculated you were looking for a proper place for D.A. classes since the Room of Requirement was no longer available."
"Wait a minute – I'll make a guess that the author of this particular article was Skeeter, right?" Harry said bitterly.
"You're right, it was Skeeter – Lisa gave me to read that article this morning. But Harry, have you really been at least in four classrooms on the seventh floor and in a few more on the sixth?" Luna asked curiously.
"Yes, I visited them earlier this week," Harry admitted grumpily. "But you already know why – it was out of the habit for searching the Diadem. Hoping to find some clue; maybe we've missed something."
"Of course we know this," Ron spoke up, "but I'm more surprised by some other fact – how could Skeeter know this so precisely?"
Harry just sneered at it. "I suppose she's constantly following me, hoping to get some scoop. And she doesn't need a lot of effort for it. It seems people are ready to buy all the newspapers out if Skeeter would've caught me so much as drilling my nose."
"You know, but it really is a bit weird," Hermione agreed with Ron. "Because she's not allowed to be here. Already at the beginning of the school year, McGonagall applied security measures including both people and Animagus detection spells if someone crosses the perimeter of the Hogwarts area. However, it seems she's able to get in somehow now and then without McGonagall knowing it."
"That's right. Harry, didn't you see her here at the beginning of the school year?" Ron asked, and Harry nodded affirmatively as he replied, "Well, yes, but then later McGonagall had cast her out of here, if I recall it correctly."
"The Witch Weekly having so many articles about you actually isn't that odd," Ginny said. "She's producing them using the interviews voluntarily sent to her, and she has no shortage of them. It's like every Hogwarts gossip girl is about ready to sell something to her for just a Galleon. That Skeeter was even so bold to offer me such a deal."
"Was she?" Harry asked in surprise.
"Yeah, she was," Ginny said awkwardly. "Well, it was when we were kind of distancing each other. I think Skeeter was hoping to get some scandalous news, but of course, she got nothing from me. I sent her off to go fry some eggs."
"And you didn't even feed her some hilarious nonsense?" Ron said with a grin.
"You know, at first I had a thought I could tell her that Harry then was going into celibacy to purify his spirit and soul in order to finally stand up for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, but I decided not to risk with that. It seems that people don't always get the jokes," Ginny replied with a smile. Harry was suppressing the grin on his lips; it would sound fun, unless he wouldn't feel so annoyed by Skeeter constantly poking her nose in his business so she could later spread all the information about him to the rest of the world.
"Look, Hosgmeade," Luna exclaimed as she happily clasped her hands clad in the dragon hide gloves given by Hermione. In addition, Hermione had amplified the Shielding Spell so that it worked even when the gloves were put only in the pocket of the robes.
"Yeah, we're here, but let's go to Honeydukes first," Harry suggested as he shot a glance back at the four of Lavender Brown, Fay Dunbar, Seamus Finnigan, and Dean Thomas. All of the Hogwarts students always visited the Honeydukes, so as Harry thought, it could look suspicious if they would go straight to Flamel.
Though they didn't spend a lot of time in the sweet shop, they only helped Hermione choose the most suitable gift, because she insisted that upon visiting a dwelling, one must bring some kind of a treat. So they ended up buying a large, palm-width bar of the Honeydukes Best Chocolate, which Hermione had to shrink so that they could transport it properly.
As they exited the Honeydukes, there already was a swarm of Hogwarts students. The youngest ones were especially busy feeling excited over the very visit of this village and the older students didn't pay much attention to them, so they soon strolled to the edge of the Hogsmeade, where there could be seen high hills in the distance, but closer to them stood rather weird looking, round building as its cylindrical form stretched out of the ground. It was not as high as the house of Xenophilius Lovegood, but the resemblance was unmistakable.
As they approached, the young people noticed that the dark grey cylindrical building indeed looked like it had just been finished yesterday, and they had to walk over a half-finished path to access it. There was no lawn yet, only a field of mud was spreading around the building.
Looking at all of this, Ron said, "Looks like Flamel still has a lot to do here."
"Just let's go in, then we'll see what exactly he has managed to prepare until now," Harry said as they stopped by the dark brown wooden front door, and he knocked hard on it with his knuckles.
A moment later, they heard the footsteps approaching, and the door opened with no sound as it revealed their professor of Alchemy, Philip Flamel. The thin wizard's face showed a genuine smile as he said, "Oh, you did come! Then, please, you're welcome to come into my lab." The Professor then took a step sideways to let in all five of them.
They greeted him politely and Hermione gave the gift to the professor as she performed a spell to make the chocolate bar in its original size. He seemed pleasantly surprised about the present, but it was obvious Flamel was eager to show them his current achievement. For now, they were on the ground floor, which was very ascetically decorated. There were only a coffee-table and a few chairs around it, but the walls were just a grey concrete, and a few tiny windows let in the sunlight streaked with the shadows of the clouds in this room.
"Maybe let's get the ball rolling right away? What do you think about the visiting the laboratory?" the Professor asked, pointing to the stairs at the opposite side of the cylindrical room leading down. With a nod Luna was ready to go as well as the other of them, except Hermione, who still wanted to take a look on this room before going down to the actual laboratory floor.
"Miss Granger, I haven't had much time to decorate this floor. I focused mainly on the laboratory room, and I'll finish this waiting room some time later, just as the garden will have to wait until later," the professor told her.
"Please, be so kind and tell us, why the laboratory was built underground?" she asked.
"It's due to the security reasons. And if you recall what happened to Pandora, I think further questions in this regard are unnecessary. Making the Essence of Magic is a particularly high-risk experiment, so it's better for everyone if it's located as deep in the underground as possible," the professor explained, glancing at Luna, who was already eagerly standing by the stairs.
"Yes, of course, the safety comes first," Hermione said as she gave Flamel a bright smile. "Well, then let's go see the lab."
First went down Luna, then – Ron, Harry and Ginny, Professor Flamel, and last came Hermione. Harry noticed that his friend's gaze seemed unusually concentrated like she was citing some spell in her mind.
"Well, here's my lab," Flamel said as he waved his hands showing the room. "Miss Lovegood, does this resemble your mother's lab?"
Harry looked closely at the layout of the room. At first, he didn't even understand what he should actually look here at, because there were only two tables in the laboratory room – one was pushed to the wall of the room loaded with books and parchment sheets with some notes and there was a wooden chair with a cushion put askew next to the table, and the other table stood in the middle of the cylindrical room. It was narrow and tall; perhaps it was more like a small podium rather than a table. Harry thought this room was much smaller than the round room on the upper floor, but otherwise there were the same grey round concrete walls and a ridiculously ascetic decorating. Only the light came from the whole ceiling area, since there were no windows in this basement room.
"Um – basically, yes, only Mom had more space on her desks," Luna confirmed.
"On her own recommendation, I set up an observation place upstairs where we were just a moment ago. Because I suppose this was the exact cause of her death – that she was in the laboratory room during the experiment," Flamel explained. "In addition, the experiment could benefit if there were as few redundant objects as possible in the laboratory room."
"Professor, but I'm not really sure what's special about this lab?" Ginny spoke up. "There're only these two tables."
"Oh, an excellent question!" it seemed the professor have been looking forward to such a question. "Here, take a look at the wall here." He hurried to the round wall and pointed to small, dark openings with tiny lids on them. "Do you see these holes? The essence of this experiment lies in what's going on behind this particular wall. There're seven more wall sections with such holes. To start the experiment, we'll have to put in the initial charge of magic energy here, which will self-amplify by rotating in a circle around the laboratory room as it accelerates, and by adding amplifying and fastening Rite Chants it should be possible to obtain the Essence of Magic. The catchiest part is that this theoretically produced essence will continue to rotate with an insanely enormous velocity, and in order to use it, I'll have to release it out of the chamber protected by this barrier so it could be absorbed in some kind of a substrate. This barrier is also a significant security improvement, since Mrs. Lovegood had performed her experiments while physically standing next to the intensified vortex of magic."
After listening to what the professor had said and understanding it, the young people gazed around the room as they nodded.
"So you, Professor Flamel, had intended to carry out the very first experiment today?" Harry asked.
"That would be great," the professor replied. "But before we are getting on with this supposedly the most grandiose discoveries in the history, Harry, I want to give you back your Resurrection Stone. I've built the laboratory and the rest is now up to me." Flamel took the Stone encrusted on the ring out of his pocket and handed it to Harry, hesitating a bit. He gave the Stone one last longingly sad look while Harry put it in his pocket.
"And what exactly do you need to begin the experiment?" Hermione asked.
"Well, the experiment – yes," the professor's thoughts seemed to have strayed away for a moment, "if we want to experiment with the absorption of the Essence of Magic in some kind of substrate having magical powers, then we'll need this exact substance already containing magical powers," Flamel said as he raised an eyebrow towards Harry.
"So, I'll have to donate my blood, right?" he asked.
"That's right. However, in this way we can at least do it without cutting your heart out."
"Professor, may I ask you a question?" Hermione said hastily. "What exactly are you planning to do with your discovery?"
Flamel seemed confused for a moment at her question. "You know, Miss Granger, I can't even really answer you because I simply haven't thought about it. At the moment, I think the most important thing is to know whether the production of the Stone is really possible."
"Please, don't mistake my care for my friend for rudeness because I really don't want to be rude by any means, but you also know for sure that the pages of the history book of Alchemy contain quite a lot of rather bloody events. So if I'm not worrying so much about your exact intentions towards us and Harry, but what would other Alchemists do if your experiment will prove successful and they get to know about it? Could Harry feel safe after that?" Hermione asked him.
"You should be the least worried about this, because I do not intend to reveal the details of this secret to the public, but it's definitely in my interests to publish my findings in the Transfiguration Today. My intentions are only scientific," Flamel told her.
"This means you're not going to capture Harry, cut his heart out so you could live forever?" Ron asked with a little smirk.
"It's nothing like that, Mr. Weasley," Flamel laughed, and the other of them smiled. Only Hermione kept her face hard like stone.
"That's great," Harry said cheerfully. "So what exactly do you need me to do to begin the experiment?"
"It's very simple, I need your blood," Flamel explained. "But don't worry about it – I know it very well how to take blood from veins without inflicting any pain."
The professor dug a thin needle with a funnel at one end of it out of the huge mountain of papers and then took out a glass container from one of the desk drawers.
"Harry, please, be so kind and do sit here and free your arm from clothes to your elbow," the professor said as he pointed to a cushioned wooden chair at his desk. Harry did as the professor wished and placed his bare right arm on the corner of the table with his palm facing up.
"It shouldn't hurt much," Flamel said as he was touching veins inside Harry's elbow with his long thin fingers. "Please, tighten your fingers into a fist." Finally, he found a proper vein, so the older wizard carefully inserted the needle into Harry's vein, and the liquid red blood started to flow into it as he placed the container under the funnel. It was soon full and the professor removed the needle from the young man's vein and right away healed the small wound with his wand.
Professor Flamel raised the glass full of blood up to his eyes and said, looking at it, "Well, then let's see what will happen with this." The wizard then carried the freshly drained blood to the table in the middle of the room and carefully placed the vessel there. He waved his wand, and the desk loaded with papers disappeared.
"Now, I'll have to ask you to climb back upstairs again. I'll put a bit of my magic power into the accelerator, but then for safety reasons, we are going to run the experiment from above," the professor explained as he approached some of the openings in the wall and inserted his wand into one of the holes.
Meanwhile, they climbed to the upper floor, and were soon followed by Professor Flamel, who crossed the room to the desk loaded with papers that had now appeared on the ground floor. The five friends, on the other hand, took their seats on the chairs around the coffee-table.
"So, let's begin it!" the professor said as he glanced at the young people, then he turned his wand to the floor and its middle part became transparent so everyone could see what was going on in the laboratory room on the lower floor. They felt lucky that they were sitting on their chairs close to the wall where the floor remained as it was – thick, opaque concrete – otherwise Harry was sure his heart would have jumped out of his mouth if the floor had suddenly faded under his feet. However, this fact didn't frighten Flamel at all. He placed his steps forward confidently, seemingly walking over empty air as he began to cite some spells softly, and at the bottom of the building, there started a low sound, increasing with each moment. And the louder the walls of the laboratory were, the more they seemed to see a pale bluish light shining behind the tiny lids on the narrow openings in the walls.
Professor Flamel was performing his spells for a rather long time, until they felt the sound, which at first seemed to come only from the walls, now humming all around them or it seemed even coming out from their insides. When the unbearable whizzing had overwhelmed their hearing in their ears, the professor whipped his wand and opened the tiny lids that held the vortex of magic behind the laboratory wall, and the accelerated essence of magic swirled to the vessel with blood in the centre of the laboratory while emitting a blue-white light.
The blood shone in the same pale bluish light as it gathered in the vessel soon, but a moment later the light went out. Barely holding his excitement, Professor Flamel summoned the blood vessel on the upper floor on his palm, and then he transfigured the floor back into grey concrete. He quickly hurried to the table the young people were sitting by and placed the vessel of Harry's blood freshly crafted with spells on top of it.
"Let's see what we have there now," the professor said anxiously as he pulled a small flask out of the pocket of his robes. "I've already prepared the Essence of the Four Elements in advance; it has yet to be added to the blood, and then we could see if we have succeeded and produced something useful."
The vessel of blood glowed with a dark red dim, but it was obvious it was still very liquid. The professor removed the cap of the flask containing the extract of magic elements and brought it closer to the glass of blood. Then slowly and with great care, he began to pour it into the blood vessel while casting a spell and, with circling his wand, he made the charmed liquid blood to rotate so that the whole fluid would mix evenly. Slowly and cautiously, he had managed to connect all the essences of magic, and Harry noticed that now the vessel wasn't containing such a liquid substance anymore as it had become much thicker. Besides, he remembered quite well the moment he had seen such a substance before, even though it had been eight years ago – now there in the vessel was a thick, dark blood-red substance having here and there a yellow-orange glow. It seemed that Professor Flamel had indeed made the Philosopher's Stone.
However, the result of the experiment wasn't as perfect as it seemed at first. When the professor overturned the original glass of blood upside down, a heavy and hard stone didn't fall out of it as they had expected, but instead a thick, lumpy powder spilled out. But at least it looked similar to the substance of the Philosopher's Stone, although it seemed somehow dull and blank. Harry thought that the Philosopher's Stone he had managed to get out of the Mirror of Erised had looked darker red, glittering more intensely on its fine edges of the hard stone.
Flamel also frowned upon seeing the powder spilled out as he wasn't pleased with such a result of this experiment, but the professor soon regained his quick mind.
"Hm, we've produced a powder," Flamel was surprised at first. "But if I think about it more – the blood is liquid, then it's no big wonder that we've got powder instead of a stone. The most important thing is to see what properties it now has," the professor added as he made a conclusion with a greater enthusiasm.
He took out a large iron nail from his pocket and showed it to them. "Let's try – as I call it – the classic test. Let's transfigure the nail into gold and see what will happen when we treat it with this wondrous powder we just got."
The professor touched the head of the nail with his wand and began to cite:
"Here you are the nail so bold,
Now I give you the edge of gold."
Then Flamel slowly moved his wand along the nail, and the part of the nail touched by the wand turned into pure gold, until the professor stopped the wand in the middle of the nail so that it was half-turned into gold, but the other half was still iron.
Harry watched Flamel casting the spell, but he found it strange. In Transfiguration classes, they were always transfiguring or vanishing the whole object, never working deliberately with only a part of it.
"Professor, did you just…" sounded Hermione's voice in amazement. He looked at her and saw her eyes were wide in surprise.
"That's right, Miss Granger," Flamel said as he grinned at Hermione like having read her mind. "It was a partial transfiguration."
"I didn't know it was really possible. Professor Switch only mentioned to us once that such spells are theoretically possible," she said in admiration.
"I have to admit it was exactly Professor Switch who published his article on the theoretical possibility of partial transfiguration a few years ago, but Mundol Madweek and his team just recently proved its possibility experimentally. However, this type of transfiguration is very impractical since when using the basic spells it lasts only a few minutes, but by amplifying the transfiguration spell, its effect cannot be sustained for more than several hours. In their article, they said the longest time their transfiguration spell did last until it faded was seven hours, if I recall it correctly."
"Professor, but that in turn means that this kind of transfiguration is going to be especially useful for us right now, isn't it?" Luna asked nonchalantly.
"That's right, Miss Lovegood, because then we won't have to wait for that long. Since you're the students of N.E.W.T. year you already know that the usual transfiguration spells usually lasts for at least a day, typically several days to a week," the professor said as he smiled at the blonde girl.
"So, now we put the powder on the transfigured part of the nail," Philip Flamel excitedly commented on his actions as he took a pinch of blood red powder with his fingers, "and let's see what will happen in five minutes. As far as I have tried the partial transfiguration, I haven't been able to sustain the spell for more than ten minutes."
The professor poured his experimental powder over the nail. It seemed like it was glowing as it soaked into the gold part of the nail. Everyone was holding their breath while waiting for what would happen in the next five minutes – would the nail stay the same or turn back to iron?
Five minutes passed, which Hermione announced loudly, but the nail remained as it was – half gold, half iron. They waited another ten minutes to be sure, but even then nothing did change in the appearance of the nail.
"It seems the transfiguration is preserved on the nail," the professor said cheerfully. "It's amazing, it's amazing! I think we could use the chocolate you brought as a treat for such a happy event. I'm sorry I've been so negligent of your visit so I can't offer you anything tastier than fresh spring water."
"Oh, that's fine, I like fresh water," Luna replied as the professor unpacked the chocolate bar they gave him and broke it into a lot of pieces, and each of them initially took one of them. Then Flamel conjured up the glasses of water and raised his own, wanting to make a toast.
"Cheers, my dear students, today we've made a remarkable discovery. A discovery the Alchemists had been trying to succeed for centuries, even thousands of years! And we did it today, in such a short time!" the professor said excitedly and they all drank a sip of water.
"That's amazing, of course, but could you tell me, please, Professor Flamel, now when the Stone had been produced, what are your intentions with it?" Hermione asked without hesitation.
The professor gave her a thoughtful look. "As I told you before, I've never really thought about what to do with the Stone, because I've always been only interested in the possibility whether it could be made at all."
"So you have no selfish interest in living forever or having endless mountains of gold at all?" she inquired him further on the verge of sounding rude. But it seemed that Professor didn't feel offended by Hermione's questions and simply answered them.
"Speaking of immortality, I don't feel so old yet that I should start worrying about my death," the professor said with a laugh, "and I'm even less interested in the mountains of gold because I really am Flamel and as you already know, my grand-grand-grand and many much more grand-father Nicolas Flamel had the true Philosopher's Stone and all of the opportunities to make as much gold for his family as he desired."
"But what are you going to do with it then? You aren't just going to keep it in the cupboard in a cabinet behind a glass door for just looking at it?" Harry asked also feeling interested about this.
"You know, this seems the most likely opportunity for me at this exact moment," Flamel said with a happy laugh.
"Professor, what do you think – could the Philosopher's Stone powder also help to cure the body… imperfections?" Ron asked as he hesitated a second over the last word. "If the Stone is able to fasten the transfiguration spells and also gives immortality, it should help heeling other damages, too."
"You're right, Mr. Weasley," Flamel confirmed. But then he seemed a little confused, "But why did you think about it? Such young people as you don't need to worry about –" Then the professor stopped as Ron made a quick glance at Hermione and Flamel understood why Ron had asked such a question.
"The accident at the Room of Requirement did leave some marks on your face, didn't it, Miss Granger?" Flamel asked, turned to the girl. "However, you look very good right now."
"Thank you for the compliment," she said, giving the wizard a sad smile. "But this effect for my appearance at the moment is due to the ointment from the Malfoy pharmacy. Without it, I would have to wear a scarf every day to hide my burn scars. Though, I have to reapply the cosmetic cream every morning, and in quite a thick layer of it."
"Then it seems we have found a use for this powder! Miss Granger, you definitely need to try what our today's experiment result is capable of. As far as I know, the Philosopher's Stone cannot sustain the transfiguration of biological substances permanently, but it should last much longer than one day. The approximate duration of its exposure would rather be one year."
"Thank you, Professor Flamel," Hermione said politely.
"O-o," suddenly sounded Ginny's voice next to him. Harry looked at her, but didn't understand why she had said that.
"What's the matter?" Ron asked, looking at his sister, too.
"It's the nail," she simply stated, pointing her finger at the sharp metal object that was lying on the table.
"O-o," Flamel gloomily agreed, looking at the nail as well, which was no longer half gold, but only made of iron now.
"So the powder didn't work," Ron concluded reluctantly. "This transfiguration wasn't permanent."
"Yes and no. The transfiguration indeed wasn't permanent," Flamel said. "However, it was more sustainable than if we hadn't put the powder on the nail at all."
"And what exactly does that mean?" Luna asked.
"It means the magical energy wasn't strong or concentrated enough," Flamel explained. "And it means, Harry, that I must ask you to donate more blood for me."
On their way back, they discussed what they had just experienced, feeling sorry that the experiment had failed. Harry felt a little bit dizzy, because Flamel had drained practically a whole bucket of blood from his veins, hoping to obtain a full-fledged Philosopher's Stone soon. As the professor repeated to them over and over again, "I just have to find where the energy losses are, and then we'll get the Philosopher's Stone. If I succeed, I promise to tell you it right away."
Though, they didn't receive the message from Flamel they were expecting nor that night neither the next day. It was an obvious conclusion that the work with the experiment wasn't as smooth as the professor had hoped. It was Wednesday when, as usual, there was the double Alchemy lesson in the morning. Standing at the closed door of Alchemy classroom, Harry looked at his wristwatch. It said it was already ten past nine – always punctual Professor Flamel was indeed ten minutes late. Malfoy had already started pacing restlessly, not actually knowing what to do as it was his responsibility to deal with this situation since he was the Head Boy. And Harry could understand his anxiety perfectly, because this was one of the extremely rare cases when a professor was missing at the beginning of the class, and no one really knew what to do.
"Let's wait for another ten minutes. If Flamel won't arrive then, I'll go and report it to McGonagall," Draco Malfoy finally decided.
Ten minutes passed like a few seconds, while they were having conversations, chatting and laughing, but there was no sign of the professor yet. Malfoy already announced that he was going to McGonagall, but as soon as he was about to leave his classmates, Professor Flamel rushed to them with quick steps.
"Good morning, good morning everyone! I'm very sorry for being so late. Come in now," the professor said as he waved his wand opening the door of the classroom. Harry was used to always see him properly dressed and groomed, but this morning he looked like having sweat on his forehead due to running and, most of all, exhausted to the verge of complete energy loss. There were bold dark circles under the professor's squared glasses. One could guess the Alchemy teacher hadn't slept at all since their Saturday visit.
"I'm sorry for I'm so distracted, but today you're going to have a self-learning class. What did we learn when the last theoretical lesson ended?" Flamel asked his students as soon as he took his seat at the teacher's desk.
"We learned about the effects of magic elements on living organisms," Astoria Greengrass replied.
"Oh yes, right. Then do reread the things you learned in the last lesson and read on further about the subjects we didn't have time to dwell on," the professor gave them task almost carelessly and added, "Just be quiet!" Then the teacher took out a ridiculously small suitcase which regained its usual shape, when he tapped his wand at it. Flamel opened it and took out a huge pile of parchment sheets, which were scribbled all over with writings and drawings. Then he found some of the sheets he was looking for and he turned all of his attention to his work, barely noticing what was going on around him. Apparently the professor's mind was focused fully on his laboratory experiment.
Harry had wanted to tell Hermione about it this evening, but obviously she didn't want to hear about it at all.
"Harry, have you taken a look at the calendar?" she said tiredly as she raised her gaze above her book at the flames of the fireplace – they were used that the first-years considered it's practically their duty to provide their idols with the best seats by the fireplace.
"Of course, I am. Today is the nineteenth of May, but I'm sure you meant something else than date, didn't you?" Harry replied giving her a knowing look, while sitting on the couch having stretched his hand behind Ginny's back.
Hermione gave him a reprehensible gaze as if saying of-course-I-didn't-mean-the-date. "There's only less than three weeks left until the N.E.W.T. exams! And we have to be prepared for all of them. My grades are getting worse at Professor Vector's class – she says I'm portraying my Arithmancy homework in too gloomy colours so she can't give a maximum score for such a theatricalism. But such are the results according to my calculations; I can't forecast something that's not there. But who knows what the examiner will think about such calculations. And in the Ancient Runes, it seems that Professor Babbling has forgotten about the fact the exams are approaching at all, she's not giving any additional work. We have practically no homework at all! And I'm not even mentioning the Dawlish classes, where I'm not always able to cast the Patronus with my first try. And if Slughorn wants us to learn the –"
"Calm down, Hermione," Ron said soothingly as he interrupted her monologue.
"Of course, we need to prepare for our N.E.W.T. exams," Harry said, though he had decided to do nothing tonight after finishing his homework to Switch's class tomorrow, "but are you really that worried about your studies? It's not the first time we'll have exams."
Hermione sighed hard. "Harry, have you taken a look at the calendar?" she repeated clearly and calmly.
Harry suddenly felt the ominous feeling of her question as a cold chill ran down his spine. This was the exact reason why he had come to Hogwarts – in order to learn what had really happened to the Voldemort's Horcruxes, and Hermione was absolutely right about the fact that there were only three weeks left to the N.E.W.T. exams, but his task of finding the Ravenclaw's Diadem hadn't progressed not even a tiny bit. Noticing her friend's thoughtful mood, Hermione turned her attention back to her Numerology book.
There's not much time left, but what have they actually achieved here? Absolutely nothing. We've just wasted our time gaining absolutely and utterly nothing, Harry thought bitterly. Besides, even if Flamel succeeded in making the Philosopher's Stone powder, it didn't guarantee they would be able to get any closer to the Diadem. They had searched every last corner of the Hogwarts castle, they had tried every possible spell, but they hadn't been able to get anything more than the confirmation that the Diadem really should be somewhere here. In short, the situation seemed hopeless. They had some solace lately by diligently preparing for the exams, but it was a little consolation to Harry. And tonight he had decided to relax. How silly of him. Probably that's why Hermione was so overwhelmed with her studies this year, because at least it made her feel busy, as if she was doing something useful like it was an excuse not to think about their failures in searching for the Diadem.
Ginny seemed to feel his bad mood and she rubbed his thigh as she lifted her gaze from her copy of A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration. "We still have a little bit time left. Who knows, maybe some certain things need to happen for something to move on."
"It may be, but now we aren't getting anywhere and there are no more ideas left to check either," he said bitterly.
Though, two days later on Friday afternoon after Dawlish's class, it turned out Ginny was more right. A tawny owl had found Harry in the hallway and left him a note with a small, tied bag.
"At last I managed to reduce the losses of the magical energy! To express my gratitude, Harry, I'm sending you the first successful result of the powder. Give my greetings to Miss Granger.
P. Flamel"