Silksong is out! Super excited to play it.
(Word Count: 1,819)
That night, Harry had no trouble sleeping. The whole situation with Ron had drained him a lot, so he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Early the next morning, he put aside his troubles with Ron and bolted to Dumbledore's office first thing. He could skip breakfast if it meant more time with the Philosopher's Stone.
He raced all the way to the gargoyle staircase, "Triple chocolate brownie!" and entered the office.
Dumbledore was there, sipping at some tea, and seemed to be going over some paperwork. He looked up as he entered.
"Ah, Harry. You're rather early. I wasn't expecting you until after breakfast," Dumbledore said politely.
"I didn't want to waste any time, sir," Harry said, rubbing his hands together. "Well? Where's the stone?"
"It's good that you're excited, my boy, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. Neither you nor I were the first to examine the stone. There were many others over the years and none of them were able to glean any secrets from it. None of them were able to use it successfully to brew the fabled elixir of life. It's why Flamel's so confident to let you take your turn before it's destroyed," Dumbledore said, but he stood up and walked over to the sorting hat on the shelf, which grumbled at being moved, and pulled out the stone from inside.
"Here you are!" He placed the stone in Harry's hands. "This stone doesn't leave this office, but otherwise, you're free to try to investigate however you wish."
"Yes, thank you," Harry said, his mind already tuning out anything else Dumbledore may have said. 'Finally, the Philosopher's Stone! Now, where to start?'
To start with, Harry casted a simple detection charm on it. 'Revelio Incantatem!'
The spell gave off the readings of several spell enchantments layered onto it. Beneath what he could sense clearly, were traces of some curses, but they were too hidden by everything layered above it.
When enchanting an object, there were two ways to go about it. The first way, which was generally considered to be more difficult and more expensive, was to use runes or inscribed sigils. The second way was to simply cast spells onto the object. There were pros and cons to both. Runes were harder, but they lasted a longer time. Spells were far quicker and easier, but they were also easier to dispel. Both ways would last longer if used alongside magical materials, like the demiguise fur for invisibility cloaks.
For enchanting with spells, one had to cast spells one at a time, layering the spells on top of each other. This could cause some interactions between them, so one has to be careful about what kinds of spells are being used together.
When detecting these kinds of enchantments, it was always easier to work outside in. The more spells layered over it, the harder it was to get clear readings, and the harder it was to target or manipulate it.
For the readings from the stone, the top-most enchantment was a simple Fianto Duri, meant to strengthen the unbreakable charm underneath. Underneath that, the third layer, was a tracking charm. Three layers was generally as far as he could get before the readings become too fuzzy. But Harry got the feeling it was some sort of intent based trigger. Underneath that, he had no idea, but it felt dark, like a curse. It was too obscured to tell anything else aside from that.
'Okay, so obviously the trigger would set off the curse, but what sets off the trigger?' Harry thought.
"Hey, Professor," Harry called over to Dumbledore, who had resumed his paperwork. "Do you know anything about these enchantments on the stone? Did you put them, or did Flamel?"
Dumbledore looked over his glasses at him. "Flamel did. They've been there for years now. What did you find?"
Harry explained the insights he had gleaned so far about the spells on it, to which Dumbledore looked pleased.
"To be able to get readings three layers deep, that's quite impressive for someone your age. Yes, you're correct, the next layer is a trigger. It will trigger if you try to dispel any of the enchantments on the stone. The curse underneath that will release a noxious cloud that will kill everyone in the room."
Harry's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "That doesn't sound very good."
"No, it doesn't," Dumbledore said a little too cheerfully. He raised his teapot. "Tea?"
"Um… yes, please."
Putting all of that aside, Harry moved on to the practical stuff. He took a sip of his tea and raised the stone in one of his hands. He wanted to try using the stone to "bend" some of the rules of transfiguration. He didn't know any alchemy to test anything out, so for now he was stuck trying the transfiguration side of things. Still, for now that was plenty.
He channeled some of his magic through the stone and, just like before, it seemed to wake up. It glowed with its own magic, which coiled around his own power. With the stone as his focus, he conjured a small mouse onto the desk.
Normally, a transfigured or conjured animal wouldn't actually be alive. It was merely a construct of magic, based around the idea of what you conjured. It would act and feel convincingly, but ultimately, it would dispel when something damaged it. That was one of Gamp's Laws of Transfiguration. You couldn't conjure life or soul.
Harry picked up the mouse and cast a small Diffindo across its back. It wasn't powerful enough to kill it if it was alive, but it was sufficient to break the spell if it was a simple construct.
The mouse dispelled back into nothing.
Harry frowned in thought. 'How do I bend the laws then? Or did I just try too much?'
"May I ask what you're attempting to test?" Dumbledore asked curiously.
"I wanted to see if I could use the stone to get around Gamp's Laws of Transfiguration," Harry said.
"I've never seen someone try transfiguration with the stone before. What led you to try that?" Dumbledore stroked his beard.
"Well, from what I know about alchemy, it's a sort of combination of transfiguration, potions, and ritualism. I don't really know too much about alchemy itself, so I thought I'd give transfiguration a try," Harry explained.
"So you thought to try to conjure a living mouse?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.
"It was the best idea I had… I suppose I can try conjuring food," Harry said, and raised the stone again, this time conjuring a plate of warm biscuits to go with their tea. Conjuring food was Gamp's First Law. You could replicate food, like Jesus, but you couldn't create it out of nothing. Normally, eating conjured food would cause some serious problems in your body. The only exception to this was conjuring water.
Harry broke one of the biscuits apart. "You think it's safe to eat? It is breaking apart and holding up."
Dumbledore picked up one for himself, breaking it apart and rubbing some crumbs between his fingers. He hummed thoughtfully. Then popped a piece in his mouth.
"Mmmm, these are rather tasty!" Dumbledore bit into the other piece, "Yes, I believe these are safe to eat. Amazing! Well done, Harry! This does explain some things from when I've visited the Flamels' home before."
"So I can conjure food, but I can't conjure a living mouse," Harry muttered. 'Well, the system did say it allows us to bend the rules, not ignore them.'
"I wonder why no tales appeared of Flamel being able to conjure food. All anyone talks about is the gold and elixir," He mused.
"Ah, yes. Gold and immortality, two of life's great motivators! It's no wonder why the tales focus on such lofty pursuits," Dumbledore said.
Harry spent the next few hours testing out different transfigurations to see exactly what he can do with it. Ultimately, there wasn't much else he could do with it.
'Man, I really should have studied some Alchemy beforehand at least,' Harry thought as he left the office.
He made his way back to his room. No one else was here, as everyone else was outside enjoying being free from classes. He flopped down onto his bed and called for Tripsy. "Tripsy!"
The old elf popped into the room, landing right on top of the bed beside him. "Young Master Harry, Sir! How can Tripsy help?"
"Hello, Tripsy, how are you?" Harry asked politely.
"Oh," Tripsy gushed, pulling at her ears, "Tripsy's doing well, Young Master Harry, Sir! Tripsy just wishes The young master returns soon!"
"I will soon, we'll be returning in a week. Tripsy, could you pop over to the Black library and fetch some books for me? I want everything we have on Alchemy, on curse breaking, and getting around an intent-based trigger ward. Also, I want you to look for any book about a noxious cloud curse. Please get Kreacher to help you as well."
"Yes, Young Master! Right away!"
As much as he'd like to purchase new books to fill in his own personal library, he didn't have the luxury of time at the moment. So might as well use the library he had on hand. He'll also go down to the Hogwart's library to see if there's any extra books beyond what Tripsy will bring. It is the largest magical library in Britain after all. In the world, it's second only to the library in Uagadou.
Tripsy and Kreacher popped in a few minutes later bringing a stack of books each. It was nearly 20 books total. "Here's your books, Young Master Harry!"
"Thank you, Tripsy, Kreacher," Harry rolled out of bed again and moved the books into his trunk for his personal study, giving the titles a brief look over.
There were some that sounded like common alchemy books: Component Interactions in Practical Alchemy; The Essential Essence: Extraction, Distillation, and Elixirs; and The Seven Planetary Metals.
Then there were some that definitely belonged in the Black library, portraying the dark side of alchemy, Nocturnum Elementa and Salt and Sacrifice. Then there was one book with a blank cover, bound in black leather.
"We's be off! Call us again if Young Master needs anything!" Tripsy said, and the two elves popped away.
Well, time for studying. Harry climbed down into his trunk and sat at his desk.
It was obvious that he needed to destroy the Philosopher's Stone, and to do that, he needed to get past that unbreakable charm. Meaning he needed to get around that trigger. As for how he'd actually destroy it, he had no idea yet. Hopefully it would suffice to just smash the thing once the charms are gone, but Harry had no hope for that.
This week's going to be a long one.