I apologize for the delay, missing Saturday like that. Between the new semester of classes starting up and Silksong coming out, I was giving myself no time to write.
(Word Count: 1,694)
Harry poured over all of the books the elves brought him. He flipped the page, glanced at both pages, then flipped to the next page. Then repeated that until he went through all of the books.
When he was done with those, which didn't take him very long, Harry went to the library.
Including the standard books on alchemy he already had, he found several more books on the three primes (salt, sulphur, and mercury), and the four elements (fire, earth, air, and water), then several more books on different elements and metals and their uses. In the restricted section, he found more books on cursebreaking, and counter-curses. He did the same speed reading on these books as well.
Firstly, it seemed that the introductory levels of alchemy was essentially just chemistry. The goal was to gain a proper understanding of what exactly things were made of at their fundamental levels. Then, with that knowledge, learn how to change it to something else. The difference came from the fact that this magical chemistry also took into account the metaphysical "nature" of something. That was a key term.
This is something they saw a lot of in transfiguration. Things like "stubborness," or "visciousness". Since transfiguration couldn't change the fundamental natures of things, they had to work around them.
For example, take a porcupine. He could transfigure it into a pincushion, but he couldn't change the fact that it is a porcupine. It's why if he failed to do the spell properly, the pincushion would flinch and cry whenever he stuck a needle in it. The fundamental nature of "porcupine" was still there. It's why when he broke the transfiguration, it would always revert back into a porcupine.
Another example would be a stone. Stones sit heavy. They don't like to move and resist change. This makes them "stubborn," a key factor of the earth element.
Then there was something called "learned natures". These were traits that things gained overtime based on its history. Things like "loves the sun" or "darkness" or "hidden" or even "light" or "wavy."
For example, a stone found at the top of the mountain and a stone found at the bottom of the lake carry the same fundamental nature of "earth" and "stone," but their learned natures are different. The stone found at the top of the mountain would have things like "heights," and "majesty," and even "sky." While the stone found at the bottom of the lake would have things like "deep," and "dark," and even "wet."
A proper alchemist would be able to bring out these natures to enhance whatever final project they were making. The lakebed stones would be better used in making, say, a hidden wall or doorway. The "dark" nature the stones remember would lend themselves to be more receptive to illusion spells to keep them from being seen. Meanwhile, the stones from the mountain tops could be better used for the tops of towers to keep the tops lighter than they really were, or maybe as an elevator because the stones want to go "high." Or even the "majesty" part of the stones would be useful in making an enchanted throne, or anything they want to have a certain presence to it, in a similar way that mountains inspire awe.
Why do things have these innate natures? It all comes down to the idea that "magic remembers."
This is the main reason wandmakers, which use alchemy in making wands, hate using young trees. The older the trees, the more it "remembers". The learned natures could be anywhere from "loving" to "vicious" to "stubborn." This combined with the properties of the core gives each wand unique personalities.
It's why ghosts mostly appear in older buildings, because the building "remembers" having people in it, it gains a learned nature of being "habitable," which makes it easier for the ghosts of the dead to stay in them.
Alchemy was all about changing, manipulating, extracting, strengthening, weakening, and infusing these natures.
There were several techniques to do this. The first one to learn was distillation, the process of extracting the pure essence of something. The most used example was the essence of dittany. Then there was congelation, the process of crystallizing these essences to make magic stones. Infusion is the process of infusing essences into a new item. Multiplication strengthens natures and the effects of artifacts and elixirs. Fixation makes the effects permanent.
There were two major fields in alchemy. The first was transmutation, closely related to transfiguration. It transmutes the target into something else via alchemical sigils and ritual. This is used to create magical artifacts, the primary craft being wands. The second was making elixirs, closely related to potioneering. Elixirs are essentially just potions brewed with essences that have permanent effects.
The darker books Harry found described how to use ingredients from living creatures and people. How to extract properties from blood, flesh, and bone. Interestingly enough, the black leather book from the Black library that had no title actually described the process of creating inferi. The process was the most foul and evil thing he had ever read, but it was at least insightful in learning how to infuse essences into a body. Perhaps one day he would learn how to do it to a living body. Maybe that was the key to enhancement rituals, though honestly they might already be a thing. He would have to actually study up on rituals to find out.
Having pondered enough about Alchemy, he moved on to what he learned about curse breaking. Specifically, what he could do about the trigger spell. Essentially what he learned was that he couldn't do anything to remove it. That was the exact thing that would set it off. In all the cases where this type of trap was used to protect something, cursebreakers would try to learn what the curse would be once set off and find the counter-curse. Then they would intentionally set it off at a safe distance. If it still managed to get someone, they would have the counter-curse ready.
So that left Harry having to find the counter-curse for whatever noxious cloud curse was on the stone.
By the time he was finished reading everything, it was already time for lunch. He made his way to the great hall. Harry found his friends already sitting at the Gryffindor's table so he went to join them. He sat at Hermione's side. Neville was across from them, but Ron was sitting farther away on the other side of Sean and Dean. Ron noticed him sitting down and glared, before turning away from him to ignore him.
It looks like he hasn't forgiven him yet. He probably won't before they have to leave for home. That was fine with Harry, but he hoped that Ron didn't estrange the rest of the Weasley's from him. They were good people.
"Hey guys," Harry said as he sat.
"Harry!" Hermione smiled and gave him a side hug. "Where've you been? We've looked everywhere for you."
"I was in Dumbledore's office, studying the you-know-what," Harry said.
"You actually got permission to study it!" Hermione gaped. "No way!"
"Yes way!" Harry grinned.
"Ugh! I'm happy for you, but I'm so jealous!" Hermione groaned, "Can I look through your notes?"
"Sure."
"So… I know it was special permission from Fla—*ahem* Well, you know… but can we at least take a look at it?" Neville asked nervously. "It'd be a shame to go through all of that and not even be able to see the Sto—*ahem* you know."
"Oh! Yes, we didn't get to see it last night!" Hermione perked up.
"I'll ask Dumbledore, but I don't see a reason why not," Harry said.
"What are you guys talking about? See what?" Padma looked over curiously.
They all froze, and turned to look at her.
"U-um! It's nothing!" Hermione said in a panic, "Just some extracurricular studying!"
Padma didn't look like she believed it, but didn't press. "Uh-huh. Anyway, testing yesterday was brutal, but I think I got through it with some pretty good scores thanks to you, Hermione, Harry. Thanks for all the help this year in our study group."
Hermione blushed a bit. She still wasn't very good at accepting praise. "Oh, yeah, it was no problem at all!"
"Are we going to continue with the study group next year as well?" Padma asked.
"Of course," Harry said.
From there, the conversation moved on to normal things and soon enough lunch was over.
"Hey Harry!"
As Harry was leaving the great hall, he was caught by Fred and George. They didn't appear to be angry with him, so Ron must not have told them about what happened yet. They pulled him aside to talk.
"What's going on between you and Ronnie?" Fred asked.
"Yeah, what did Ron do this time?" George asked.
Harry sighed, "Well, it's like this…"
He put up a muffliato and went ahead and explained everything that happened last night. They kept the fight in the forbidden forest a secret, so he felt no problem telling them about the events. They were pretty cool like that.
When he was done explaining things from his perspective, Fred and George shared a look.
"That's…" One started.
"...Pretty serious," the other finished.
"Yeah, I know. Believe me when I say I did urge him to play a lot more games against Ravenclaw students throughout the year. By last night I had honestly believed that it was enough so Ron wouldn't have had to do that. Ron won't listen to me though. He is, quite understandably, too mad at me to listen," Harry said somewhat glumly.
"We trust you, Harry," George said.
"Besides, you saved our lives. It'd be pretty crummy of you to then turn around and try to kill our brother," Fred said.
Seeing they believed him, Harry gave a relieved smile. "Thanks, guys."
"We'll talk to our brother, Harry. See you around!" With that, they departed.
Harry made his way up to the Room of Requirement. He had spent all morning studying, and now it was time to put it to practice.