–– Clara POV ––
The little girl, busting into my life due to still unknown reasons and still, after months, her name remained exactly that, unknown to me. I was not asking, she not taking the initiative to tell. As madam Maxima took attendance, I heard her name for the very first time: „Gabrielle Delacour, there you are", the half-giant dotingly said.
As we were lead into the carriage, I was surprised at the wards and enchantments, the inside having more than enough rooms for individual arrangements for everyone. Most of the Beauxbutton students went to sleep, Hogwarts students staying up all night, looking out of their rooms windows or chatting in the common room. I explored the openly available section of the carriage a bit, before searching for a silent position, bringing Mosaic out of his aquarium, looking out of the carriage windows as we slowly ascended into the evening sky, flying parallel to a beautiful sunset.
As sunrise dawned, Gabrielle appeared next to me: „Found you", she grinned: „At least you are not locked into your room like in Hogwarts. A nice change of pace, don't you think? And a nice sunrise on top, we are lucky", she smiled even more brightly, looking out of the window with tiredness vanishing from her face, explaining: „Normally it is all cloudy and murky. The weather is quite unpredictable here, even seers sometimes failing to keep up with its whims", she mused.
Until the carriage lightly landet on a cobblestone plaza, we sat there in mutual silence, admiring the passing landscapes, ocean's still faintly viewable in the far off distance. We sat on the wrong side of the carriage, so we did not see the school while landing, so as I stepped out of the carriages gates who functioned as really big doors due to madam Maxime's stature, I saw it for the first time. It was different from Hogwarts, feeling way more peaceful, the defensive wards impressive but mostly inactive except the standard muggle repelling ones. The school felt like a huge marble block was masterfully sculpted to resemble old roman architecture with huge arches, pillars and corridors, looking more like multiple different buildings instead of one concurrent building. Onto the walls were carved detailed depictions of multiple historic happenings, masterfully written hymns and so much more I did not see from my vantage point, while in some alcoves contained lifelike statues of creatures, humans and other non-living things, a relatively huge park right next to the plaza, containing multiple, equally as gorgeous, fountains, a huge crowd having formed in the park, everyone trying to get the first look onto the new students, their interest only stopped by common curtesy.
Contrary to Hogwarts, they had no houses, which meant that there were only two dorms, only separated by gender, everyone having own rooms, the buildings similarly expanded as the carriage. Allocating accommodations finished very fast that way, a tour of the school following. The different lecture halls, dining halls, hobby rooms and any other major places of interest, leaving us more than enough to explore on our own. The greenhouses were exceptionally interesting, housing several rare plants, one of the few I could spot even having sentience and probably the guardian of these gardens.
Due to this, after being left to our own devices, I went to that specific greenhouse again, trying to communicate with the sentient plant. It could not respond physically I realized, trying a mental thread followed by legilimency, both infused with a peaceful intent. I got a vague answer from the tree at my last try, which was interrupted by a student, hopefully not majoring in herbology: „He is not able to communicate yet, though he helps the whole greenhouse thrive through his presence." I answered in fluid french: „Wrong and it is a her not he, though with plants that is difficult to tell. You should try to communicate with legilimency. It can consciously send you thoughts, feelings and even some fragmented words, though those made no sense. And even without, you can tell its mood on its leaves, bark, roots and so many more small details. It is an extremely slow and difficult method for communication yes, but it works wonders. I myself am sadly not yet qualified enough to try that, but I know two people who can do that, though they do not own any sentient plants, yet anyway", I mused , before promptly leaving the student behind, not wanting to waste time on him. He was probably there to watch and if needed protect me from anything harmful in this school, but it was a damn school, so maybe just to be a translator in difficult situations. Anyway, I did not notice him again after that.
Next stop was the library, where I spent the rest of the day and night. There were many books, much more modern and forward thinking than previously at Hogwarts. The design of the library was immaculate, not a single sound to be heard except the flipping of pages. Sadly they did not have any more advanced books than Hogwarts, maybe all checked out though, so who knows?
The next morning in the morning, I left the library, passing a surprised librarian who was on his morning rounds around the library. Today's breakfast was bacon and eggs with freshly baked bread, a lot of different and a bit exotic marmalades offered as well, before I went to my first potions lesson. I was lucky really, as the students of Beauxbuttons normally had ten hour days, letting them enjoy lesson free weekends.
The lesson started, only Harry Potter and myself attending from Hogwarts delegation. He spoke surprisingly well french, so I asked him about it in french: „When did you learn french?", only getting a short answer: „Godfather taught me, something about needing to at least speak some other languages than english and learning was kind of fun. How about you?" He returned the question: „I was bored, learned mostly through reading and phonetic language", not disclosing my mastery of hundreds of other languages.
The lesson started with a question from the professor, first about our ability to speak english, followed by an introduction in french: „Good morning to you then, I am professor Melina, teaching the NEWT classes in potions. You are both pretty young, so I hope you can keep up. Just to know your qualifications: In how many different ways can you brew a cure for boils?" she asked. Harry Potter just flashed his potion mastery emblem, slightly shocking her, before I answered: „I can brew it in at least thirty seven different ways, but I am pretty sure that there are more". She looked quite perplexed, before asking: „And how do you get to that answer and notion?"she demanded to know, so I explained: „Well I have brewed it in thirty seven variation, all coming to the same end result with the same materials. The notion that there are other variations out there is quite simply, that I know of at least thirty five other cure for boils potion recipes which were committed to the international potioneer guild." She looked exasperated, before going into a quite concerning rant that there is only one possible recipe for any potion, yada, yada, yada, that she would not need to put up with that and that I should just leave her classroom if I make a big deal out of it. I did not make a big deal out of it, but still left the classroom, not wanting to learn from someone so falsely educated. Harry Potter left shortly after, coming to a stop next to me: „I am gonna request a separate potions laboratory. I had there are a lot for more advanced students. Wanna come with me?", winking, probably thinking about the professors reaction. „No, but if you would be so kind as to request one from me, I have something to do wish is long overdue, again.", I answered, he knowingly smiling, before sauntering off in the direction of the administrative office, I catching a bit of his murmuring: „Even I know of and can brew at least seven different recipes."
I instead whisked out of the wards, returning hours later with a mastery in potions, my first action being to deposit an administrative appeal about her qualifications and teaching methods. That woman was worse than Snape as a professor, I mumbled a bit. I also went to madam Maxime to inform her about my actions, she only sighing before informing me that Harry Potter had also done so, before assigning me a separate potions laboratory. On enquiry, if masters got a better one, she replied: „Yes, but as far as I know you have a few masteries, but none of them potions." I just showed my newly gained emblem, saying: „Where do you think I was all day? Their standards were stupidly low…", starting a short rant about falling standards, Henry having contaminated my pure soul with his fondness for this type of rant. In return I got an exasperated look and a: „You are worse than Harry Potter, he at least held back a little bit. Here you go", she still said, exchanging the keys, before telling me where to find the room.
I was leaving, only hearing: „Damn, now I got another headache", before I had a relatively stupid idea, turning around: „I can recommend a potions professor, though only with a strict magical contract concerning the mind arts. He is surely not the best teacher, but one of the best potioneers I know, if I leave aside the personal implications. Severus Snape is his name, and do not forget to tell him after he signed, that he should thank Mr. Black for this opportunity. He will at least be better than that woman.", I said, this time leaving for good. I nearly said: „… better than that hag", but I would have just insulted a whole species, as any random hag you found probably had more knowledge about potions than that woman.
I followed madam Maxime's direction to the potion laboratories without trouble, only to meet Gabrielle there, big triumph grin on her face: „I knew you would be here after that potions lesson. The whole school already talks about it. So, any more plans for today?" „Yes in fact, prep the whole laboratory, which means cleaning and sorting anything so that it matches my working place at home as closely as possible.", I answered her question, directly getting bombarded with the next one, curious little girl: „So, where were you the whole day?"
„Where to start", I jokingly said, showing her my new badge: „Got my mastery in potions, lodged two formal complaints against your potions professor and had a very good chocolate and citrus ice cream while waiting". „Oh, that is gonna be a huge pr-problem", she stumbled on her words, catching herself a second later: „She has got many friends in high positions and even though the school is no longer tied to the government, it still rests upon donations from the more influential families. This does not mean that they got anything to say in the school except guaranteed spots for admission, but even internationally they could produce a lot of stress for your family.", I just laughed lightly, before asking: „Does your family take part in this eventual revenge?", Gabrielle shaking her head in response. „Then my family does not need to fear them. There are few in france who we would need to fear, but anyone of those would more than likely refuse to even think about something like that. And let us be real, no family or organization will move against someone with four masteries and two grandmasteries accredited to them. Well that is not public knowledge yet so some may still try without an investigation first, but I am anything but defenseless", I reassured her, having finished rearranging and cleaning the room. I left, casting one last spell before locking the room for the night.
I went into the library again, convincing the librarian to let me stay overnight for the rest of my stay in Beauxbuttons, who agreed after a few sneaky galleons changed hands. I mainly focused on divination knowledge, their library having a more expansive selection of works. One for example detailed, that any seer had a type of preferred divination foci to use the arts. Some used tarot cards, crystal balls, tee leaves like Trelawney or a Y shaped rod, from where the legends about finding ore through such a guidance rod originated. There were naturally many many more types of divination foci, some even only using their normal wands. There was a ritual to find your preferred divination foci, which I might try out.
While I say foci and it works similar to a wand, only a rare few divination foci have the same bond to a master and consciousness as other foci, as they are so much harder to craft, needing a foci crafter of exceptional skill who additionally was a true seer, so something very rarely seen and even rarer for one of those to make foci for others.
The next morning, I went back to my potions room, casting a spell before I even entered, stopping dead in my tracks, leaving to find madam Maxime, asking her to accompany me, detailing the incident and what exactly happened. Someone had tempered on my room and I needed to at least document such things, not that in the end they say that I did not say anything as the problem persisted. This was only possible thanks to a spell invented by Mad-Eye, which saved a static image in a detailed range, while reusing it on the same location showed everything that had changed since that snapshot was taken. The only problem was, that it could only save one location, which would vanish after a week of inaction. A very moody thing to do, to check his homes for intruders probably, as paranoid as he is. I consequently used it on my potions lab, as any tiny inaccuracy could have devastating consequences, which was why I took this so seriously.
What I had found through the spell were tiny specks of iron dust inside all my cauldrons, which meant that any concoction I had made would have failed, only a rare few not violently exploding in my face, which is the reason why potioneers rarely used iron cauldrons and also the reason that you needed to check your cauldrons after any potion you have brewed, as a single scratch could end catastrophic. I told madam Maxime to not take any actions yet, as I wanted to see what would happen after a bit of time had passed to let this grudge hopefully dissipate quietly. She did not seem amused at that notion: „I do not like it, but that would probably be the best course of action", she acquiesced.
I spent the rest of the day and night experimenting a bit with the graciously provided iron dust, mainly using the cure for boils potion, even finding a way to shorten the time by one minute through a milligram of iron dust added at the start of the potion, though the whole potion was a lot more unstable until finished. Gabrielle joined in one of her free periods, leaving again shortly as I had continuous explosions happening in my room.
The next day I left, running slightly late to my first alchemy class as I did not find the classroom directly, tucked away in the most inconspicuous corner of the whole school. I entered the classroom directly after another person entered, who also appeared to be the professor, which was confirmed a second later, as he spoke in french: „Welcome. I do hope all five of you speak french fluidly enough to take this course. If not, I kindly ask you to leave", looking unkindly on two others who did not answer affirmative to that question, the professor switching to english: „I asked you to leave the room, if you do not speak french, so kindly", he said, pointing towards the door, ignoring the complaints of the two students: „So, introductions. I go first, Nicolas Flamel, professor for alchemy obviously, nice to meet you two, you can call me Nicolas." We all answered, our little group consisting of Harry Potter and me, together with a Collin Creevy who was the same age as me, apparently having been allowed to participate due to his superb french skills.
Nicolas continued shortly after: „So, let us cut to the chase. I currently only teach one student, who is very far ahead of you three, so he will practice on his own for the next few moths, which also means that you got my undivided attention. Alchemy is one of the hardest disciplines to grasp, normally needing masteries in transfiguration, potions, herbology, enchanting, curse breaking and a grandmastery in runes. I know the two of you", pointed looks to Harry Potter and myself: „Already have a potion mastery, so I would ask you to be patient if our third student needs a bit more time to grasp the taught material. Alchemy itself can be roughly separated into three disciplines, though the detailed disciplines are countless. Elixiers, detailing the enhancement of potions to a near divine effect. Amplification, strengthening and enhancing materials and last but not least conversion, permanently converting one material into another", he cheerily explained, a detailed copy of his words appearing on the blackboard.
„So, first things first, we will not even get close to these categories in our six months together, except if we start holding eighteen hour lesson. I am gonna give you further information about that soon, as I am exited to finally teach a bit more than just one promising person", he rambled, before coming back to the point: „We will start with the basics. Why is transfiguration not permanent?", he asked, getting a variety of answers, the most detailed one surprisingly from Collin: „The energy used by the caster of the transfiguration slowly dissipates, needing a constant supply of energy to hold this changed state, which was forced. Enchantments can improve the longevity of transfigurations, but they will still revert at some point in time."
Nicolas rubbed his hands together, brightly smiling: „I can work with this. Now this", a recipe appeared on the blackboard, his pale white hands pointing to it: „Is an alchemical potion recipe, which can be used to make transfigurations permanent. Why?", he questioned again, his style similar to Slughorn's, letting the students figure it out themself. Harry Potter answered this time: „By using the transfiguration as blueprint and using the energy of the potion to make any changes necessary for it to become permanent", Nicolas getting ecstatic, murmuring once again: „I can work with this", before speaking normal: „Quite correct. The only problem of this potion is its limitations. You cannot make organic transfigurations permanent, many other materials even rejecting the change of this potion. But even above all that, the changes become permanent, but the material itself stays fake. If you, for example transfigure a copper ingot into a gold ingot, it would still not be gold, the spell and potion effect washed away by most anti-forgery spells and wards.
This is why the potion is generally labeled as fake elixir and also used as common beginner friendly recipe into alchemy. This potion gets brewed like a regular potion, although it is quite a hard and complex ones, until the last step, where the alchemical properties are added. This", he produced a complicated geometrical structure out of wood: „is the end goal of this course. This is a very detailed sequence of runes called spark, the easiest one to use for our purpose. While I say easy, I would be surprised if you had a working one after only six months. It gets dropped into the prepared potion, altering it through alchemy to the wished effect, which also is an alchemical one. This needs precision, patience and especially speed, as you need to cut a branch from a living tree, carve it to the desired shape, carve the runes and use it in the potion in the matter of an hour after starting the work. So…"
What followed over the next hour was a whole new runic language for me, plainly titled alchemical symbols, Nicolas expecting us to at least remember the over five thousand symbols and their basic functions and meanings before the next lesson, some symbols having multiple of those.
The next week until the next lesson was filled primarily with potions, my potion laboratory continuously being tampered with, everything documented together with madam Maxime, I mostly using the graciously donated materials to experiment with, Gabrielle visiting from time to time, though she did not ask to brew anything, which I found kind of weird, the little girls fascination with potions running even deeper than Harry Potter's. This changed quickly though, as Collin could get the allowance to only pursue alchemy while in french, which enabled us to have a five month crash course, eighteen hours each day, even on weekends, though some days we would just study specific texts, without any input from Nicolas.
Sometimes he showed us demonstrations, his movements fluid, contrary to his age, rapidly carving and engraving the wood, while we were supposed to pinpoint mistakes. He was a good teacher and our trio had a good dynamic, Harry Potter bringing the in depth potions knowledge, far more extensive than mine, Collin knowing enough about transfiguration, that Nicolas took him to get his mastery and myself for the more obscure and niche parts of magic not as commonly known. And Nicolas took advantage of this, upping the ante continuously, eclipsing his own expectations, all three of us having our first spark ready after a measly three months, the achievement being so unexpected, that we did not even have the potions prepared. Nicolas was hyped for the next weeks, our proficiency rapidly increasing from that point onward, until we all had accomplished the previously thought impossible goal, Nicolas joking: „Maybe I can coerce Dumbledore to let me have you for a longer amount of time.
The only downside to this arrangement was, that I could no longer see Gabrielle, my reason for even coming here in the first place, though she luckily did not know that. I did sometimes, while still learning, supervise her brewing, Gabrielle having overcome her mental block after nearly two months of indecisiveness.
After reaching the goal, Nicolas fist let us practice a bit more, before going on to create alchemical rods, which were an advanced and reusable version of the previous spark, using your mana instead of the live force of the branch. And we narrowly finished it, each of us holding a black sleek rod in our hands, with a uniform radius of one centimeter and a uniform length of one meter, successfully testing them not even an hour later. Even though they were on a whole other level of complexity, we still succeeded and as present he gave us each a full handwritten book on different runic sequences which are usable for the potion, telling us to contact him after we had mastered those for new instructions. We hit a roadblock near instantly on the first one though, so that would probably take years.
Near the end of the school year, summer break fast approaching, three surprising things happened, all on the same fucking day.
First, I finally met, cornered, Nicolas alone, questioning him: „Why suppress the formation of your ember of an aspect?", to which he looked perplexed, before an understanding glint flashed through his eyes, carefully answering: „I was never sure that it was harmless, afraid of what might happen, my subconsciousness thinking that it was some kind of test that measured if I was allowed to life longer." I broke down laughing at that notion, needing a good minute before I could answer coherently: „It is the exact opposite and what, you are somewhere around six hundred years old. Even if you multiply that by one hundred, you would still not get smitten down by the heavens. Just do it old man and tell your wive to do the same, she should be at the same threshold as you. Maybe stop using plagues to fuel your philosopher stone though, longevity is one of the perks which will be brought by heavens curse", I half jokingly replied, still giggling a bit, his eyes opening the teeny tiniest bits wider, his hand reaching for his wand, never ending that motion, just standing there. I consequently left him to his own thoughts, before I really get hexed. I am sure he knows some really mean curses.
–– Observer POV ––
After Clara Ali Ollivander had left Nicolas to his thoughts, before he returned home, after a slight stutter taking the metaphorical plunge, a moment later laughing at his audacity and idiocy, before promptly telling his soulmate, both of them ascending in a matter of millisecond, their embers of an aspect consolidating and shooting right past flare to the very peak of intent for their respective origin aspects. Nicolas was Supreme Alchemy of Immortal Love, his wife's being slightly different Dedicated Alchemy of Immortal Love.
No one, not even Clara Ali Ollivander, was able to foresee what type of monsters these two would become in the future, the one thing Clara Ali Ollivander did know was, that it would be weird. And consequently fun!
The original earth not having so many ascensions in a year since a very very long time ago.
–– Clara POV ––
Finally having done that, crossing a very rough border between allowed and not allowed, I was relieved, to be able to give him something in return for his lesson.
The second surprising incident happened in my potions laboratory, in the middle of the night while Gabrielle was trying to brew a potion. This one was at first glance not one of the many sabotaging events from our resident potions professor but a very enraged half-veela banging onto my doors, Gabrielle's older sister Fleur Delacour. Gabrielle was luckily not disturbed by the violent thuds, having learned to work with interruptions over the past months due to my tutoring. Still, I near instantly muted by a silencing spells, before I spoke: „Continue, be extra careful", before leaving the room, mildly enraged, confronting Fleur Delacour, not letting her see inside of my potions laboratory: „And what do you think you are doing?", I asked, every word laced with as much venom as I could convey: „Daily accidental murder through potions? Or has no one ever told you what could happen if you disrupt professionals while working? Hell, some potions could kill hundreds of people, everyone in this school dead over the span of a single hour! And that is only the most dangerous thing I can brew, there are so much worse things out there with the possibility to atomize the whole compound and half of france with it! I will remind you one time, your parents not being here to do it for me: NEVER INTERRUPT A POTIONEER!", I ranted, thundering the last part, trying to imitate the tone of voice from The Voice, not letting her come to word, for the first time using intent blanketing to put pressure on a person, also learning through that, that veelas are hypersensitive to mental energy if her expression was anything to go by.
As sonn as I had finished, she started going on a rant about where Gabrielle was, what I had done to her, if I knew who her family was and so on and so forth, her temperament fully getting out of control, though I am surprised that no spells were flying yet. My mind was mostly focused on that and Gabrielles safety, as she had already failed this potion a few times and I did not trust the wards here to be as quick and fast as those from Hogwarts.
After thirty minutes, her veela lineage's talent not being suppressed for the first time since I saw her, her endurance waned, the screeching stopped, her features and allure receding, the corridor returning to its previous calm once again. She wanted to start over, a bit nicer this time probably, but the door opened at that moment, Gabrielle coming out: „Done. Oh sister, what are you doing here?", she asked, unknowingly defusing a very complicated situation. I took that as my cue to leave, retiring into my potions laboratory.
The other notable incident was the height of my feud with the potions professor, culminating in a personal attack on myself as I took a nice walk along the greenhouses in the very same night, trying to once again talk with the tree, letting my guard down near completely. Mad-Eye would be disappointed in me I guess. As I was communicating with the tree, as rough as its communication still was, I was hit by a beheading curse, originally aimed at my neck. My instincts warning me, forcefully snapping me out of my meditation, the following dizziness and dissonance saving my life, my body falling to the left side, my right arm being chopped off instead.
Four things happened at that moment, my second skin going absolutely dormant, together with the physical training wards, another set of protective wards whirring to live, as I screamed a moment, before I forced my occlumency to shut down completely. Standing in front of me appeared three shadows, expertly usage of stealth spells, barraging my shields with multiple different spells, meanwhile ravaging the surrounding landscape.
I was completely incapacitated, my whole focus on maintaining the protective wards which were rapidly consuming my mana, Mosaics anxious feelings bombarding my occlumency barriers. Then, salvation came from multiple directions, a wooden root impaling one of the attackers, the other two slightly restrained by the schools wards, nearly all professors apparating to the scene the very next instant, stupidly strong anti-apparition wards snapping into place, the assassins getting obliterated by a wide variety of spells impacting their forms, a thirty meter crater the only remaining thing I saw, before falling unconscious, my wards still holding strong.
–– Observer POV ––
After Clara Ali Ollivander had fallen unconscious, the wards still operated perfectly, draining much less mana without the constant bombardment, her mana even ever so slightly regenerating.
The professors soon realized the problem, most not knowing what to do, before Nicolas Flamel stepped forward, duping an elixir over the shields, the shields ever so slightly destabilized, his wand tearing from them with ease, destroying the wardstone before other wards could be redeployed, the schools healer rushing over to heal her arm, injecting multiple potions and spelling another set into her stomach, her magic working wonders, her body being repaired in record time, though she still remained in a coma for three days.
In these days multiple things happened, only very few privy to the exact details. A taboo was broken, only broken twice before, most of the population not even knowing about it. The top 1000 changed, two families and one organization banding together with the single goal of eradicating the only assassins organization which was allowed in the top 100, together with any and all affiliates who could be linked to this attack. 70 different factions in the top 1000 were vanquished, anyone who wasn't a key figure in the assassination being given the opportunity to choose between slavery and death. It did not even take a night, before their previously impressive network was obliterated, all the remnants bound by slave contracts.
Only certain key figures knew what happened beforehand, the scariest thing being, that dozens of other faction in the top 100 would have joined this mission without hesitating in the slightest if they were informed beforehand, as the leaders of those factions remembered, remembered the wrath of the Ollivanders, all of them knowing, that the only reason that the Ollivanders were not the number one organization in the world was their general detestation for faith, fame and the limelight.
And in the morning, every single faction head was delivered a single sealed message, bearing a forceful secrecy clause: „A taboo was broken. Do well to remember this day of the Ollivanders wrath.", which together with the following morning headlines about 70 factions silently vanishing over night sending even the most hardened warriors quivering in fear.
There were few taboos, even fewer openly known. Betraying earth was one such taboo, the assassins main job actually being to hunt down those fellows.
Another taboo was attacking an Ollivander, the very first protectors of earth. Strive was impossible to stop, ingrained in so many different creatures genes, that it was seen as necessity to breed talent, but while the Ollivanders were not omnipotent, if they got wind of one of their own dying in a non fair way, they would act, violently at that. And sending three persons, all two full stages above the targeted person, who was a relatively defenseless student to boot, was exactly that, only the fact of Flamels ascension enabling the swift resolving of the conflict, as the branch head of the Delacour family was present due to the introduction to the wider world for the Flamels, their conversation being disturbed by the school's alarm wards starting to blare due to a death on the premises, the sentient tree taking an attacker by surprise, ending his life in an instant, practically sacrificing his own life for the weird girl she had not even known for half a year, barely clinging to the last threads of her life.
And even with all that power and backing, you would never find a single Ollivander, lording their heritage and standing over others.