Chapter 185: Fragments of Local Time Reversal Runes
For the next period, perhaps it was the Voice-Changing Sweets created by the Weasley twins that sparked an idea in Dylan.
Who would have thought that those sweets contained a tiny bit of the Alchemy Fred had learned?
Dylan asked the twins where they had learned about alchemy. Alchemy, as a subject at Hogwarts, was an elective, but it was only open to sixth-year students and above, and it wasn't even offered every year.
It required a sufficient number of students to sign up for it to be taught. Logically, they shouldn't have known anything about alchemy, especially since they showed little interest in theoretical subjects.
But the twins told him that Mr. Arthur Weasley, the head of the Weasley household, had mentioned it to them during the summer holidays. They integrated this knowledge into the Voice-Changing Sweets, and surprisingly, it yielded such successful results.
Because of this, George and Fred actually developed a nascent interest in learning. —They even turned around and wanted Dylan to teach them alchemy. However, Dylan had also been studying recently, filling in the gaps in his knowledge and improving his own alchemy skills.
He could only regrettably recommend the books he was reading to the twins. After all, this was Hogwarts; if they wanted to read, they didn't need to buy books. They simply needed to borrow them from the library. Dylan didn't need to spend money buying them a set of alchemy books.
But from the fact that they applied alchemy to those Voice-Changing Sweets, Dylan realized that these two, besides being very good at inventing strange things, also seemed to possess no small talent for alchemy. "Perhaps I can teach them when I'm researching alchemy myself."
Dylan didn't mind helping the Weasley family have a better life. In this world, the trope of the Saviour defeating the Dark Lord was too old. If Harry and his friends wanted to play that game, they could.
Dylan, however, would dedicate all his energy to researching magic. Beyond that, he could help more people and change their original life paths. Turning bad situations good, and good ones even better. This was far more interesting than playing the game of beating up the Dark Lord with Harry.
Besides, he had already "dunked" on the Dark Lord many times. And there was a young Voldemort currently residing in his space, occasionally being used by Dylan to refresh his spell mastery tasks.
"The four elemental transformations are the foundation of alchemy: earth, water, air, fire—cold, hot, dry, wet." Regarding alchemy, it was actually more akin to magic-infused chemistry than Potion-making. Or rather, chemistry itself encompassed too many elements.
It took Dylan several days to systematically grasp the basics of alchemy. Previously, he might have only dabbled in it. Now, he had a more mature framework in his mind. For this, Dylan had even put aside his research on Dementors and other experiments for several days.
There was no other way. The ultimate principle of the Time-Turner; every day he delayed learning it meant another day of classes he'd have to attend.
Fortunately, after Dylan systematically delved into alchemy recently, his Achievement System had unlocked many alchemy talents for him. Moreover, Dylan discovered that after successfully summoning his Patronus, his Poro seemed to have boosted his bloodline power.
Dylan distinctly felt he had gained more perception and insight into the spiritual dimension. And alchemy itself was a combination of the material and spiritual aspects. Therefore, Dylan's progress in alchemy was quite smooth. Coupled with the fact that he had studied chemistry in his previous life and was quite good at it, learning alchemy wasn't difficult.
To put it simply, without delving into high-end alchemy, if one were to distinguish it from the most basic level, the process of alchemy involves magical intervention and influence. However, if there's no magical intervention, and it's merely a reaction between substances that undergoes a series of changes to ultimately form a new substance—that itself falls within the realm of chemistry.
To give an example, the simplest would be the metalwork mastered by the Goblins. Godric Gryffindor's sword. Its raw material was a special silver created by the Goblins. The same principle applies to the refined gold on which Galleon currency relies.
These materials are not naturally occurring metallic forms; rather, they are special substances created through the transformative art of alchemy. These artificial creations possess magical properties that surpass ordinary metals, and their very existence confirms alchemy's ability to reconstruct the essence of matter.
Dylan had already mastered the basic knowledge of alchemy. If he wanted to delve deeper into this mysterious field, he would need to study a more proficient and complex system of Mysticism, which encompasses symbolic meaning, material properties, and metaphorical imagery.
Take mercury as an example. This liquid metal carries multiple symbolic dimensions in alchemy—it resonates with feminine qualities and is also imbued with the symbolic meaning of rational thought.
It also represents the fluidity of form and the variability of essence, becoming a key element connecting material transformation with metaphor.
In fact, at this level, Dylan found that alchemy wasn't just simply affecting the material plane. This art was even connected to philosophy, or rather, some kind of divinity! So... the end of science, as expected, is theology! No wonder the power of heart and love is everything in this world.
Even without using material examples, just like Harry, Ron, and Hermione—alchemy has a classic transformation formula. The characteristics of the Golden Trio just happen to correspond to this formula. Hermione's erudition and rationality symbolize mercury.
Ron's fierce courage—that is, recklessness, or impulsiveness... which can also be called bravery—corresponds to sulfur.
Combining mercury and sulfur, these two elements would mutually temper each other through long-term cooperation. The former purifies impurities with reason, while the latter ignites potential with passion, ultimately forging Harry, who corresponds to "primordial matter," into a core existence like the Philosopher's Stone.
This correspondence is not a literal material synthesis, but rather an imaginative projection of spiritual transformation within alchemy. —When rationality and courage achieve balance, the ordinary cornerstone, Harry, will be tempered in cooperation to yield transcendent power, forming a golden triangle that mutually empowers each other.
Of course, this was just a simple example. It didn't mean that mercury and sulfur could truly merge directly to create some substance. But the formula was there. How to apply and use it, that depended on one's level of alchemy.
Based on his research into ancient runes and his now-mastered alchemy techniques, Dylan had tentatively deciphered the manufacturing principle of the Time-Turner.
Although currently he could only achieve a superficial fusion of runic power and alchemy—or rather, the most superficial level—Dylan had already been able to create quite ingenious artifacts.
One was a Portkey with identity anchoring. Dylan carved dual runes into the core of the object. Authorized users, including himself, would activate a stable spatial transportation trajectory upon touching the Portkey.
The Portkey would take the user to a designated destination. However, if an unauthorized person activated it, they would be directly thrown into the bottom of the island lake, filled with dead bodies and cockroaches.
Dylan felt that the Necro-Return spell, which created the corpse water capable of transforming living creatures into inferi-like entities, seemed to have other uses as well. Dylan was unsure if wizards could Apparate within it—after all, he hadn't mastered that spell either.
Therefore, he could only research this later—but he could note it down in his little book beforehand. If it were true, then his Dementor-infested isolated island at sea would become a death realm from which even wizards would find it hard to escape! Anyone who dared to touch his Portkey would be immediately sent into it!
However, achieving this also had very stringent requirements. That is, he needed to set his Portkey's destination to his pet space briefcase. When the other party activated the Portkey, he would need to open his briefcase.
The other party would then directly teleport into his briefcase, thus landing at the bottom of the stagnant lake he had designated.
It was a somewhat useful, but seemingly not terribly useful, alchemical ability. Dylan still needed to research further, ideally to overcome this difficulty and achieve the ability to directly return to the inside of the briefcase via the Portkey.
This way, not only would other wizards who dared to use his Portkey receive their comeuppance, but Dylan himself would also find it much more convenient. Dylan believed this wouldn't be difficult to solve.
What was harder to achieve was how he could use this ability when the briefcase was in his inventory. However, Dylan felt that achieving this through alchemy would likely be incredibly difficult. It might be better to just try spending a few Galleons to enable this function on the briefcase itself.
—Frost and snow weighed on me for two or three years; with eyes closed, I slept eternally.
If the level of alchemy required to achieve this was too difficult, Dylan didn't want to spend so much effort researching it. Sometimes, if something can be solved with money, don't waste time.
What Dylan wanted to strive for were things he had a clear direction for and could actively pursue, not tedious, ultimately futile efforts. If that were the case, he might as well just lay flat. After all, every day without dancing should be exceedingly comfortable.
Dylan believed that if he had money, making the briefcase capable of this function shouldn't be difficult. So, he temporarily put the Portkey aside and instead developed another item: an Eternity Pocket Watch. This was the name Dylan gave it.
The watch face of this pocket watch was blank like a mirror. Only when magic was infused would flowing light patterns appear as hands, pointing to the current time. And every minute and second, it would be precisely accurate.
If that were all, it certainly wouldn't be considered an alchemical creation. Its special feature was that every 10 seconds, it would rewind, resetting the watch's state to its initial one—not just the time. Even the watch itself could be reset. This time-collapse mechanism didn't rely on ordinary repairing charms—like the chessboard Professor McGonagall had set up then. Those chess pieces could restore themselves through repairing runes. But this watch was different.
—Dylan had extracted fragments of the local time reversal runes from the Time-Turner. Even if it were ground into dust, the runes infused into the metal molecules would reassemble at the subatomic level, restoring the watch to its complete form from chaos.
Dylan was quite satisfied with this achievement. Because to destroy the watch he had created, Dylan himself couldn't do it first. Secondly, he believed that neither Voldemort, old Dumbledore, nor old Dumbledore's old flame could erase this creation, which integrated the laws of space and time, unless they used more advanced Vanishment Charms. Otherwise, Dylan didn't think they could destroy his Eternity Pocket Watch.
However, if a Vanishment Charm were used, his watch wouldn't be destroyed; it would merely disappear. As for Vanishment Charms, that involved another layer of magical knowledge.
"This Time-Turner really is a treasure." Dylan couldn't fully comprehend the spacetime runes on it. But simply by extracting fragments of the runes, even if he could only understand the shallowest bit of surface knowledge, it was still enough to allow him to create this artifact that couldn't be essentially destroyed.
Dylan had also tried to transfer the time-reversal rune fragments onto other objects, but failed. This wasn't because his own strength was lacking—though it wasn't particularly impressive.
But it had to be said that creating such alchemical artifacts related to the laws of time was inherently risky. Or rather, in all likelihood, attempting to research such alchemical creations was very likely to fail.
Secondly, the more complex and massive an object was, the harder it was for these small runes to cover it. —Creating such an alchemical artifact wasn't simply a matter of copying the runes and attaching them. It required deeper alchemical techniques, so that the entire object would be integrated with and even permeated by this power.
"I should go see old Dumbledore and record the runes on his Pensieve as well."
After a full day of classes, Dylan stretched his neck. Recently, just reading the basic knowledge of alchemy had consumed a lot of his time. This had kept him from going to old Dumbledore to acquire more alchemical knowledge and techniques.
However, if he didn't lay a solid foundation, even if he asked old Dumbledore about advanced alchemy, he would find it hard to understand, much less master. So Dylan wasn't in a hurry; instead, he chose to use this time to solidly build his foundation.
He set off for the Great Hall with Neville. As Dylan pushed open the hall's carved wooden doors, the evening bell chimed from the top of the spire. Looking around, hundreds of crystal lamps suspended above the long tables cast honey-colored light onto the cream-colored tablecloths.
The steam rising from the soup bowls intertwined with the starry sky projected on the ceiling, creating a hazy impression, as if the sunset had been crushed into the foam of Butterbeer. —Of course, this was limited to the staff table.
Dylan sat down on one side of the Gryffindor long table. His backpack strap still carried the bitter scent of wormwood from the Potions classroom. The silver platters gleamed.
The crispy skin of the roasted turkey on them made an inviting crackling sound—the chicken skin was glazed shiny with honey, and fat seeped along the knife cuts into the distinctly fibrous white meat.
When he speared it with his fork, it still had translucent sinews attached, and the aroma of herbs wafted up. Beside it, mashed potatoes were piled like a small mountain, with butter melting into golden amber streams on top.
When Dylan scooped it with his spoon, the shimmering particles of fine salt danced in the rising steam. Green peas rolled like emerald pearls on the porcelain plate, each glistening with creamy sauce. He deliberately made the sauce string out as he forked them, watching them tremble and fall into the small lake of gravy.
After the main course, the dessert plate automatically slid into place. Dylan wiped the last drop of beef sauce, stewed in tequila wine, from his bread—wine-cooked meals were not on the restricted list for young wizards.
He picked up a berry tart. The edges of the pastry were baked to a light golden crackle. Redcurrant jam in the cream filling resembled solidified twilight. The moment he poked it with his fork, almond slivers rustled onto the tablecloth.
"Dessert is truly delicious. I should pack some for Coal and them." Dogs couldn't eat chocolate, but Uying and the dragon should be fine, right?
Dylan licked the chocolate lava off his fingertips. The warm cocoa scent spread from his tongue to the back of his neck, and even his sleeves picked up the sweet aroma of powdered sugar. Finally, he raised his goblet; the bubbles of iced pumpkin juice burst on his tongue, washing away the lingering tartness of raspberry seeds.
The dinner plates automatically floated away. Dylan looked out the window; twilight had already crept up the stained-glass windows of the Great Hall. He wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin embroidered with the lion crest.
The glass jar in his school uniform pocket made a soft clinking sound—it was the Honeydukes toffee he had grabbed on the way. Buying them was quite expensive. Taking them for free didn't cost a single Galleon.
"Time to go see old Dumbledore."
....
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