"Tinky," I called, stepping into the kitchen. It wasn't far from the Great Hall, but it felt like a world apart. The room was enormous, filled with huge vats, pots, hanging pans, long tables, and ancient magical stoves. I doubted the house-elves even needed them — they'd probably been standing here since the Founders' time, more for tradition than necessity.
"Yes, sir wizard?" A big-eared elf in a pillowcase appeared before me. I never quite understood why the house-elves' renunciation ritual was tied to receiving clothing. That's why they wandered around in whatever rags they could find. Maybe wizards themselves had trained them that way — at this point, who could say for sure?
"Did you talk to the free house-elves?"
"Tinky talked, sir wizard. Call them?"
"Please." I'd managed to make not just one copy of the medallions, but several, just in case. Still, I was never a thief — except for that one incident with the bank and the explosives — so I went to McGonagall and paid for another house-elf. I had enough money, and if I sold the nearly complete basilisk carcass, I'd have even more. After all, basilisks were insanely rare, and this was essentially a unique, almost thousand-year-old specimen.
Of course, I'd already drained a dozen liters of heart blood from it and set it to thicken, along with a liter of venom. Maybe I'd even sew clothes from the hide — charms should take to it beautifully.
At that moment, a dozen house-elves appeared before me with a pop. They were all roughly the same size. House-elves don't have children the way humans do. Conception and birth happen purely through magical means, which requires a lot of power. That's why they're a species close to extinction, even though each one lives more than five hundred years.
"Young elves, step forward." Five stepped forward — two males, including the already familiar Tinky, and three females.
"Tinky, do you like any of the present females?"
"Rena and Sari," he said, pointing at two of them.
"Well, you've got good taste. Rena and Sari, honestly now, which of you likes Tinky?"
"I do, master wizard," said Rena, blushing. I didn't doubt her answer. House-elves simply can't lie — if they try, they start to go mad.
"Well then, I choose you. Tinky, Rena, are you ready to enter my service?"
"Yes, master wizard," they answered together, smiling and holding hands. Such innocent creatures.
"Catch these and transport me to my room." I tossed them the medallions. They flashed in their hands and crumbled to dust. That's why they were so hard to copy — the slightest mistake, and I'd have wasted a thousand galleons.
Tinky snapped his fingers, and we were gone. It was more pleasant than apparition or a portkey — more like my own blink.
I recited the vassal oath to them. "Remember, after I cast the charms on you, repeat everything as I told you here."
"It will be done, master wizard," Tinky nodded so hard his ears flapped.
"I'll try," Rena said, a little embarrassed.
The oath was the same as when Hal swore his loyalty — nothing complicated. Only after the oath did I let them into Availon. There, I switched their power supply to the magical channel. They shuddered and broke into smiles. Apparently, even in Hogwarts, they were always running on empty.
"Hal," I called to the keeper, "you're right, we should check the metaform anchoring ritual. Let's try it on some animals first, and then… Tinky, Rena, would you like to take another form?"
"Tinky doesn't understand, sir master."
"No, this won't do. Hal, you're in charge of training these two — make them exemplary servants. Like a butler and a head maid. Should I remove their matrices for you?"
"No need, I'll try myself." A clot of light flew out of the sphere, hit Tinky, illuminated him, and returned. "Done."
"You're learning magic quickly," I praised him. In essence, Hal was now a living artifact — something like what Lerach wanted to make from his own body.
"I have your magical abilities, and for practice I use acceleration," he explained, then suddenly paused. "Master, you asked me to track the wizards you know and the situation in the castle overall?"
"Right, did something happen?" I asked, interested.
"Nothing yet, but it very well might. Pandora Grey is conducting dangerous experiments with charms."
"We conduct them too — what's the problem?"
"She's casting experimental explosive charms, alone and without bothering with safety measures."
"Whoa." I hadn't expected that from her. I always used doppelgangers for experiments, even the simple ones. I'd never regretted it — just like with the basilisk. After all, those destroyed doubles could have been me.
Was it worth going into the Chamber of Secrets at all? I think the risk was justified — only the basilisk's strength was unexpected. If it had been weaker, I could have managed without killing. But the results were that I not only secured the castle, gained a metaform and an ancient monster's carcass, but also got access to the Chamber of Secrets, which is at minimum closed from the headmaster's observation, and at maximum might hide more secrets.
"Plot a route, I'll go look now."
"Plotting, master." With the map, it was much easier to navigate Hogwarts' labyrinths. Hal could even calculate staircase movements and lead me around them if we'd have to wait too long.
I walked quickly, reaching one of the abandoned classrooms with a door charmed to muffle sound. I already wore personal protection, but I threw on ethereal armor and cast protego with my wand for camouflage.
Opening the door, I was nearly blown back out by a deafening explosion. The girl was thrown against the wall and hit it hard, but she was smiling despite the blood running down her face.
"You fool, what are you doing?" I cast minor healing on her with my ring, while vocally pronouncing lesser-level spells.
"It worked! I managed to strengthen bombarda without the maxima prefix!"
"I'm happy for you, but what the hell are you conducting such experiments in a closed room for? You could have at least gone outside!" I was genuinely outraged by her carelessness.
"I was forbidden to conduct tests without a teacher present," she pouted. "And he's always busy!"
"So you decided to use a classroom for this?"
"I opened the windows," she said innocently. "By the way, you promised to show me the Wrackspurt!"
Merlin, another Dorothea on my hands. At least that one is under Hal's control and in constant contact with me. This one is a free agent.
"Why do you need all this?" I ignored her last question. "Do you want to become a Charms Master?"
"Yes! How did you guess?" She beamed, grinning with all thirty-two teeth. She didn't seem to care that she was covered in soot and her clothes were torn.
"I'm just that perceptive. Why don't you become Flitwick's apprentice?" I repaired and cleaned her clothes with charms, then offered her my hand and helped her up.
"He doesn't want to," she pouted. "Says he has too little time, and students are a serious matter."
"He's right," I said, thinking. My own Charms Master would be useful, and people like her — genuinely light, not just wizards but people without a drop of rot — are hard to find. The only question is whether she'll agree to my conditions. "I can make you a Charms Master. But for that, we need to sign a magical contr—"
"I agree!" she interrupted.
"You haven't even listened yet! What if I'm offering you slavery, sexual slavery?"
"What's that?" For the love of Merlin, why did I ever start talking to Xeno and Pandora? The pair deserve each other.
"Anyway, here's the deal. Don't conduct experiments, don't blow anything up — after lunch I'll show you the contract, sign it if you agree."
"I agree!"
"Damn, why do you trust me so much?" I said, trying not to cover my face in despair.
"Because Xeno said you're good. And he's never wrong about people," she answered.
"Well, if Xeno said so, that explains everything." He really does see what people are like inside. "Alright, I'm going. Clean up after yourself here."
"Okay." Hmm, I think she and Dorothea will get along. Actually, I've been thinking for a long time about starting to gather my own team of like-minded people. I'll need to open a company in the future to sell our products. Not everyone can be like Gaunt, gathering purebloods under his wing, or Dumbledore with his Gryffindors.
It's still a long way to active steps, but I can start now.
On the way back, Hal called me again.
"What this time?"
"Near you, Sirius Black, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew are kicking Severus Snape in an abandoned classroom." How many of these classrooms are there? They should lock them up. "Remus Lupin is standing by the door."
"Alright, I'll go look now." I already regretted asking Hal to report all incidents. It's not a school, it's a circus. Basilisks in the basement, unauthorized experiments, bullying. The place should have been named after Charles Darwin.
Approaching the door, I saw a thin boy with many scars on his face standing next to it, looking around. Looking closer with true sight, I realized he was a werewolf. I'd seen enough of them to sense their wolf nature. Only he seemed cowed, and his werewolf side was pitiful.
"Hey there, wolf cub. Playing accomplice to a crime?" I could feel guilt in him, as well as self-pity and hatred toward his second nature. "If you step aside, I'll give you a werewolf bracelet."
"What makes you think I'm a werewolf? And where would you get such a bracelet? You can't get one in England." Well, I'll be — but I'd think about that later.
"You reek of wolf." The guy actually started sniffing himself, and I took the bracelet from my bag. "As for the bracelet — my mother and I invented it. By the way, if you want to get rid of your furry problem, come see me, we'll talk about it."
Remus froze so much that I calmly went inside. There, under petrificus, Snape was lying and Potter was kicking him in the stomach while Sirius kicked his back. Pettigrew, with quite the rot in his soul, was watching with pleasure.
"That'll teach you to approach Lily, you freak. She's a Gryffindor and not for a snake like you."
"And for whom?" I drew their attention. "For those who beat a helpless guy two-on-one? Or who watches it?"
"It's none of your business, transfer student. You'll leave, but he has to live with us." Sirius tensed, taking his wand at the ready, as did the others. The shields were still hanging on me, but I still tore their wands from their hands with telekinesis. Which made them nearly wet themselves with fear.
"Nonverbally… Without a wand." Ah yes, I almost forgot that for modern wizards this is the height of mastery and power.
"Wands aren't toys for children. And since you don't understand others' pain, I'll help you feel it." As with that guy tearing off fairy wings, I connected Snape's feelings with everyone else's, including Remus. Yes, he didn't participate, but he didn't stop it either.
They doubled over from pain, hatred, humiliation, and other unpleasant feelings of Severus. "Like feeling the same thing as your victim? Amazing how those who love causing pain fear it themselves."
I healed Severus, and we left together, leaving the quartet of juvenile degenerates writhing on the floor. I threw their wands on the floor as we left. Surprisingly, Snape himself, with the same feelings, calmly stood up, though he grimaced from pain.
"Are you a healer? The pain passed awfully quickly," he asked, eyeing me.
"A bit of everything, universal dilettante."
"I'd like to be such a dilettante. But you shouldn't have helped me — next time they'll beat me even harder. I'll answer them, of course, but usually the result isn't in my favor. There are four of them and they have an invisibility cloak." Not the same one, I wonder? I'd look at it purely out of interest. The main thing is not to touch it myself — family artifacts are usually quite nasty.
"It all depends on you."
"What can I do? The house won't support me, and my only friend turned away — and I never wanted to rely on a girl anyway." He really opened up, but the next phrase explained why. "You're the only one besides teachers in a long time who helped me. By the way, how did you find me?"
"Remus Lupin," I pointed behind me at the wolf cub who was still standing by the door, torn between his friends and the possibility of getting rid of the werewolf curse. And I wasn't deceiving him — I could use a test subject. I have ideas and developments, but no one to test them on.
"As for what you can do, you tell me."
"Well, I'm not bad at potions," he answered thoughtfully.
"How not bad?"
"I brew sixth- and seventh-year potions stably." In third year? That's much better than "not bad." Another unrecognized genius like Pandora?
"There's your answer and your weapon." I really wasn't going to constantly protect the guy, but giving advice, establishing connections — why not? Especially if it costs me nothing.
"But how do I slip it to them?"
"Use your imagination." I tapped my temple. "Spray from a regular sprayer, evaporate, transfigure into vapor. Besides, you don't have to poison — you can make yourself stronger, faster, more agile, more handsome. Don't frown like that — girls love handsome athletic guys, not gloomy teenagers with greasy hair. And you can always brew a love potion."
"That's not real love," he muttered.
"Who said it's for your Lily? Weaken the potion and improve their attitude toward you. Anyway, it all depends on you — a wizard wins with his mind, not his fists." Said the wizard who beat a basilisk with his hands, yeah. Sometimes it would be nice to follow my own advice.
"Thank you." At the fork we parted ways. He went to his common room, and I to Availon to draft a teacher-student contract.
Actually, anyone can take a student, even unofficially. And I'm sure I can make a Charms Master out of the girl. And if I can't do it myself, I'll pay and hire someone else, even that same Flitwick.
Hmm, I can combine business with pleasure and go to him together with Pandora.
"Hal," I remembered. "What about Gaunt's slaves?"
"On Saturday at the Blacks' reception they have a meeting planned, but they don't know if they'll get in. That's why I haven't told you yet." Saturday, eh? I don't think it's just a coincidence.
"I see. And Narcissa? Are you working on her?"
"I connected to her magicomputer, but she doesn't trust it much yet. Uses it for small work, like taking notes and solving problems." Well, that wasn't surprising. For me almost a month of time has passed, but for everyone else only three days. I should spend less time in Availon under acceleration. Otherwise I'll age while never finishing school.
"Did you hear about the contract?"
"Already made preliminary drafts."
"Good. And about the house-elves?"
"Also ready — the ritual turns out much simpler than yours and requires less energy, so it can be conducted in Availon."
"I'll be there soon." So many tasks, and they just keep adding up.
***
"Tinky, Rena, I'm giving you one last chance to refuse. I don't want to force you to go through what is essentially a change of your race. No, I order you as your liege to tell me if you don't want this." I still didn't want to end up with servants who resented me.
"We are grateful to master for accepting unworthy us and deciding to make us his servants. We are not worthy to become like the Ancients," Tinky said, falling at my feet.
"We haven't earned such honor!" Rena did the same.
"Hal, can you explain to me what's happening?" I asked, genuinely curious. I hadn't expected such reverence.
"In Hogwarts' books I found mention that the house-elves' world was once populated by real elves who created the house-elves. But they left for another world in immemorial times, leaving their servants in a dying world. Using your and Dorothea's bodies as a basis, I made something like elves." An illusion of an ideal man and woman with pointed ears appeared before me. So ideal they were almost unsettling.
"So that's how real elves looked. Somehow unpleasant to look at them."
"It's a property of human psychology to reject everything similar to human but not quite accurate."
"Hal, you've read too many psychology books. But you're generally right. Fix them so they're at least a bit more natural — you know my preferences." And yet, we're amazing creatures, humans. We can see beauty in animals, insects, and snakes, but as soon as we see someone too similar to us, like a corpse, revulsion arises. Moreover, this applies even to ideal people. We simply cannot imagine an ideal human — it will always seem to us that somewhere inside they hide some terrible secret, because we measure everyone by ourselves.
"Is this better?" This time, before me was a pair of very beautiful… let's call them elves. They resembled me and Dorothea like relatives, or veela. There was similarity, but they weren't identical.
"Yes, much better. What's needed for the scheme?"
"Your blood, master, or mistress Dorothea's, black chalk, sufficient amount of flesh, and a four-element octagon." The latter meant an octagon with poured earth, burning fire, a bowl of water, and just empty space symbolizing air.
"Dorothea, did you hear what Hal said? Will you share your blood?" I asked, taking out a blood-replenishing potion. Fortunately, Medici's tastes good, not like rotten socks. With this Potions Master, we agreed to move goods through a small vanishing cabinet that stands at our house. Essentially, it's a small multidimensional pocket with two exits.
Now, if I need something, I put apples and send them with a list of potions. If he lacks something or needs additional payment, he sends me a reply note. Everything's very simple.
Hmm, if Severus shows himself well, I could send him to Medici for training, who, by the way, thanks to me will soon approach the title of Magister, which no one in Europe has received for about two hundred years. So he fulfills my orders first and is ready to make even Sumerian recipes under a non-disclosure agreement — we already have a contract for this thanks to Black.
Eh, where are you now, teacher?
"Won't it hurt?" Dorothea asked, peeking around the corner where she'd been eavesdropping. Why she needed to ask, considering I wasn't hiding my thoughts, was beyond me.
"No, I'll numb it with charms."
"Then I agree, but only for Tinky and Rena's sake!" She petted the house-elves, who started crying altogether.
"Good, but first drink the potion." We'd just eaten, so we'd have building material for recovery.
Numbing Dorothea's arm with "Anestheticus," I made a small cut on the vein, drawing out about five hundred milliliters of blood with my wand. With me it was simpler — my abilities in willful metamorphism were enough for independent numbing and squeezing blood through an opened vein. It looked disgusting, but what can you do — I'm squeamish.
Next, thickening our blood to practically a drop's volume, I closed them with transfiguration into metal balls and threw them into storage. They wouldn't be needed for now.
Then I proceeded to assemble the puzzle from the portable ritual circle, dragged earth, water — magically created wouldn't work — and lit an oil lamp.
"Will beef work?" I asked Hal, just to be sure, though I already knew the answer. In principle, flesh is needed only as a source of building material. If desired, it can be gathered from separate elements, but that's just extra work.
"Pork would be better suited, it's closer in structure, but beef will work." Pulling a calf carcass from the bag with expanded space, I stepped back and looked at my handiwork. The circle was only two meters in diameter, but filled with many runes, as it contained the matrix of Tinky's future appearance. Rena's circle was different, accordingly.
As the wizard conducting the ritual, I needed to keep in my head the entire structure that Hal showed me as a thought-image. He learned this trick after moving to intermediate level.
"Tinky, undress and lie in the center."
"Yes, master." The big-eared one snapped his fingers and his clothes disappeared, showing a frankly ugly — from a human perspective — little body. Like a wrinkled child's corpse swollen in a river. But what do I know about house-elves? Maybe they consider themselves the standard of beauty. Though their reverence for elves, and then wizards, suggests the opposite.
"Well then," I cracked my fingers, taking out my blood. "Let's begin."
The ritual itself wasn't exactly simple or complex. Yes, it was more complex than usual, but I had gained experience. I needed to bind the matrix, change the body according to it, not letting the matrix crumble — that's why you need to know the image precisely.
It's easier for a metamorphmagus — we're already used to changing our body. But changing a body for the first time, especially someone else's, which instinctively resists any changes… That's quite a task.
Fortunately, there's plenty of energy near now-Hal, so it's a matter of concentration, experience, and will. Now I was essentially doing biomancy, which differs from metamorphism in that you change others, not yourself. Blood is needed purely as an anchor for changes, so the astral body changes following the physical.
Finally, when everything was finished, I turned off true sight and saw a naked elf lying before me.
"Did you remember everything?" I asked Dorothea, who had been watching the ritual.
"It's… complicated," she answered.
"You'll learn, but later — it's still too early for you to deal with such things." She became sad, and I decided to support her. "But in herbology and floristics you have no equal."
"Really?" She beamed.
"Really-really. Well then, I'll rest a bit, and we'll resolve the issue with Rena." With Rena it was the same. Her ugly-to-me shell melted, and after five minutes of work turned into a dazzling elf maiden.
The cow carcass had considerably thinned after such metamorphoses. But I have many of them, both for cooking and rituals.
After resting again for a couple of hours, which I lazily spent lying on the beach, telling Dorothea the difference between materialization, transfiguration, and transformation, I went with the ready contract to lunch in the Great Hall, managing to arrive at its end, when only Pandora, Xeno, and a couple of other people remained at the table.
"I knew you'd come," Xeno said, another strange phrase.
"And I knew you'd say that," I teased him, seeing amazement on his face for the first time. "Pandora, are you ready? Here's the contract, read it carefully…"
"All done?" She immediately signed it with the blood quill she snatched from my hands.
"With such a character you won't live long," I commented, as only now was she reading the contract. There was nothing top secret in it: don't reveal my secrets, don't teach anyone what I teach you without my permission except your direct descendants, that is, children. Obey me as a teacher and so on. Standard teacher-student contract.
From my side only two obligations: teach Pandora to be a Charms Master and keep her alive and relatively healthy. Relatively, because student punishments and trials are conducted at the teacher's discretion — sparring might be needed, dangerous experiments, or she might simply catch cold, and what, should I catch backlash? That's how other mentors taking students thought.
"Are you a seer?" Xeno asked me. God forbid, better to kill myself immediately or at least cut out my tongue. And that's not a joke — that's Lerach's direct instruction in case of meeting a seer.
"You don't need to be a fortune-teller for that, Xeno. What classes do you have now?"
"Charms," Pandora answered, pleased as if she'd won a million galleons.
"Perfect, let's go to them together." After classes I arranged a sparring session with Flitwick near the Black Lake, which came to watch not only Xeno and Pandora, but half of the half-goblin's house. Which, on one hand, forced me to understate my abilities, but on the other, we arranged a joint dueling lesson and had a great time, as someone thought to call house-elves who set us a snack.
I ended the day helping Minerva, as promised. The third day at Hogwarts was eventful but extremely fruitful.
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Thank you for the help with the power stones!!!