Once Tom had learned the inside story about the Greengrass family, he stopped being polite.
He asked Madam Greengrass for more materials and resources—doing alchemy experiments at school was a real hassle, since so many ingredients had to be ordered from Diagon Alley via owl post.
And since alchemy was far from popular in Britain, the alchemy shops in Diagon Alley were pitifully small, with their shelves often bare of key ingredients. In truth, alchemy here was more of a niche hobby for a few wealthy wizards—not because they wanted to craft powerful magical artifacts, but because they enjoyed flaunting the fact that they could.
Once she received Tom's request, Madam Greengrass left the castle immediately to get to work.
Tom, on the other hand, returned to his room for a nap. By the time he woke, the two sisters were already enjoying afternoon tea in the tea room.
"Tom, come here quickly—today we have smoked salmon with cream cheese. The salmon is really fresh."
Daphne eagerly shared her favorite food, while Astoria quietly slid a plate of Earl Grey chocolate mousse toward him, clearly waiting for his reaction after a taste.
"Astoria, Tom doesn't like food that's too sweet."
"Oh… okay."
The silver-haired girl quickly swapped the mousse for baked lobster. "This is really delicious too."
Tom took a bite and nodded. "Both are great. Parra's cooking just keeps getting better."
Daphne now got along better with Hannah than with her own roommates. She and Hannah, along with Susan Bones, often made plans to meet after class for little food excursions.
Daphne was fine—thanks to Tom's weekly training sessions, she kept her weight under control. Her cheeks were rounder now, her baby fat more noticeable, which on a twelve-year-old only made her more adorable.
Hannah and Bones weren't so lucky—their clothes this holiday would need to be at least two sizes larger.
After finishing tea, the three of them left the castle.
Tom released the three unicorns. The open grounds around the castle were more than enough for them to gallop about. When the unicorns appeared, they nuzzled Tom affectionately before turning to Daphne and letting out two gentle whinnies.
During the school term, Daphne had often accompanied Tom to the Forbidden Forest, so she'd become familiar to them.
"If you like them, get closer," Tom said with a smile when he saw Astoria standing rooted in place. "Unicorns are very gentle toward girls like you. As long as you don't mean them harm, you can touch them without any danger."
Encouraged by his words, Astoria mustered her courage and approached her sister. Sunlight caught her hair, but her silver locks remained dull and somewhat dry.
The Greengrass line had always been blonde—Daphne's hair was brighter than gold itself. Tom suspected the silver hair was due to the blood curse. He wondered if, when the day came that she was cured, her hair would turn golden.
But in his opinion… silver was better.
Her target was obvious—the smallest unicorn, Milo. White unicorns were already beautiful—pure and flawless—but a tiny unicorn with chubby cheeks was an irresistible temptation for any girl.
At first, Astoria was cautious, only watching her sister interact with the unicorn from the side. Suddenly, their eyes met. The little unicorn blinked, then trotted right up to her and rubbed its head against her waist, startling her into delight.
Daphne crossed her arms and said in mock jealousy, "Oh, I see how it is. I fed you for two weeks before you decided to rub up to me, but the moment Astoria shows up, you're all over her. You really do judge by appearances."
"Big sister~"
Astoria's voice was shy and soft, but her hand had already found the unicorn's neck, stroking it as her eyes narrowed in bliss.
Tom smiled, watching the sisters play with the three unicorns, his mood lifting along with theirs.
If he ever retired in the future, he thought, he could build a castle somewhere nestled between mountains and water, and with his future wife… wives, live out peaceful days.
The air rang with the bright laughter of the girls. Usagi, curious at the noise, flew out to join in. After playing for a good while, Astoria's breathing grew heavy, and Tom waved the unicorns away to explore freely and get familiar with their new home.
Usagi, meanwhile, slipped back into Tom's pocket—he'd need to find the little guy some food later.
"For safety's sake," Tom asked, "are there any magical creatures in the two mountains behind us? The kind that could threaten unicorns?"
Daphne shook her head decisively. "There are magical creatures, sure, but I don't know exactly what. Definitely no overly strong groups or high-danger species. Tapp regularly collects materials and does inspections, and if he finds anything dangerous, he calls in the Ministry to drive them out."
Satisfied, Tom followed the sisters to the fortified outpost where the storerooms were kept.
The entire basement of the outpost was storage, divided into separate rooms: a vault for Galleons, a treasure vault for gemstones and precious metal artifacts, and storerooms for animal materials and plant materials.
As for the meteorites Tom wanted, those were in the miscellaneous goods room.
Once inside, Usagi immediately spotted his favorite thing—three crates of meteorites piled unobtrusively in a corner, weighing a few hundred pounds in total.
The little creature picked up a chunk and began gnawing, while Tom stowed the rest away and moved on to examine the other stores, seeing what else might be useful.
Stopping here and there, taking the occasional item, he spent the whole afternoon making his way through the storerooms. Out of curiosity, he peeked into the Galleon vault.
Yup—just as expected. Aside from mountains of gold, there was nothing else.
In the days that followed, Tom spent his mornings training the Flight Charm. Through precise measurements, he'd found that with Andros's Flight Charm, his maximum straight-line speed was 280 km/h. If he entered transcendent state and tightened his control over his magic, he could push it to 350 km/h—still a way off from the Thunderbird's 500 km/h.
Grindelwald's Flight Charm topped out at 200 km/h, but with air currents aiding agility, its turns and complex maneuvers outclassed Andros's version by far.
Of course, real speed wasn't in the curves—but then again, in the sky, who cared about turning?
Now Tom was trying to merge the two spells—using magical repulsion against gravity as the main propulsion, then supplementing it with the airflow generated by conjured wings to boost force.
The theory was sound, but merging a black magic spell with a white magic one was never easy.
Each day, he entered transcendent mode in the meditation room to test the new hybrid charm, then shared his insights with his two instructors, received feedback, and refined the spell—a cycle that sped up his progress.
Afternoons were split between spending time with the Greengrass sisters and reading.
Even the Greengrass family's private collection was astonishing, full of rare wizarding notes. Madam Greengrass's efforts paid off—she brought back copied collections from the Notts, the Rosiers, the Malfoys, and the Lestranges.