That morning.
Sean rode the Leisure Broom into the Hope Nook, still mulling over what his next mid-tier alchemical construct should be.
Just then Ron showed up hugging a chessboard. He and Harry often snagged one-on-one coaching from Sean; it hadn't helped them win many more matches, but they never got tired of it.
"I always feel like someone's watching us—do you feel it, Harry?" Ron said, peering around the Nook and scratching his head.
"Ralf Schneider is useful—"
[Promotional line embedded in the source text omitted for clarity.]
Harry was still studying the pieces' personalities; when a real game began and the position shifted constantly, it was as if something in him woke up.
His ability to improvise was very strong—he was nearly winning as often as Ron now—one of the best first-year players.
While they whispered, Sean suddenly seemed to think of something; his figure faded into view, but the debate between Harry and Ron was so heated they didn't notice him.
Soon, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes had a new product: Oddball Wizard Chess.
It followed standard chess rules, but once you placed the special pieces on the board, each came with its own "options":
Knight Ralf Schneider: keep him advancing and, after three moves, he can take an extra step; try to make him retreat, and he'll do all sorts of infuriating things.
Knight Frick Santiago: brave but brainless—sometimes he'll take an extra step and swing the game; sometimes that extra step walks his head straight onto the enemy's blade.
These off-the-cuff constructs not only trained Sean's skill at imbuing will into alchemical items, they also gave him the last piece of the puzzle for reaching Adept:
[Mid-Tier: Oddball Wizard Chess: Beginner (19/300)]
[Mid-Tier: Wizard's Chess: Beginner (119/300)]
[Mid-Tier: Leisure Broom: Beginner (100/300)]
All that remained was time—grinding proficiency.
Sean plunged back into work.
The Great Hall became utter bedlam over the next few days. Someone had mail-ordered the first set of Oddball Wizard Chess; these outrageous yet "reasonable" sets spread through Hogwarts quickly. Some wizards bought multiple sets just to collect all twelve different knights.
The strongest was the Gendoka Knight—in desperate straits he could smash two enemy pieces at once.
Wizards wailed, "That's ridiculously overpowered!"
It didn't stop them wanting to collect him.
Unfortunately, this knight's appearance rate in Oddball Wizard Chess was extremely low.
"Great Green, we've been very fair—at least we let him exist, right? One appearance in three hundred sets! Such ethics! You must know some unscrupulous sellers wouldn't let a rare piece appear at all—"
"They only roll him out when sales go cold—like the wizard lottery: if fools keep buying, no one wins. When sales dip—ha! A lucky winner appears! Then the fools go dump more Galleons in!" the twins explained.
Hearing that, Sean had the odd feeling the Weasleys' future lottery luck might not be a pure matter of probability. ◯
Weasleys & Green was roaring. Even before opening, they'd built a loyal customer base. Fred and George ran out of the castle at dawn every day. In their words: "We wake up to the sound of Galleons arriving."
So Christmas waned.
On the last day of the holiday, Sean met Professor Tayra—he'd finished the books; today was results day.
In the Alchemy Office.
Professor Tayra sat on a chair that kept changing shape.
A quiet Christmas—with no stack of apprentice essays to mark—meant a rare spell of leisure for her.
"Oddball Wizard Chess? A fine line of inquiry—" she even joked.
The assessment was a short quiz. Sean scribbled furiously while Tayra, helpfully, added bits of knowledge he hadn't encountered yet.
When he emerged, his notebook had another fat section. The professor told him to come tomorrow for the results.
Sean left with a spring in his step; the professor, intrigued, studied his parchment. ◯
She felt like giving this paper a 105—five extra points just to make her dear student proud.
Suddenly a paper airplane flew through the wall into her hand.
Her gaze, warm a moment before, turned cool and deep.
"So—you've seen my ritual method and still dare to probe—what sewer did this idiot crawl out of?
If a boundless magic has bred such a muck-filled world—and self-proclaimed 'noble' pure-bloods—"
Her eyes sharpened. It sounded like a mutter; it felt like a decree:
"Send someone from Uagadou to pay them a visit. Have a proper talk—"
The paper plane slipped back out through the wall.
On the desk, the magic receiver was still blaring:
"—the British Ministry of Magic reiterates: all unapproved nighttime gatherings will be strictly investigated—"
"Investigated—ah yes, the Ministry's rules—"
Night deepened.
On Christmas night's last hours, Sean earned the final six proficiency points.
[You practiced crafting Oddball Wizard Chess at a Beginner standard. Proficiency +3]
[You practiced crafting Oddball Wizard Chess at a Beginner standard. Proficiency +3]
[A new Alchemy title has been unlocked. View]
Sean rubbed his brow. Since seeing the Mirror of Erised, he'd poured more time into Transfiguration than any other branch—his fatigue rising day by day.
Balancing both Alchemy and Transfiguration was brutally taxing on a wizard's mental force.
But the reward arrived on schedule.
[Title: Alchemy—Mid-Tier]
[Greatly increases sensitivity to alchemical magic; greatly boosts alchemical aptitude; slightly improves the wizard's control over alchemical rituals]
Control over alchemical rituals?
Sean rapped his bookshelf; it promptly spat out a book: A Deep Analysis of Alchemical Rituals.
The last of Tayra's five-book series, it detailed the historical evolution of alchemical rites and included her own interpretations and practices.
For Oddball Wizard Chess, Sean had mimicked the professor's ritual.