Chapter 230: The Alchemy Professor and the Qualifying Round
The Alchemy classroom.
Leonardo knocked on the door. Hogwarts' internal qualifying round was being held here to select two student representatives for the inter-school tournament at Beauxbatons, a competition centred on Alchemy.
"Come in."
The voice was soft, languid, utterly unhurried.
Leonardo pushed open the door. Every head in the room turned towards him at once.
"Everyone's here. The competition begins. Three hours: balance the Elemental Scales, brew a fire-and-water-resistant robe, and improve the emotion-sensing colour-changing badge."
Leonardo instinctively looked towards the source of the voice.
Behind the lectern sat a luxurious sofa, completely out of place in the classroom, and sprawled across it was a woman entirely at ease. She wore a plain grey robe, her thick black curls falling loosely around her face. The moment she finished announcing the start of the competition, she pulled a pitch-black sleep mask over her eyes. Between the mask and her hair, her features were almost completely obscured.
"Right then. Get on with it yourselves. Mind your safety. I'm going to have a little sleep."
After saying that, she spoke no further.
Leonardo blinked. He had never met a professor quite like this before.
The woman currently dozing on the sofa was Hogwarts' Alchemy professor, Angela Shafiq.
A member of the Shafiq family, one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, she was rarely seen around the school unless something important was happening.
"Grafton..."
From the corner of his eye, Leonardo noticed someone already setting up at a nearby station. A girl was waving at him, quietly calling his name.
It was Ellie Ackerley, a seventh-year Ravenclaw.
Leonardo walked over to the Alchemy bench beside her and gave a nod in greeting.
"You haven't taken Alchemy yet, so this might feel a little strange, but this is just Professor Shafiq's style," Ellie said. "She puts a lot of emphasis on students teaching themselves. You'll get used to it."
Self-directed learning?
To Leonardo, it looked more like being left to fend for himself.
Ellie leaned slightly closer and lowered her voice, gesturing towards the equipment arranged across the bench.
"Just complete what the professor asked for. If there's anything you're unsure about, feel free to ask me."
She had a fairly good impression of this younger student. Talented, well-read, and pleasant to look at besides. Helping him out a little suited her just fine.
Leonardo nodded.
"Understood. Thank you."
After that, Ellie returned to her own work without another word.
In truth, the students specialising in Alchemy had already seen glimpses of Leonardo's ability through the magical devices he had invented and sold around the school. So when he entered, no one seemed surprised, nor did anyone step forward to question whether he belonged there.
The competition soon began in earnest.
Leonardo's attention immediately settled on the Elemental Scales. The device resembled a balance scale. At the top sat four rhombus-shaped crystals containing the four base elements — water, fire, earth, and wind. They were linked together by channels of white crystal, with the elemental flow ultimately feeding into both sides of the scales.
At present, the proportions were badly misaligned.
Balancing the Elemental Scales tested a student's control over the four elements, one of the foundations of Alchemy.
He drew his wand. Fine threads of magic extended from the tip, and the moment they came into contact with the elemental crystals, the wave-pattern markings on Leonardo's fingers surfaced in response.
He immediately resonated with the water element within the crystal. His control over it was far sharper and more instinctive than it was with the other three elements.
Within two or three breaths, the water element had already been adjusted.
As he worked on the remaining elements, he simultaneously used the water element to influence and stabilise the others, bringing the entire system into balance far faster than a conventional approach would have allowed.
This was decidedly not standard Alchemy practice. It only worked for someone with exceptionally precise control over a particular element.
The Elemental Runic Inscription had given a substantial boost to his Alchemy. If he could one day gather all four base elemental inscriptions, the improvement would almost certainly be transformative.
He finished balancing the Elemental Scales in remarkably little time and, without much effort, moved straight on to the next task without stopping to rest.
...
"Professor, I'm finished."
At those words, Professor Shafiq lifted her sleep mask. Her pale grey eyes, still clouded with drowsiness, did not look at Leonardo first. They went straight to the classroom clock.
"I only just fell asleep... oh. Half an hour, and you've already finished all three?"
Leonardo gave a quiet nod.
The Elemental Scales went without saying, and as for crafting and improving magical items, that was simply a matter of practice. With the Emerald Tablet Fragment enhancing his abilities, his Alchemy aptitude had already reached SS+, and for the better part of the past half-year, nearly all his focus had been on Alchemy — designing alchemical items whenever he was not actively making them.
Today's assessment had been little more than an amuse-bouche. Purely recreational.
He waved his wand and sent the three completed magical items floating toward Professor Shafiq for inspection.
Incredulous as she clearly was, Shafiq roused herself, fishing a pair of heavy black-framed glasses from her pocket and settling them on her nose.
"Mm. The balance between elements is nothing short of perfect…"
"The fire-and-water-resistant robe is at the absolute limit of what the available materials can achieve…"
"The emotion-sensing colour-changing badge — how on earth did you think to improve it this way?"
Leonardo drew breath to explain, but Shafiq cut across him.
"Wait, don't bother. Young minds, honestly. That's why I need my rest. My brain certainly can't manage that sort of thing anymore..."
Professor Shafiq narrowed her eyes behind thick lenses, pale grey irises fixed on Leonardo.
"You're the one who received that award the other day, aren't you? Impressive. Very impressive."
Then, without warning, she sprang to her feet and strode straight out of the classroom. She had nearly reached the door when she suddenly stopped, as though remembering something.
With a casual tap of her wand, the sofa rapidly shrank and shot neatly into her pocket.
"Leonardo Grafton, yes? You've passed the qualifying round. Do me a favour and keep an eye on the rest of them. Pick out the second representative for me, would you? I'm going to get some more sleep, or no, I've got an Alchemy experiment to check on, yes... good luck, Leonardo."
Professor Shafiq swept out like a gust of wind, her voice trailing further away as she disappeared down the corridor.
...He had just gone from competitor to examiner?
That professor really was something else.
Actually, wait. She hadn't even told him the evaluation criteria. Was he supposed to come up with those himself? Was this unpaid labour?
Looking thoroughly bewildered, Leonardo stood at the front of the classroom and slowly turned to face the remaining competitors.
All of them were staring back at him.
A long, wordless silence filled the room.
Every single one of them seemed to have the same enormous question hanging over their head:
???