Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
Chapter 9: Progress and Results
Once back at Hogwarts, Harry started to make plans for the immediate future.
"So, I need to learn some metallurgy to mold the metals, runes, and alchemy."
The first one shouldn't be that hard since he only needed to mold the already crafted metal and give it shape.
Runes would take more time since he hasn't taken a single runes class in his life. Ron convinced him to choose Divination and Muggle Studies since they seemed the easiest classes to pass with minimum effort.
"And now I'm regretting listening to him…"
But the one that worried him the most was learning alchemy. From what Harry knew, alchemy was a mastery branch that first required a great knowledge of potions, something he didn't have, and it was extremely difficult.
If that wasn't enough, the amount of fairy dust that he had acquired would only be enough for one try… and it would be unlikely to find any more of that super-rare ingredient.
"I need to make sure that the process will not fail."
He would need to start by mastering the brewing of potions before moving on to more complex stuff, and that was going to take some time.
Harry started setting up his things in the Great Hall since he would need a lot of space for his experiments, and it's not like anyone was using it.
After being done with his task, he sat down to rest and looked around the hall. Memories of his years at Hogwarts came rushing at him and started to remind him how much he missed his friends.
Harry clenched his fist and lifted his gaze, determined to complete the great mission ahead.
"Ron, Hermione, Luna, Neville, Ginny… I will see you all again, one day. I promise."
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Forty-six years later
Harry walked through the halls of Hogwarts with a smile on his face.
Today was a big day for him. Finally, he felt that he was ready to make his attempt at creating the time-turner sand.
After many painful years of self-study at the castle, Harry had mastered many skills that included runes, potions, alchemy, and smithing. But the one that gave Harry the most happiness and allowed him to keep his sanity was Occlumency.
A branch of magic that gave him a lot of control over his own mind, allowing him to organize his memories and recall specific details from anything he had experienced in the past.
This made his study much smoother but also allowed him to ensure he never forgot what was truly important to him.
"Hey mate, how is everything going today?" Harry said as he sat down in his usual spot at the Gryffindor table and placed his tray with food. He then turned to his right.
"Good morning, Hermione. I see you are studying as usual."
On both sides of Harry were humanoid objects that could be described as mannequins wearing faces that looked exactly like his old friends, Ron and Hermione. The model of 'Ron' was playing chess, while Hermione was reading a book.
The models were made using transfiguration and his now-perfect memory, capable of recalling even the most minor of details. And it was all thanks to his mastery of Occlumency, a skill that Harry had discarded at first since it brought back those bad memories of his classes with Snape, but later on discovered all of the benefits that it could bring to him.
His first years of studying alone at Hogwarts were rough, and at first, Harry had to make heavy use of the Pensieve that Dumbledore had hidden in his office, just so he would not forget about the people he cared about. But after he started gaining control of his own mind thanks to his practice of Occlumency, he could go back to his own memories without the need for the Pensieve.
Then he came up with the idea of recreating some of the people he knew using transfiguration and placing them around the castle to make it feel less empty.
Harry constructed models of hundreds of students, and he even made models of Draco Malfoy and his cronies just so that he could spit some insults at them once in a while.
As Harry was looking around the Great Hall, one thought came to his mind.
"If any of them were actually here, they would not recognize this place anymore."
The hall had changed a lot over the years. Of the four long tables, only one remained intact, and Harry used this one to place some of the models of his housemates.
One could spot the Weasley twins, Neville, Ginny, Parvati, Angelina, Katie, and many others sitting at the table and pretending to be eating or having conversations. Some of them had already graduated, but Harry didn't care about that. He wanted them all here to keep him company.
In place of the other three large tables were now many small tables covered with books, since Harry found it easier to move to a different table once it was too full, instead of organizing them. After all, he was the only one using the space.
The Great Hall now looked more like a library than the actual library, since Harry had brought books from many different places, like Gringotts, the Ministry, or Diagon Alley.
There was also a huge laboratory filled with all sorts of equipment to make potions. Harry thought that Snape may have been proud of what he had accomplished if the man wasn't so petty.
He finished his breakfast and got up from his seat.
"Ron, Hermione. Wish me luck…"
He then walked toward the laboratory area. On top of a big table were many ingredients, all carefully weighed and placed in individual containers, ready to be used.
Harry looked at his notes and made sure that everything was correct several times before starting. He only had one try at creating the time sand, and he could not afford to fail.
"All right… I'm ready."
He sat down and started the long alchemical process.
Six hours later, Harry was standing over a small cauldron containing a light blue, thick liquid. Surrounding the cauldron was a small magical circle created with some black powder.
Harry cleaned the sweat from his face and kept staring at the contents of the cauldron with intensity. The color of the mixture started to change as it moved, and it was beginning to lose the blue color, becoming more of a light grey tone.
"It's ready…"
Harry carefully opened the glass container with the fairy dust and emptied it into the cauldron. Then he placed his hands at specific points of the magical circle and activated it.
The concoction inside the cauldron started emitting a bright silver light as it moved around, incorporating the fairy dust.
After a minute of this, the light got so intense that Harry was forced to close his eyes, but he did not move his hands off the circle...he knew that everything would fail if he stopped injecting his magic into the circle.
Then a 'puff' sound was heard, and the light started to dim. Once the process stopped, Harry took a look at the cauldron's contents. His face turned into a bright smile as he saw the resulting silver dust sparkle in different colors.
"Yes! I did it!"
Harry wanted to take a break and celebrate, but he could not rest yet.
There was a limited amount of time to put the time dust inside the time-turner before it lost its effect.
He brought the circular golden pendant that he was keeping inside a small box close by. He then carefully opened the hourglass and filled it with the time dust.
As he closed it back, the runes on the outer circle of the pendant illuminated, indicating that the time-turner was now sealed and ready to use.
Harry placed it back into the box with care and then proceeded to collapse on the ground, completely exhausted, physically and mentally.