Chapter 14: A Day That Will Go Down in History
The Burrow
Ronald Bilius Weasley
July 8, 1989, Saturday
Ron chose Jenga for his first crafting game primarily because it was simple.
All he had to do was make 54 equally sized wooden blocks. Of course, that would only result in the classic Muggle Jenga game.
And Ron knew that a Muggle-only version wouldn't be accepted in the wizarding world. But Ron already had many ideas in mind for turning Jenga into a wizarding game.
He could have chosen a more complex and extravagant game, but it must be admitted that Rome wasn't built in a day.
Ron's business empire also needed to be built block by block over time.
But first, he needed to finish the fourth and final stage of his plan.
"Mum, can I read the other Hogwarts books now? I've almost finished the first-year books," Ron asked his mother.
If his parents hadn't taken him to St. Mungo's, this phase of the plan might have been a bit complicated, but now that a senior healer had confirmed that he had no problems and that his changes were normal, Ron hoped this phase would be much easier.
Moreover, Senior Healer Tonks had advised his family to prioritize his education. And he didn't think his parents would let his talent go to waste.
The Weasley family's financial situation might not allow them to hire a private tutor for Ron, but at least they could allow him to read the Hogwarts books and explain any parts he didn't understand when needed.
Although Arthur Weasley couldn't always help Ron because of his job, Molly Weasley was always home and could make time for him.
And Bill could also help Ron this summer until he found a job.
And as Ron had predicted, after a brief exchange of glances following his request, his mother turned to him and said, "Of course, Ron, I'll give them to you after lunch. But you have to promise me. You won't do the spells in the books on your own, okay? If you want to do them, you have to do them while I'm with you."
"Okay, Mum. I promise," Ron said.
And so, the crawling stage of his grand plan was complete.
Now he could move on to the baby steps, the founding of his company, and the creation and sale of his first products.
But he hadn't forgotten about Harry either. He was also working on a plan to help Harry, and if everything went as planned, he could surprise Harry on his birthday at the end of this month.
After it was confirmed that Ron was fine, his siblings, who had gathered in the living room, left one after another to attend to their own affairs.
Ron and his parents had gone to St. Mungo's immediately after their conversation following breakfast, and their stay at the hospital was no more than half an hour.
Therefore, there was still time before lunch, and Ron decided to gather materials for his first Jenga set.
All he needed was some wood. And trees surrounded Borrow, so Ron didn't think he would have any trouble.
"Mum, can I go out to play in the garden?" Ron asked.
"Of course, sweetie. But don't go too far and be back before lunch, okay?" his mother, Molly Weasley, said.
"Okay," Ron said and started walking outside. But he had only taken a few steps when Ginny suddenly appeared beside him.
"Ron, can I come with you?" Ginny asked with a hopeful look.
He only intended to gather some wood while outside, so he didn't mind Ginny coming along, but he still needed to ask his mother.
"Mum, can Ginny come with me?" he asked his mother.
"Okay, but keep an eye on Ginny, Ron," his mother said to Ron, then turned to Ginny. "Ginny, listen to your brother when you're outside, sweetie."
"Don't worry, Mum. I'll keep an eye on Ginny."
"Okay, Mum. I will listen, Ron."
Ron and Ginny said this one after the other. Then they both left the house and started walking in the garden. Ron specifically turned his direction towards the wooded area ahead.
"Ron, what are we going to play outside?" Ginny asked excitedly.
She rarely played outside. Mostly because no one wanted to keep an eye on her while she was out, her mother was usually busy with housework, and her other siblings always had other things to do.
"We didn't come here to play, Ginny," Ron said.
"Huh? But then why did you want to go outside?" Ginny asked, her earlier excitement seemingly gone.
"Because I need materials for a new game I'm making. I came to collect them."
"A new game? What do we need? I'll help too," Ginny said, regaining her excitement.
"We need wood. Lots of it," Ron said.
"Wood?" Ginny asked in surprise, then turned her head away from Ron and looked in the direction they were going, asking, "Do we have to cut down trees for that?"
"Hahaha..." Ron couldn't help but laugh at this, but seeing Ginny glaring at him angrily with puffed-out cheeks, he stopped laughing and said, "We don't need to cut down trees, Ginny. We just need to collect branches and pieces of wood from around them."
"Then you should have said that from the start," Ginny said, still a little annoyed, but then all her anger vanished, and she asked curiously, "What kind of game are you going to make with branches and pieces of wood?"
"This is a surprise for now. You'll have to wait to see the game," Ron said.
"Then let's gather some wood quickly," Ginny said, taking Ron's hand and pulling him towards the woods.
"Oi! Ginny. Be careful. If you fall and hurt yourself, Mum won't let you go outside again," Ron said.
This calmed Ginny's impulsiveness, but it didn't lessen her excitement. And together they continued walking towards the woods at a normal pace.
As for Ron's plan for making Jenga with the branches and wood...
Ron was considering using Transmutation for this. Yeah, Transmutation, not Transfiguration.
The fundamental difference between the two is that Transfiguration describes a branch of magic that changes the shape of objects.
In contrast, Transmutation describes a branch of magic that changes the molecular structure of objects.
There was even a branch of Transmutation called Chrysopoeia, which aimed to transform base metals into precious metals such as gold.
However, there hadn't been any major success in Transmutation until now, except for Nicolas Flamel and his creation, the Philosopher's Stone.
Many others didn't even consider Transmutation a true branch of magic, and only alchemists continued to pursue this dream.
If other wizards and witches heard that Ron was going to use Transmutation to create a game, Ron's name might even go down in history as Ron the Fool.
But Ron had a reason for choosing to use Transmutation.
He could normally create Jenga blocks much more easily using Transfiguration. He didn't even need wood for that. He could produce them using stone, scrap metal, etc.
He could even go a step further and create wooden blocks from thin air using Conjuration, an advanced branch of Transfiguration.
However, Transfiguration had a very important drawback. Objects whose shapes were altered by Transfiguration only retained their shapes temporarily.
Once the effect of the spell wore off, or the altered object was damaged, the spell would break, and the object would return to its original state.
Therefore, if Ron made Jenga blocks using Transfiguration, they would eventually revert to their original form.
If Ron truly wanted to create a Jenga game for sale, he needed to make it permanent. Otherwise, even if he mass-produced a Jenga made with Transfiguration in a Mass Crafting Factory, all of them would eventually revert to their original basic materials.
This was one of the main reasons why wizards and witches couldn't make money using Transfiguration in the wizarding world. Everything that was created eventually reverted to its original state.
Otherwise, you wouldn't see a poor wizard or witch anywhere. And the Weasleys wouldn't have to live in a place like Burrow.
If Transfiguration had permanent power, every wizard and witch would build themselves at least a mansion like the Malfoys'.
But Transmutation was different. Because this branch of magic altered an object's molecular structure, not its shape. So, the changes were permanent.
But Ron's knowledge of Transmutation was only at a basic level, allowing him to permanently alter the shape of objects while keeping their mass and volume constant.
That's why he actually needed wood to make Jenga blocks.
But even this basic knowledge of Transmutation was enough to make all the alchemists in the world envy Ron.
After all, when used correctly, this knowledge could accomplish great things.
And of course, Ron hadn't learned this knowledge, which no one else in the world possessed yet, from books at Hogwarts or other wizarding schools.
He had obtained this knowledge through beginner-level educational crafting materials, which he received as a starter pack gift from the system.
When Ron first obtained these materials, he thought they were books and materials sold in the Wizarding World, but he couldn't have been more wrong.
The system itself produced these materials. And thanks to these materials, he was also able to understand exactly what the system meant by Crafting.
Yesterday, after reading all the books from the three wizarding schools in the Library, he had moved on to the basic level crafting materials, and the first information he encountered upon opening the first book was about the scope of the crafting branch.
According to these materials, crafting was divided into three main branches: Foci Crafting, Spell Crafting, and Magical Item Crafting.
Magical Item Crafting was something Ron expected. He actually thought that was the entirety of the crafting.
But apparently, that wasn't the case.
Foci Crafting was the branch that produced the focus items used by wizards and witches to perform magic, and apparently, foci weren't categorized the same as Magical Items in crafting. Therefore, they had their own separate branch.
Wandlore, a craft mastered by individuals like Garrick Ollivander and Mykew Gregorovitch, was a sub-branch of Foci Crafting.
But what truly surprised Ron was that Spell Crafting was one of the main branches of Crafting.
Up until then, Ron had thought that branches like spells and charms were just supporting branches used in Crafting.
And because of his Legendary-level talent in Crafting, which also includes Master Level abilities in supporting branches, Ron had previously thought that his spell-related talent was at Master Level.
However, the fact that spells, charms, curses, etc., were sub-branches of Spell Crafting meant Ron possessed Legendary-level talent in them as well.
It was no wonder he learned the spells in Hogwarts and other schools' curricula so quickly.
Unfortunately, the basic crafting books Ron had only contained descriptions of Foci Crafting and Spell Crafting. There was no extensive information on these branches.
From this basic set, Ron had only been able to learn about Magical Item Crafting, and even that information was only at a basic level.
But even this basic knowledge contained information that might have made Ron a Master-level crafter in the wizarding world. One example was basic Transmutation, which permanently alters the shape of items.
The Undetectable Extension Charm, Advanced Magical Runes, Advanced Potions, Advanced Arithmetic, Advanced Astronomy, Magical Ingredients, and many more useful spells and pieces of information for crafting were included in this basic set, and currently occupied Ron's mind.
With this information alone, Ron could realize many of his ideas. And he was determined to bring them to life, one by one.
When they reached the wooded area, Ron and Ginny, keeping close together, began collecting twigs and pieces of wood from the ground.
While Ginny wasn't looking, Ron added some of the wood he collected to his inventory. After all, besides the Jenga set he was going to play with Ginny, he would need many spare Jenga sets to experiment with.
After collecting wood for about an hour, Ron and Ginny returned to the Burrow.
Then Ron went to his mother in the kitchen and asked, "Mum, can I use Transfiguration on these woods?"
"Hmm? What are you planning to turn them into, sweetie?" his mother asked.
"I'm going to make a new game to play with Ginny. So, I need some neat wooden blocks," Ron said.
"Okay. Go ahead," his mother said.
And with a wave of his hand, Ron transformed the wood they had collected into 54 perfectly shaped wooden blocks.
Meanwhile, his mother watched him intently, looking proud of his perfect wandless spell. But then she couldn't help but ask, "Ron, what game are you going to play? How do you plan to play with these wooden blocks?"
"Yes, Ron, what are we going to do with these wooden blocks?" Ginny couldn't help but ask.
Ron smiled and said, "Watch."
Then, with another wave of his hand, 54 wooden pieces flew into the air, forming an 18-layer tower on the kitchen table, with 3 blocks on each layer.
"Ginny, we'll take turns pulling one block from the tower and placing it on top. Whoever knocks the tower loses. But you can't take a block from the top, okay?" Ron said, and as an example, he pulled a block from the middle of the tower and placed it on top.
Ginny's eyes lit up with excitement as she understood the game's logic. After all, this was something she had never seen before, and new things were always fun for children.
At least until it got boring.
Then Ginny and Ron sat down at the kitchen table and started playing the game.
Thus, even though it wasn't a magical game yet, the Wizarding World gained a new game with this one, played in Burrow for the first time.
And today would be remembered in the future as the first day of the Wizarding World's entry into the age of advancement, and it would enter the history books in this way.
End of Chapter 14.